Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Lakers’ Run Continues & Luka’s Biggest Weakness + Playoff Seeding Battles

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to discuss the Lakers strong play of late including Luka’s scoring outbursts before discussing a weakness that keeps popping up. Plus, an interesting stretch for the Cavs and some playoff seeding battles to monitor moving forward. 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 and welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Sunday afternoon. It's actually Sunday morning here in the central time zone, but joining us from New York City, Tim Bonteps.

Hello, everybody. Join us from Dallas, Texas, and I got to tell you something, McMahon. A lot of videos have crossed my timeline over the last couple days here in Nebraska, showing off the Husker fans partying at the Tiki. The Husker fans found the Tiki down in Oklahoma's. City this weekend. Joining us from Dallas, Texas, Ben McMahon. Howdy, partners? Yeah, I know I've gotten reports and I've seen footage and pictures on various social media platforms. Tipsy Tiki has been overflowing with Cornhuskers, as has the

goat. There's a new sports bar in OKC that our buddy Biggress just opened up. And the Huskers are good for business. Sweet 16 cornhuskers. Our guys have been open to wait, open that bar for about two years, it feels like. And it's, it was good to see it full of NCAA tournament fans this weekend. I don't know where he got it if he borrowed it or whatever, but after seeing how many Nebraska fans had gone to Oklahoma City for the first time the Huskers have ever won a NCAA game and they won two. Somehow a giant flag, like not a flag that you would procure easily in Oklahoma City

of Nebraska flag ended up at the Tiki by Saturday afternoon. I'm sure all those Sooners love seeing that. That's a pretty deep-rooted rivalry. Yeah. Well, not as much anymore since they're not in the same conference. But not so sure the Nebraska fans discovering the Tiki and discovering Bricktown for the first time, which I'm sure there were many. The jumping into the canal there. It's concerning.

You know, you didn't see any Thunder fans jump into the canal when they won the title last summer. No. They knew how many a time? I've never once thought it'd be a good idea to jump in. Yeah. No, the canal, the riverwalk in San Antonio. Like, none of these are places that you want to take a dip. Correct.

Anyway, I don't know if you saw about the Thunder. We're not going to really talk about the Thunder, but they won their 11th consecutive game on Saturday. Oh, fracas. More fisticuffs. I'll tell you what, if the pistons end up in the finals with the Thunder. Fistichuffs. If you, I'll tell you what, if we.

Might want to use a card a little bit better than that. I think we just saw for people watching it on the YouTube. I think we saw Windows has not been in too many fights. No, I haven't been. I don't tend to be. But I'm telling you, Pistons Thunder, if we get a finals of Pistons Thunder, boy. Some Rock and Soccer is going to be working overtime.

Hey, we forget that. We might get it first round with Pistons Horn. It's round two. True. I would just say that the Pistons are, you know, sort of, that's their M.O. I think the Thunder, they invite, teams getting their feelings a little bit. about Oklahoma City. The level of physicality

that the Thunder play with definitely leads to some harsh feelings. Like the Pistons. Pistons do the same thing. Yeah. Well, the Thunder are also the champs. There is that.

Yeah, I don't think the lizards are too concerned about how many games you've won. You know, that's not really part of the equation in Washington right now. I think the Pacers have lost 15 in a row and the Wizards have lost 14 or it's 15. I think it's actually 15 and 16. ending tonight's game at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks.

So we'll see if it extends or not. Yeah, tough blow for the lizards. That pesky little thigh contusions acting up again for Trey Young. I'm sure that, you know, folks within that Lizards franchise are pretty disappointed. The Trey's not going to be able to play for a little bit here. And waiting on AD, that six-week timetable to recover from the hand injury the math's put out, well, we're about four weeks past that. By the way, before we talk about, before we actually get into the podcast,

as long as we're messing around here in annoying Jackson, Did you see Victor Wenbino's like Tom Cruise-esque flyby of Rick Carlisle last night? I did. I'm not sure. Like I didn't, obviously I was not watching Pacer's spurs. So I'm not sure what that was about. But he very purposely ran over and like bumped into Carlisle on the sideline like he was Tom Cruise buzzing the tower. Carlisle got back.

