Hour 1: How Costly is the Spurs Loss to the Nuggets?

Hey sports fans the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events ESPN shows and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up then start streaming in the ESPN app. So all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Nikola Jokic needs to play 15 to 20 minutes to be eligible for MVP. A typical day but not the same old thing. Jokic scores again goes down for his 23rd point. Spurs will be the two seed regardless of the outcome. Wow! Carter Bryant throwing it down on Jokic. I don't win the same old things y'all. And Denver the number three seed in playing Minnesota in the first round. Hello everyone. Happy Monday and welcome to First Take. Shay Kornet here with you. Yes, the NBA regular season came to a close. We had the Masters yesterday. Lots to get into today. Good morning, Stephen A. and Brian Wintour. How are we? Good morning, good morning. Morning Shay. I'm just, first of all Shay, it's lovely to see you. I hope you had a marvelous, marvelous weekend. I'm just marveling at the tie selection of Brian Wintour. I mean the brother looks smooth. I have to give it to him. I like that tie my brother. Way to go my man. Way to go. You know, Wendy. We'll see how you feel after two hours of this, Stephen A. We'll see if he's still setting out compliments. Alright, let's go to the NBA because I mentioned yesterday was the regular season finale. Quite a few outcomes actually impacted the playoff field. We start in the West where Denver beat San Antonio last night. Nikola Jokic played the first half and dropped a casual 23 points. Victor Wevinjana on the other hand did not play. He sat to rest that rib contusion that he was dealing with earlier last week. The Nuggets win their 12th straight game. They'll face Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs. The Spurs as the two seed will face the winner of the Sun's Trailblazers' plan matchup that will happen in the coming days. But let's go to the Spurs here. How costly is this loss for them because had they won the game maybe the seating would have been different. Wendy, what do you think? Okay, I purport to be some sort of basketball expert. And let me just say that I think it was easy in the world of tanking that the NBA has been in for the last few weeks to just sort of disregard a lot of these games over the weekend because a whole bunch of players were sitting and it's like get us to the playoffs. Having said that, I do not understand what went down with the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs over the last couple of days. I just don't get it. I don't understand what they were doing. I know what they've said, but these teams have strategy departments that are multiple people deep. They plot out strategies for years in advance. They rank every second round picks value for seven years and I flat don't get the strategy of how this went down. The Denver Nuggets, actively as far as I could tell, were trying not to be the three seed. They were trying to force their way into the four seed because they didn't play anybody all weekend. Shay, they sat everybody on Friday against the Thunder. Okay, the Thunder are a good team, but the Thunder were sitting everybody, but they still won. Then they sat everybody yesterday apparently because now I know what they said, Shay, what they said was they were worried about health and I know that they had injuries and I can't deny that, but I have to look at their actions. It looked to me dumb, dumb that I am that the Nuggets were trying like crazy to get out of the three seed so that they could avoid playing the Minnesota Timberwolves. They can deny that. They can call me names, but their actions indicate to me that this is exactly what they were trying to do. Now, this would should have been seen as a absolutely wonderful opportunity for the Spurs and let me tell you why. Because the Spurs have dominated every team they have played this year, including the Oklahoma City Thunder, who they beat four times. The only team that has been able to get the Spurs number all year long has been the Denver Nuggets. And so here they were brought a silver platter, Shay, of the opportunity to punch the Nuggets to the other side of the bracket on the last day of the season, to make their pathway to the finals so much smoother that instead of having to beat likely Denver and Oklahoma City, they would only have to beat one of them. And yet Victor Wembenyama was deactivated. Shay, I understand he had a rib injury, but he played on Friday and he scored 40 points. I reject the notion that he couldn't have played. He would have had another week off. So the Spurs come in yesterday, no Victor Wembenyama. The Nuggets play Nikolay Okic for the first half because he's got to check the box for his 65th game. Okay, they did that. And then the Spurs are playing their backsides off all game. They're pressing full court in the fourth quarter and they still can't beat Denver. And so when the dust settles here, this was a huge setback in my view for the Spurs because not only are they now on the same side of the bracket as Denver, having been given this great opportunity to knock them away, they can't apparently beat them even when they bench all their star players. And so now San Antonio, in my view, has really got a thing over them both in the bracket and mentally going into these playoffs. And you've got Oklahoma City, who is throwing a little mini-party because they look like they were going to have to play Denver in the second round and now they