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00:00Boy, thank goodness this game is happening.
00:02Yeah, boy. Thank God.
00:06No, no, no. For real.
00:08No, for real, it's good that the Warriors get to keep playing as the 10 seed.
00:14Like, cool, that's the construct.
00:17Them's the rules. They're the 10 seed. That's great.
00:20I guess, let me ask it to you this way.
00:24Especially for you and others out there who are anti-play in tournament.
00:28If you're anti-play in tournament, I guess I could argue that you wish the Warriors season was over right
00:37now.
00:38It's not about a wish. I don't wish that it was over.
00:41Or you think it should be.
00:41It should be over. Yes, you are 37 and 45.
00:45You are a losing team. You lost more than you won.
00:49There were nine teams in your conference better than you.
00:51And because of this cockamamie play-in tournament, you're the 10 seed and you get a chance to continue playing.
00:59And I think that it's, by and large, if you go every year that they've had it, there's at least
01:04one team every time that has a losing record.
01:07And you get to still have a shot to make the playoffs and then get trampled by the one seed.
01:13By the way, there were moments through NBA history where the eight seed had a losing record.
01:18That happens.
01:19It does. Usually when one conference is woefully weaker than the other.
01:23But I mean, like...
01:24I mean, if you're the eighth best team in your conference, then you're the eighth best team and you go
01:29to the playoffs.
01:29Are you suggesting a rule that if you've lost more than you won, you should not be in the playoffs
01:34in sports?
01:35No. What I'm suggesting is that if you have 15 teams in a conference, and soon there'll be 16 in
01:41each, I think, when you get the expansion that's coming.
01:44If you're not one of the eight best, then you go ahead and you have your summer start early.
01:49That's all I'm suggesting.
01:51And if they want to keep the play-in, keep the play-in.
01:53And baseball has expanded their playoffs and football has expanded their playoffs.
01:58Football, you now have 14 of the 32.
02:01And in the NBA, you've got 20 of 30 that have a chance.
02:05I love this. Yeah, I absolutely love this.
02:08I think it's awesome for all kinds of reasons.
02:11And I don't say that because the Warriors play tonight.
02:14I've said that every year.
02:15I just think there are a few things in sports that I look for.
02:19And when you can create urgency and when you can create drama,
02:24I am not going to be one here that stands here when you do and says,
02:30you shouldn't have done that because you concocted it.
02:33I mean, like, if that's the way that we think about sports,
02:38it's almost as if I could argue, why are we doing this in the first place?
02:42You know what I mean?
02:42Like, we all love this.
02:44We do parades.
02:45We cry when our team wins for the first time.
02:48But what is it?
02:50It's not a life's need.
02:51It's just fun.
02:53It's something on which we connect.
02:55If you're a dude at a party, you often don't even know what else to talk about
02:59when you meet some other guy.
03:01How about those Warriors?
03:03Did you see that game last night?
03:05Whatever it is.
03:05So I just, I have a hard time.
03:07And again, you get to like what you like and you get to not like what you don't like.
03:12But I think it's interesting in sports.
03:16I hear a lot of takes in 2026 asking for less.
03:22And all I ever want to say to those people is you're allowed to have that opinion.
03:27It's going to be a losing opinion, though.
03:29Like there's never, ever, ever going to be leagues who want to do less.
03:35They're not going to peel back.
03:37They're not going to do fewer playoffs.
03:39They're not going to do fewer teams.
03:40They're not going to do a shorter schedule.
03:43It's more, more, more, more because, unfortunately, for those of you who want less,
03:49there is an appetite for it.
03:52There's an appetite.
03:53It's not even about more or less.
03:54Like this is more to the extent that you have, what, a total of six additional play-in games.
04:00So it's not really that much more.
04:02And what happened this year is all the urgency that you're celebrating this week,
04:07the last month of Warrior basketball, there was no urgency.
04:09So if you were pushing for the eight seed, knowing that the 10 was not going to get you anywhere,
04:15you would have had more urgency over the course of the last month as opposed to,
04:19ah, heck, we're the 10, so we don't have to rush Steph back.
04:23We don't have to do anything.
04:25But, you know, we don't even have to try to win.
04:27But there has been that urgency in the past.
04:29That is not the play-in tournament to blame on your point there.
04:32Your point is valid.
04:33But that's not the play-in tournament's fault.
