Hour 2: Do the Knicks or Celtics Have the Edge in a Potential Playoff Rematch?

from 30 for 30 podcasts. Brian Padda, senior defensive lineman for Miami. Gun down. The key to this case, it's Roddy. Boy, it's grand-dad. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction being placed under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. Welcome back to First Take. Jason Tatum's son, Deuce, was on hand to see his dad's return to MSG on Thursday. Oh, man, little guy struggling while eating sour patch kids at the game. Just like every eight-year-old. They need to be sugared up to enjoy anything. First, they're sour, then they're sweet. It doesn't look like Deuce got to the second part of that guarantee. You look like you enjoyed candy. Yeah? Back in the previous life, yes. Your face was there. I want to get your face was showing me that. David, you look like you don't enjoy this. Why? First of all, as a parent, I don't know what time that boy's bedtime is, but I'm not giving no kidding candy past like eight o'clock. It'll be up to two o'clock tomorrow. Second of all, this is the most important take of all. Objectively, candy is disgusting. All candies are disgusting, unless they're chocolates. You got two buckets here. You got chocolate and you got candy. So we're going chocolate, M&M, Snickers, Butterfingers, all good. Other candies, Skittles, Twizzlers, all that. This disgusting makes my head hurt a little bit. Maybe it's a sugar rush. I don't know what it is. Get candy about it here. When it's Halloween time, give me all the chocolates. Get the candies about it here. No candy, candy. Thumbs down for candy. That's the hottest take. I know people think that some of this stuff is scripted. I got nothing. I have never heard anything so idiotic. Now, I'm not a fan of Twizzlers, but like, Skittles, no, no, no, no, something like, don't give me wrong. I'm not a fan of Peep. He keeps up a terrorist. Just name it disgusting candies. But most other things, I stay away from for my health because I'm getting older, but candy ain't disgusting. You want some? We got some sour candy here. Don't tempt me. I mean, absolutely not. Perk, if you were here, I've got some sour candies for you. My body is a temple. I'm not going to touch those things at all. At all. Perk, what do you think about candy? Sour candy. David, David, David, David. I love food, candy, ice cream, whatever falls under that category, as you can see, I love it. David, that was one of the most asinine things I've ever heard you say. Candy is disgusting outside of chocolate. You mean to tell me, you talk about Skittles, Starbursts? Thumbs down. Thumbs down. The Peep ones. Disgusting. Right. Perk. Thumbs down. Get it out of here. Where are you from? Jack Town, Mississippi, baby Jack, girl, that's where I'm from. We eat M&M's, Snickers, Butterfingers, Milky Way, all the chocolates, all the way down. If it goes in a blizzard, I can eat it. If it's candies, get it out of here. Courtney, let's go. I'm not taking food, take some, man, to eat a well done steak. I'm not taking it. I'm not taking it. I feel like I'm having a deuce tatum reaction. Well done steak? Perk's a well done man. All right, speaking of tatum. Deuce's dad, Jason. Obviously, playing at Madison Square Garden last night for the first time since rupturing his Achilles in Game 4 of the East Semifinals last season. However, his 24 points last night in his return, not enough to overcome a 15.4th quarter from Josh Hart that propelled the Knicks to a 112-106 win, which keeps New York at the three seed in the East and sets up a potential semifinal playoff matchup between the teams. Knicks finished three and one against Celtics this season, just a second time in the last 10 seasons that New York beat Boston three times in a season. The other one obviously coming 2022-2023. And a major factor in all of this has been three point shooting as Knicks have shot 41% from three compared to Boston's 30% behind the arc. I'm still struggling. I don't even need some water or something. I'm just stuck in my tooth right now. And I was really, really trying to get through that. M&M's also got TNT. Exactly, chocolate would melt. David, who would have the edge in a potential playoff rematch here? It would be the next year of the Celtics. It would be the Celtics. I don't think the gap is as wide as we thought it was last season, but I still think the Celtics are favorites here because you can't overstate what happened without Jaylen Brown last night. I think one of the benefits for the Celtics is Jason Tatum learned firsthand what his capabilities are and what the extent of those capabilities are, which is he cannot carry that Celtics team offensively yet in the way that he could in the past. When you look at the end of that game, we're trying to tie the game up. He drives on Carl Landy Townsend. He does not have the legs to finish that shot, which kind of helps Jay Tatum further understand where he is as a second option, which is a guy who can get the rebounds, who can get the assist and then allow Jaylen Brown to come in and be the MVP that he usually is. And I think when Brown back in the lineup, being a two