Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thinking basketball podcast, my name is Ben.

Welcome back to another episode of the 2023 playoffs.

Did I throw you off, Cody, with that introduction?

Yeah, I feel like I'm on an NPR podcast,

like you really leaned into that intro, like, oh, my pitching pitching a new book today is that what we're going to be talking about that?

That's what I was going for because I'm pretty sure my voice is is failing me in the afternoon here as we record on Monday, May 8th.

We are, I mean, I don't know,

are we like halfway through the playoffs?

The playoffs have been going on for a long time. They're going to continue to go on for a long time and if you're listening to this here's where we're at.

2-2 Boston and Philadelphia, 2-2, Denver and Phoenix

2 1 heading into tonight's death match at the Staples Center

between the Lakers and the Golden State Warriors and there's one more series, the Heat and the Knicks also play tonight. They are also 2-1. A lot of drama.

Today, we're going to get to some of these series

and continue to pick up where we left off.

We were a couple of games back in some of these series. We're going to talk about

some tactical adjustments and some of the weekend games that were so stunning. But before we do that, Cody, before we do that Cody before we do that I want to take stock in how we're feeling

about some players in the post season. You know, you get to the playoffs, the games get more intense. I love the physicality. We've talked about how the officials have let them play a little bit more and what that's done.

Advanced sort of scouting and scheming for players and it's the cauldron of the

post-season. It's where the rubber meets the road some guys step up some guys wilt a little bit

...