Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Knicks Not Contenders? Boston Turns It On & Luka Is Back

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk the Knicks’ struggles against some of the best teams in the league, the Celtics turning it on of late, the Mavs’ solid play, the Warriors improvement with Jimmy Butler Luka showing out versus Denver, what to expect from Mavs-Lakers and more!  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. The Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing just after midnight on Monday morning. Joining us from New York City, but he's made the trip down from Boston where he watched

the Celtics dismantled the New York Knicks. Actually, I don't know, Timbontem's, 13 points. That's the closest game that Celtics have played in like about 10 or 15 days. So I guess I'll give the Knicks that. It's Tim Bontem's. It was a game that flattered the Knicks with that scoreline, unless we'll get into. All right. Joining us from San Francisco, California, where he watched the Golden State Warriors

moved to five and one in the Jimmy Butler the third era. Oh. I, you know, Jimmy's father passed away a year ago. I feel for him on that. I lost my father 10 years ago. But it is interesting that he is Jimmy Butler the third now all of a sudden. So, but it's Ben McName. Howdy partners, they have at least gotten a nameplate centered because his

first game with the Warriors, it was Jimmy, you know, it was Butler, and then the third was over here. So I feel like that was a late edition. They've gotten everything centered. I have witnessed now the lone loss of the Jimmy Butler era with the Warriors and a little bit of payback today because they woke them out of butts up and down the floor and then put old number nine Iguala in the Raptors. Clay went out there just long enough for a little photo op and then got the hell out because I still don't think there's a lot of warm funs game. Did they do that post game? They did a post game. Okay. Is that because it was an afternoon game? Because it's usually something you would do either pregame or halftime. They took their sweet time. So I think they

wanted like the full postgame experience. Plus that way Clay could come out. And I didn't watch any of it. Clay watched a little bit more than I did. And then he got out of there. again the warm fuzzies with the warriors and clay at least clay's side of things not there not i mean i wasn't actually there so i'm taking it off of what i watched on tv but when he came in and the 400 employees were all clapping for him with the with the boat hats the last time he was there i mean like he appreciated it oh because NBA cup yeah okay what they've been there three times this year? Yeah, because they had a little extra game. That was the game. Okay. I was like, okay. You know, that's the second time someone said that to me today. And the first time, I was like,

that's just a mistake. I'm going to move on. But now that you've said it, I trust it is real. All right. So, Bontemp's coming into this game today, there was this number that kept floating around that the Knicks were 0.0 and 4 against the, 0.5 against the Cavs, Celtics, and Thunder. And there was 100. It was. They were 0.6. Their own four against the two East, teams, they're 0 and 6 against the three teams. And now they're 0 and 5 and 0 and 7. Yeah, but they had some number that they had been outscored by, but I threw it away because they played the Celtics on opening night and then they played the Cavs like opening weekend. So two of those games happened when Carl Towns had been there for like five minutes. So I was

going to give them a pass on that. But the last two of the last five games, they got beaten by the Cavs by 37 and beaten by the Celtics by 27. So coming into this, game, I thought, okay, I'm not expecting him to win, but let's just play a game that gets into the fourth quarter and demonstrates that they have an opportunity to compete against them. And it was 27 in the first half or something like that. It was 38, 19 after one. That's all you need to know. Yeah. And so I was watching, Wendy, I was watching you on countdown. And you made that point. I said, that's a good point. Then I jumped in the shower. And then I got out. And it was like, they were down like 19. And then I didn't watch a whole lot else because I realized it didn't pack any underwear.

So I had to like, hightail it to Tarvey. I wasn't going to tell that story. No, I had to get some draws. If you saw McMahon walking along the road in San Francisco this morning, just know, as Jerry Seinfeld said, the only thing between you and him was a thin layer of gabardine. I put on basketball shorts like hoop shorts under jeans with, you know, then they get all a bunch of stuff so I wouldn't technically freeballing, but I had to, but anyways, so I didn't watch a whole lot, but by the time I got out of the shower, it was over. That tells you all I need to know about Knicks and Celtics. That's correct. That's correct. Another game where the Knicks played an elite offensive team and got absolutely obliterated. Well, they're supposed to be an elite offensive team,

though. Well, they are an elite offensive team, but they, when they have played elite offensive teams. They have been truly horrendous on defense, and it's the reason why they are not a championship contending team. I'm going to read off some stats, courtesy of our guy Stats Williams, who I was communicating with during the game. Stats Williams, you know, he works on the broadcast team. We had four games today to broadcast on ABC and ESPN. And at one point during this Oklahoma City Timberwolves game, which was the last game of the day, he comes in. to my ear because he's not in L.A. He's on the East Coast. He comes into my ear and he goes, what time you guys are recording the pod? And I go, probably about 45 minutes. He goes, okay, I got

to get these numbers for Bontap. So these numbers come courtesy of Stats Williams on the back. They are freshly updated. They are freshly updated. Because our guy is the best once we we love them. So the Knicks this season are the fourth rank offense. which is not surprising. We've talked all season. Carl Towns has juiced the offense, exactly what you'd expect with them at center. They are the 20th ranked defense overall.

For a top debilal team to be ranked 20th in defense, particularly when they've got three very good wing defenders and Josh Hardo, G. Anoboian, Mikkel Bridges, who played a ton of games, is a problem, right? Now, let's get into the heart of the problem. When the Knicks, if we isolate games against, playing against the top 10 offenses in the league, right? So all the teams, you play the top.