way defender also can help them defend some of those actions that the Knicks did down the stretch. I think this is going to be a long series, but I will favor the Celtics to win this series. Perk, you look annoyed. I don't know whether it's just you're still marinating on David's candy take, but what's the reaction? Because because he's tripping right now. He's talking about last night proved to us that Jason Tatum can't carry a team. Did we not see about 10 to 14 days ago when he walked into Charlotte and handed them an L? I believe he had a 32 piece wing then all flats without Jaylen Brown, no Derrick White and went got that win. I mean, what are you talking about, bro? He had an off shooting night. His mental was all over the place. I have to remind you David that this was the same arena that he toys the killies on. So all this comes into play as he's walking into Madison Square Garden. But you know, the thing that stood out to me is the other areas. Forget that he didn't shoot the ball. Well, the 13 rebounds, the eight assists, like those are the other things. If he didn't have his legs, he's damn sure not going up there and going to get 13 boards. And again, Courtney highlighted it when we started. She said how many double doubles he's had this year since he's returned? 10 and 16 games. I mean, what else can you ask? I agree. I agree. He is going to be the Robin to Jaylen Brown. I do still give the edge to the Boston Celtics. If they match up or when they match up in the postseason, I believe that the series is going to go seven games. But the Celtics have home court advantage and we know how hard it is to win in Boston. And with Jaylen Brown playing at the level that he's playing at right now, I just still give the edge to the Boston Celtics. Plus, they still have the most championship experience out of all the teams in the Eastern Conference. Kirk, you know I love you, big dog. I'm going to get on you about this well done steak stuff. I'm going to introduce you to some real good steak. If I'm going to get you like a piece of charcoal, we can just find that outside on 7th Avenue in New York and not pay $80 for it. That's a whole different thing. You talked about going into Boston and winning a game. The Knicks did that twice last year. Games one and two come back from 20 point deficits. I am a fan of rivalries. I like teams that will have to see each other year after year with a similar core, similar stories. Okay, we're changing coaches and the Knicks identity has changed a little bit, but they can locate and find someone at grit that they played with last year. I don't think the gap is as wide. I think Jason Tatum overcame a hurdle last night in some ways in playing in Madison Square Garden, but he was a minus 16. He did have six turnovers. He was hounded by Josh Hart for a decent stretch of the game. And Nikola Vusovic is a defensive liability, which is why Josh Hart nailed two threes in his eye late in the game. Those are matchup series. So I don't think just adding Jaylen Brown tilts it so far away from the New York Knicks that it becomes an obvious win for them. The Knicks don't have any fear of the Boston Celtics. Whatever mental thing that could happen, that could have happened. They beat them last year when we thought the Celtics were a 60 win jug or not going into that series. I didn't give the Knicks much of a chance. I was wrong. I think this season you're going to see a seven game bloodbath between these two evenly matched teams. And the Knicks, shockingly, if you're going to say something, the Knicks do have Jaylen Brunson who's a clutch player. You do have a matchup problem and not just Mitchell Robinson, but also Carl Anthony Towns if you want to play both. I don't know if you trust the Knicks Biggs the way that you, I mean the Celtics Biggs, the way that you trust the Knicks Biggs if they are playing to full potential. Everybody's throwing up hands here. You've had yours hanging up. Your blood's probably flowing down. Perk, I know you're throwing yours up too. What perturbed you about that? Well, I just want Vinny to answer the question. I mean, who has the edge in this matchup? You still have an answer to the question. You said seven game bloodbath. You're struggling between the Knicks and the Celtics. No, I'm not struggling the offense. I think, Perk, hear me and hear me clearly. I think the Celtics are the best team in the East. I don't think that that guarantees that they will beat the Knicks in a seven game series in round two. I think most of these series in round two are going to be pick them series with the exception of whoever plays Oklahoma City. They're going to go either way. That's parody in the NBA. I don't think the gap is as wide. I don't think the Celtics are something unbeatable. I said the Celtics have the edge, Perk. I said the Celtics have the edge. Okay, I'm just telling you. Listen to me. Listen to me. This is your first year on first take. It is rules on first take. It's no straddling the fence. I just needed you to be clear on what side and who were you picking to have the edge. David or myself, nobody said that it was a gap, a big gap between the two. That's