Yes, he did. Carlisle's, he can be nimble on the sidelines. But one of my favorite Rick Carlisle techniques is the angry Rick. timeout or he like storms out on the floor while calling a timeout and almost runs into the ref and then looks at the ref like he's mad at the ref. Spolstra. Spolstra. Yeah.

Spolstra. The Spolstra rage timeout is where he like, you know, he stomps about 12 feet down the core and then does the-in-out-out-the-half-face. Yeah. Yeah. I think Spolstra could probably the fastest 40 time of current coaches. Did Spolster call any of those while Luca was lighting him up for 60 the other night? Oh, my goodness.

How about Bam? By the way, before we talk about the Lakers, how about Bam with a low-key trash talk? I want to give Bam. Spolstra gets a special honor. I don't know what I'm going to call it for apologizing to absolutely nobody. I love that.

And then Luca puts 60 on the heat in an absolutely jaw-dropping masterpiece performance. And Bam goes, yeah, man, 60's amazing. Now you know how hard it is to get to 80. Well, 83. And I tell you, I really. Listen, I know I criticized the stat padding and all that and hurt some feelings down there in South Beach. Oh, some of those, some of those unbiased heat media folks and some others. I tell you, though, I can appreciate the way that the heater really leaning in 83.

They're selling the jerseys and is a special tribute to BAMs 83. That is the exact number of games. I think the heater could end up playing this season. He had that one in the chamber. You think? You think? By the way, I think they're probably going to play at least 84, but we'll see. Oh, we'll see.

All the injuries the Sixers have, I suspect the Sixers and Hornets will wind up. In all serious, just though. That win over the heat for the Lakers and for Lucas scoring 60 for LeBron getting a triple double, that was an amazing win. That was such a bad piece of scheduling for the Lakers. They had an 8.30 local tip in Houston the night before, which means 845. National TV game, blah, blah, blah. You know, good win over the rockets. LeBron had six dunks in that game at the age of 41.

I mean, what are we even watching? It's unbelievable. And then they don't get to their hotel in Miami until damn near 5 o'clock in the morning. Wheels down. I looked at their flight. The wheels down at Miami International at three. 59 a.m. Yeah. And so I was honestly surprised that all their guys played. Me too. They put him as questionable so that they, you know, so they were cleared. Luca Reeves and LeBron were listed as questionable so that they satisfied all the rules so that they could have easily ruled them out. And then they didn't. And then for LeBron to turn around the next night and go for a triple double and for Luca to have it like, that's 60. I'm sorry. That's more impressive than Bams. 83 against a tanking team. That's 60 when you needed all 60 to win a 22, 21 hour turnaround

back to back against a team that is trying to make the playoffs. Well, there was a couple of crazy back to back. So the other day, Denver played at home. I'm trying to think if that was a national TV game. But then they played. That was the reschedule game in Memphis that they, that they ended up managing to lose. So I looked at the, they landed at Memphis. Memphis International, I believe it's Frederick W. Smith International. Anybody know who Frederick Smith was? Founder of FedEx. Good job.

They landed at 3.18 a.m. So that's a tough turn, but that's a makeup game. This game was scheduled. Yeah, that's bad scheduling by the NBA. But again, for the Lakers to be able to win it in 60 on 18 of 30 shooting, geez. And then that's not what everybody's talking about with Luke. coming out of the weekend, which is impressive. Well, okay, that's, we'll get there in a second.

But let's just acknowledge some of the three-pointers that Luca threw in in the fourth quarter of that game. I've been watching Luca for years now, and I've constantly been amazed at how he looks like he moves slowly, but still gets open. And I was talking with someone who's in basketball, literally was talking with him on Friday night after that game. I watched the game on the plane home from L.A. had terrific Wi-Fi. All right. It was awesome. Oh, my God.

I was watching it live. I was like, you know, I'm not one of these guys that reacts to basketball games, but when Luca was thrown in some of those shots, I was sitting there going, I was like exclaiming.

And people thought I was watching NCAA. I was like, no, I was watching the best thing going. And I was talking to someone who knows basketball very well. I'm not going to say it anymore. But he said to me, the reason that Luke is able to do this

is because if he's an elite decelerator. Yeah. So when you think about what you want to do in any sport, you want to accelerate, right? And certainly there's

incredible accelerators in basketball where you can get the corner turned, you can outrun guys. You know, it's a, it's a premium

attribute to have. But he was saying that if you watch Luca closely, and I watched some film back of several games just in the last

couple days, and this is what Luca can do. Luca can slow down faster than other people. He's able to change, basically change speeds. I actually, I would almost compare it to Greg Maddox.

