Cole Houck: Moving on over here to the east. Detroit versus Orlando. ⁓ This was a ton of fun to watch and frankly probably watching this series ⁓ back in a couple weeks. ⁓ Whenever the playoffs are just because this was it what I expected it to be. But at the same time I didn't think it would be ⁓ as ⁓ slow and as physical as it was. There's teams don't really play great offense and they play the similar styles. But it actually looked like it was a ⁓ 90s game out there. Some of these. scores where the team you know you 95 points is enough to win or 89 points is enough to win. Defense first it was really fun to watch although you know sometimes it's hard to watch offensively. What did you guys think about this series?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Yeah, I think that we saw what the Magic did to the Hornets in the play-in game, beating them by 35 points. And Hornets had actually been playing really well. And so I felt like the Magic, especially Ben Carrol, really kind of gave notice to the NBA. They were coming. And so I really wasn't that surprised when they pulled off the big upset in game one. And it was clear to me the Pistons were in a dogfight, and they were actually in trouble in this series. And that really proved out to be true, especially when they go down 3 to 1 with the Magic. And something weird happened in game five where the Magic just couldn't shoot the rest of the series. They just couldn't shoot. They couldn't hit anything. And of course you had that stretch in game six where they missed 27 straight shots, which was the most ever by the way. They researched it and that's the most ever missed in a playoff game ever, 27 straight. So. I don't know what happened to the Magic. They turned into the early Pistons in this series. They had Bankero and nobody else. had several starters in game six and seven that didn't even score at all. So it just was weird. the series Orlando. ⁓ Second half was the just was almost like Tuesday.
Rob Pope -: Franz Wagner got hurt in the third game. or game four, game four, sorry. And I think that was a turning point.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: It was. It really was. You know, and then you had a couple of guys start stepping up for the Pistons late in the series that really helped because Kate Cummingham was really the only scorer the first couple of games. So this was a really weird series. I heard Charles at halftime of game seven complaining about this series. Opposite from what you were saying, he was saying that this kind of basketball, although it was like the eighties, he thought it was incredibly boring to watch. He thought these two teams play way too slow. And that going into next year, they both have got to find a way to pick up the pace because they're gonna get left behind by the rest of the NBA. And he said, I predict that whoever wins this series tonight is gonna get destroyed in the second round. that's just what Charles said.
Rob Pope -: I think that Detroit has the ability to understand that they had a tough matchup here. I think the Magic are a tough matchup. Ben Caro's just a handful. And I think that they were kind of underrated a little bit. But when Wagner went out, I think it really hurt them. And I don't think a lot was made out of that, but I do think that that was a factor They felt kind of like they were missing a piece and it didn't they weren't as potent ⁓ But I think that Detroit pulled it together But definitely ⁓ I think that they could play a completely different kind of series against a different opponent so I think that's what I'm saying is that I don't think this is going to necessarily continue into the next series.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: You had Tobias Harris who had a really bad playoffs last year and then he comes over to the Pistons this year. He has a really good season. But then most of this series Tobias Harris was just absent. Just didn't do much. And then in game six and game seven he picked it up and he had a really great game seven. So if the Pistons can get contributions from other guys other than Cade, they have a chance against the Cleveland Cavaliers. I don't think the Cavaliers are particularly good so.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Finish strong, yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: They have a chance in that series, but I don't know. Right now I'm leaning towards cavalier, so think pistons are just, they're incomplete right now.
Cole Houck: ⁓ I for probably either five or six of these seven total games, window Carter Jr. was out playing Jalen Durin, which I didn't necessarily see. I'm a big fan of window Carter. Actually, I've still I wanted him and I still want him on the Raptors. Just as kind of like a shooting threat that plays some defense. Not great at getting rebounds, but he is a good kind of three and deep big if you want to describe him like that. And Durin just looks so passive and there's always been a concern since he's been so much better this compared to last year about the lack of self-creation and it was it was on full display in this series again at least for the first five or six games they needed to buy his Harris to shoot 15 shots a game which he should not be I also like Toby a lot too I think he's also very overhated ⁓ and he he a lot better he said at the end of the series he's ridiculous from that that left baseline kind of area about 10 or 12 feet away he is so good over there and it's very fun to watch he had 17 points ⁓ In Game 7, the second quarter, which kind of took them over the edge in that obviously pivotal, you know, win or go home, Game 7. This, uh, shout out to SpiceHairs. This was pretty fun to watch. Except for Game 6. Game 6 was awful. I have a little story about Game 6. So, I was out Friday nights, which the Raptors were playing at that same time, too. I think their game started half an hour after. So I texted my friends, I texted NBA games, and I said, please don't, you No spoilers on build watch the game till it's over but one of them had texted me about the Magic game and he said the piston sold his bracket he had the pistons going to the finals I believe I said, okay, so they lost that game towards the of the events and he said no They actually came back in one. So as I was watching the Raptors game, I got home later that night I obviously and I'm primed video to have that score in the top left. I kept watching kept watching and go Okay, they're up 22 points at the half. They have 60 points And then just kept watching kept looking over and it was like we're gonna now they're down, you They haven't scored this court five points if they scored seven points now, it's a five-point game They scored twelve points announced a three-point game and I kept wondering how many points they gonna score in this half They finished with 19 points in the second half. It was the least amount of points in a playoff half since 1950 over 75 years ago It was such an awful stretch of like it wasn't just the stretch of missed shots, which was historic They weren't hitting before that in the second half Like they were probably shooting 30 % or 40 like, you know low 40s high 30s from the field
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: These are professional players who missed 27 straight shots in the playoff game. I mean, that's how bad it was.
Rob Pope -: Thank I do have to say though, gotta tip your hat a little to the defense. I think Detroit's defense came up big in a couple of these games.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: But they showed a montage of it on ESPN a little while ago right before we came on. They showed a montage of the 27 shots. Most of them were pretty open. They were just playing in them.
Cole Houck: That's what I was gonna say too, is that like Assar, Assar played great defense and Dern played pretty good defensively, but a lot of those shots were actually pretty good looks. I watched those same shots as well and I was, it was good defense the entire series. A lot of that was self-inflicted.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: couldn't hit. So mean Orlando is scrappy, I agree with Rob, they were a tough matchup. They are very physical like the Pistons, it was almost like a rugby match, the series. ⁓ But the Magic and the Pistons you can see right now, neither one of them is a complete roster in terms of championship.
Rob Pope -: think Detroit likes to bully teams and you can't bully the Magic. So it kind of takes away a lot of their strategy. And I think when you advance past a team like the Magic, you can probably bully the next team. you know, usually if you can survive, you can keep, you can come back with a completely different set of matchups.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I don't know, Cleveland has some good bigs.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, but I still think they can out physical them. But Cleveland's talented, I don't, you know, it won't necessarily just come down to physicality. There's other factors.
Cole Houck: The last thing I want to talk about this series is Jamal Mosley getting fired. It was either last night or this morning, it was pretty recently, which was expected. They probably should have fired him before the playoffs, but obviously they couldn't wait until the end of the season. The Magic, at least in my opinion, are actually in a really difficult spot firing this coach. You'll see a lot of times where you get a coach that develops players and they make the team a 20-win team to a 45-40-win team, and then they get a guy who can kind of finish the job is what the blueprint is for that.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, just one.
Cole Houck: I don't know that that guy's out there right now. I'm gonna run some names by you guys. Let me know if any of these guys sound what they're looking for at all. If you would go a different direction if you were the Magic. I've seen Tippado. I've seen Billy Donovan who was the Bulls guy. I've seen Terry Stotz who was the Portland Trailblazers coach before Chauncey. He's a really offensive minded guy. Willie Green was on the Pelicans recently. And then an assistant called Chris Quinn from the Miami Heat. He was kind of a player development guy. Do you like any of those guys to replace Mosley here?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Orlando is not exactly a destination spot for most NBA coaches. So to me, they might not be able to get the top guy, but I'd go for Billy Donovan. I mean, I he's a fantastic coach. And apparently he kind of wants out of Chicago, so.
Cole Houck: ⁓ they fired him, I believe. I think he's gone. Or maybe he stepped down, but I think he's out.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: So that's probably who I target, maybe Billy Donovan, maybe one of those young coordinators too.
Rob Pope -: think what you have there is a nice set of options. I don't think you could go too wrong with any of them. I wouldn't say that these three are terrible and this one's great. I'd say they're all good options. You need to do a hard look at it. Figure out what you want to point your team towards. you know do you want to improve your defense do you want to improve your three-point shooting do you want to improve your matchups against certain teams in your division what area do you want to address in the draft and or free agency etc so The whole direction of the team has to make sense with the head coach. So I would say that they need to take into account all those things. But there are some really nice options. mean, I don't think you could go wrong with a couple of those guys for sure. And I don't think they're that far away. I don't think.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I like Cole's point. You gotta go offensive, think. ⁓
Rob Pope -: I think so. I think so. They're very physical and athletic and they have an edge to them. So yeah, mean get a little more scoring and I think you already have that intensity on defense.
Cole Houck: think my favorite option personally is going after an offensively minded ⁓ assistant coach. Kind of like what the Raptors do with Darko Ryakovich. Obviously a super different situation, but somebody like that that is clearly the offensive hub and mind behind a team. Because we've seen a defensive coach and they played a great brand of defense and they're still very good defensively individually, most of them are. So you'd think that they'd be able to keep that defensive identity a lot with a new offense. They literally traded five first round picks to bring Desmond Baines in and create, know, self-creation and floor spacing and the offense was no better five first round picks later.
Rob Pope -: It didn't work. I mean he's a good player, but they give up a lot there. ⁓ not a big fire coach guy, so I wouldn't have done that. But I think you can get some, make some adjustments without going that far and creating instability. No one likes to have a new coach coming in ⁓ and be unsure of the of everything and have instability. So I don't know if you got better there by firing him, but maybe. It's too much of an unknown.
Cole Houck: You guys have anything else about the Orlando series?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Nope.
