Legler & Mares Western Conference Playoff picks

After a grueling six-month regular season, the NBA playoffs are finally in sight. Many are excited to see who will win the first-round series in the 2024 NBA playoffs. Tim Legler and Adam Mares share their predictions for the series including Mavericks-Clippers, Timberwolves-Suns, and Nuggets-Lakers.
00:00 - Intro
00:22 - Dallas Mavericks-LA Clippers
04:22 - Minnesota Timberwolves-Phoenix Suns
06:57 - Denver Nuggets-Los Angels Lakers
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#nba #youtube #nikolajokic #nuggets #mavericks #lukadoncic #kevindurant #suns #timberwolves #clippers #lakers #lebronjames

[@planetpeterson2824]

OKC in 3 (they'll dominate so much that the series will be called early) Mavs in 11 (the ratings will be so high the league will extend it) Denver in 4, but LeBron will be named MVP of the series, even though that award doesn't even exist T-Wolves in 7 and Suns only score 9 points in game 7

[@truebrowncanadian]

Hahah yup, bron already trying to get play in mvp to match his in season soccer moms tournament trophy

[@occultsymbols]

@@truebrowncanadian i liked the in-season tournament but that was funny 😂

[@lintzuyu-mike5015]

🤣

[@zanmarinic]

I lol-ed 😂

[@truebrowncanadian]

​@@occultsymbols thank you

[@PRODIGY-AND-HAVOC]

AGREED Legs! I say 6 as well...GO MAVS!!

[@lintzuyu-mike5015]

Kings in 7 (OKC is the better team on paper but too young to handle the playoffs pressure) Nuggets in 5 (should be a sweep, but I don't think the league will like to see a clean sweep) Suns in 5 (Booker & KD will have an off game, but overall, their mid-range will finish Wolves easily) Mavs in 4 (Even Mavs are super hot after all-star, people still underestimate how good they really are)

[@everetthaddock1140]

Mavs won’t sweep, thunder won’t lose

[@artetaDagoat]

Kings? 👀

[@zanmarinic]

OKC in 6 NUGGETS in 5 WOLVES in 5 MAVS in 6

[@saadwani9175]

I've got OKC in 7 Denver in 5 Suns in 6 Mavs in 5(if kawhi doesn't play. in 7 otherwise)

[@Leekgocrzy]

OKC IN 5 NUGGETS IN 6 WOLVES IN 6 MAVS IN 6

[@syakdudu]

You’ve been watching a lot of regular season games i can tell. Agree the top 3 seeds should all be safely through. Clips in 7 if everyones healthy imo

[@MDB465]

Most realistic

[@Leekgocrzy]

@@syakdudu yes i watch tons of hoops and thats the reason i put the mavs but even with a healthy Khawi i feel like the Mavs can take them out

[@colinedelman6392]

Suns in 4

[@skoolynugenator1802]

@@colinedelman6392Wolves in 3

[@konezone2416]

it’s funny you bring up late game offense for the timberwolves when the suns have had the worst 4th quarter numbers. i still think suns in 6

[@konezone2416]

@moshimoshi4654 that’s what i’m thinking, i don’t think the twolves will be able to keep up and a late game rally will not be enough

[@miguelziga23]

A lot of the suns 4th quarter numbers being trash is because of how terrible they were in the 4th for most of the season. The last month or so they've been much better in the 4th

[@Mo_Gotem]

The 4th quarter stuff was early in the season when line ups with just KD or just Book starting 4th were out there getting blitzed. They haven’t just crumbled and given up that 4th quarter stuff in these last months with the big 3 playing

[@Mo_Gotem]

moshimoshi4654 goal post moving as usual. I argue the sun come up in the morning and you telling me yea but the moon already came out there first. Stay on topic.

[@Mo_Gotem]

moshimoshi4654 so question is clippers or OKC a good defensive team?

[@samsara6317]

Best basketball podcast

[@mja4wp]

OKC in 6 Mavs in 6 Denver in 5 Min in 6

[@Another30]

Wolves defense is so good because they force you to take midrange. You know who the Suns have?

