Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Coming up on the Zach Lowe Show, the regular season is almost over and we've got a lot of news. Cade Cunningham came back last night. How did he look in his first game back against the Bucs? Victor Weminyama apparently is going to be semi-okay with a bruised rib.
Missed San Antonio's last game and win over Portland, but appears likely to get awards consideration by playing one more regular season game playoffs. That's pretty hopeful. We'll see how he looks.
Chapter 2: What playoff series is the most interesting that isn't set yet?
And the Spurs need to be at 100%. There ain't no margin of error. in the hellacious Western Conference. We're going to talk about all that with Stan Van Gundy. Oh, Jade McDaniels came back too. We're going to talk about which playoff races that are still in jeopardy are most interesting to the great coach Stan Van Gundy. West 3-4-5, East 5-10 remains a mess. Portland Clippers, do you care?
Chapter 3: What insights can we gather from the SA-DEN matchup?
Should you care? Do they even care? Yes, they do. We'll talk about that. Stan's going to reveal his awards choices. He is one of the most independent-thinking awards ballot voters in the whole league. He went off the grid on a couple of choices last year in a good way. He is not afraid to be against the consensus. He's going to reveal his choices. Dwayne Wade versus James Harden.
That's been an ongoing debate.
Chapter 4: What are Stan Van Gundy's award picks for the season?
We'll get into that. And he's going to talk about Victor Wimbanyama's defense from a coaching perspective. We're going to get into all of that and more with the legend, Amazon's Stan Van Gundy. The Zach Lowe Show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA postseason is here and FanDuel knows the only thing better than watching your favorite team win is winning along with them.
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Chapter 5: How has Cooper Flagg impacted the Mavs this season?
Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. We are entering the last two to three games of the regular season. And look who's here, the legend from Amazon Prime Video, from just a bunch of teams in the NBA, the great Stan Van Gundy. How are you doing, sir?
I'm good. And I, you know, you got the New York hat on, but I appreciate for my, as an Orlando person, that you got the Mickey Mouse shirt on to make me feel at home.
Yeah, you know, I'm not bitter, Stan.
Chapter 6: What solutions exist for fixing tanking in the NBA?
I'm not bitter about what happened at the Worldwide Leader. I still like Disney. I still go down to the theme parks. I just won't get the discounts anymore. I made good use of them back in the day. So a lot of stuff still happening in the NBA, even as we get to the home stretch. Victor Wambanyama, apparently going to be OK or OK-ish.
He looks likely to play in one of the last two games to get awards consideration. And thank God, because no one wants to tear up in their entire awards ballot in multiple categories at the end of the season. Playoffs, you'll play, I'm assuming, and we'll see. There's no margin for error in the West. There's no margin for a little setback in the West.
Cade Cunningham came back last night against the Zombie Bucks.
Chapter 7: Who had the better career: James Harden or Dwyane Wade?
I thought he looked pretty good. Jaden McDaniels came back for the Timberwolves. That's a sneaky, important thing, particularly if you're looking at the third seed, maybe Denver, and I got to go through full-strength Minnesota, full-strength San Antonio, full-strength Oklahoma City. Some seeds have been clinched. Oklahoma City is number one. San Antonio is number two.
Chapter 8: What were the initial Finals picks and how have they changed?
Minnesota is number six. Detroit is number one. Atlanta had two chances to lock up a top six spot at home. Lost to the Knicks, lost to the Cavs. Lots to do, Stan. Are you ready? Are you ready for the playoffs?
Yeah, I can't wait. I think it's going to be great. I think that, you know, the East is as wide open as I've ever seen a conference be. I mean, I just, I don't think that there's a first round series that could come up where you're like, okay, that one's going to be an easy one. I think any of those teams, because you're looking at Philly has now gotten healthy. Orlando has gotten healthy.
Miami, this has been their pattern for what, five or six years, like playing team in the regular season. And then they look like a totally different group when the postseason comes. I just don't see anything easy there in the East. And then the West, I mean, we see a collision course between Oklahoma City and San Antonio, but I think Denver at full strength can be a threat to anybody.
I'm not sure it's as wide open as the East, but certainly at the top, we can see some excitement.
Yeah, I would say the one exception to the Miami play-in rule was last year where they got historically steamrolled by Cleveland in the first round. But, you know, they have experience for whatever it's worth coming out of the play-in. So I will start by asking you this. There are three broad playoff races that are still in flux as we enter literally like the last days of the regular season.
Number one, the West 3-4-5 between Denver, who is currently 52-28. The Lakers 50 and 29 are fourth. The Rockets 50 and 29 are fifth. That is still very much in play. The way that Houston loses the tiebreakers to both of those teams. So it's going to be very, very hard for them to get up to three. They're probably stuck. in the four or five bracket. So the questions then become, who do they play?
Does the lake do the Lakers get three or do Denver get three and who has home court? If it's Lakers Houston, who's the four seed because they're tied right now. The nuggets have two games left against the thunder and the spurs. That looked like a horrible gauntlet two, three weeks ago.
Now it's like you just don't know which version of which team you're actually going to get, given that they have now locked up their seeds. If they go one and one in those two games... And the Lakers go 3-0, and they finish with the Warriors, the Suns, and the Jazz. So not impossible, even without Luka and Reeves, that they go 3-0.
The Lakers would actually get the third seed because they have the tiebreaker against the Nuggets. I think the Thunder have some incentive to keep the Nuggets snug and cozy in that third seed. So we'll see how that goes. And so we have that race. We have the East from five to 10, which is like Atlanta to Miami. It's complete chaos.
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