The Bill Simmons Podcast
Playoff Jamal, Playoff Harden, Farewell Giannis, and a Draymond Deep Dive With Kirk Goldsberry and Zach Lowe
Wed, 30 Apr 2025
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Kirk Goldsberry to react to Tuesday's NBA playoff games, discuss Giannis’s future, and more (3:28). Then, Bill chats with Zach Lowe about Draymond Green and his unique career with the Warriors (53:03). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Zach Lowe and Kirk Goldsberry Producers: Chia Hao Tat, Eduardo Ocampo, and Conor Nevins This episode is brought to you by Degree Deodorant. Grab the original Cool Rush at Walmart or Target today. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and guests on this NBA playoff episode?
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Coming up, I'm going to talk about a new sport I just heard about, basketball. It's next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. I put up a new Rewatchables last night. We did Someone to Watch Over Me. It is a movie with Tom Barringer, Mimi Rogers, and Lorraine Bracco from 1987, directed by Ridley Scott. It is an absolute cable classic. It was a one for us, for me and Chris Ryan.
I broke down during this pod about as hard as I've ever laughed during a podcast. Uh, it gets super goofy. And, uh, after we do one for us, we always like to do a giant movie. So a giant movie is coming next week. Stay tuned for that. I hope you're checking out the ringer.com.
Hope you're checking about all of our, uh, ringer podcast stuff, the bill Simmons, YouTube channel, which we go live on Sundays with Priscilla. We kind of staggered it. We did a late live and an early one with Priscilla and van on Sunday. That was super fun. Fan duel, by the way, I've been working with them. we're going to start this new gimmick on Wednesday with Lakers-Timberwolves game five.
You can tail or fade my pick. Each week, I'm going to pick a player prop I'm going to go in. I'm going to say what I think is going to happen. You can either believe me or not believe me. I just hit on Sunday, I hit a plus 921 four-leg parlay. It was pretty impressive, I got to say. Let's see if I can keep the momentum going.
So I have LeBron over nine and a half rebounds, I think is going to be the one. You can either back me or you can go against me. But if you do it, FanDuel is offering you an opportunity to have a 50% boost Either way. So you win if you like what I thought or you want to go against what I thought. Anyway, check out Fando Sportsbook on Wednesday to see what boost I'm betting, what bet I'm boosting.
I just told you what it was. And then you can apply that profit boost. I love when the customers ride with me. I've been decent. So there you go. Coming up on this podcast. Kurt Goldsberry and I, we watched four basketball games. I was watching some hockey too. And we're reacting right afterwards to everything we saw.
And then a little bit later, Zach Lowe, he came on last week on a Tuesday and we banged something fun. We did it again this week. We want to talk about Draymond Green and we want to look forward to Timberwolves Lakers. So that is the podcast today. First, our friends from Pearl Jam.
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Chapter 2: What happened in the Clippers vs. Denver Nuggets playoff game?
Yeah, I did a rare tweet. I tweeted that they had him guarding Jokic in the second half so we could remember that he was in the game because it was too hard to tell. They're built so that they could survive...
kind of an offensive no-show game from harden yeah the problem for them was denver denver went up a notch they kind of stayed the same denver got westbrook back which was huge for them because that was just 23 extra minutes from a bench guy they played jordan a little bit more i'm with you maybe the elevation going against an older team helped a tiny bit um
But then, you know, I start thinking about some of the stuff I used to write about back when my fingers worked. And this is a Clippers team that has just been snakebitten really since they moved to Southern California.
And that loss they had game four where they fought all the way back and then they lose on an alley-oop where the ball seemed like it was touching the tip of Aaron Gordon's fingers and it ends up counting because they couldn't overrule it. And that loss was so devastating. I'm watching the game tonight. I'm like, man, Maybe that beat the fight out of them a little bit. I don't know.
This is a team that was supposed to be one of the best defenses in the playoffs. One of the best defensive rebounding teams in the playoffs. The stat that I kept going back to is I think they ranked first in defensive rebounding percentage all year long. And then in this playoffs, they ranked 15 out of 16 in that category. Some of that is because of Jokic.
