The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Clips-Nuggets Slugfest, Brunson’s Heroics, Best 2025 TV Shows and NBA Then and Now With Rob Mahoney, Joanna Robinson and Bob Ryan
Fri, 02 May 2025
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Rob Mahoney to react to the Knicks-Pistons and Nuggets-Clippers playoff matchups on Thursday (2:22). Then, Bill talks with Joanna Robinson about TV shows in 2025 (48:24). Finally, legendary sportswriter Bob Ryan joins to talk about Anthony Edwards, the Celtics, and more! (01:27:00) Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Rob Mahoney, Joanna Robinson, and Bob Ryan Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo This episode is brought to you by Degree Deodorant. Grab the original Cool Rush at Walmart or Target today. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened in the Clippers vs. Nuggets Game 6 playoff matchup?
He was.
It looked like they were about to put the game away seven times and it was just going to go into the 17, 18, 19 range. I was going to be able to drive home with six minutes left and start recording the pod with you. And then all of a sudden the Nuggets were within nine and they were within six and the PTSD kicked in. New arena. Yeah. New energy, really good team. It didn't matter.
The crowd got fucking nervous and you could feel it. And I was getting flashbacks to 10 years ago, that Rockets game when they blew that 19-point lead. And they survived it, mostly thanks to a crazy Russell Westbrook play.
A couple of them. How many excruciating layups is Russell Westbrook going to miss this season?
I went with my friend, Mike, who I shared tickets with, and we decided he was the MVP of the game because he did good stuff for both teams. Everybody had a positive interaction with him. It's true. Our guy balances the ledger. He knows what he's doing out there. So I'll tell you what I saw in person, but what'd you see on TV? What jumped out to you?
I think the hardened elements for sure, but also this felt very much like the Nick Batum game, a game in which Batum completely changed the energy, completely changed the strategy. Tyloo finally pulled the plug on some of Chris Dunn's minutes in the second half, which the series had been kind of building to that point over the last three games or so, to be honest with you.
It felt a little inevitable, but once it happened, you could feel everything the Nuggets were trying to accomplish. It seemed uphill from that point, just from having Nick Batum on the floor. It was crazy.
I don't think Chris Dunn played in the second half. A lot of the people in my section had been calling for this for a while. Just basically go bigger, longer. But the thing I wasn't expecting was Batum had a bunch of reps on Jokic defending him. Now, we were playing blood sport rules tonight. I don't know if you noticed. I think there were less than 30 fouls total. And it was the same both ways.
So that was how it was going. I went to the Laker game yesterday. I think there was close to 50 fouls in that game. And everything was a foul. This game, nothing was a foul. And everyone knew it. And Jokic, who was getting mauled every time he had the ball, but he was also mauling other people. There was a couple of plays where he was just shoving Batum backwards.
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Chapter 2: How do the Knicks and Pistons compare after their playoff series?
Like he creates all of that space on his own, no illegal contact, cans it because he's Jalen Brunson, one of the most clutch players that we have in the league right now. I love watching that guy play. I love watching that guy hoop. And when he's doing it in this way, like he's such an undeniable charismatic basketball force.
And yet, heading into that next round, the Celtics are minus 700 favorites. Well, sure. Now, if I told you before the year, the Celtics and Knicks are going to play in round two and the Celtics are going to be 7-1 favorites, I think we would have thought somebody was hurt on the Knicks.
Yeah.
We would have assumed Towns, Brunson, or Inanobi, one of those three, or maybe even Bridges. But that was not a healthy five. But it is a healthy five. I mean, I know Brunson's slipping around. He had 40 tonight.
Or the other assumption would be that the Cat trade had gone really poorly for some reason, which it hasn't. It's gone mostly quite well. Not so well in this game. I thought this was a game in which it was very much Josh Hart and OG and Mikhail completely delivered in all of their peripheral capacities, in addition to Jalen Brunson just going balls out as far as shot creation goes. And then Cat...
is doing a thing we've seen him do before. We're sort of floating around and he's weirdly passive and he's not involved in the offense. And then when the ball finally comes his way, he's shooting shots five feet behind the three-point line. And then he fouls out and misses a crucial free throw. It's just like a...
Not a great display of Carl Anthony Towns as a basketball experience, especially going into a series against the Celtics where he has to be one of the Knicks' most important players to actually leverage that matchup. And I really like Cat. I find myself as a Cat defender in a lot of debates and conversations.
I don't have a lot of faith in his ability to successfully bully and score on and be everything defensively that he needs to be against the Celtics. It's just not... It's not... That matchup does not position him for any kind of success.
Yeah, it's a weird one with all the Knicks fans. I know, and I'm sure you know a lot of them too. Last year, they were just so delighted. by that gritty underdog team that they had. And they just really responded to those guys. And this year, it's a lot of complaining. A lot of complaining about Tibbs. A lot of wondering. But then also a real love for Brunson.
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