Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Celtics & 76ers Major Contenders in East? + Surprising Suns & OKC’s Quest For 70

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk the Suns continuing to exceed expectations this season and if the Thunder still have a chance to reach 70 wins. Then, the crew talks why Boston is becoming a bigger threat in the Eastern Conference by the day while the 76ers should be getting more consideration as another contender in the East. Finally, MacMahon gives out the ever prestigious Cojones Factor Player of the Month award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Hello, welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on late Sunday evening, probably cross over to Monday morning while we're doing this. Joining us from New York City, where earlier today he went and saw the Nuggets play in Brooklyn.

The Nets won the game, Tim Bond Hempst, but the Nuggets got a couple players back, which is not something I've said in weeks. Hello, everybody. Yes, Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon came back, and Michael Porter Jr. got revenge. You think so? That was it. It was one day, one Sunday, glorious Sunday afternoon, he got revenge. I mean, he played well and they won the game. I don't know.

I don't know. He said he had the game circled. He played well and they won by a bunch of points. Well, I saw he had missed a game and he was miraculously healthy for this. I believe he missed the last two games. They lost, who did they play? They played Houston Thursday. He sat out with an illness and he sat out the tank bowl in D.C., which the Wizards won on Friday.

but he was ready to go this afternoon and played quite well. The Wizards are picking up some wins. They're up to nine wins now, and I believe they've passed the Kings, quote unquote, past the Kings. They have passed the Kings and the Pelicans, both. Yeah. Joining us from Phoenix, Arizona, where just a little bit ago, he covered the Suns with a beautiful victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Devin Booker, nailing a three,

where I actually felt that the Thunder had relatively good defense on the play. less than a second to go is Ban McMahon. Howdy, partners. First, howdy partners of the new year. After I was so rudely not given that opportunity on our Ballardier pod. Yeah, no hell of a win for the Suns. I was actually in the building the last time these teams played when Devin Booker was not healthy. And it was the most lopsided game in the NBA this season, a 49 point blowout for the Thunder in the NBA Cup quarterfinals.

but this is look man Suns 21 and 14 Dylan Brooks again you know scored 22 points you know he's all over the place Jordan Goodwin career high 26 knocked down 8 threes

that allowed them to come back from an 18 point deficit and this is according to our fine friends at ESPN research the ninth time in books career he's hit a go-ahead shot in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter overtime,

more than every other player in the league since he's been in the league, except for one. Any guesses on who that one is? Name the staff for me again. Nine go-ahead shots for Booker in the final five seconds of the fourth or O.T. It's hard to know when you have stats like this because you're saying final five. By the way, I don't have a good guess. Damian Lillard?

Nope, good guess. I don't know. My guy is higher than Dame on the all-time scoring list. Probably just LeBron because he's been around for so long. No, because it's since book's been in league. Demar de Rosen. Oh, Demar, sure. Yeah.

But, you know, needless to say, book is more than comfortable in these situations. Eve is funny. He hit it over Caruso. There was a late double coming from Dort. He knew if he went inside a three-point line, especially in the paint, the double is coming. So he got it up before Dorot could really affect it.

But this was an isoe against one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. And I, you know, I mentioned that to Booker during his post-game press conference. And I said, you know, it wasn't a great question. I said something like, how comfortable are you in that situation, even against a defender of that caliber? He gave him the two-word answer.

Pretty comfortable. And then just stone face. But he looked pretty comfortable, that's for sure. Yeah, well, it was, you know, the sons are a team that have, sort of graduated from like nice early story to like something to pay attention to. And, you know, they advanced in the NBA Cup, which was a moment. And now they get this nice win. And I don't know. So what are they, what are they 30 and six, the Thunder now?

30 and six. Yeah. Are we retiring the 70 win talk? Or is there's, are we still? I don't know that we're, we're definitely not retiring it. I'm not going to do a little. little bit of math. Oops. I mean, we retired it when they lost three out of four games. Yeah, but then if they had won like 17 more in a row. I mean, sure. They have to get back on that kind of pace again.

That's what I would say. They were on a set. Now, I think the record, you know, the 74, I think we can retire that. They can lose only two more games all season. You know, this knocks him back off of a 70 win pace. Now they're only on a 68.3 win pace. I still anticipate that I'm going to be on a 70 win watch. I thought it might be late March, not at least be in April.

It's retired until they get themselves back on pace forward. Well, it'll be suspended. Retired means we're not doing it anymore. It's not Michael Jordan came back from retirement. Several times, if I recall. I've had it pause since they lost the three games to the Spurs. And if they go on a big run again, then it'll be different. But at that point, they were already off the pace.

So, right. Well, they were on pace for a really long time. Right. So I don't think it was, you know, I don't think it was distra- I don't think it was, you know, out of line. But regardless, to beat the thunder is a statement win, especially for a team like Phoenix that came in in the season. And let's be honest, dude, these guys thought they were pretty good.

And we thought they were insane for thinking they were pretty good, right? I did. Yes. We mocked some of the stuff that Matt Ishby has said. I told him that to his face tonight, ran into him in the stairway and told him that. You love telling people to stop for their face. No, I mean, I just said, hey, you guys were. People listen to the podcast.