10 offense in the league. How do you fare? Nick's ranked 29th in defensive efficiency. The only team that's worse are the Toronto Raptors, who have basically not had their team at any point this entire season. Raptors got a win today over the Suns, I'll have you know. No, no, no. It was a two-point game in the fourth quarter, and then it was an 18-point game at the end. Well, listen, the Suns are another mess.

We're going to talk about some messes today. The Suns are also won. I'll be in Phoenix, not next week, but the week after we can chat about them then. Carl Towns is on the court against any of the top 10 offenses in the league this season. The Knicks defensive rating is 127. The worst defensive rating in the league is 118. So to say that is bad is an understatement. Against the Celtics, the Knicks have run a drop coverage, which means the center is back at the basket 48% of the time.

That is the highest percentage of any team in the league against Boston this season. The Celtics have scored 1.3 points per possession or per direct pick against that, which means every time they do that, their offensive rating group spread out to 100 possessions, is 134 points per 100 possessions. That is their best rate against drop coverage against any team this season. Let me tell you something. On Friday night when the calves whip 143 on them, the Donovan Mitchell's eyes when they would get into a pick and roll with Carl Towns and he saw Carl start to back up into a drop.

Like it was almost like he was in the gym alone. He was so comfortable moving into those shots that it was almost like Carl Towns was on his team, like aiding him. Like almost like he was a lead blocker. Jason Tatum did this. Jason Tatum did the same thing today. I got three other stats quickly, just to sum up Carl Towns specifically. Oh, wow. This is harsh.

And we like Carl. Just so you know, I like this. I'm going to get to this at the end. I'm going to get to this at the end. It's not about players this season are shooting 52% against Carl Towns as the contesting defender, which is the worst rating of the 109 players who contested at least 500 shots this season. He is allowing 60% shooting on layups and dunks as the contesting defender, which is last in the NBA among 32 players to defend. at least 300 shots. As a contesting defender against teams ranked in the top 10 to go back to that

stat, he's giving up 61% shooting, which is the worst of 346 players to contest at least 50 shots against those teams. Carl Towns has had a great season. Carl Towns deserved to be a starter in the All-Star game. Carl Towns has done exactly what the Knicks wanted at the offensive end of the court, juicing their offense, partnering with Jalen Brunson, leading them to be an elite offensive team. The problem is, Carl Towns at the defensive end of the court has not been good enough throughout his career to be the anchor of a championship caliber team. This is why the Minnesota Timberwells traded a thousand picks and all the stuff to get Rudy Gobert. It's why the Knicks fans and people with the Knicks all season have kept saying, we've got to get Mitchell Robinson back. He's

going to save the day. Mitchell Robinson, who's barely played for two years and is not Rudy Gobert in any way, shape, or form is not going to save the day. And if you've watched these three games against the Celtics this year, which by the way, Chris Tasporzingis didn't play in the first two, played today, dominated the game again out there today. The Knicks cannot beat the Celtics, and they cannot beat the Celtics because they have no way to guard them, and they have no way to guard them because Carl Towns has nowhere to go on the floor. It's just the facts of the matter. It's not picking on them. It's not saying he hasn't been great for them, but they can't win this matchup, and it's because the Celtics have taken him apart, just like the Cavs did on Friday,

And if the Knicks are going to find any way to try to be a championship level team, they have to try to find a way to change that. And right now, sitting here looking at it, I just do not see how that's going to happen with what they've got. During our critically acclaimed debut as a hoop collective takeover on Get Up, I know Wendy's and radio, but they let Bombton sign on the other day. I proclaimed that the Knicks were a fringe contender. I would like to strike that statement from the record. That was before they lost by 37. The most of the top Divido Knicks team has lost by on Friday to Cavs Corner. And then this game today where they lost by 13, you had a 23 to 5 run in the third quarter to erase a 27 point deficit and look like they might be in the game. And then three minutes into the fourth quarter,

we're back down by 20 again. Yeah. Like, they, you nailed it like against good defenses, especially elite defenses. They've got, well, Offenses. Yeah, I've been offense.

They got no hope. That's a problem. What are the numbers with O.G. and Ovi on the floor? Do you have those at all? I mean, I'd have to go, look. I mean, he played the first 45 games of the season. So, I mean, the vast majority of those numbers are with him on the court against those teams.

And the problem is he cannot guard three guys at once, which is kind of what they need to do. Well, I mean, look, the problem for me for the Knicks is they've got Josh Hart, they've got McHale Bridges, they've got O'GN and Obie. They have all of them already available. They've all played most of the season. It's not like they've had a ton of injuries. O'G's missed some time recently. Josh Hart missed a game or two.

But like those guys have basically been healthy. They've had their starting lineup. And we're still sitting here talking about the Knicks not being able to guard the elite teams. Like that it's not like you could say, well, they've had, you know, Mitchell, again, I'll just go back to Mitchell Robinson. Mitchell Robinson is not the solution. He's not fixing this problem. Well, especially since, you know, you're talking about the. the Carl Towns defense, they're 30th in three point percentage defense, 30th.

Well, and listen. That's not Carl's problem. I mean, it's somewhat Carl's problem. Well, not if they're, yeah, that's true. If you're playing and drop and the other team stops at the three point line, which is what, you know, the Cavs and Celtics do, they come off of the high screen. They stop at the three point line. Well, and for example, today, the Knicks and Celtics start out the game, right?

The Celtics have Jason Tatum guarding Carl Towns at one end. Carl Towns is guarding Chris Tass Porzingis at the other end. I'm sorry, Tom Thibito, you're a great coach. I don't know more about basketball than you. That's not going to work. He cannot guard Chris S. Porzingis. Put him, try him on Drew Holiday. Try him on Jalenbrens at try him somewhere else.

