Trysta’s back in on the Clippers and no, she’s not taking questions at this time.
On this episode of Heat Check, she breaks down the Warriors Clippers duel on Sunday, why Steve Kerr might be in trouble, and how the West playoff matchups are shaping up.
Trysta dives into Nuggets Clippers, Luka and the Lakers vs. Ant and the Wolves, and sorts through Black Monday across the league!
Follow Trysta here.
On this episode of the Heat Check.
The playoffs are here just in time for us to finishing our transition to the iHeart Podcast Network.
A lot to talk about.
Wyatt, my new producer, dropped that motherfucking beat.
This should be Rihanna.
You're listening to the Hottest, the Hottest.
It'd be a podcast out here. I said what I said, it's the heat Check, chat Check.
It's just all right, new show, new format. W NBA draft just went off, so I'm recording this a little bit late. Congratulations the Page and the Dallas Wings forgetting their girls. She's a fucking star. It's gonna be so great. I got chicken coming.
It was so fun.
If you didn't get on my Instagram live, you should have. I was roasting my other producer for making bland ass chicken. I was roasting my mom as well. Speaking of cooking, we gotta get to cook in Yes we do. Baby. Have you ever seen a coaching decision so egregious you had to head over to social media? Like?
Am I tripping? Or was that fucking outrageous? Did I dream that? Am I crazy?
That is what happened to me on Sunday with Steve Kerr and the litany of crazy ass decisions that he was making. We're gonna talk about that because it might just have cost the Warriors their entire fucking season.
On multiple accounts.
It's also Black Monday, so we have organizational tea.
People are getting fired, players are already getting shopped. News coming out left and right.
We are talking also playoff matchups in the West, including the Nuggets facing the Clippers, which I think is probably the most enticing exciting.
Matchup of them all. We've got Luca and the Lakers taking on Gobert.
Oh Oh, Rudy uh Avoi, new platforms, same roasting of Rudy go Bear, and we of course talk about the Warriors loss and what it means for their playoff hopes. So let's go into this Golden State game first and foremost.
Here's the thing.
It was game eighty two. Okay, Game eighty two wasn't supposed to have this much drama. Not when Steph Curry drops thirty six points the Warriors are there, Not when Jimmy Butler drops thirty points, and somehow, in disastrous fashion, they still managed to lose. Harden turning back the clock, Draymond trying to foul bait into a new timeline.
What the fuck was that? We'll talk about that in a second.
We have Steve Kerr drawing up a final shot for Buddy Healed, like Steph Curry doesn't exist.
Buddy Healed. Buddy Hill wasn't even in the game. He was ice cooled.
The game was calm, The game was tragedy and maybe had consequences that were catastrophic.
There's something wrong with my brain. Let's talk about it.
So when Adam Silver made the schedule like an EPL schedule, all the teams in the West play at the same time, all the teams in the East play at the same time, we knew that some drama.
Would happen, and it did with our Dubs.
Warriors would have become the sixth seed with the win or with the loss fall to the play in tournament. Clippers moved to five with the win and moved to six with the loss, facing the Lakers in the first round, So it was kind of like a Game seven.
That was the vibe. And for those of you who have.
Been scorned, spurned, believed, and then felt stupid, you probably haven't been tuning in to the Clippers. For those of you who started to turn into the Clippers and then realized that Kawhi Leonard wasn't playing in the beginning of the season.
Don't blame me either. For those of you who are like, oh, well, Paul George isn't there anymore.
I'm not gonna watch. The whole thing is done. Jerry West is dead. Rip Jerry West.
I'm not paying attention.
For those who have not been paying attention, we have a developing situation on our hands.
James Harden and Kawhi Leonard have turned back the clock, folks. This is what's in store for the playoffs.
James Harden thirty nine points, ten assists vintage. Kawhi Leonard had thirty three points, efficiently, quietly, robotically, like the assassin that he is. And by the way, Kawhi Leonard played forty seven minutes. Kawhi Leonard and James Harden combined for seventy two points, seventeen assists, and thirteen rebounds sixty two percent shooting, including nine for sixteen from deep. By the way, Kawhi Leonard is not supposed to be a three point shooter.
Somehow, in his haze of injuries.
Comes back and is the new Steph Curry, even because Zubac twenty two point seventeen boards dominating in the paint.
This is a team that looks like they've got their identity.
So that's the Clippers. So on one hand, the Clippers were about as good as they can be. Steph Curry, he was as good as he could be, thirty six points, doing everything under the sun that he could. Jimmy Butler went blow for blow with Kawhi with the best version of Kawhi thirty points. What we want to see from playoff Jimmy Butler, and it comes down to the wire. You're in ot Draymond has a clear lane, get the ball to him.