04:35That's the 10 tanking team's fault.
04:37Well, it's the play-in to the extent that, like, the Warriors didn't have to worry about having to fight
04:42to be eight.
04:43And, you know, the way the season went down the stretch, they probably wouldn't have gotten the eight anyway.
04:48Yeah, they wouldn't have gotten it.
04:48But they at least would have tried up to a point.
04:50And I don't think over the last month the Warriors necessarily tried to win games that often.
04:56Right, but, again, that's on the tanking teams.
04:59I guess, like, if what you're asking for is you want teams to try to get the eight,
05:03what's the problem with the teams trying to get the 10?
05:06What's the problem?
05:07If you have five tanking teams in your conference and you did.
05:10Yeah, but you shouldn't have any.
05:11Like, that's on the NBA to fix that.
05:13Well, it's also on the play-in as well because, you know,
05:17if you're not going to really be a top-six team and be a good team,
05:22if you're nine or ten, the likelihood of you getting out of the play-in
05:26and then going out and beating the one or the two, it's not very likely.
05:30It's not likely if you're the eight.
05:31Well, last year the Warriors were the seven.
05:33Right.
05:33And they were able to, you know, get the win and then beat the two.
05:36And that was a circumstance.
05:37Which is very rare.
05:38Right, and it was a circumstance where from two to seven and even two to eight
05:42was incredibly bunched up.
05:44Right.
05:45And the teams weren't all that different.
05:46It's not like that every year.
05:48We believe is a documentary because it's so rare and because of who the team was
05:53and the way they played and all of those things.
05:56Yeah, I just, I've never felt like a prerequisite for the playoffs is feeling
06:01like everybody's got a really good chance to beat each other.
06:04That's never been part of it for me.
06:06I mean, I actually think the play-in tournament is much more fair than what it
06:12used to be.
06:13And here's why I feel that way.
06:15Like, there is actually a real race all year long to get to the six.
06:21Because if you cannot be top six in a conference, now you've got to work harder.
06:26Now you've got to put more stress on.
06:28You've got to earn your way into the playoffs because you weren't that good of a team.
06:32I like that.
06:33I like that the teams that didn't play well during the regular season now need to work
06:38harder in order to get to the end.
06:41No different in the NFL.
06:42You're the one seed, you get a break.
06:44If you don't earn the one seed, you've got to work harder.
06:47If you're the seven seed, you never get a home game.
06:50Like, those things are built in.
06:52And so I actually like it from that perspective, too.
06:56I like seven, eight, nine, and ten having to do something extra just to get in because
07:01they didn't earn more.
07:02Right, for me, you would have to do more to get in as the eight.
07:06And if you were nine or ten, that's where the work would come in.
07:09Like, this whole Clippers in Portland situation where they had a game, last game of the year,
07:15second to last game of the year, and that one would have had a whole lot more meaning
07:18had it been for the eight spot in the playoffs.
07:21But instead, it was just, you know, seeding-wise in the play-in tournament, it had less, for me,
07:27of a dramatic impact based on the fact that both teams were already going to be
07:31in this play-in tournament.
07:32I mean, there's going to be examples, year to year, there's going to be examples that
07:35go both ways.
07:37I'm not saying you're wrong about that.
07:38There are going to be years like this year where the play-in teams were set and it just
07:42ended up not mattering down the stretch.
07:44There will be other years where I do think there will be a battle for the ten or for the
07:50six or whatever.
07:52And I do think the NBA is going to make moves going forward to sort of take away the incentive
07:59for tanking.
08:00And then you're not going to have these ten teams that did what they did this year and
08:04just hang out at the bottom and watch the rest of the process unfold.
08:07Yeah.
08:07And I don't know if you go all the way back to how the lottery started, which was seven
08:12teams that didn't make the playoffs.
08:14All seven had flat odds.
08:15And the Knicks got the envelope drawn.
08:17Yep.
08:18Then they got the first pick.
08:19And each of the teams in the lottery, including the Warriors that year, had a one in seven
08:23chance.
08:24And so flat odds would maybe de-incentivize the tanking that we have currently going on
08:30where, you know, the top four get a certain great percentage.
08:33And then it kind of tears down from there.
08:35But for me, the idea of tanking is a much more complicated thing than the play-in tournament.
08:41And I know I'm in the minority.