Because like Chris Sperzingis is going to stand 30 feet from the basket and just bomb away, which is what he did. And here's the other problem. Not only do they have to try to hide Carl Anthony Town. they've got a shot of IJaden Brunson, who Brunson is a solid, like, team defender, and he takes charges, but he can't guard me or you. But you know what? You can hide. But you can hide a guard.

You can't hide a center. That's the problem. Like, you can, you can, Jalen can guard in the post and draw some charges and, like, you can, you can move him around and figure stuff out. there's a reason we talked about Yokic all the way through is like could he get to a point where he's good enough to win? Because that's the only time in the history of the league that a team has won with a center that's subpar or somewhere below. Oh, oh. Do you know who leads a league in defensive blocks, box plus minus? I would assume it's Nicole Yokic who leads to the league in every stat.

Again, my point is simply that I don't know how it's calculated, but it's true. Nicole Yokic is not a traditionally strong defender. He's not a red protector at all. But he makes up for it with an incredible basketball IQ and quick hands and a lot of other stuff. Carl Towns has not come up with you. Well, the Nuggets won the title two years ago by being a Uber elite offensive team, especially in the playoffs and being a average defensive team. They were slightly above average defensively.

They were good enough. Right. And like Aaron Gordon. the perfect compliment to him because he is just a phenomenal defensive player who gives you some rim protection and all that sort of thing. KCP at that point was a great wing defender. Well, look, they did it. They did it with Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Nicola Yochich on the court. Those three guys are not anywhere near elite defensive players, but they found a way to make that work. The theory of the case for the Knicks was to do that. Having a lead offense and a good enough

defense. This defense this year has just simply not been anywhere near good enough. And these games against the Cavs and the Celtics have been just giant screaming signs that this team as constructed is just not good enough right now to do what it wants to do. All right. Let's talk about the Celtics. Sorry. No, one thing. The shock of all this is having this much of a defensive catastrophe on his hands, the six strands of hair on the top of Tibito's head are still hanging on. It's a miracle. It is a miracle. But they're slicked down. I think they're like glued on of this. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. So the Celtics have now won, I think, 11 of 12, fantems? I think 10 of either 9 of 10 or 10 or 11. I'll check it. Well, okay.

What a ton in a row. And they've been blowing teams off the court in these games. And it's nine of ten and ten of, it's nine of ten, ten of twelve, and twelve of fifteen. Pretty good. Yeah. They're just like, you know, in this particular game, Tatum had a excellent first half and a sort of a mediocre second half. Jalen Brown had a mediocre first half and an excellent second half.

Derek White had like just a ho-hum, 197 and five game. him. Porzingus is quietly having a brilliant season. I think he's having the best shooting season of his career. God, like, you watch him play and you're like, how are you, I mean, when they're at full strike, I mean, granted, they're somewhat fragile, but how you beat them four out of seven? I mean, they're not that, they're not that fragile. And by the way, I've been saying for a couple months, the Celtics have been on cruise control, right? The cruise control has come off. You want to know how I knew the cruise controls come off. Two plays in the second half of this game. One, Drew Holiday comes flying back and rips the ball out of Jalen Brunson's hands at mid court as Jalen bringing the

ball up. The second time when Drew Holiday in the fourth quarter, where I believe the Celtics were up somewhere close to 20 points, picked up Jalen Brunson 80 feet from the basket and was trying to take the ball off of him. Like, this was to me a clear statement of intent game from the Celtics, where they came out, they absolutely dominated the game from the jump. Yes, they had a period in the third quarter where, you know, Janele was doing some wild stuff. They messed around with their food a little bit. Let the Knicks back in the game.

They instantly blow the game back open again. And like I said, every single person walked out of the building today saying the gap between these teams is the size of the grand canyon. Like, that was the message they wanted to say. Well, what's the gap between them in Cleveland? Because we're going to find out on Friday for, Because that's, yeah. The game of the rubber match.

Next Friday they have calves at home. Next Sunday they have the nuggets at home. And in 18 days, they have the Oklahoma City Thunder in Boston on March 12th, which is going to be the game of the rest of this regular season schedule for me. Are you going to be there? I am going to be there. All right.

Good. So the calves, I believe, have won 10 of 11, I think. I know they've won seven in a row. And it's the longest winning streak in the league now. And they beat the Grizzlies on Sunday. the one loss, McMahon, you were there. It was included. What was the, what was the, it wasn't close.

What was the final? I believe it was like today's game. I think it was 112, 105, but wasn't that close. Yeah. Yeah, I don't, I don't have a laptop, so I'm no longer capable of, like, doing any kind of research. He doesn't have a laptop or underwear. He came on a West Coast trip. Here's the thing.

It took me 10 minutes to get underwear. It's taken 12 days to get a laptop. So, hopefully we can get that figured out tomorrow when I go to L.A. but no but no and after that game like Kenny Atkinson before the game was very like it was against the Celtics in case I didn't mention that it's Celtics right and this was February 4th I believe it was February 4th two days for the trade deadline they lost the game and then what did they do well yeah I think that was very much like hey we have to upgrade Atkinson going into that game and pregame mentioned like, hey, against the elite teams,

you know, our record has not been great. Remember, they got spanked in Oklahoma City. They split with the thunder, but the second one was an absolute pull your pants down, butt-whooping. And, you know, the Celtics and I forgot the other teams in the mix, but Atkinson pointed out, like, you know, we have not fared that great against the elite teams. And then they, you know, it was a game. I don't remember the final score, but it was never really in doubt. Like the Celtics controlled the entire game. And Kenny said, hey, we've really got to study this and figure things out. Like, how can we close the gap?