They're aware of what we said. The way I told her, I said, I don't want to say you're overachieving, but you're definitely exceeding expectations. You're in a hell of a lot better shape than I thought you'd be. And by the way, you know, they're a hell of a lot better shaped than the Memphis Grizzlies thought they would be. Remember, when the Grizzlies made the Desmond Bain trade, they thought the best asset they were getting of all those picks and players, they thought the best asset they were getting was the sons picked this year. As of right now, they won't even get that pick, right? They'll get the magic pick instead because the magic have a worse record by, you know, a little bit of a

cushion. They have a worse record than the sons do. The magic did get a victory over the Pacers, but bad news, Jalen Suggs hurt his knee over the weekend. They called the an MCL contusion. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a ligament contusion, but whatever it is, he's going to miss some time. But they did get a win on Sunday. By the way, any time you hold Shade Gildes Alexander to under 30 points, whether you win or not, I think it's an accomplishment. And they did. The Sons did tonight. He was only 8 of 22, which is very rare to get him on that kind of inefficient night. So I think there's a couple of things you have to accomplish to beat the thunder.

And one of them is to keep Shea under control, which they did. I think that's significant. And to keep them from running. The Thunder only had two fast break points tonight, you know, and those two things are related because Shay is a minis all over the place, but in transition. And I asked Shea about the defense and he said, hey, they did a good job, you know, but everybody plays me in the gaps and he's never seen one-on-one. And he said he felt like he missed some shots that he usually makes.

But the Sons have multiple guys that they can throw at elite scores. You know, it's not just Dylan Brooks. Ryan Dunn was on him a lot of the time. And Ryan Dunn is a heck of a young defender. There's a lot of point guards getting minutes in the league this year that are not playing as well as Colin Gillespie either. I may want to point out because that was the one thing. Yeah, he's been great.

I mean, he's really sort of the epitome of the Sun season, really. like it's a guy who has come out of nowhere, been really good for them. And McMahon, it's not a, it's not an insult to say the Sons are overachieving. The Sons are overachieving. Like, that's fine. They're having an awesome season. Like, even the Sons, you said before the season, hey, Phoenix, 35 games in the season, you're going to be 21 and 14.

And you're going to be in seventh place in the West. I don't think they would have believed that. If you were really asking them truthfully what they were going to be, they thought they were going to be feisty and competitive. And they thought, you know, they thought they'd be in games and they would play hard and be Devin Booker and a bunch of guys guarding. And, you know, that was a team. I think they thought they thought they could be in the play in. I don't think they thought they'd be fighting for a top six spot in the West, which, again, is a credit to Jordanot.

It's a credit to this team. I mean, honestly, I'm not sure Devin Booker is an all-star this year. He's having a fine year. You're going to get a truck. Listen, he's shooting 20. 29% from three. Like, he's not having, my point is,

he's not having some other worldly season, right? If we'd said before the year, sons are 21 and 14, we would have thought, Devin Booker's averaging like Donovan Mitchell, right?

Like, 31 a game and crazy efficiency. Like, they're winning as a team playing hard-nosed defense and grinding out wins. And, like, I just think it's,

it's been really, really impressive the way that they've played. And their coach is equating himself very well. Yeah, Jordan off had a fabulous, fabulous season. I mean, he should be right, right near the top in coach of the year voting at this point in the year. And like I said, that's not, that's really what I said about book isn't a commentary on him as much as it is. I just, the sons are doing this as a group. Like, it's really impressive what Jordan Ott and these guys have done.

And it's been a really fun story. And yeah, like you said, man, coming to the season, we didn't think, I certainly didn't think Phoenix was going to be anywhere. near this good. Like you said, the Grizzlies didn't think they're going to be anywhere near this good. Nobody thought they were going to be near this good. So it's a really, it's a really, fun story through the first couple of months. Well, Mick, go ahead, McMahon. I was going to say, especially you Bon Tim's, because you said many times, and Wendy and I did not necessarily push back on this, that the Phoenix Suns were in the worst situation in an NBA history. That was the thing he said repeatedly last year. And I believe it. But let me just say this. You know, again, we didn't push back.

Like, they took big swings that blew up in their face. Now, and we hammered on Ishpia for it. We hammered on, really Ishpia. Well, Ishbia saying he wasn't, you know, what we got him on was he was like, I wasn't really involved and now I'm going to get involved. As if the first day of the team, he didn't make one of the biggest moves ever. We always blamed, we always blamed Ishpia for the big swings that blew up in his face. Like you said, literally the ink is drying on the sale contract and you're trading for Kevin Durant. and next thing, you know, Beals there, whatever.

What they have actually done well as a front office is they've got some wins on the margins. You mentioned Colin Gillespie. That's a guy, hey, Denver had him on a two-way. They let him go. Phoenix signed him on a two-way. He earned a standard contract. You know, he's putting himself in position

to earn a really nice contract this summer. Ryan Dunn, that's the guy they traded into the, tail-in to the first round to get. Ryan Dunn's a very nice player. Jordan Goodwin, he's bounced around the league. Lee. He's a, you know, scrappy pickup. He's been a solid player. The team he was on last year, the Lakers.

Yeah. They certainly could use a guy who can guard like Jordan Goodwin can. And then Dylan Brooks has helped them establish the identity that they want. That's a hard playing, tough identity. When they made that trade, Brooks was the, and I talked to a SHP about this night, Brooks was the identity that they wanted, and Jalen Green was upside. Jalen Green's played, I don't know, had the minutes in front of me, like, a game in a quarter.

He's about to come back. By the way, it's going to be interesting when he comes back. Based on the people I've talked to, he's going to come back. I don't know if he'll be right into the start, but the plan is, once he's ramped up,

he's going to be starting and they're bringing Gillespie off the bench. To this point, they've ignored my advice to have to plug Jalen Green in that six-man roll and keep them there. That's what I would do too if it was me. Let's see how that goes.

Sometimes you've got to ease your way into that. You mentioned Dylan Brooks. When Draymond Green got ejected on Saturday night, second time he's been ejected in seven games, and that doesn't include the time when he left the bench. And the Warriors actually came back and won the game after he got ejected. I went and looked. He has nine technicals now, and I wanted to.