08:42There are some people who agree with me that it just is, it's not necessarily rewarding
08:48teams for being that good.
08:49And I'd have to go back year over year.
08:51And I think at least one team every year goes into the play-in tournament with a losing
08:56record.
08:56And I just think that's a bad look.
08:59888-957-9570.
09:01How about Quincy in Oakland?
09:02Quincy, thanks for calling, man.
09:04What are you doing?
09:08Do we have Quincy?
09:10Okay.
09:11All right.
09:11We lost Quincy.
09:12Quincy, give us a buzz back.
09:14888-957-9570 as the Warriors enter in to the play-in tournament tonight.
09:20And so, you know, good day for me to say it, but I have felt this all along.
09:27In fact, almost every time you see one of our sports leagues kind of add a little wrinkle,
09:33whether it's the seventh playoff team in the NFL, whether it's the wild card rounds in
09:40baseball, I do think a fairness thing comes into play.
09:43Like, there was that period of time where if you were a wild card team in Major League Baseball,
09:49you'd work for 162 games, you'd make the playoffs, and then it's like, okay, play a game tomorrow
09:54night to see if you're still alive.
09:56That felt a little bit unfair.
09:59And so they changed that.
10:01But, quite honestly, any of these things that has led to more games, more urgency, more fan bases
10:12that are in some way welcomed to the party, I'm in.
10:17I'm just in.
10:18Yeah, I think baseball, they made the right change last year.
10:21Maybe it was the year before where now you play a best of three.
10:24If you're a wild card, you play a best of three at the higher-seeded ballpark, and you
10:29play all three there.
10:30That at least gives you a little bit more of an edge if you are.
10:34I think it's if you're the lowest of the division winners, then you get the wild card, and then
10:39the other two wild card teams square off.
10:41So I like that.
10:42And, you know, every league, it seems like it's going to continue to make some changes
10:46to their format.
10:47College football probably will get to a 16-team playoff format sooner rather than later.
10:53And, you know, more games, great, but it's really just more blowouts, in my opinion.
10:57So I'm already kind of dreading that.
11:00College basketball is going to go from 68 teams up to maybe 96, where you get, you know,
11:06the top 16 teams in each, or the top four in each bracket will get a bye and all the
11:12rest
11:12of it.
11:12And it's just enough's enough.
11:13It's too much.
11:14There are certain formats, I think, that work, and they're ideal, and I think this was one
11:19of them with the eight teams.
11:20All right, well, I'll let you know what happens in the game tonight, then.
11:23Yeah, I'll watch it.
11:24I'll call you.
11:24No, no, no.
11:25No, you can't watch it.
11:26Oh, okay.
11:27You get to decide what I can either watch or not watch?
11:30Well, you don't want it to exist, so why would you watch it?
11:33Because, well, A, it's my job, and B, I love watching this team, and C, I love watching
11:39Steph Curry play basketball.
11:40And thank God for the play-ins.
11:41Oh, yeah, and when I get down on my knees tonight and I say my evening prayers, it's going
11:48to start with this cockamamie play-in game.
11:50Dear God, thank you for creating this cockamamie play-in tournament, and thank you for everything
11:56else.
11:57Oh, yeah, for my family, too.
11:58But first and foremost, the play-in tournament, Big G.
12:03Big G?
12:04For God.
12:05Yeah, no, I got that.
12:06Yeah, okay.
12:06I'm just telling you.
12:07What do they call him?
12:07The Big G?
12:08I don't think you call him the Big G.
12:09I mean, God, if you're not too busy, you know, solving all the world's problems, can
12:14I just pay my thanks, Big G, for the play-in tourney?
12:17I wonder who Big G is rooting for tonight.
12:20Here's something.
12:21Well, Ramona says the basketball gods, you know?
12:23This has got to be Twitter.
12:25This has to be Twitter.
12:27You're looking at Twitter, so.
12:28I know, but that's what I'm saying.
12:30Like, when I say it's got to be Twitter, my point is, is that this can't be real life.
12:36Bob Fitzgerald would lose his mind.
12:38And I actually want to send out a special invite right now on our phone lines to anybody,
12:44any of you Warrior fans who legitimately, and I mean this now, you legitimately are rooting
12:51for them to lose tonight.
12:54I'm not supposed to do this until the end of the show, but our engaging Dub Nation poll,
12:58I just decided to check in on it to kind of take, like, I wonder, how are we doing?