So we're in a position to compete against these teams that obviously they're going to have to go through if they want to get where they want to get. And, you know, I'm sure the conversations were, had started for the deal they made for DeAndre Hunter well before they had. We talked about that. They actually started on the two days before on that Sunday. Right, but certainly the urgency, I think, was intensified after that game. Yep. So, by the way, speaking of that, Trey, let me tell you the stats for DeAndre Hunter for the Cavs so far. First game, he had 12 points, one rebound, but hit three threes.

Second game, 18 points, five rebounds, hit four threes. third game nine points hit two threes against the nicks on friday 16 points just one actually had no rebounds you know he's not known as a rebounder uh by the way but uh hit six to seven shots hit four four three 16 points today against the grizzlies in a game where the calves needed some some juice because darius garland was out um the andre hunter uh 12 points eight rebounds which was much a pretty appreciated by the calves, 12.8 rebounds. He is making a nice input. But by, Karas Levert, who was the centerpiece of the trade that went back to Atlanta, he's

been playing well too. He and George Nyang, the minivan, the G-wagon, as he's also called, has also been balling. George Yang had hit seven threes and 27 points today. The two of them have both been quite good for the Hawks so far. I think it's a trade that's going to work out for both teams. The Cavs have yet to lose with the Andre Hunter in the lineup. And in this game against the Grizzlies tonight, which by the way, Grizzlies medical update was blank.

The Grizzlies had a clean injury report. Dang. It was amazing. The Calf Corner Pompoms are out right now, McBan. It was out. I'm just saying, no, it was great to see. It was great to see the Grizzlies with a totally clean injury report. We know what this is about.

This is pumping up. What are you talking about? Just further credence for a. dominant calves victory. It wasn't a dominant victory. They won by six points. Well, just saying, it's just, we're lifting up the, we're lifting up the win, lifting it up. Evan Mowgli with 2513 and eight assists in three blocks. I'm starting to, I'm starting to question about that supermax. Oh, he's, I mean, listen, we, I got a piece running Monday that's on a bunch of the questions looking ahead to the second half of the season, a stretch run of the season. One of them is, how are the

injury is going to impact the awards race? And I mean, Evan Mowley's either going to win defensive player of the year or he's going to make all-n-b-a? Or both? Or both? Well, he might get both, but I think, I would say Jared is probably ahead of him in defensive player of the year, but I think regardless, he's going to be one of the 15 all-l-l-l-b-a players. And certainly the way he's playing, I think he's got a real shot at being on one of the first or second teams, just to get him the whole 30% max. I'm getting a call 405 area code.

What? Ludo. Oh, wait. Lou Dort should be a defense player there? Oh, okay. Hold on. Listen, you guys know how I feel about the great barrier thief, Dyson Daniels. How is this guy not getting any love? He's got like...

I mean, Dyson Daniels is going to be an all-defensive team selection for sure. I just, I mean, I wrote a story that argued why Mark is smart and Mikhail Bridges should be considered for defensive player of the year as perimeter players a couple of years ago. but in retrospect, I mean, in looking at it a lot since then, it's hard for me not to pick a big as the best defensive player in the league for all the reasons we talked about Carl Towns earlier. So what happened was Bon Tempts was kissing Marcus Smarts' butt while he was in Boston? Then he got shipped out and now he regrets it. The irony of that story was I got called by the Phoenix Suns asking me if I would write about Mikhail Bridges as a contender for defense player in the year. so I wrote about both of them. It's smart ended up winning.

But, and I, like, I think you can make an argument for. You're not going to get any calls from the sons about defense player. No, that is true. And like, look, you can make, like, Dyson's had an unbelievable year. Lou Dorts had a great year. Like, you can make arguments for those guys. But for the same reason we talked about with how damaging Carl Towns is to the Knicks, the big position is just so much more critical to everything a team is doing defensively,

that it's hard for me not to pick one. Speaking of Supermaxes, tie Jerome with 20s, six points on nine of 16 shooting five rebranded. Just reading box scores, man, that's where Cass Corny's got. Not eligible. Not eligible.

There are some like two-way contracts mixed in there, like seven different teams. Well, the Cads actually have a problem there because they have limited rights on him and the guy is playing unbelievably. Hey, Super Max Christie had his first bad game for the Mavericks today.

Regular Max Luca had his first really good game for the label. On what Saturday night? Yeah. So, all right. So, cabs have a weekend where they beat the Knicks and Grizzlies at home. Quality weekend for them. The Celtics have a great win. We'll be talking plenty more about Cavs Celtics on Friday spot. Absolutely. Okay. Heading out here on the West Coast. I didn't realize that the, that the coming into today, McMahon, that the Mavs had been, they won five out of six. Yeah, it was, I don't know how much it was like they were just playing hard going in the All-Star, break. Certainly they, you know, there was... Well, listen, we keep talking about the Celtics of

110 out of 11. I believe Mr. Bontems was at that game where the Mavericks went into Boston and beat him. Well, and that was eight, the thing is, 80 is played in 31 minutes and it was 31 minutes against the Rockets game that they won.

