Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
NBA Playoffs Recap, CL Semi's Predictions, Liverpool Crowned Champions
7 Plays26 days ago
NBA Playoffs Recap
- Most surprising first round result
- Most disappointing first round performance
- Second Round Predictions
EPL Run-In
- Liverpool crowned champions
- Who finishes in the CL spots
Game of the Week - Champions League Semis
- PSG v Arsenal
- Inter v Barcelona
Recommended
Transcript
Exciting NBA Playoffs: Key Games and Predictions
00:00:08
Emeka
Thank you.
00:00:12
Chino Onwuka
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Love of the Game podcast. I don't know if you can hear it in my voice, but I am hype. Just coming off some two amazing games in in ah the the first games of round two of the NBA playoffs.
00:00:31
Chino Onwuka
Knicks coming back from 20 points down to beat the Celtics in overtime. And then in a wild, crazy finish, Nuggets stealing the game right at the end from the previously dominant Oklahoma City Thunder in what was a wild finish.
00:00:50
Chino Onwuka
Emeka, I don't know about you, but my head is still blown about the way that game ended. What was it like for you?
00:00:59
Emeka
Man, first of all, shout episode 24, doing it for Kobe. Only ready to start off with the NBA playoffs. And I agree, my guy. What a day of basketball.
00:01:10
Emeka
I honestly think... Weirdly, I think the conference semifinals are my favorite round of the playoffs just because there's two games. at The last time there's multiple games every day.
00:01:21
Emeka
you know You're down to the last eight teams. This year, i think all eight teams are just great. And wow, two upsets to start. The big heavy favorites.
00:01:30
Chino Onwuka
right.
00:01:32
Emeka
Everyone and their mamas are picking Boston they versus OKC in the finals. And they look at that, man. Two home teams. Throw away games to the Knicks and the Nuggets.
00:01:43
Emeka
Love it. Just love it.
00:01:44
Chino Onwuka
And it's not, it's not just the fact that it's upsets, it's upsets after, you know, the favorites being up by quite a decent amount, you know, coming close to the end of the game. So yeah, I am, I am shocked. I'm surprised, you know, with you, I think this is,
00:01:58
Chino Onwuka
you know It's a good balance where you have a good number of games and the quality, you know the competitiveness between the two teams is pretty
Co-host Absence and NBA Round One Recap
00:02:06
Chino Onwuka
high as well. So yeah, what what what a great start to to this round of the playoffs and what a great start to the pod. So we're just going to get right into it.
00:02:16
Chino Onwuka
You might notice you know there's ah ah an extra voice missing. you know Our boy Chukwu, he's not able to to be with us today. Don't worry about it. He's fine. He's healthy. He's alive.
00:02:27
Chino Onwuka
He's just got some other stuff to work on. So it's just going be.
00:02:29
Emeka
We'll get scratched on the injury report, you know, but we, next time on mentality.
00:02:31
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we just going to have to hold it down in his absence. But all right, let's go. So, I mean, like I said, this is this is Monday evening. we just finished the first two games of round two. But before we dig deeper into those, we're just going to quickly, you know, recap round one.
00:02:53
Chino Onwuka
You know, first of all, I'm. Emeka, I think you got the the scoreboard with you. How did we all do in our round one predictions? Let's see. What's the leaderboard looking like?
00:03:05
Chino Onwuka
Who's the national ball?
00:03:07
Emeka
ah ah Last round, we all gave you our teams we think will win the the series and a what game. And i hope you were paying attention because some of us would have made you some money if you listen to us.
Player Performances: Randle, Ant, and Luka's Struggles
00:03:20
Emeka
Right now in a healthy third place, we got Chukwu with five points. And how we're doing it is you get a point for you' picking the right team to win the series and an extra point if you pick the amount of games.
00:03:30
Emeka
So Chukwu, a humble third with five. Myself with ah with a nice nice nine. And our host Chennau here with with a solid 10.
00:03:40
Chino Onwuka
Hey,
00:03:40
Emeka
Picking four exact series correctly. So, you know, props to him.
00:03:43
Chino Onwuka
a you know what? You know what? we We do what we do. And just hearing Chuka's score now, I'm wondering if that's the real reason he wasn't able to make the part because my man's wasn't ready to accept his awful picks, in my opinion.
00:04:00
Chino Onwuka
So, round one.
00:04:01
Emeka
It's life.
00:04:03
Chino Onwuka
Round one of the playoffs are are in the bag. So to you, what were sort of the the biggest things that stood out to you, the biggest revelations? Like what was the biggest surprise to you?
00:04:15
Emeka
hu The biggest surprise has been a ah a team I like, but I'm going to go with specifically a player I've slandered for years and years and years. I dubbed him Dubious Handle, but that's no longer valid because my man Julius Randle had the playoff of his life and the Wolves shellacked the Lakers.
00:04:36
Emeka
I don't think anybody in our group, we didn't pick it. I looked at ESPN, 12 people, 11 picked the Lakers.
00:04:40
Chino Onwuka
i didn' i agree I did not see that coming.
00:04:44
Emeka
Everyone picked Lakers.
00:04:46
Chino Onwuka
I did not.
00:04:47
Emeka
Like...
00:04:47
Chino Onwuka
Honestly, like there were a couple of series where I could see some upsets happening. Honestly, that wasn't one of them for me.
00:04:56
Emeka
At all. I was Lakers in five. Hey, Ant-Man, Iron Man, blah, bla blah, blah. Lakers in five. Like... And... and And deserves a lot of the credit, and his leadership has been amazing and all that.
00:05:07
Emeka
But I feel like he gets he's it's expected from him. I definitely didn't expect
Lakers' Challenges and Player Comparisons
00:05:11
Emeka
Julius Randle to one match LeBron on defense, which was amazing. Physical presence.
00:05:18
Emeka
LeBron couldn't really score inside on him. Used his size for off offensive of rebounding. But more impressive to me was just the offense he provided. He was hitting threes, playing bully ball down low.
00:05:30
Emeka
He was looking like... like regular season Julius Randle. And if you follow the NBA, playoff Randle and regular season Randle tend to look very different. And he was just part of the Wolves, just out muscling, out hustling, out everything you want to the Lakers. And yeah, don't tell you, oh, Reeves got hurt, Luka got hurt, LeBron got hurt. I don't want to hear any of that.
00:05:50
Emeka
The Wolves beat up the Lakers, out physicaled them, out everything them, and deservedly, like deservedly got them out of there in five. And The fact that Julius, when they made the trade in the offseason, you know cat for Randall, I was one of the people saying i the Wolves got so much worse. Like, I just didn't see it.
00:06:11
Emeka
I got to give credit where credit is due. Randall and DiVincenzo have ah ah bought into the Wolves. Ant has really cemented himself now as undisputed leader of the team.
00:06:22
Emeka
The team looks at his image, just a bunch of dogs. And Hey, worked out for the Knicks too, as we saw earlier today. They beat the Celtics. So, you know, a trade I thought was a lose-lose at the time. Might end up being a win-win.
00:06:34
Emeka
Who would have thought?
00:06:37
Chino Onwuka
i I think to me, you know, as well for me, the most surprising result of the first round was the Wolves beating the Lakers and not even in seven or or six, but in five games.
00:06:52
Chino Onwuka
A gentleman sweep. And to me, this says more about the Lakers than it does about the Wolves. Like, shout out Ant, he's doing his thing. You know, Julius Randle came to play, but to me, this is... this is This is all, this is just a disappointment for the Lakers and it and especially Luka.
00:07:11
Chino Onwuka
You're the one I'm looking at. You know, was it LeBron's best series? No, but he's 40 years old. He was busting it on defense. I haven't seen defense like that from LeBron in a couple of years.
00:07:25
Chino Onwuka
And, you know, we found out after the fact that he was playing on a bum knee. Now, I'm not going to use that as an excuse as the playoffs if you're out there or out there, but I mean, you at least saw him doing his part to try and, you know, do what LeBron usually does and will his team. But, you know, you bring Luka, you come in, you're supposed to be the main man now. You're supposed to carry that team.
00:07:47
Chino Onwuka
And what do you do? You get blown by on every single play. Like the reason why I thought the Lakers would, you think I had Lakers in six, would beat the Wolves was,
00:08:02
Chino Onwuka
they wouldn't be able to keep up on offense. You had Ant, you know, yeah, Julius Randle could get you a 20. How efficient could it be? But, you know, you don't have to worry too much about being efficient when Luke is guarding and you can just get past him at every single point. And then there's there's no rim protection on the inside because they felt that they couldn't play Jackson Hayes. So, you know what? I think maybe we got a little bit too excited. You know, the Lakers were pretty hot.
00:08:31
Chino Onwuka
in the regular season, because I remember our initial reactions to the trade were that, okay, you know, this season is just going to be a punt for the Lakers until they get a big man.
00:08:42
Chino Onwuka
You know, they sort of made it work in the regular season, but you know, in this playoffs, you know, that, that, that lack of a, of, of a big man rim protection on the inside, you know, the mixing of the Mark Williams trade really came back to to bite them in the ass and,
00:08:57
Emeka
...back to bite on me in the ass, especially...
00:08:59
Chino Onwuka
especially on top of Luka, just – man, Luka was a big, big disappointment.
00:09:06
Emeka
Hey, man, Fluka done sick, man. You hardened the guy. He was ah he was sick that game. look ah ah look Honestly, he looked like he was about to throw up that game, but I do agree. Like, i know it's a real stat.
00:09:16
Emeka
I actually looked, I did research into it. they' Like, it's a legit stat. That blow-by stat, honestly, feels like they invented it just to slander Luka because you never hear about any other person with the blow-by stat except Luka.
00:09:24
Chino Onwuka
Man.
00:09:27
Emeka
But in fairness to though, it's a real thing. If you watch him, he just plays Matador. He doesn't even try. Honestly, he doesn't even try.
00:09:34
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. He just waves at him and then you go back.
00:09:35
Emeka
Like, we He lets you go by. And it's one thing to do that when you have Gafford and Lively cleaning up.
00:09:38
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:09:42
Emeka
It's another thing entirely when your team is small and it's Dorian Finney-Smith or Rui Hachimura back there. Like, you got to, you know, bust your knees a little bit.
00:09:48
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. You gotta help the team though.
00:09:51
Emeka
then yeah bend Bend your hips, you know?
00:09:53
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, just a little bit of resistance so at least your other teammates have time to get into position.
00:09:53
Emeka
like
00:09:59
Chino Onwuka
But when you make it that easy, there's nothing they can do.
