Russillo runs through the most interesting first-round playoff matchups and shares some predictions along the way (1:10). Then, he’s joined by Frank Isola to dive deeper into the NBA playoffs, discussing how Houston will defend Steph, whether the refs will impact MIN-LAL, and hypothetical Knicks trades (23:15). Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti (1:09:16)! Is my wife a dick? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Frank Isola Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Get anything delivered on Uber Eats. www.ubereats.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the key first-round NBA playoff matchups and picks?
Let's do that right now. All right, I'm going to run through the series. I'm going to give you a pick at the end of them. Random thoughts. Try to get this done before Saturday. Milwaukee Pacers. It's the better team versus the much better player. Certainly that you don't need me for that one. The Pacers at 1.35 and 28 finished on a 15-4 close, got the 50 wins. So you can look at some of the teams.
There's a lot of teams that seem to end with really nice records. It's like they're picking at the right time or their schedule was really easy, especially if you look at some of the teams in the East and West. Half the conference decided to kind of shut it down. But the Pacers have nice wins in there. They got Milwaukee twice. They got Minnesota twice.
They had the one-point loss to the Lakers, and LeBron made that shot. They beat Denver. Cleveland, those are wins, but Cleveland was sitting people in those. So there's at least some good stuff to look at there. After the All-Star break, the fifth-best record at 20-9, Oklahoma City 24-4, Boston 22-5, Cleveland 20-8, Golden State 20-7. So Pacers kind of in a nice group there.
So this is now 29 games after the all-star break with the eighth best defense in the, in the, uh, in the NBA. He stuttered the Pacers. Again, we're talking about the Pacers, the eighth best defense in the NBA after the all-star break. That is a little surprising. Oddly 13th best offense where Milwaukee finished the season. Also kind of under the radar, 19 and 10 close.
Um, but they're much better on offense. Milwaukee is, and they are on defense. Um, Milwaukee, also the best shooting team in the NBA, if you look at true shooting stuff, post the All-Star break. So they figured some stuff out. And I also think Bobby Portis coming back, only playing three games, but just plug and play 16 and nine is being undersold in all of this.
Giannis, by the way, if you look at his matchup against the Pacers, he does well against them. The Pacers don't really have much of a chance of slowing him down at all. He's 65% from the floor against them, but they did limit his free throw attempts, eight a game. in the regular season matchups against Indiana, whereas like, okay, what are some of the bad ones?
Giannis averaged 17 free throws a game against Atlanta. I may need to double check that because I think I looked at it twice there. Giannis, by the way, closing the season at 30-12, six and a half. He's the first player in the NBA in its history to put together Three different 30-10-5 seasons. So look, the Siakam numbers against Giannis are bad.
The Turner numbers, when he's matched up against Giannis, are even worse. This team can shoot it really well. They're going to run everything through Giannis, as we understand. His playmaking has been terrific. He doesn't take threes, which has made him even more efficient. But one through seven, one through eight, I like the Pacers better. Pacers in seven. Clippers at Denver.
So the Clippers at one point were 32-29. They finished on an 18-3 close, so they got to 50 wins. 25-11 with Kawhi. The shooting numbers for Kawhi are consistently spectacular since he's been a regular guy and playing multiple minutes, meaning more minutes, not just on a minutes restriction. The advanced stuff, though, will tell you that he's not the guy, and maybe it's a little unfair to be like,
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Chapter 2: How will the Clippers match up against the Nuggets in the playoffs?
So, look, I think Rudy's – whenever those moments look bad and guys like me that haven't always loved him, you're not going to see from me like, hey, you probably have to get him out of there because then the Nas-Reed-Randall combo against enormous players in Luka and LeBron driving because you're going to see more drives from LeBron as the playoffs certainly matter more.
And then Reeves in his craftiness of just getting himself free and getting a defender leaning one way. And it's not like an Iverson crossover, but that go right around the back thing, bring it back to the other side. He's just brilliant at it.
So even in those moments where it looks like Rudy's a little lost and asked to do a ton, you just see even in a down Rudy year defensively teams when he's out, they're like, all right, it's go time. I have Minnesota in seven. Little zag there. Golden State Houston. All right.