All he has to do is make a layup.
Instead of going up strong like the dog he says he is, bitch move decides he's going to foul bait leans In, tries to get the foul call, probably strategically to get an an one so that they could just win the game.
Brutal no call.
Ben Simmons ask and, like I said, this is a vibe of a game seven. By the way, he also did this in the plan once before against the Grizzlies and then in the final possession Steve Kerr calls a time out.
We all know where the ball's going.
Right staph Steph Curry going to no, not Steph Curry. And yes, Kawhi Leonard was switched on to Steph Curry. But I don't give a fuck. Do not draw a play up for a guy who hasn't played in the game at all. In Buddy Healed, not Steph not not the ghost of Brandon Pajemski, not Jimmy Butler, Buddy Healed. Clank doesn't even hit room, actually not even a clank game over.
And then the.
Most confusing part is that Jonathan Kaminga, the hyper athletic player who's wanting max money, one of the more dynamic scores, who's supposed to be unlocked by Jimmy Butler, one of your best athletes. Not only is he not in the game for this moment, he's not in the game for any moments at dnp CD coaches decision. And we don't even really know why. No explanation postgame, just a lot of word salad, just thow that that would be. I told him he wasn't probably gonna be in the normal rotation, and I didn't know he.
Wasn't gonna play, but then he did.
If the okay, If I'm Jonathan Kaminga, I'm fucking pissed. Kerr just doesn't like young players.
He even was like, you know, and I didn't even play Gee Santos.
Excuse me, wait, you're being like I just want to let you know this is fair because I also didn't play Gee Santos.
I'm not checking for Gee Santos, and neither are you, okay. And the most.
Disastrous part is the Jimmy Butler got hurt in the game knee to the thigh, was seen visibly limping and was trying desperately to knock get the ball and be a part of the action in crunch time.
Fuck what a collapse.
As the commentary, because I was watching the Masters. Just to be fair, I was watching the Masters on the big TV, which is thirty two inches, and I was watching the Warriors game on the little TV aka on my iPhone, and so I'm watching both and the Masters commentator they're so petty. After Rory McElroy, who ended up winning the Masters, had a double bogy on one and looked really like he was struggling on too.
He said this was a disastrous start. This is a monumentally disastrous start to the round, and so like, that's what I feel about the Warriors. This was a disastrous Game eighty two.
Clippers clinch the five seed, they now get Denver, and the Warriors drop into the play in where.
They face Memphis.
Yet again, for a team that supposedly says that going to the finals is the Warriors Invitational, it sure seems like according to Kuff's legend, what a great call that the plan is the Warriors Invitational.
They either go to the plan and get bounced or they win a title. It's fucking insane.
Harrison Barnes, who now plays for the San Antonio Spurs, few games ago, hit a game winner that knocked the Warriors into a place where they were right here in Game eighty two, Harrison Barnes would have ended everything that we've seen about our dubs. And for the Clippers, we now need to say they are for real. They are a team that I am now starting to believe in. And then part of me says, Trista, you believe every year and the Clippers, and every year you're hurt. So I will say hesitantly, I think this version of the Clippers are the best they've ever been since they acquired Paul George and Kawhi.
Another piece that I need to kind of just go out and say.
I think we can at least start to say, is Steve Kerr actually a good coach? I think this is now like an every year thing we wonder is he elite?
Is he good? Is he mediocre? Is the elite? Is he good? Is he mediocre? It just depends on how good the Warriors are playing at that given moment.
What we do know is he doesn't develop young players. He didn't develop Ty Jerome, he didn't develop Moody, He hasn't developed Jonathan Kaminga. He hasn't developed even the players that he's taken.
Earlier on in the draft.
The Warriors are right now zero to three in the play in tournament, so I am very concerned.
The good news is we've got playoff Jimmy.
Jimmy Butler says he has the gear still to take over. Had thirty points in game eighty two, and that's something that I think we're gonna.
Have to see moving forward.
If they do anything, they will play either the Houston Rockets or the OKC Thunder or they will be going to Cancun. Those are the options, but this might have been a turning point. Gonna be fascinating to see what happens in this playing game where if they lose to Memphis, they'll play either Dallas or Sacramento. But what happens next is going to.
Be electric online. Let's move on speaking of these Clippers.