00:10:02
Emeka
At all.
00:10:02
Chino Onwuka
So So with that, I'm to pose a question to you because I've seen this floating around a little bit. You know, i can almost guarantee that, you know, just before this this first round of the playoffs, you know, Luka would have probably been top three, top four, know, in terms of top NBA players.
00:10:25
Chino Onwuka
Now I'm seeing some questions on if, you know, would you take Ant or Luka Doncic?
00:10:30
Emeka
Wow.
00:10:33
Chino Onwuka
So I know I have my views on that. want to hear your take.
00:10:39
Emeka
Oh, man. I love Prison of the Moment takes. Unless your name is Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, or Shea Gilis-Alexander, give me Luka Doncic over everybody else in the NBA. yeah Yes, Jason Tatum.
00:10:49
Chino Onwuka
Okay.
00:10:50
Emeka
Yes, Anthony Edwards.
00:10:50
Chino Onwuka
Okay. I'm with I'm with you still.
00:10:53
Emeka
Yes, whoever else is there. Like, Luka, we slandered Luka, and he deserved to be slandered. He got traded midseason, and he still put up numbers in the playoffs. Yes, his defense was bad.
00:11:05
Emeka
Even for him, it was bad. But, like, come on. He's still Luka Doncic. The only thing I'll say, though, with the Ant thing is you tell me who I get for the next seven years, I might pick Ant.
00:11:18
Emeka
I might pick Ant.
00:11:19
Chino Onwuka
Hmm.
00:11:20
Emeka
And the the trade was ridiculous. I've seen some small corners of the internet revisionist theory. The trade was ridiculous. However, i will concede, Nico Harrison maybe had a minor point because...
00:11:35
Emeka
the Luka I saw those playoffs, I wouldn't be great paying $400 million to. I'm not going to lie to you. I wouldn't feel the best about it because I would have thought after how the finals played out, that would be motivation to come in this season in great shape.
00:11:52
Emeka
Clearly that didn't happen. I'll say the same thing again now. If getting beat 5-1 in the playoffs doesn't motivate you to get in the gym, put down the hookah, lock in the lab with LeBron and come back with a six pack.
In-Depth Series Analysis and Surprising Performances
00:12:07
Emeka
It might never happen. And you can get away with things as everyone speaking in this podcast can tell you. You can get away with things in your 20s that when you start approaching and going above thirty
00:12:17
Chino Onwuka
but yeah
00:12:20
Emeka
Those habits, they come to bite you. It comes to every, I promise you, comes to everybody.
00:12:23
Chino Onwuka
and
00:12:25
Emeka
No matter who you are, if you're Michael Phelps or an office worker, the things your body can do in their 20s and the things you can do in your 30s are different. And I hope as Luka gets up there in age, he realizes...
00:12:37
Emeka
It's one thing to be Hookah Dungeons in 24. It's another thing entirely to be Hookah Dungeons when you're 32. And I know Ants, say what you want about Ants. I know he's a dog. He's a worker. And I've got no concerns about him moving forward at all. Whereas if Luka, it's little bit of like, ooh.
00:12:54
Emeka
But regardless, still I'm still having Luka Dungeons business, man. Like, come on now.
00:12:58
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, I still, i I think, yeah, if we're listing it off, SGA, Jokic, Giannis, and then Doncic. Like, yeah, know, Ant brings defense.
00:13:11
Chino Onwuka
You know, he can score the ball. But I still think you have to build a certain type of team around him. Because, you know, the one thing you've seen with his teams when Cat hasn't been there is they've struggled offensively.
00:13:26
Chino Onwuka
regardless of how well and maybe playing sometimes. One thing with Doncic is as long as he's on the floor, you're going have a top 10, top five offense in the NBA because he's a walking bucket and that he makes his teammates super dangerous, whether it be, you know, assisting them for, for easy layups or lobs or wide open three pointers.
00:13:51
Chino Onwuka
And then on the defensive side, he's i only He's got lots of issues there, but at least you can actually sort of build a team to sort of mitigate that with proper team building.
00:14:04
Chino Onwuka
So, yeah.
00:14:04
Emeka
He's big too. That helps. He's 6'9 through 70 to 80. So at least he's big. So, you know, that helps on defense.
00:14:11
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. But i'm I'm with you in that, bruh, like this has to be a wake-up call for you. Like you've been getting by on natural talent, but at this point,
00:14:22
Chino Onwuka
You know, you're getting to that stage where you're not seen as a young up-and-comer anymore. It should be your time to take over the league. Should be your time to win titles. You're in L.A. now.
00:14:34
Chino Onwuka
You have a little bit of a honeymoon, especially with the way everything happened, but it's time to to put up or shut up. So I think this is going to be a make-or-break offseason and season for Luka to see what he does. But shout-out Ant-Man. I think he's someone that, you know, you would love to be his teammates.
00:14:53
Chino Onwuka
He holds you accountable and he holds himself accountable too. he's willing to to take He's willing to take all the smoke and he's willing to back it up as well. So umm I'm umm i' happy that the Wolves you know made it. We'll talk about our predictions for round two in a bit.
00:15:10
Chino Onwuka
But yeah, i'm I'm still super surprised. Two more things, I think.
00:15:15
Emeka
Yeah, before you we we move off Luka, just a question. i was someone who every year has, for the last, what, four or five years, I'm pretty sure I've placed a bet on Luka to win MVP.
00:15:27
Emeka
If you just went back in time to his rookie season and I said, in seven years, how many MVPs would Luka have? You would have never picked zero, right?
00:15:36
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. no No, But again, I probably wouldn't have expected some of these other guys to be as good as they can Yeah.
00:15:47
Emeka
unfair
00:15:49
Chino Onwuka
Because Lupin would have been expected to get into this stratosphere, but no one would have, people would have thought SGA would have been really good, but no one was expecting this stratosphere of good.
00:15:50
Emeka
and is hesitant to call him a disappointment.
00:15:59
Chino Onwuka
No one expecting Jokic to put out a dominant season and then put out a historic season the year after that and then top it the year after that.
00:16:03
Emeka
yeah
00:16:06
Chino Onwuka
So I think we're just in a golden age of, you know, the NBA, you know, maybe previously Dallas didn't have the best teams, but now that he's in LA, think he's going to get some l LA tax in terms of MVP votes if they can have a really good regular season and he he's fully healthy.
00:16:26
Emeka
I hope so, man. just Again, I don't want to call him a disappointment because he's Luka Doncic, but for one, he showed us his first two years. like I personally thought by now it would be unquestionable he's the best player in the league.
00:16:35
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. one And it's going to be tough, right? Because now you still have Jokic playing at a high level. SGA now, he's ready to take the crown. And who knows when, you know, Wemby's going to be in that discussion.
00:16:48
Emeka
Yeah, about say
00:16:50
Chino Onwuka
So, yeah, you got Cooper Flagg coming in, you know, the great white hope. So I'm just saying, like, it's not a guarantee every year.
00:16:54
Emeka
right, let's calm down on Cooper Flagg.
00:16:59
Chino Onwuka
So maybe, okay, it's two years and then... Wemby's not ready yet, but then somebody else could come up. So enough it's not it's not a given anymore.
00:17:07
Emeka
I agree. No, that's so what i'm saying.
00:17:07
Chino Onwuka
But it probably means better odds for you if you're still playing that bet every year.
00:17:12
Emeka
I got to see Luka with six-pack in the summer for me to please listen to his bed.
00:17:17
Chino Onwuka
Okay, so now when we did our predictions for round one, there were sort of two series that were sort of probably the two that we thought would be closest and we sort of had a lot of debate about it.
00:17:18
Emeka
well
00:17:29
Chino Onwuka
So I'll start with quickly with Knicks Pistons. I think we should just talk about that a little bit and then we'll talk Rockets Warriors. So, you know, Knicks Pistons, I thought, you know, my view was that, you know, yeah, it would probably be 4-2, but I think I felt the Knicks would come out on top.
00:17:49
Chino Onwuka
You and Chuku thought the Pistons would win. You thought that, you know, Pistons would, you know, ride them pretty hard. And I think it was a really, really close fought series. Closer than I thought.
00:18:05
Chino Onwuka
So, yeah. what What were your thoughts on that series?
00:18:08
Emeka
I really feel like I know. Look, I picked Nixon seven and it was Nixon six. But in my heart of hearts, that was a Nixon seven series because Detroit got robbed game four. That was a foul. I don't care what the I mean, the rest of immediately admitted it.
00:18:22
Emeka
That was a foul. They get that whistle. Tim Hardaway shoots free throws. They win that game. It probably goes to seven.
00:18:28
Chino Onwuka
and And that's, and and i and I think, like, when I was thinking through it, I felt like those sort of things would happen where the fact that they're this young upstart team, like certain things like that, no matter how hard they played, certain things like that would go against them.
00:18:43
Chino Onwuka
So that's why I thought it'd it'd be Rapport 6.
00:18:44
Emeka
Yeah.
00:18:45
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:18:46
Emeka
Fair. I mean, fair. Detroit, I knew was, at the very least, I knew i was adamant was going to be a series, and I think it's clear was a series. Like, big shout-out to Cade, Thompson, Tobias Harris, Durin, all them boys, man.
00:18:54
Chino Onwuka
yeah
00:19:00
Emeka
They tried and tried, and the and the Pistons got a great... future ahead of them. I hope they build and grow. But respectfully, ain't trying to talk about Detroit right now because how about them Knicks and more specifically, how about Mr. Clutch player of the bleeping year, Jalen Brunson.
00:19:22
Emeka
This playoffs has been Just a masterpiece from him. There's nothing like when the Knicks are in a close game. I love a team that just says, let's get it to our guys. Get out the way. Let's let him cook.
00:19:35
Emeka
He had a sore Thompson leaning. In the words of Chris Smoove, get that man a map. My goodness.
00:19:45
Chino Onwuka
that That was definitely a a ah a father stretch my hands montage moment right there.
00:19:52
Emeka
Bro had him in a different area code and hit the game series winning three. And that was just one out of like three different games he won down the stretch. And oh, guess what?
00:20:03
Emeka
Next round against the defending champion Celtics game one, same song and dance from Mr. Bronson. Like, oh my goodness. The Mavs had Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson drafted on the same team, and they really just let both of them go.
00:20:20
Emeka
And you can tell ah the legit argument, those are two of the best five lead guards in the NBA right now. Like, what kind of shambolic team is that?
00:20:26
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:20:29
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:20:30
Emeka
But, hey...