Very timely reference. Greg Maddox, you know, this is sort of my age bracket here. Greg Maddox, you know, he could barely break a plane of gas, a glass, he could barely break a plane of glass with his fastball. But Maddox could move things around. Every pitch was a different speed. He, you know, he never walked anybody. famously. And the other thing that matters could do is he could throw from a bunch of different arm

angles. And that's like Luca too, McMahon. Luka can like score over the top of his head. He can shoot it from the side. He can shoot it like sidearm. He can shoot it underhanded. He's got, he's got a mastery of changing speeds. And once Luca has you on his hip, it is mercy. Because he can slow down faster than you. Like if he has you go in one direction, he can stop and turn. Even though the turn isn't fast, he can do that movement. He can slow down faster than you can slow down. Yeah, I wrote a story on this. This was when Luca was still in Dallas. Actually, this was when JJ Reddick was still at ESPN. J.J. Shattered this story out on a broadcast. But Luca is a prime example. Aren't you so impressive? Yeah, well, Doris Burke loves me too. Not you guys.

Luca, Joker is another one. Anthony Edwards is the like the example of guy who's got an elite acceleration and deceleration. But like if you talk to, and I did, I talked to people at P3, you know, that performance blab, basically. And, you know, Luca went there when he was with Real Madrid.

Bill Duffy had him go there and, you know, trained during the summer the year before his final season in Spain. And the testing, Luca and James Harden, like you could basically put them over each other, and the testing graphs were almost identical. And so the deceleration, the ability to put it in reverse even, that's the stepback stuff. And that's also being able to finish in the lane, you know, without traditional explosiveness. And Luca and Joker especially, they use that decal not just to be able to finish,

But a lot of times it's that slow step stuff. And you seem like that's the biggest trend around the league now is that slow step stuff in the lane. They use it a lot of times to set up a pass too, you know, to create that passing lane to get a guy a wide open three or to throw the late lob. Yeah, if you're an offensive player, the thing you want to do is get the defender off balance and create an advantage, right? It doesn't matter if it's by, like you said, if it's Anthony Edwards going super fast or if it's Luca or Yolk it's going. and super slow. The whole thing is if you can get the defender to hesitate or get off balance

and then be able to attack them, that's what makes the elite players so effective. And whether it's Shea, whether it's Luka, whether it's Jalen Brunson, whether it's Yokic, any of these guys, that's the thing they all have in common. They might do it in different ways, but they excel at making the defender

uncomfortable and not know what they're going to do next. And when you watch Luca play, that creativity that he's got to find a way to manipulate the defense is what makes him such a special player. And it's what's been so evident during this run is that he is in one of those rhythms right now where he's feeling good. The Lakers are in a good rhythm as a team, obviously, and he's able to get wherever he wants to go on the court.

And as a result of that, he's getting the Lakers clean looks, whether it's for himself or others. And it's made them into an absolute juggernaut lately. and it also bears repeating. I looked at up while you guys were talking. The Lakers are 22 and 6 in clutch games this season. No other team has less than 10 losses on the season, and they're more than 10 percentage points better than everybody else.

And you could point to that and say, this team only has a plus one point differential, and they're not actually that good, and they're going to lose early in the playoffs, because when they get up against a high-level opponent, they're not going to be able to survive on clutch time, or you can point at it and say they have Luca Donchich, they have LeBron James, they have Austin Reeves,

they have three guys who can all isolate and get buckets late in games or all smart decision makers, all know how to play, and they can manipulate the defense's late in games and they can make more plays than their opponent against any kind of competition because they have super high-level individual offensive creators. And that push and pull with the Lakers is the thing that we're just going to have to wait until the playoffs,

how it goes because that is the core argument one way or the other against whether this is a legitimate team that can make a run or one that's doing it. Smoke and mirrors might be strong, but overplaying what they have because of their ability to perform latent games and that'll show the opposite way when the playoffs come. Well, speaking of getting up, something else that I will tell you about the Lakers that's a facet. And yes, they probably are a little, you know, some of that 22 and 6 record is due to very A lot of it's due to the mastery of Luca and LeBron and Reeves.

