Are We Live? Episode 42

- United Cement CL At the Bridge

- City Take the Title Race Into Their Hands

- Orlando is not a typical 8 seed

- Wolves Nuggets is officially rivalry #1

Song: Podcast By Snail Music (Loop)
Author: ‪@SnailMusicES‬

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Are we lying? No, no, no, yes. Yes, yes, yes. We lied. Yes. Okay, so I ain't gonna curse you.

unknown 0:06

But these punk.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yo, we back. Big pod, big games. Uh to talk about. Obviously, there was the big Sunday game, City Arsenal. There was Chelsea United on Saturday. We had the playoff start Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Um, so I'm gonna get into a good amount of that. Let's start in the Premier League with Chelsea United. Um, obviously a big game for both teams in the top five race. Um, I believe coming into the game, uh United sit in third with Chelsea sitting in sixth on 48 points, United were on 55 points, so seven-point gap coming into the game. And to be honest, even if United had lost, I would still feel pretty good because I don't trust Chelsea to go on a run, and I think United will pick up enough to get there. But United was coming into the game off a really bad loss, I would say, to Leeds at home. Um, they're also with a crisis center back, Maguire and Lissandro suspended. Um Maguire's suspension to me is totally ridiculous, but um, that's another day. Euro injured, Delitt, who's been injured for God knows how long now. Um, all of them were unavailable. So four, you would say, yeah, your first four center back options, all unavailable, um, which left Aiden Heaven as the only fit senior center back, um, meaning that Kerrick would have to pick someone to play out of position there. Now, coming into the game, I was thinking that he should go with Casemiro there because he's had he's played a couple games as center back for United, and I think he's actually done well because I mean, first of all, he's obviously great defensive instincts, um, he's amazing in the air uh when it comes to clearing the ball, winning headers, all that. Um, and uh playing out the back, he can that he can be even better because he's got more time and space in the ball to you know you know ping passes over top. So that would have been my choice personally. And I would have played, of course, Kobe Mainu. I would have played Bruno next to Mainu, and I would have played Xerxy in the front too with Cesco. Um, I know that sounds a bit drastic, but that would have been my game plan. But Karrick instead, he went with Mazrawi um at the right center back next to Aiden Heaven, and then the traditional Casemiro Kobe and Bruno, you know, midfield, with Bruno playing close to striker, really. Um, and I can I can understand why he did that, because well, two reasons. One, Mazrawi has played as a center back for United, even though it was a back three, but still play as center back, and two playing Mazrawi there, you allow everyone else to play in their position. So, like, for example, my my preferred plan coming into the game with all those changes that I named, you're playing a lot of players out of position, you know, and playing players without experience, you know, bringing in like a Xerx who's not played from the start for man, I can't remember the last time Xerxes started a match. So there would have been a lot of changes um at that point in a big game, and instead, you either everyone else just feel comfortable and hope that Mazrawi can hold his own in the back four. So I understood that, even if it wasn't my uh biggest preference. Um, and coming into the game, Chelsea have not won a Premier League game since March 4th at Villa, which was actually probably the finest moment of Rosenior's uh tenure so far, but they also haven't even scored a goal since that game. Um and that's that was with Ja Pedro. Now it was announced like briefly before the game that Ja Pedro is out with the injury, which meant um Liam DeLap was starting. Now, I think most people saw that and thought it was a huge loss for Chelsea to have DeLap play in place of Ja Pedro, which it was because DeLap is a much worse player than Ja Pedro. But in this particular matchup, I guess you could say, DeLap's physical presence was an issue for United, especially up against Mazrawi, uh, which I'll get into in a second. But um, I thought coming into the game, I thought the Lap would cause a lot of trouble for United's center back pairing, especially Mazrawi, like I said, and in a way, it kind of did. It was he was unfortunate not to score, I would say. Um, but what really you know broke the camel's back, I guess, for Chelsea's attack is when Esteval pulled up with any, I believe, a hamstring injury very early on, which led to um Garnacho coming on. He came on to the left, ja uh Pedra Nacho went to the right. And to be honest with you, as a United fan, whenever the ball came to Garnacho, I felt safe. And we'll get into him a little bit more later, but um, yeah, so Chelsea's attack, which is already at their even at 100%, is a very, you know, you know, not the most threatening attack in the world, is down two of their better attack, probably their two best attackers, you would say, Joe Pedro and Esteval, you know, not counting Cole Palmer, obviously. But um, yeah, you know, the way the game played out, actually, I would say, generally speaking, throughout the 90 minutes, Chelsea were probably the better team in terms of keeping the ball. They probably had the better chances, yeah. I would say I think Enzo had a good chance. Um, they had some back post crosses that ended up hitting the post and whatnot. I think DeLap had a couple headers, hit a header that hit the post. Um, so yeah, they were, I think, the better team overall, but I think everyone who watched that game felt like Chelsea are just not gonna score. They're just not like it just just they're just not gonna score at this point in the season. It's just how it's gone for them. Um and United got one, well, they got more than one chance, but one legitimate chance, Felde Cunha, after some brilliant work from Bruno Fernandez, one nil, and at that point for United, it felt comfortable. Now, the thing is, United didn't really need to win this game, they just needed to draw, I would say. A draw would be enough to basically seal their uh Champions League hopes, but they eventually hold on for that 1-0 win. Um, a very greedy win, even if they were, you know, there was fortunate to not concede, I would say. Um, a very greedy win. Um I want to get into some individual performances in this game. Okay, let's start from Chelsea's side of