I was like, wow, nine technicals. Because what is it, 16? He gets suspended. By the way, in that game, you know, so he gets, he got to. Draymond has nine. Okay, yeah, Brooks has to love it, I think. I will say, well, that's what I was going to say. I went and looked at the technicals to see where they were.

And I saw Dylan Brooks already got 11, which, you know, we're not even at the halfway point yet. Like, slow down. Well, and he's aware of that. And he said, you know, that he will tone down a little bit. But here's, I'll tell you a secret. No, he won't. Dylan Brooks is going to be suspended at some point, probably a couple points. That's just part of the deal with Dylan Brooks.

He's going to get suspended for too many T's. But he's going to play his ass off. he's going to work hard these guys will follow him and this year he's actually scoring 20 plus a game which I ain't gonna lie I didn't see coming

he's actually scoring a lot I will say in that game against the Warriors game where Dremont got ejected his behavior in that game was ridiculous so I'm just Dremont has been bad

for over a month like just flat out bad and it's becoming more of a problem and in that game he was minus 15 in 12 minutes and they won by 9. So it's kind of the point where he gets ejected and you've got Jimmy Butler post game basically telling the reporters, hey, hey, stop it, guys. No, it's not a good thing that he got ejected. We actually do want him on the floor.

Well, they do need him to play well for them to win at the highest level. I don't think that's wrong. You said a key word, they need him to play well. Yeah, well, I will say this. So he, what would happen in this particular game if you didn't see it is a big football weekend. And it was the second quarter and he was furious about Kyle Filipowski getting away with three seconds, which is, you know. Yeah. And he was, he pretty much lost his mind and just stopped playing to scream at their official there.

Who, by the way, Simone Jelks, who is from Cleveland and was a basketball star in Cleveland. And she later played it. wasn't she an all defensive selection in the pack 12 I believe she I know she went I know she went to USC I don't remember her stats if I'm just saying but right much respect an all defensive selection fair point anyway he was absolutely showing her up she's young official she's maybe her second or third year in the league and she's um he was showing her up and she stood up to him and gave him a tech and he didn't back down and kevin cutler who's the who's the veteran crew chief came over and defended Simone from Dremont, which is what you see in the NBA a lot.

You see the veteran official will protect the younger officials because, you know, so like whatever. But, you know, he's been. Also, Kevin Cutler are a former college basketball player. He's a foot eight and still. Oh, here we go. That was all about. So six foot eight, two things. Not a quick Kennedy guy.

Six eight big tall fella. Two things. Spill Kennedy, the best on the mic guy in the league, was the crew. chief in that game. We got a couple Bill Kennedy reviews in that game, which are always at the light. And the thing you left out about Draymond going insane on this play is he goes insane screaming at the ref. And what does he do?

Give up an uncontested dunk by not paying any attention to what the hell was going on in the court, letting guy go right by him and dunk the ball. And getting two attacks to give up two more free throws. So, you know, good work. Anyway. 2007-08. Did you? Did you?

Did you? Low-wall defensive team. There you go. Oh, all right. The other day, I don't know, I didn't see the game, so I have no idea whether this is actually true or not, but it sounds good. But Joe Missoula. This is not good. Where are we going with this?

Joe Missoula said that he didn't really even care that much about challenging this play. The game was decided. He just called the challenge because he wanted to see and hear Bill Kennedy do the challenge, do the center. I suspect that was not a real answer from Joe, but I did enjoy it. Well, like I said, I don't know. I just read, I did something old-fashioned. I read the quote. By the way.

You know, it's very hard with Joe to know whether how tough and cheek is thing. I did enjoy the quote. I'll tell you when I see him soon that I enjoyed it. Mitch Irvin, about six foot two, I would guess. He had the game tonight in Phoenix as the crew chief. A couple of challenges. He has the most polite announcements. He says, thank you at the end.

Oh, isn't that kind? Very nice. You wouldn't say thank you. No, he wouldn't. Okay, so. I might say you as the last word, but, yeah. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Speaking of the Celtics, I don't know if you guys saw.

They just finished a road trip four and one, a Western road trip four and one. They broke the Clippers six game, six or seven game winning strike. I can't remember what it was. on Saturday night, where Jalen Brown put up a 50 piece. And while serving is the primary defender on sizzling Kauai Leonard. Right. And after the game said he feels like he's one of the best two-way players in the league, which I don't just to do it. I believe he said he's the best.

There was no one of. Pretty sure he said he's the best. Well, I will say this. I will find the exact quote to double check. But I'm pretty sure I'd have that one right. I think, okay. And then I think he said, I'm one of those guys. I don't know. Anyway, in the spirit of Michael Jordan, who always looked for things to inspire him and fire him up,

over the course of my 23 years covering the NBA, I have seen many things used as motivation. Some of them absolutely legitimate. Some of them, you know, you're stretching it. Some of them laughable. I am not sure, Bontemps, where to rank what Jalen Brown used. as his motivation for this performance. I guess the Celtics and their fans don't care. But his motivation for coming out and actually he said that they were flying down from Sacramento. And while he was on the plane, he text Joe Missoula. Missoula was sitting whatever in the coach's cabin and Jalen was sitting in the players' cabin.

I guess on Delta, which is what the teams fly, the Wi-Fi was working at the airline that I fly a lot. The Wi-Fi only works half the time. So I guess the Wi-Fi must have been working. So it was very unfortunate for the- Clibbos. Got to get a new private plane, window. That the jet had working Wi-Fi. He said, I want to guard Kauai.