What a dangerous, dangerous matchup that this is for them Nuggets truly, truly, what the Nuggets do well is that they find ways to win when they shouldn't win. We saw that happen last playoffs against the Lakers. We saw that happen the other day against the Grizzlies where there were down what ten points with the minute to go or something like that. But this is not that the Nuggets are not the same team that they were a month ago. This Nuggets team has a coach who has who has coached three games in his entire career as a head coach, versus Tyleru who is one of the masterminds in playoff coaching.
And this is a place where you.
Don't just roll the ball out and see you have the most impactful player in you'll catch so you win games.
No No, this is a chess match.
This is adjustments, this is strategy, this is counters.
And Tyler is the best at that.
Remember when Tyler used Nick Batoum as a small ball five and against the Utah Jazz, number one seed in the West, set their ass fucking packing. So you better be ready, Nugs, okay, or it's gonna be blood in the streets. Clippers are putting it together, folks. They are one of the hottest teams in basketball right now. They've won eight in a row, They've won nine of their last ten. And I don't know where this version of James Harden has come from, but James Harden is twenty nineteen Houston Rockets James Harden. In the last week of the season, He's averaging thirty eleven and eight.
He's gonna be an All NBA player. At damn, you're forty. Kawhy Now it's twenty nineteen for Kawhi Leonard as well. He's back like cook crack.
He's back like the seats on a Cadillac and they go all the way back. So he came out and praise the Clippers' medical staff for reaching out and working with outside experts to help with his rehab and what do we see from that that matters? Who I played forty seven minutes in that overtime win against Golden State. He's averaging twenty seven twenty six, seven and three. He's having two and a half stocks per game in his last twenty.
He's averaging forty three percent from three. Zubach is getting Defensive Player of the Year love.
He's averaging twenty three and ten against Jokic in his career. This is a year that has culminated in the first triple double ever.
And I know he's been lobbying.
To try to get that dpo wyword. We've got Chris Dunn, who I know. You probably don't know because you're a casual fan. If you're a hardcore fan, Chris Dune's been awesome. He's averaging just seven three and two, but two steals a game and just twenty six minutes per game, but his plus minus is six point one on average during that time. That is a top forty plus minus in the NBA. So this is a bad draw for a Nuggets team who have a young roster players. We don't trust players that got Mike Malone fire. Michael Malone fire, because he doesn't trust them. You got rumors coming out that Michael Porter Junior can't be traded because the owner went to Missouri and he went to Missouri, which is fucking bananas. You have Aaron Gordon who's really important, and he hasn't been healthy.
He's been up and down.
You got Jamal Murray who when he is on, he is Donkey Kong, but he's not always on and he has injury issues as well. Jokic when he does everything, and you turn them into just a score. The Nuggets are beatable and they play face a coach who has the Nuggets have a coach who has three games of experience. That's fucking not good. If you're the Nuggets, this is not good. Clippers could be one of the more dangerous teams in the West right now. And if I'm a team like Okay See, I don't want to see them. If I'm a team like Golden State, I don't want to see them. If I'm a team like the Lakers, I don't want.
To see them.
I've been burnt before, but I'm putting I'm putting my stake in and saying Clippers might just fuck around and make other teams find out, all right, we got to hit this break, pay some bills when we come back. Let's talk about the Wolves and the Lakers in that series, because that's fascinating as well. Two teams with big wings, playmakers and guys who like to have the rock down and crunch time. Anthony Edwards, Lebron James Luka, Doncic. We'll come back right after this.
All right, we're back.
That was my first mid That was my first mid episode break I've ever done, so it was rough. This is my favorite first round matchup. I think a very fun matchup because Luca loves to incinerate Rudy Gobert like he's barbecued chicken.
I think this to These two teams are pretty evenly matched too.
Rudy, although is nine and six against Luca career wise, Lucas won four of their last seven head to heads and he's averaging thirty eight game.
Do you remember Do you remember this?
The MAVs take the Wolves out for to one in the Western Conference Finals, and that was after a brutal seven game series where Minnesota had to play Denver and it looked like Minnesota was going all the way home.
They were going to Cancun, they were going to Bali, they were going to Holly.
They were going somewhere, and they ended up still fighting out a way to beat the Nuggets in one of the best game sevens you've ever seen. This Lakers team is not that team. This Lakers team is different than that MAVs team. Luca is integrated in a way that's awesome for the offense, and it frees up Austin Reeves, who has now turned into pistol Pete for some reason, pistol pt akaa. Austin Reeves is averaged twenty two to five at five since the trade, and I don't think anyone saw that coming at all. They are better than the previous three D games that he played without Luca, and everyone was like, oh, there's not enough shots to go around. These are guys who have the most touches in the league combined of any other threesome. Pauls as for Minnesota, well, and the Lakers are healthy.
Now that's important.