don't have to see Denver or San Antonio to the finals. Even A? That was a lot there. I'm going to simplify it for you, Shay. Sorry. I'm going to be very, very disappointed in the words that you just heard coming out of Brian Wintour's mouth because I know I am. I'm very, very disappointed in what I just heard from Brian Wintour's because I think he doesn't miss much. But I'm going to tell you what you're missing, Wendy. You're missing yourself. Go back and look in the mirror. Go back and find numerous clips of you on various shows. Get up, first take, NBA today, countdown, etc. The Sports Center. Go and look at all of the things. You've marveled at the San Antonio Spurs all year. You've marveled at Victor Wimiyama all year long. You didn't just talk about his greatness. You talked about a team that was flourishing, that was blossoming before our very eyes. And what was one of the top things that you loved and applauded them for? Wendy, they don't care. They don't give a damn. They ain't scared of them. All right. It's the regular season. We got it. We're pushing you out. We're trying to avoid seeds and all of this other stuff. We don't give a damn who we go against. That's been the mentality of the San Antonio Spurs. How can we fault that? How can we sit up there looking perplexed on national television scratching up a verbal hears? You have more than me, of course. Going through all of this other stuff, Wendy, when the Spurs, as far as I'm concerned, are living up to an identity that they've shown us throughout this year. They're different. I'd say OKC is right there with them because they're the reigning and defending NBA champions and they ain't worried about a damn thing. Well, guess what? They're going to have to go up against the San Antonio Spurs if they meet in the conference finals, right? And San Antonio Spurs have had their number. But you get the impression from OKC where they're saying, we'll be ready. You look at the San Antonio Spurs and what did I see last night? We'll be ready. It doesn't matter. And that's what I'm talking about. We should be applauding it. Think about this for a second. If it's true, what you say in terms of a team doing everything they can to be in a position where they get to play the Minnesota Timberwolves or anybody else, it's not what champions are made of. Champions are made of, it don't matter who we going up against. It don't matter what the seating is. We'll be there. We'll be ready. That is what I'm seeing from the San Antonio Spurs. And when we talk about a team in this organization that we believe, if not this year, like Big Perk says, then next year or the year after, definitely has championship in their window. We know that eventually if they stay healthy, they are going to win the championship within the next two to three years. If not this season, what you want to see is what they're showing us. What they're showing us is that, listen, we got to figure things out, but we are 62 and 20 with 42 games over 500. We've had our way with everybody else. Yeah, Denver has given us something, but we lost to Denver the other day. In overtime, Yolkets dropped 40 and 13 and sealed the deal with some damn one-legged fallaway jump shot over the outstretched arms of the seven foot five Victor Wimbayama. Well, you don't anticipate that that's going to happen too often when you play defense like that. You're the San Antonio Spurs. You're not fearing anybody and you're not playing that game or this is who we'd rather play. What you're saying is, yo, we those dudes and we ready to show you, we those dudes, wait and see. I have no problem with what I saw from them whatsoever. Zero. So really quick. So Stephen A., I just hope we keep that same energy when it comes to the mix and the hawks. Okay. I hope we keep that same energy. Go ahead, Wendy. In five weeks from now, Shay, in five weeks, if San Antonio was standing there having vanquished the Nuggets standing there ready to roll on the Thunder and let's say we're going to have a great Western Conference Finals and they love their position, I will admit that I was short-sighted. But I'm watching a league right now, Stephen A., where I see teams ripping their seasons to shreds to get an extra 3% chance at getting a top four pick and then justifying it. I see an opportunity where they could have pushed the Nuggets right out of their way and then laying down their arms. That's what I saw. One has nothing to do with the other. Those other teams are not San Antonio. Those other teams don't have a seven foot five superstar in this league that is arguably the face of the NBA. Those other teams don't have Castle and Fox and Barnes and Harpen and the rest of these guys. They're not young and two, I don't want to say dumb or ignorant in a negative way and this way will be a positive way. They don't care. The point is that we don't get to see that too often. We see manipulation coming from the front offices, from the ownership group to the front offices, down to the GM to the coaches, etc. We see too much manipulation and chess being played at the expense of a fan base. That's not what we're seeing from San Antonio. We're seeing a team that says, we're the number two C, we get ready for the postseason and we don't give a damn who we going up against. We'll be ready. Now, if they not, then they won't be. But that's what we're seeing from them. I have no problem with it. None. None. You could be right, but this wasn't chess. This was tic-tac-toe. San Antonio has had four losses since February 1st. Three of them have come to