His motivation for not only putting up 50, calling himself either the best two-way player in league or one of the best two-way players in the league might have said both. Oh, I'm not done. I'm not done. Well, just let me give the quote. I believe I'm the best two-way player in the world.

I just wanted to come out and show it. Okay. His motivation for all of that was that he didn't win Eastern Conference Def, a player of the month. All right there. This ridiculous whining, not, is Jalen Brown,

being annoyed about it and saying stuff about it is one thing. The people in Boston complaining about Jalen Brown not winning player of the month, Nobody can ever remember who won Player of the Month in any month in the history of the NBA. I don't know who won Western Conference Player of the Month in December. No one knows anything. What are we doing? Okay.

Who won it in November? I have no idea. I think Joker. Neither do you. And neither does anybody. That's a good case. You don't know it. I don't know it.

No one complaining about this knows who won it in October or November or December. Well, and there's Boston butt. There's Boston butt kissing going on here for sure. But Jan Brown, for whatever reason, has repeatedly felt snubbed. He's been all NBA one time, a great time, got him the Supermax eligibility. That's the time to get it. He was finals MVP. He was also a conference conference.

I was going to say, yes. Which he sent out thank you notes for voting, which, you know, like, I don't want to thank you note necessarily. But, like, you know, he sent out sign thank you notes. like, thank you for voting me for all NBA. If you voted for him. He waited to see who actually voted for him. And so this is a guy who feels like he is an, he's underappreciated. And, hey, man, I'm just going to tell you, the stats he hadn't in December,

31.7 points per game, six and a half rebounds, 5.4 assists, great efficiency, 54, 43, 79, basically, and playing great defensively. okay, here's my thing. If you want a bitch and moan about not getting an award and then you back it up with a performance like that, have at it, man, because he talked his talk and then he backed it up with an absolutely dominant performance.

And, you know, he's making it. So who's the best two-way player in the game? He's making a case. We can talk about aunt. We can talk about Wimby. Jaylon Brown's having as good a year as any of those guys. Janus is no longer the defensive factor that he used to be. Let's just set aside that debate.

I don't think we need to get into that debate. After just blasting everybody on this whining about Jalen Brown, let me say Jalen Brown's having a phenomenal season. This is what Jalen Brown's numbers are across the board. 30.1 points on 51% shooting, 37% from 3, 78% from the line, six boards, five assists, a steal a game, and he's doing it with Jason Tatum out as the number one option, being the focal point of the defense every night.

He is a guy who plays defense at the other end. And go ahead. I want to add this is from our stats, folks. He's holding opponents to 39.37% shooting from the floor. And the reason that 0.37 is important, Vix 39.4, it's the second lowest among 111 players to defend at least 300 shots per genius IQ Kason Wallace

who is a defender first and foremost is the only guy holding opponents to a lower field goal percentage in the league this year yeah he's having an awesome season defensive type of stuff there he's having a great season and look the Celtics go into Monday's action

and if they win in Chicago, I think it's in Chicago, right? Or is the game in Boston? The game is in Boston. If they win a home game against the Bulls on Monday, they will either be in second place in the East by themselves if the Pistons beat the Knicks in Detroit. Or if the Knicks win, there'll be two games out of first place in the Eastern Conference standings with Jason Tatum, again, TBD on whether he's going to return to what he's going to look like. And I will continue to say, if Jason Tatum can come back and be some facsimile of what he was before he got hurt this season, which is a lot of ifs.

We'll see what happens with that. The Celtics are a real threat in the East because all these other teams have very serious flaws and the Celtics have been there and done it. And with Derek White and Peyton Pritchard and these other guys and with Jaylon Brown playing like this, they're going to be a team that's going to be really hard to beat in the playoffs. and going back to October, these guys were determined to show that this was not going to be a gap year.

And full credit to him and full credit to Jalen Brown for the way he's playing because he has been awesome all the way through. And Saturday was the best game he's obviously played so far. So Jalen Brown,

one of the things he's really leaned into is he's like, screw it, I'm going to take long twos because even though it's not an offensive. fish and shot. Jalen Brown happens to be arguably, I don't know if he would, if we would say he's the best or one of the best. But he is, he is, I'll look it up in a second. He is really, really good at long twos. So looking at basketball

reference, they were to define a long two as anything between 16 feet in the three point line. what do you guys think Jalen is shooting between six so for his career he's uh 47 percent from that range which is which is strong which is very good you know that but that's why it's an inefficient shot what a coach would say is if you're saying if you're shooting it from there just take a step and a half back and shoot the three but well and a lot of times those shots are late shot clock you got to get something that's a shot you can get in those situations um he's shooting 57% on long 2. I just was looking at this.

I mean, this is a, first of all, you're looking at the wrong number. So Jalen Brown is a career 43% shooter from 16 to 23 feet. And he's shooting 14 points higher than that this season, which is obviously a bit of an outlier. Now, he's having a great year. I would guess we're going to get to a stretch here coming up where Jalen Brown is probably going to shoot 25% on those shots for a while just because he's probably not going to shoot. Just mid-season-season.

I mean, that's who he is. Is he going to remain 14 points above his average all season? I would guess probably not. He's obviously good at it. He's leaning into it. Do I think he's going to shoot 57%? No, I do not. I just, I can't, that number is crazy.

But he is leading the league. He's leading the league in, in two point attempts. He is eschewing the march towards the three and saying, I'm really good at the long two. I'm going to take those shots. I never knew how to pronounce that. I never knew how to pronounce that word.

I thought it was a word for you. While you're looking at Shay. Shea is shooting 48% on those shots this season, which is the second highest mark of his career. He shot 49% a few years ago. Yeah, typically you want the guy to shoot all, you want a 20-footer? Go ahead.