Another thing that's important for the Lakers they don't really have a center that's gonna be really interesting against the team that has Rudy Gobert.
They have three centers. Really, they have Rudy Gobert. They have Nosried, and.
They have Jade McDaniel's not really a center, but he's a big The Lakers end of the season six and three, and Braun has gotten healthy from his groin injury. As for Minnesota, it's been a rocky go. They're finally starting to figure some things out. It's been the Aunt Edwards show. He's been averaging twenty eight, five and four in March and in April and his splits forty eight, thirty seven and eighty four, so shooting just damn near forty percent from three and fifty percent almost from the field.
And I think it's really.
Good that the Wolves have a week off. You don't want to be gassed. We saw that before. We saw when the Wolves were in the plane a couple of years ago they were super gassed.
And that ended up leading into a monster loss.
Last year, they had the week off and they were super prepared for the Suns and they swept them. JJ Reddick I think is a little afraid of the Wolves. He said they're a very difficult opponent. They've played as well as anyone has lately. I believe they're one of the four teams in the top ten in offense or defense, so they present a lot of problems.
I think this series.
Revolves around whether the Lakers are going to be healthy and whether Luca continues to do what we've seen from Luca in the past couple of weeks. If they're healthy, they could win in six or seven. If Brown ends up getting injured or Luca ends up getting injured, the Wolves could take this in five or six if Luca or Bron miss anytime.
It is It is curtains, folks, it is for It is curtains.
Speaking of curtains, the curtain has come, The curtain has called.
The men have fallen. The men have falled, sons, What are you doing? Baby? So we got some news.
The news is Mike Budenholzer has been fired head coach of the Phoenix Suns. This is the third fire in three years. Three fires in three years. Monny Williams, Frank Vogel, and Mike Budenholzer. You're talking about three of at one point, some of the best coaches seen at in the league. Players, you know, coaches who have taken their teams to finals, but has a championship under his belt. Vogel championship under his belt. Minie Williams took the Phoenix Suns to the finals. You're talking about at least champions And turns out doesn't really matter who the coaches when your rosters this ass Phoenix three games out of the tenth and final play in spot and they were thirty six and forty forty six. And they had a ten and eighteen records since the All Star break. And this is where it gets really wolf. They are one in nine in their last ten. Here's where it gets really interesting too. Mike Budenholzer fired with foty ears left and forty million dollars on his deal. If he doesn't get a job, he will get paid ten million a year until twenty twenty nine.
So this is what they're saying.
Why was he fired besides the fact that the Phoenix Suns were in the exact same position as the Portland Trailblazers, a team that we thought was largely going to tank their assholes.
Off for Cooper Flag.
And this is a team that thought they were contending the Athletics says the Budenholzers' inability to manage the locker room had everything to do with the decision.
Aka, they fucking hated his guts.
Remember Devin Booker and Mike Budenhole where Mike Budenholz was like, hey, Devin, why don't you shut the fuck up a little bit, and Devin's like, uh no, I'm gonna be vocal when we're ass And then remember classically what Katie tried to clean up in the media and said, Oh, it's nothing, We're just friends, and we were just fiery. Remember Katie and Budenholzer were screaming at each other on the sidelines.
I'm sorry, KD. That doesn't mean.
There's positive things happening in paradise here.
It was bad.
Grabbing Kat's arm during a time out, motherfucker, don't touch me, kidding me.
We're a twelve seed right now.
You don't have the opportunity or the right to put your hands on another grown man after you've had ozembic.
And then remember use off Nurkic.
Useif Nirkish was like, I haven't spoken to this guy in weeks, I haven't spoken him in three weeks. I think Mike Budenholzer was unliked in I think that's probably clear as day. He stopped talking to Nurkish for a month. And then they traded him and we haven't seen Nurk since. Fucking insane. We got James Jones, the GM of the Suns, who has a contract that expires in June. Turns out he's probably on the chopping bock as well. What is next for Phoenix fourth coach on the payroll, A team with no assets that's looking at trade KD when he's in his mid thirties, coming off of an ankle injury, and probably not getting many picks for him, certainly not getting what you got for him before. And according to Shan's the Sons are working with KD to find the appropriate home for him.
They are also interested in moving.
Bradley Beal, although Bradley Beal loves the roads in Phoenix and says I've got a no trade clause. I'm staying right here. So that's the Suns. What a dumpster fire. Speaking of another dumpster fire ire on a Black Monday, The Pelicans have fired their GM, David Griffin, who I thought at one point was pretty damn good.
GM Executive VP Debbie David Griffin.
The Pels went twenty one and sixty one this year for the fourth worst record in the NBA.