Denver. But now with Denver locking up that three seed, the Lakers are the four seed. They'll host the Houston Rockets who finish with the five seed. The Rockets are heavily favored because the Lakers will likely be without both Luca Donicic and Austin Reeves due to injury to at least start the series. As far as we don't know how long they'll actually be out. However, they do still have this guy named LeBron James. And the king has been a one man show since Luca and Austin both went down earlier this month. And they've won at least five games of the season. LeBron ranks top 10 in points per game, assists per game, and field goal percentage. So now when we look ahead at the Rockets and the Lakers series, again, the Rockets are heavily favored. But could we potentially witness this vintage LeBron playoffs against the Rockets? What do you think, Stephen A? Well, you can talk about vintage LeBron playoffs all you want to. You talking about numbers? You talking about wins? LeBron's going to get his numbers. He's one of the greatest players to have ever played this game. And you marvel at his greatness at age 41 in the year 23 of his career. It's 23rd season in this career. All LeBron's going to get you your numbers. He's got the ball in his hands. He's going to be able to dictate matchups and pace. What have you because you don't have Luca and Austin Reeves to defer to. So the numbers are going to be there. But let me be very, very clear. Okay. Lakers going home very early at the most five. And I anticipate they might get swept. They don't have enough. It's not, and it's a damn shame because one of the favorite things I love hearing is I love LA after a Lakers win. I just love it. I just love that right now. And I don't even know if they're going to hear that this weekend because I'm telling you right now without Austin Reeves and Luca Donchich, what do you have to offset KD in Houston and what they bring to the table? Now, I know that they get a bit rattled in the fourth quarter because they don't have a point guard this year. And Shepherd's got to step up and he's got to do a better job of controlling the team to some degree. He's a good player, but strictly in terms of dictating pace, controlling the tempo, controlling his team, getting everybody in the right positions, being what a point guard, a central point guard is supposed to be, which he hasn't appeared to be enough, even though he's a good player and I like him a lot. The bottom line is this, the Lakers don't have enough. DeAndre Aitens got to play above the clouds. Good luck with that. Okay. Along with Uri Hachimura and others, they've got to play above what we have seen them do. I don't know if they can do that. That's where I'm at with it. I think Houston, who's a team that's capable of starting literally four guys, six, 11 and above, five guys, six, eight and above this team and they can defend mind you. I think that team is going to be too much for the Los Angeles Lakers. The only reason I'm not saying it's a flat out sweep just because it's just like I did with AI in 2001. I said, AI, I'll get you one. I'd like to believe I can say the same for the great LeBron James, but that's about all. Lakers are going home in five. This is not going to be a long series. They do, unless Luca and AI are able to come back. If they came and if they were able to come back, I might have picked the Lakers to win this damn series, but their loss is so significant. They're so potent. The absence of both of them, I think is entirely too much to ask LeBron James to overcome. I don't think he can do it. I don't think he will do it. Without Luca and AI, the Los Angeles Lakers ain't getting past five games. It might be a sweep. You have to wonder the way the internally, the way the Rockets and the Lakers were watching what was going on with Denver and San Antonio the last couple of days, because if I'm the Rockets, I'm thinking, look at the Nuggets. They're completely disrespecting us. Are we the Marks out here? Are we the team that everybody wants to play? Denver was sending flashing big signals that they preferred to play the Rockets and they did to play the Timberwolts with the six seed. If you're the Lakers, you got to be saying, hey, the Warriors didn't play Steph against us last week. When Steph could have played in that game, they thought maybe thought it didn't matter. And then the Suns didn't play Devon Booker against them the next night. And the Lakers were able to maneuver their way against some tankers into a home court advantage. So if you're looking at how do the Lakers somehow pull this off, and Stephen and I agree with you, I'd pick the Rockets in this series, et cetera. The pathway, number one, is to get to late in the series, because while it's going to be a hard thing to see Luca and Austin Reeves play in this series, it becomes more feasible if you extend it. There's a week between now and the start of it because of the play-ins. There's soft tissue injuries. I can't predict how it would be. It's going to be pain-tolerant in certain circumstances. So how do you somehow get to games five, six, and seven just for the dream of getting your team back? Number one, you get home court advantage. Check. That's what the Lakers did. They were able to win their last three games. LeBron playing point guard, they got over that hurdle. Two, you got to split those first two games at home. And Stephen A., I got to tell you, I like the chances of them splitting the first two games at home more with Houston than I did against Minnesota. Houston, and I understand