Saltier. Adam Ausland here cleared up the playoff situation. You know, it's
funny. I just checked Twitter, all right, I said I was wrong,
meaning we were wrong, but I thought I was wrong, corrected it.
I could have told you that stop. Then I was told, no,
you're not wrong, We're right. Okay. Then we brought an Adam
who just explained it, which confirmed what our listeners said. And now I
go to Twitter and they go, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with
you? The confusion is based around last season. It was a spur of
the moment. They made an amendment to the end of the season because they
didn't think it was fair for teams to not have a shot to get in
because they didn't play the full eighty two games the season. Season was unexpectedly
cut short. So what they did was they said, okay, Portland's the
eighth seed right now, Memphis is the ninth seed. The ninth seed has
a chance to get to the eighth seed because they shortened all those games.
So if they beat Portland twice, they get in. If Portland beats them
once, they get in. That's what happened. Portland became the eighth seed.
They just had to beat Memphis once, all right, And I was
of the belief that the ruling from last season carried over into this season.
And I believe that is where the genesis of all the confusion started. It
started with me, not with Fred or with Rodney. It was for me
and all the listeners. Again, can you break it down one more time?
Okay, Lakers win tomorrow night. Let's say that happens, right,
they're the seventh seed, the seven and eight. Whoever comes out of that
game tomorrow night. In both conferences, they are the seventh seed. In
the Eastern Conference, that's Washington taken on the Boston Celtics tonight. Whoever win,
whoever wins, becomes the seventh. Sea doesn't win, or Golden State
win, never win. Whoever wins that game, the loser takes on the
winner of the nine ten, which in the Western Conference will be Memphis versus
the San Antonio Spurs. So even if the Lakers lost the Golden State Warriors,
it's double elimination. They would still have another chance to get the eighth
seed by beating the winner of Memphis and San Antonio. All Right, they
don't play the Golden State Warrior twice. No, no, sir, that
was just something unique to last year. All right, since you do a
Clipper countdown and you are the pregame, halftime and postgame host of all Clippers,
did they go into tank at the end of the season. I'm calling
this sports media malpractice with what I've heard over the past couple of days is
they're just not enough to talk about because the premise is built upon a lie,
a falsehood. You can go back and say, well, the Clippers
did not play hard against Houston or OKAC. They didn't play their regulars.
Well, why should they have to? They earn the right first of all
to rest guys. And they have their two superstars who are both dealing with
foot injuries in Kauai and Paul George. And oh yeah, Friday night's game
that was the second game of a back to back. It's consistent with what
they've been doing over the last month on back to backs. They've been resting
guys. So that game makes sense to me, even though gen Ronod still
played thirty minutes and they were still in it late. But the fact that
people are saying it's further proven that they were trying to throw the end of
the game or the end of the regular seasons and not match up against the
Lakers because they lost to okay See on Sunday. Wait a second, that
game had no bearing on them playing the Los Angeles Lakers. They already knew
going into Sunday that they were going to take on either the Dallas Mavericks or
the Portland Trailblazers. No matter what happened in that game, they had no
control over that. They weren't going to play the Los Angeles Lakers. It
was already determined after Friday night it was over. So to say, not
only did they throw a game against the Houston Rockets Friday night, then they
lose one of the worst teams again in the ok See Thunder. That game
had nothing to do with it. So either people are lying being disingenuous about
it, just taking shots of the Clippers because it's open season for whatever I
guess, because they blew that three once serious lead against the Denver Nuggets,
or they're just completely uninformed. So okay, so I get the Sunday but
the Friday. Do people have a legitimate beef about the Friday night game because
it wasn't determined there. They haven't been playing Kawhi Leonard or Paul George on
back to backs recently. If you have a chance to give both of your
guys a week and a half off, the two guys that are most important
to making that long playoff run, you do that, and that is what
ended up happening. It would be one thing if you could gain some momentum
and some runway going into the playoffs. Let's say the season ended on Sunday
in the first round started on Tuesday or Wednesday. But that's not the situation
now because of the play in tournament. Every team is having five to six
to seven days off from the end of the regular season into the first round.
So it's not even like you can get into a rhythm by playing these
guys at the end of the year. There's no incentive to play them.