So after the amend Curry spotlight game against Curry where Curry went 110, I still think Butler should have taken more than seven shots if that's what they're going to do because it wasn't just Thompson. It was hard doubling. It was running Curry into a second defender, even with the men staying on him primarily there. that's part of the thought process of which way I'm going to go with this.
Cause that part, if you're on the golden state side of things, you're like, is that just going to happen? But I, you know, look, even with defensive matchups, like, Hey, I like this option better. We all know these dudes are going to get their points. Then when I look at the Edie part of the golden state matchup from the play in the other night, you know, Edie,
You could get on his case for a bunch of things in that game, but you also have to give it to him that when he was in there, it changed the way Golden State thought about their attacks at the rim. And even more importantly, he was terrific on the boards.
And over the course of a game like that, just asking a lot of Draymond, even though they went with some loony minutes in there and then quitting post, obviously hitting some shots as well. But post, it's not like he's just in there to bang bodies all night long. I think more than anything, it's his spacing and hoping to pull his defender away.
But they went with Edie on Butler, which burned him a little bit in the first half and kind of got Butler going as he had a great night. So the reason I'm even bringing up any of that stuff from two nights ago is that will Houston sacrifice offensive spacing to think over the course of seven games, the best chance for them to win is Shingun playing his 30 plus minutes a night.
And then even more from Adams is it feels like they've ramped up this option specifically for the playoffs. So they've played five games. Golden State has done a great job against the backcourt here for Houston. It's actually so terrible, these numbers for Green and Van Vliet, that I don't even know that these are repeatable here again.
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Chapter 3: What are the Lakers vs. Timberwolves defensive strategies and predictions?
That's better than the Clippers. That's better than Minnesota. So that's in there a little bit. So it may just be that, look, if Houston wins this series, they slow down Curry. Butler has a couple nights where he's just not as engaged as you need him to be, which is not normally the case for him in the playoffs. So maybe we shouldn't expect that.
And that Houston finds something they feel really good about closing with offensively. So I don't think it's crazy to pick Houston this one, but I'm going Golden State, the Warriors, in 6th. Okay, Detroit at New York. Pistons have won the last three. That April 10th game where Cade went off was terrific, but again, no heart or OG Ananobi in that one. Brunson since his return.
So post-All-Star break, let's do a little on that. Detroit's 15-12, New York's 15-13. In those 28 games, Brunson's played in 12 of them. So Brunson's right back to his 25 a game. Knicks actually have had the slightly better defense than Detroit Post All-Star. It's pretty similar. And Cade... Just was incredible in that April 10th game.
But again, what do we really put into that other than we know Cade is really good and New York had two less perimeter options in dealing with him. His regular season numbers against the Knicks, he's been lighting these dudes up. 35-8. Shooting splits, 56-52%. I also like that Detroit has let him get engaged off the ball a little bit.
I know it's the simplest thing, but sometimes when you're telling the defense, hey, I'm bringing the ball up to court, this is what the first thing is going to be. You've already seen it a million times, excuse me. Just having somebody be like, hey, have Schroeder bring it up, have Cade come off of something, and now this is how we want to get into our offense.
It's so simple, but sometimes it is needed. And it's crazy to me how often teams are just like, oh, I guess we're just going to get stuck doing this over and over and over again. Now, having said that, when the ball ends up back with Cade, I worry about the second on-ball creator.
I think for any team that has any kind of playoff aspirations, I'm not talking about Detroit winning the East, but going up against a tough Knicks team here that is fully formed again, Like, who's the second guy with the ball that I'm like, okay, when Cade gets bottled up, it's a bit like the Randall, Minnesota thing.
Like, you really do Randall with the ball, closing out playoff games in a huge spot? Maybe, maybe. But Detroit, like, who is it? Because if you look at the drive chart for this, Cade clearly leads Detroit in drives per game, 17 a game. Ivy was second. He's not around anymore. Dennis Schroeder, 8.5.