view. Granaccio was just abhorrent in this game. I mean, every time he got the ball, he either lost it or did something terrible. I mean, there was one time where he's trying to go past Casamiro in the middle of the pitch, and he just falls over, and Casamiro just takes the ball. I'm just like, wow, this is a guy out of it. You know, and people will say he's low on conf. I don't I don't believe that. I really believe. I just don't believe this is a guy with a lot of talent, to be honest with you. And that to me, that has always been the confusing thing. Is like you'll hear commentary or pundits or whatever they'll say, oh, he's got a lot of talent, but he's got a bad attitude. I'm like, first of all, nobody would care about his attitude if he was good. Legitimately, nobody. And I don't to be honest with you, I don't think I think the bad attitude stuff is overblown. Like, to me, he just kind of comes across as a kid that's a little bit too you know self-confident, if that is a thing, but I would say that that's about it. I don't think he's like some bad guy. I just think you know, he's a young kid who thinks he's the next big thing, which to me is not too uncommon. But uh the issue is it's just that he's not very talented. Like, is that like to me, I don't like I really don't understand. You know, I talk about how how is the club like May United by a player like Ugarte. Like, how does that happen at the highest level? And to me, the Garnacho signing is a lot like that, you know, and I think people think that's harsh because that yes, there have been very brief moments where he's shown some you know some quality, you know. Remember the bicycle pit goal against Everton, a couple of his good finishes, a couple of big moments, he scored some big goals. All that is true, but ultimately, if you break down his game, what is standing out to you that thinks okay, this is gonna be a top player in the future, right? Um, I think I've even talked about this, but let's just break it down briefly. Athletically, is there anything special? No, I would say he's not slow, but not that fast. He's like, you know, decent. He's in terms of speed or whatever you want to call it, he's just like a slightly above average, I would say. Uh physically uh physically, nothing stands out. Technically, does anything really stand out in terms of touch, uh, ball striking, crossing, playmaking, uh dribbling. No, nothing. And in fact, all I would say he's a very lightluster in all those categories. Um, you know, crossing he can be okay at times, but I would say ball striking, extremely poor, both feet. I would say in terms of playmaking, it's pretty non-existent. Uh, dribbling is uh very much non-existent. So no, I would not say he's uh displays any real qualities there. And mentally, I mean the thing is with the young players, I'm very forgiving when it comes to mental, you know, for the for there to be holes in your game mentally when you're young, because really they're supposed to be, you know what I mean? Um, and to be honest, mentally, I would say it's probably his strongest suit because when it comes to mental you know self-belief on the pitch, which is very important, I would say, he's up there with anyone, you know. Uh, when it comes to you know good movements and finding the spaces to gain other chances, I would say he's really good, especially for young players. Um, when it comes to decision making, though, I would say he's extremely poor. Again, that's very forgiving. I'd be I'm very forgiving for young players with bad decision making. Um, so that to me is not a big deal. So when you look at his game, at the end, what are you really left with, you know, in terms of a skill set? And that's why I've never really been a fan of his you know, quote unquote potential. I've said this when he was a United player, I got I tweeted out a couple years ago asking if as a United fan you would take 70 million for Garnaccio, and the responses to that are really hilarious to look back on. Um, but yeah, Garnaccio, that's it. Liam DeLap, who was the next player I wanted to get into. Now he's had an absolutely torrid first season at Chelsea. And I won't lie to you, when Chelsea signed him off Ipswich, I was quite jealous. I wanted to sell him because I liked what I saw at Ipswich last season in terms of his ability athletically. Technically, some of the goals he scored as a one-man attack at Ipswich, I was like, oh, this could be something. And for the price that it was, I think it was like 30 million or so release clause. I was like, Yeah, I could this is a great buy. Um, and as everything has gone absolutely horrible for the end of the lap in his first season. Now, I wouldn't completely rule it out because he's still a young player, and I do believe in some of the flashes I've seen, but up until this point, it's been a dud for him at Chelsea. Um, but in this game specifically, I don't think he was bad. Like, I think he was a bit unfortunate not to get the end of a goal. I thought, like, especially in this going up against Mazrawi, I felt like he's he was able to impose himself physically a bit. Um, and like I said, I just think he was a bit unlucky not to end up with a goal in this one. Um, so that's it from the Chelsea side. From the United side, two players I want to talk about. Aiden Heaven, his first start in a long, long time. I don't remember the last time he started. I mean, in general, he's not played much under Michael Kerrick. You know, he's favored Lissandra Maguire and uh Lenny Yoro uh more so. Um but I think after this performance and to go along with other performances and cameos and whatnot, I think he needs to be given a bigger platform to succeed, man. Because I I when I watch it, I'm like, man, this guy was playing at a mid-table club or a team in Germany, in France, or wherever, and he was playing consistently and played these same performances. There would be a lot of talk about, you know, oh yeah, I should buy this guy for 40-50 million. Um, but the noise around him is very quiet because he was 1 million signing from Arsenal. He's not really gotten too much time. But I mean, when we look at this, like I said, I always on young players, I'm always looking at a skill set. Like, first of all, mentally, like, he just doesn't give a damn. Now he I thought to start the game, he was a little bit rash, and there were some tackles that he was lucky to get rid of, but he eased in the game, he became more under control, and then he was I thought great defensively. Um, he's a good athlete, he's tenacious. Um, technically, he's good on the ball, also, because he played in midfield in his academy days at