It doesn't make sense. Laker fans are just unhappy because they ended up being
in the play in tournament. Go get upset with the Portland Trailblazers or Denver
Nuggets. If that's the case. That was the ultimate game that determined whether
or not they were going to get in or not. Yeah, I mean
I think yeah, maybe Laker fans, they can feel, you know,
maybe superior, like the Clippers are scared of them. But I think it's
more than just Laker fans that felt that way. I think it's across the
country that people were like, whoa, the Clippers kind of kind of adduct
it. But to the real point, if you really think about it,
if you're the Clippers, well, when do you want to face the Lakers?
You want to face them early or do you want to face them in
the finals where they've had a couple of series under their belt. If you're
the Clippers, don't you want to face them in the first round when they're
the most vulnerable. I think the Clippers right now, based upon the last
three weeks, they are also vulnerable. I don't think they've been playing their
best basketball since Kauhi returned from his foot injury. They just haven't looked the
same overall. So I've heard a lot about this where well, you could
catch the Lakers slipping right now, it's perfect time get them in the first
round, take them out. They're reimplementing Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Well,
it's not like Paul George and Kawhi Leonard have been playing in a ton
of games recently. They're also banged up, and they just got Sergebaca back,
who is going to be necessary going up against Anthony Davis. He just
played his first two games in the last two months, so they need to
get into a rhythm too. Now, they could still see the Lakers,
by the way, in the second round. If the Lakers end up losing
to the Golden State Warriors tomorrow night and then they win against whoever comes out
between the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs, they're the eighth seed they'll take
on the one. If they upset the Utah Jazz in that case, and
the Clippers won against the Dallas Mavericks, they would match up in the second
round. So the fact that the Clippers could have won both games and the
Lakers still wouldn't have got in to the playoffs, that tells you all you
need to know. Why would the Clippers be worried about anyone else but themselves?
All right, what do you think about Lebron's I thought he looked pretty
good with the burst on a Sunday against the Pelicans. Now it sounds like
he had a minor tweak at the end. But they're all saying, I'm
fine, Everything's fine to me. The play was telling where he had the
steal and took it coast to coast for the underhand layup. He looked like
the freight train. Lebron James. He looked as fast as ever. And
I don't think it takes a lot of time for someone like him and for
the guys around him to get back in sync when you're talking about Lebron James,
because he's that ultimate connector out there on the floor. He makes everyone
so much better, and in his eighteenth year or whatever it is, I
don't think it's going to take him long to get back and rhythm. Individually,
he looked good. Anthony Davis has looked really good at times over the
last week two. The Lakers are in a pretty good spot considering how many
games have been missed by Lebron James and Anthony Davis. I think Lebron has
missed twenty seven eighty has missed somewhere around thirty five. And they're coming together
just at the right time, and they have a team in Golden State that
doesn't match up well against them. I'm expecting the Lakers to win by fifteen
to twenty points tomorrow night. Yeah, all right, So what do you
think assuming that it all stays the same The Lakers beat the Warriors, Warriors
beat whoever San Antonio or Memphis, it stays seven and eight with Lakers and
Warriors. What matchup in this first round of the Western Conference are you excited
about or should be the most exciting matchup? Most exciting, I mean it
could be because of the likelihood of an upset. It could be that two
seven matchup between the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers, because Phoenix has
done all this work to be the two seed and the reward is getting to
play the Los Angeles Lakers, who they don't have the personnel to match up
very well against. They don't have enough size. And that last game without
Lebron James, where the Lakers won handily, where Ad looked like himself going
for forty plus points out there, that could be a preview a sign of
things to come. As good as CP three has been this season and Devin
Booker and DeAndre Aden, they just don't have a lot of answers for the
Lakers size. That would be a really good matchup for the Los Angeles Lakers.
People have talked about this. The fact that they can still be the
seventh seed going through the play in tournament could actually benefit them. I talked
about all the other teams dealing with being out of sync and out of rhythm.
Because they're going to have a week off between the end of or from
the end of the end of the regular season into the first round. The
Lakers might actually have some momentum. If they win big tomorrow night, they
may feel really good about themselves. And Phoenix that is just a really tough
draw for them. I said this earlier on the FA podcast, But it's
just it is the undefeated bad luck of Chris Paul. It's always been like
that for him in the playoffs. If they end up getting the Los Angeles
Lakers and get bounced in six games in the first round, it is going
to be devastating for Phoenix Jones fans who really thought they had a chance at
least to get to the Western Conference finals. Adam appreciate the infol today.
Thanks for jumping in all right, love you guys, Even new Fred