why the question is who has the edge. Now this is what I will tell you. You're talking about Vucovic being a liability. I don't think you've been watching Kader this season and what he's been for the Boston Celtics. A rebounded machine. He's top 15 in the league in block shots. He's been a live threat, very high QB, 7-1, 7-2. A better version of me than Robert Williams. I will be careful when you talk about the matchup and if Mitchell Robinson could come in and dominate because Vucovic is probably in that series is going to be coming in off the bench and Kader is going to be eating up majority of those minutes. I want to get you in here. You've literally had your hand up for a while. I'm just saying Perk said I would agree with everything I said, which was the Celtics going in 7, Jason Tatum was going to be robbing to Jaylen Brown's Batman. I think the issue when you go get back to the Tatum of it all is that he cannot put up that game that he had against the Hornets a couple weeks ago. That is not going to be a consistent Jason Tatum. If we get a Jason Tatum that does all those other things we talked about, get the passes to the open guy because he's getting the passes to the wide open corner guy more than anybody else on that team. Derek White got to hit some of those shots though. Derek White's only 40% since all-star break on wide open threes and he was missing a bunch of open threes last night. He's got to get those shots. We talk about those bigs. I understand that Kata has been out playing what we expected from him, but it's playoff time and I think last night's show there is a difference between Kata and Mitchell Robertson in terms of difference makers coming in the game. So I do have questions about those bigs, especially if we're putting some of those bigs into action with Karl Lantnery Towns and Brunson in that two-man game because one thing we know is that Karl Lantnery Towns will feast on that when there's a center out there, especially a younger center. So I do have some worries about those bigs, but overall, overall, I do agree, seven games, but at home, that crowd in Boston, Jaylen Brown being an MVP, Jason Tatum doing all of the intangible things and you have that experience with the Celtics. I do think it'll be Celtics in seven against the Knicks. Like he brought up Kata. Kata played last night and they closed with Nikola Busevich. Derek White was all six from three. You got a lot of threes from Baylor Shireman and Peyton Pritchard. Are you going to get those type of performances consistently in a seven game series? That's all, there's just questions. I'm with you guys. We're all in the same page here. Yeah, literally all three of you picked off there. We're all in the same page here. Perk is not listening sometimes. Pretty much is, big fella. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Antonio has been on such a run but hasn't been able to gain ground because Oklahoma City has refined itself. But when you get into playoffs and you get Yolkich who's on a historical run, one of the most underappreciated great seasons in NBA history, I'm going to give him a shot. Not a great shot, but I'm going to give him a shot. Kirk, how do you see it? Courtney, I'm going to answer the question. Can a Nuggets upset the thunder in the playoffs? No, no simple thing. They can and maybe and they, it's a strong possi- No, the answer is no. You know why? Number one, the Thunder have the best player in the world and his name is SGA, right? Joining the company again of Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Four consecutive seasons, averaging 30, shooting over 50% from the field. Okay, so let's say this. Let's take the Thunder, big three and Denver's big three. Aaron Gordon, Murray, Yolkich, Chad, J.Dubb, SGA and say those guys calcium each other out. Let's look at the rest of that roster. The Thunder depth, I trust more. When you talk about Jed McCain, who they picked up at the trade deadline. When you looking at a guy like Aaron Wiggins, who had huge moments throughout their playoff run, Kason Wallace, who comes in an excellent two-way player, Isaiah Joe, Alice Caruso. Like, Mitchell, Mitchell is a starting guard on any other team in the NBA. And so when you're looking at the depth, I trust OKC depth more than I trust the Denver Nuggets depth outside of the big three. And that's why I say that I don't give the Nuggets a chance. Also, when you get that deep, my thing is, who's gonna be their perimeter defenders outside of Aaron Gordon when you talk about the Nuggets? Peyton Watson, is he gonna be 100% healthy? Coming off a hamstring injury that deep in the postseason, is he gonna be able to keep up? That's if Denver get past the San Antonio Spurs. But when it comes to OKC and Denver and that matchup, I understand we could revisit last year and if it was a fifth, we'll all be drunk if Aaron Gordon injures hamstring it. And maybe they would have took it, but they didn't. And now this team has grown in Oklahoma City Thunder, they're wiser, and they know how to win, and they have home court advantage throughout the playoffs. So your eyes got real wide earlier when Perk said that SGA is the best