The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Rudy’s Diabolical Game 5, LAC-DEN Preview, and Whether or Not to Call Dad After a Playoff Loss With Austin Rivers
01 May 2025
Russillo starts the show with his thoughts on the Timberwolves closing out the Lakers in five games (1:27). Then he’s joined by Austin Rivers to discuss why the Lakers had no chance in their series, why things become more difficult for Harden in the playoffs, and whether the Bucks need to consider trading Giannis this offseason (20:00). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle (1:06:28)! Is it bad manners to poop in someone’s house before the owners do? 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: Austin Rivers Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
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RG-Help.com On today's episode of the podcast, Minnesota in five. What happened? It was impressive. It was also sort of non-impressive, at least with last night, except for one man. Maybe two men. So we'll get into breaking that down. I have more on the rest of the playoffs, including Denver, up 3-2 on the Clippers. Houston taking game five at home.
And some of the other stuff from the East with our guy Austin Rivers. And we'll talk a little bit about his dad. And that awful loss from Milwaukee ending their season. And we've got life advice. That was impressive, but it kind of wasn't. Minnesota should have won that game by 30 points last night. Timberwolves close out the Lakers in five games.
And they closed out last night because of one, Rudy Gobert. Yeah, 27-24. You probably know that by now, but if you don't, you're like, what? For the series? No, no. Last night, he was a beast. For somebody that is not always beastly. So let's get to my thoughts and why I thought I should have been 30. At one point, starting the fourth quarter, Minnesota was up one, 81-80.
And the whole second half, they were up 10 at the half. I just expected they would finally start hitting threes. They'd pull away by 20, maybe a 20-plus point win. Not necessarily how I felt at the beginning because you never really know what Luka would get to his injury. You always wonder if LeBron is capable of doing something really special again like he'd done earlier in the series.
There's always the shooting variance part of it, but the first few minutes of the game, I'm like, this is not a solvable problem, I don't believe, for the Lakers. And Minnesota's defense was really good. Their energy was terrific. I love whenever you're pushing.
I just think transition is almost underrated, even though the math tells us that points per possession in transition – granted, maybe you're baking in a lot of just the turnover fast breaks with no defense whatsoever, but that –
That kind of non-fast break transition where you make them chase the matchups, especially LeBron who's not going to chase everybody and match up Luka who can just be absolutely lost out there. And if you have anyone with any kind of size and any momentum going up against the small Lakers lineup, there's just a lot of points.
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