Arsenal. So, I mean, I was thinking like Lassandro is suspended for two more games. Maguire is back now. Yoro looks like his injury is not too bad, but for the remainder of the season, honestly, I would go with Maguire and Aiden Heaven. Um, and I I just with talk with Chimanzi football basically wrapped up. I think it's important for United to establish Aiden Heaven as a piece of their future. Um, and I think playing him next to Maguire, who's a bit of a leader, got more experience, yada yada, can help him, you know, with that transition as well. Um, and I'd like to see him play with Euro as well, honestly. Um, so yeah, Aiden Heaven. At this point, you know, he's looking like a better prospect than Lenny Euro, we have to be honest. Uh, and the the price difference between the two is pretty massive. Um, and to be fair, I'm not I'm not done with Lenny Euro. I was just like thinking, like, man, this guy's 20 years old playing center back in the Premier League. You have to remember, like, there has to be some context applied to you know what you've seen from him. Um, and there have been to be fair, there have been bright spots with Euro as well. And um, speaking of the future, I think United need to sign a center back with some level of pedigree this summer, you know. Um, they've extended McGuire. Um, Delit, I don't know, is his career over? This back injury has been there for months now. I mean, whenever that happens, it's like it feels like a clear career altering type injury. Lassandro, I like a lot about his game. I'd hate a lot about his game as well. And on top of that, he's injured quite a bit. So if it was meep to me, I would be looking to move on from Lessandro and get some money for him. And with that money, I'm looking to buy some sort of established center back. Like, I look at Mark Gahey at City and what he's done for them, and I'm like, damn, man, we could have really used that, you know. And maybe that wasn't realistic at any point, but still, something like that. I don't know. I uh the name doesn't come to mind immediately, but something like that where you can just plug someone in, they're gonna have some leadership qualities, they're gonna be good, they're gonna they can play on the ball, and you can just you know rely upon them for 30 plus games in the season. Um, United need that desperately, in my opinion. Um, and the last player I want to talk about is Kobe Menu, the conductor. I've been calling him the conductor because really he's the key to how United play. Like it's really crazy to think about that. You have Bruno Fernandez, who's been the face of United for years now. You have Casamero, who's a legend in the game, played in every you know, every scenario you could hope imagine as a midfielder, and really on the pitch, the one who comes across as the leader to me, uh strictly footballing-wise, is really Kobe Meinu. Like, I mean, there was a sequence in the second half where he won the ball off Chelsea player twice immediately, and then the ball is there in between him and Bruno, and he kind of like slightly pushes Bruno to the side, like I got this, I got this, right? Takes the ball, one-two with Bruno, he keeps the ball, he just keeps the ticket. I'm just like, yeah. That's what I want to see from Kobe Manu. Like, the only real critique in his game is that he's not, you know, he's uh he can do more, you know, because of how much we know how much ability he has. I think the biggest critique of him this season, um, especially has been that he can do more, he can have more, you know, more of an imprint on the games. Um, I think we saw a lot of that in this game. I think Eo Michael Character said after the match that since he's been here, this is Colby's best performance. Um, I don't know if I agree with that 100%, but I thought he was really good in this game. Winning the ball back, dribbling pass players, evading pressure, um combining with other players to keep the ball and all that, I thought he was exceptional. Um, and that's really needed in between Casemiro and Bruno, who are two players that can, you know, be a bit loose with the ball, you know, be a bit too aggressive with their passing. Um, and you saw when Ugarte came in the difference, my goodness. And uh, I don't even like to say that because obviously the difference in Ugarte and Kobe Menu is is supposed to be wide, you know. Only one manager in the world thought that Ugarte should play over Kobiminu. I'm not even gonna say his name, but yeah, Kobe Menu came back from his injury last week, and or to me he would man the match. Um, yeah, so that's all the players I want to talk about. Um, this win basically cements Champions League football. I mean, as I'm recording this, Chelsea are down 2-0 to Brighton. Um, and realistically, Chelsea needs to be looking at the bottom half of the table instead of top five. Because at this point, I think as of right now, they're on 48 points, and Crystal Palace in 13th are on 43. And based on the current form, and really there are as I said, I'm looking at right now, there are five points from the 13th, and there are seven points from fifth. So, realistically, if they're not really in the top five race, if we're being realistic, you know. Um, and I was listening to uh touchline fracas pod, if you don't know, a great Premier League pod. I suggest everyone go listen. And the Chelsea fan on their meads was talking about how he wouldn't be surprised if next season Chelsea are in a similar situation to Tottenham. You know, there's a lot of reports about the financial issues they're in. Um, it seems like they're gonna keep Rostini, at least as of right now. I mean, they're currently losing to Brighton as I speak, so they he could be sacked like three hours from now. But all the reports have been that he's gonna stay on in the summer. Um and if that happens, like it could be. I don't think it's crazy to say that next season Chelsea could, you know, be a bottom half the league, bottom half uh bottom table, bottom half table team. I'm like, yeah, I don't think that's crazy at all. Like the four they have not won in over a month. It feels like they can't score. And the biggest thing is like, what if now to be fair, like Cole Palmer currently recently said that he's committed to Chelsea, he's gonna stay there. Kaiseido has gonna sign a contract, it looks like. Um Brees James is uh loyal to the soil, so I don't think he's gonna leave. But like Cucurella, what if he looks to leave? What if Enzo looks to leave? Um, even though I'm not the biggest fan of Enzo as a player, but like what if these what if the better players look to leave and they continue to recruit these young unproven