Cole Houck: All right, so next series we got here is the Toronto Raptors versus Cleveland Cavaliers. And I've had about a day now to kind of, you know, rest, relax, and kind of reset on my overall thoughts by the series for the Raptors in the season. And I am pretty happy where we're at. There's still a lot of things that are kind of in jeopardy, feel like, stuff that needs to get fixed up. But I just, overall, we really over exceed expectations this year. And I'm... I'm so happy for Scotty Barnes. cannot believe, not can't believe because I knew he had this in him, but I didn't think I'd actually be able to see it in this early in his career to be an offensive hub himself. He was point Scotty. I think he had 14 assists in one of these games. I mean, just such a point Scotty be the primary ball hander and creator and also be physically dominating inside offensively. That was something that I was really happy about. RJ shot really well. I've been, I've been Not complaining, but very concerned about RJ in the playoffs. I just feel like he's too left hand dominant sometimes and he's not always great around the rim. So I figured if you took the left away from him in a seven game playoff series, it's pretty easy to game plan against certain guys. If RJ has a left hand, I was worried about that for the rest of the team. He was very efficient, hit that ridiculous Halliburton shot in game six. That was such a cool moment for me. I like where we're going. I'm worried with Ingram and quickly there's a lot to talk about there, but I'm really happy the series for the most part.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I gotta say I've become a Scotty Barnes fan. I was really rooting for you guys this series. I really wanted this to come out on top. RJ Barrett, I thought had a really kind of comeback year this year for you guys too. I was really impressed with Barrett and way he played really all season. And you have some young guys that are coming up. So I think the future is bright for the Raptors. I really believe that.
Rob Pope -: I was talking about the two guys I couldn't get my eyes off in this playoff so far. Tyrese Maxey and Scotty Barnes. I just feel like the way they play I really enjoy watching them. They're fantastic. Scotty Barnes is the only player with 100 blocks and 100 steals. ⁓ I didn't even know that he was that good on defense. and he's just a force that I think he's just coming into his own. I will say that there was a little bit of a weakness if you look at some of the stats on points in the paint and some of the interior stuff. Definitely the advantage went to the Cavaliers. So I was actually surprised about that.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: think as tough a matchup as Orlando was for the Pistons, the Raptors were that tough a matchup for Cleveland Cavaliers. what's interesting, you look at the Cavaliers starting lineup and you really think to yourself they should have handled this series even more comfortably. And I think in the end they won because of Jared Allen and Evan Mobley. I just think they just had too much size. But you add James Harden to that, you've got Donovan Mitchell who's one of the top 10 players in the league. ⁓
Rob Pope -: Yeah, I agree.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Cleveland really struggled with the Raptors, so think the Raptors are in good spot, I agree.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. They look great.
Cole Houck: Rob to real quick, think Scottie finished fourth this year in defensive player of the year. So he was, he has been like, obviously we were pretty good defensively. He was the head of that snake, but he, he's been dominant all season And his, his switch, his switch ability is just awesome to watch the series. He started out, I believe it was on Mowgli and then he got onto Harden. He guarded Don Mitchell a lot in the back half of the series as well for somebody who's seven inches
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Cole Houck: which is taller than Donovan Mitchell is, know, hundred, like 40 pounds heavier probably. He has a lot of switchability going on there. I was really worried the first couple of games because of mostly Yaka Pertle getting picked apart and pick and roll with James Harden. You know, Alan, easy dunks and that showed his head in game seven more than I wanted it to. Alan was like monstrous in game seven. I liked him a lot, he was so good.
Rob Pope -: He was awesome.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Alan, is it one and Mowgli both? Both those guys, Mowgli and Alan.
Rob Pope -: And that's really what I was talking about. The interior play was... There were a couple games in the middle actually where the Raptors cleaned up really in the paint. But I think in the beginning and at the end, Cleveland really dominated in interior play. And I think it was the difference in the series to be on.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Once you feel like the one improvement they need to make is go get a big center. You need to go get like an 8in or something like that. I just feel like they need a big center. They need a rim protector.
Cole Houck: I don't want Aiden, I do want a rim protector. Honestly, Pertil was pretty good for us last couple years. And then he had some ridiculous back injury this past season. not only is he borderline unplayable in guys that do pick and rolls, like we play the Celtics, it is terrible. Same with the Hornets, they spam a lot of pick and rolls too.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Cole Houck: But he, yeah, he's also on one of the worst contracts in NBA. I think he signed for another five years and it's like 20 or 25 million. So it's gonna be nearly impossible. We have to attach at least a first, maybe multiple picks to be able to get off his contract. We put ourselves in a bad situation for the injury.
Rob Pope -: I'll tell you one stat that jumps out at me in the final game. Rebounds. 33 to 60.
Cole Houck: It was 23 to 47 late in the third quarter, early in the fourth quarter. They had more than double our rebounds for majority of this game. It was very frustrating to watch.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: And that's my point. That's my point.
Rob Pope -: You can't honestly think you're gonna win if you're getting out rebounded like that on a consistent basis. So I think that's a glaring weakness that I think a lot of the important pieces are in place ⁓ for the Raptors, I think that there's an opportunity there, not just a big, but somebody who specializes in some of the, you know,
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: need another big.
Rob Pope -: specific things that they were a little weak in, especially rebounding and points in the paint.
Cole Houck: Which is interesting is that for probably the first six games of the series, Colin Murray Boyles was our third best player. And he was doing, he was ridiculous on offensive rebounding. He looked, kind of looked like Dennis Rodman out there, constantly tapping out balls or getting the hand on offensive rebounds. He was doing that for lot of the series. He was very passive for all of the regular season. Like he was coming out of South Carolina, he was a defensive switchable guy that could pass, had a good court vision, but could not doing outside of 12 feet or so. This series, he was no longer like a passive guy. He was doing everything within 12 years and he was getting rebounds. He had a ton of little push shots like kind of like standstill floaters that were really fun. Catching lobs, having, you know, momentum swinging dunks. I was super impressed with him. Kind of put the world on notice, too. Nobody nobody knew about C &B much going into the draft. Nobody watches the Raptors during the regular season because their Canadian team and they're barely on national television. People know about C &B now, and that's something that I was not expecting.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, he made a name for himself there in the middle of the series, games three and four. He really shined and made, like you said, the awareness of him went up.
Cole Houck: I really wanted him on Harden after game one. I remember that after game one I said there's no way we're going to have RJ Barrett on Harden. And honestly a lot of our downfall, you know, besides like the Jared Allen stuff and offensive rebounding was whenever RJ Barrett would get switched on to Harden. He's a good defender sometimes, but he's a horrible off ball defender and he kind of takes some plays, is lazy some plays. Harden was just taking advantage of him. The other thing was that Harden was really, time to touch my the calves a ton. Harden was really good at getting three point fouls. They showed the stat in game one that that he had more than double the next person in three point fouls on. He was really good at that. Mitchell looked good the first couple of games, but didn't do a ton after that. Mobley, didn't think was very good for the first four or so games of series, but really turned up the last couple of games. And again, Allen was fantastic all series defensively, good at rebounding, took over in that last game.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: You know what bottom line is that the Raptors in the entire series just let them get into the paint too much. I I was watching Harden do all these finger rolls and teardrops and runners and I mean he was just taking these easy shots from inside the lane. It's too easy to get inside the Raptors lane. They've got to find a way to close that off.
Cole Houck: Yeah, plus Mitchell would do that move all the time where he would he would it looks like a carry to me But he would take the ball over, know, whatever you want to call it He would easily get around our guys doing that because it's not a Tony can do to stop it and you kick out some shooters It's really the I didn't notice this until the series the Cavs It's kind of like a team dichotomy I guess is really interesting because they got their two ball dominant guards their two twin towers ish at the four and five and it just had this constant revolving door of shooters the three, whether it's Dean Way defensively, Max Truce, who was really annoying but really good in game seven. He's a good playoff guy, back to the Miami Heat days. Sam Merrill was one of the best three point shooters in the NBA. And I think Jalen Tyson was first or second in three point percentage over the year as well.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Cole Houck: It's just really interesting seeing the Cavs, like I said, they have so much there and yet they unperformed a lot of this series. I was not expecting them to play down so much. after I think game five is when I really noticed that's like, okay, as much as I want to hype up the Raptors a lot of this, because they are playing really good and better than they should be, a decent bit of the Cavs playing down. You guys agree with that, don't you?
Rob Pope -: Yeah, I think so.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: No, think ⁓ Raptors are on their path. I Cavaliers squeak through. ⁓ And actually, looking forward, I like the Cavaliers to knock off the Pistons, but we'll get into that in a future series.
Rob Pope -: No.
Cole Houck: I can see that. The other thing I'm going to say too is that I, we were clearly better off in series without Brandon Ingram. Like he was, he was game one, he didn't take any shots in the third, in the second half and then complained about being a decoy and then proceeded to shoot 30 % from the field for the next three or four games. Left in the second quarter of one of the home games because his quote heel was too sore to come back in on, which just sounds pretty weak to me. I mean, just really straightforward. I didn't like hearing that. That was really a bother. in the moment. That being said, I almost knew for certain that we could not win game seven without him. go into a game seven with all those young guys and in a way environments, we would not have the offensive firepower to keep up with Cleveland's and you know, we included with the rebounding that that showed us that we had and we ended up losing probably by 15 or 20 points in game seven. Next series we got here was New York and Atlanta. ⁓ This series looked like it was gonna be a lot better than it actually was early on. I was excited to see Atlanta. They got such a, like an odd dichotomy. Ton of guards on that team, ton of wings, not really any bigs outside of Okongwu. What did you guys think about this series overall?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: you had New York win game one and I was like okay you know what after that game I thought to myself the Knicks might sweep this series so I was thinking and then Atlanta wins game two and three both by one point and it was clear that McCollum and the boys you know very underhanded you had essentially McCollum and a bunch of guys I've never heard of ⁓ find a way to get those two games I was okay they're gonna make this a series and then I think the Knicks got of angry and perturbed about the way they were playing and they just turned it on after that. And it was clear to me that not only were they the better team, but the Hawks just couldn't hang in the series.