00:20:30
Chino Onwuka
No, I, to me, I just want to give the shout out to the Pistons again. i think we can't forget they won what 22 games, just 22 games or something like that last year.
00:20:43
Chino Onwuka
You know, they lost 18 straight games. Then to have the season that they had and to play a very good next team that close. I just think, i just want to give them their dues, you know, and I think,
00:20:56
Chino Onwuka
Now, usually when teams struggle and they get better, it's a couple of years before maybe they get into the play-in and then they get into the playoffs. I think they've just accelerated their rebuild or their ascent because now they have that playoff experience. They know what it means like to be in that crucible. So I think depending on what sort of moves they can make in the offseason to bring more around Cunningham and and gets maybe some more shooting and spacing and some of the development from the younger guys, you know, with how, you know, lackluster sometimes the East can be.
00:21:33
Chino Onwuka
And I think the Pistons are definitely a team to watch. Now, moving on to the other hotly debated series, Warriors, Rockets, you know, I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for this one because, look, disclaimer, I wanted the Rockets to win.
00:21:50
Chino Onwuka
I really wanted the Rockets to win because they've got a lot of ah ah young guys who I love. But just because I watched them a lot, I just knew how inconsistent they could be. And in spite of how talented they were, i just felt like, I know you guys talked about, you know, some of the shortcomings for the Warriors, but I just thought, man, like, yeah, they did good in the regular season, but it's going to bite them.
00:22:19
Chino Onwuka
in the ass in the playoffs. And unfortunately, that came to fruition. You know, Jalen Green, I love you You're super talented, but you're not someone that they could count on in the playoffs. And it was a question of if the other guys were going to be enough to lift him up.
Round Two Predictions and Strategic Insights
00:22:35
Chino Onwuka
Shout out Van Vliet. He did his thing trying to carry them. And shout out A-Man Thompson. A-Man has been my boy since high school, since he before he even went to overtime elite.
00:22:49
Chino Onwuka
And my worry was, okay, as talented as he is, I've seen playoffs, humble guys like that who can play defense, but, you know, aren't really good shooters. And he has so many other things that he can do.
00:23:04
Chino Onwuka
Would he be able to sort of harness all of that too and not be played off the floor? And man, he was everywhere on defense, guarding Steph the whole game.
00:23:15
Chino Onwuka
and on offense being productive. And I just, this is a superstar in the making, you know, to me, this is a little bit of what Ben Simmons was looking to be at some point, but with like maybe a Kobe like mentality.
00:23:32
Chino Onwuka
And so like, I just think the,
00:23:36
Chino Onwuka
His ceiling is the roof, as as Michael Jordan would say, but i just like he just has an immense ceiling and he's just going to keep getting better and better. And to me, it's his team now.
00:23:48
Chino Onwuka
It's his team now.
00:23:50
Emeka
is it he give Can it be your team when I can't trust you to make a 10-footer?
00:23:56
Chino Onwuka
like, sure, but, like, I think, like, just his character and the way he works and what he does on the court, like, I could just see it in the way his teammates interact with him.
00:24:11
Chino Onwuka
Like, sure, like Van Vliet is, he's still the the veteran, he's the leader, but like when you're looking at the future of that team, everything the Rockets do is now going to be tilted to, you know, maximizing around a man.
00:24:24
Emeka
Thank you.
00:24:26
Chino Onwuka
Because before it's like, okay, is it Jalen Green or is it Shen Goon? Who do we sort of, you know, you know point to a sort of the centerpiece for everything, I think it's not amen, honestly.
00:24:38
Emeka
i Look, I love emmen Thompson, but as we're going Ben Simmons the mind of Kobe. Hey, hey, man. He's athletic as hell. I'll give him that. And he i was concerned, too, about whether he got played off the floor. And for the first couple games, it was looking kind of that way. But I'm glad the coach got through to him that if they're going to sag off you, attack.
00:25:00
Emeka
Don't be passive. Like, trust yourself.
00:25:01
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. and and And that's that's that's what I found so encouraging that, you know, other players, they would let that like sort of, you would see that get to them.
00:25:09
Emeka
Thank you.
00:25:10
Chino Onwuka
But, you know, maybe it took a couple of games, but boom, the switch flipped and he found a way. Yeah.
00:25:16
Emeka
Just get a midi, though. Just give me a midi. Give me something here, man. Like, you can't begin. you can't They can't be sagging off you beneath the three-point line. Like, hit me give me a free-throw line jumper. That's all I'm asking for, man. Then we'll go from there.
00:25:31
Emeka
I just want to stick up for, he's the franchise, but I think it's a co-franchise of Shingun. I'm just going to stick up for Shingun just a little bit. My brother needs to lock himself in the gym this year and just get his touch back because some of the garbage he was throwing up was hurting me.
00:25:48
Emeka
And also shout Draymond Green for playing defense. But Shangoon's defense was so impressive to me during this series against the Warriors. Everyone had concerns about MN getting played off the floor on offense.
00:26:02
Emeka
I had concerns about Shangoon getting played off the floor on defense. And he held his own.
00:26:06
Chino Onwuka
Defense on who? Here's my thing.
00:26:09
Emeka
He...
00:26:09
Chino Onwuka
Defense on who
00:26:11
Emeka
Defense on the team. He was the middle of the zone, moving his feet, getting, crossing switches, like yeah and he was holding his own.
00:26:16
Chino Onwuka
who? Here's my thing.
00:26:18
Emeka
Active hands.
00:26:19
Chino Onwuka
Apart from Steph and Jimmy Butler, like that was that was the Warriors offense. So those weren't the guys. um um When those guys had Shangoon, yeah, he he did good, but it's not like he was he was stopping them.
00:26:35
Chino Onwuka
So the Warriors didn't have anyone to actually put Shang-Goon in the torture chamber or to make him look bad. Like, it's not Draymond, Looney.
00:26:43
Emeka
Oh, get Curry on the switch. that's That's how guys look bad. look at That's how Curry's made many, many bigs look awful, by just getting them in switches and killing them.
00:26:50
Chino Onwuka
he was He was effective in the game plan they they put together.
00:26:54
Emeka
Wow, all this hate. Sengu was fantastic on defense this year.
00:26:57
Chino Onwuka
No, no, no, no, it's not hate. It's not, I guess it's more like, I don't think he did anything too crazy. It's just, they have a lot of really good perimeter defenders. And so they can use that to protect him a little bit.
00:27:09
Chino Onwuka
That's the way I see it. Like, he wasn't horrible.
00:27:11
Emeka
yeah
00:27:12
Chino Onwuka
He wasn't.
00:27:13
Emeka
we watched different games, my brother, because he wasn't getting protected.
00:27:13
Chino Onwuka
But it's like, it's like they had not like it had some so like they had some big guys who could really punish him. Because, okay, yeah, they switch on to him. But Warriors didn't have anything else as a threat apart from maybe Jimmy Butler.
00:27:29
Chino Onwuka
Not apart from maybe Jim Ruffler. Apart from Jimmy Butler, but so all those other guys could just sag off the others. And once Shang-Goon got beat, you had Terry Eason, A-Man, Van Vliet, Brooks ready to come in and and help out.
00:27:43
Chino Onwuka
Like he did a good job. He did his job.
00:27:46
Emeka
Hey, I've watched enough basketball well to know if your center is bad on defense, yeah your team's getting cooked.
00:27:47
Chino Onwuka
All this work.
00:27:52
Emeka
You know how I know? Ask the Montez Sabonis because when the Kings played the Warriors last series, they put them in every pick and roll and they had them leaning. Shingun played great defense these playoffs.
00:27:59
Chino Onwuka
But but but but you you you had said you you thought the Warriors offense would be ass because there were only two guys who could score.
00:28:09
Emeka
Yeah, the Warriors play a lot of guys who can't score.
00:28:10
Chino Onwuka
Don't fact factor that into it, though. If it was a team with more weapons that could hurt you, then maybe he wouldn't have looked as good. That's what I'm trying to say.
00:28:19
Emeka
You're saying for everybody, though. I don't understand. Like, in the series I saw, he played great defense. I don't know understand how this is complicated. That's the...
00:28:28
Chino Onwuka
What about great defense?
00:28:28
Emeka
All right.
00:28:29
Chino Onwuka
He played solid defense in the scheme, in the defensive scheme. But I hear you.
00:28:33
Emeka
And that's all you can ask for your center is to play great defense in this game.
00:28:34
Chino Onwuka
All right, fair enough.
00:28:36
Emeka
No one's asking him to beat Rudy Gobert.
00:28:36
Chino Onwuka
Fair enough.
00:28:38
Emeka
i No one's asking him to beat Jermon Green.
00:28:40
Chino Onwuka
right, fair enough.
00:28:40
Emeka
If you're going to be a center...
00:28:41
Chino Onwuka
Fair enough.
00:28:42
Emeka
You know, do something for me. You know, who didn't do anything for me? Jalen Green. The orders on all these bad offensive players. How come he was getting cooked when saw him out there? Oh, my goodness.
00:28:52
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:28:52
Emeka
I am so tired of Jalen Green. Everyone always says he's talented.
00:28:54
Chino Onwuka
I feel like
00:28:56
Emeka
He's talented. He's talented. No, talented nowadays means you can dribble because... Alman Thompson, to me, has way more talent than Jalen Green. But I'm sure if I let him show highlights to two people, people will say, oh, Jalen Green's way deeper. You've got a deeper bag.
00:29:13
Emeka
Man, who needs a bag when you have no heart? I'm just tired of Jalen Green, man.
00:29:18
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, like I'm someone who had who has you know been on the Jalen Green Island for a while, but I have to concede that it's probably not going to work out as as we all hoped.
00:29:28
Chino Onwuka
Just one last thing on Houston, you know just thinking out loud, like you know to me, if you if you if you work, try and work our man and Shem Gunn a little bit like Giannis and Brook Lopez, where, okay, our man can't shoot, fair enough, but He's so athletic. He can get to the rim at will.
00:29:51
Chino Onwuka
And Shingun continues to improve as his floor spacer. You know, you've said he can hold his own on defense. So if they can sort of work out a similar scheme, you know, trade Jalen Green, trade some other players.
00:30:04
Chino Onwuka
You bring Reed Shepard. Well, he might get traded too. But if if Shepard's on that team, then he can also space the floor. Then I think you you got something cooking there.
00:30:16
Chino Onwuka
Okay.
00:30:18
Chino Onwuka
Round two. Time for our predictions. So Chukwu's not here with us, but, you know, he's going to fax over. He he faxed over his picks earlier in the day. It's just coming through the the fax machine right now, so I've got it ready.