13:04And again, for those of you who don't know, the poll question was, are you rooting for
13:09the Warriors to win tonight?
13:11It's a simple yes or no question.
13:14And right now, more than a third of the people responding, more than a third of you, are saying
13:22that you are not rooting for the Warriors to win tonight.
13:24Now, it's Twitter, so maybe those are non-Warrior fans, maybe they're just a bunch of smart asses.
13:31Maybe you actually feel that way, but that's what I'm saying.
13:34I'd love to talk to a Warrior fan or eight right now who is actually, legitimately, rooting
13:44against them tonight.
13:45All right, before you respond to that, Dibs, Grandy, do we have the thing that Slates did
13:50on ESPN this morning where he talked about the scenario that is in play tonight and how
13:56the organization, maybe on the inside, actually feels about it?
14:00Do we have that, Grandy?
14:02We don't have it.
14:03Okay, let's see if we can grab that, because I know we have it somewhere, because I heard
14:07it on 95-7, the game on my way in.
14:09And Anthony Slater said he thinks there might be some in the organization, and I quote, who
14:20are privately kind of feeling like, eh, might be a good thing to score fewer points than
14:27the other team tonight.
14:28Might be people within the organization who go to Twitter and weigh in on the poll.
14:32Maybe.
14:32If it's 38% of the Twitter respondents, it's probably not 38% of the Warriors organization,
14:38but I wouldn't be surprised if privately there aren't some people thinking, you know, we
14:43get in this lottery, and, you know, we might get lucky and move up to the top four, and
14:48if we do, that might be a danglable asset.
14:51I mean, listen, okay, we have it now.
14:54Here it is.
14:55Listen to Slates today on ESPN.
14:57Well, they're not not trying to get into the playoffs, right?
15:00Draymond's going to guard Kawhi, and he's going to try to have a good defensive night and
15:04then probably tell us all about it afterwards, and, you know, hopefully the voters, you
15:08know, for him.
15:08Swing his way a little bit.
15:10Steph's going to try to get hot.
15:11It's a showcase stage for them.
15:13Draymond said it.
15:13They don't have many of these type of nights left, but I think it is fair to wonder organizationally
15:17whether it's better for them to lose because I'll give you an example.
15:20Last year, I covered the 9-10.
15:22Dallas Mavericks were in that game.
15:23They won it.
15:24They then played the final playing game, lost.
15:26Memphis goes and gets swept by the Thunder.
15:28Dallas keeps their lottery odds, jumps up, gets Cooper flagged.
15:31If the Warriors lose, they keep their lottery odds.
15:339.4% chance to jump up in the top four of this draft.
15:37If they win their way into the play-in, they lose those lottery odds, and then they get
15:40the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.
15:42Our graphics guy is right here.
15:43Better chance to get 9.4% chance to get into the top four or to beat the Thunder.
15:48Okay.
15:49So, like, I get all that.
15:51Then again, are we being wooed by something that doesn't actually feel all that real?
15:59Like, if you woke up in the morning and I was like, hey, actually, here's a better example.
16:08All right?
16:08Let's say you and I are in our 20s.
16:10We're out at a bar.
16:11Okay?
16:12And I buy you a shot.
16:14Yeah.
16:15And then I point to her over there.
16:19Yeah.
16:19See her?
16:20Yeah.
16:20All right.
16:21Go ask her out.
16:23There's a 9.4% chance that she says yes.
16:27I like my odds.
16:29You kidding me?
16:319.4?
16:32Pitch me.
16:32I must be dreaming.
16:34I must be talking to the wrong guy.
16:35You are talking to the wrong guy.
16:36I'm talking to the wrong guy.
16:37Because, A, I would go over and talk to her.
16:41Well, of course you would.
16:42But, B, the odds would not be 9.4% that she's going to say yes to this.
16:46But, I, yeah, to that extent.
16:49Or.
16:49I'm not sure what you're saying right now.
16:51Are you saying they'd be higher or lower?
16:53What I'm saying.
16:53You are the king of higher or lower.
16:55That's your game.
16:57Lower, Jim.
16:58What I'm saying is I'm like the Giants offense.
17:01One, two, three strikes I'm out.
17:03Don't do that.
17:04I just did.
17:05I tried to spend the whole day not talking about this.