Tough.
It's a tough situation there because Griff kind of got fucked.
Griff had a lot of.
Remember Zion was eating all those begnetes. There was a lot of years where Zion was eating a lot of begnets and sleeping with.
A lot of random women.
And remember we had that whole situation that happened with his baby's mom and other women who came after him and said that all he was doing was eating Cheetos and he had a lawn furniture in his house. We're staying off of Iion. We told we say we wouldn't do that to Zion anymore. That's what Griff had to deal with. He had a lot of bad luck. Ad wanted to be traded. You have owners that have no ability to pay it well, they don't want to have ability to go into the luxury cats, so they're cheap.
But he's also had some like really good picks. Trey Murphy was a good pick. Eves Missy was a good pick. This kid, Eves Missy, no one thought they were gonna take him.
He's an all rookie center and he's shooting fifty four percent from the field. You have Jordan Hawkins from Yukon. He's progressed as well, and.
The team looked pretty good.
When Zion looked good. Team kind of comes and goes with Zion. They got rid of Brandon Ingram's contract. That was very important. Brandon Ingram wanted to get paid, they didn't want to pay him. And then in terms of blemishes, they gave away Dyson Daniels because Dyson Daniels was sort of flaming out and now he's become one of the most demonic defense guys in the league.
So who do they want?
Apparently they want Hall of Famer Joe Dumars, who's, like I think, pretty.
Much in charge of the NBA right now. So I don't know why that's the pick.
He's the front runner to become the lead executive in New Orleans.
He's a Louisiana native. He's been an award winning.
Executive for the Pistons, and he's heading up basketball offs for the NBA. A lot of people hate this idea. I'm gonna tell you right now. Did you see how Joe Dumars handled the Jah Morant situation.
That's all I can think about.
He's pretty strict, he's pretty old school. I didn't know he was still in the GM game. I thought he was kind of like a mad Rashad where we were just kind of putting him out as an NBA ambassador. So Sean Sharanya and Pel's insider sham At Dua says that in order for the team to hire Dumars, he will have to retain their head coach Willy Green, and they will have to trade Zion.
What a black Monday. That's gonna be fascinating to watch.
So those are the two black Monday hires that we have are fires or that we have right now. In addition, we have a couple of positive pieces of news for the Blazers. Blazers retain their GM Joe Cronin and extend him, and they also extend Chauncey Billups, who I think has done a phenomenal job since pretty much the last twenty four months in terms of turning this team into a team with an identity, a team with a defense.
So Blazers are short up there.
Of course, we've got the Nuggets with no head coach, and we've got Memphis with no head coach. That would normally be something that would happen on Black Monday, but it happened in the middle of the season. In terms of the Nets, another team that we're not super optimistic on in terms of their chances, the Nets will not go after anyone who will not help them win a chip. That's some news, really interesting piece of news. Sean mars He's had a pretty good year, so good that they had to take everyone off the team and put them at the end of the bench and get a bunch of random ten day contracts because they didn't want to get.
Screwed out of lottery.
When asked about acquiring a star, he said, well, if you're going after max level talent, they've got to automatically change the trajectory of your team.
That can't be.
Let's go get this and lock ourselves into being a six to seven seed. Thank god, Sean Marx, I've been trying to say, this is how it should be. When you go all in, you better make sure you're gonna win a championship or at least be close to one. But we will see if Josie can help himself because he likes those stars. Boy, he can't ruin another rebuild. He's done it before, He's done it twice. Before, actually three times before, and so we'll see what happens from the nets. That's the news, that's the playoff break down in the West. Friday, we'll come on and do some East Coast teams.
I do want to.
Say thanks thank you to the eight Sided team for helping us move the podcast over to a new home.
This is the first we got video. We got video. That's number one, we got video.
Thank you guys for moving it over to a new home. I know it's a lot of work, but I also know that the heat Check is.
In great hands.
We will see you Friday. Really, truthfully, we will see you Friday. That's all for this episode of this new season. Midway through the playoffs of the Heat Check. Come back Friday for an all new episode. Check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which drop unexpectedly. Like Chyenne Sellers in the WNBA draft, she had to sit around forever to hear her name cauled.
Do not forget to follow the.
Heat Check all season long. That means download, subscribe, tell your friends all season long, even the ones that you haven't talked to in years, and follow us on TikTok and at this Heat Check at Trista Creek on Twitter, Instagram.
And Threads.
Threads is Meta's new platform where I post every day. Shout out to my new producer, Wyatt. Shout out to everyone who is kept rocking with us when the pot hasn't.
Been as consistent as we want it. We will see you next time.