00:30:39
Chino Onwuka
So we're going to do the same thing that we did. For the first round, we're going to give our predictions of winners and in how many games. And we're going track them. And again, at the end of the round, we're going to come back and see how we did.
00:30:53
Chino Onwuka
So we are going to... And honestly, it's going to be a little bit of a cheat goal because we've seen two games come in and that might affect how we pick, but it is what it is.
00:31:07
Chino Onwuka
Cavs Pacers, who you got?
00:31:12
Emeka
I got to be honest myself. Before game one, i had it. Cavs in six. i'm gonna oh
00:31:21
Emeka
Pacers in seven. I got to give my...
00:31:23
Chino Onwuka
Oh.
00:31:24
Emeka
All my eyes have have her been showing me.
00:31:24
Chino Onwuka
Oh.
00:31:27
Emeka
I have to believe. I was the only one who picked the Pacers against the Bucs.
00:31:31
Chino Onwuka
True.
00:31:32
Emeka
And that was because I really believe in this team. And...
00:31:35
Chino Onwuka
True.
00:31:36
Emeka
um I might come to be prison at the moment, but I just really believe in the Pacers, how they play. Tyrese Halliburton is an alpha dog. Jalen Rose has a great quote that always install how I watch basketball. He says, how many guys do you play that can either pass, dribble, or shoot?
00:31:55
Emeka
Or even better, can do two of those. The Pacers play nine guys who can do that. Everyone in the rotation is at least decent. And as the Celtics showed teams last year, it is very underrated playing eight to nine decent guys.
00:32:12
Emeka
Because that means at all times, you can sub off people and as' always five good players on the floor. That can change things. These little mistakes your teams make. For example, the Lakers, they couldn't play Vanderbilt. They couldn't play Jackson Hayes.
00:32:27
Emeka
JJ Redick was out here playing the same starting lineup the entire second half. Teams like the Cavs, the Pacers, the Celtics, the Thunder, they can just rotate guys in and out, and that just makes such a difference.
00:32:37
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:32:39
Emeka
And... Big shout out to Tyrese Halliburton. I threw a slander shot at Sabonis, but I'm double back down. They're not like the guy. The Indiana Pacers really got a franchise guard for DeMontis Sabonis.
00:32:53
Emeka
What a trade that was. And The Cavs might shut me up because Garland was hurt and he can always come back and change everything. But this is more because of what I saw in the Bucs series.
00:33:03
Emeka
And I just love the Pacers. And they've just shown me they're for real. They stole game one. So that just shifted me. I'm going to stick with it. Pacers in seven.
00:33:15
Chino Onwuka
So now i had the Pacers losing to the Bucks in seven, but that's because I thought Dane would come back at some point and be healthy and they would edge out the Pacers.
00:33:27
Chino Onwuka
Dane did come back, but then he tore his Achilles. so that was bust for me. I'm like you. What happened in game one has swayed me a little bit. I had Cavs in five before.
00:33:42
Chino Onwuka
So I'm switching over that to Cavs in six with the hysteric that this is, again, me believing that Garland is going to come back and be healthy.
00:33:54
Chino Onwuka
So I think Pacers are a little bit more dangerous.
00:33:55
Emeka
He should. Unlike Dame is he's going to come back.
00:33:58
Chino Onwuka
Sorry?
00:34:00
Emeka
He's going to come back. This is not like Dame.
00:34:01
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:34:02
Emeka
This is legit. He's toe injury. He's coming back.
00:34:05
Chino Onwuka
But that that that total injury, man, that total injury is is ah ah is is a...
00:34:05
Emeka
Cavs in the six. Fair enough.
00:34:10
Chino Onwuka
It's a tough one. And probably they they probably thought they could get by without him. But yeah, you're right. They're probably watching back. So yeah, I still got Cavs in six. And Chukwu, he had Cavs in six as well.
00:34:25
Chino Onwuka
Okay, next series. Celtics-Knicks. I'm going to go
Ongoing Series Expectations and Player Development
00:34:31
Chino Onwuka
first on this one. I thought it was going to be a non-competitive 4-2 series.
00:34:42
Chino Onwuka
Someone had asked me this before and they said, how can a 4-2 series be non-competitive? Well, one of those ones where every home game is a blowout. Maybe the the one good game where they don't play that well, you know you guys sneak it out by one or two points.
00:35:01
Chino Onwuka
Then you know when it's 3-1, they let you win one and then they close it out. That's how I thought it would go. you know Now, you know some of the things you guys were saying in the Knicks-Piston series, this is where I feel like, where I thought it would really bite the Knicks in the ass. I'm really using that not phrase a lot.
00:35:21
Chino Onwuka
In that, they're playing their guys a lot of minutes, and this is where I feel like it's going to really catch up to them. you know I just felt with all the weapons the Celtics have,
00:35:34
Chino Onwuka
You know, Cat's defense would... Yeah, they've got a lot of good wing defenders, but, you know, with the size the Celtics have, you know, across all the positions, you know, Cat's defense would be more of a liability because Celtics have a lot of offense.
00:35:50
Chino Onwuka
But the grit they showed today, like, obviously Porzingis, he had an illness, so he couldn't play the whole game, but, you know, being down 20 points after coming back off, fresh off of Game 7, you know, and...
00:36:05
Chino Onwuka
Hanging in there, not just hanging in there, but pulling out the win. Hey, hey, I got to shout that out. So I've still got the Celtics in six just because I think the Celtics are a one of the best teams in the and NBA. And I think Celtics for their grit, you well you know even with Brunson, I think they've got some flaws. So I'm feeling a bit nervous about this now, but I've got Celtics in six.
00:36:36
Emeka
here It's the one where
00:36:40
Emeka
had Celtics in six, and I'm probably going to be ah ah weirdo because this game made me want to change the Celtics in five, if anything. like The Celtics are way better than the Knicks.
00:36:52
Emeka
And shout out Jalen Bronson. Shout out Mike McHill Bridges and and all the heart they showed. The Celtics missed 44 threes this game.
00:37:00
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:37:01
Emeka
That's not happen again. yeah This game was was a miracle of miracles, how they how they that they threw it away. And the Celtics love, love losing a good home game in the playoffs.
00:37:14
Chino Onwuka
but That's actually true.
00:37:14
Emeka
They love
00:37:15
Chino Onwuka
yeah this be wise but That's what happened like literally every series last year, right?
00:37:19
Emeka
that. The Celtics love losing games at home. like It's just what they do. Out of respect to my man, Jalen Brunson, I think it's likely he can do this again one more game. So I'm going to stick with Celtics in six. But – it's funny how we we were changing his position because you at at the outset you were you were more of a oh, Celtics are going to win this. Now you're you're feeling a little more nervous. This is going to be a good series.
00:37:43
Emeka
And watching that first half, I was like, man, this is good. Shouts to the Knicks for winning it. But, yeah, this is – Celtics – and's all this stuff It wouldn't shock me. I'll put it this way. I'm more comfortable saying Celtics in five than this goes to seven.
00:37:56
Emeka
But I'll split the middle and say six.
00:37:57
Chino Onwuka
And you know what? Honestly, the way I thought the news would go, actually, this game where the Knicks stole just happened earlier than I thought it would, to be honest.
00:38:06
Chino Onwuka
So, yeah.
00:38:06
Emeka
Yeah, fair.
00:38:06
Emeka
like but
00:38:07
Chino Onwuka
Nothing really changed. Yeah.
00:38:09
Emeka
If this was game two, like... the the ah Greg Pavlovich once said, like, you show me give me the box scores. Tell me what each team shot from three. I'll tell you he won the game, which is literally what this game is.
00:38:20
Emeka
The Celtics just missed threes. Like, they just chucked them up, took 60 threes, and missed 44 of them. They make...
00:38:25
Chino Onwuka
I thought some of the threes they were taking at the end of the game were or just bad basketball, to be honest.
00:38:30
Emeka
That's called... I thought the threes Jason Tatum was taking at end of the game.
00:38:30
Chino Onwuka
well
00:38:33
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, Jason Tatum. Yeah, I don't like...
00:38:35
Emeka
I don't know what that was a about. but I hear I was hyping them up.
00:38:37
Chino Onwuka
There were team took back-to-back, which I just didn't understand. Like, drive to the rim, get a foul.
00:38:42
Emeka
I thought he fixed his shooting. It turns out he's still Jason Tatum. And you know what? to on tangent. I think earlier in the pod, you actually said something i agreed with, where you said that Jason Tatum was like Bakaya Osaka, in that they're just guys who get expectations are high.
00:38:56
Emeka
They meet that. I agree. However, I will say this. Tatum... Of all the superstars, and I guess he's a superstar, of all the superstars, Tatum has by far the worst games.
00:39:08
Emeka
Like, there are some games you watch him play, and you think, who is this brother? Like, what is going on? He has some brutal games. Don't get me wrong, he has some great games too, but there's something about...
00:39:19
Emeka
the way the like the Bill Simmons of the world like to put him up there in the Giannis, Jokic category. I've never seen Giannis or Jokic or even the shit have brutal games like when I see Tatum have.
00:39:30
Emeka
And that's what always, and I love Tatum and he deserves the credit, but there's reasons why Steve Kerr had my guy riding the pine during the Olympics. There's reason why, despite all the things, finals MVP and Easter Conference finals MVP, he didn't win last year.
00:39:44
Emeka
chair Like there's a reason for all these things.
00:39:45
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:39:45
Emeka
It's because, you know,
00:39:46
Chino Onwuka
and And look, I think oh but like I agree with you. I think it's a thing of like those other guys you mentioned, he's a tier below them. Like, you know, sometimes you can have, you know, someone ranked four and someone ranked five, but, you know, the person in and the fifth spot is a tier below the guy at fourth.
00:40:04
Chino Onwuka
There's definitely lines of delineation between some of those levels of players. So, yeah, I agree. You know, yeah.
00:40:10
Emeka
I fully agree.
00:40:13
Chino Onwuka
No, no, no issues there.
00:40:13
Emeka
i just People put him in that top tier, though. Am I crazy for saying that?
00:40:17
Chino Onwuka
No, he's – I don't think so.
00:40:17
Emeka
I've had people put him in that upper line.
00:40:20
Chino Onwuka
I really don't think so.
00:40:21
Emeka
He's not. That's what I'm saying, because he has games like this way too frequently where he looks garbage.
00:40:22
Chino Onwuka
He's not – yeah. yeah
00:40:26
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. He's not in that 1A tier for me for sure. 1B.