there's some guys on their roster who have playoff experience, and Kevin Durant's got a million playoff games, but Houston will be on the road in a playoff game. This team hasn't done this before. And so I think Houston's in a command position, but you try to split the first two games. Three, you need to figure out a way to have LeBron have explosive games. You need to have him get space. That means you need your guys to hit threes. They're going to play Lucanar a ton of minutes. They need their shooters to make some shots, to force Houston to move out of the way so LeBron can attack the basket and distribute the ball. You've got to find a way to hit some shots, to get him some offensive support. And then three, you have to hope that the Rockets struggle on offense. Now down the stretch of the season, Stephen A., they won eight of nine coming in. They were very strong on offense. They made some changes to their lineups. They come in with some swagger offensively, but they are fragile offensively. But it's going to take a lot of things to fall into place to pull this off. I'm not saying it's impossible, but definitely you're right. It's unlikely. It's pretty damn close to impossible. I mean, if you look up the word impossible, you know what I'm saying? I mean, if it's not there, it's pretty damn close. Okay? You're talking about a dude in KD who's going to be the best offensive player in this series. Let's get that out of the way. You're talking about a Houston Rockets team that is a top six team defensively. This is what they bring to the table. Again, our issue with them is their performance in clutch time, combined with the fact that point guard play, their, you know, propensity to turn over the basketball, particularly in the fourth quarter is something that has ravaged them. But they're nine and one in their last 10 games. I mean, they've been handling their business and KD is KD. He's a two-time champion. He's a two-time NBA Finals MVP who, by the way, is also nine and five lifetime in the postseason against LeBron James. So we can't forget any of that either. We understand that the Lakers have some guys with some experience, but you got some, but talent ultimately usurps everything. And I think that when you look at Houston again, the absence of a point guard, I don't know how the hell they didn't go out and make sure they got a point guard, you know, to make a playoff run. I don't know how they did that, but still and all, it's the Lakers that they're going up against without Luca and without Austin Reeves. If Austin Reeves and Luca were there, I would have picked the Lakers to win this series, but they're not. And in order for them to come back, the belief is you probably have to push this series to six games, which means that the Lakers would have to win two. Ain't happening. You're not beating the Houston Rockets two games in this series without Luca, Donchich, and Austin Reeves. It's not happening. Okay? So I'm just, I'm sorry. You know, I'm not, I'm going to be kind enough to tell you not to get your broomsticks, but I will say be near the closet where the broomstick is. Okay? Be near the closet because damn it, it's probably going to happen. I mean, it's like that. It's just like that. Now, there is a slight chance right now the Lakers are three and two when only LeBron plays and Luca and AR do not. And four of those five games have come in the month of April. Let's go to yesterday. Sunday at the Masters, one of the best sports days of the year. And yesterday, Rory McElroy etched his name in history, winning in Augusta in back to back year. So Rory entered Saturday with a record six-stroke lead. They saw that lead slip due to costly early mistakes in the third round. He also let the lead go on Sunday before regaining control and taking home that green jacket. Yes. Again, now this is a year after completing the career Grand Slam, Rory McElroy becomes just the fourth player to go back to back at the Masters. And the first since Tiger Woods did it more than two decades ago. It's his sixth career major victory, the 15th player to win at least six majors. So now how should we view Rory McElroy after this win yesterday at the Masters? What do you think, Stephen A? I'm going to go with Wendy first here because I mean, I know he loves his golf and I'm no aficionado, but I watched the Masters all week and long. Let me be very, very clear. And I must say, I was fascinated by it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Go ahead, Wendy. Floor is yours. What do you think of Rory McElroy after his golf? Shay, he moved to Florida and got into golf, you know, like everybody else from New York. Okay. So first off, I don't think it changes how people view Rory at all because once you become a career Grand Slam winner, you're talking about one hand of players all time and, you know, he was already at the top. What I think the difference is, is how he approaches this tournament. I could see him winning a number more of these. And this is what has happened. The best players who have always dominated, have always, once they've crossed the threshold of getting that first green jacket, the greatest players have always won multiple. And the truth is, is that Augusta National, I mean, for decades, it was really about who putted the best. And obviously you still got to putt well, but now it's about who can hit the ball the farthest in many ways. And Rory is one of the longest hitters in the history of the sport. And so the course is set up for him to be great on it. And, you know, he keeps hitting