But they beat Boston in Boston. They but you know, like they beat the heat in the game going on in the hour break where neither team played anybody. They did, they handed the warriors, the warriors one loss since the Jimmy Butler arrival. Yeah. You know, when the warriors, I can't say they were full strength, they're like obviously, they didn't have comming, but they were pretty healthy. Cairo had been playing

great. Karee didn't have a good game today. Nope. I mean, nobody with the backwoods had a good game today. But yeah, they had won five out of six, now five out of seven, you know, not since the trade, because the day after the trade, they got beat by about one million seven hundred points. That was in Cleveland. I remember I walked out because I was writing off of Nico Harrison Press Congress. I remember walking out on like 90 minutes of sleep, right in that story, looking up and it was like 46 to 12 or something. I'm like, Jesus.

By the way, our guy, Oam, Young Masuk, had a video today. I don't know if he was the only one. Here's where I saw the video, but of Nico Harrison and Rob Polinka embracing courts. I don't even want to go on Mav's Twitter to see. The reason Rob Polink is. was there was because he was Andre Wadal as agent for a lot of his career and so he was being honored today.

And Niko was like Iggy was a Nike guy. Nika was obviously a Nike executive. Well, his team was playing. But that's not why he stuck around for the, I'm saying he stuck around for the ceremony at posting ceremony because of the tidy. Right, but I just can't imagine

what the MAPS. No, can I tell you how hard I tried to get the seating arrangement redone? I was trying to really hard to get them to put Polinka and Nico just side by side for the entire ceremony. I was unsuccessful in my lobbying efforts,

but let me tell you, I tried. I tried hard. God bless. For the culture, you were trying to. Absolutely. Yeah, I can't bring myself to look at the comments on those posts.

The best thing the maps have going for them with all the injuries they have is that the sons are a train wreck. so yeah nobody's going to catch them the suns are a mess obviously the spurs aren't going to catch anybody now so they'll at least be a playing team um unless it goes really off the rails they'll be a playing team most of those comments Wendy I can assure you I have muted so that's a good thing you've gone across those folks before I got a fast mute boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom Not like when you open up a post

and it's just like just straight mute I'm like okay there's some good decisions made here by me so now speaking of seeing arrangements Nico for the first time maybe not first time since Nico has not been in his seat at the AAC

since the trade and I don't know if he will be for the rest of the season you know obviously match fans are given they're on his neck he was in the stands today. Will he be in the stands Tuesday at the building formerly known as a stable center? Oh, if he is, I know somebody who's going to find him early and often, repeatedly, speaking some slow beating to him, looking right at him after every shot.

It would be pretty weak if he's not at that game. I'm just going to say that. He'll be at the game. Will he be in the stands? It's going to be pretty weak if he's not in the stands for the game. Now, you know who will not be? who originally planned to be, unless he changes his plans again. Patrick Dumont, the man who likes to police vacation time.

Well, listen, the owner of the team not being in a road game is fine. Nico Harrison should be at that game. That's my two cents. I just don't know if he'll be in the States. You know what my point is he should be sitting in the stance. Well, what if he has a nice luxury suite? I mean, the road executives don't sit one of three suites. You think if Nico asked him with Policke,

And his luxury in his suite. Yeah, that'll go over well. He was sitting in the stands today. He should be sitting in the stands on Tuesday. I suspect he will be. Well, let me just say it. So the Mavs had a clunker today. I don't even know what to take away from it. Well, here's what I mean, what I would take away from it is that the Warriors, we haven't really talked about them. With Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry, the warriors are going to struggle against size. A healthy Mavs team, I think could give them a lot of trouble with the size they have. This is obviously not a healthy Mavs team. And so they, trucked them today. But Steph and Jimmy healthy together with some shooting around them and playing small and fast is going to be a successful team. Now, the size limitations will be a problem, but they are going to win a lot of games. And I think they are going to be very good. And this Mavs team, I mean, look, I agree with you McMahon. I think with as bad as Phoenix looks, I don't think it's going to be a problem. But that said, they are one Kyrie Irving injury away from being in huge trouble. Well, and listen, like they announced last week, a few days ago, whatever, AD will be reevaled in two weeks. AD is not coming back in two weeks. Right.

Derek Klaverickett is not coming back in two weeks. Daniel Gafford is not coming back in two weeks and might not be coming back during the regular season. So the Mavericks are going to have to play this gimmicky small ball. Like, dude, they're starting six foot seven two-way player. Kessler, the fact they've won five to six is you know i don't know it's it's pretty impressive probably a little fluky well and that's where there i think there has to be some concern because you look at golden state assuming golden state doesn't have any injuries of either of us two guys they're they're going to finish ahead of the mavs what these injuries dallas has probably Sacramento is healthy sacramento's probably going to finish ahead of the mavs just because they have their full roster

i'm not saying sacramental's great but the mat i don't i'm not trusting the maves to continue to recent stretch they've had, I'd say they've been playing well above their heads, given the amount of injuries they have. I think we can say the Mavericks are going to have to be, they're going to have to qualify for the playoffs via the play-in, and that a successful rest of the regular season would be the Mavericks getting two cracks at a play-in win, and not just one. Yeah, I mean, my point is, I think the most likely landing spot for them as of today is 10th, and there's enough wiggle room there where like if Phoenix can at any point figure things out

or if Kyrie has any injury, all of a sudden this team is in huge trouble. Like the margin for error is down to this now. I'll just point out Sacramento's got its own set of issues and Phoenix has won two of their last nine games. Listen, I think Phoenix is going to be bad enough that it's not going to matter. But the point is if the Mavericks had,

even one of their bigs, but especially they have two of them, and say, hey, you've got a formula to lean on, but they're probably going to win a ton of regular season games, and we'll see what happens when they get to the playoffs. But because of the very unfortunate overall set of circumstances with all the bigs getting hurt, and now you're sitting here with one reliable ball handler and Kyrie, who's got a bulgey disc in his back,