00:40:27
Emeka
But
00:40:30
Emeka
he's going to score 45 next game, Boston's going to make 55 threes, and they're going to blow them up by 50, and everyone's going to be like, But, you know, hey, that's life.
00:40:36
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, I see him. 34 points. You know, he hits five threes, eight rebounds, four assists. He's probably going to a game like that. Okay. I think we all were all in consensus on this one. Chukwu had Celtics in seven.
00:40:50
Emeka
Thank you.
00:40:50
Chino Onwuka
Just speaking with him a little bit, he thinks this is going to be ah ah a close, tough, fought series.
00:40:57
Chino Onwuka
But as we showed in round one, Chukwu doesn't really know what he's saying. So we'll just leave it at that.
00:41:08
Chino Onwuka
Wolves Warriors. Okay, now. Okay, now. What are you saying on this one?
00:41:15
Emeka
my My heart really wants me to say Wolves in four. But I got to give respect to the OG Mr. Steph Curry. And agree with my brother and have a humble Wolves in five.
00:41:29
Emeka
The way I saw Shangoon and Steven Adams bully these Warriors. What am I going to see Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle, and Nasri do to them?
00:41:40
Emeka
And unlike last series where they were out here chasing around Jalen Green... And Edwards and Jalen Green. I'll tell you that right now. That's a man right there. The Wolves are going to do to the Warriors what they did to the Lakers.
00:41:53
Emeka
And the the Rockets should have won that series. If they made free throws, they win the series. That's just the simple truth of the matter. They can just do simple mistakes. The Wolves... will not make those kind of mistakes. This is a team that took out the Suns last year, the Nuggets last year, the Lakers this year, and Ant's going to add another scalp to the belt and take out another MVP in Curry.
00:42:14
Emeka
And I think that he's going to it in five. And I wish I could bet on the amount of flakery fouls Dream on Green's going to get this series because him and Rudy Gobert,
00:42:21
Chino Onwuka
I was going to ask, what what sort of MMA moves, what sort of WWE finisher are we going to see J-Man pull on Go-Go-Go-Seal?
00:42:27
Emeka
you know, hit him with the arcade or something.
00:42:31
Chino Onwuka
Because my man's going to be pulling out DDTs, F5s, RKOs. Oh, man. it's But getting getting serious again, i think Wolves are going to win. But I think it's going to be Wolves in in six.
00:42:51
Chino Onwuka
Just because, again, Wolves do struggle offensively in games, and I feel like there's just going to be some games where Steph just explodes. So, you know, not going to speak too long on this one. I just think Wolves in six, you know, who is the best player in this series? Oof.
00:43:12
Chino Onwuka
That's a tough one, but I might have to give the edge to Ant as the best player in this series if Julius Randle can Play the same way he did in the first round. You know, Gobert, you know, on the back end.
00:43:29
Chino Onwuka
You know, maybe he can, he can't do nothing about Steph, but maybe he can limit Jimmy Butler a little bit. You know, so I think that's where the Wolves going to have the edge.
00:43:41
Chino Onwuka
Truthless prediction, he had Wolves in five as well. So again, another one where we're all in consensus.
00:43:50
Emeka
Before we move on, you you said something, and I had a point I wrote down. I got to get to it. Big, big, big shout out Rudy Gobert with a 27-24 game, whatever the hell he had.
00:44:02
Emeka
Felt like it was a 40-40 game in game five. I think you'll agree with me when I say there's no player that gets slandered more than Rudy Gobert, especially by the TNT crew.
00:44:11
Chino Onwuka
Yep.
00:44:12
Emeka
So the fact that he had that kind of the game of his life on TNT, even, listen, I'm rooting for the Lakers.
00:44:12
Chino Onwuka
Yep.
00:44:18
Emeka
I'm a, shout out LeBron. He's my guy. I was happy watching that because my God, Rudy Gobert, 27.24 rebounds.
00:44:25
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:44:26
Emeka
Huh?
00:44:29
Chino Onwuka
Shaq almost threw up trying giving him a cue. Yeah.
00:44:34
Emeka
Hey, man. She was not giving him his flowers. Like, Rudy Gobert, that's what everyone's been screaming for all those years when teams would go small and you get played off the floor.
00:44:42
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. Punished. Punished. Punished, though.
00:44:46
Emeka
Punish them. Punish them. i Maybe there's something about it just feels like it's pure basketball when you have a the big guy who just dominates when teams go small. There's just nothing like it.
00:44:57
Emeka
And, hey, even though it was against my rooting interest, I couldn't help but be amazed at what I was watching. And especially her and to do it against Luka, I was happy for the guy, man.
00:45:09
Emeka
Shout Rudy Gobert. Wolves in five.
00:45:10
Chino Onwuka
Yep, yep, yep. Some redemption right there. Redemption right there. Okay, lastly, we got, you know, we opened with, you know, how game one ended, but we got Thunder versus the Nuggets.
00:45:26
Chino Onwuka
You got, you know, your top two for MVP, top two for best player in the NBA going at it. What are you saying on this one?
00:45:42
Emeka
Oh,
00:45:44
Emeka
I'm going to stick with my original prediction. I'm going to say Thunder in six. There's a part of me that wants to shift it to Thunder in seven, but I'm going stick with it. They threw this game away. there was There's no universe where the Thunder should have lost this game.
00:45:54
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:45:57
Emeka
I'm sorry. And the coach, I saw the headlines. He's being stubborn in the press conference and saying fouling wasn't a mistake. There's no harm in it saying you're wrong, Daniel. Fouling was a mistake.
00:46:08
Emeka
We'll let it slide.
00:46:08
Chino Onwuka
See, I think following up three is actually, oh I hate it because it like ruins all, usually ruins all chances of drama.
00:46:09
Emeka
Yeah.
00:46:20
Chino Onwuka
But like if you just look at the percentages, following you should foul up three almost every time. Why I think this one was a um mistake was doing that when Jokic was off the floor.
00:46:32
Chino Onwuka
That's the part that didn't make sense to me.
00:46:33
Emeka
Exactly. Listen, i'm analytics, and i'm i I'm a pro analytics guy. So, I mean, just let me coach this. I'm very pro analytics. Analytics say you follow up three.
00:46:44
Emeka
I agree with this. Analytics is saying over an average of like a thousand scenarios, you follow up three. This is one of those scenarios. Like you said, Jokic is off the floor.
00:46:55
Emeka
They have no outs.
00:46:56
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:46:57
Emeka
They have to shoot. They have to shoot. Don't foul.
00:47:02
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:47:03
Emeka
Don't foul. Or at the very least, even if you're going to foul, you let the clock run. They were acting like were down.
00:47:08
Chino Onwuka
Milk the puck a little bit. Yeah.
00:47:11
Emeka
Like, let the clock run.
00:47:11
Chino Onwuka
Milk the Yeah. And if they had, right, even if even if they still did that and they let the puck run, even if that happened, you know,
00:47:14
Emeka
you know
00:47:21
Chino Onwuka
home green comes in and misses the free throws, they wouldn't have had enough time to get such a good shot.
00:47:24
Emeka
Exactly.
00:47:26
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:47:27
Emeka
That's why you let the clock run.
00:47:28
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:47:29
Emeka
they were inbounding the ball beneath the baseline without Jokic. They were going to be panicked. I can tell you that.
00:47:34
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:47:34
Emeka
They were going to be frazzled, and they were going to chuck up some bullshit. Like, I get it. The analytics say he followed... let the game play out. And I'm, this is the basketball gods punishing the thunder for making everyone waste our evenings, watching free throws.
00:47:49
Emeka
Yes, I agree. Analytics say follow up three. I'm so against it.
Conclusion of NBA Playoff Discussion
00:47:53
Emeka
I hate it. I hate it. I hate, I hate, I hate it.
00:47:55
Chino Onwuka
I hate it too. I hate it
00:47:56
Emeka
I hate it. And, and especially when you are a good defensive team, like you, the thunder are a great defensive team. Play defense. Anyhow, all this being said, moot point, chat, make your free throws as well.
00:48:08
Emeka
Like what we do. 75% shooter going over to,
00:48:08
Chino Onwuka
too.
00:48:10
Emeka
going over two Just choke Oklahoma City Thunder.
00:48:11
Chino Onwuka
Also, shout out Westbrook making the right play.
00:48:15
Emeka
Yeah, for real.
00:48:15
Chino Onwuka
You know, i wouldn't be surprised if Westbrook just went straight to the rim to try to be the hero, but he made the right play. So I got to give, I've, you know I slander him a lot, but shout out Westbrook making the right play.
00:48:28
Emeka
Shout out Aaron Gordon, too. Two game winners in this playoffs.
00:48:30
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:48:32
Emeka
like Aaron Gordon, man. Aaron Gordon.
00:48:35
Chino Onwuka
and And a murder. I think Thunder
00:48:37
Emeka
and know Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Murder, Chet Ho. That's why he missed the free throws. My guy's still the upper room because, what a dunk that was.
00:48:44
Chino Onwuka
The
00:48:47
Emeka
But what you say for this series?
00:48:47
Chino Onwuka
only reason i think thunder for for two and the only reason Denver's a good team. I just think OKC have just been so dominant. They're so deep.
00:49:00
Chino Onwuka
They have so much talent. You know, it's just Jokic and Murray and their chemistry and their brilliance getting them those two wins and getting them that first one today. So I think this is probably going to be a bit of a wake-up call to the thunder.
00:49:14
Chino Onwuka
They're not going to play with their food anymore. and But, yeah, I think this is also going to be 4-2. I would love for this one to go 7. would love it.
00:49:22
Emeka
i I would too.
00:49:23
Chino Onwuka
This would be a dope series to go seven games, so we'll see.
00:49:26
Emeka
I... If people out there on Twitter, if you listen to the show, but speaking in general, something I noticed, and I know someone's going make a clip of it, but I need someone with good editing skills to make a compilation of every wide-open three the Thunder got off the guys Jokic was guarding because I couldn't believe my eyes.
00:49:46
Emeka
I just kept tracking it. Caruso and Dort, I think, i had like 15... Wide open threes because Jokic is too fat to get up in the three-point line to challenge him and which is why I'm gonna stick a Thunder in six because Over the course of a seven-game series.
00:49:59
Emeka
They're gonna make these threes and yeah, Jokic had a 40 20 game if you watch the game it really what This is weird for me to say about a guy who had a 40-20 game. He didn't play that great. He was just you put up a lot of shots. And honestly, that's what the Denver Nuggets needed on the road.