the ball in the trees, but part of the reason he's able to recover from hitting the ball in the trees is because he's hitting it so far. And not just off the tee, but, you know, at 18 yesterday, for example, he hits a 30 yards right, but he's okay because he hit it so far and because he's got to be able to hit an eight iron and he can get over the trees. That's not the way they play back in the 90s. The other thing I'll say is, Shay, I think he approached this week really free of stress, you know? Well, because on Thursday, he always struggles Thursday at Augusta. He hadn't broken 70 in like years. And he comes out and like has a stress-free, free 67 right out of the gate. You can tell from Thursday that he was going to play Augusta differently the rest of his life. Yeah. And I think that was the big thing with Rory. We didn't know how he would come out in this Masters if he would be tight, maybe coming off last year. And that was apparently not the case. And we saw that on Thursday. Go ahead, Stephen. Hey, let me tell you this. This is what fascinated me, Wendy, because I somewhat disagree with you when you talk about this, you know, this doesn't really change, you know, or how he's viewed or whatever. I think it will. You know what? To have a six shot lead and to blow that, Wendy, to blow a six shot lead, okay? Coming in to Saturday and then Sunday to be down too, okay? And then to find a way to come back, particularly with Sheffler coming up the, I mean coming up the rear because he was 12 shots back and pulled to within three. I'm like, yo, the nervous, I'm like, all right, what's he going to do? You know how I am. I'm big on moments. I'm big on whatever, what intestinal fortitude do you have? What level of poise are you willing to show under pressure, et cetera, et cetera? And I'm looking at Rory. We all know what happened to him in 2011. That story has been told to gazillion times. We understand that and that stayed with him for a long time until he finally won the masses last year. But now you're in this situation where to sit up there and to be on the verge of such an epic collapse and to respond by coming back and retaking the lead and then holding on in the 18th. I think it does tell a different story. Now here's where the twist becomes very, very interesting. I don't know if anybody brought this up. I saw a tweet and Shay, if I'm inaccurate, please forgive me. I don't think I am. There was a reporter there, somebody that quoted Rory admitting he had a quote unquote unfair advantage. He says here, this place feels like my home course. I haven't played anywhere else in the last two or three weeks. So he said, I felt prepared that wherever I hit the golf course, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, wait a minute now. Well you over there practicing for two, three weeks getting set for the masters when nobody else got to do that. I don't know how anybody else feels about that. You can't break any rules. You understand, didn't violate anything. I'm not saying that. Please don't get me wrong. But what I am saying is that does give you an advantage. Not only familiarity with the course because you've been playing there for years, but you've been there over the last three weeks. That's what he said. And saying that, I mean you have some people that would believe from a gentleman's perspective that was an unfair advantage. I don't think that it should take anything away from what we saw him do. I respect the main two-time masters champion right now. We all know he's one of the greatest golfers in the world. But I did think it was important to bring that up with him. When you have a private jet and you're the champion and you can get on whenever, that's the advantage that you've earned. And that's what he did. He would fly up from Jupiter, play and go back and he did that several times. He took the three weeks leading up to the event off. Yes. I'm just asking a very generic question. If nobody else has that kind of access to a course, do you believe that that's an unfair advantage that he has? Other champions have that kind of advantage. It's an earned advantage. Okay. Okay. Drop his game off at school, go play at Augusta and pick up the child from school is what I understood. So a little bit of an out of here advantage. It did feel like from the outside, but nonetheless, one that he's earned. What getting past the first round of the plan mean more for Steph Curry or Kawhi Leonard. That debate of course on the way plus, could this be the last time we see Yonatan Sakumbo a part of the Bucks. You asked the Greek freak, it's not up to him. We'll keep discussing this. Oh dear. That's next. It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey shore. Yonatan reports an abandoned car on a bridge. A search gets underway for the missing driver. 