player in the world right now. Well, it got wide when he said it so definitively. Like, Nikola Jokic doesn't exist. I think they are, it is to the point where it's a conversation now, where Jokic and SGR are in the same conversation, but I still give the edge to Jokic just because of the way that he handles the game. I will say this for Shay Gilders Alexander. When it comes late in the last two or three minutes, he's always going to get a shot up. He's not gonna turn the ball over, he's gonna make sure that you foul him or you give him enough space that he can create space to get a shot up, a quality shot up. I think Perk sometimes be tripping. I don't think Perk is wild, I don't agree with him, but I don't think he tripping. That's all. Yeah, we're looking at the best closer in the game in SGA, right, and a guy who is leading a great offense against the best overall player in Nikola Jokic. And if we're talking about, you're talking about these historical runs, if Nikola Jokic can beat Wimby and then you can beat this Thunder team and you win a championship with him playing the way that he's playing, you better clear a spot out that top 10 all time when you're talking about Jokic because this will be that type of run that cements you as one of those type of greats. Good summer conversation. We're all back here, we're gonna do that one in July. We can say the same thing about SGA. Yeah, that's fair, and we will. Perk, we gotta go on this one, but I do think that you guys all kinda laid the table for that one. Wimby is also somebody that might be in that conversation one day. He's proving to be a transcendent star with big Perk calling him unguardable. But someone here might have a blueprint for slowing him down. Don't go anywhere, more first take on the way. My name is Wright Thompson, and as bad as I am at the game of golf, I am not alone. There's an army of public golf duffers just like me. Where it lies is our love letter to all the hacks out there. Each episode is centered around one public golf course and the people who call it home, where you meet the real heroes of the game. You. Very nice. Woo! Our first round master's coverage continues today at Three Eastern, noon Pacific on ESPN and the ESPN app. ESPN Plus will continue featured whole and featured group coverage all day, and sports centers dedicated coverage continues through Sunday. Victor Wembenyama has been upgraded to questionable for Friday night's game against Dallas Mavericks after he missed Wednesday's game. The Spurs are monitoring Wemby closely. He aims to play one more game of 20 minutes or more to meet the 65 game threshold for league awards. The third year superstar has been having a career year until this point, averaging career highs and points, rebounds per game, and field goal percentage. We know how much that those awards obviously mean to him. He's talked about it and the significance of that. He wants to be legendary, et cetera, et cetera. I think he also wants to be considered somebody that you just don't mess with on the court. So, Perk, I want to go to you on this. Is Victor Wembenyama on offense on Gartable? Yeah, absolutely. Look, it's not a game playing out there that coaches couldn't design or go over and shoot around or in film to stop Wemby offensively. Seriously. It's nothing that this man can't do. And the thing that I love about Wemby is that he has finally found that balance and accepted and the acceptance of being a big man first that has guard skills. I love the new Wemby. The new Wemby is being more involved in picking roles, rolling to the basket, getting touches at the nail. You can run pin downs for him and push come to shove. If he want to push it in transition, he can get into his Jamal Crawford bag. It's not a game playing that you could put to stop this man. He's giving me Yolkish type vibes. And when I say that is because now he's starting to get it and now he's starting to make guys around him better. So now he's seeing the floor. He's seeing guys cutting when people are sending triple teams at him. And so when you look at him going into the postseason, one of the main reasons I have dispersed winning it all is because of this generational talent that we're seeing right now in Victor Wemby Ambul. I'm like laughing at myself as I like teed up Perk saying that, like is he unguardable on offense? I mean, the guy's seven four. Like kind of hard to stop that Vinny, but is there any sort of blueprint to do that? I don't know if there is. I mean, I'm amazed that Perk saying extolling with Virtus Oklahoma to see like five minutes ago and then saying, San Antonio's gonna win it all. We can talk about that later. But I wonder about the physicality aspect of it. I do wonder how he's going to be officiated in the postseason. He's not a foul merchant by any means, but per 36 minutes, he goes to the line nine times a game. He only plays 29 minutes. You're going to up that. And I wonder if you're going to send someone to just face guard him. And because he has his rib injury, not saying anybody's going to go and attack him like it's a boxing match. But if you know something's a little tender, you may put an elbow