00:50:16
Emeka
Jokic is just going to scorer mode and do this. If he does this for five games, he's to get exhausted this series. Jokic is not a scorer. He's a passer. And the Thunder are making him score. And I think over a seven-game series, it's going to bode well for them. But hey...
00:50:30
Emeka
Shouts out Aaron Gordon, Wesley Westbrook, even Murray to start the game. Peyton Watson has some good minutes. Like, the Nuggets, they want to chip two years ago for a reason. And they showed us all tonight. And like you, I really hope this series goes seven.
00:50:43
Chino Onwuka
Man, do you know what, though? Can Michael Porter Jr. show up? Like, this has been such...
00:50:49
Emeka
He's got one arm, man. Yo. He's trying, bro.
00:50:54
Chino Onwuka
I guess so, but, you know, if you're out there, mean, you gotta you gotta to give me more than two points on one of his beating.
00:51:00
Emeka
That is true. That is true. But I feel for the guy, man.
00:51:04
Chino Onwuka
But, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right.
00:51:05
Emeka
He's trying, bro. He's got one arm.
00:51:08
Chino Onwuka
That honestly did slip my mind. You're right, you're right. So... Thunder in six. Chico had Thunder in six. So we're all in agreement there. So, yeah, that we're going to wrap up there on the and NBA talk. Again, it is round two of the playoffs. You know, it is May. You know, the days are getting longer. the sun is shining. So it is a good time of the year.
Liverpool's Premier League Triumph and Transfers
00:51:33
Chino Onwuka
Now we're going to go back into some some footy. I feel like we haven't talked some footy in a while. You know, and, you know, a lot of things have been happening. First off, I think we got go to start off and and give the newly crowned EPL champions their due.
00:51:52
Chino Onwuka
So just want to start off with a congratulations to Liverpool winning their 20th league title, you know, tying them with Manchester United.
00:52:06
Chino Onwuka
Nobody saw this coming at the beginning of the season, you know, new coach, They just let their legend go. People thought it would down year for them. That's what we thought. But, you know, this is no shade but taking advantage with, you know, big down years from Arsenal and Man City but doing what they needed to do to secure the title.
00:52:28
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, shout out to Liverpool EPL champions.
00:52:34
Emeka
Hey, congratulations to Liverpool. Shout out to them. And felicidades to Trent Alexander. soy Fiesta. Enjoy Spain.
00:52:44
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, that's that the news did really get confirmed today with TAA leaving to Real Madrid, which I think was an open secret everyone knew. So might be a bit bittersweet for Liverpool fans, but hey, at least if he's leaving, he's leaving off you know winning you a Champions League, winning you his second Prem title before he leaves. know Probably people going to be a little bit angry with him, but you know maybe that's something that Might mellow with time, but we'll see.
00:53:17
Chino Onwuka
one more thing I want to say about you know Liverpool. you know Again, Mo Salah, what a player. He literally dragged them to this title. Obviously, Van Dijk was a stalwart as usual. you know Gravenberg came out of nowhere to hold down that sixth spot. McAllister was good, but just Mo Salah, he...
00:53:44
Chino Onwuka
That's what you want your your your your superstars, your best players to do, and that's what he did. So, yeah,
00:53:49
Emeka
yeah Big shout out to Mo Salah, man. I feel like for me, at least, it's so rare to see a player
European Competition: EPL Teams and Champions League
00:53:56
Emeka
openly come out and be like, listen, I told the coach, want track back anymore, but I'm to produce.
00:54:01
Emeka
And guess what? Hey, he produced. Shout out Mo Salah. Jokes aside, after four years of Man City winning it, I'm glad someone else won. If it wasn't going to be Arsenal, it's Liverpool.
00:54:11
Chino Onwuka
champions.
00:54:12
Emeka
I'll take it.
00:54:13
Chino Onwuka
For sure. For sure.
00:54:14
Emeka
Let someone else win.
00:54:15
Chino Onwuka
All day, any day. All day, any day. So now that is wrapped up. So now really, and I think relegation is also wrapped up. So now all eyes are on the battle for Europe, but especially for Champions League.
00:54:31
Chino Onwuka
Top five automatically qualify for the Champions League.
00:54:35
Emeka
Top five, top five, top five.
00:54:37
Chino Onwuka
I mean, Europa League is looking like it's going to be a final, you know, of two English teams. So there's going to be probably six teams in the English teams in the Champions League next year.
00:54:49
Chino Onwuka
know, at some point it looked like second was was guaranteed for Arsenal, but they've been on the beach for the last five games just dropping leads quickly.
00:54:55
Emeka
Don't say that now. Don't say that.
00:55:02
Chino Onwuka
scoring one goal and then telling the opposition, all right, now it's your turn to score. So second is up for grab. Third is up for grab. Fourth is up for grab. Fifth is up for grab. So which four teams apart for other than Liverpool do you see nabbing those four spots?
00:55:19
Emeka
First of all, I refuse to to entertain this talk from from my fellow gooners out here. We're finishing second. Maybe I'm being a little bit speaking to existence, but we have Southampton at home still. We're finishing second. want hear this.
00:55:35
Emeka
Third... In the worst year of Pep's career, he's still going to pull up likely a third or even possibly second and an FA Cup most likely.
00:55:46
Emeka
That just shows the levels of what money can get you. Must be nice. Fourth, I'm i'm sticking, think preseason. think not. I'm talking preseason. Terrible. But Newcastle, I'm to keep them at fourth.
00:56:00
Emeka
Isak has been, if not for Mo Salah, having an alien season, he'd be having some real player of the year shouts, the levels he's producing. They've fallen off a little bit in recent weeks, but next week there's a bang of a match. If they beat Chelsea, I think they'll secure top four, which then goes to fifth, and it pains me to say it.
00:56:20
Emeka
Forrest, what happened? i don't I don't understand. i mean, to be fair to Forrest, they weren't supposed to be this high, so maybe he's a return to form. I got to go of Chelsea as fifth. Although, the last game of the season, Forrest home to Chelsea.
00:56:37
Emeka
That's going to be a fantastic game. I can feel It's going to come down to, I feel like fifth is going to come down to that game. But, and thankfully for Forrest, Chelsea's schedule is insane. They play Man U, I think, Forrest, and then Newcastle.
00:56:52
Emeka
So, they could easily lose all three games. I'm still giving him a little edge. I wanted to see Forrest win today to even up the points. But, yeah, it's looking like it's going to be a Chelsea fifth.
00:57:04
Emeka
And then between United and Spurs, whoever wins Europa, six Champions League teams. what is What a season. What a season. hey but yeah What teams you have finishing second to fifth?
00:57:17
Chino Onwuka
Horrible season. Horrible season.
00:57:20
Emeka
Season in over, yes, my brother.
00:57:20
Chino Onwuka
Man, honestly, I'm going to be real with you. i think Man City are going to come second now, just looking at their schedule. Arsenal, I think they some of the easier games they had in this running, they blew them, obviously, their minds are elsewhere. But i just the fact that we had leads in all these games, no excuses there.
00:57:39
Chino Onwuka
Because our next two games are Liverpool and Newcastle, so those aren't game Newcastle, they're going to be playing for their lives. Liverpool, yeah, they might have been on the beach, but then they just lost to Chelsea, so that might wake them up a little bit.
00:57:54
Chino Onwuka
They finished having all their celebrations, so they're probably to be sober for the Arsenal game. so I see City second now, Arsenal third. Newcastle fourth for the reasons as you mentioned, and I still think maybe this is part of just a wish, but I can see, see forced, um, just nudging out Chelsea for fifth because, you know, their schedule is Leicester and West Ham and they got to win both those games.
00:58:28
Chino Onwuka
And then last game of the season against Chelsea, it's going to come down to that game. Chelsea you are going to be attacking. Forrest are going to be doing their defense and counterattack. And, uh,
00:58:40
Chino Onwuka
I think it'll come down to that game. But just with the way that the games they have left, I so i think Forest will have a chance. so I'm going to go with, just to go be a little bit different, going to go with Forest in fifth.
00:58:52
Emeka
Hey, Inchallah, brother. I hope you're right. Chelsea don't deserve Champions League this season.
00:58:55
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
00:58:57
Emeka
i Ten toes on that.
00:58:57
Chino Onwuka
They don't. We're going to go to Champions League now. But just before we go to Champions League.
00:59:03
Emeka
Hey.
00:59:06
Chino Onwuka
Oh, did you want to say something?
00:59:08
Emeka
No, I mean, Champions League, but no, what he going to say? also want one thing you can say as well, but.
00:59:10
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, just touch on Europa as well, you know, just so people don't accuse us of not talking about, you know, other teams.
00:59:20
Emeka
That's a Thursday competition.
00:59:22
Chino Onwuka
For United Tottenham fans, this is a big deal for them. What has been a truly, truly horrendous and hopeless season, there is now light at the end of the table, big, big glimmers of hope where, you know, if they win Europa and qualify for Champions League, that will be one of the biggest bailouts I've ever seen in my life.
00:59:46
Chino Onwuka
So, yeah, honestly, like the luck, the luck, but hey, it is what it is.
00:59:46
Emeka
My life.
00:59:54
Chino Onwuka
You know, ah ah do want to address that. You know, I think honestly at this stage in America, let me know what you think.
01:00:01
Chino Onwuka
Every year, Premier League team should win Europa and the Conference League because, People talk about, oh, why didn't Arsenal win it? Back in those days, you know, for some of you youngins who don't know, back in those days, teams that came third in the Champions League would drop down to Europa.
01:00:23
Chino Onwuka
So this is a totally different Europa League and it's going to be going forward than what we had in the past. So if you're a Premier League team that didn't make the Champions League and in Europa, and we see how tough the Premier League is this year,
01:00:37
Chino Onwuka
You should always be the favorites to make Europa. Look at this scenario. The teams in 15th and 16th in the Premier League are going to be in the final of the Europa League. So that just says it all.
01:00:50
Chino Onwuka
And honestly, the Conference League, as long as they take it semi-seriously, they should always win it. So I don't know what you think if you if you agree with me there.
01:00:58
Emeka
I'll offer a small hysterics and say, if you're a big six team in Europa, you should win. Because if Forrest or Europa next year, i mean, come on. They're not but not favorites to me.
01:01:11
Emeka
There are better teams than Forrest in the Europa League. Or like and Crystal Palace win the FA Cup and then the Europa League.
01:01:13
Chino Onwuka
I guess.
01:01:17
Emeka
Like this year.
01:01:18
Chino Onwuka
But are you are are you United or Tottenham a better team than Forrest?