All right, well, that's not terrible because if you look at the Knicks chart, Brunson's 18 drives a game. Katz, like, at 8. So what's the difference, Rob? Well, the difference is Katz is also one of the best three-point shooters in the entire league and has been his entire career. So even with those drives that I think are clunky that seem to work more than I would ever expect them to.
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Chapter 4: How will the Warriors and Houston Rockets clash in the playoffs?
There's never a moment where you feel like, okay, well, now I'm going to screw around on my phone because now I'm waiting for... Granted, I know there's reviews, but the lack of disruption...
in soccer uh makes it a more appealing watch than ever before for me all right so during the um the houston duke game i i taped it and then i re-watched it then at the end with 127 to go houston was at the free throw line they made i think two free throws and kelvin samson called timeout so from that point until the end of the game the final 87 seconds included four timeouts
Three replay reviews, and it took 25 minutes. It was insanity. I think that is a big problem. Certainly, the NBA has it as well. One quick soccer thing, which you'll appreciate. So last year, a buddy of mine who lives in London tells me that Harry Wilson, who's from Wales... and plays for Fulham, is a huge NBA fan.
He said he's going to be over there once the season is over, and that'll be during the Eastern Conference Finals. And he thinks there's a chance either the Knicks or the Celtics could be in the Conference Finals. Can you get him tickets? So, of course, I always promise things, which I know I really can't deliver. So I was like, yeah, I could get him tickets. So sure enough, he ends up coming over.
And by then, Boston had been in it. So who am I going to call for tickets? And I'm willing to buy them. I call up your good buddy, Brian Scalabrini. Brian says, how big of a player is he? I said, I think he's pretty big. So Brian gets his seats. We're third row on the baseline, right behind, a couple of rows behind Donnie Wahlberg. It's game one of the conference finals. What happens?
Jalen Brown hits the big shot at the end of regulation. Game goes into overtime. Indiana blew that game, obviously. Boston wins it. The So he becomes friendly with Brian. I become more friendly with him. We actually had him on radio after he had scored two late goals. He came in as a sub, tied the matchup, and then won it late, like in the 95th minute. We have him on radio. Huge NBA fan.
Think about this. And for the NBA, they have to love stuff like this. The kid's from Wales. He's playing in the Liverpool Academy. He's living in somebody's house who doesn't really even know. They're just housing him. He is able to... Through the internet, he becomes in love with the NBA. He loves Oklahoma City, the teams with Kevin Durant and those guys.
So I actually told him, I said, why don't you do this? Since you love the NBA, incorporate a basketball-themed kind of goal celebration. I kid you not, Ryan. That weekend they're playing. I have the video. He scores a goal. I'm like, he's not going to do it. He runs into the corner and does that thing where they slide. Grenade? I'm sorry? A grenade and then hands over the ears? He did the...
the two guns into the grenade. He runs and slides. Two minutes later, he scores again and he runs to the corner and he does like a James Harden dribbling between the legs and shoots like a jumper. And guess what? The goal ends up getting called back, but what do I care? I tape, I'm now rewinding it. I tape it off of TV and I post it on Twitter.
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Chapter 5: What is Frank Isola's perspective on international sports and NBA ownership?
And I think he will. I think for point guards and for centers coming into the NBA, there's definitely an adjustment period. I think the thing for him, I just think everything has to happen like a split second quicker. Whether it's getting the ball, getting rid of it, or going into his move, there just seems to be a little bit of a delay.
I think he's done really well this season, especially for a guy who the year before, remember, he was projected to be a second-round pick. He goes back to Purdue, they go to the national championship game, and he ends up going high in the draft. What's your take on everything, though, with Kaminga. I mean, let's think about it, Ryan. They play the Clippers, so that's a huge game.
That's a game to get into the top six. He does not play. Then you play an overtime game to avoid having to play in the 8-9 game on a Friday night. He doesn't play there. So those are the two biggest games of the season, and the guy doesn't play one second. And Kerr played, what, 10 guys the other night. That's pretty telling, isn't it?
I think it's very telling, but I also think it's confirmation of like what this Kaminga story has been with Golden State is we get excited about some of the bright moments. You know, remember last year I was like, this guy's hinting at, you know, if you guys are going to extend me or, you know, whatever, maybe it's time to move on.