I mean, guys, guys don't, there's people who don't shoot 56.6% on shots at the rim. That's crazy. And like, by the way, we're 35 games in. This is not a small sample size. No, that's not a small sample size at all. So in this stretch, you know, Derek White, who got off to a, to a, you know, a shaky start. He's been playing very well. He had like 28 or 29 points on Saturday.

You know who's been playing really well for the Celtics and like been just a, tremendous pickup is Luca Garza, who obviously was a big. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Nimi Keda has had a good year at both ends. Just to jump in again, just because I found it even more insane stat. So I was looking at people who are good at shooting. And I decided I wanted to see Nicole Yolka's shooting percentage from 16 to 23 feet.

Oh, it's ridiculous. You want to guess what he is shooting? Well, this crazy bastard shoots like 65% on every shot. He is shooting this season. 59 on me, yes. He is shooting this season, 64% on shots from 60 to 23 feet. This is Yolkits is shooting percentage by distance. A third of them are probably the Sombor shuffle one legner.

Well, he's shooting, he's shooting 78% at the rim. He's shooting 63% from floater range. He's shooting 53 to 1⁄2% from 10 to 16 feet. He's shooting 64% from 16 to 23, and he's shooting 43% on the, threes. That's pretty good. It's insane efficiency at every level. It's pretty good. By the way, Garza, after the game, after the win of the clippers, which they ended up blowing him out, he was referencing how mad that Jalen was about not winning player of the month. And this is not an exact quote. I don't have it directly in front of me. He was, but he was like, I knew he was going to have a good game. I'm not saying I knew he was going to score 50. I mean, I mean, I'm no LeBron, but I knew he was going to have a good game. Just like LeBron taking shrapnel for his, uh, for his prognusicals. The thing that Jalen Brown, the thing that Jalen Brown and Joe Mazzua have in common is they walk around with a chip on their shoulder that's massive all the time.

And they're constantly finding reasons to be angry in a positive way, like angry about something to fuel their motivation to do something. and they both Do they both like it when their teammates bleed? I don't know if Jalen does. I know Joe does. Yeah. But they both came into the season with the same motivation

to prove a lot of people wrong and that this was not going to be some lost season and, oh, Jason Tatum's out, we're just going to float along and win 35 games and we'll wait until next year and then we'll come back.

And it's been really fun to see. Like they're, they've been great. And again, how wide open the East is, if you're a Boston fan or if you're a Celtic, you want to tell me they, they, they, you think they can win the East, especially when Tatum comes back. How am I going to argue with you? We're adding contenders to the East. By the way, the NBA Player of the Month award started in a 7980 season. Okay. Okay.

LeBron, LeBron has the most. Okay. How many does he have? Hold on. Kobe is second. Jordan is third. Okay. Okay. Kobe had 17.

Jordan had 16. How many does LeBron have? 34. I was immediately going to guess 30, so I'll just guess 30. You should have done the price is right, where you should have gotten one over, 35. Oh. 41. Yeah.

41 months. I just won't 34 because it's more than the other two guys combined. Yeah, that's not bad. So anyway, speaking of teams that are feeling good about themselves in the Eastern Conference, on Saturday, Bontemps, I believe you were at the Garden. I was. Where the Sixers came in. They were finishing a long road trip.

And they did something that they've been doing regularly, which is beating the Knicks. And Tyrese Maxie has done, is doing something that he has been doing regularly since that playoff series a couple of years ago when he threw in that like 38 footer to force overtime. which was one of the better playoff games of the last few years. He just ripped the Knicks. And the Sixers have now won three in a row. And in the last like two minutes of the game, maybe it was a minute and a half, Joel M.B. dunked.

Oh, he dunked with about 10 seconds to go in the game. Oh, is it that late in the game? It was the last play of the game. I'll tell you what. Good thing Vouchevich wasn't in the building. He got after old. He got after Lamella Ball game. I mean, there was a, there was one final possession.

And so he, the, the clock needed to, there would have been a shot clock violation. Same with Lamello. Vucevich went after. The reason McMahon brings up is Vucevich is the guy from the Bulls who went after, like sort of stepped to Janus last week when he went. He did it to Lamello too the other day. Okay. I didn't even see that. But Bontemps, why was that relevant?

It was relevant because Joel and Bede had zero dunks on the season and now he has one. And so the game before that, they were in Dallas. And, you know, Embed, they beat the Maver was by 15, and Embed outplayed Anthony Davis. And, you know, Embed was saying, like, I'm starting to feel like myself again. But he mentioned that he hadn't dunked all season. I immediately, like, went back and double-checked it.

I'm like, wow, that was shocking to me. now. And he also said... What's more shocking that he hadn't dunked or that he just announced that he hadn't ducked? I think he might have been like indirectly asked about it. And but he said like, you know, my first dunk, because there was like a layup thing where he laid it in instead of dunking it. He said, you know, my first dunk, I got to make it look good. What you did. And this was just like your little squeak in, you know, okay gosh, I'm right under the hoop.

I might as well throw it down. If you go back to Tuesday in Memphis, he tried to throw it off the backboard and dunk it. and didn't. And then he made those comments the other day. Then he had the dunk last night and he had a few other comments, which I'll get to in a minute. But the thing that stood out to me about this game and about them winning was, obviously last year couldn't have gone worse in Philly

and was a disaster on about 100 levels for them. but this was the first time in probably over a year and a half, maybe since that series against the Knicks a year and close to two years ago, which was the last time Joal Embedde had played at MSG before this game on Saturday night, where the Sixers felt like they really had the belief that they could make a run again. And I think more than anything, Embedde is acting like he is getting, back to his normal self, which is the person who is making comments along with playing well. Like, for example, when he got asked about playing at the garden and said, it's always good to be here and talk back to the fans.

