00:00we now know the teams that will at least try to play their way in to the playoffs and then
00:05the other playoff teams so let's take a look at what we know right now anyway
00:09playoffs wise in the nba uh as we kick off or tip off i guess our nba playoff preview
00:24so the playoffs are here and the plan gets going on tuesday evening um this is going to be a
00:31deep
00:32in-depth breakdown just a couple quick thoughts on the series that we know right now uh let's start
00:37in the western conference the phoenix suns and the portland trailblazers are the seven eight matchup
00:42a couple of really good stories like it storyline wise the two play-in games i think match up in
00:48the west with phoenix against portland and the clippers against golden state where you have
00:52phoenix and portland kind of like they're a little bit different like portland's kind of this younger
00:57team on the rise phoenix no one really saw this coming after the durant disaster and everything
01:02like that um but for both of these teams to be here is a really cool story i i do
01:07i do find this
01:09to be a pretty even matchup um maybe even the most of the the four play-ins that we get
01:15but
01:16i kind of like phoenix here i think they are just a slight step above the portland trailblazers i don't
01:22think either of these teams has a real shot of upsetting the apple cart in the west but i think
01:27phoenix gets a pretty good performance here um that they do have a bit more playoff experience in
01:31portland i think that's going to win out and then you look at clippers against golden state and it's a
01:35couple of veteran teams trying to hold on just trying to drag this thing across the finish line
01:40i i like the clippers here i think if kawai is healthy he's the best player in this even with
01:46steph coming back and everything like that i i just the injuries have ravaged golden state the last
01:52couple of i was gonna say last couple of months last couple of seasons i i just don't think they
01:57have enough in the tank even with the clippers maybe being a little bit shorthanded but um we've
02:02seen kawai take over in these spots now we've seen curry take over in these spots too um so we'll
02:06see what he has and what he can do here in this series but i like the clippers there in
02:12that spot
02:13i guess it would be portland against the clippers i think i'd honestly i think i would go clippers
02:16there too um to again just with kawai just just to be able to to get it across but then
02:21who knows
02:21if like that's we're asking two games in a row here so uh we will see the west proper matchups
02:28that we have right now lakers against houston this would be a really intriguing series if luka
02:33and reeves were healthy uh they are not and even if they are able to check back in i don't
02:37know how
02:37much i would trust it houston was a team that i thought could win a championship if they were
02:41healthy but they've just lost so much of what i think would make them dangerous and i don't know
02:48if they ever fully answered a lot of the questions around those injuries they are still a very good
02:54offensive rebounding team and they're still a very good offensive team but when it comes down
02:58now to playoff time comes down to those crunch time moments um even against the lakers here like
03:04who is leading the ball up the floor who is getting them into that offense and can they survive without
03:09an adams in that spot i think they get a good matchup here with the lakers uh dominating um has
03:14certainly had his moments this year but i think that's one that they can kind of exploit the no luka
03:19and reeves does take a lot of the drama out of this one though so i do like houston in
03:23this one
03:23denver against minnesota i find this one really interesting because these are two teams that have
03:27started to build up a bit of a rivalry over the the last couple of seasons with playoff matchups
03:31and stuff like that and they both have clear ways that they would win but like for denver their
03:39offense is great for minnesota offense is good defense is great right and then when you look at
03:44the flip side of those matchups again denver is better on offense and minnesota i think is taking a
03:50step back on offense even with what i thought was a good trade deadline minnesota is better on defense
03:54and i think denver has taken a step back on defense so each side their strength has gotten stronger but
04:00in the end it's still yokich and murray is back they're working pretty well if watson can give them
04:06any kind of minutes coming off of an injury they've really worked on improving their depth it hasn't
04:11really hit in the way that i think a lot of us thought it would this season the uh mpj
04:17trade hasn't
04:18really hit the way we thought it would this season love the offseason that they had and they're still
04:21third but it does feel like there's a bit more of a ceiling on this team this season than there
04:28is in
04:29the past but i don't think that ceiling includes bumping up against minnesota so i like the nuggets
04:33in this spot uh philadelphia taking on orlando in the east now in the 7-8 wildly disappointing season
04:39with some of the injury issues and you can say that for both sides but for orlando they have to
04:45win
04:45this and like they're unless they go to the conference finals the coach is getting fired
04:49anyway but this has been such a disaster after all they gave up for bane and everything there and i
04:56think there's honestly a lesson with that and with how bridges is doing with the knicks and it's it's
05:00something i've got caught up in where you have like bane to the magic made so much sense because this