But this is interesting stat from ESPN research. So last night, our Saturday night, I should say, against the or our magic, which we're going to talk about in a second. They led that game by as many as 14 points. They ended up winning with less than a second left, which we'll talk about in a second. But when they get up by 14 points or more in a game this year, they're 30 and 0. Now, we are in the era where no lead is safe. And last night, they could have lost that game.

However, it's something to be said for being able to control the game once you get a lead and not let another team back in. So what you're saying about the Lakers is if you get into a close game, okay, they're not going to win them all, especially in the playoffs against super league competition. But you get in a close game, you've got to like their chances. And secondly, if they get up on you, they're not going to let you back in it, most likely. that's two facets of, you know, I would prefer a team that doesn't have to play the fourth quarter because they hold those 14-point leads so much that they don't have to play these stuck place clutch time games.

But these are facets of high-level teams. Just the truth. You know, if you talk to like analytics-driven people around the league, they'll kind of be dismissive of clutch stats and say, you know, those are more luck-based than anything else. I don't think, though, that you can just dismiss the fact that they've got guys who are proven closures. And also, like, hey, I think we've got to give JJ Redick and his coaching staff some credit here, too. They consistently draw up stuff and end-the-game situations that gets guys wide open looks.

We saw it with Luke Conard in Orlando. And I'm thinking even some of the times, you know, some of their rare misses, you know, the rare clutch losses, like there was that debacle where Luca passed up a wide open look and threw grenade to LeBron the last time they played the magic and they lost that? Yeah, well, let's talk about that. So both those games, so that last time the loss of the magic was when they were in that stretch where I think they lost like five of seven. Yeah, three in a row. Yeah, they were three in a row there. And I think since that time, they've won 12 or 13.

But anyway, that game in Orlando was where they ran basically that football play, where the entire team was behind the half court line. They all run across like receivers coming out of a bunch formation. Luca ends up with a wide open shot from like, what would you say, McMahon, 25? I mean, it was probably 27, 28. But like Lucas never hesitated to take a wide open look at that range. Like that's a shot that he's comfort with. that he just for whatever reason. Well, there was some stats that he doesn't really

hasn't been taking last second shots, but it's either here nor there. It was obviously a really nice play design that resulted in not winning the game. And that was a clutch time loss. And they actually went through a stretch there where they lost a few clutch time games. All right.

So now you look at the game on Saturday. Okay, this game was messy at the end. Both teams did some wild stuff, including the magic, turning the ball over, and handing the Lakers a chance to win the game. That's another thing. topic, but in the end of the game, again, you've got JJ Redick designing a play that, I don't know, I don't know what you would call it. It was, it was another trips set. It was basically, in this

case, Conard, LeBron, and Luca basically running a pattern, which confused the magic and resulted in Luke Conard getting a, I think, 10.5 foot open shot was what the data showed. And remember what happened seconds before that is LeBron got a layup and it wasn't whistled, but he got the hell hacked out of him by Apollo. And so on this play, it's like, dude, Luke Kinnard's leading the league in three point percentage. How does he get wide open? And the simple answer is that the magic were so worried about, you know, LeBron set up

like he was going to set a screen and then just dived hard to the rim. And Bain switched it, but Paulo stuck with LeBron. So you've got two on the brawn because they're so worried about him diving hard to the rim. And then none on Luke Conard, you know, it was a botched switch or botched comming communication by the magic, but that's how Kinnard got so open. Excellent play and excellent recognition by Marcus Smart, who was inbounding. I'm sure that they've run through this and that they need knows what to look for.

But still, obviously, you got Luca and LeBron in the play and you're trying to get a basket to tie the game or win the game. And Kinnard's the guy open and Smart hit the open guy. I mean, what's his percentage on that shot, Bontem's wide open shot, catch and shoot? I mean, he's probably 60% on that shot. I mean, Luke Conard might be the single best guy in the league to take that shot. And they designed it specifically to get it for him. Yeah, I mean, Luke Conard on wide open shots, I'd have to go look at the numbers. He might legitimately be the best shooter in the NBA.