Rob Pope -: I feel like fast break points was huge. ⁓ Transition points was a big factor. Whoever was sort of dominating in that area tended to be the winner of that game. I felt like neither team's bench was very impressive. So it really came down to starters. And of course the Knicks should prevail in that area. because their starters are superior but it was a very good series i think that ⁓ the hawks made themselves very proud because they they summoned up some really good team synergy and ⁓ you know maccollum and jalen johnson ⁓ put forward a very good series of of games but ⁓ I think the Knicks are thought of as the better team and rightly so, but the Hawks probably shocked a lot of people.
Cole Houck: I am personally really up and down about the Hawks and kind of where they are in their future. just see there's so much good and bad. Like we didn't expect them to be this good. They got rid of Trey Young and kind of went in new direction, which is cool. But this team is really just made up of a bunch of wings and forwards. They don't really have a point guard. They don't really have a big. They don't have a ton of depth. And like I try and cheer for Zachary Sashay, but he was off on the series. I'm not sure he's going to be in the league.
Rob Pope -: Mm-hmm.
Cole Houck: couple years. ⁓
Rob Pope -: You know what they could use? Trey Young. Yeah, that's true.
Cole Houck: I mean, yeah, a little bit, but then again, defense would go out. But then they're also gonna have like a top four-ish, five-ish pick, because they got the Pelicans and protected pick too. So that's something good to cheer for, but at the same token, you were just talking praise about CJ McCollum. I gotta check his age, but I'm sure he's like 34, 35. He probably won't be in the league in a few years. what is that gonna, it's just so much like. Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I was just pointing out that he had a very good series. all I was pointing out. I thought he played very well.
Cole Houck: There's just a lot of up and down for the future of this team. And I feel like they overperformed, especially after they got rid of Trey Young. They had a ridiculous regular season percentage, winning percentage at the end of it. But I don't know what to expect for this team down the road. They clearly have like three or four holes. And they got a young, whoever they get in this upcoming draft, they're pretty good pick to take care of a couple of those holes. But we'll see what happens. They're in such an odd spot to me.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: See you guys.
Rob Pope -: Guys, have you seen a beating like game six?
Cole Houck: No, that's the thing too was that they had a lot of momentum going into like whatever because this is all this is house money Like I said, they over perform was like every trade young and they got this crazy pick coming So how can you possibly lose momentum going into this? This is how you posses momentum going into this. I'm glad you brought that up They were down about 47 points at half at home and in elimination game six. I have never seen anything like it before
Rob Pope -: Some of the stats are.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: turned it on in half time and I was I kept rechecking the score like what? You gotta be kidding.
Rob Pope -: Some of the stats are mind-boggling. I mean, the fact that at one point they were up by 61 points. That's the largest lead that I've ever heard in a playoff game, I think. 83-36 at halftime, largest deficit in NBA playoff history. It was a one for the books beating. Fast break points, 35 to 8. Points in the paint, 66 to 38.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: You guys think. You guys think the Knicks can contend and go to the finals?
Cole Houck: think they're the best team in the East right now. I think they're the team to be in the East with Boston going down. Still not really believing in Detroit. So the answer is yes, but I'm still, like I still have a ton of question marks about them too. You know, they're definitely strong as well.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: That'll do. 32.
Rob Pope -: What about Sixers?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Well, I'm looking, you wanna know what the game score is right now in game one?
Rob Pope -: 76ers. Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: The Knicks are up by 31 in the fourth quarter. They're blowing the 76ers off the floor. Yeah, and B has 12 points. So I don't know, the Knicks are looking awfully good right now.
Rob Pope -: Wow.
Cole Houck: Oh sorry, said the Knicks are up by 31. I thought you said the Sixes are up by 31. Okay, nevermind. That, I mean again, Philly won like an emotional game seven two days ago and then had to go to New York and I expect this to be a little bit like this to be honest.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Yeah, Nick's rub with her.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, next round by 30.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Yeah, had a little let down.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, it's in New York. New York's chomping at the bit.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I think with the Celtics going down, think the Knicks have a pretty nice path to the finals. That's what it looks like to me. And they're a very flawed team. So whoever they play in the finals, think they'll get destroyed.
Rob Pope -: I wouldn't count the 76ers out yet.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: We'll see.
Rob Pope -: I'll count them out of this game, but...
Cole Houck: So that that that set ways us into our last series as well. This is the Boston Philly series This was my most surprising series out of all of them But I will say looking back at it It really shouldn't have been we'd kind of foreshadow a little bit the lack of you know big and in front-court depth or just front-court anything frankly for the the Celtics and when Embiid came back he had one kind of game and then kind of dominated especially defensively and then you know drawing fouls in the later games So this is, I don't know, this series is really interesting. What did you guys think about it?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: You want to take this one first?
Rob Pope -: It was kind of an emotional roller coaster. It was a strange series. The fact that Tatum couldn't go at the last minute in game seven was tragic because I think with that player in place that would have been a really good matchup. That would have been a cool game seven. But as it was, know, it still ended up being pretty good. But MB being here and healthy was is one of the most unpredictable things in this whole season is that at this time of the year, he's actually in there contributing and healthy. Granted, it doesn't look like it's going well in this particular game at this moment, but boy, he's been a force. And I think that that's been the biggest factor in them taking out the Celtics because I think most people really felt like the Celtics were the favorite. ⁓ you know, I feel like man the seventy sixers got a nice roster maxi and edgecombe and george and then you know if you put ⁓ you put that all together and you have good chemistry like it feels like they're starting to get that and you have Embiid getting 33 points or something like that every night and lots of
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: you You know, watched my Hornets beat the 76ers twice in the last week of the regular season, and I kind of wrote the 76ers off because I assumed Embiid wouldn't play. He plays 33 games a year, and the reason they put up with it is because what we saw in the last four games of this series, which was you get a healthy Embiid out there. He's not only a force on offense, but he's a force on defense. He changes the game on both sides of the floor.
Rob Pope -: Right. Yeah, he's a fourth.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Just to say that it's still inexcusable for the Boston Celtics, a championship contender, to go up three, in this series and find a way to lose it. That's just inexcusable. I don't care what anybody says. ⁓
Cole Houck: Rob, I have couple things here. One earlier today, you earlier in this podcast, you said that Maxey and Scottie were two of the guys you were not only like impressed with, but you know, cannot stop watching. Yeah, I a thousand percent agree. I have been so high on Maxey. I think it was I've said before, but I think it was the seventh game of his career. He played it was, you know, it basically it was the year after the bubble and you know, nobody was really playing a ton. They had seven players. ⁓ It like Dwight Howard, bunch of nobodies you'd never
Rob Pope -: I don't know. You can't stop watching.
Cole Houck: He's so good at everything offensively and I just he's so clutch too and it actually blows my mind that he does not get more touches in clutch time I think it was game 7 where he didn't touch He may touch well, but he didn't get any shots up between like five minutes and two minutes And then he got two possessions where you got to lay up and then like a float or something back to back It's like man if only this guy taking shots before this
Rob Pope -: Yeah, it's cool.
Cole Houck: went in he's so good the other thing is that this team is like really good has a lot of death pieces it's the wings and the forwards they have so many good forwards and if PG is playing well like he is that you know Quinn and Grimes Kelly ubre PG they got a ton of good like two through fours there
Rob Pope -: Thank
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: They do they do you know so I watched I wrote them off at the end of the season because they had gotten spanked by the Hornets twice Then I watched them go down three to one in this series and being playing very little and then all of a he comes in and turns the whole series around and What I'm watching those last two games game six game seven was their lineup you talked about maxi and be Edgecomb one of the leaders for the rookie of the year came in third in the rookie of the year vote
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Paul George playing his best ball about five years. And all the players you talked about, Ubre and all these different players. And now I'm looking at team that is really good. They're really solid, so ⁓ I don't know.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, I heard some analysis today of how different the 76ers are on defense when Embiid's back there. ⁓ Apparently, they guard real tight ⁓ when Embiid is there under the rim because they know that if somebody gets by them, if Jaylen Brown gets by, Embiid's going to get them. it's such a force multiplier that they can defend hard in all other four positions ⁓ and take away the three and harass the best player with really tight marking and not be so worried about somebody getting loose because in B it is such a force. So that is not a small thing. That is huge thing on defense to have that kind of force back there, that rim protector, but also a guy who can fly out, be athletic, and take away a mid-range after somebody's gotten loose ⁓ is huge.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: So what do you do if you're the Celtics going into next year and you want to try run it back? have most of your cap tied up in two players. You need frontcourt length and depth. You're basically getting absolutely eaten alive inside. You've got to do something.
Cole Houck: There's a couple I mean I don't What you should have done was trade for Zubos instead of Vusovic at the deadline I don't I had preached that like a couple weeks before the deadline I made put it in a podcast I thought this they have enough shooting around Zubos that it doesn't matter and Instead they went after a guy that shoots and doesn't play defense and then he didn't even play in game seven at home It does not make any sense to me Zubos is now in the pages. He's gonna be great for next year That's gonna be fun to watch and then what you also don't do is you start Ron Harper jr. And Luca Garza In place of Tatum in game 7. I mean how have we gone this far without talking about that? Is that is that not mind-blowing to you guys watching that live?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I couldn't understand why he wasn't playing. mean, unless you're, know, on crutches, you play in game seven. That's what you do when you pay 50 million a year.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Yeah. It was weird. They mixed up the lineup for game seven. The Celtics had three players with zero points in their starting lineup. That's almost unheard of.
Cole Houck: Those guys have not played a single second together by the way. That starting lineup, like there's a ton of data and analytics on that stuff now. Those five guys had not seen the court together once this season and they started for game seven.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. And you could see it in the way they were lined up on the court. A lot of times they were all ending up in similar places on the court and almost bumping into each other and not setting picks, like bumping into each other and being just weird spacing because they weren't really feeling, they didn't know who was going to be where. And that was a big coaching error, I think. It was overthinking it, you know, like. But a lot of that had to do with Embiid, you know?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I think he was trying, no, think he was looking at a situation where they blew game five, blew game six, and it was a desperate situation where he realized that they were relying too much on three point shooting and he was trying to mix it up. Now, it's not the time to do it in game seven of the first round series. It's not when you experiment. So that was a bad idea. But bottom line, I think they realized pretty clearly that they were going down because they couldn't shoot.