[@austinhalvorson838]

Lol…

[@Dadiplomatt23]

Midrange jumpers are not the same as in the regular season

[@Another30]

@@Dadiplomatt23 truth

[@lylaeloise3948]

The beauty of the Wolves defense is their versatility. They can switch coverages mid-game and execute other things besides drop coverage. Rudy designed their scheme with the coaches and it's not straight drop anyway, it's a mix of drop and high wall/scramble defense. Rudy is also comfortable switching on the perimeter onto guards.

[@Another30]

@@lylaeloise3948 yeah, they ran mostly drop all season. But game 1 they didn’t.

[@victorvic4659]

Kings over Okc in 7. Denver in 6. Suns in 4. Mavs in 5.

[@tompratt7125]

Kings w/out Monk and Huerter beating a completely healthy OKC team that has home court advantage!? As a Nuggets fan I'd love to see that happen because it would return home court advantage throughout the WC playoffs to Denver, but I just can't see that happening.

[@everetthaddock1140]

The OKC disrespect

[@jaceygaither2581]

Kings over OKC is insane. And wolves are gonna win a game. Suns will win the series but Wolves will make it a series.

[@artetaDagoat]

Worst take here lmao

[@artetaDagoat]

So much for Kings lol

[@tompratt7125]

Nuggets will beat the Lakers but hard not to think back on that inexplicable loss to the Spurs that knocked them out of the 1 seed. Had they beaten that terrible team actively trying to lose they'd be playing a crippled Kings or Pelicans team rather than a highly motivated and healthy Lakers squad. They made their path that much harder.

[@je5406]

The issue with that thinking is that the Lakers could have just as easily been the 8 seed. Best outcome would have been a Wolves win their final game and Denver would have been set at the 3. That seed was the only guarantee to dodge LA in round 1.

[@jaceygaither2581]

Yep, and now they'll most likely have to play Phoenix in round 2 instead of Dallas/Clippers. Phoenix is a tougher test than any other West team

[@anandmaha1]

I’d argue playing the clippers or mavs is much harder than it is easier to beat the kings/peels. But, I’m also of the opinion that the lakers aren’t that good because of lebron ad slowing down in playoff game 4ths.

[@k_hack9441]

Everything went right for the overrated Nuggets last year. Murray avg’d about 33 ppg vs the Lakers. That’s won’t happen again. Lebrons 3 ball went really cold, that’ll improve. Russell was bench worthy bad last time, and now he’s playing well. Jokic still doesn’t play defense. Lakers in 6.

[@Jyoandbean]

They didn’t want Dallas early

[@dannyboy5362]

Mavs better not lose. Crazy bold prediction: Philly beats the knicks in 6.

[@SojiRo23]

The key for the Lakers beating the Nuggets in 2020 was that they had multiple bigs to throw at Jokic, including Dwight Howard. Asking AD to average 30 on top of mitigating Jokic is a lot to ask. But I think he can do one of those things. I expect the Lakers to come out firing because they want Game 1 bad. If the Nuggets can shut them up after getting LA’s best shot, it will be a short series. But if LA gets game 1, I can see maybe it going to 6. Should be fun.

[@StillKeepOnLosing]

No, Lakers beat nuggets back then was because Nuggets had injuries...

[@_LongLast]

Jokic was just not as good 4 years ago as he is now- that’s the reason LA won, not multiple bigs to “throw” at him. Multiple bigs is irrelevant at this point. AD had a great WCF statistically and it didn’t matter - I don’t feel like looking it up but he avg what like 26/27? There’s no reason to suspect he can slow Jokic at all- it hasn’t happened anytime recently and I doubt AD been hiding his secret technique

[@MLBlast40]

No, the key to LA beating Denver in 2020 was that Jokic was 25 and just cracking the top-10 players in the league discussion lmao

[@nenevz2948]

Beating the Nuggets almost always has a component of refs letting Jokic get absolutely mauled all game long

[@abduraxmaan450]

Okc 4 Den 7 Suns 6 Mavs 6

[@skoolynugenator1802]

Wolves in 5

[@artetaDagoat]

​@thetruthofChristwillneverbesto Why not?

[@artetaDagoat]

@thetruthofChristwillneverbesto wow. You gathered all that from a devils advocate position, two worded questions. If you're young enough, you're good enough. Especially considering their record and opponent. You haven't watched the Thunder much, have you?