But this is also a defense when Jamal Murray gets going, you'd think Kawhi Leonard or Chris Dunn or some combination of Ty Lue schemes. could do it, and they just didn't have the fight tonight at all. And I don't know what, how many points did the Clippers end up with? 131, Bill Simmons. The Nuggets. Yeah, sorry. The Nuggets ended up with 131, Bill.
And that's just, to me, that's a dumb guy stat, but that's what you need to know. You're not going to win a lot of playoff games if you give up 131 points. So this is a proud defense that just laid an egg tonight.
Yeah, and you think like big picture with the Clippers, It's never easy with them in a playoff series. In the history of their franchise since they moved to Southern California, they've never won a playoff series in four or five games ever. Think about how impossible that is. That's crazy. They had the 2021 where Kawhi is averaging 30 a game and looking like one of the best guys in the league.
He gets hurt. They end up losing the Western Finals. Only time they ever made it. They blew the 3-1 lead to Denver in 2020. They blew that 19-point lead to the Rockets in 2015 when they had a chance to close and go to the West Finals. They blew that OKC series in 2014 when Chris Paul, the point guard, just completely fell apart in game five when they could have had a lead coming back to Clippers.
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Chapter 3: How is James Harden performing in the playoffs?
I still think they can win game six. What's a little scary is that Jokic didn't put a lot of miles on himself tonight. Murray carried everything. Westbrook carried some. They were able to arrest him. And he could just snap his fingers in Game 6 and dominate them like he did in Game 4. It's looking bleak for the Clippers. I might have been wrong on this series, Kirk. I'm bummed.
I was wrong, too. I remember, but I was, like, very scared coming into the playoffs because I was, like, looking at this Clippers team. They have that history you just mentioned. But then they have James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, and Ben Simmons, who, by the way...
Yeah, enough.
What a beautiful shot tonight. He got to the just inside the paint. He rises up for that little half hook and he almost hit the rim. God bless him.
It was to the left of the basket. He shot it at 1030 at night on a clock. It just was diagonal to the left. It was rough.
On Verno's podcast like three weeks ago, when all the trends that I look at throughout the year are pointing to the Clippers are the best analytic team closing the season.
Except they're the Clippers.
Except they're the Clippers. And I was like, I'm not going to know what to do. I picked them to win this series in seven games, too. I now would. I wish I could switch it. They just they just haven't been there. And I think they could win game six. But I just didn't unless they completely reinvent themselves for a game seven. What we saw in Denver tonight is not going to get it done, obviously.
Yeah, but I mean, the counter is they have been there. Kawhi has been the finals MVP in two different cities. Harden's been in the playoffs for his entire career. Derek Jones was in the finals last year. Norm Powell has been in big playoff games. Ty Lue coached in the finals a bunch of times. Van Gundy was in big games. Derek Jones was in the finals last year.
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Chapter 4: What are the key takeaways from Detroit Pistons vs. New York Knicks series?
Dude, that's such an underrated part of this. Like Cleveland getting out in four games and OKC getting out of there today.
The Celts punted on Holiday for the series and kept their fingers crossed that he could get healed and they got out of it.
Yeah, and they just need all the treatment, some cold plunges, all that rest. And these other teams are going to be flying back and forth, putting more miles on their bodies, twisting ankles. It's such an underrated part of this. So it was good that Boston emerged relatively unscathed from that Orlando series.
Well, I want to talk about that. Let's take a quick break. We'll talk Boston-Orlando. Hey, it's NBA playoff time. Get in on the action with FanDuel Sportsbook, our friends, America's number one sportsbook. You think you know it's gonna go down? Well, check out Wednesdays because you can make those predictions count with the Hump Day Parlay Profit Boost.
Weekly parlay specials tied to top point scores, double doubles, whatever you want. I'm also gonna be doing a little special gimmick that you can find on FanDuel Sportsbook. where you can tail or fade me. I'm going to release my prop on Wednesday for the Lakers-Timberwolves game. And I think it's going to be LeBron over under rebounds because I like the over. I think it's nine and a half.
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