Rob Pope -: No. I would have tried to get him beat in foul trouble. Maybe that's your only way of getting him neutralized.
Cole Houck: They don't really call files on a B from what I can tell. That's a taller task at first than it is out loud.
Rob Pope -: I know, I know, I know. It's almost like kamikaze missions, just go down the, don't go down the lane and just know that they're probably not gonna call it, but I'm gonna try.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: And that's what. And that's what Brown and Tatum were talking about in the post game press conference. Both saying that not only is he flopped, but then he gets no calls on him, so.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Yeah, he's super physical on defense, but he flops on offense. It's very strange.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: This was incredibly disappointing for the Celtics to go up 3-1 in both the series. No one could have predicted
Cole Houck: I've been thinking this entire time Tom, I don't know what the Celtics do. mean, Derrick White has been so consistent there his entire tenure since he left San Antonio and he was awful this series. He actually had a great this season, but he was he was so He was still providing Derrick White things but the shooting and the percentages, you know when he shot the ball was just terrible. So I That's true that was only like
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: He shot horrible. He shot absolutely horrible.
Rob Pope -: He was decent in game seven. He was decent in game seven, that's it.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: And then down the stretch, down the stretch in game seven, they missed their last seven three-pointers and that's the bread and butter. So if you're gonna miss your last seven in game seven in a very tight game, you're gonna lose.
Cole Houck: Pritchard shot 30%, 31 % from three this series. Pritchard is one of the, I'm pretty high on Pritchard, he may be one of the best three point shooters in the NBA, at least against the Raptors he is. So that was surprising me too. I just don't, I don't know, besides getting depth at the front court and defensive front court players, because Vucic, Luka Garza aren't cutting it. Nimaez Keita is pretty solid, but you need somebody else to come in there. Nimaez Keita is playing way above his weight. I just, besides that, I don't know what else you can do besides assume that the J's will be healthy and Pritchard and White will shoot above 30 % from three like they have been every other year, every other series. I don't know.
Rob Pope -: I don't think it can be overstated in Bede's impact. mean, he's the first player in NBA history to miss three games of a series and still score 100 points.
Cole Houck: heard that too, isn't that awesome?
Rob Pope -: Yeah, that tells you that when he does come in, everything changes. That's an MVP. That's an MVP.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I'll tell you on sports radio in Boston, the last two days apparently they've been absolutely rolling the coach and saying he absolutely has to be fired. And apparently they were saying that last year too. And so I don't know, I'm getting a little shaky on him too. I'm not a firing guy either, but last two years, I don't know. I'm not sure he's a very good in game coach.
Rob Pope -: That's emotion. ⁓ I'm not gonna say you never fire, but I'm just gonna say you do it calmly, you do it when you have a plan, and you do it when you know you got better because of it.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: This was inexcusable. This series losses. It should never have happened.
Rob Pope -: I'm not going to fire most coaches that make the playoffs. I'm just not. Like, you made the playoffs, you did some things right during the season, and then we got work to do.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Do you guys think he's a good in-game coach?
Cole Houck: was thinking that when you said it. Like he is notoriously bad at not calling timeouts. That's super in game. I don't know if he's a bad in game coach, but he doesn't ever change. It's always Missoula ball where you live and die by the threes. So I can't say he's a good in game coach either, I don't think. Does that make sense?
Rob Pope -: I he was trying with that weird lineup in game seven, he was trying to do something different. So I mean, he was trying, I just think he didn't have the personnel. I mean, once Embiid came back in, the series was over. It just had to play out.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I mean, that's what we learned about the Celtics. You're right. That's what we learned about the Celtics. They're an incomplete roster. They really were never a contender. That's what we found out. Yeah. And I think...
Rob Pope -: That's what I think. I think they're incomplete. They were better when they had Horford. They were better when they had like one more guy.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: And think we found that out about the pistons. don't think the pistons are a contender either. Same thing.
Cole Houck: I funny you said Horford and then I think for Zing and see the guy you were talking about I was watching a self this youtuber and he said he was it was just it right after a meeting reaction after the game and it was really honest he's actually one of those guys I do like listening to and he was like you just you don't have any floor spacing bigs that can play defense and you had two of them like not that long ago and now you're down to zero and it's showing you know blatantly
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Yeah. Huge. That's huge. And let's face it, I don't know what would have happened if Tatum had played. I mean, they're a different team with Tatum. You know, the thing with Tatum that's so special is the guy's a monster rebounder. He gets like 14 rebounds a game and stuff like I don't know what his average is. Yeah, I think he's the best rebounding guard in the NBA. If not one, he's top three. He's he's always getting a lot of rebounds, you know, finishing drives, scoring. He does it all.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: He's the best rebounding gardener in the world.
Rob Pope -: and he's a huge lift guy.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Do you think we'll ever know why he didn't play game seven? Do you think we'll ever know the real reason?
Cole Houck: I mean, is the 80 % not good enough reason for you? That actually makes a ton of sense to me, knowing what doctors are saying and his history of the ACL and being in a down year quote unquote because of it, does, it's easy to point your finger and say game seven, you need to play no matter what. But we just saw him play in a game similar to this and go out for nearly the entire year, rushed back on Achilles, I'm not sure anybody else has ever done it really. I mean, there is a lot of question marks about it.
Rob Pope -: I think he's neat, that's... If it's me, game seven of the finals, yes, that's worth it. But game seven of first round series, no way.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I understand what you're saying and the doctors probably said what you said Cole. I'm telling you if I was Jason Tatum, I would have played. That's all I'm saying. There's no way you're knocking me out of a game.
Rob Pope -: After you had a year off of being hurt and watching your team struggle without you, I think it was a team move. I think he's trying to get himself healthier because he hoped they could get by first round and then get to where maybe his knee rests a little and he has a shot.
Cole Houck: It just doesn't make sense to me that Celtics fans are, I don't know, some of this stuff is so much entitlement. I was talking to somebody about that the other day where it's, they have had so many good years recently between Brad Stevens coaching and then him moving up to do other like bigger team relations and team, you know, roster construction, stuff like that. Promoting Uduka, who was a great coach and then got fired for like having an affair and then bringing up Missoula, who's also typically looks to me like a pretty good coach as well. In a down year like this, they think they need to fire their coach. It screams entitlement to me. And I think that I know a couple of Sunnys fans in person that are like, this was a down year, let's just enjoy it and see what happens next year. Run it back, change a couple of things here and there. We overperformed. What is everybody so mad about? And I think that makes a ton of sense. There are questions, but go fix them, you know?
Rob Pope -: Yeah, go fix them. Don't fire your coach and then be worse off.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Well, he's got to change a little bit though. You can't just keep going into these years being, you know, die by the three.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Changes start with the coach, you know, but they also start with the general manager who puts the roster together. Roster construction is really where it starts before you even get it to the coach. And if you see weaknesses like there were clear weaknesses for Boston, then. you take a look and you figure out what can we do that's a different construction that gives us you know a little better opportunity to stay healthier maybe load manage Tatum next year just to get him all the way back healthy I don't know and then and then then you look at the coach from there once the roster construction happens but they're they're missing pieces so you can't evaluate it very well.
Cole Houck: I definitely agree. You guys have any other thoughts about the first round as a whole? I know we've been gone for a little while, but this is a very fun first round overall. I did not expect it to be this much fun to watch, so there's a lot to talk about in my opinion.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I completely agree, was an exhilarating first round, much more surprises than I thought there would be. There were upsets, there were very close escapes by upper seeds, there were lots of game sevens, lots of great performances.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. I don't think anybody could have predicted the Hawks' when they traded Trey Young. Nobody saw that coming.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Yeah, and I think the Celtics going down and the Nuggets going down, those two were huge surprises. And then the Pistons barely escaping, another big surprise. So we got some great basketball ahead.
Rob Pope -: I think the surprise was Embiid is healthy.
Cole Houck: Yeah, the other thing I want to say too about Paul George is that like we didn't talk about him He is turned at the ripe age of 36. I cannot explain it He has turned into a 3d guy because of this 25 games he missed from the drug suspension This guy was terrible last year. This guy was a role player and not a good role player at that series after 25 suspension He's been he's been on a tear. He looks really good and I am personally really excited to see him play against OG OG is my
Rob Pope -: Yeah, don't think this one's going so well, this should be a pretty good series. Oh, it's over. It's 137.98.
Cole Houck: They won by 30, 39.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Well, won't it be interesting to see other 76ers come out in game too? See if they can get some juice.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, I think they got caught a little flat footed. And the Knicks wanted a piece of them. They've been hearing a lot of talk and they were just kind of itching for game. ⁓
Cole Houck: Did you guys hear that, I found this this morning, this is so funny, I don't know how you can necessarily prove this, but, I heard that the 76ers, because they've had such a problem of Knicks fans coming over to their games and playoffs and just in general, they're not giving tickets out to people who are outside of the greater Philly area. That's so fun, I can't, I don't know how you do that,
Rob Pope -: Yeah, that's right.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: that right?
Rob Pope -: I heard Embiid was saying, please, please, please don't sell your tickets to New York Nick fans. That's funny. Nick fans travel man.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: We're good to this.
Rob Pope -: It's good to leave when the Knicks are good.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: So another score update, Spurs Timberwolves are tied. That game looks like it's going to be a really good game, really good series. And then ⁓ how about those Carolina Hurricanes got the OT game winner up two nothing in the series against the Flyers. So no Hurricanes, yep.
Rob Pope -: Half time. Nice. Nice, they were losing.
Cole Houck: Great. Well, that's all we have for today's podcast. Thank you guys so much for coming on. It's always a pleasure having you guys on. You guys are very informative, know a ton about a lot of sports. So thank you again for being on here for me.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Hey, thanks for having us, Cole. Really enjoyed it.
Rob Pope -: We appreciate you having us on, we had a good time. Love talking about this stuff.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Talking NBA with you is the best.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Cole Houck: Thank you guys. Go to sports guys, please like and subscribe on their videos. They're gonna have a video tomorrow about a ton of Hodgepodge stuff. It's gonna be NBA, NHL, lacrosse, and Kentucky Derby, right? That's awesome, listen to this. These guys know a little bit about everything. So please go ahead and follow their videos as well, if know what they're talking about. And otherwise, you guys have a good night.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: It's gonna be fun.
