Week one of the playoffs: 4-5 smackdowns, distrusting the waveform, Empires striking back, waving to the fans, keeping score, getting a split on the road, Euroskeptic NBA  twitter, idiot green blogs, ripping flares, Darko shadows, Boston West, Messi to Everywhere, the Broncos of La Liga, getting these jokes off, return on investment, Barca’s accidental genius, trading for Simmons, rewriting LaMelo’s back story, marriages of convenience, Anti Laker Blazer Club, Mal Meningaing, worse than doing nothing, in your feels in your Notes, the Bucks’ exhaust port, is rugby league too stupid for analytics, delusions of exceptionality, the Miami Heat of the NRL, the Man Citeh of the NBA, powdered chalk, defensive liabilities, potting Conley back into form, turns out AD is good, coach-on-coach violence, step-back hairlines, Uncle Bron, manscaping podcasters, the talent drain the AFLW deserves, not wasting Luka, the ousted Gentry, coaching the weird and difficult, it’s already next season somewhere and don’t hurt the GOAT. BALLS and tripping balls are available on their own RSS feeds, as well as being found together on Omny Studio, Spotify and Apple Podcasts (feel free to subscribe, rate and review) - and we welcome your reckons via Twitter, Facebook and email.