I mean, his issue has always been. He's a guy that is sometimes hesitant to let it go if he's not wide open. But his percentages year over year are sky high in part because if he gets an open look, it's going in. And when he caught the ball at the top of the key, I was like, there's no way this is doing anything, but going through the basket. I mean, there was just no doubt in my mind. And yeah, it was an incredibly impressive play.

He was so open. He had time to adjust the shooting sleeve during the play. I didn't notice that. Catch it and then let that thing fly. Well, all right. So on Monday, there is a game that in theory would be pretty interesting, which is the Lakers in the Lakers in the last. last high-stakes game of this road trip, which they're already four and oh on, playing in Detroit.

They finished the road trip on Wednesday in Indiana, and I would highly recommend they win that game, and I can't see them not winning it. Good advice. It's a Zubach, by the way, out for the year with a broken rib. That's an injury that does not require skepticism. That sucks. So he's not going to play in that game. But anyway, more Hoop Collective Podcast after this.

However, on Monday, as we talked about last week, there will be No Cade Cunningham. as he deals with his own sternum ribcage lung issue, which I hope he's feeling better. That's no good. And I don't think we're going to see Luca either. We haven't gotten the official announcement as we're recording this, McMahon. But the 16th tech has come for Luca, and I don't think he's wiggling out of this one.

I guess I don't know. I guess I've seen things happen, so I guess I shouldn't say that. He twice, as Mack 10 pointed out, in his very well-reported story from Orlando, where he got all sides of the. the story. Twice, I believe, Lucas' last two full years in Dallas,

they did rescind what would have been the technical that would have been the suspension, including the year they went to the West Finals, Luca, when he first strained that calf in the regular season finale against the Spurs, he only played in that game because the technical foul was rescinded. So it ended up costing him three games

instead of one because he strained the calf the first three games of the playoffs when Jayden Brunson. made himself a lot of money. But look, this one, there's a lot of he said he said. He started it. No, he started it. Yeah. Look, I just want to say, it's kind of like I give people a pass on tanking, good people, doing, you know, bad things for the sake of tanking. I'm not going to judge it. Like, JJ Redget comes into the press conference and he's like, Goga said something about his family. You know, like. JJ said something. He said something about his mother. And then Lucas said that goga said bleep his whole. I'll bleep your whole family. Right.

And, and so, you know, it was all, apparently it was all in Serbian. It was all in Serbian. Right. So we're all taking everybody's, but there was an incredible coverage of the detail of the trash talk that went down. Right. And Goga said, hey, I just repeated what Lucas said to me. That's the Cliff's Notes version, you know. I know one of those guys is a pretty notorious trash talker and it's not Goga.

So, you know, believe what you will. I've, well, look, I'm just saying like they're defending, he said something about his mother. Oh, he said something about his mother. Oh, well, in that case, that technical is getting rescinded. Like I said, I don't, I, I, they're doing what they got to do. But it was kind of fun. It was kind of fun. It was kind of fun. Because Luca, to his credit, has done something about his conditioning and made massive strides there. This is the one massive flaw that he has. It's petulance. Oftentimes, vint at rest, in this case, it was at another player. The result. was the same. He got another technical foul. You know, Luca took accountability for letting his teammates down, but he definitely put the blame on Goga. And Goga talking to Mac 10 and the Orlando Sentinel beat right over the phone because he wanted to get his side on the record. You know, basically he said, you know, talk about respect for families, blah, blah, blah. He said, he just said some inappropriate things in the Serbian language, which I played at Serbia. I understand. I don't know if he knew I understood what he said.

So I just set it back. And there was nothing towards his family or anybody. His family, I really truly respect them. But basically, he's saying I repeated back to Luca what Lucas said to me. So point being, look, here's what, here's what happened. Luca, who's been on a sizzling streak even by his standards, couldn't hit a shot in the second half, right? He started 10 of 15. Then I finished, I think he finished one of 13, I think after that.