and like, that could flare up at some point. It's like, you know, it wouldn't be shocking if they lose a few games in a row, and they're only a couple games ahead of Phoenix. It's like there's just not, it's at least worth pointing out the situation. And at least Sacramento has all their bodies and I think is going to just be able to, you know,

survive the next few weeks better. Speaking of the Warriors, it got a little bit wonky in the late game because it turned into garbage time. But today, when Curry was off the court and Jimmy Butler was on the court, the Warriors were plus 14, okay? Friday, when they got a close,

close when I think they won by one in Sacramento. When Jimmy was on the court and Steph was off the court, they were plus 19. Last week in the last game against, I can't remember who they played their last game before. Yeah, it was Houston. I think they were plus three with Steph off the court and Jimmy on the court. So it's still small sample size, but they're routinely. Jamie Butler's awesome. Yeah.

And not only that, you know, so we talked about his free throws. Again, eight more free throws today. He's averaging nine free throws a game. And he... An awesome fit with Steph. It's a really awesome fit, stylistically. Like, it should be... They should be together really, really, really good.

I mean, in a lot of ways, he's a... I mean, he's Andre Agadala, the guy they honored today, just with a lot more offensive juice. And like, that's obviously a, you know, Hall of Fame caliber player. That's why Jimmy's had such a great run. And he and Steph, like the styles they play, I think they do really fit perfectly. And, you know, he could basically run the point whenever Steph's done on the court.

Like, it makes a lot of sense. And they should be a really good team down the stretch, assuming those two guys are healthy. If they can keep Drayman on the court, too, like they are going to be undersized. They are going to have to worry about the rebounding. They are going to have to deal with playing bigger teams. But a lot of nights, they're just going to be able to overwhelm teams with those two guys. if they're out there playing the way they have been. And, you know, today was a good example of that.

More Hoop Collective podcast after this. All right. Now, let's discuss the Lakers of Los Angeles. Get the banners ready, baby. Banners. Well, first off, the Lakers, after beating Denver, now there are a few games behind in the win column because they're still down some games

because they're making up, they have to make up these games from the fires, unfortunately. But in the loss column with the Grizzlies and with them, with the Lakers beating the, The Grizzlies, by the way, have lost three or four. Their defense, while they are at full strength, their defense, which has been in the top ten, is really receded. They're in a defensive issue. They're on a five-game road trip.

They're going to get some wins now going back home. But with the Nuggets finally losing, they'd lost, they'd won nine in a row. And with the Grizzlies losing three out of four, the Lakers are now one game back on the loss column for the two-seat. Okay. And we saw that display on Saturday night where it was incredibly cathartic. Granted, it was not in the playoffs, which is where it matters. And that's where the Nuggets have owned the Lakers in the last few years. But they have been getting-

First Laker win there in three years, right? And they've played a lot of games there. So I'm just going to say, arguably to me, the most impressive number of the weekend is that the Lakers held Nikola Yokic to seven shot attempts. Yeah. And I just have to say, over the last 18 games now, of which I believe the Lakers are 14 and 4, or 13 and 5 or 14 and 4. And by the way, AD didn't play in 11 of those games.

There's been five games, five or five games since the trade, I think. Five or six games since the trade plus AD had the injury right before the deal. Ad only played in seven those 18 games. So you can't just put it on him. But in those 18 games, the Lakers are the number one defense in the league. 18 games is nothing to sneeze at here. And as I'm watching the game plan, go ahead. No, I mean 18 games, but like their teams totally changed that time.

But go on. Okay, fine. But I'm saying at some point, you have to acknowledge that the, I mean, earlier in the season, when the Lakers would do something good, I would be like, I don't care because they can't defend. I can't say that now. They also just lost to the Jazz and the Hornets. I understand. What I would say is this win Saturday was an awesome win and an awesome performance and a desperately needed one, right?

And an awesome game plan and awesome execution. Yes. They did a great job Saturday. Let's see going forward with this team as they start playing these good opponents going forward because the schedule gets tougher now. I'm looking at it from now forward. Because look, this stretch before the All-Star break, there was a lot of weird stuff happening in the league. There were all these weird trade. Obviously, there's some chaotic trades. You saw teams like the Portland Trailblazers won like nine out of ten and were smoking teams. There's been a lot of weird. There was just a

lot of weird noise, right? Well, I mean, after the trade deadline. Well, you're right. We're after the All-Star break. We're after the trade deadline. Teams are set now. This new Laker team. is set. We have Luca playing. He's getting back in rhythm. I'm looking at it from now forward. And that was a great start. Like, they obviously have the terrible game against Charlotte. They wheezed through this game against Portland on the second end of the back to back to barely win that game with no Luca. They win the game. And then they go to play Denver and they play a great game and they win. Like now, let's move it forward and see how they look against these other teams. You're right. Yes, over 18 games, they've had the number one defense, but like

there's so much has changed from the vast majority of that I don't really care. If you're looking out from a Lakers perspective, you can say, hey, Dorian Finney Smith was brought in to really help the defense. He's done that. Jared Vanderbilt coming back, you know, however many games in the season, was a big boost to the defense. Those two guys were huge on on Joker the other night. Now, there's two guys in the start. I'm just going to say, hold on, I just want to say one thing. Just because we've talked a lot about Jared Vanderbilt on this podcast.

Jared Vanderbilt played six minutes and he had five fouls. That's all I'm going to say. I'm talking about the defense that they've played. I'm not talking about this individual game. I'm talking about the defense they've been playing. I can't disregard playing excellent defense over that kind of stretch of games. I'm going to disregard it when the team is entirely different. different now. That's good.