talents and they don't really make a mark on their team next season? I mean, looking at the form they have under a senior, is it that crazy to think that next season, if he's the manager, they could be looking like a Tottenham? I don't think it'll be that bad, but I could see it being like a 12th place type team. I don't think it's crazy at all. Maybe a more realistic comparison would be what United was two years ago when they finished 15th. I think that it could be on the cards, you know. Never know like the footballing landscape can change uh that quickly. But um, alright, that's it for that game. On to the Big Kahuna. Um a title decider, one of the latest Tile deciders we've ever seen, I would think. Like, I'm trying to think of has there ever been a Tile Deciding match? Not that not that the season is over, but you know what I mean. This late in the season, and really the only one that comes to mind is the Man City United match in um the year Man City won their first title with you know with the company header. I'm trying to like I'm really trying to think because of course with Liverpool and Slee, there was the famous Um match, but that was like in December, which is way, way, way, way time away. Um but yeah, there hasn't really been the first three-second match um with in the last what six games of the season. So needless to say the biggest match of the season for both teams. Um and Arteza made the big call to start Havertz over Yaakarez. Um Yakorez didn't even come on to like what 12 minutes or so. And in my opinion, he made the right call because in these matches, Yakerez has literally provided nothing. Um, and truly, Yaakorez he either scores or he provides nothing. Like, no, not even just like his bad touches, bad holdup. No, he doesn't provide any threat or anything. It's either he scores a goal or he provides literally the zero. On the pitch, like you know, you know, there's the Tony Stone meme of zero points, zero rebounds. That's Yokare's in the majority of his matches, and I understand why he went with Havertz. And to be fair, Havertz, I thought he had a good game overall, and I'll get into that. But um, performance-wise, Arsenal did better than I thought. You know, I was thinking coming into this game, it's gonna be more of the same from the Carabao final, where Arsenal are on the back foot for the majority of the match, they have zero attacking threat, and it's just a matter of time before City, you know, get a goal or two and win the match in comfortable fashion. I would that's what I was expecting. Um, but actually, I would say technically I thought Arteta had, you know, a good idea. They had some good pressing from the front, they had some dangerous openings that unfortunately fell to some, you know, the wrong players, you could say. But um yeah, I mean they went long to Havertz often in this match as a way to avoid the city press. And I thought there was some joy there. Um, and I think Havertz, you know, it's I think a lot of the post-match discussion has been how City had Havertz, um, City had Holland and Arsenal had Havertz, and that was the difference to the match. And I think it's fair to say that 99% of the time when uh these two teams meet up or these two teams are in competition, whatever you want to say. But in this match, I don't think that's really a fair way to describe the match because you know it's easy to forget that Havertz did score, you know. I think that that part has been kind of forgotten. Even myself, like you think of the misses, and then you forget, like, oh wait, Havertz actually did score in this match. Now, is that a goal, a result of Don Ruma, you know, messing about at the back? Yeah, but I mean, you have to give Havertz some level of credit for pressing him. And to go along along with to go along with that, I mean, Holland misses chances in this match, too. You know, both players had chances, both players missed chances, both players scored, and I would say Havertz, you know, provided a decent amount without, you know, in terms of hold up and winning some headers and whatnot. So, like the to breaking the game down to that, I think is a bit unfair. Now, where I think is fair is to say the game in the midfield was a big discrepancy. To me, I I've you can't tell me Declan Rice is this Ballondor type player, best midfielder in the world, player of the season type player, and uh tell me this performance that he put up in this game is enough. It simply cannot be the case. I refuse to accept that, honestly. Like Bernardo Silva on his last legs, you know, he's leaving City at the end of the season. He's not really bit played that well for the majority of the season, if we're being honest. He just, you know, rolled back the time and gave you know city a vintage type performance, and he outclassed Declan Rice instead of Roger and uh Zuamendi. I mean, yeah, yeah, he's not cut out for these type of games to be honest with you. Um, so to me, I think the escape making Harvard's a scapegoat. While I'm not even a Harris fan in the slightest, I think that's a bit crazy, to be honest with you. Um, to me, the big difference was the other attackers, meaning uh Maraweke was poor, Martinelli poor, Eze was decent, and I thought our teta bringing him off was kind of crazy. Um, but then you compare uh Doku, Cherky. I mean the difference is night and day when it comes to the creativity and overall threat and dribbling ability, all that stuff is literally night and day. Um I thought had a tough game. Um, he has some good moments for sure, but ultimately, if you're a top-level center back and both goals you could blink play some level of fault in. Um, and you really could have been sent off really if you know the referee was felt like it. I it's hard for me to rate that performance and not say it was a poor game, you know, from uh from Gabrielle, who's oh, I rate, of course, as a top-level player. Um, and I and the thing the thing is the thing that stuck out to me in this game is like this is a title decider game like I've sit mentioned, and Arsenal are relying upon Kai Havertz, Ani Maidawake, uh Ezek playing on the left, you know, eventually Trossard came on, uh Martinelli came on, Yelcarez came on. These are the attackers they're relying upon in comparison to Erling Haland, who is you know the best striker in the league, even though he's been in poor form, I would say. Um arguably the best striker in the world on top of that. Uh Ryan Cherkey, to me, based on current form, I could argue he's been he's the best player in the Premier League currently, on current form, I would say. Uh, you have Semenyo, who was really poor in this game, don't get me