The Ryen Russillo Podcast
MLB Is Back! (Kind Of?) With Jeff Passan. Plus, How Much to Believe in the Cavs, Clippers, and Zion.
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
Full Episode
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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