Rob Pope -: We're ready.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Thanks a lot.
Rob Pope -: Have a good one guys.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Yeah, I think that we saw what the Magic did to the Hornets in the play-in game, beating them by 35 points. And Hornets had actually been playing really well. And so I felt like the Magic, especially Ben Carrol, really kind of gave notice to the NBA. They were coming. And so I really wasn't that surprised when they pulled off the big upset in game one. And it was clear to me the Pistons were in a dogfight, and they were actually in trouble in this series. And that really proved out to be true, especially when they go down 3 to 1 with the Magic. And something weird happened in game five where the Magic just couldn't shoot the rest of the series. They just couldn't shoot. They couldn't hit anything. And of course you had that stretch in game six where they missed 27 straight shots, which was the most ever by the way. They researched it and that's the most ever missed in a playoff game ever, 27 straight. So. I don't know what happened to the Magic. They turned into the early Pistons in this series. They had Bankero and nobody else. had several starters in game six and seven that didn't even score at all. So it just was weird. the series Orlando. ⁓ Second half was the just was almost like Tuesday.
Rob Pope -: Franz Wagner got hurt in the third game. or game four, game four, sorry. And I think that was a turning point.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: It was. It really was. You know, and then you had a couple of guys start stepping up for the Pistons late in the series that really helped because Kate Cummingham was really the only scorer the first couple of games. So this was a really weird series. I heard Charles at halftime of game seven complaining about this series. Opposite from what you were saying, he was saying that this kind of basketball, although it was like the eighties, he thought it was incredibly boring to watch. He thought these two teams play way too slow. And that going into next year, they both have got to find a way to pick up the pace because they're gonna get left behind by the rest of the NBA. And he said, I predict that whoever wins this series tonight is gonna get destroyed in the second round. that's just what Charles said.
Rob Pope -: I think that Detroit has the ability to understand that they had a tough matchup here. I think the Magic are a tough matchup. Ben Caro's just a handful. And I think that they were kind of underrated a little bit. But when Wagner went out, I think it really hurt them. And I don't think a lot was made out of that, but I do think that that was a factor They felt kind of like they were missing a piece and it didn't they weren't as potent ⁓ But I think that Detroit pulled it together But definitely ⁓ I think that they could play a completely different kind of series against a different opponent so I think that's what I'm saying is that I don't think this is going to necessarily continue into the next series.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: You had Tobias Harris who had a really bad playoffs last year and then he comes over to the Pistons this year. He has a really good season. But then most of this series Tobias Harris was just absent. Just didn't do much. And then in game six and game seven he picked it up and he had a really great game seven. So if the Pistons can get contributions from other guys other than Cade, they have a chance against the Cleveland Cavaliers. I don't think the Cavaliers are particularly good so.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Finish strong, yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: They have a chance in that series, but I don't know. Right now I'm leaning towards cavalier, so think pistons are just, they're incomplete right now.
Cole Houck: ⁓ I for probably either five or six of these seven total games, window Carter Jr. was out playing Jalen Durin, which I didn't necessarily see. I'm a big fan of window Carter. Actually, I've still I wanted him and I still want him on the Raptors. Just as kind of like a shooting threat that plays some defense. Not great at getting rebounds, but he is a good kind of three and deep big if you want to describe him like that. And Durin just looks so passive and there's always been a concern since he's been so much better this compared to last year about the lack of self-creation and it was it was on full display in this series again at least for the first five or six games they needed to buy his Harris to shoot 15 shots a game which he should not be I also like Toby a lot too I think he's also very overhated ⁓ and he he a lot better he said at the end of the series he's ridiculous from that that left baseline kind of area about 10 or 12 feet away he is so good over there and it's very fun to watch he had 17 points ⁓ In Game 7, the second quarter, which kind of took them over the edge in that obviously pivotal, you know, win or go home, Game 7. This, uh, shout out to SpiceHairs. This was pretty fun to watch. Except for Game 6. Game 6 was awful. I have a little story about Game 6. So, I was out Friday nights, which the Raptors were playing at that same time, too. I think their game started half an hour after. So I texted my friends, I texted NBA games, and I said, please don't, you No spoilers on build watch the game till it's over but one of them had texted me about the Magic game and he said the piston sold his bracket he had the pistons going to the finals I believe I said, okay, so they lost that game towards the of the events and he said no They actually came back in one. So as I was watching the Raptors game, I got home later that night I obviously and I'm primed video to have that score in the top left. I kept watching kept watching and go Okay, they're up 22 points at the half. They have 60 points And then just kept watching kept looking over and it was like we're gonna now they're down, you They haven't scored this court five points if they scored seven points now, it's a five-point game They scored twelve points announced a three-point game and I kept wondering how many points they gonna score in this half They finished with 19 points in the second half. It was the least amount of points in a playoff half since 1950 over 75 years ago It was such an awful stretch of like it wasn't just the stretch of missed shots, which was historic They weren't hitting before that in the second half Like they were probably shooting 30 % or 40 like, you know low 40s high 30s from the field
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: These are professional players who missed 27 straight shots in the playoff game. I mean, that's how bad it was.
Rob Pope -: Thank I do have to say though, gotta tip your hat a little to the defense. I think Detroit's defense came up big in a couple of these games.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: But they showed a montage of it on ESPN a little while ago right before we came on. They showed a montage of the 27 shots. Most of them were pretty open. They were just playing in them.
Cole Houck: That's what I was gonna say too, is that like Assar, Assar played great defense and Dern played pretty good defensively, but a lot of those shots were actually pretty good looks. I watched those same shots as well and I was, it was good defense the entire series. A lot of that was self-inflicted.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: couldn't hit. So mean Orlando is scrappy, I agree with Rob, they were a tough matchup. They are very physical like the Pistons, it was almost like a rugby match, the series. ⁓ But the Magic and the Pistons you can see right now, neither one of them is a complete roster in terms of championship.
Rob Pope -: think Detroit likes to bully teams and you can't bully the Magic. So it kind of takes away a lot of their strategy. And I think when you advance past a team like the Magic, you can probably bully the next team. you know, usually if you can survive, you can keep, you can come back with a completely different set of matchups.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I don't know, Cleveland has some good bigs.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, but I still think they can out physical them. But Cleveland's talented, I don't, you know, it won't necessarily just come down to physicality. There's other factors.
Cole Houck: The last thing I want to talk about this series is Jamal Mosley getting fired. It was either last night or this morning, it was pretty recently, which was expected. They probably should have fired him before the playoffs, but obviously they couldn't wait until the end of the season. The Magic, at least in my opinion, are actually in a really difficult spot firing this coach. You'll see a lot of times where you get a coach that develops players and they make the team a 20-win team to a 45-40-win team, and then they get a guy who can kind of finish the job is what the blueprint is for that.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, just one.
Cole Houck: I don't know that that guy's out there right now. I'm gonna run some names by you guys. Let me know if any of these guys sound what they're looking for at all. If you would go a different direction if you were the Magic. I've seen Tippado. I've seen Billy Donovan who was the Bulls guy. I've seen Terry Stotz who was the Portland Trailblazers coach before Chauncey. He's a really offensive minded guy. Willie Green was on the Pelicans recently. And then an assistant called Chris Quinn from the Miami Heat. He was kind of a player development guy. Do you like any of those guys to replace Mosley here?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Orlando is not exactly a destination spot for most NBA coaches. So to me, they might not be able to get the top guy, but I'd go for Billy Donovan. I mean, I he's a fantastic coach. And apparently he kind of wants out of Chicago, so.
Cole Houck: ⁓ they fired him, I believe. I think he's gone. Or maybe he stepped down, but I think he's out.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: So that's probably who I target, maybe Billy Donovan, maybe one of those young coordinators too.
Rob Pope -: think what you have there is a nice set of options. I don't think you could go too wrong with any of them. I wouldn't say that these three are terrible and this one's great. I'd say they're all good options. You need to do a hard look at it. Figure out what you want to point your team towards. you know do you want to improve your defense do you want to improve your three-point shooting do you want to improve your matchups against certain teams in your division what area do you want to address in the draft and or free agency etc so The whole direction of the team has to make sense with the head coach. So I would say that they need to take into account all those things. But there are some really nice options. mean, I don't think you could go wrong with a couple of those guys for sure. And I don't think they're that far away. I don't think.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I like Cole's point. You gotta go offensive, think. ⁓
Rob Pope -: I think so. I think so. They're very physical and athletic and they have an edge to them. So yeah, mean get a little more scoring and I think you already have that intensity on defense.
Cole Houck: think my favorite option personally is going after an offensively minded ⁓ assistant coach. Kind of like what the Raptors do with Darko Ryakovich. Obviously a super different situation, but somebody like that that is clearly the offensive hub and mind behind a team. Because we've seen a defensive coach and they played a great brand of defense and they're still very good defensively individually, most of them are. So you'd think that they'd be able to keep that defensive identity a lot with a new offense. They literally traded five first round picks to bring Desmond Baines in and create, know, self-creation and floor spacing and the offense was no better five first round picks later.
Rob Pope -: It didn't work. I mean he's a good player, but they give up a lot there. ⁓ not a big fire coach guy, so I wouldn't have done that. But I think you can get some, make some adjustments without going that far and creating instability. No one likes to have a new coach coming in ⁓ and be unsure of the of everything and have instability. So I don't know if you got better there by firing him, but maybe. It's too much of an unknown.
Cole Houck: You guys have anything else about the Orlando series?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Nope.