Something like that. Goga fouled him. And Luca and Goga getting this thing where there's trash talk, conservative. while Luke is at the free throw line. You know, he said, he said, whoever started it, whatever. We need Yokic to mitigate. We need Yokic to come in and determine, you know, he needs to be like the ref and like issue the edict on whether or not

there's technical should stand. So Luca misses the first free throw. And then his protest or the referees, he just said this, you know, in the middle of the thing, makes the second free throw. Then they go back down the court and they're barking, they're barking, and then double T's. And then the Lakers are mad.

they said there weren't warning issued, warnings issued. Mark Davis, the rep told the pool reporter, yeah, there was. There was warnings issued when they were going at it while Luke was at the free bill line. Yeah, based on the pool report, it does not, I mean, look, like I said, this is very simple. If Luca Dodgich doesn't want to get suspended for technical fouls, guess what? Don't get technical files all the time. Like, this isn't, this is not some sort of conspiracy against Luca Dachich and the Lakers. Like, give me a break.

Like, if you're going to act like this all the time and get technicals all the time, And yeah, there's a reason why McMahon was on pool reporter duty when he was in Dallas, and every time Luke could get a technical, he would go down to the ref's room and do an interview after the game and find out why he got a technical because this became a story every single year because the guy is flirting with a suspension every single year or getting a suspension every single year and they're fighting to get these texts rescinded because he keeps getting them. So just don't get them anymore. It was wildly inappropriate whenever McMahon filed up a pool report that he denoted the refs's height.

So I didn't, I never thought that was. That's the first question of every pool of part I do. I don't do nearly as many of them now that Luke is gone. No, you don't. I'm just so tired of this whole discussion for that reason. I agree. Don't put yourself in that position. We're talking about a guy who's on his third contract in the NBA.

Like, come on. This is not a, we're not talking about a teenager. I know, obviously. But, you know, I know obviously in Laker fans don't always go together. Or Luka fans for that matter. Well, that's the same thing in Dallas. It's not like this. This is new.

Yeah, of course, you're going to defend your guy again. I'm just saying, look, I will say this. Luca was averaging a technical about every three and a half games. We'll give him a nudge and say he was averaging a technical every four games. He hadn't gotten one in nine plus games. This was the 10th game since he had gotten a tech. I covered the two games in Houston. In the first game, I was on Red Alert on multiple occasions.

Okay, so you're saying he was bubbling in that direction? It was. And here's a thing. Like, let's just do. Dude, refs follow the league. Reths don't want to be the guy who gives an MVP candidate. Luca is back to being a legitimate MVP candidate with this run he's on. Refs don't want to be the guy who gives an MVP candidate a one-game suspension.

They know he has 15, just like when Luca or Dremont. Mark Davis is one of the top officials in the league. It's the Dremont. Get the technical foul three minutes into the game thing and then go crazy the rest of the game because he knows the refs aren't going to want to throw him out because the rest are trying not to put their thumb on the scale in the game. And Luca's done the same thing. And, you know, JJ was asked, I think after the heat game, again, when Luca, I mean, 60 points on that kind of a back-to-back against a decent opponent.

It was an absolutely masterpiece of offensive basketball. It's on the shortlist of his best performances. And the guy's had a 60-point triple-double. He's had all kinds of monster nights. But JJ's asked about that game, like, you know, basically why, why wouldn't Luke beat the MVP? And JJ kind of gave him a snarky, like, I don't know, because he complains to refs. But, like, dude, it is, it is his biggest flaw. And I would say, not just complain to rest, the petulants, right?

In this case, it's going at opponents. And sometimes that stuff fuels them. Sometimes it distracts them. The rest of the thing. And I can empathize with Luca. He's going through a very, very difficult time in his personal life that unfortunately has become public knowledge with the custody battle and all that stuff, right? When times are tough for Luca off the floor, that's when he's at his most petulant on the floor. He went through some very difficult stuff in his personal life in Dallas that, you know, he has not discussed publicly and just it's, I don't, I, like, I sympathize with the guy.

He went through some really tough things. But there was, it was a situation where, like, people with the Mavericks knew just based on who was in town. Like, hey, Luca's going to be volatile tonight, you know, and Luca, he goes at refs in particular when he's venting because he's really frustrated with other things. Sometimes frustrated with things within the franchise. A lot of times it's stuff in his personal life. And, like, you can sympathize with that. and say, hey, like, it's really the one thing that's holding you back. And, again, it's not just, hey, he gets technical fouls.

