Season 2, Episode 30- Against All Odds

In this week's episode of "Diehlman at Halftime," I discuss:

Highlight: Indiana Pacers
Lowlight: Golden State Warriors
Random Stat: Who will win the 2025 NBA Draft lottery?
Game of the Week: Boston Celtics @ New York Knicks (Eastern Conference Semifinals, Game 4)

Also, listen to the perspective of our featured guest, Sean Barnard! (Follow him on X @sean_barnard1 and Instagram @barnard_sean).

"Aurora" interlude music written by Jeff Kaale
https://uppbeat.io/t/jeff-kaale/aurora
License code: HJ6W88QKKUB00FNS

Intro/outro written by Larry Diehlman

Release date: Monday, May 12, 2025

Chapters

• 0:15 Introduction
• 0:59 Overview of the NBA this Week
• 3:37 Highlight
• 5:43 Sean Barnard Interview
• 15:41 Lowlight
• 17:20 Random Stat
• 18:52 Game of the Week
• 20:03 Conclusion

Transcript

**NOTE: Full episode transcript is below except the interview**

Introduction: Hello everybody, and welcome to episode #65 of “Diehlman at Halftime,” the NBA podcast that tops all others! I’m your host, Larry Diehlman. If you’re joining us for the first time, welcome abroad. And if you’ve been a loyal listener, welcome back! We have much to get to today and not a lot of time to do it. We have five sections that we’ll get into: a general overview of the NBA this week, and our usual “Highlight, Lowlight, Random Stat, and Game of the Week.” 

Overview of the NBA this Week: The Oklahoma City Thunder have been winning on the court, but they just earned an off-the-court win. Executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti was named Executive of the Year on Tuesday. Presti saw 10 first-place votes from a panel of 30 executives (every team’s executive ranked their top three choices). Presti was on 22 ballots. The top runner-ups were Koby Altman of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Trajan Langdon of the Detroit Pistons. Both got six first-place votes each. Presti was the assistant general manager from 2000-07 when the San Antonio Spurs won three championships in five seasons. He was hired by the Seattle SuperSonics in 2007 (right before they turned into the Thunder). Presti pulled off one of the biggest heists in NBA history in 2019 when he traded Paul George to the L.A. Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a war chest of draft picks. I think we all know how that turned out.

Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell exited Game 4 on Sunday with a left ankle injury. Mitchell stopped practicing during halftime warmups and was examined by the team’s training staff. He didn’t play in the second half. It didn’t make a big difference regardless, since Indiana was destroying Cleveland. His status for Game 5 on Tuesday is up in the air with a pending MRI. With the Cavaliers on the brink of elimination, hopefully this isn’t the final blow to the Cavaliers’ season.

Finally, the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers, has a new name: Xfinity Mobile Arena. The name change, announced Tuesday, will be effective Sept. 1, and it’ll run through the 2030-31 season. The Wells Fargo name was set to expire in August. The arena opened in 1996 and has gone through multiple titles with the word “center,” including CoreStates, First Union, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo. Remember, the 76ers cancelled their plans of knocking down parts of Chinatown to make way for a new arena. The logistics of that were going to be ugly. They will partner with Comcast Spectacor, their landlord, to make a new arena in South Philly, which will open for the 2031-32 season.

This episode is entitled "Against All Odds."

So, who’s raising eyebrows at the moment?

Highlight: So, I guess some things in life aren’t flukes after all? The Indiana Pacers have a commanding 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference Semifinals series with the Cleveland Cavaliers. After a surprising run to the Eastern Conference Finals last year, the Pacers are knocking on the door of doing it again. Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana’s star, is averaging 14 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and one block per game against Cleveland (his stats are little skewed due to a Game 3 clunker). It was one thing for Indiana to steal Game 1 against a healthy Cavaliers team missing just Darius Garland. However, it was another to go up 2-0 on the road, despite Cleveland being down Garland, Evan Mobley, and De’Andre Hunter. Cleveland blew out Indiana in Game 3, and Indiana returned the favor in Game 4. Donovan Mitchell carried Cleveland on his back in Game 2 to the tune of 48 points, nine assists, and four steals…it wasn’t enough. The Pacers being a pest and grabbing every offensive rebound and putback slam imaginable, kept the game within reach. You know what made Game 2 interesting? The Cleveland fans were chanting “overrated” at Tyrese Haliburton, who was recently voted by his peers as the most overrated player in the league. Haliburton proceeded to grab the last offensive rebound and hit a stepback triple for the win. Yikes. Be careful what you wish for. Game 5, and the potential closer, is tomorrow, Tuesday, May 13 at 7 p.m. back in Cleveland.