They went quiet today. I guess that's what happens when you're losing the whole game. Troelle, Troelle and beat is back. Well, listen, and he was not like that early in the year. He was certainly not like that last year. Like I asked him, you know, a big theme of yesterday, or Saturday, I guess yesterday, Saturday for the listeners was Nick Nurse said after the game, this is one of the first times we've had the same starting lineup three years in a row in, or three games in a row.

But it felt like three years. I said I don't play me. Yes, it felt like three years since we had three games in a row with the same starting five. And I asked him beat about it and he's like, oh, I guess you're taking a shot at me because I'm hurt all the time. and he said it with a smile. Well, but that, I mean, that's what I said. I said, listen, you've had all sorts of guys hurt. It's not just you.

And Bid loves to talk trash to you. I've seen him do it for years. But that's my point. He was, he was acting. Because Bond Temps is easy to rattle. He was acting like the guy that he's been for a long time. And for a long time, he was not acting like that guy. He was down and depressed and not feeling certain about what his health was going to be

and what his future was going to be. and look, it's Philadelphia. We have been down this road a thousand times. Are they going to be healthy in April, May, and June? The odds are they won't be. However, if this Sixers team is healthy on April 15th, they have the highest ceiling, in my opinion, of these teams in the East. Now, I don't think there's a very low chance of them hitting it

because they have to stay healthy for two months and a lot of things have to break right. but Joel was switching on to Jalen Brunson in this game. He was moving better defensively than he had been earlier in the year. The Knicks have absolutely no way to stop Tyrese Maxi. They frankly don't have any way to stop Vijay Edgham either. He was getting wherever he wanted in this game. He had a crazy sequence in the fourth quarter when the Knicks started to get back in it

where he blocked McHale Bridges Corner 3, went end-to-end with the ball and dunked it. Forced timeout by Mike Brown. Like, they're a very tough matchup for the Knicks. They got a lot of talent. Paul George or Joelle and Bede are rounding into form. It's, again, going back to what we talked about with Boston, because these teams at the top of the east have so many flaws, calves, calves corners, obviously in shambles after today's loss to Detroit.

And the Knicks have lost three in a row. The Pistons now have injuries to Jalen Dern and Tobias Harris. They're off for a while. They've been slumping lately. They have an interesting second end of it back to back in New York on Monday. Well, they're playing in Detroit, but they're hosting the Knicks. Oh, it's in Detroit. My bet.

But it's like Philly, you can make a case for Philly right now that they should be up there with those teams. By the way, with Boston. Maybe I should be saying this to you offline, but would you consider doing like maybe not a full straw poll but just like a sampling poll on Rookie of the Year right now? No. Because I don't, I don't, I don't think VJ's in that mix. I think it's a two horse race between college roommates. I think it's a one horse race. Well, that's who I would vote for

But, but like, Connaple's numbers are pretty awesome. I'm just going to tell you. Khan is, Khan is awesome. And VJ is awesome. But it's a one horse race. This is a lot like two years ago. This is a lot like two years ago, Victor Wenbighama and Chad Holmgren.

It's the same thing. I can see that. I think it'll end up being flag. But when you're saying last season was an epic disaster for the Sixers, yes. But it came with a reward. and they tanked like hell to keep, you know, top sixers and all that to keep that top six protected pick. And it paid off big time because Vijay Hedgecombe is a stud.

And he's he's shooting at what's he shooting like 38% from three? That's a surprise. You know who's shooting well from three? He's one of the most athletic guards in the league and some of the plays he makes defensively. Oh, my God. Paul George is shooting well from three. Paul George is And this is his role

He can be their fourth op Yeah he's a three I'm like I don't know about three in D He's a he's Tobias Harris On a max contract Which okay Because VGF comes on a rookie contract And dude

So Embed's has played five of the last six games scored 22 plus in each of those games When I asked him what do you mean by feeling yourself He said it's more on the defensive end than anything But they're finally able to have some consistency, some rhythms,

develop some chemistry, because it's a totally different game for those guards when Embed, you know, he likes to operate in the middle of the floor where it's why, you know, it's much more open when he's not on the floor, but, you know, Maxi's got chemistry with them, VJ's starting

to understand it, but what's happened, the biggest development in Philly is that Tyrese Maxie is a superstar and it's his team, and Embed compliments him, not the other way around. That's right.

He's a bigger, stronger version of Dame at this point. Yes. That's the exact thing I was thinking about. And he's become, I would say he's become like Steph on defense in that he's never going to be a stopper, but he's also not awful. And he tries. And he just has to be okay, which is what Steph turned into of being okay. The only thing I would say is he's averaging an incredibly.

high minute load. I think he leaves the league in minutes. And now that they're healthier, you know, I don't want to be the minutes police. I hate that. But you're going to be the minutes police. He burns a lot of energy. They are not a deep team. Now, McCain's not getting a ton of minutes. You can maybe play him more minutes. Where they're deep at, where their deep is in the back court. Yeah. Yeah, because Quentin Grimes, by the way, the Quentin Grimes, this is I forgot the exact numbers. I do remember one number. But the Quentin Grimes,

Caleb Martin, trade that was just a total disaster for Dallas, who was the second worst trade they made last year. Grimes had 20-something on like nine shots, lit it up.

And he was a plus 19 in that game and played like 38 minutes. Martin was a minus 11 and played four minutes. The thing about that trade is that Martin was hurt when they traded for him.