They look pretty good on Saturday. They might play defense. Yeah, they look great on Saturday. And JJ's, you know, he's on this thing of like, hey, you know, playing hard as the superpower or whatever. Okay. And that's good. Guys seem to be buying into it great. There are two guys in their starting lineup who are both, one is a very good offense player. One is a, you know, all-time great offense player. Those two guys are both. eyes on defense. Austin Reeves, Luca Donchage. And yet, there's still number one over 18 games of which Austin Rees played a

bunch of us. Lucas played four of them. But Austin Reeves played in all of them. Again, stop talking about the 18 games. The 18 games are irrelevant. Here are the games that are relevant. Dallas, Minnesota, Clippers, Clippers, Pelicans game, whatever. Knicks, Celtics, all of which are home. By the way, all of which you just said are home. I know. Where they're good. Well, then they play at Boston. at Brooklyn, whatever, at Milwaukee, at Denver, Phoenix, San Antonio, Denver, Milwaukee. I don't have them penciled in the finals. I'm just acknowledging. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that when we do this podcast on Friday, March 21st, after that Bucks game,

we're going to have a really good sense of what this Laker team can be, assuming they don't like have some crazy injury situation between now and then, because they're going to play a bunch of really good teams. They're going to get tested a bunch and we're going to see what they can look like in that situation over and over again. Because Luca Donchich and Austin Reeves, we're not playing together for any of those games. And again, I will just say they just lost to Utah and Charlotte in back-to-back games with Luca playing before this. So let's see during the stretch how it looks. And if they go 12, whatever, there's 15 games, they go 10 and 5, and they're 15. And they're fifth in defense over that stretch or first in defense still, then yeah, like, there's some real

stuff to take away from it. I just, I think the schedule started on Saturday. Okay, that's fair. I will say this. Teams are going to scout them and scout what they are doing. And, you know, like if this was a playoff series and the Lakers won game one against Denver, Denver would be changing the way they positioned Nika Likic. Yeah, they'd come up with some counters for sure. Yeah. So I'm, But I just want to say, you know, I have to acknowledge that. The second thing I'll say is I felt that the decision, or not the decision, but the process of making Luca Mavericks, Luca, like give him the ball and let him operate. I figured that was going to come at some point.

It sounds like JJ Reddick has made the edict now, and Luca listened to it. Now, whether or not it takes or whatever, but. Well, Anne, and when Luca hits a three early on, a couple threes early on, suddenly he feels in rhythm and I'm not saying Luca has ever struggled with confidence but you know he's like okay this is me

he looked he looked bad against the hornets just from a conditioning and sure sure he hasn't looked good he also is one of the three best temper he's one of the three or four best players on the planet at this point he's a significantly better player than LeBron no offense to LeBron

he's a fantastic player he's not as good as Luca he's way better than offensive player. I mean, LeBron is not that good on defense at this point. But I'm talking about

I'm talking about giving the ball to Luca. There's no debate about who should have the ball. Luca Dodgich by himself is an elite, all-time great offense. I agree.

But the first four games with them, he was sharing it a little bit too much. Clearly, it looked like there was a lot of that stuff. And if JJ did say, hey, it's time to make sure this guy's cooking, that's the way this team's going to have a chance, as if Luca Donchich is cooking.

And there's going to be, like LeBron's, going to have the ball plenty of course going on the ball playing and the other thing that luca's going to do is nobody gets doubled or blitzed more than lucca and then you're playing advantage basketball and then okay those guys aren't the primary facilitators but they're catching it with an advantage

and Austin Reeves against it nuggets how many times did he catch it and see the boom catch or shoot or catch and attack a closeout dude you put up in those situations with luca and lebron how about how are you stopping that pick it up. You know, and you know what the best play they have is, is Luca grabs the rebound, turns, LeBron, still usually the fastest guy on the floor runs. And as LeBron said, I'm a natural born wide receiver. Luca's a natural born quarterback. Luca does the whole, there's a 65 foot dime. Luca had more, he had 53, I wrote about this during the playoffs last year. He had 53, 40 plus

foot assists last year. Amazing. That's a nice. He's the best look-ahead passer in the lead. And LeBron is still, I mean, I don't know what the list is, but very, very, very high in the list of the best leak-out transition players. One of the fastest ways to LeBron's heart is to get him easy baskets. And Luca will get him a lot. Because the man has spent 20 years working to get hard baskets. Yeah.

And those transition buckets and, you know, you saw against the nuggets when luca's running pick and roll lebron cutting from the corner late like you're going to see that kind of stuff he will get there will be some luca lebron highlight feeds for sure there have already been several yeah those will be a regular McMahon what do you what do you think we're going to be in for you and i'll be at the game on tuesday what do you think we're going to be oh my god like you know what's coming in from this is this is this is the inverse of a return game like this is Okay, it won't be as insane as April 9th when he's coming back to Dalles.

And you're going to have an entire road arena rooting for this guy. That's going to be nuts. That's going to be one of the most surreal scenes that we've ever. But at that point, that game very likely is going to be very meaningful for the Mavericks. And I still think the entire arena will be wanting to see Lucas score 80 points. I think there's going to be, the question is, whether. there'd be more Luca Lakers jerseys or Mavericks jerseys. And there'll be some Slovenian ones mixed in.