01:01:19
Emeka
Yeah, sorry.
01:01:23
Emeka
On paper, yes.
01:01:24
Chino Onwuka
Not even...
01:01:25
Emeka
League and knockout are two different things. Knockout football is like, we we all saw the Leon game for Man U. Just BS can happen, and the better team doesn't have to go through, but...
01:01:37
Emeka
I got the premise the Super League and the Conference League. They should at least make the finals or semifinals because the Italian team that finishes seventh, the Spanish team, they still have a reasonable chance. But, you know, Chelsea are here smacking up Romanian farmers. Like, yeah, they should win those games.
01:01:52
Emeka
And in Europa League, if a big six most years... The Prem can't get six teams in there. So there will always inevitably be, should at least, be a Sky 6 team in Europa. And I agree that team should be overwhelming favorites to win Europa.
01:02:07
Emeka
Barring... I mean, like, next year there's a real chance Dortmund in Europa. That's the same kind of thing. Like, a big... A big club should be always winning Europa.
01:02:18
Emeka
Gone are the days when you'll see Olympiacos or even a Sevilla. It's going to be tough now, like you said, because those teams aren't dropping down anymore, which I like.
01:02:28
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
01:02:29
Emeka
But as a consequence, it means if you're a big fish in Europa from the start, you're a big fish in Europa from now on
01:02:35
Chino Onwuka
Yep. Yep.
01:02:37
Emeka
And Conference League is a joke.
01:02:37
Chino Onwuka
Okay.
01:02:38
Emeka
oh I love the Conference League. Don't get me wrong. I love the Conference League. It's a great idea who made it. But when Chelsea are in it this year, like, yeah, Chelsea should win the Conference League.
01:02:46
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, that's a joke.
Harry Kane's Victory and Young Football Talents
01:02:47
Chino Onwuka
That's a joke.
01:02:48
Emeka
Like, that's a joke.
01:02:49
Chino Onwuka
That's a joke.
01:02:49
Emeka
Chelsea should win the Conference League.
01:02:51
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
01:02:52
Emeka
hey But you got you know what would you got to win. That's life.
01:02:55
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. No, for sure.
01:02:56
Emeka
Before we go on to the Champions League, i just want to give the quickest shout-out. I'm so happy he's left Spurs. I can root for him now. Harry Kane has won the trophy.
01:03:02
Chino Onwuka
hu He's finally won a trophy.
01:03:04
Emeka
You know what? Hey, man, we can make all these jokes and laugh. I genuinely felt happy for him. He's too good to not win a trophy. And the trophy culture has gone too much because I really have mads tell me Jamie Vardy had a better career than Mary Kane. I can't accept that.
01:03:22
Emeka
I can't accept it.
01:03:22
Chino Onwuka
Stop it. Stop it.
01:03:24
Emeka
I can't accept stupidity like that.
01:03:24
Chino Onwuka
Seriously?
01:03:26
Emeka
Yeah, oh, and know in our our very own group chat, I remember having argument with people telling me Jamie Vardy, won trophies, won the Premier League, and everything. you getll And even though there's haters out there saying things like winning the Bundesliga is like, breaking a trophy job with the Bundesliga is like losing your virginity to a prostitute.
01:03:45
Emeka
How dare you disrespect the institution that is the German Bundesliga? How dare you have some shame?
01:03:54
Chino Onwuka
It's not about winning the Booners League. I think it's more winning the Booners League with Bayern.
01:03:55
Emeka
yeah
01:03:58
Chino Onwuka
that's that's That's the point.
01:03:58
Emeka
I know, I know. And the truth is, it's there's some luck there's a lot of truth to that. I think it's a bigger accomplishment that he didn't win last year, the winning this year, because I can't believe he still lost last year.
01:04:10
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
01:04:10
Emeka
Regardless, a trophy is a trophy and a win is a win. Happy for Harry Kane. At least he can put that to bet. He won a trophy. End of the day, he won a trophy.
01:04:19
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
01:04:21
Emeka
Happy for Harry Kane.
01:04:23
Chino Onwuka
Shout out Sir Harry Kane. Okay. Now to to to real talk.
01:04:27
Emeka
And now on to the big thing. Hey, the real talk.
01:04:33
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, the lay of the land. Barcelona, Inter, barnstorming first leg, I don't know if anyone saw that coming.
01:04:40
Emeka
What a first leg.
01:04:44
Chino Onwuka
I thought it was going to be a tough one. A lot of people had Barcelona winning easily, but I thought Inter would put up a fight. Now, they put up a fight not in the way that I thought. I thought they'd be grinding out 1-0s and 1-1s, not 3-3s.
01:04:52
Emeka
Like you were about to say.
01:04:57
Chino Onwuka
But guess we'll just start there before we we'll finish off with Arsenal, PSG. What do you think is going to happen in the second leg? What's your call?
01:05:06
Emeka
ah ah Real talk. For the beginning, first, real quick, I don't like disagreeing with with people I hold in very high self-esteem. Thierry is my favorite player of all time.
01:05:18
Emeka
I could not disagree more when he had a whole speech about bring the away goals rule back. Monsignor Thierry, we don't want the rule back because in a million years with the away goals rule, Inter Milan ever scored three goals in Camp Nou.
01:05:24
Chino Onwuka
yeah
01:05:31
Chino Onwuka
Yep. Yep.
01:05:33
Emeka
They will just sit back and just set up shop.
01:05:33
Chino Onwuka
yep
01:05:35
Emeka
With the away goal rules gone, teams are now more open. I love it. You see games like that first leg, back and forth. Fantastical. To your question though, I picked Inter to win this tie.
01:05:49
Emeka
And I'm still picking them to win the tie. But i I thought it was going to be they scrap a 0-0 or 1-1 Away and then they come back and he scrap a one nil something like that The 3-3 was huh?
01:06:02
Emeka
What a game that was Laminia Mal Rafinha take a bow if For inter you know the Borelas lataro to ram all those guys take a bow just fantastic This is what Champions League semi-finals should look like I just When it comes down to it, the suicidal line that that Barcelona play and has been working for them all season long, I just think there's gonna it asks for too much perfection.
01:06:32
Emeka
And in these tight games, it just takes one slip. One guy steps forward a little too slow. Dortmund almost caught them so many times. and even Inter almost caught them so many times.
01:06:44
Emeka
I'm sure we've all seen it. Mkhitaryan is a truly soft side.
01:06:45
Chino Onwuka
I think Inter got lucky Taro hurt. Yeah. was hurt
01:06:52
Emeka
Yeah, because he got to more pace. I'm just saying like Mkhitaryan's shoelaces offside and they win this game 4-3. And so many times Dumfries or DeMarco were just like they were about to break they just misplaced that last pass.
01:07:00
Chino Onwuka
yeah
01:07:07
Emeka
like Barcelona play such a risky game they're going to play that game in the San Siro and it wouldn't shock me It wouldn't shock me to see like an Inter 2-0 or Inter 3-1 or something like that if they keep playing that suicidal line.
01:07:23
Emeka
And just something in my spirit just tells me this is this is Inter Milan's year. Zagy, I've been hyping him up all season. The best defense in the Champions League. Even though Barcelona should be the favorites deservedly because the that front line, Lewandowski is back.
01:07:41
Emeka
I'm sticking with my prediction. I'm going to save Inter the second leg, and Inter go to the the CL Finals.
01:07:45
Chino Onwuka
3-1. Honestly, i don't know what the score is going to be, but I'm with you. I think in the San Siro, might be another high-scoring game. well Honestly, more high-scoring than I thought, but i still... I also had Inter ahead of Barca in this tie before the first leg, and I'm sticking with it as well.
01:08:05
Chino Onwuka
I just think, again, I'm just scared of that high line, but man... I just got to say, Lamin-Yamal is something else. Like, there's so much talent in that Barca squad.
01:08:16
Chino Onwuka
Rafinha, he's having an otherworldly season. But again, he is 17 years old.
01:08:25
Chino Onwuka
Let me ask you a question.
01:08:25
Emeka
Doesn't make sense.
01:08:26
Emeka
yeah
01:08:26
Chino Onwuka
I was talking with some guys about, is he the best 17-year-old we've ever seen? Because Messi and Cristiano were not doing this at 17.
01:08:37
Chino Onwuka
They weren't there either.
01:08:37
Emeka
They were not as good at 17. No. no
01:08:39
Chino Onwuka
I think it was 18, 19, 20, they started to explode. If you ask me, I would say the only guy that just sticks out to me right away is Pele, who was this good that age.
01:08:51
Emeka
Yeah.
01:08:53
Chino Onwuka
I don't know if you have any others.
01:08:53
Emeka
Obviously, I didn't watch my life.
01:08:57
Chino Onwuka
but Obviously, yeah, in terms of people I watch, I think when did Cesc really start starting for Arsenal? He was 17 as well when he started playing games.
01:09:03
Emeka
He was 17, but he wasn't this good.
01:09:07
Chino Onwuka
So him and then I think you'd mentioned this before, Rooney.
01:09:11
Emeka
Yeah, Rooney, to me, is the only other comparable guy. But even then, wasn't.
01:09:15
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
01:09:16
Emeka
He became Rooney at like 19. Yeah, 18.
01:09:19
Chino Onwuka
i think it was 18 where he became...
01:09:21
Emeka
To do this at 17... i mean to do this
01:09:22
Chino Onwuka
he scored that hat-trick against Ferdinand Batchel, I think he was 18 then.
01:09:23
Emeka
and
01:09:26
Emeka
He got his man-new transfer when he was 19. That's my point. like
01:09:30
Chino Onwuka
Yeah.
01:09:30
Emeka
Everton was fantastic, but he wasn't like, you know.
01:09:33
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, rooney Rooney's not in that discussion. Actually, I just thought of one guy, actually, who might be up there.
01:09:40
Emeka
Bojan?
01:09:40
Chino Onwuka
El Phenomeno.
01:09:42
Emeka
yeah No, Ronaldo, but again, I wasn't watching him when he was 17, so I can't.
01:09:47
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. But at 17, he was putting up goal a gaa game in in the Brazilian League, back when the Brazilian League was stronger.
01:09:55
Emeka
no disrespect to the Brazilian league.
01:09:55
Chino Onwuka
So, yeah.
01:09:57
Emeka
There's doing that and there's being a star player in for Spain and Barcelona. That's the thing as well. He did this in the Euros.
01:10:05
Chino Onwuka
For sure. For sure.
01:10:07
Emeka
Star man in the Euros at 16.