Cole Houck: All right, so next series we got here is the Toronto Raptors versus Cleveland Cavaliers. And I've had about a day now to kind of, you know, rest, relax, and kind of reset on my overall thoughts by the series for the Raptors in the season. And I am pretty happy where we're at. There's still a lot of things that are kind of in jeopardy, feel like, stuff that needs to get fixed up. But I just, overall, we really over exceed expectations this year. And I'm... I'm so happy for Scotty Barnes. cannot believe, not can't believe because I knew he had this in him, but I didn't think I'd actually be able to see it in this early in his career to be an offensive hub himself. He was point Scotty. I think he had 14 assists in one of these games. I mean, just such a point Scotty be the primary ball hander and creator and also be physically dominating inside offensively. That was something that I was really happy about. RJ shot really well. I've been, I've been Not complaining, but very concerned about RJ in the playoffs. I just feel like he's too left hand dominant sometimes and he's not always great around the rim. So I figured if you took the left away from him in a seven game playoff series, it's pretty easy to game plan against certain guys. If RJ has a left hand, I was worried about that for the rest of the team. He was very efficient, hit that ridiculous Halliburton shot in game six. That was such a cool moment for me. I like where we're going. I'm worried with Ingram and quickly there's a lot to talk about there, but I'm really happy the series for the most part.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I gotta say I've become a Scotty Barnes fan. I was really rooting for you guys this series. I really wanted this to come out on top. RJ Barrett, I thought had a really kind of comeback year this year for you guys too. I was really impressed with Barrett and way he played really all season. And you have some young guys that are coming up. So I think the future is bright for the Raptors. I really believe that.
Rob Pope -: I was talking about the two guys I couldn't get my eyes off in this playoff so far. Tyrese Maxey and Scotty Barnes. I just feel like the way they play I really enjoy watching them. They're fantastic. Scotty Barnes is the only player with 100 blocks and 100 steals. ⁓ I didn't even know that he was that good on defense. and he's just a force that I think he's just coming into his own. I will say that there was a little bit of a weakness if you look at some of the stats on points in the paint and some of the interior stuff. Definitely the advantage went to the Cavaliers. So I was actually surprised about that.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: think as tough a matchup as Orlando was for the Pistons, the Raptors were that tough a matchup for Cleveland Cavaliers. what's interesting, you look at the Cavaliers starting lineup and you really think to yourself they should have handled this series even more comfortably. And I think in the end they won because of Jared Allen and Evan Mobley. I just think they just had too much size. But you add James Harden to that, you've got Donovan Mitchell who's one of the top 10 players in the league. ⁓
Rob Pope -: Yeah, I agree.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Cleveland really struggled with the Raptors, so think the Raptors are in good spot, I agree.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. They look great.
Cole Houck: Rob to real quick, think Scottie finished fourth this year in defensive player of the year. So he was, he has been like, obviously we were pretty good defensively. He was the head of that snake, but he, he's been dominant all season And his, his switch, his switch ability is just awesome to watch the series. He started out, I believe it was on Mowgli and then he got onto Harden. He guarded Don Mitchell a lot in the back half of the series as well for somebody who's seven inches
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Cole Houck: which is taller than Donovan Mitchell is, know, hundred, like 40 pounds heavier probably. He has a lot of switchability going on there. I was really worried the first couple of games because of mostly Yaka Pertle getting picked apart and pick and roll with James Harden. You know, Alan, easy dunks and that showed his head in game seven more than I wanted it to. Alan was like monstrous in game seven. I liked him a lot, he was so good.
Rob Pope -: He was awesome.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Alan, is it one and Mowgli both? Both those guys, Mowgli and Alan.
Rob Pope -: And that's really what I was talking about. The interior play was... There were a couple games in the middle actually where the Raptors cleaned up really in the paint. But I think in the beginning and at the end, Cleveland really dominated in interior play. And I think it was the difference in the series to be on.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Once you feel like the one improvement they need to make is go get a big center. You need to go get like an 8in or something like that. I just feel like they need a big center. They need a rim protector.
Cole Houck: I don't want Aiden, I do want a rim protector. Honestly, Pertil was pretty good for us last couple years. And then he had some ridiculous back injury this past season. not only is he borderline unplayable in guys that do pick and rolls, like we play the Celtics, it is terrible. Same with the Hornets, they spam a lot of pick and rolls too.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Cole Houck: But he, yeah, he's also on one of the worst contracts in NBA. I think he signed for another five years and it's like 20 or 25 million. So it's gonna be nearly impossible. We have to attach at least a first, maybe multiple picks to be able to get off his contract. We put ourselves in a bad situation for the injury.
Rob Pope -: I'll tell you one stat that jumps out at me in the final game. Rebounds. 33 to 60.
Cole Houck: It was 23 to 47 late in the third quarter, early in the fourth quarter. They had more than double our rebounds for majority of this game. It was very frustrating to watch.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: And that's my point. That's my point.
Rob Pope -: You can't honestly think you're gonna win if you're getting out rebounded like that on a consistent basis. So I think that's a glaring weakness that I think a lot of the important pieces are in place ⁓ for the Raptors, I think that there's an opportunity there, not just a big, but somebody who specializes in some of the, you know,
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: need another big.
Rob Pope -: specific things that they were a little weak in, especially rebounding and points in the paint.
Cole Houck: Which is interesting is that for probably the first six games of the series, Colin Murray Boyles was our third best player. And he was doing, he was ridiculous on offensive rebounding. He looked, kind of looked like Dennis Rodman out there, constantly tapping out balls or getting the hand on offensive rebounds. He was doing that for lot of the series. He was very passive for all of the regular season. Like he was coming out of South Carolina, he was a defensive switchable guy that could pass, had a good court vision, but could not doing outside of 12 feet or so. This series, he was no longer like a passive guy. He was doing everything within 12 years and he was getting rebounds. He had a ton of little push shots like kind of like standstill floaters that were really fun. Catching lobs, having, you know, momentum swinging dunks. I was super impressed with him. Kind of put the world on notice, too. Nobody nobody knew about C &B much going into the draft. Nobody watches the Raptors during the regular season because their Canadian team and they're barely on national television. People know about C &B now, and that's something that I was not expecting.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, he made a name for himself there in the middle of the series, games three and four. He really shined and made, like you said, the awareness of him went up.
Cole Houck: I really wanted him on Harden after game one. I remember that after game one I said there's no way we're going to have RJ Barrett on Harden. And honestly a lot of our downfall, you know, besides like the Jared Allen stuff and offensive rebounding was whenever RJ Barrett would get switched on to Harden. He's a good defender sometimes, but he's a horrible off ball defender and he kind of takes some plays, is lazy some plays. Harden was just taking advantage of him. The other thing was that Harden was really, time to touch my the calves a ton. Harden was really good at getting three point fouls. They showed the stat in game one that that he had more than double the next person in three point fouls on. He was really good at that. Mitchell looked good the first couple of games, but didn't do a ton after that. Mobley, didn't think was very good for the first four or so games of series, but really turned up the last couple of games. And again, Allen was fantastic all series defensively, good at rebounding, took over in that last game.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: You know what bottom line is that the Raptors in the entire series just let them get into the paint too much. I I was watching Harden do all these finger rolls and teardrops and runners and I mean he was just taking these easy shots from inside the lane. It's too easy to get inside the Raptors lane. They've got to find a way to close that off.
Cole Houck: Yeah, plus Mitchell would do that move all the time where he would he would it looks like a carry to me But he would take the ball over, know, whatever you want to call it He would easily get around our guys doing that because it's not a Tony can do to stop it and you kick out some shooters It's really the I didn't notice this until the series the Cavs It's kind of like a team dichotomy I guess is really interesting because they got their two ball dominant guards their two twin towers ish at the four and five and it just had this constant revolving door of shooters the three, whether it's Dean Way defensively, Max Truce, who was really annoying but really good in game seven. He's a good playoff guy, back to the Miami Heat days. Sam Merrill was one of the best three point shooters in the NBA. And I think Jalen Tyson was first or second in three point percentage over the year as well.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Cole Houck: It's just really interesting seeing the Cavs, like I said, they have so much there and yet they unperformed a lot of this series. I was not expecting them to play down so much. after I think game five is when I really noticed that's like, okay, as much as I want to hype up the Raptors a lot of this, because they are playing really good and better than they should be, a decent bit of the Cavs playing down. You guys agree with that, don't you?
Rob Pope -: Yeah, I think so.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: No, think ⁓ Raptors are on their path. I Cavaliers squeak through. ⁓ And actually, looking forward, I like the Cavaliers to knock off the Pistons, but we'll get into that in a future series.
Rob Pope -: No.
Cole Houck: I can see that. The other thing I'm going to say too is that I, we were clearly better off in series without Brandon Ingram. Like he was, he was game one, he didn't take any shots in the third, in the second half and then complained about being a decoy and then proceeded to shoot 30 % from the field for the next three or four games. Left in the second quarter of one of the home games because his quote heel was too sore to come back in on, which just sounds pretty weak to me. I mean, just really straightforward. I didn't like hearing that. That was really a bother. in the moment. That being said, I almost knew for certain that we could not win game seven without him. go into a game seven with all those young guys and in a way environments, we would not have the offensive firepower to keep up with Cleveland's and you know, we included with the rebounding that that showed us that we had and we ended up losing probably by 15 or 20 points in game seven. Next series we got here was New York and Atlanta. ⁓ This series looked like it was gonna be a lot better than it actually was early on. I was excited to see Atlanta. They got such a, like an odd dichotomy. Ton of guards on that team, ton of wings, not really any bigs outside of Okongwu. What did you guys think about this series overall?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: you had New York win game one and I was like okay you know what after that game I thought to myself the Knicks might sweep this series so I was thinking and then Atlanta wins game two and three both by one point and it was clear that McCollum and the boys you know very underhanded you had essentially McCollum and a bunch of guys I've never heard of ⁓ find a way to get those two games I was okay they're gonna make this a series and then I think the Knicks got of angry and perturbed about the way they were playing and they just turned it on after that. And it was clear to me that not only were they the better team, but the Hawks just couldn't hang in the series.
Rob Pope -: I feel like fast break points was huge. ⁓ Transition points was a big factor. Whoever was sort of dominating in that area tended to be the winner of that game. I felt like neither team's bench was very impressive. So it really came down to starters. And of course the Knicks should prevail in that area. because their starters are superior but it was a very good series i think that ⁓ the hawks made themselves very proud because they they summoned up some really good team synergy and ⁓ you know maccollum and jalen johnson ⁓ put forward a very good series of of games but ⁓ I think the Knicks are thought of as the better team and rightly so, but the Hawks probably shocked a lot of people.
