The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Thu, 17 Apr 2025
Zach and Pina begin by reacting to the latest play-in games and looking at the future of the Kings and Bulls (1:01). Then, they preview the much-anticipated Warriors-Rockets series (37:19). Along the way, Zach hands out some final awards (54:27), including this year’s much-debated MVP (59:18), then closes out with a look at Magic-Celtics and some final playoff predictions ahead of the weekend (1:10:57). 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 latest play-in games?
Bringing up Dale and Terry was funny because you're right that him and and Julian Phillips are very anonymous. And to the point where last night kind of marrying the thing you were saying about Josh Giddey's three point shooting.
I mean, last night, first of all, the Miami Heat, despite Giddey making 45% of his threes over his last 25 games, they completely ignored that number and treated him like someone who cannot shoot three-pointers. They put Bam Adebayo on him. They sagged off.
And Giddey lost all of his confidence as that game went on in his outside shot to the point where Dale and Terry passed him the ball in transition. And Giddey looked at the rim and did not shoot it, passed it to Vooch. Vooch passed it to Terry on a cut, and Terry got his shot blocked.
And I put this in my notes, but Dale and Terry then looked at Josh Giddey and clapped angrily at Giddey for not shooting the ball. And that was the most emotion and I guess just the most notable thing that Dale and Terry has done this season when I watched the Chicago Bulls play. But... I think just for me, it's a question of like, what is the strategy for this organization?
Do you seriously want to build from the middle and make the plan every year? Resign Giddy, give Kobe White the extension, have that be your very pricey backcourt. Hope Matas-Bouzelis evolves into someone who I think can be an all-star type of player. I really love everything that I see out of him.
As a rookie, he was on my first team, all-rookie team, which is an incredible honor, especially this year, as you know, Zach.
I had him on. I don't have a ballot. He was on my – I see you smiling. He was on my second team. I had – the last first spot came down to Colel Ware and Matas Pizzo. We're going to sprinkle in my awards. I've made my official choices, which are not official because I don't have a ballot.
I can't wait to hear them.
Let's just do rookies right now since we're on the topic. We're going to do rookies. Put the rookie of the year and the all-rookie graphic up. My first and second team have not changed since I did this on the pod last week. First team, Castle, Risa Shea, Wells, Edie, Ware. Second team, Saar, Filipowski, Buzelis, Klingin, Misi. Apologies to lots of people that I've already apologized to.
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Chapter 3: Who is the saddest team: Kings or Bulls?
And there is no way to fix that unless you want to totally realign the league, not realign the league, but do the one to 16 in the playoffs. And that is an issue that I don't feel like debating in depth right now. It has a lot of interesting sides to it, a lot of interesting arguments on both sides. But that's just life in the West.
Okay, those are my predictions for all the series and my awards, my breakdowns. Michael Pina, I know you're watching the film and really diving into these matchups, so it's been really fun to have you on. I'm glad to be teammates in the world of Spotify slash The Ringer. What do we got coming up from you? What do we got to look for?
I have a piece coming out tomorrow on just matchups breaking down. It aligns with this conversation, dovetails very nicely, just fun matchups to look out for in the first round. So check that out. And again, this was a true honor. I know you hate that word. It was. I've listened to basically every episode that you've ever recorded. Huge fan. You're the Michael Jordan of what we do.
I know you don't want to hear that. I don't know. I've never had a gambling experience. But yeah, this was great. And I truly appreciate you having me on Zach.
Michael Pina checked out the playoff matchups X's and O's preview at the ringer. It's one of those things where like, if you want to know what's going to happen in this series, like what's actually going to happen and not who's clutch and who has guts and who rises to the moment like that. Some of that stuff is real, but if you want to actually know what's going to happen, read that column.
Thank you, sir. All right, hope you guys enjoyed that. Buckle up. A big weekend of playoff games is coming up. We've got the two play-ins tomorrow, hurrah, and then eight playoff games Saturday and Sunday. Say goodbye to your loved ones. Enjoy the games. We will catch up on Monday reviewing all the weekend action and looking ahead to some of the best game twos on the Zach Lowe Show.
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