It's, hey, he's not getting back on defense because he's so engaged in the referees. It's that kind of stuff. And again, he gets distracted. He gets knocked off his game because, again, we're talking about one of the best players on the planet. And look, this is the same stuff that Nicole Yolkich had dealt with us dealt with at times in the past, too. I mean, remember, before Yokic won the title, I mean, he got to. ejected from the end of that playoff series against the Suns.

Like, he's had some moments like that too. And then he went through and won the title. And now, like, that's all in the rearview mirror. So, Joker's been pretty volatile lately with some of the physicality stuff, but I hear you. I agree. My point is, when you get to the mountaintop

and you win the title, that stuff gets pushed to the side, right? And people just think of you as winning in the end. So whenever, I mean, I expect Luke at some point in his career to win a title because the guys one of the most talented players ever. So at some point, I am guessing there'll be a similar path for him. But, yeah, if you're talking about flaws in his game, when he gets off kilter and gets distracted,

that's when the defense slips, starts focusing on the refs. He gets out of the rhythm that he's been in. And we've seen it the last few weeks. When he is playing like this, like there's a reason why it was so insane Dallas made the trade, which again, it's an obvious thing to say. But like you watched this last month, it's like this guy can do things,

hardly anybody who's ever played the sport can do. And like you're seeing it with this Lakers team. And as we've talked about, it's an imperfect flawed Laker team that isn't a great fit overall for what his skill set is and what you can really do to optimize him. And they're still on this run

and they still could potentially have a chance. Before we switch topics, which we're about to. I don't want to switch yet. Okay. I got a couple other points to make. Real quick, Luca is averaging in this,

where they're 12 and 1 in this stretch, like, and the Lakers have morphed into, like, hey, if we're going to take the Nuggets seriously as a container in the West, we've got to include the Lakers in that conversation. Luca's averaging 36, 8 and 8,

with over two steals and almost a block per game during a stretch on remarkable efficiency. And, Wendy, what do you think is it going to be the Luka topic when you're on get up Monday morning? I'm not doing get up on Monday. I can't have one. Yeah, I know.

You know what I'm saying. He's going to get suspended. Get up and first take. That's going to be the topic. Yeah. And the other thing, though, that's happened is, like, Wendy, you said it on multiple occasions. We all said it. And, you know, the data at the time was awfully convincing that Luca Reeves, LeBron as a trio, didn't work.

That's right. Since that three-game losing street, you know, that lost to Orlando was part of it, that we mentioned. So starting February, late February here. In 216 minutes, that trio has a net rating of plus 18.3. Offensive rating 124.

Defense rating in 106 in that range. And that was, they were minus 4.9 in 238 minutes before then. What's happened, LeBron has accepted his backseat role and LeBron has been an absolute monster.

as a fewer than 15 field goal attempt per game guy. Like, he's average almost 20 per game. LeBron's ISOs have dropped dramatically. LeBron, you know what, you know what stat you can look at to see the difference between how LeBron's playing now is to those, the number of dribbles per game LeBron is taking is down, like a huge amount. But again, he's been awesome.

Like, he's averaged 19.7 points shooting about 60% from the floor, six rebounds, six assists. He's still as dominant of a bit. I mean, he's leading the league in fast break points. I watched two games in Houston. The man dunk nine times and like six of them were absolute highlight real dunks. LeBron, and less is definitely more for a 41-year-old, which isn't a shock. The shock is a 41-year-old still so damn athletic, but they've got a clearly defined pecking order now.

LeBron's thriving in that role. And if you'd have told me in late February, hey, LeBron might actually be back in L.A., which, Wendy, you always tried to leave Wiggle Room and I never wanted to hear it, I'll listen now because they've got, and like this team, they're enjoying each other. Like the chemistry has done a 180. His true shooting percentage since the all-star break is 62%. His usage rate has gone from 28 to 23. So there's your-

Let's see where things are at in a month before we start talking about that. Here's what I would just say. I'm just saying, like, you know, let's see where they're at in a month. But they've racked up some really, really good wins. No, they've played great. I mean, listen, in the last week, they, I mean, look, did they get lucky to beat Denver? Yeah, but they won. Did they get lucky to beat Orlando?