[@artetaDagoat]

@thetruthofChristwillneverbesto chill out man lol

[@artetaDagoat]

@thetruthofChristwillneverbesto @thetruthofChristwillneverbesto You've moved the goal posts from Kings winning to then Pelicans winning to now coming back when Mavs or Clippers win. Geez mate, make ya mind up, Einstein, lol

[@Seddysaid]

Legs is out of his mind picking the twolves 😂

[@mindfulwalking]

They do it for views. The more controversial, the more views.

[@PRODIGY-AND-HAVOC]

@@mindfulwalking Legs doesnt play that game sir. Integrity hasn't left the world completely YET!! lol

[@austinhalvorson838]

Is he??

[@vn_loc7316]

Can the Suns play defense?

[@Seddysaid]

@@austinhalvorson838 yes

[@colinedelman6392]

I’m getting tired of people not understanding that the Suns are a defensive team.. not an offensive one. Wolves have no chance. Suns in 4.

[@KCM316]

That didn’t age well

[@austinhalvorson838]

Casuals say suns in 4 lol or just homers

[@chancellor3122]

Suns were atrocious, looks like a sweep after the first game. That was hard to watch. No offensive answers and their defence is non existent. Iso is not the answer against Minnesota.

[@blakelarson5005]

Good call buddy…

[@sirbarles4808]

Its not Suns offense vs Wolves defence... In all reg season games Suns beat Wolves with defence... They just limit Ant and there is noone else on the Wolves to be enough of a threat. Unless Ant and KAT really go to another level offensively, Wolves will not even get to a point where their defence could be a legit argument. Suns in 1... game one in this series is like a game 2 normally cause of recent history. Its time for Wolves to make adjustments. If Wolves dont win game 1 its over for them... Unless ofc Suns just fall apart like they did vs Dallas xD

[@wetsaapbrehh7839]

Too much is being made of the mavericks last month of play. Their strength of schedule the last 20 games is not impressive.

[@StillKeepOnLosing]

You mean the east had it good and how many 50 win team?

[@williamroper5422]

Too much is being made if the Mavericks schedule. Paying attention to how good they were actually playing is more important then just looking at the schedule to see who they played.

[@jayboykin28]

Its been since allstar break not a month

[@zanmarinic]

The T-wolves will kill the suns.. they're just soft...

[@PRODIGY-AND-HAVOC]

CASUAL!

[@austinhalvorson838]

@@PRODIGY-AND-HAVOCcalls him a casual for being spot on crazy..

[@TheIndianCelticsShow]

Okc in 6 Den in 6 Suns in 6 Clips in 7

[@tompratt7125]

Sounds about right but I'd have the Mavs in 6 or 7. Niether Kahwi nor Harden will be 100% and the Mavs have been playing great basketball.

[@jaceygaither2581]

Good picks, but you really think clips can close out a game 7 with multiple all time playoff chokers in Harden and PG? If clips win, it's gotta be in 5 or 6. If it goes 7 it's Luka and Kyrie's time to shine.

[@TheIndianCelticsShow]

@@tompratt7125 I'm trusting kawhi will be ready to go until we have new reports. And with harden i think if he doesn't perform offensive like he needs to i trust westbrook to have winning impacts. Norm powell a wild card too

[@TheIndianCelticsShow]

@@jaceygaither2581 I'm just Trusting Kawhi. But i can absolutely see it going luka and kyrie's way like you said

[@UKNOWITSP]

Clipper disrespect is crazy

[@L9ines]

Not really bro lmao Mavs are extremley lethal right now

[@ChunkSamson]

@@L9ines theyve been beating bad teams and clippers have been playing just as good as of late... about 9/10 media members have picked mavs... and all of them will be wrong

[@PRODIGY-AND-HAVOC]

🙄if i had a penny for every fan base in the history of mankind saying their team is hated on id be a millionaire and Legs DEF does his homework and is objective, so listen up son!

[@UKNOWITSP]

@@PRODIGY-AND-HAVOC look at Dallas schedule and explain to me why you’re so impressed? Any good team would have the same record over that stretch