there. You may put a four on there. You may do something to make that vulnerable area a little more vulnerable. And we once again, we don't know what the officiating looks like. And it takes big man, especially big man who go to the line who play through contact a little bit longer to understand the cadence of that even LeBron had to go through that. His second year in the playoffs, he went to the finals. The only player that I can remember that literally just figured it out as a young player from year one was Irvin Magic Johnson. And I was 45 years ago. That was a long, long time ago. I still think that Wimby's going to have to go through some playoff pain, especially with the officiating because we like as a basketball public, we like physical basketball in the NBA in the last three or four years has allowed more physical play. They swallowed their whistles, especially when it comes to what may be considered marginal contact that may be touch files. They let it go. I don't care who's refereeing. We could be refereeing that game. I don't care how physical it is. Wimby Nama is unstoppable no matter what you do. That dude, I know he looks skinny, but he is an imposing physical figure. And the thing that Wimby Nama has that is absolutely scary is that teams may play good defense against him in one game. When he comes back, he has you figured out. I want to go through some of the worst games that he's had this season. He played a bad game against the Rockets early in the season, 0-7-3, came back, got to the free throw line 15 times. Phoenix put small guys on him and everybody said, oh, we got Victor Wimby Nama figured out, put a small guy on him. He had 34 the last time he played and a game winner against them. Pistons beat him up. What does he do next time? Jalen Durant, four fouls, get out the game. Hornets, Moosa gave him a tough time, came back, blew them out. Victor Wimby Nama is a cheap code because no matter how physical, what scheme you have, you may get them game one, game two, he's coming back and he has this thing worked out. Unstoppable does not even begin. Does not even begin to describe what we're dealing with Victor Wimby Nama and ain't nobody stopping him from playoff time. If the Spurs lose, it's because the guys around him fall short. Victor Wimby Nama gonna do him. So are you picking the Spurs to beat the Thunder? No, I'm not picking the Spurs to beat the Thunder. I'm picking the Thunder to beat the Spurs in seven because of the guys around Victor Wimby Nama that have questions about Victor gonna get his numbers in that series. I just have this image, I just have this image in my head, Vinnie, of smaller guards trying to reach up with their elbow to dig it into Victor Wimby Nama with the rib injury. Perk, final word here. I mean, look, I get what Vinnie is coming from but we're not in the early 2000s or the 90s no more. Guys just don't mix it up like that no more Vinnie. And let me say this to you, for us getting the cheap shots in, and I used to do that, but they don't have no more of me's in the game no more. Okay, that's number one. Number two, number two, number two David, this is why I agree with you. When you talk about the bounce back games and the growth of Wimby, think about this, at the beginning of the season, he was hanging out on the perimeter, the Spurs, they were trying to figure out how to get him touches at the mid post. And that's when teams were putting smaller guards on them. Okay, now what they're doing is, you can put a smaller guard on him, guess what he's doing? Rolling right around to the basket to the rim and all those guards are just throwing it up and there's nothing that you could do about it because he's just catching and he's finishing. Not only is he's the most unstoppable, but with Yannis being out and having his up and down season, dealing with injuries and all the nonsense with the Bucks, Wimby has been the most dominant player this year in the NBA. All right, two games for the Spurs to close out the season, both of them at home against Dallas and then Denver on Sunday. All right, straight ahead with the Bucks season in Shambles and Yannis now being ruled out for their final home game, how badly has all of this been handled in Milwaukee? The ESPN app is home to WrestleMania 42 and every WWE premium live event. You wanna be there for the biggest moment, you'll need the ESPN unlimited plan. To sign up, go to the link below or you have ESPN from one of these providers, ESPN unlimited is included as no additional course. Just head to activate.espn.com, follow the steps to get set up. Then sign into the ESPN app, and you're ready. WrestleMania and the biggest WWE premium live event all in one place, anytime, anywhere. Hey, Saints Breeze, we get through so many snacks. Have you got anything to help me save? Well, we're always matching and lowering prices. So hundreds of Saints Breeze, fresh fruit, veg, and everyday products are price matched to Aldi. And every week with Nectar, you can save money on thousands of the products your family loves. So you can snack away knowing you're saving money. Saints Breeze, good food for all of us. Selected products, Aldi price match