19 year old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows. Old friendships, buried cash and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts. First Take is brought to you by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Only pay for what you need. Developing story here on First Take, official moments ago this morning, Doc Rivers out as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. He steps down after three seasons with the team. It was well documented that there was a disconnect between Doc and the players this season and the lingering Yonatan Takumo trade rumors only added to that. In fact, Yonatan was asked again about his future over the weekend. This was the quote. It was not said on camera. It's a very good question. I don't know. It's not up to me. We'll see. I feel like sometimes people just don't listen. They listen to the sources. The main source is me. It is what it is. Again, do not disturb on my phone. Go about my day. Improve. Come back at better. If everything goes well, hopefully the Bucks want me here. Why not? They don't. Okay. All right. This to me was Yonatan saying he truly wants to be in Milwaukee. Now, I think you have said, Wendy, that is not the case. Other people have said that it's not the case. But now he's publicly saying he does want to be in Milwaukee. Does this make it more confusing? What's your reaction to this? Wendy, go ahead. It's so fatiguing and exhausting. I can't even imagine what it's like to be a Bucks fan or someone in that team because this has been 35 rounds of this. This interview took place sort of impromptu in Philadelphia. It was essentially his exit interview after the Bucks lost their last game yesterday, last evening. Our Tim Bon Temps was there. He specifically directly asked Yanis if he was going to sign the contract extension, that the Bucks would offer him later this year. He can't sign it now. He can't sign it until October. Yanis gave a non-answer. He said he hasn't been offered it yet. He didn't say emphatically yes. That's been really the issue about this whole thing. It's been half in, half out. Not only that, it's been compounded by the fact that the Bucks did not let him play going down the stretch of the season, frankly, because I think they were worried about him getting injured and I think they were worried about him getting injured because they were worried about what could it do to his trade value. At the end of the day, I believe Yanis will be elsewhere next season, but there is no way to predict this. It is very frustrating. I will tell you that you guys know I am a very, very big actions over words person. The Bucks were actively in trade discussions with him in February. I believe they will actively be in trade discussions with him in June and July. You don't have trade discussions with somebody of this nature unless you intend to trade him and that is what I eventually expect to happen. Leave Wendy up on the screen, please. Let me say this while looking at Wendy. Number one, I don't want to use the word annoyed, but I just want to give Doc Rivers the now former head coach for the Milwaukee Bucks some advice. Practice what you preach. Stop talking about living your life and your seven grandchildren in it. Go ahead and do it because the reality of the situation is this. Doc Rivers, I knew he was going to be gone. He talked before the season about how this would be his last. Before a game was played, Shay. Before a game was played, Wendy, he talked about stepping away from the game. He talked about he's been a coach for 24 years. He talked about retirement and all of this other stuff. That's what he was talking about. Go ahead and do it because I think that this man who's going into the Hall of Fame, who was the sixth active winning this coach of all time, entering the season and all this You've accomplished a lot in your career. You won a championship, you've been to two NBA finals. A lot of people think it wasn't for a couple of injuries, particularly the Kendrick Perkins, believe it or not, in 2010 you were to beat the Lakers the second time. Stuff like that. If Grant Hill, if you had Grant Hill in Tracy McGrady, healthy, you'd have done stuff in Orlando, we know you're a damn good coach. I think that there's a heightened level of sensitivity that Doc Rivers has embraced. This is not the time to be doing that. You do that when you're my age and you know what? You've got 10, 15 potential years left in the business and stuff like that. When you are talking about walking away, you need to be walking away with more peace than Doc Rivers has been enjoying this particular season. I just want to give that advice to a guy that I've known for 30 years and I've got a lot of love for. It's like, relax man. People are going to say what they're going to say. You know what you've done. You're going into the Hall of Fame. You know, and unfortunately he's sitting there and going back and forth with every report, every rumor, every hint. Stop. Just stop it. People are going to say what they're going to say. You've been around too long to not know better than that. Let it go. That's number one. Number two, Giannis. To Giannis, let's understand what's going on here. Giannis is looking to leave. Wendy was absolutely right in what he reported. So was Shams. So was everybody else. Am I wrong here? The difference is that Giannis doesn't want to be the bad guy to the fans of Milwaukee. He loves these people. He loves this city. He loves the way they've embraced him and his family and the commitment that they've shown to him. And by the way, they made changes because of him. Not just roster changes. Remember when Adrian Griffin got let go as the head coach for the Milwaukee Bucks. Okay? They were like 31 and 13. It wasn't like the man was losing basketball games. He was winning. But Giannis wasn't happy with them. So let's understand that the Milwaukee Bucks made modifications, alterations. They did what they could, but now they're in a position where it doesn't seem like they're capable of building the pieces around them. So he needs to go. He knows this because he knows basketball, but he loves the city and he never ever wants his name attached to being dismissive of a city that has meant so much to him personally. That's what this is about. Giannis