Here's, dude. Martin was hurt when they traded for him. The Mavericks gave up a second round pick to make the trade. Martin was hurt. They could have called the trade off and said, they said, okay, you've got to send us the second rounder back too. So that was the amendment.

Martin still got his trade kicker that pushed them so tight up against the apron that they could only sign one guy to attend a one time the rest of the season. It was just a colossal screw up. And Quentin Grimes is a good player. Yes. Yeah, they had to stop playing so much they were going to lose their pick. Yeah, part of the tanking was like,

okay, guys, I know you're lighting it up and I know you want to get paid. We're not going to pay it, but you're also going to say it. Which will be interesting to see if they do end up paying it. We'll be. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. All right, so it's a new year, but it's also a new month, which means that a month just ended.

Oh. Which means that some hardware has to be doled out. It's a new criteria and has to be established. Oh, Bond Timps, you will never understand Cajonis. You don't understand swag. You don't understand. I understand that the criteria changes by the month

and the list of nominee acts gross longer by the month. All things are true. My request to have a mute button on Bon Timps for this segment, have we gotten any progress on that? That's disappointing. There's only one actual button. Beater last month. It was a memorable one.

I bet you guys have already forgotten it, though. Anybody, anybody? Can't be that memorable, can it? Oh, this was awfully memorable. Rui Hachamura in the corner, in Toronto. Now, do you remember why I was memorable?

Oh, yes, the LeBron streak ender. Yeah, that's right. LeBron had the assist. LeBron had the assist instead of taking the shot to try to extend his double-digit streak, which was like 1,200 or whatever games. That was the only actual buzzer. beater.

So he gets an honorable mention. So do Deerrin Fox, Kobe White, Jaylon Brunson. We'll just mow through those because I know Wow. Fongt Tim's Hayes

getting bogged down as an honorable mentions. Why are they getting honorable mentions? What did they do? Nope. We're not getting bogged down in honorable mentions. They had damn good clutch

swag months, you punk. By the way, the LeBron played really well in the second half on Sunday night. The Lakers beat the John Morantless Grizzlies.

The Lakers are now 12 and O in games that go to clutch time. True. And they get blown out a lot. They're honestly, they're kind of like the opposite of the rockets. The rockets have the second best point differential in the league. They're not terrible in clutch, but they do lose a pretty, a lot of close games for the Lakers.

Either get blown out or winning the clutch. I don't want to, I do not want to derail Cajonis Factor. Okay. But I will say that JJ Reddick won't try. JJ is JJ Reddick is on a historic run on on on critiquing his team

including including including just slapping them around for forgetting plays and he was like I never forgot to play he he announced

that they botched on Friday which was their first game against the Grizzles had a baseball series over the weekend against the Wakers he

JJ announced that the that the The Lakers messed up eight ATOs in that gate. ATO after timeout, which means JJ comes in the huddle, draws up the play, and then the Lakers go out and run it. I mean, it's kind of unusual that you would have eight ATOs because you have like, what, six or seven timeouts in a game?

And not all of those are you going to be having an out-of-bounce play? Some of them you'll be coming full court. and also the other team, you know, is going to have a lot of the, you know, you're not, you know, the other team is calling the timeout. You're not, I don't know what his criterion is, whether he's counting the play, you know, the next possession or I don't know, whatever it is. Maybe he's kind of like coming out of the quarters to, I don't know. He declared that they messed up eight of them. Which is JJ's way of saying, I'm an absolute genius and these guys aren't letting you see my brilliance. Like I said, JJ is firing off some missiles.

But I'm sorry, back to you. The floor is yours again. Oh, no, we're getting to the, we're getting to the trophy winners. The brass balls. Right off the bat. Yeah, because Bontems doesn't like our. We're just not going to explain why the criteria is changing this month. That's all.

You're on mute, you bonehead. By the way, Luca on the, on the, I'm sorry, I am, I'm calling a flag on myself. I'm flubbing ATOs myself here. Um, uh, Luca has nine texts already as well. I'm shocked. I am stunned by that. I'd tell you what.

Boy, I thought this guy really turned over a new leaf. All right. Now I'll shut up. The brass balls. Folks, breaking news. Nicole Yokic is awfully good. 30 clutch minutes last month. Guess how many points he scored?

50. 51. Wow. Oh, that was a joke guess. It was kind of a joke guess. Hey, no, 51 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists, and 30 clutch minutes. He scored 18 points in overtime on Christmas to cap his 56 point triple double. It's the most points ever in an overtime period.

So, yeah, we're going to give him the brass balls on that. Not enough to win, no, Brian. Not enough to win. No, I think he won last month. In addition, he did one player. He did one player the month. Coheness Factor. By the way, I don't know on Player of the Month. I don't know. I have no idea when

Cohenis Factor prior months either. Do we have a list somewhere? Yeah, it's in my phone, you butthead. Well, I'm just saying, wait, we should have the list available for people to see somewhere. Like I said, the floor is yours. I mean, Shea won it last month. Okay.

He had to look it up and you don't remember either. No, I was checking something else. It was the last month of the happen. By the way. The silver medalist. Do you know why that game went into overtime on Christmas night? I do because I watched it. Anthony Edwards.

We were podcasting. Actually, I didn't go to bed. You did go to bed. We podcasted before the game was over, and then we turned it on. I turned it on and watched it. Anthony Edwards hit a crazy game tying three in the corner over Jamal Murray. Scored a bunch of points in the fourth quarter of that game. Yeah, they came back from like 14 down.

And it was an insane performance. Did that get him the silver for losing that game to Yolkitch? Well, butt munch. I do believe there was also a pretty memorable clutch performance by Aunt. You might recall when the defending champion, Oklahoma City Thunders, went up to... The Thunders? Went up to Minnesota, the thunderers. That's the off-brand.

