Hello and welcome to group chat. I am Justin Varyer and joining me, Rob Mahoney, Jay Kyle, man, coming to you after a raucous playoff first weekend. Rob,

how you feeling?

Exhausted, you know, we're one weekend in. I'm already sapped of all of my energy. I'm already

low on sleep, but I will soon be buzzing and alive with the, you know, the spirit of the playoffs

once again.

Kyle, you got that dog in you? Got that fight still going?

You know, I'm not going to act like this is a difference in fatigue or sleep or anything like that

because I have a kid. So, well, you know, I'm always a little under rest. So really, honestly,

I'm in my element right now. I should be thriving. So, wow don't know. You're built for this. I don't feel good about some of the optionality for some of these teams, which we'll get into. But yeah, man, I'm down here wallowing in a squalor that I'm used to in terms of sleep and basketball. So let's go. I've always said that having a kid is like having to watch the rockets all the time. You know, that's just where your energy level is and where everything is being pulled from you slowly. But we support you, Kyle. We'll prop you up when you need. I'm basically like pig pin from peanuts, you know? I'm used to having this dirt on me. So let's say, you used to playing in the mud quite literally when it comes with the kids. I was born in the darkness. The Ringer NBA show is brought to you by Fandul. The NBA postseason is here, and Fandul knows the only thing better than watching your favorite team win is winning along with them. Fan Duel is the best place to bet the teams, players, and plays during their playoff run. Build the same game parlay or try live betting and jump in after tip-off.

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CCPg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we're going to go through every single first

round series, every single game one. We're going to talk about some top-line takeaways going forward.

So basically recording this Monday, early morning on the Pacific Coast.

We're going to talk about what we could take from these game ones going forward.

I think we got to start with Magic Pistons, probably the big game of the first slate of games.

Speaking of fight, Rob, the Orlando Magic, all of a sudden, after an entire season of NBA basketball,

starting to show some of it. What a world. Do you think they know who they are? I know we're all

wondering, like, where's this team been? Is this just them getting healthy at the right time?

I think you meant existentially. We all ask the same thing. That's kind of what I'm speaking to.

Yeah. Even the idea of, oh, this was a foxhole, nobody believes in us kind of team, I think the problem was over the last couple weeks, it didn't seem like the magic believed in the magic very much. And then they just show up, they punch the pistons in the mouth, they take away everything that Detroit does well. And now we have to take them so much more seriously, but also, I think the magic are taking themselves so much more seriously. Yeah, there's not a lot of space for middle fingers up, and I haven't really heard much of it from Magic fans, because if you follow their Twitter and all of their prominent fans, they were all like, can this end please? So I think it was just a pleasant surprise for everyone. We're all on the same team in this one because, yeah, it's odd that they came out and just

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