05:06team could defend like no other and they just had trouble getting the offense going and bane felt like
05:13it could be the final piece for this offense to be good enough with a championship caliber defense
05:18to have them have a real shot this year in the east and it just it hasn't worked and i
05:24kind of
05:25compare it to bridges with the knicks where they gave up a ton to bring this guy in but it
05:30felt like
05:30at the time they were maybe a bridges away from being a legitimate championship contender and so it's
05:35one of those ones that it ends up being worth it if you can go win that championship but you
05:40still
05:41have to give the appropriate value in a trade because now it looks like just a disaster with
05:46the bane deal um and the bridges one is getting a lot of fans out in new york pretty frustrated
05:50as
05:51well um i don't know why the knicks are getting a drive-by in this um part but i just
05:55something i've
05:56been thinking of with this i still think again it all depends on philadelphia's health and everything
06:01um i think like playoff wise orlando can really lock things down on defense i just don't trust them
06:07enough to be able to score in the big moments where philadelphia i think again depending on
06:13health and all of that has guys that at least can do that so i do think philly wins this
06:16one here
06:17charlotte against miami charlotte's been one of the best stories the back half of the season
06:21can they do it under the playoff lights against heat culture and uh bam at a bio who can put
06:26up 83
06:27points in a game um what we'll see about that i don't think either of these teams beats orlando
06:32in the the second part of the play-in though the two series that we do know about in the
06:36east
06:37cleveland taking on toronto the raptors love them they've struggled against high level teams this
06:43season i think the big matchup here for the raptors is how do they handle the guards with the
06:49cleveland cavaliers um on radio out here in calgary we had kai gamage on and talking about that matchup
06:55specifically like quickly he's not the worst defender but he's not a lockdown guy by any stretch of the
07:02imagination um rj i think you could probably put him in that kind of category as well and then
07:07going up against harden and donovan mitchell that that doesn't feel ideal where the young guys you
07:16have off the bench probably feel like the better lockdown guys but are you going to really make that
07:21big of a move to start them so i'll be interested to see how toronto can kind of match up
07:25in this
07:26series with those guys and and how they try to play this cleveland is a better team um no question
07:31about that it is just cleveland has really really stumbled when it gets to playoff time and james
07:37harden doesn't give you a whole lot more confidence around that so we'll see what can kind of come out
07:42of that but for toronto if they're going to advance beyond this point they're going to have to hope
07:46that cleveland slips on a banana peel a couple of times nicks against atlanta i think the the wings
07:52of the the hawks and how great they've been able to play in this back part of the season
07:56that is going to give new york a bit of a scare but i do think there's going to be
08:00enough moments
08:01where the knicks can kind of match those guys and then there's just nothing that can compare to
08:05brunson and kat over on the atlanta after that portion so it's been a fun story for atlanta you
08:12guys know if you've watched any of my stuff i'm not the biggest trey young fan so it's been fun
08:17to
08:17see this team step up without him and make this run here in the playoffs but again i just don't
08:25think
08:25they're as good as the new york knicks are so those are just my thoughts on where we're at
08:29playoffs wise right now i'm i am sure some fan bases disagree with me so hit me up in the
08:34comments or in the chat if you're watching this live and we can have at it in there tall john
08:39over on twitch um this is not a shot at the jazz but probably a good year for them to
08:45be done and
08:46utah don't have to try and schedule balance two teams in that arena giving the mammoth crew a chance
08:52to focus on ice quality and environment with um with i expect with me expecting a sold out standing
08:58room only playoff game yeah you're right like it's that would have been quite the thing to kind
09:02of balance in year one for or year two year one year two year two for utah um trying to
09:08to make all
09:09of that work that that would be a lot um and you're you're fine to take shots at utah this
09:13has been
09:13a pretty despicable tanking season for them and i'm hoping that they're done with this tanking thing
09:20with the acquisition of um triple j at the deadline and probably one more good draft pick here to go
09:26for them so um you can take shots at utah it's totally fine uh all right so again that's going
09:32to wrap it up here for the basketball talk but if you got more hoops that you want to chat
09:36with
09:36throw it in the chat whether you're watching on twitch or youtube if you're watching live
09:40and we can keep that conversation going or i can bounce back to it anyway once i'm wrapped up with
09:45whatever segment i am in at the time and if you are listening to this but want couch potato diary
09:49with
09:50you in a bit more of a convenient fashion wherever you go uh just search the couch potato diary
09:54podcast again this is the thousandth episode of the couch potato diary podcast and it's available on
10:00spotify on apple podcasts or wherever you get your pods
Comments