The Blue Chues. When the Blue Chos went up to Minnesota. And that's when Aunt, remember, remember I mentioned earlier, the guy who has the lowest field goal percentage allowed in the league, Case and Wallace. Well, you remember when it hit the crazy three, step back from the way up, hit the game winning step back three over Case and Wallace. And oh, then, by the way, had a spectacular block on Shea and then sealed it with a steel

on Shea, all these in the last minute. The last guy to have that trifecta. It's hard to beat the thunder. Like, you got to, like, throw something. stuff shots in. Like, I mean, it's kind of backing it up. The last guy to have that trifecta, go ahead, bucket, steal and block in the final minute

was Janus back in 2017. Matter of fact, the list here, since 97-98, it's happened now five times. Ant against the Thunder recently. Janus in 2017. LeBron in a playoff game, 2011 against the Bulls, Dwight Howard in 07 and one of these names does not belong here, Doug Christie in 1998.

Pretty rare, pretty rare air. Oh, listen to this. Listen to ants clutch scoring this month. 29 minutes, 34 points on 13 of 17 shooting. In 14 nut cutting minutes, Bond Tim, you remember the definition of nut cutting? Of course you don't. Just leaving it to you.

Last three minutes, one possession. 19 points on 8 to 10 shooting. That's the silver medalist. Oh, the gold medalist, boys. Are you ready for this? Certainly the first time, the first time that he's won this honor, he's put himself in a position

to perhaps win a most improved player trophy this year. Does that give you a clue? No? I mean, that could be like 70 people. Oh, Kealte George. Keontay George. So, Keante George, he most recently,

the game winner. Well, that blast, I didn't even say who that was against. Jackson, help me out. Who the hell was that one again? Detroit, that's Detroit. Yeah, so he hit that game winner with 2.1 seconds left. Lucky that mute button isn't on. Yes.

Well, I asked Jackson. Third game time to go-ahead bucket in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter of the season. In the first 30 games of the year, that's the most since 1999. Tied for the most since 1999. Now, one of those, unfortunately, for him, it was against Orlando. I think it was the previous game. Remember that go-ahead four-point play he had with 4.1 seconds left? Then Desmond, well, I guess some folks with the jazz might not have been disappointed

that Desmond Bain hit what ended up being the game winner with a 9-tenths of a second left. Also had to go-ahead three in a tight win over the Grizzlies. Dude, at 31, 7, and 6, and 30 clutch minutes plus 26. the jazz too good for their own good went six and two in those games and now oh there might be a little knee soreness here I was going to say he missed a game

a couple days ago with an illness and there is flu going around the league a bunch of guys are missing time how many more one-off inactives will Keonté George have this season listen they're going to have to find reasons to sit him down the stretch of games because this man's got some serious cahones

and now he's got a mythical trophy to go along with that. Those numbers sound worse than Yokic's. Shouldn't we get Yokich up there? What is the game winners, dude? Just saying the criteria. It changed again. Once again, no, same criteria. It's the same, it's subjective to people who understand what the whole are.

We got the camera moving. Huh? What? You know how Shay wanted, like, Like the defining quote for Shea is he says I'm consistent in everything that I do. It's like an ethos. It's like a personal mission. And it's so true.

Bon Temps, you can always count on him to be Bon Temps. I can always count on him. I can always count on him to show up with different criteria for Cohini's Factor every month. Dude, it's a subjective award. You bonehead? Hey, no, just who had the best combination of clutch and swag in that month? You don't understand either. That's why I want you muted.

Unless I have a scoreboard of all of the G-rated, you know, names that McMahon is called Bontas. Oh, that would be way too much work for Jackson to have to do. Way too much work. All right. Well, I enjoyed it. I always enjoyed it. I always enjoy it. Yeah.

Okay. Well. And we won't remember who won it in a month when we do it again, just like Player of the Month. Well, I'll tell you this, Devin Booker did a pretty good job of putting his name on the early candidates list tonight. He guaranteed himself an honorable mention today. No, it wasn't a buzzer beer.

Nope, 0.7 seconds left. Not a buzzer beater. Actually, you know what, though? He was disappointed that it wasn't a buzzer beater for the simple fact that, like, the Thunder did get a look on the last possession. He wanted to make sure that the Thunder, that he had the last shot.

And so he's just like, yeah, screwed that up, but we'll take it. I like Devin's new shoe, by the way. The book, too. It's a cool looking shoe. Oh, no. The sales just plummeted with Bontim's endorsement. Yeah, I liked it. I don't know.

That was the inverse of my son's game on Sunday. They had a hard-fought game, my eight-year-old. And they forced a traveling violation. They're up by two points with 3.3 seconds left. They forced a traveling violation to secure the victory. Okay. Okay. But they're so conditioned to all want to throw up the last second shot that they were falling all over each other to get the inbound pass to run down and try to heave it up.

Even though you're not even at eight-year-olds old, you're not even allowed to guard in the back hole. You just take the inbound pass and you just hold it for 3.3 seconds, toss the ball and wave to the other bench. No, no, no. Not only were they elbowing each other to see who was going to get the actual receipt. in bounds. A young man who will not be named takes off to try to get the shot off and turns it over. Turns it over with one something second left and the other team had it for a second and got up a heave. Now, they're eight years old so they can't get a half-court shot all the way of the basket, but it was not ideal. It was a learning experience. We had some discussions following that

about how to close out a game. All right. Thank you very much to Devon and Jackson for putting this together and staying up way past midnight. Thank you to Bont-Thamson McMahon. Thank you for watching and listening to the Hoop Collective. We'll talk to you later this week. Adios amigos.