01:10:07
Chino Onwuka
When he was even he was even younger. Yeah, nah, yeah, you're right, you're right.
01:10:10
Emeka
Oh, no. is La Minha Mao, kid. Ay. ay, ay, ay, ay.
01:10:15
Chino Onwuka
He's unreal. Hopefully, he doesn't play my team, but hopefully he can stay healthy. you know i know you could he's played a lot of games young, but you know we we we're lovers of the beautiful game.
01:10:21
Emeka
Amen.
01:10:27
Chino Onwuka
We want to see the best players do their thing, so we wish nothing but the best him.
01:10:31
Emeka
They say comparison is the thief of joy, and I hate doing this, but this Lamine stuff, this isn't this what we thought Endrick would be doing? Because he's the only guy can remember having hype like this at a young age was Endrick.
01:10:46
Emeka
And like,
01:10:47
Chino Onwuka
I think once Endrik, I think Endrik is a different type of player, right? I think when Endrik plays and he matures,
01:10:57
Chino Onwuka
he will he will bang. He will score a lot of goals, but I think Lamal is just a different level.
01:11:04
Emeka
And I agree. It's just, it's funny how it works like that.
01:11:05
Chino Onwuka
and And here's the thing, to me, i think it's different because it's a transfer from Brazil. I know all the hype Endrik got, but Lamine was always seen in that stratosphere and even higher than Endrick, even as hyped as Endrick was.
01:11:21
Chino Onwuka
It just
Challenges for Brazilian Players in Europe
01:11:22
Chino Onwuka
didn't seem the same way because it wasn't a transfer from another team.
01:11:25
Emeka
Fair. I don't, I don't know the youngest like that, but Andrew Kuzmi, the first guy I've ever seen, like,
01:11:27
Chino Onwuka
no
01:11:32
Emeka
At 15, people are talking about transfers and stuff and all that. and is it it's a i mean Him and Mukoku, but Mukoku and Olita, no comment.
01:11:41
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. Yeah. The first one was Vinicius. Vinicius was the first
01:11:43
Emeka
maybe True, Vinicius up there too, but like it just shows how ridiculous it is because Endrick is turning 19 in three months, and like I'm still like, oh, what a baby.
01:11:46
Chino Onwuka
he says
01:11:56
Emeka
Lamine's year younger than him. And he's this good. Like, it just doesn't make, it boggles the mind.
01:12:03
Chino Onwuka
It just takes opportunity, right?
01:12:03
Emeka
It boggles the mind.
01:12:05
Chino Onwuka
Because, know, Barca had major crisis, so he had to step up earlier than anyone thought he should have, and he did his thing. if People remember Vinicius' early days. you know He wasn't doing all that, but then Real Madrid had an injury crisis, and then he had to play a lot and just play through everything, and that's how he became better. Jamal, I guess he's still 17, but he wasn't this consistent last year.
01:12:33
Chino Onwuka
so I think Hendrik, when it's stop-start, you have Mbappe, Vinicius, Rodrigo in front of you, it's going to be hard to... to get that consistency, to get that game time, to learn the European game.
01:12:44
Chino Onwuka
You know, it's a different sort of central defenders that you have to play against than it was a Brazil. Different tactical setup. So he's got the talent. We've seen other super talented players go to real Madrid and not get the opportunity. So
Arsenal vs PSG: Match Analysis and Predictions
01:13:00
Chino Onwuka
it is what it is. Okay.
01:13:02
Chino Onwuka
Now on Arsenal, PSG, PSG Arsenal, a 1-0 loss. in London that could have been 3-0 three zero PSG, could have somehow also been 2-1 Arsenal.
01:13:22
Chino Onwuka
What are your thoughts going into the second line? Because I think i have i think there's a slim there's a chance we're only down but we're going to have to play a lot better than we did in the first leg, a lot better than we've been playing in the Prem. Honestly, we need to find... And this is the problem with, you know, it's it's so interesting that so people have changed gears from before the Real Madrid game because of how well we played in those two games.
01:13:54
Chino Onwuka
The problem with Arsenal this season is due to so many reasons, we have not been able to play to our top gear a lot this season, which is why you see so many draws, which is why you see us losing so many leads. So we're a flawed team this year.
01:14:09
Chino Onwuka
And that's showing with seeing what we're able to do against Real Madrid, even in spite of all the injuries and how we've played since. So we just need, I just need Arsenal to find that top gear for two more games. That's it. Find it somewhere deep within you.
01:14:24
Chino Onwuka
You know what?
01:14:27
Chino Onwuka
Just out of hope, just because I need it, I'm going to say Arsenal, actually, so we need we need to win Yeah, 2-1's not going to be enough, is it?
01:14:40
Emeka
Yeah, it'll be extra time. I mean, it could be enough penalties.
01:14:42
Chino Onwuka
Yeah. holen I cannot. My heart cannot do that short time. So i yes I guess I'm going to have to go with an Arsenal two-goal win tomorrow somehow.
01:14:48
Emeka
time either.
01:14:54
Chino Onwuka
Somehow.
01:14:55
Emeka
It can very much happen.
01:14:55
Chino Onwuka
That's 1% faith, 99% hope.
01:14:56
Emeka
It can very much happen.
01:14:57
Chino Onwuka
That's my prediction, man. faith ninety nine percent hope that's that's that's my prediction man I don't know how, but we just got to play betters.
01:15:06
Emeka
it
01:15:08
Emeka
It can very much happen. Like, I'm not... To me, it's not like a crazy thing to say Arsenal can win 2-0 tomorrow. We beat Madrid in the Bernabeu.
01:15:17
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, we beat them 2-0, but this is ah ah a different PSG team.
01:15:23
Emeka
It's not crazy, but and that's also why I'm not picking it to happen. I have ah have a PSG 2-1 win, sadly, because the vibes, the vibes, the vibes, and listen, Champions League football, knockout football, anything can happen in the game, but I got be consistent. If you told me, and I said it after, before the Real Madrid game, if we win that, everything else is gravy.
01:15:45
Emeka
And I think there's something... don't know. Because they call it like the guy the team took their foot off the gas. That's not really what happened, but I just think there was just an emotional let-off after beating Madrid home in a way that that Dembele goal so quickly just just you more discombobulated everybody.
01:16:06
Chino Onwuka
Yeah, it was like a a cold splash of water to the face.
01:16:07
Emeka
Because...
01:16:09
Chino Onwuka
Like, yeah, this is the reality of...
01:16:09
Emeka
Yeah, just the vibes of the team just shifted, and then PSG were all over us for 25 minutes, and the crowd never recovered from that.
01:16:10
Chino Onwuka
you
01:16:17
Emeka
So the vibe just didn't feel great. And I'm happy at least. Partey's back, so we're going to put Marino back up front and dead this whole movie.
01:16:27
Chino Onwuka
i Man, I don't know if you saw... I don't i don't think you watched watch the whole first game of the game of the weekend. He was horrible.
01:16:34
Emeka
God forbid it, I didn't know what to say.
01:16:36
Chino Onwuka
So I'm hoping he just got that all of his system because everyone's like, oh, party, party, party. But, you know, games like this show he's he's been really solid for us this season. Games like this show why, know, with everything going around him, have no problems with, you know, him letting his contract run out at the end of the year.
01:16:56
Emeka
I agree, but i want to see Rice back at the eights with the dynamics. I want to see – like, there's – I want to see these – we need it, and you know?
01:17:04
Chino Onwuka
Well, we need it for this game. And and just just to balance it out, there are some injury worries for both teams. You know, Dembele had a bit of a hamstring issue.
01:17:15
Chino Onwuka
So he I'm sure he's playing.
01:17:15
Emeka
Yeah, he's playing.
01:17:18
Chino Onwuka
And then on the Arsenal side of things, you know, you've got Timber. Hopefully he's playing. he had a bit of a knock. And, you know, I think Jorginho is still out. So hopefully Timber can play.
01:17:31
Chino Onwuka
Hey, hopefully Dembele can play too. We want the best players on the field. PSG were able to rest all their starters except draw Neves in their game. That might be some of the things that edged it out.
01:17:44
Chino Onwuka
i I was, to me, especially with the result, we might as well have just rested everybody. But that's it.
01:17:48
Emeka
I couldn't believe we didn't rest in Tyra. I honestly couldn't believe it. Yes, I know second is still in play, all that stuff. Ridiculous to me. Shameful decision.
01:17:58
Chino Onwuka
In hindsight, I thought we needed to go to
01:17:58
Emeka
know there's no hindsight. I've told you this was dark.
01:18:01
Chino Onwuka
I sort of get it because I think he wanted us to try and build some momentum because we didn't.
01:18:05
Emeka
I agree, but stupid, is because look what happened.
01:18:06
Chino Onwuka
Yep. Yep. So didn there you have it.
01:18:09
Emeka
Look what happened.
01:18:11
Chino Onwuka
A little bit of hope, but if we're being realistic, it's probably a PSG intrafinal.
01:18:18
Emeka
I'm going to be real, man. I think PSG have been the best team in Champions League this year. And for
PSG's Champions League Performance and Future Hopes
01:18:23
Emeka
all the teams I've seen play Arsenal this year, PSG is the one that looked by far the best to me. And i've saw I've seen Madrid come in here.
01:18:30
Emeka
saw City come in here, Liverpool. PSG looked the best.
01:18:32
Chino Onwuka
and do Do you remember the preview when Chuka was saying, oh, yeah, Arsenal's going to beat PSG?
01:18:34
Emeka
I
01:18:38
Chino Onwuka
And I was like, don't forget what they did to Liverpool over two legs.
01:18:42
Emeka
know.
01:18:42
Chino Onwuka
Don't forget what the and people were getting carried away. And so I thought it was going to be really tough. I think on paper, PSG are the better team, especially with the injuries that we have.
01:18:56
Chino Onwuka
So, again, this is just a prayer to Baba God to please something.
01:19:01
Emeka
Hey, man. When there's delusion, there's hope. You know?
01:19:04
Chino Onwuka
no
01:19:04
Emeka
It's in PSG's DNA. Now, maybe might maybe that's the Neymar, Mbappe, Messi DNA. But it's in PSG's DNA to lose these Champions League games in heartbreaking fashion.
01:19:17
Emeka
That's going to say. It's in their DNA to do it. So, Inshallah.
01:19:21
Chino Onwuka
All right. All right. And then, so on that note, we are going to end the episode. So, Micah, thanks for hopping on along with me. Thanks for the discussion.
01:19:32
Chino Onwuka
And we will catch you next time. Hopefully a happy time on the next episode of The Love of the Game.