And I'm like, has there ever been a player with such a lacking resume to start suggesting like, I need, I need some things to start breaking my way, but it's clearly just a trust thing. I mean, how many years would you sit here and look at the physical, um,
profile and his athleticism and it's funny because after that happened he actually came back and had like a really nice stretch like okay maybe the the the moment has happened for him something's gone off in his head where it's going to make some sense but look i think pojemski was terrible i thought he was terrible in the memphis game too or they were closing with him and it was like okay look he missed a couple shots he had a couple screw-ups now he's like hesitant and a hesitant pojemski's way worse than a super confident pojemski like he was last year
Yeah. He, he, he started to get much better this season. You know, the other funny thing about coming is, and I know that Draymond after the game came out and advocated for him and said, no, no, I think he's going to help us in the playoffs, but you know, Steve, Steve Kerr is not playing.
I mean, you've got three veteran players and obviously Steph and Draymond are a different situation with Steve Kerr. Cause they've been there for a long time, but you can include Jimmy Butler. Like if, if Steve Kerr, if Steph Curry was saying to Steve, Steve, we got to, I mean, Jonathan's got to be in there. You got to be playing Jonathan Kaminga. You know that he's playing.
So I know it's on the coach, but something tells me like the core group of that team, the veteran players are probably in lock and step with the head coach on those decisions in the two biggest games of the season.
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Chapter 6: What are the finals predictions and how do injuries affect teams?
Yeah. And I think you bring up so many great points. And number one, the whole thing about the bubble, A, you didn't travel. There was no travel. There were no fans. You never played a road game. And the Miami team, like, you know, they were all right, but... Yeah, but I think LeBron, you had your personal chef with you there. No, his personal chef couldn't be there. That was it.
That's why I was thinking he said it was the most difficult one. Maybe it was then. But Ryan, he diminishes what he did against the Golden State Warriors. That was a 73-win Golden State Warriors. That was a great team. They were up 3-1. And LeBron, and I said this at the time, I was at that game when he did it.
And everyone was killing LeBron for suckering Draymond into getting the technical foul, which meant he reached that threshold. He would be suspended. I said, if Michael Jordan had done that, we'd all be saying, that's Michael Jordan doing anything it takes to win. That's Michael Jordan outsmarting the competition. So I wasn't going to kill LeBron on that. But for them to win... win game five.
They came home and won game six, which is impressive, but not as impressive as winning game five. And LeBron, I think he and Kyrie both had 41 in that game. You go to game seven. I mean, you have the block, which is really his signature moment of his career. Kyrie hit the biggest shot in the history of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
You won a game seven on the road against a team that was never losing at home. They never lost at home during the regular season. You beat them in a game five and a game seven. You're going to compare that to winning in Orlando.
in the bubble are you kidding me so it was as a lot of people have said it's kind of was the summer league title that they won it was the whole thing was wacky good for them that they won it that does not compare to what he did with Cleveland and you're right it's a way to kind of elevate himself but I'm one of these people and I got to see Michael Jordan's last three championships I think that Jordan is better I think the fact that LeBron's even being mentioned
in the same conversation is all you need to know to me that tells me that the guy's an all-time player that people are actually putting you in the same category as michael jordan okay let's keep it moving because i think we covered all that stuff
New York and Detroit. I'm picking New York because I think it's it's just going to be a bit of a like I've used this phrase a lot lately here, but just playoff seasoning where this is going to be Detroit's playoff seasoning. And then, you know, we see where we go from here. But, you know, Brunson being back and he was scoring a ton of points. We know defense was an issue.
You know, who is New York now? Like pre Brunson injury. to post Brunson. Like there's some numbers that tell me that our exact same team, there's some other numbers that tell you that a little bit different. Are they better defensively during that stretch? Cause Brunson has only played like half the game since the all-star break.
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Chapter 7: What are the playoff expectations for New York Knicks vs. Detroit Pistons?