Interview Segue: To get more insight into our “Highlight” this week, we have our 15th guest on “Diehlman at Halftime” season two. Let’s get into it!

Sean Barnard Interview

Lowlight: Think of a team that’s always favored to win a game or series, even if they shouldn’t be. The Golden State Warriors came to my mind. The Warriors are down 2-1 in their Western Conference Semifinals series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Golden State’s chances at winning this series took a hit the moment Steph Curry left Game 1 with a strained hamstring. He won’t be able to return at least until Game 6... that is, if the series even reaches six games. However, now we see why the Warriors’ front office went and traded for Jimmy Butler. Butler is averaging 23.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and one steal in three games over Minnesota, his former team. Golden State has been on a roll since Butler’s arrival, and I expect that to continue in the postseason. In Curry’s absence, Jonathan Kuminga is finally able to play meaningful minutes. Despite Kuminga having a career season last year, head coach Steve Kerr doesn’t play him these days due to scheme fit. However, Kuminga had 30 points and two blocks off the bench in Game 3. Buddy Hield has recently been scalding hot, and Brandin Podziemski is a nice piece. If Golden State can take Game 4, they’re right back in the series. If not, it might be a wrap. Game 4 is tonight, Monday, May 12 at 10 p.m. in Golden State.

Random Stat: While the NBA playoffs are underway, the non-playoff teams will have their own playoffs tonight, Monday, May 12: the draft lottery. The lottery is at 7 p.m. and will be live from Chicago. Tonight will show who will get the #1 pick to most likely select Duke freshman forward Cooper Flagg. The Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards, and Charlotte Hornets all have the best odds to land the #1 pick with a 14% chance. The New Orleans Pelicans and the Philadelphia 76ers are the other two with at least a 10% chance. Philadelphia’s draft pick, though, has an “asterisk” next to it. Why? It’s top-six protected. If the pick falls between 1-6, they keep it. If it goes #7 or below, it will be conveyed to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Yeah, the Thunder who are the best team in the league. When the 76ers dumped off Al Horford to the Thunder in 2020, this pick was part of the deal. Philadelphia did a good job at tanking at the end of this season, but was it enough to give them the best odds? Rutgers freshmen Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, and Texas freshman Tre Johnson, are considered other top prospects in June’s draft. As they say in The Hunger Games, “May the odds be ever in your favor!”

Game of the Week: For this week’s “Game of the Week,” let’s try Boston Celtics @ New York Knicks. This game, which is Game 4 of this Eastern Conference Semifinals series, is tonight, Monday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. After two huge collapses at home in Games 1 and 2, the Celtics took Game 3 at Madison Square Garden behind a team-high 23 points off the bench from Payton Pritchard. In those games, New York stole momentum from Boston, but the Celtics didn’t help themselves by settling for a ton of triples that weren’t falling. I figured there was a miniscule chance they would go down 3-0, so now this series is going to a minimum of five games. Interestingly, the last three champions before Boston last year, Milwaukee, Golden State, and Denver, all lost in the Conference Semifinals the following season. Are the Celtics keeping the trend alive? I’m going with Boston to tie the series 114-106.

Conclusion: Well, that’s all the time we have for today. If you haven’t already, make sure to follow me on social media. I have two X (or Twitter) accounts and two Instagram accounts. The podcast accounts are under @Diehlman_NBA for both X and Instagram. My personal X account is @LarryDiehlman18, and my personal Instagram is @mr_sports18. They’re also in the description on Buzzsprout, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And thank you to Sean Barnard for being our guest this week on the podcast. Remember, you can follow him on X @sean_barnard1 and Instagram @barnard_sean. And don’t forget to spread the word about “Diehlman at Halftime!” See you next time, fellow hoops fans!