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Chapter 1: What games are previewed in this episode?
Coming up on the Zach Lowe Show. Oh, boy. The playoffs have officially arrived. Knicks, Hawks. The Hawks with an improbable come from behind win. CJ McCollum.
Chapter 2: How did the Timberwolves perform in Game 2 against the Nuggets?
Holy smokes. Hello to the newest New York City postseason villain. What happened? Why did the Knicks have no timeouts? What are the adjustments going to be in that series? And in Denver, Minnesota, the same thing. Minnesota with a really strong win in a super high-level game down to the wire. In Denver, we had missed free throws in both games. We had interesting coaching decisions in both games.
We had clutch baskets galore in both of those games. Moe Tequila is here to help us break down. Wait, how did we get here? And now...
Chapter 3: What did Jaden McDaniels say about the Nuggets' defense?
More importantly, with a couple of days off, what comes next? What adjustments need to happen? What adjustments do we expect to happen? What are the adjustments to the adjustments? Then we get into Raptors-Cavs, which is a little less interesting, 2-0. Not a great start for the Raptors. And then lots of news in the NBA.
We talk about Billy Donovan leaving the Bulls and the coaching dominoes, the future of the Warriors, the future of the Heat, which I feel like we fast-forwarded a little bit too quickly on.
Chapter 4: How did the Knicks and Hawks series unfold in Game 2?
And then also Detroit-Orlando. Are the Pistons in trouble? A deep dive on that. and not even a dive. We just sort of wade into the zero-entry pool of Suns-Thunder, and is there any hope for Phoenix to even make that competitive? So tons of stuff, and a brief look ahead to tonight's three games, too.
Chapter 5: What impact did CJ McCollum have on the Knicks game?
Philly-Boston, Houston-Lakers. Boys, this is a show-me game for the Rockets and Spurs-Blazers, all coming up on the Zach Lowe Show with Mode2Kill. 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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Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. The playoffs have officially begun.
Chapter 6: How are the Cavaliers performing against the Raptors?
After a ho-hum opening weekend of mostly chalk and a little bit of Orlando magic magic, last night, Monday night, we got rolling. Forget raps, Cavs, we'll get to that. The Knicks, a thrilling fall from a head loss at home in game 2-1-1. Caw-caw! And Nuggets Wolves just exceeding the hype. An awesome, well-played, tense, super high-level game between two legitimate finals-level teams.
Yes, I'm calling the Wolves the finals-level team. Sue me if you disagree. That series is 1-1. We had missed free throws. We had clutch plays. We had clutch mistakes. We had coaching mistakes. We had everything going on. Motakil, we're going to break it all down. How are you doing, bud?
I'm doing great, man. It's playoff time. This is what we live for, Zach.
A series doesn't start until the road team wins. Two road teams won last night. One Canada's team did not. Before we go on to those games, just we should quickly acknowledge there are three game twos tonight. Typically, I don't talk too much about tonight's games because by the time this comes out, there's not a lot of lead time. Philly, Boston, Portland, San Antonio, Lakers, Houston.
What's the one of those that you are watching most closely tonight or the one thing you are watching most closely tonight?
Oh, Portland, San Antonio, I think is the most interesting of the three for me. And it's not just because I'm enamored by Wemby. I want to see what Portland does defensively. They threw everything at him in game one. And I want to know if they have more. Are we going to see something zones? Are they going to press full court? They had started out with clinging on, um, They had Kamara on Wemby.
Then they switched eventually to the bigs on Wemby. And I just want to see how they kind of figure this stuff out. And what do they have in the bag left? Cause, and to their credit, we're throwing it all out in game one and seeing what we can do and what's going to work. And to Wemby's credit, none of it worked.
Yeah, I think that's the most interesting of the three series tonight, and I said this with Bill on Sunday. Just what a debut for Wemby. Obviously, the numbers were sensational, but the how he got there was unbelievable, just in the sense of what you're talking about. Portland just went right away like, we have nothing to save for game two.
We're throwing every gambit we have at you right away in game one, and they problem-solved all of them. I think we might see more zone. That's one adjustment. Portland played a good deal of zone this year. We might see more, but... They're just at such a talent deficit and a scoring deficit. Philly, Boston, tough hill to climb for the Sixers.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of Billy Donovan stepping down?
Oh, yeah. Dominating baby. Yeah, I think that's the battle I'm trying to kind of figure out when I'm watching that game tonight. I'm going to be looking at how are the Rockets going to use Shingun with the lack of space that they have to give him some sort of room to operate. And I think that's the big problem for them.
We shall see. I expect Celtics win, Spurs win.
Chapter 8: What does the future hold for the Miami Heat after this season?
I'll pick Rockets win tonight. Okay, let's go on to the two games of last night and then look forward to adjustments to come as these series move to the other arenas in game three. Denver, Minnesota. An absolute thriller in Denver where the Nuggets get off to a scorching start. The Timberwolves are making all kinds of mistakes on defense and transition in the half court.
You're thinking, oh my God, maybe Ant's knee is bulky. He doesn't look like he's moving well. It's just been sort of a weird year from the Timberwolves. Maybe we're just not going to have the series we all hope for. And then Ant shows up and shows out. The Timberwolves just across the board. Randall played with the level of physicality and aggression they need.
I thought it was just a super high-level game on both ends of the floor. Like, both teams played super hard, super smart. And then down the stretch, what a stretch one. Do you want to go through the last couple minutes? Yes, yes, please. A minute 30 left. Ant DiVincenzo, left side of the floor, pick and roll. They're hunting Jamal Murray. Ant's hunting Jamal Murray.
I think he should do more of that. Ant's hunting everybody, and he's pushing a lot of the right buttons. These teams are not messing around. They're pushing the right buttons. They get the switch. Minnesota overloads that side of the floor, kind of doubles Ant to get the ball out of his hands. He kicks it to Dante DiVincenzo on the right side.
Tim Hardaway Jr., who's playing an enormous amount of minutes with the other starters, partly because Cam Johnson was in foul trouble and Peyton Watson's out, and that looms large. There's a lot of Tim Hardaway Jr. happening. This might be the single best defensive possession of Tim Hardaway Jr. 's life. He runs DiVincenzo off the arc. He rotates over, runs him off the arc.
DiVincenzo drives, kicks it to Jada McDaniels. Hardaway peels out of the middle of the floor, off DiVincenzo, onto McDaniels, forces a crazy twisting fadeaway jumper missed by McDaniels, who otherwise had a pretty nice game. Denver runs it up. Aaron Gordon hits a three. At that point, what's the score at that point? I don't even remember. It's a one-point game at that point. It's a 1-12. 112-111.
DiVincenzo then hits a three off the same kind of action. It's 115-111. Nikola Jokic runs an inverted pick and roll with Jamal Murray, which is something I talked about going into the series. I think they should run it even more. It puts Gobert, who's been awesome defensively, at.
stoned Jokic in the post multiple times last night, got a massive offensive rebound, put back dunk over Jokic late in the game. He's just been awesome. Kind of got stuck under the screen and Jokic starts rumbling toward the rim. And I swear to God, Mo, when he went up, not with two hands, with one hand and dunked it, I literally screamed, holy shit, in my office.
You just don't expect him to dunk the ball like that. Then Ant travels and the door is open for Denver. It's a two-point game. Ant travels. It's like, oh my God, okay. It's nervous time. Christian Brown is fouled under the rim for Denver on another inverted pick and roll. No, it was a Murray Jokic pick and roll straight up. Right. Yeah. One out of two. Nervous time. It's a one-point game.
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