not in an eye. Nectar prices require Nectar account. Terms at saintsbees.co.uk slash aldiprismatch and netto.com slash prices terms. When I'm president, this is gonna be my campaign promise. Stars will play, stars will be held accountable, stars will get paid. I'm sorry, I blacked out when he said president. I don't know, you president of what? I don't know what president of the shiny earring club. You know, he's a billionaire because he knows how to be cheap when he wants to be. We can praise Jerry Jones for being cheap, but you dog me for being cheap? That doesn't mean it's a compliment. Boy, oh boy, what a job, Mr. Winner. Who I love, by the way, you are, he's not come. He's a great guy, win ours. I'm not one to, he's lying on national television. Hey, hey, stay warm. So remember earlier on this show when Stephen A. called me, what was it, Agent Orange? Yes, girl. This dude's got this in his closet too. Ah, get him, guys! This was pure comedy. Let me tell you who you give up for youngness. Everybody. That's like just spending me over the weekend when I ain't working. This was about to be cinema. What you just heard on national television is one of the most blacksmiths comments that has ever come out of his mouth. We haven't won a championship since Richard Nixon left forces. This is a prime example of coaches have too much idol time. Yeah. How old is too old to sleep with a stuffed animal? We can cut the whole rest of the show. I just, I want to talk about scrappy. I'm a Janet Jackson fan, my brother. What have you done for me lately? Woo, woo, woo, yeah! Heck of a week here on First Take, but it hasn't been such a good week for Giannis Antena-Cumpo, who was officially ruled out of tonight's matchup with the Brooklyn Nets, the Bucks final home game of the season. He had made a request, play one final time potentially, in Milwaukee with his brothers, the Nassus and Alex. That is not going to be granted for the rest of this season. Who knows about the future, but David, the way this has all been handled. I know you have an interesting take about the Bucks versus Giannis Saga. I'm glad Perk is here to witness this because Giannis and the Bucks front office are suffering from a chronic case of failing to stand on business. And as a result, they have wasted 365 days of all of our lives, because this should have been handled last summer when Giannis wanted to leave Milwaukee, but did not want to look like the bad guy. And Milwaukee should have moved on from Giannis to get as many picks as they could, but did not want to look like the bad organization. They didn't want to look like bad guys. They didn't want their fans to be miserable. They didn't want to hate each other. A year later, both of them look like the bad guys. Their fans hate them and they hate each other. And Giannis midway through the season is putting double thumbs down to his own fans. They are not winning any games. Giannis is injured. His stock has fallen a little bit in terms of their return for what they can get from him. And everybody in the Milwaukee metropolitan area is miserable and more miserable than they would have been last year if everybody had a made peace, moved on from each other, let Giannis go try to win a championship, let Milwaukee get as many draft picks as they could, build to the future, start building his statue, start hanging his jersey and leave peacefully. Instead, this has become an ugly divorce because they wanted to stay together for the kids and the kids being the fans and everybody's miserable. That's cute. Look, it's not an easy decision to make to trade Giannis onto the Kumpo. And I won't say that Giannis messed it up. I might say the New York Knicks messed it up by trading all their draft capital for McKellar Bridges because half they held on to it, half they not getting a little too thirsty, they would have had the draft capital that the Milwaukee Bugs would have wanted. Giannis would be in New York and this would be a totally different ball game. But I'm with you. This is, like I said before, I love R&B breakup songs. Neither one of us wants to be the first to say goodbye. That's all. Perk, you got a little Gladys Knight in you too. Oh, I got a, look, I got a lot. Gladys Knight, Osley Brothers, but listen, here's the thing. This relationship has run this course. I agree with Vinnie and David when you talk about holding on too long. This should have happened before this season. The trade should have happened. They should have parted ways. It should have happened at the trade deadline. Now, here's the problem, right? The problem is, is that nobody wanted to be the bad guy. We all, we get that part of it. Giannis Sanchez Cupo, if he would have came out publicly and said he wanted out, he wouldn't have looked like the bad guy, you want to know why? Because he has done everything and more for that organization in the city of Milwaukee. On and off the floor. When you talk about delivering the championship, check. Winning the MVP, check. Defensive player of the year, check. Finals MVP, check. And then look at the growth of the city. See, I put Giannis in the same conversation with guys like LeBron and Steph when