knows he wants to go. Giannis knows it's best for him to go. He is one of the top five players on the planet earth. Mired in Milwaukee, not making playoffs. By the way, Wendy pointed this out last week, Shay. They were losing games when Giannis was on the court. Not just when he was off it. You understand? They're not good enough and they can do but only so much to make themselves good enough. Does Giannis, with that attitude, with that fire in his belly, that champion, that MVP, that former defensive player, does that look like a guy that wants to be sitting around losing game after game and being on a team that's irrelevant and the only thing that's relevant about them is him and it's only until April and then he goes back to Greece. Does he strike you as that kind of person? Not to any of us who covers him. We know better than that. He's a warrior and he's a winner and he doesn't want to be in that situation. He just doesn't want to tell the citizens in Milwaukee, I don't want to be with you anymore. He doesn't want that on his basketball epitaph. That's all. That's what we're dealing with here and it's unfortunate because it leaves stuff up in the air and then he gives these quotes indicating that he wouldn't mind staying. Of course he doesn't mind staying. As a citizen, of course he doesn't mind staying. In the city, he just doesn't want to be a part of this basketball team because he knows the basketball team ain't going to win anytime soon. That's the reality and he has a hard time admitting that publicly. That's what this is all about. I hope that is the case because, I mean, as Wendy said, there's so much fatigue with this now and I feel like it's just constant mismatches, like constant mismatch. Then just say like, I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't know what he wants to be there. It's confusing. By the way, back to the Doc Rivers thing is the first time a Doc Rivers coach team has finished in the bottom 10 offensively and defensively. Clearly this was just not his year. They're not good. They're not good. They weren't, they were not good. Coming up here on First Take, the Knicks draw the Hawks in the first round of the playoffs. Should they be on upset alert? You don't want to miss that. Plus Steph vs. Kawai in the first round of the play-in tournament, which stars facing more pressure to advance. The ESPN app is home to WrestleMania 42 in every WWE Premium live event. If you want to be there for the biggest moments, you'll need the ESPN Unlimited plan to sign up, go to the link below, or if you have ESPN from one of these providers, ESPN Unlimited is included at no additional cost. Just head to activate.espn.com and follow the steps to get set up. Sign in to the ESPN app and you're in. WrestleMania and the biggest WWE Premium live event, all in one place, anytime, anywhere. Welcome back to First Take, the Clippers and Warriors played in the regular season finale on Sunday. They'll face again in the play-in tournament on Wednesday. The Clippers and the Years, the number nine seed, will host the tenth seeded Warriors. Steph Curry, who was still working his way back from that knee injury, played 29 minutes and scored 24 points. Through the play-in tournament features the Suns, Trailblazers, Clippers and Warriors for a battle of the final two seeded in the playoffs. The winner of the 7-8 matchup will go on to play the Spurs while the winner of the 9-10 matchup will play the 7-8 loser to determine who plays, lucky for them, the Thunder. Would winning the play-in mean more for Steph Curry or Kawhi Leonard as we get to see a rematch of these two players? Stephen A., what do you think? Now I'm going to say Kawhi Leonard. We ain't worried about no Steph Curry. If Steph Curry, no matter what happens with Steph Curry, we know who he is, the four-time champion that he is, Mr. Box Office, the greatest shooter God has ever created. We know what he brings to the table, plus he missed a bunch of games this year due to his knee injury before coming back. He didn't have to come back. There was even speculation. Should the Warriors sit him out for the rest of the season and just because all you're going to do is get into the play-in, why even bother? But that brother is back. I mean, please, we got no questions about Steph Curry, not a single question about him. We're happy to see him. Even when he on the damn bench, we happy to see him. That's how great he is. Kawhi Leonard is an entirely different matter. Now let me say this. I've been, and Wendy, don't think. I've been very pleased with what I've seen from Kawhi Leonard. Very pleased. I have to admit it. I cannot believe the availability that he has put forth. Look at that skip, that hop, skipping jump before he pulled up for the J. I mean, Kawhi Leonard has been that dude. Let's make sure we understand that plane is day. But if he, for some reason, wasn't available, you understand, or goes down with an injury, we're going, here's, this is what we're going to do. And I'm going to be the leader of the pack. Here we go again. Here we go again. He injured the lack of availability. That's what we're going to be saying. This means more to Kawhi Leonard because you need to see that push from this man. The Los Angeles Clippers, he came there after being in Toronto, okay? Even the year they went to the conference finals, he was injured. He got injured, you know, in the first or early in the second round, and they got to the conference finals without him. You want to see this brother on the basketball court, not just with the Clippers, but