17:08You want to talk about cockamamie.
17:10You want to talk about striking out.
17:11Hey, hey, Alice.
17:13You want to go out with me on Friday?
17:16No, Mark.
17:17The answer would be no.
17:18Now, the other part of the scenario would be, okay, 9.4% chance I go over there, ask her
17:23out, and she says yes.
17:24Or I can, you know, go, I guess, somewhere else and go to, like, I don't know, a supermodel convention.
17:32And I've got a 1% chance of getting a yes there.
17:36That's too high of a number.
17:381% to beat, to what, to win two games and then beat OKC?
17:43I was talking about your supermodel reference.
17:45Well, the point is, like, I'd rather have the 9.4% chance of getting a yes from that gal
17:52across the way who's, you know, a 7 or an 8.
17:55I'm a 3, so, yeah, it's a 9% chance.
17:57Or you go to a supermodel convention or, you know, the SI swimsuit reveal party.
18:03I mean.
18:04That's like beating OKC.
18:05I guess this is kind of the way.
18:06You like what I do with this analogy, Tim?
18:07This is the way that I kind of look at it.
18:11And we're going to go to the phones here in just a sec.
18:14But I like dessert.
18:15I have a sweet tooth.
18:17I really do enjoy dessert.
18:19What is dessert?
18:20Dessert is something that is really good in the moment.
18:25But it's bad for me long term.
18:28I know this.
18:29I still choose it.
18:31Yeah.
18:31So do you.
18:32So does just about everybody listening.
18:34They got a whole menu of these things at every restaurant, including the one we're sitting at right now.
18:39Flash.
18:40OK.
18:41Why do we have desserts?
18:43We have desserts because sometimes you take the pleasure of now over your long term future.
18:49And that's how I feel about rooting for this game tonight.
18:52I am aware that it's not best for their long term future.
18:55So what?
18:56So what?
18:57I want to take a big bite of it.
18:58Yeah.
18:58I would love to see them win.
19:00And I would love to see them win again and be the eighth seed.
19:03You didn't take on Oklahoma City.
19:05That would be to be fun.
19:06I'm into that.
19:07Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that I love their chances to, you know, this, that or the other thing.
19:13I like basketball.
19:14I like the Warriors.
19:15I like it when they win.
19:17The other side of it, though, is if they don't and you're in the lottery, well, then I'll be paying
19:22a lot more attention to the lottery.
19:23See, this is bugging me.
19:24I just said, like, I'd love to talk to someone who's rooting for them to lose.
19:27And our lines just went bananas.
19:29Yeah.
19:30Filled with filled with haters.
19:31You out here sounding like a hater, Phil Mo Mike.
19:35Hey, put Phil Mo on the line.
19:38Phil Mo, thank you for calling.
19:39But now I get to use your line on you.
19:42You out here sounding like a hater.
19:45Oh, no.
19:45I'm sounding like a realist.
19:48Sounding like a smart person.
19:49We don't want to get Steph Curry hurt.
19:51And this is the thing.
19:53Why do we try?
19:54Don't try to be a winner now.
19:56You had the whole season to win.
19:59You know what I'm saying?
20:00Man, you had a whole season to win.
20:02But guess what y'all was doing?
20:03Y'all was making excuses.
20:04You had all these cockamamie excuses.
20:07All these things.
20:08You can't sleep in your bed.
20:10All this weird stuff.
20:11You're a loser the whole year.
20:13We've been losing.
20:14We've been blowing leads for three years in a row.
20:17Don't try to be a winner at the end of the year.
20:19That's not even cute, Mark.
20:22Hey, Philmo.
20:23Are the excuses that the Warriors have, like if I try to meet you halfway, you kind of reference them
20:30whining about travel early in the year.
20:33If I throw back at you, Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler both missed half the year.
20:39That's not legit.
20:41Like, did they really have the opportunity to win this year?
20:45Did they?
20:48Well, after the injuries, they did not.
20:50I mean, no.
20:51If you look at it that way, no.
20:53But it's like, don't try to like use this, acting like we being strategical about losing these games, about playing
21:01these minutes, just to get to the 10th seed.
21:03Ain't nothing strategic about coming in 10th place.
21:10Brought his own jingle bell.
21:12Yeah, he did.
21:13No, that's fair.
21:15Strategy left town as soon as the Warriors' best players did.
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