wrong, but is always a goal threat in um in every game he plays in. He's one of the top scorers in the league, I believe, still. Um, but he was really poor in this game, let me not be wrong. And Doku, who's probably the best uh 1v1 dribbler in the Premier League. No, he's definitely the best 1v1 dribbler in the Premier League. So the comparison to me there is just is hard to not stand out to me. It's hard for that, like, to not come away and think like, wow, the gap is large. And then on top of that, the midfield performances were also large. Um and I'm I would wonder, like, maybe this is harsh to say to Arsenal, but like if Naruma doesn't do that, you know, doesn't get the goal away, but um where Harvest closes him down, how does the game go? Because at that point, Turkey just scored a one wonder goal, maybe that's a bit excessive, but you know, he scored a great goal. The it erupts, the crowd is really into it, City are feeling it. We've seen Arsenal capitulate in these type of situations. We just gotta be honest. I know Arsenal fans hate to hear that, but it we just have to be honest that we've seen the capitulate in these situations, but then right away they get the goal, the miracle goal back from Havertz, um, and it's one-one, and they're able to like you know settle down. Like, how does the game go if that never happens? I I'm I tend to believe City would have went away with it, but we'll never know, right? Um, and really the last thing I want to mention on Havertz, however much blame you want to give him, ultimately, all the blame should go to Yokuris. Because if Yokuris did his job this season, if Yokuris was who they wanted to buy, Havertz would not be playing in this game. Point blank, he would not. So ultimately, the the biggest symptom is you bought a Dutch striker in Victor Yuckaris, and that might be the reason he doesn't win this title, to be honest with you. Um and now the city, the title is officially in City's hands. If they win every game, they will be champions. Of course, it'll come down to goal difference if they win every game and also also win every game. But I think if it comes down to goal difference, I think we all kind of favor City in that kind of scenario. Um, but City do have a tougher fixture list, but at this point of the season, the fixtures can be a bit deceiving because realistically, playing West Ham, which Arsenal do later on, that's a tougher match than playing you know, a Bournemouth, I think, who have to play City and Everton Everton, they could play, they're playing for Europe, I guess. So maybe not Everton, but like a Palace, who are still you know managing the conference league on top of that. So the table can be misleading when it comes to matchups at this point this season. Um and really at this point, it's like do you believe Arsenal are gonna beat anybody? Like they have not beat, they've just not been convincing in any game they play in against anyone, no matter how strong or how weak the opponent is, they don't look convincing. Um and I think Arteta has to stick with Havertz going forward. Um, because a lot of people make excuses for Yakariz that oh, he gets no service, he gets no service. It's like you're a striker, every good striker manages to get chances, no matter how crap the service to them is. And we saw that Havertz played and he got chances. Now he missed, but he still got the chances. When Yakaraz plays, he won't even get the chances. So to me, you have to go with Havertz going forward. Um and ultimately, if Arsenal lost the league on goal difference, that would be you know the biggest kick in the balls ever. But also, it would be almost be fitting that in a year where Arsenal won a lot of games ugly, you know, through a one goal margin, whatever you want to call it, that if they lost the title on goal difference, that would almost be fitting, really. And I sound like a hater saying that, but yeah, I think most people would agree with that. Um so yeah, that's it for the prem. Two massive matches like I talked about. Let's get into some hoop stuff. I'm not gonna talk about all the series, I'll talk about two series specifically. Now, and two, yeah. So the two the one of the first series I want to talk about was the Orlando, Magic, and Detroit Pistons 1-8 matchup. Um and I said during the play-in that the idea that the the Hornets would potentially upset the Pistons was absolutely ludicrous. Um, I think that's made made clear uh since then. But I also said that I think Orlando, if they're a serious team, contest the Pistons a little. Now, I did still think the Pistons would win this series in five or six games, but I didn't think this would just be like, you know, a walk in the park for the Pistons, which most people believe because you know you see a 60-win team and an Orlando team which disappoints, and that's the the first thought, right? Like, oh, it's over for them. I mean, there's been talk about Jamal Mosley losing his job no matter what after the season. So I understand why people, but you really have to look at the team and what they get capable of in this. And I said on on on uh Twitter that Orlando isn't a typical eighth seed, and I got a lot of pushbacks. Some guy was my mention to talk about oh, this is totally revisionist history, gaslighting, yeah. I'm like, no, you have to look, like, think about it. Like, this team, Orlando, they won 45 games this year, they finished as the seventh seed before the play-in. Um, they were like, what, one or two wins off the five seed. Um, and that's with Paulo Benquero having an atrocious season, like truly horrible season, which he himself has said that he did, especially they hate to look in the mirror at the all-star break. Um, Franz Wagner, who many people say is their best player, only played 33 games this season. Um, and even since he came back, he's been on a restrict, doesn't even look healthy right now either. And despite all of that, they still won 45 wins, they 45 games. So you can't really tell me that this team sucks, right? Because no team who sucks has their two you know faces of the franchise, Franz and Paulo. You know, give them that little this season, and they still make the playoffs. Like it doesn't, this is just backwards thinking of me. Um, and this team, we know this core of players, like Jalen Suggs, uh Wendell Carter, Franz, Anthony Black, you know, Goku Bata, these core of players, we've seen Orlando play, you know, a top two defense over the last couple years. Like, we know that their ceiling on defense is like up there with basically anyone in the league. And, you know, we saw that in game one, which I'll get into in a second. So if you have