leading the Clippers the way he is capable of doing into a big time playoff appearance. That's what you want to see. We see that from Kawhi Leonard. We're going to go like this. Oh yeah, okay. That's that dude right there. That's the two-time champion. That's the two-time NBA Finals MVP. I mean, that's who he is. We know how gifted he is, but his availability has been his crutch. That's what we have leaned on, and he has to show that he can be reliable for these players. If the Clippers lose, it needs to be with him on the court going down swinging, being the great player that he is. Not watching from the sidelines yet again. This does more for him. We have no questions about Steph Curry. We got all the questions in the world about Kawhi Leonard because of his availability. Shay, this has been a lost season for the Warriors pretty much. The Jimmy Butler injury, the Moses Moody injury. Steph having the knee issue that's pretty much derailed his entire second half. At this point, there's no expectations and whatever they're able to accomplish is gravy. This is a different story for Kawhi Leonard. He's got one of the most complex situations in this era of the NBA. I'm going to tell you, he was a top 10 player in the league this year. Top 10. He's borderline first team all NBA. He'll make second team all NBA, but he was awesome throughout this entire season. It is like a darn shame. As Steve and I would say, a damn shame. These last two seasons of Kawhi Leonard has had, the Clippers are going to get nothing out of him. Because everything that the Clippers have gone through and are still going through because the aspiration thing is like a storm on the horizon and it has been for months. The fallout that will happen from that, whatever it may be, everything the Clippers have gone through for Kawhi Leonard and season after season, he was unhealthy. This happened and that happened and they had chances derailed. The last two years, he's actually been healthy and the Clippers were not in position to do it. You thought they might be going to the finals and then he comes up with an injury. He finished last season healthy and they had a seven game narrow loss to the Nuggets. Who knows what would have happened if things went differently. If Aaron Gordon's dunk with a tenth of a second on the clock that decided that game had gone differently. Who knows how far they would have gone and look at him now. He's on an unbelievable scoring streak. He is healthy. He is in position to completely lead a playoff run. The team left him. They got old and then midway through the season, the Clippers pulled the plug. Created away players, got rid of Zubac. Like said, listen, we're done. It is like look in the grand scheme of things and the grand scheme of basketball and the grand scheme of the world, there's bigger tragedies. From a basketball and a franchise standpoint, Kawhi Leonard being at the top of his game at a team that is not in position to compete is a basketball tragedy. That's what we've got now. Well, first of all, let's remember, you pointed out last year, he was healthy last year. That's a loss. They lost in that playoff series to Devereux. Seven games, but they still lost. So let's call it what it is. Okay, he was on the court, he was healthy. You know, so the team didn't abandon them. They lost. They had him on the court and they lost. Let's get that out the way first. Secondly, I don't want to hear about the team abandoning him. This man has been there since 2021. Kawhi Leonard has not won a playoff series. Think about that for a second. I didn't want a playoff series with the Clippers since 2021. That's Kawhi Leonard, what we're talking about here. This year, 27.9 points, 50.5% shooting, 39% from three point range, career high, 27.9 points. Okay, give him credit where credit is due. But we can't look at it as if the organization abandoned him. We can look at it as if the organization waited long enough for this brother to be available and to step up and handle his business. And he was either unavailable until last year when he was available and then he got taken out, albeit in seven games in the first round. I can't accuse the Clippers of abandoning him. As far as I'm concerned, they've been entirely too damn patient with him. Now he's showing, he's paying dividends for them over the last two seasons in terms of his performance combined with his availability. And he deserves a lot of credit for that. But far too much time was spent with him being unavailable to the team because his health was a huge question mark. At some point in time, he's lucky they didn't cut bait with him altogether. Now he's had an opportunity. You should beat the Warriors. You should beat the Warriors, okay? You actually should get to the playoffs in the first round before you end up going up against Oklahoma City Thunder. We know you ain't beaten them, but you actually should get this team to that first playoff series to be quite honest with you. We'll see if he does. So just as a reminder, both teams need two wins. And the Warriors and Clippers, both teams need two wins to get that playoff birth. Whoever loses that first game will have to go home. All right, coming up here on First Take, WrestleMania week is here. We got a stacked lineup of guests for you throughout the week. Today, Joe Tessitore will be here to break down this must-see event. We're also going to be in Vegas for it on Friday. Could it be the worst thing for the Knicks to draw the Hot Hawks team in the first round of the playoffs? Should they be on upset alert?