I think there's going to be, apparently they're trying to get these Nico clown t-shirts. Like you're trying to sell like 10,000 in those too, but I still, I don't know. It's going to be nuts. But dude, you're going to see full, like, when is Luca out of the best? When he's pissed off and he's sneering in an opponent or he's finding somebody in the stands? That happened against, he got into some with some court side fans on Saturday. Yeah, and I said no one Nuggets guy was just like, good play, dude, like I'm not the enemy here. Like, good job.

Like, I'm not real. He was hunting. He was hunting disrespect, buddy. Like, don't come at me. Like, we're okay. Well, by the way, that's the Luca Dachr that is the killer that, you know, I liked what J.J. Redick said where he was like, I just want this guy to black out and scream at some point in this game. Like that. For no good reason, because that's when he's at the best.

That's when he's killing. And like, again, if the Lakers, like, we've talked about it. This Lakers roster is flawed. I don't think they're winning the title this season. But their best chance is for Luca Dantitch to be unleashed and to be the guy we saw in the playoffs last year. And the combination of him and LeBron and Austin Reeves might just be good enough on offense to overwhelm enough teams to be interesting.

So honestly, you really saw that a little bit in the first two rounds, not consistently. it was the Western Conference finals against the walls. Just absolutely ripped the hearts out of the entire state of Minnesota. Yeah. He bring his ass to Minnesota. Seeing those,

I was watching some of the highlights after the trade. We were there, McMahon, but I'd forgotten some of them. Game five. Yeah. Unbelievable. Quarter of game five.

It was just like, okay, you got one, you extended the series, it's over. And Luca, he had a fan from the first two games of the series that he went right out from the get-go. And again, he just, that was a situation where Luca was so dominant that he just sucked the life out of an entire arena by the end of the first quarter. It was over. And he's going to try to do that to the Mavericks.

And if Nico's in the stands, like, that will be very interesting. Well, plus, he's coming off of this game where he. and got his mojo back in Denver for sure. You got a tech? You didn't have to... No, no. Not only in tech. The going into halftime tech, it's a Luca special.

Not the Lucas special that Devin Booker once referenced, but this is, you know, like, Luca is great at picking up the tech going into halftime. He's been bitching the whole first half and he's going to have, you know, just he's getting this closing argument going to the halftime gets... By the way, closing, by the way, speaking of that, on Sunday night the Timberwolves

lost to the Thunder the Thunder had lost in Minnesota right before the break and they look they were missing three key players no Gobert

no Julius Randall no Dante DiVincenzo it's a hard situation I didn't understand that Ann Edwards he got teed up in that game that was his 14th technical

I can know the math that's only that's only two left now I know you always know the number uh, McMahon. Now I also can tell you, with a superstar player.

Oh, the league office. Nobody does more, nobody does pool reports, more, more pool reports about technical fouls and Tim McMahon, which is now over. He ain't going to do that anymore.

No, no, no, Cuban has no juice and Luke is gone. I'm, that's what I mean. That's all over. Every time there'd be a Luca tech,

they'd be like, oh, I got to do a pool report today. No, not a Luca tech, but when you get to the teens, those things, yeah, you got to start doing them.

Um, also, you know, Cuban used to have a little way of trying to get them done, but no, no, no, no more. But no, like, Ant is too shy. Now, those 16th T's for the superstars, well, the league tends to be pretty lenient on the reviews of those things. I'm just going to tell you from experience, Luca. I do not believe this won't be rescinded.

No, but I'm going to tell you that. 16, he's going to have to, I'm just going to tell you, he's going to have to do some things. You've seen it. You have experience about it. 16's got a way of getting overruled. Well, I'm just going to say that the timber wolves are taking some losses here just because they're so banged up. Like, they can't be a fording. Well, by the way, they're also tied with the Mavs and the Warriors right now.

I mean, they've raised the playing mix in the West is going to be something. Ant's approaching $300,000 in fines. You know, you get suspended for a game. Hey, ants already blown through. the, I'm not going to scrub his son of endorse him. Which ones he got, Sprite?

I think it's Sprite. Yeah, the Antichlaude's money's gone. Okay? The Adidas money is still intact and he ain't touched his Timberl's money yet. It'll be all right. All right, well,

a lot went on today. Sure did. Another big week of the NBA coming up. Who's paying for dinner tomorrow night, McMahon? Oh. oh that's right everybody ohma's gone yeah well a celebrity oh me um yeah that's right you fellas have fun i'll be at bull sixers uh we haven't even talked about the sixers oh my god we've

we've talked about the sixers enough that's all we got to say all i'm gonna tell you is i'm gonna the pit of sadness the the wells fargo center the um i can't believe you're going to that game by the way why do you think i'm going to the king right right I gotta see what's happening with certain people. Yeah. Wendy, correct me if I'm wrong. Shams is a rookie, right? He is.

He's an ESPN rookie? He couldn't be more of a rookie than he is. He's the definition of an ESPN rookie. Seems to me like time for a rookie dinner. The Cowboys got Des Bryant for 54 grand. How much damage could you do on Shams on a Monday night in L.A.? thing is I drink beer so it doesn't get too high

you gotta get like A lot of beers though I've seen it You gotta get the pile When I had to buy dinner for you two guys There was some damage that was done So I know that you can Relax No it wasn't

It wasn't even It was low Triple digits Wasn't it was it was not even a fender bender It was All right. Well, McMahon, travel safe to L.A. I'll see you tomorrow.

Bontemps travel safe to Philadelphia. Yeah. I won't see it that game. You will not see me there. No, you will. All right. Thank you to Jackson, our producer. Thank you for watching and listening to the HOOP Collective podcast.

We'll be talking to you Tuesday, maybe after Luca and the Mavs. I don't know. I'm not promising. We'll see. Here's amigos.