that, which is the best defense in the league, or you know, a top three or four defense in the league, which they play up to their best capability on that end of the floor, which we saw in the play-in game against Charlotte. I mean, what they did to their to the offense was that was bullying almost. But um, and for whatever reason, Paulo Bencaro in the playoffs makes his jump shots. You know, the sample isn't that big. You know, I hate when people call him a playoff riser because it's like, bro, how are you a playoff riser? You lost both the series you played in, you know what I mean? You gotta win a series for me to call you a playoff riser. But um, for whatever reason, Paulo Bencaro makes his jump shots in the playoffs, you know. And this is at this point in the play-in, too. Like I know he was a horrible game against Philly, but against Charlotte, he did too. So, um, and I the biggest thing I've been saying all year is like if Paulo and Franz play up to the standard that people think they can play at, then this team is elite because the pieces around them are good. Like, I mean, Jalen Suggs was ridiculous on defense in this game, especially in the first quarter, the way he was flying around, like breaking up lobs, breaking up passes, just taking the ball from K. Like, he was just he really looked insane, he looked insane out there. Um, I thought Wendell Carter had a great game defensively. He's a good defender in general. You got Franz, you know, I know K had a monster game, but I thought in the first half, Franz did a good job to slow down K because he got a big body. Um, Anthony Black is a good defender. Desmond Bain is you know solid enough. Paulo, I thought, was pretty engaged defensively as well. Goga has been really good these last couple games. But has been great as a rim protector and just a rebounding force. So, like, like I said, this team can play at a ridiculously high level on defense, and when their two stars actually play well on offense, like this is a tough thing to play against, man. I'm not gonna say, like, oh, they're gonna go up and you know win the series and all that, but it's not gonna be like a walk in the park for um the pistons. Um, and I don't I don't think it's fair to act like oh, this one loss made the Pistons frauds. It's like, nah, bro, you gotta give Orlando credit. They're a talent, they've got talent, but we cannot dismiss that. Um, and the the thing was this I'm still gonna pick the Pistons to win this series in probably six games or so, maybe seven, but it is really scary that Cade had a monster game, especially in the second half, but he had a monster stat line. Orlando shot 29% from three in this game, and they still lost at home, you know, rather comfortably, I would say. Like the game was you know close at times, but I would say Orlando was the more comfortable team in this matchup, at least for the first game. Um and I think JBD Bickerstaff has to trust Asar Thompson. Only playing him nine minutes in the second half is ludicrous. He has to trust Jalen Duran to do more offensively. And I know people will say, like, oh, he can't score outside of Lobs. I don't believe that. Honestly, I really don't believe that. Like, first of all, the guy is ridiculously strong, he's got some handling ability, he's got some touch at the rim. Like, I do believe he can give you a little bit of offense if you give him the ball, but they didn't really they didn't trust him to do it at all. Um, and to be fair, like K had a monster game, so it ended up mattering, but like for Dern to have I think it was four shots, and for Tobias Harris to have 15 shots, to me, that's a that's not a winning formula. Um, and I've been saying throughout the regular season that the Pistons should be letting Dern experiment and expand with his game, even if the results ended up going poorly, just see what happens because you're gonna need that offense at some point. Um, and he was not that good defensively. To be honest, he's a little over defensively in general, but um, yeah, the Pistons defense also in this game did not impose themselves at all, you know. They had some spurts, some very brief spurts of forcing turnovers and getting out of position. But generally speaking, I didn't really feel that top five defense that they've been all year. Um, and one of the biggest things in this game is that the Pistons, a big part of their game when it comes to scoring, is offensive rebounds, and Orlando is a massive team, so they're able to keep Detroit off the glass, really. And that was a really big part of this game that Detroit was missing, and they lost, and I think in the paint, the Orlando had 20 more points to them. So, I mean, you look at the names on the on the on the on paper, and it's like, yeah, this is not that this is not like an unbalanced matchup at all. So, this series is gonna be a slog to me. Um, the issue with Orlando is they're kind of like an unserious team when it comes to effort and whatnot. Like, I would not be surprised at all if the Pistons win game two by like 30 points, just because Orlando is kind of like satisfied with being 1-0 up, you know? So, um, yeah, this series is gonna be a war. I really believe that. Um, yeah, that's all on this series. On to the Wolves and Nuggets, which I think after this game, where the Wolves won, and Jaden McDaniels in the presser said the reason we had success on offense is because we went at all their bad defenders, and then he said he just named the whole the whole uh Nuggets rotation basically, and the interviewer, I don't I don't know his name, was like, they're all bad defenders, and he's like, Yeah, they're all bad defenders, like as matter-of-fact as possible, which is first of all, has maybe been making me laugh all day since it happened, but I think that along with the Wolves winning and even the series, and I believe I saw that in the last 30 matchups, these teams are 15-15. I mean, this is officially the NBA's premier rivalry, you know, people complain about a lack of rivalry, which I kind of disagree with because I feel like there's been rivalries, you know, like Celtics and Heat is a big one. Um, Bucks and Heat was a one for a while, Sixers Celtics. I think um Warriors and Rockets for a little bit. I think there have been rivalries, to be honest with you. Um, but this one right now, it takes the cake. I mean, something about these matchups just feels so epic because of the star power on both sides. Um, even the role players have kind of star power, like Rudy Gobert is a Hall of Famer, he's a DPY winner. Aaron Gordon, he's known for his high flying, he's you know, being one of the better role players in the league, all