The Bill Simmons Podcast
The Floundering Cavs, OKC-Boston Gut Checks, and Lottery Karma Power Rankings With Ryen Russillo
12 May 2025
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to react to Game 4 between the Cavaliers and Pacers (2:15). Then, they talk Thunder-Nuggets Game 4 before breaking down the rest of the playoff games over the weekend (37:13). Finally, they go through the NBA Lottery Karma Rankings (01:47:06). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Ryen Russillo 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
Full Episode
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An action-packed weekend of NBA playoff basketball. Rasul and I broke all of it down. And lottery karma rankings next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. I have a new rewatch of what's coming for you Tuesday. Not Monday, Tuesday. We did Death Wish with Charles Bronson because it is a big-ass 70s month.
So the reason it's Tuesday instead of Monday is because I'm going to do a podcast on Monday. We're going to do a podcast after Celtics-Knicks and after the lottery and just doing it. And I think the schedule might be Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and either Thursday or Friday this week. So I think I'm doing four on this feed this week. So rewatchables will be Tuesday. That's Death Wish.
You can watch it on Ringer Movies as well. You can watch all the YouTube clips, videos, live stuff from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. Rosilla and I, we recorded a bunch of this earlier today, right after the Denver OKC game. And then the top part of the podcast is right after Cleveland, Indiana, which was an absolute debacle for one of those two teams.
We're going to talk about it next. First, our friends from Pro Jam. All right, taping this top part of the podcast here. It is 7.30 Pacific time. We're doing that during the Cavs-Pacers game because that game ended about an hour ago, even though they're still playing it right now. And James Johnson just came in.
The Pacers, 25 assists in the first half, which is a number I did not know was attainable. And they absolutely ran Cleveland off the floor. And just when you thought it couldn't get worse, the third quarter started and Donovan Mitchell was nowhere to be seen because he apparently hurt his ankle. And the Cavs are now down 3-1, heading back to Cleveland for game five.
And the Pacers have completely, thoroughly, totally, and unequivocally outplayed them and have momentum. And this is now looking really dangerous, not just for this season, Rosillo, for the Cavaliers, but big picture. If you get wiped out like this by the Pacers, I'm not sure what you do heading into the summer. And I'm not even sure what the fixes are.
And maybe you look at it and you take a breath. And you go, all right, just wasn't our round, I guess. Let's run it back. We won 64 games. I find it hard to believe that's how it would play out because this is really bad how this has played out.
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