you talk about powerful over popular. Powerful players move the needle from an economic standpoint. They got a new arena. We see new, new, new condos, new restaurants. All that because of Giannis out to the Cupo and the winning and what he's brought to the city of Milwaukee. It has to happen. This, I believe this relationship is over. I do not want to go into next season talking about Giannis and the Bucks. It has to be over. Now I'm gonna say this, last thing. You know who's the biggest winner? Who's the biggest winner in all of this? Is the New York Knicks. The New York Knicks. That's why they're not under any pressure, in my opinion, this post season. Because they're really playing with house money. They know that Giannis out to the Cupo wants to be in New York. So now you take this team that is a championship caliber team. Hold on, feel me out. That is a championship caliber team. And you go make a run and try to go win the NBA championship. Guess what? If you fall short, you got enough pieces to go trade for Giannis out to the Cupo and run it back for the next two, three years with him and Jaylen Bronson leading the charge. Park my brother, I was with you. I was all the way there with you. And then you just happened to just go a little left. I don't think the Knicks are playing with house money. I know they fired their coach last year because they didn't get to the finals. Carl Towns is under a lot of pressure because they didn't get to the finals and have to get to the finals this year. Same for Mikael Bridges. Like you can't wait on Giannis out to the Cupo with the health issues that he's had since winning that title. He's had years where he hasn't played in the playoffs. He's had years like this year where he's battling calf injuries. So to assume that he's going to be a premium health by you waiting a year or to assume that the Bucks are going to hand him over to you just because you're the Knicks is a fool's errand because it's a lot of other teams that have Jappix and assets that they could trade him to. If you're the Knicks, you better focus on handling your own damn business. Yeah. All right. Let's leave it here because this is a saga that is putting a, we're putting a bow on it now. But I got you lucky on this one. We will get into so much more, Giannis because it's saga is only just beginning. But the final weekend of the NBA regular season is here. What are we most intrigued to find out? Our last takes are on the way. First take is brought to you by Fairlife. Enjoy great taste and nutrition with Fairlife ultra filtered milk. Here's our week three UFL schedule on Saturday afternoon on ESPN and the ESPN app. We have the Houston gamblers and the DC defenders both one and one. And on Sunday in ABC doubleheader, it's the Columbus aviators and the undefeated Dallas renegades at noon Eastern than the Birmingham stallions and St. Louis battlehawks. Both are also one and one. Final weekend of the NBA season is upon us. So let's go around the room here. What are you guys most intrigued to see as the NBA regular season ends out? I'm excited to see how the bottom half of the East net play in tournament sort of shapes out. For years it'd been born, it'd been the Trey Young imitational, the South Beach classic. Does you see the same teams in there? The Bulls invitation though. The Bulls invitation to see who's gonna get swept in the first round. Now you have some real compelling teams in that play-in starting with the Charlotte Hornets, which has been one of the best teams in the league since All-Star and they're going to be a team that is absolutely entertaining. No matter how far they go come play-off time, they're gonna give somebody fits. I cannot wait to see how they look where the Hawks end up because the Hawks have been on a roll. There are some really compelling teams in that East they're gonna make for some really great first round match-ups, namely, LaMelo Ball making his play-off debut. I can't wait for it. Nine seed, Charlotte. I would love to see that game. What about you Vinnie? I'm looking at the Western Conference. I wanna see if Denver stays at three because if they slide to four, they go in the crosshairs of Oklahoma City in round two. If Oklahoma City stays at one and it's Houston and LA and at four or five, they have a buy to the Western Conference finals while San Antonio and Denver duke it out in the second round. I wanna see if that holds or if there's some shifting at three, four, five spot. Perk, what about you? Yeah, I'm looking at the West, to be honest. And I'm looking at one team in particular and that's the Los Angeles Clippers and where are they gonna land and how they're gonna end the season and when they get into the play-in tournament because they're gonna get into the post-season, who are they gonna match up with? Because we know right now, Kauai Lenin, we could, one could argue, is the most dangerous man in the NBA. Yep, that's a seven, eight matchup as it currently stands in the West, Phoenix Suns and the LA Clippers. Lot of good basketball, lot of good golf with the Masters. We'll have you updated all throughout the weekend and we'll see you Monday here on First Take.