that stuff. Like, you know, and the thing is this in a lot of these matchups, and not in this matchup, which I'll get into in a second, both Ant and Jokic have kind of been unguardable in these matchups, so it's kind of like everyone wants to see stars go at it, and even though they're not like going at each other in a head to head, like a lot of these games, Jokic and Ant are both going crazy in. So, yeah, it's just been awesome to watch. Yesterday's game was just game two was just amazing throughout. Um, and really the story of that game too to me was the Nuggets' lack of defensive motor really caught up to them in that game. Because in that second quarter, when the Wolves finally settled down after an absolutely horrendous first quarter, they exposed how easy it is to score at the rim on the Nuggets. Like they got in the paint over and over and over again. It was everybody, it was Ant, it was Jaden, it was uh Julius Randle, it was Nas Reed, it was uh well, it was uh I was gonna say Bones Highland, but really he started cooking from three-point range. But um, yeah, they were living in the paint, and a lot of that is Jokic at the rim, but a lot of that is that you know, it's Tim Hardaway, it's Cam Johnson. Uh I'm sounding like Jam McGinnis there in the press conference, it's Jamal Murray, like these are guys you can go at defensively, like you know, even Aaron Gordon at this point in his career isn't the quickest on the perimeter, but um, yeah, that was the story of the game for me. Like, you know, the Nuggets defense just getting obliterated from the second quarter on. Um, and for the Nuggets on offense in clutch time, it felt like Jamal Murray kind of ran out of gas. You know, he's been he was working really hard to get his he was he was scoring a lot in the first half, especially. Um, but it felt like he was working hard to score, and then when the fourth quarter came, he just kind of felt like, man, running around all these screens to get away from Jamie Daniels, his call to me, and that left the Nuggets leaning on Jokic Um to carry the offense as a scorer. The Wolves did not send help, they let Gobert guard him one-on-one, and Gobert won the matchup handedly. I mean, so much so that it felt like you know, Jokic kind of understood, like kind of felt like he knew like I can't score on this guy because if you watch those post-ups, a lot of them, he's got the ball one-on-one in space. Now, normally Jokic, he's cooking wherever that is. Like, if you remember Jokic versus um AD when they won the title, like he was destroying him one-on-one. And he destroyed Gobert at times too. But I mean, he did not look confident going at Gobert. I mean, there was times where he's looking behind him for uh to hand the ball to someone for DHO, and the Nuggets are like, no, bro, you gotta score for us. And he was he didn't he just didn't look confident going at Gobert, you know, because he felt like he like it looked like, and then the biggest indicator for me was when on the offensive side of the ball, he flopped on Yok on Gobert to uh on off any when he was. I mean, Gobert kind of shoved him, but come on, Jokic is massive, he's not falling that easily. Um and it felt like at that point, Jokic was just doing whatever. To try and help his team win. And of course, then he had the dunk on Gobert with the uh Morris setting the screen for him, which is crazy. But um, yeah, man, Gobert won that matchup. He's kind of won that matchup in these first two games pretty handily, at least, you know, when it comes to guarding Jokic one-on-one, I would say. You know, obviously, Jokic is gonna impact the game offensively just through his passing, his screening, his outlets, his rebounding, he's gonna impact the game tremendously regardless. But when the Nuggets need him to score crucial buckets, he could not deliver in that in that um crunch time. And I think a lot of credit needs to go to Gobert for that. Um one thing that stuck out to me pretty one thing that was pretty glaring to me was that in the last few minutes, and for most of the fourth quarter, really, um Adleman trusted Tim Hardaway Jr. over Cam Johnson. And I tweeted that, and some people replied to me that oh, Adleman's a terrible coach, yada yada. And the thing is for me is like I'm not even sure if he's wrong to do that. You know what I mean? I'm not even sure he's necessarily wrong to close with Tim Hardaway over Cam Johnson, right? No, like Tim offensively, Tim Hardaway had a good game, and he's hit a lot of big shots this year. So um, yeah, I'm not even sure if he's wrong to do that. It just kind of stuck out to me that Cam Johnson, who was their, you know, big acquisition in the summer, he got a lot of gaps for being better than MPJ. He has not been better than MPJ, and the Nuggets did not trust him to be better than MPJ in that game either. Um, so yeah, it's 1-1. If I'm the Wolves, the only thing that stops us on offense is our own bad decision making. Because as we saw in that game, they can get to the rim at will. They can get to the rim to either score or drive to kick it out to some shooters and score. Because they have a lot of shooting too. I mean, DiVincenzo, who was was incredible in this game, one of the best performances you'll see from a role player ever, period. Like, no exaggeration, was insane in this game. Hustling, defending, shooting, passing, you know, drawing some foul. Everything was, and for whatever reason, he was just I mean, nice playoffs. I can't say for a reason. He was playing like his life was on the line, legit. Um, yeah. So the only thing stopping the wolves' offense, I mean, really, is their own superity. It sounds crazy, but really, yeah. Like the Nuggets can't stop them. Now, it's very much could be the possibility that the Wolves can't stop the Nuggets, also, and this turns out to be a shootout series, you know, Murray and Jokic and AG and all these guys going crazy on offense, and Ant and Randall and all these guys going crazy on offense. Like, I'm not writing off Jokic. I know he struggled these first two games. I am not writing off Jokic to win the Go Grand matchup eventually. Um, so yeah, this series is gonna be amazing. I think everyone expects to go six, seven games. Um, and really I have no idea who's gonna win. And I kind of felt like that coming into this series that I don't know who's gonna win. Um, and obviously there was the the uh variable of uh ants knee injury, and I think mobility-wise, he looked good enough, I would say. Um, still I don't think he's at his 100%, you know, athletically, I would say, in terms of lift and all that, but good enough. And but I think the only thing that was