The Ryen Russillo Podcast
MLB Is Back! (Kind Of?) With Jeff Passan. Plus, How Much to Believe in the Cavs, Clippers, and Zion.
Thu, 20 Mar 2025
Russillo starts the pod by exploring which NBA teams or players we are being tricked by (0:36). Then, he’s joined by Jeff Passan to discuss Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers' deferrals, the hierarchy of the NL East, and which teams are in contention to win the AL (16:12). Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (1:19:32)! How do I reconcile with my wife after a hall pass mishap? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Jeff Passan Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What NBA teams are being overlooked this season?
on today's episode we've got a full mlb preview with jeff passan why the dodgers are good for baseball whoa what a tease um i'm gonna do some nba stuff i want to get in front of this clippers thing Because they look good. I know you don't want to hear it. I know you don't want to believe it. But a larger conversation about being tricked by things in the NBA and life advice.
Let's start with a little NBA today before we get to a big hour-long preview with Jeff Passan and life advice. I want to talk about the last couple nights in the league. The Clippers, two nights ago, beat the Cavs at home 132-119. And why am I bringing up a game from two days ago? Because I thought it was that important. Not so much on the Cavs side. I'm not that worried about it.
I think going into this West Coast swing, they were 18-3 against the West. I know they dropped the back-to-back against Sacramento. I'll probably touch on that a little. I love the Cavs. I'm not going to worry about it. Maybe one little small worry that I'll get to here in a few minutes. But this is really at the beginning about the Clippers. You're like, are you seriously going to talk Clippers?
Yeah, I think we need to talk a little Clippers. And I know what you're going to say. Are you actually going to fall for this, Russolo? It's a fair question. And maybe it's the right way to ask me that. But let's just break this down a little bit. So remember last year when the Clippers beat Boston in Boston?
I thought that was the single most impressive win by any team in any game in the entire 23-24 season. It was incredible. Clippers last year started the season 3-7. The Harden
re-entry uh was not great looked pretty bad then they went 31-8 and they were rolling we even did a breakout video i was like this looks like the best team in the nba they finished 17-16 and then injury struck again playoffs dallas doesn't even matter kawaii had 33 against the calves two nights ago his march numbers 36 minutes a game 25 six and a half boards three assists he's 51 40 from the floor
He's now taking almost 20 shots a game, which is up from 16 in February. A lot of this has minutes even going back to January as well. But look, he's right back to his career shooting numbers. You could look at the free throw attempts and the rebounding decline there, especially in the free throw side of it, and see those are kind of the signs of age for a perimeter scorer.
You start getting a little bit worried when you see the free throw attempts go down. But of all the things you could look at numbers-wise for him, you know, that's the only one that really jumps out. Uh, but I thought the thing that I really loved from him is there was a couple of times Mitchell's trying to bring the ball up late fourth quarter possessions.
I do think the calves, I was tracking good misses and some coaches kind of drive me crazy, you know, to get your ass kicked. And it's like, you know, we had a lot of good looks the entire night. It's like, are you just saying, does everybody just say that all the time? Or is that a weird kind of, Hey, we run good stuff. Yeah. Those guys miss shots. I think it's probably all of those things.
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Chapter 2: How are the Clippers performing this season?
They lose to the Pacers, who are missing their top guys for the most part. Obi Toppin turns into Steph Curry in that game. And then you lose to the Pelicans if you're Minnesota because Zion – I don't know who he is right now, but he is so pissed off at everybody. He is playing the game angry. It wasn't the steal. It was basically a turnover and a fumble pass.
He picked it up, loose ball, beats everybody down the court. It's one of the rare times where Julius Randle just like, I don't care. I'm not getting back for this because he wasn't going to catch him. He had a coast-to-coast that was nuts. His passing, where he knows if he's getting into trouble, where he's going to go with it. He had a pass from the right side, which was like,
way beyond the three-point line to the left corner like the past i was like how did he like i didn't i was not familiar look i should say i'm familiar with this game um but yeah i'm getting tricked into zion again here a little bit or are the pelicans getting tricked into it or is there another market that's getting tricked into it because he has been on fire you know look nobody wants to get tricked am i dming a redhead or is this ai again
Is it worse to DM AI or get a response from the DM on AI? So, yeah, just some thoughts here. And then, of course, we have to close it out with... the San Antonio Spurs. Yeah, there's just some teams hitting some loss. These losses for Minnesota based on the seeding stuff and home court, they're super frustrating. But Zion just loves playing the Timberwolves.
And again, you'd have to watch that Pacers game to see what Obi Toppin did to understand how did they lose that one. Then you get the Knicks going out to San Antonio last night where San Antonio just was putting it on them. The whole time I expected the Knicks to come back and win this game. It's starting to feel like maybe the Jalen Brunson minutes are missed here a bit.
And then, of course, speaking of minutes, Sandro... Memo Kelesvili, 19 minutes, 34 points, 13 of 14 from the floor, seven and seven from three. You want to talk about being in the zone. This dude was firing up threes where they knew he knew it was good while it was still in his hands, not out of the hands, still in his hands.
You can just tell when somebody knows they're feeling it when they start backpedaling, not in the dismissive, arrogant way that we can see some of our favorite players do it. But Memo was just like,
yep that's in too and i mean cat was getting frustrated like this is the time where cat's not closing out where i'm like i don't even know you can get mad at cat on any of this stuff so if you had never watched an nba game and saw mamu doing what he was doing last night i think there was a number he had 20 points in nine minutes or something if you had never watched an nba game you'd be like oh so that guy's like is anybody better at the game of basketball in the world than sandro um
A final thought on the Spurs, because I was watching the press conference with Chris Paul. I don't watch all of them live. The elder statesman of the Spurs team, 39 now. He's going to be 40 May 6th. So if you could put that in your calendar, maybe send him a nice note. I'm sure he'd appreciate that. But I talk about the closing moments of this game constantly. Who are you in the last few minutes?
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