I'm almost looking at it as like a two-year window. And you haven't won the title since 1973. I would go for it. That's why I understood the move that they made to get Bridges. They were going for it. I don't think it's worked out yet the way that they thought it would, but I definitely would take a run at Kevin Durant. I think Kevin Durant, two more years where he could go for it and win.
And I think if I'm the Knicks, it's been since 73. They haven't been to the final since 99. I don't think they've been to the conference final in 2000. That's a quarter of a century ago. I'm going for it if I'm the Knicks. I'm going to make a trade like that if I can get Kevin Durant.
Okay, last one that I want to focus on and then I'll ask you an OKC question. So two more thoughts here. The Pacers-Bucks thing is pretty straightforward. I mean, can Giannis carry a team here? I think the Portis thing is easy maybe to lose and… just the traffic of all the stuff they were paying attention to. And he's been really good coming back, but this Pacers team is good.
They're not special, but they're good. I think last year's playoff run, if you really dig through it and who they went through, you know, it's, it's a nice Eastern conference finals appearance, but I didn't go into this year thinking they were one of the four best teams in the NBA or anything. So it's, it's the better team versus the best player.
And I picked the Pacers and I think it's a seven game series. Yeah.
So, you know, it's interesting, too, with the way Indiana, to me, had an underrated 50-win season. They kind of floated under the radar with that whole thing, with what they did. And I like the fact that Rick Carlisle, you know, maybe tended to be a little rigid over the years, but he's got this team, and they just go up and down the court, and they're a lot of fun to watch.
Now, they did lose the season series, and the one game they won, that was that Halliburton crazy four-point play that he had late in the game. I don't think enough people, though, have focused on Giannis because we talk so much about Kawhi missing games. Last year, Jimmy Butler didn't play in the playoffs. Well, neither did Giannis. And the year before, what was it?
He only played in three of the games. In fact, I think they lost every game that he had played against Miami the year before. So Giannis hasn't won a playoff game in three years. And the fact that now with Lillard out, he's getting more touches, but his shots are about the same. you know, they're basically, you know, he's initiating all the offense and it's worked out really well.
And they finished their season winning eight games in a row. So I, I know a lot of the Nick fans said I'd rather play the box than Detroit because, you know, if, you know, I just think, you know, Detroit worries me. I'd be worried about Giannis. You know, I agree. I think I agree from this standpoint, he's going to be the best player in the series. I think he's going to find a way to,
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Chapter 8: How does the LeBron vs. Jordan GOAT debate influence NBA narratives?
I've done a lot of like traveling for bachelor parties and it's just like kind of sucks making everyone spend all that money. It's a middle point. Yeah. So like we're renting a house. We're going to drink a bunch at the house. We'll go to the sports book. We'll gamble a bunch.
I think it'll still be a good time, but also, like, pretty close. See, Ryan's got this look on his face like he's disappointed. I actually totally get it. So we've done the Vegas thing with the friend group. We have done Maine multiple times, middle of nowhere. We've done Vermont. I forget what this other one was. But the best ones are just, like, it doesn't really matter the location.
You're just with your guys, and you're just hanging out. Like, I'm not a big, like, what... Because I feel like, and this is, you know... Bachelor parties are different. They have every minute planned out. Everyone has to be super cheery. And guys are like, let's just sit around and watch UFC this weekend and bet on some sports.
We're going to be drinking in the house the majority of the time. Exactly.
That's all you need to do. That's awesome. Guys don't get to do that all the time, especially with 10 guys at a time. So honestly, I kind of think the location, Ryan, is irrelevant. This is just a good long weekend to hang out and drink with your boys and maybe go to the casino a little bit. It's not like... It's cool if you go to the Bahamas or Mexico and you're at the beach and whatever.
That's cool. But at the end of the day... Just the 10 guys hanging out, playing some beer pong, maybe some cards, betting on sports. That's been 64 set up. Yeah. Play some Mario Kart. We brought MVP 05 back in the day. It was awesome. So I'm with you, Oregon. I'm excited for you, dude.
Was Bridgeport booked?
Was it like a convention?
I'm not gonna lie. I don't even know where that is.
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