really hurting him was his conditioning. I mean, there was that one sequence where he was laying on the ground for on the floor for like a good minute, um, and it felt like he was breathing really heavy. So he's I mean he even talks about how he's not been in game shape because he's not played for a while. Um, so yeah, I mean one thing that was huge in this game was at the end of the third quarter, uh, Nick Chris Finch went to like basically an all-bench lineup. It was like Bones, Aodasumu, uh Slomo, Nasreed. Um, I can't remember what the fifth player was, but it was basically a really much very much so a bench lineup, you know, no Julius Crandall, no Anthony Edwards. And they were able to survive that stint without you know losing much uh ground on on Denver at all. And that let Randall and Ant sit for like a good five, six minutes at least. Um, and I feel like that gave them enough rest to be fresh for crunch time, and in the crunch time, they look like the better team, they looked like the fresher team, to be honest with you. So that to me was a huge thing in the game. Um, so yeah, that's all on this series. The last thing I want to talk about very briefly, you know, not too much detail, but um Houston went down 0-1 to the Lakers, no Luka Doncic, no Austin Reeves. Of course, like an hour before the game, it was announced that KD's gonna miss game one. You know, he bumped knees in practice. Honestly, I feel like he's gonna miss game two based on the reporting. It sounds like it's pretty he's in a lot of pain, to be honest with you. But regardless, if you're the Rockets organization, you have to expect Aman Thompson, Alper Sangoon, and Amy Odoka. This is supposedly the future of your franchise, right? If they cannot beat this Laker team with no Luca, no Reeves, you know, uh, you know, basically LeBron at 41 with Luke Kennard and Marcus Smore as his secondary options, uh, with Jared Vanderbilt getting playoff minutes, with Bronny James getting playoff minutes, if you cannot beat them, then really what is what's what's the point? You know what I mean? What this that can be the future of your organization. Now, I'm not saying one player is more one part of the triumphant is more uh to blame than another, but that as a collective, those three guys that supposedly that the future of your franchise that cannot be that that they can't stay together if you don't win this series, and assuming Luca doesn't come back and Austin Reed doesn't come back, even if Austin Reeves comes back. If Luca doesn't play, you have to win this series no matter what happened to KD. I don't want to hear about KD. KD's like what 30 years old? He can't be that important to your franchise um in 2026. I'm sorry, you just can't. Um and the last and the reason I say that is I really believe that like each core has a loss, a playoff series loss, that tells you, alright, this this this this like this run is kind of over. You know, you gotta move on and you gotta shift. Um and there are I mean I think you can think of the countless examples of that, but um personally, I think Udoka is doing Sangun, Udoka and Rafel Stone, the general manager, you know, I think he's in charge of the moves and whatnot, is doing Sengun and Amen Thompson a huge disservice with the roster construction and the lack of you know creative creativity is kind of like a buzzword for offense, but when I watch the Rockets team, I'm like, what the hell are they doing on offense? Like, you had a week off to prepare for the Lakers, and I'm watching you play offense, and I'm like, what is the game plan here? Like, what is the is there any game plan here, or are you just like, all right, we're gonna get the ball to Amen Thompson, he's gonna try and score. We're gonna get the ball to Sangoon at three-point line, like he's Giannis. He's gonna try and drive on Jackson Hazen, DeAndre Aiden with no spacing, um, you know, nothing to make it easier for him at all. And I'm just like, you're not helping these guys at all, you know? Like, from a general manager's perspective, if you have a man Thompson and Sangoon, two guys, I mean, and men can't shoot at all. Sangoon, who's like uh you can kind of get squeaky every now and then, but really his best work is in the paint, even though he's not been good in the paint these last two years. But his best work is in the paint. The three guys, the guys around them have to be, you know, snipers. I know they got KD, they've got Ree Shepard, who's still like, you know, working his way to cementing himself to being a starter in the league. But like the fact that there's no other ball handlers, there's no other like reliable shooters, like that's that's just crazy to me. Like, why do you have a men Thompson and then the guys around him are uh Jabari Smith, Tari Eason, Josh Okie, Jason Tate, like guys that are just as bad as shooting as him. I mean, of course, Jabari and Tari are not, but like Okogi and uh and uh Jason Tate are just like just as unskilled or lack of shooting as him. So it's just like you're not complimenting their game at all. So yeah, I think we're seeing a lot of faults in Yudoka's ability as a coach that were kind of hidden in Boston because of the talent he had. And I think the fact that the offense in Boston took off so much after he left, um, with largely the same players, um, especially the first year. I mean, afterwards, when they got Drew Haughty and Porzingis, that was obviously different, but um, yeah. I mean, he's gotta figure it out. Well, I mean, I thought it was kind of corny that he like they went down double digits. Um he didn't get a call that he liked. I don't even remember what call it was. He didn't get a call he liked, and he started berating the refs, like he started calling them bitches and all that stuff. Um, and the thing that stuck to me is like he started cussing on the refs, and then Sengoon started like sarcastically clapping. I'm like, this isn't the this isn't the the mood your team has to be in right now. They gotta be in a dog mentality that they're down double digits on the road in the playoffs, and they're gonna fight out and get this win. And that that that image to me just looked bad. I don't know. Maybe I'm picking too much, I'm just picking too much, but regardless, the Rockets core of those three guys, Amen, Sangoon, Ime. You need to win this series. Um, presuming, like I said, Luca doesn't come back, or there needs to be a big shakeup in the summer, in my opinion. But um, yeah, that's it on the playoffs. That's it on the Premier League. I'll be back next week. More thoughts on the playoffs, uh, more Premier League matches to talk about. So, but until then, see ya.