Cole Houck: I am personally really up and down about the Hawks and kind of where they are in their future. just see there's so much good and bad. Like we didn't expect them to be this good. They got rid of Trey Young and kind of went in new direction, which is cool. But this team is really just made up of a bunch of wings and forwards. They don't really have a point guard. They don't really have a big. They don't have a ton of depth. And like I try and cheer for Zachary Sashay, but he was off on the series. I'm not sure he's going to be in the league.
Rob Pope -: Mm-hmm.
Cole Houck: couple years. ⁓
Rob Pope -: You know what they could use? Trey Young. Yeah, that's true.
Cole Houck: I mean, yeah, a little bit, but then again, defense would go out. But then they're also gonna have like a top four-ish, five-ish pick, because they got the Pelicans and protected pick too. So that's something good to cheer for, but at the same token, you were just talking praise about CJ McCollum. I gotta check his age, but I'm sure he's like 34, 35. He probably won't be in the league in a few years. what is that gonna, it's just so much like. Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I was just pointing out that he had a very good series. all I was pointing out. I thought he played very well.
Cole Houck: There's just a lot of up and down for the future of this team. And I feel like they overperformed, especially after they got rid of Trey Young. They had a ridiculous regular season percentage, winning percentage at the end of it. But I don't know what to expect for this team down the road. They clearly have like three or four holes. And they got a young, whoever they get in this upcoming draft, they're pretty good pick to take care of a couple of those holes. But we'll see what happens. They're in such an odd spot to me.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: See you guys.
Rob Pope -: Guys, have you seen a beating like game six?
Cole Houck: No, that's the thing too was that they had a lot of momentum going into like whatever because this is all this is house money Like I said, they over perform was like every trade young and they got this crazy pick coming So how can you possibly lose momentum going into this? This is how you posses momentum going into this. I'm glad you brought that up They were down about 47 points at half at home and in elimination game six. I have never seen anything like it before
Rob Pope -: Some of the stats are.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: turned it on in half time and I was I kept rechecking the score like what? You gotta be kidding.
Rob Pope -: Some of the stats are mind-boggling. I mean, the fact that at one point they were up by 61 points. That's the largest lead that I've ever heard in a playoff game, I think. 83-36 at halftime, largest deficit in NBA playoff history. It was a one for the books beating. Fast break points, 35 to 8. Points in the paint, 66 to 38.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: You guys think. You guys think the Knicks can contend and go to the finals?
Cole Houck: think they're the best team in the East right now. I think they're the team to be in the East with Boston going down. Still not really believing in Detroit. So the answer is yes, but I'm still, like I still have a ton of question marks about them too. You know, they're definitely strong as well.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: That'll do. 32.
Rob Pope -: What about Sixers?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Well, I'm looking, you wanna know what the game score is right now in game one?
Rob Pope -: 76ers. Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: The Knicks are up by 31 in the fourth quarter. They're blowing the 76ers off the floor. Yeah, and B has 12 points. So I don't know, the Knicks are looking awfully good right now.
Rob Pope -: Wow.
Cole Houck: Oh sorry, said the Knicks are up by 31. I thought you said the Sixes are up by 31. Okay, nevermind. That, I mean again, Philly won like an emotional game seven two days ago and then had to go to New York and I expect this to be a little bit like this to be honest.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Yeah, Nick's rub with her.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, next round by 30.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Yeah, had a little let down.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, it's in New York. New York's chomping at the bit.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I think with the Celtics going down, think the Knicks have a pretty nice path to the finals. That's what it looks like to me. And they're a very flawed team. So whoever they play in the finals, think they'll get destroyed.
Rob Pope -: I wouldn't count the 76ers out yet.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: We'll see.
Rob Pope -: I'll count them out of this game, but...
Cole Houck: So that that that set ways us into our last series as well. This is the Boston Philly series This was my most surprising series out of all of them But I will say looking back at it It really shouldn't have been we'd kind of foreshadow a little bit the lack of you know big and in front-court depth or just front-court anything frankly for the the Celtics and when Embiid came back he had one kind of game and then kind of dominated especially defensively and then you know drawing fouls in the later games So this is, I don't know, this series is really interesting. What did you guys think about it?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: You want to take this one first?
Rob Pope -: It was kind of an emotional roller coaster. It was a strange series. The fact that Tatum couldn't go at the last minute in game seven was tragic because I think with that player in place that would have been a really good matchup. That would have been a cool game seven. But as it was, know, it still ended up being pretty good. But MB being here and healthy was is one of the most unpredictable things in this whole season is that at this time of the year, he's actually in there contributing and healthy. Granted, it doesn't look like it's going well in this particular game at this moment, but boy, he's been a force. And I think that that's been the biggest factor in them taking out the Celtics because I think most people really felt like the Celtics were the favorite. ⁓ you know, I feel like man the seventy sixers got a nice roster maxi and edgecombe and george and then you know if you put ⁓ you put that all together and you have good chemistry like it feels like they're starting to get that and you have Embiid getting 33 points or something like that every night and lots of
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: you You know, watched my Hornets beat the 76ers twice in the last week of the regular season, and I kind of wrote the 76ers off because I assumed Embiid wouldn't play. He plays 33 games a year, and the reason they put up with it is because what we saw in the last four games of this series, which was you get a healthy Embiid out there. He's not only a force on offense, but he's a force on defense. He changes the game on both sides of the floor.
Rob Pope -: Right. Yeah, he's a fourth.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Just to say that it's still inexcusable for the Boston Celtics, a championship contender, to go up three, in this series and find a way to lose it. That's just inexcusable. I don't care what anybody says. ⁓
Cole Houck: Rob, I have couple things here. One earlier today, you earlier in this podcast, you said that Maxey and Scottie were two of the guys you were not only like impressed with, but you know, cannot stop watching. Yeah, I a thousand percent agree. I have been so high on Maxey. I think it was I've said before, but I think it was the seventh game of his career. He played it was, you know, it basically it was the year after the bubble and you know, nobody was really playing a ton. They had seven players. ⁓ It like Dwight Howard, bunch of nobodies you'd never
Rob Pope -: I don't know. You can't stop watching.
Cole Houck: He's so good at everything offensively and I just he's so clutch too and it actually blows my mind that he does not get more touches in clutch time I think it was game 7 where he didn't touch He may touch well, but he didn't get any shots up between like five minutes and two minutes And then he got two possessions where you got to lay up and then like a float or something back to back It's like man if only this guy taking shots before this
Rob Pope -: Yeah, it's cool.
Cole Houck: went in he's so good the other thing is that this team is like really good has a lot of death pieces it's the wings and the forwards they have so many good forwards and if PG is playing well like he is that you know Quinn and Grimes Kelly ubre PG they got a ton of good like two through fours there
Rob Pope -: Thank
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: They do they do you know so I watched I wrote them off at the end of the season because they had gotten spanked by the Hornets twice Then I watched them go down three to one in this series and being playing very little and then all of a he comes in and turns the whole series around and What I'm watching those last two games game six game seven was their lineup you talked about maxi and be Edgecomb one of the leaders for the rookie of the year came in third in the rookie of the year vote
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Paul George playing his best ball about five years. And all the players you talked about, Ubre and all these different players. And now I'm looking at team that is really good. They're really solid, so ⁓ I don't know.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, I heard some analysis today of how different the 76ers are on defense when Embiid's back there. ⁓ Apparently, they guard real tight ⁓ when Embiid is there under the rim because they know that if somebody gets by them, if Jaylen Brown gets by, Embiid's going to get them. it's such a force multiplier that they can defend hard in all other four positions ⁓ and take away the three and harass the best player with really tight marking and not be so worried about somebody getting loose because in B it is such a force. So that is not a small thing. That is huge thing on defense to have that kind of force back there, that rim protector, but also a guy who can fly out, be athletic, and take away a mid-range after somebody's gotten loose ⁓ is huge.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: So what do you do if you're the Celtics going into next year and you want to try run it back? have most of your cap tied up in two players. You need frontcourt length and depth. You're basically getting absolutely eaten alive inside. You've got to do something.
Cole Houck: There's a couple I mean I don't What you should have done was trade for Zubos instead of Vusovic at the deadline I don't I had preached that like a couple weeks before the deadline I made put it in a podcast I thought this they have enough shooting around Zubos that it doesn't matter and Instead they went after a guy that shoots and doesn't play defense and then he didn't even play in game seven at home It does not make any sense to me Zubos is now in the pages. He's gonna be great for next year That's gonna be fun to watch and then what you also don't do is you start Ron Harper jr. And Luca Garza In place of Tatum in game 7. I mean how have we gone this far without talking about that? Is that is that not mind-blowing to you guys watching that live?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I couldn't understand why he wasn't playing. mean, unless you're, know, on crutches, you play in game seven. That's what you do when you pay 50 million a year.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Yeah. It was weird. They mixed up the lineup for game seven. The Celtics had three players with zero points in their starting lineup. That's almost unheard of.
Cole Houck: Those guys have not played a single second together by the way. That starting lineup, like there's a ton of data and analytics on that stuff now. Those five guys had not seen the court together once this season and they started for game seven.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. And you could see it in the way they were lined up on the court. A lot of times they were all ending up in similar places on the court and almost bumping into each other and not setting picks, like bumping into each other and being just weird spacing because they weren't really feeling, they didn't know who was going to be where. And that was a big coaching error, I think. It was overthinking it, you know, like. But a lot of that had to do with Embiid, you know?
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I think he was trying, no, think he was looking at a situation where they blew game five, blew game six, and it was a desperate situation where he realized that they were relying too much on three point shooting and he was trying to mix it up. Now, it's not the time to do it in game seven of the first round series. It's not when you experiment. So that was a bad idea. But bottom line, I think they realized pretty clearly that they were going down because they couldn't shoot.
Rob Pope -: No. I would have tried to get him beat in foul trouble. Maybe that's your only way of getting him neutralized.
Cole Houck: They don't really call files on a B from what I can tell. That's a taller task at first than it is out loud.
Rob Pope -: I know, I know, I know. It's almost like kamikaze missions, just go down the, don't go down the lane and just know that they're probably not gonna call it, but I'm gonna try.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: And that's what. And that's what Brown and Tatum were talking about in the post game press conference. Both saying that not only is he flopped, but then he gets no calls on him, so.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Yeah, he's super physical on defense, but he flops on offense. It's very strange.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: This was incredibly disappointing for the Celtics to go up 3-1 in both the series. No one could have predicted
Cole Houck: I've been thinking this entire time Tom, I don't know what the Celtics do. mean, Derrick White has been so consistent there his entire tenure since he left San Antonio and he was awful this series. He actually had a great this season, but he was he was so He was still providing Derrick White things but the shooting and the percentages, you know when he shot the ball was just terrible. So I That's true that was only like
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: He shot horrible. He shot absolutely horrible.
Rob Pope -: He was decent in game seven. He was decent in game seven, that's it.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: And then down the stretch, down the stretch in game seven, they missed their last seven three-pointers and that's the bread and butter. So if you're gonna miss your last seven in game seven in a very tight game, you're gonna lose.
Cole Houck: Pritchard shot 30%, 31 % from three this series. Pritchard is one of the, I'm pretty high on Pritchard, he may be one of the best three point shooters in the NBA, at least against the Raptors he is. So that was surprising me too. I just don't, I don't know, besides getting depth at the front court and defensive front court players, because Vucic, Luka Garza aren't cutting it. Nimaez Keita is pretty solid, but you need somebody else to come in there. Nimaez Keita is playing way above his weight. I just, besides that, I don't know what else you can do besides assume that the J's will be healthy and Pritchard and White will shoot above 30 % from three like they have been every other year, every other series. I don't know.
Rob Pope -: I don't think it can be overstated in Bede's impact. mean, he's the first player in NBA history to miss three games of a series and still score 100 points.
Cole Houck: heard that too, isn't that awesome?
Rob Pope -: Yeah, that tells you that when he does come in, everything changes. That's an MVP. That's an MVP.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I'll tell you on sports radio in Boston, the last two days apparently they've been absolutely rolling the coach and saying he absolutely has to be fired. And apparently they were saying that last year too. And so I don't know, I'm getting a little shaky on him too. I'm not a firing guy either, but last two years, I don't know. I'm not sure he's a very good in game coach.
Rob Pope -: That's emotion. ⁓ I'm not gonna say you never fire, but I'm just gonna say you do it calmly, you do it when you have a plan, and you do it when you know you got better because of it.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: This was inexcusable. This series losses. It should never have happened.
Rob Pope -: I'm not going to fire most coaches that make the playoffs. I'm just not. Like, you made the playoffs, you did some things right during the season, and then we got work to do.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Do you guys think he's a good in-game coach?
Cole Houck: was thinking that when you said it. Like he is notoriously bad at not calling timeouts. That's super in game. I don't know if he's a bad in game coach, but he doesn't ever change. It's always Missoula ball where you live and die by the threes. So I can't say he's a good in game coach either, I don't think. Does that make sense?
Rob Pope -: I he was trying with that weird lineup in game seven, he was trying to do something different. So I mean, he was trying, I just think he didn't have the personnel. I mean, once Embiid came back in, the series was over. It just had to play out.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I mean, that's what we learned about the Celtics. You're right. That's what we learned about the Celtics. They're an incomplete roster. They really were never a contender. That's what we found out. Yeah. And I think...
Rob Pope -: That's what I think. I think they're incomplete. They were better when they had Horford. They were better when they had like one more guy.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: And think we found that out about the pistons. don't think the pistons are a contender either. Same thing.
Cole Houck: I funny you said Horford and then I think for Zing and see the guy you were talking about I was watching a self this youtuber and he said he was it was just it right after a meeting reaction after the game and it was really honest he's actually one of those guys I do like listening to and he was like you just you don't have any floor spacing bigs that can play defense and you had two of them like not that long ago and now you're down to zero and it's showing you know blatantly
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Yeah. Huge. That's huge. And let's face it, I don't know what would have happened if Tatum had played. I mean, they're a different team with Tatum. You know, the thing with Tatum that's so special is the guy's a monster rebounder. He gets like 14 rebounds a game and stuff like I don't know what his average is. Yeah, I think he's the best rebounding guard in the NBA. If not one, he's top three. He's he's always getting a lot of rebounds, you know, finishing drives, scoring. He does it all.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: He's the best rebounding gardener in the world.
Rob Pope -: and he's a huge lift guy.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Do you think we'll ever know why he didn't play game seven? Do you think we'll ever know the real reason?
Cole Houck: I mean, is the 80 % not good enough reason for you? That actually makes a ton of sense to me, knowing what doctors are saying and his history of the ACL and being in a down year quote unquote because of it, does, it's easy to point your finger and say game seven, you need to play no matter what. But we just saw him play in a game similar to this and go out for nearly the entire year, rushed back on Achilles, I'm not sure anybody else has ever done it really. I mean, there is a lot of question marks about it.
Rob Pope -: I think he's neat, that's... If it's me, game seven of the finals, yes, that's worth it. But game seven of first round series, no way.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I understand what you're saying and the doctors probably said what you said Cole. I'm telling you if I was Jason Tatum, I would have played. That's all I'm saying. There's no way you're knocking me out of a game.
Rob Pope -: After you had a year off of being hurt and watching your team struggle without you, I think it was a team move. I think he's trying to get himself healthier because he hoped they could get by first round and then get to where maybe his knee rests a little and he has a shot.
Cole Houck: It just doesn't make sense to me that Celtics fans are, I don't know, some of this stuff is so much entitlement. I was talking to somebody about that the other day where it's, they have had so many good years recently between Brad Stevens coaching and then him moving up to do other like bigger team relations and team, you know, roster construction, stuff like that. Promoting Uduka, who was a great coach and then got fired for like having an affair and then bringing up Missoula, who's also typically looks to me like a pretty good coach as well. In a down year like this, they think they need to fire their coach. It screams entitlement to me. And I think that I know a couple of Sunnys fans in person that are like, this was a down year, let's just enjoy it and see what happens next year. Run it back, change a couple of things here and there. We overperformed. What is everybody so mad about? And I think that makes a ton of sense. There are questions, but go fix them, you know?
Rob Pope -: Yeah, go fix them. Don't fire your coach and then be worse off.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Well, he's got to change a little bit though. You can't just keep going into these years being, you know, die by the three.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. Changes start with the coach, you know, but they also start with the general manager who puts the roster together. Roster construction is really where it starts before you even get it to the coach. And if you see weaknesses like there were clear weaknesses for Boston, then. you take a look and you figure out what can we do that's a different construction that gives us you know a little better opportunity to stay healthier maybe load manage Tatum next year just to get him all the way back healthy I don't know and then and then then you look at the coach from there once the roster construction happens but they're they're missing pieces so you can't evaluate it very well.
Cole Houck: I definitely agree. You guys have any other thoughts about the first round as a whole? I know we've been gone for a little while, but this is a very fun first round overall. I did not expect it to be this much fun to watch, so there's a lot to talk about in my opinion.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: I completely agree, was an exhilarating first round, much more surprises than I thought there would be. There were upsets, there were very close escapes by upper seeds, there were lots of game sevens, lots of great performances.
Rob Pope -: Yeah. I don't think anybody could have predicted the Hawks' when they traded Trey Young. Nobody saw that coming.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Yeah, and I think the Celtics going down and the Nuggets going down, those two were huge surprises. And then the Pistons barely escaping, another big surprise. So we got some great basketball ahead.
Rob Pope -: I think the surprise was Embiid is healthy.
Cole Houck: Yeah, the other thing I want to say too about Paul George is that like we didn't talk about him He is turned at the ripe age of 36. I cannot explain it He has turned into a 3d guy because of this 25 games he missed from the drug suspension This guy was terrible last year. This guy was a role player and not a good role player at that series after 25 suspension He's been he's been on a tear. He looks really good and I am personally really excited to see him play against OG OG is my
Rob Pope -: Yeah, don't think this one's going so well, this should be a pretty good series. Oh, it's over. It's 137.98.
Cole Houck: They won by 30, 39.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Well, won't it be interesting to see other 76ers come out in game too? See if they can get some juice.
Rob Pope -: Yeah, I think they got caught a little flat footed. And the Knicks wanted a piece of them. They've been hearing a lot of talk and they were just kind of itching for game. ⁓
Cole Houck: Did you guys hear that, I found this this morning, this is so funny, I don't know how you can necessarily prove this, but, I heard that the 76ers, because they've had such a problem of Knicks fans coming over to their games and playoffs and just in general, they're not giving tickets out to people who are outside of the greater Philly area. That's so fun, I can't, I don't know how you do that,
Rob Pope -: Yeah, that's right.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: that right?
Rob Pope -: I heard Embiid was saying, please, please, please don't sell your tickets to New York Nick fans. That's funny. Nick fans travel man.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: We're good to this.
Rob Pope -: It's good to leave when the Knicks are good.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: So another score update, Spurs Timberwolves are tied. That game looks like it's going to be a really good game, really good series. And then ⁓ how about those Carolina Hurricanes got the OT game winner up two nothing in the series against the Flyers. So no Hurricanes, yep.
Rob Pope -: Half time. Nice. Nice, they were losing.
Cole Houck: Great. Well, that's all we have for today's podcast. Thank you guys so much for coming on. It's always a pleasure having you guys on. You guys are very informative, know a ton about a lot of sports. So thank you again for being on here for me.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Hey, thanks for having us, Cole. Really enjoyed it.
Rob Pope -: We appreciate you having us on, we had a good time. Love talking about this stuff.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Talking NBA with you is the best.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Cole Houck: Thank you guys. Go to sports guys, please like and subscribe on their videos. They're gonna have a video tomorrow about a ton of Hodgepodge stuff. It's gonna be NBA, NHL, lacrosse, and Kentucky Derby, right? That's awesome, listen to this. These guys know a little bit about everything. So please go ahead and follow their videos as well, if know what they're talking about. And otherwise, you guys have a good night.
Rob Pope -: Yeah.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: It's gonna be fun.
Rob Pope -: We're ready.
Tom Pope - The Sports Guyz: Thanks a lot.
Rob Pope -: Have a good one guys.