Yeah, but they won. They beat Houston twice on the road in a baseball series. It's very hard to do. They win this crazy back to back in Miami. Like, they're beating real teams. Beat the Knicks, beat the wolves. They're playing great. All I was saying about let's wait a month and see where things are at are,

let's see how the playoffs go before we get too far into the chemistry's improved. LeBron might be back, all this kind of stuff. What you guys were talking about. with what's happened with the Lakers Big Three and what you're talking about, Bontems was let's see what happens in the playoffs. I have spent most of my career covering the NBA and I have developed a three-word statement

that covers all of these eventualities. There's always time. That's right. There's always time. Before we move on, because you're talking about that makes trades. I thought the three words were leave wiggle room, if you're better at than I am.

There's always time. I said don't make opinions. I meant no big predictions is what I like to say. All right. Um, how about, can I just point out that recent Mavericks trade piece, Quentin Grimes is putting up like humongous numbers since Tyrese went down? He's put up humongous numbers from basically the moment he got to Philadelphia last year. Well, but not really this year when, when B.J. Hedgham took some of his. I mean, he was, he was still playing very well as there. He's averaging eight less points per game this year. But I just want to point out since Maxi went down, Grimes, who's going to be an unrestricted free agent is having, and they had a, they'd be.

he beat Utah. He beat Utah and SAC over the last couple of days on the road. That was the second worst trade of Nico's final deadline. I just say he's had a whole bunch of really high-level performances. He's played great. Yeah. I think he's pretty much played every game this year. He's maybe missed one game or two games.

Well, maybe he's missed a couple more. He's been awesome for them. I mean, he's been one of the best six men in the league all year. It's going to be very interesting free agency. And in light of the Jared McCain trade, like when Philadelphia made that trade, like there's obviously it's been a hotly debated topic in Philly. But when you make that trade and you keep Grimes, the idea clearly is you're going to have him as your third guard with Tyrese

and V.J. Edgecom going forward. And if he somehow leaves this summer as a free agent and they don't retain his services, it's only going to put a bigger spotlight on that trade, which on top of how Grimes has played, certainly you would think would give him some leverage in those negotiations to get a payday in Philly. Well, I don't mean to, you know, poke the Mavericks even further, but they lost their how many games in a row now?

Well, the Mavericks are trying to lose. I understand. But I saw they haven't, they haven't won at home in two months. The Mavericks are in the midst of their worst 25-game stretch of this millennium. That's all you need to know. The Mavericks are having an incredible stretch because, you know, look, the NBA, I think sort of ridiculously brought the hammer down only on Indiana. Utah back in February.

And you could say they should have brought the hammer down in Indiana and Utah. But if you're going to do that, to me, you should be doing it to everybody. And the last month has been a joke, as we know, for all these teams. We don't talk about tanking. Well, you just brought up Dallas. You got Memphis, you got Dallas, you got all Indiana and Washington losing a million games in a row now. Like the Mavericks, like their tanking measures aren't that extreme. They just stink.

Like Memphis and Washington, some of these other teams are being very creative. The Mavericks just stink. Dallas now has a 37% chance of getting a top four pick. Well, and forget that. The key for me is that Dallas has gotten themselves into having an extremely high probability of having a top seven pick. And in this draft, you want to have a top seven pick. There's the four guys at the top in whatever order. AJ DeBancet, Dan Peterson, Cam Booser, and Caleb Wilson.

Then there's the three guards. Keaton Wagler from Illinois, Kingston Fleming's from Houston, Dallas guy. and Darius Acuff, or he's from San Antonio, Darius Acuff, I believe a Dallas guy from Arkansas. Aikov's a Dallas guy? I thought so.

I could be wrong about that. But if you get one of those top seven guys to pair with Cooper Flag going forward, I think the Mavericks are going to be feeling pretty good about where they're at. Don't worry, the Bulls are in ninth. Yes, they are. But this slide has gotten the Mavericks down

into pretty good position to get one of those picks, which would be pretty big time for them, if they don't jump up. Question. What was the biggest win in the NBA on Saturday night? It comes from Detroit. Sorry. I missed that.

I was going to say. Mess that up. What was the biggest win in the NBA on Saturday night? What was the biggest win in the NBA on Saturday night? Biggest win the NBA on Saturday night? I'll wait. It wasn't Lakers over Magic? No, clearly not.

Oh, Cavs Corner? Hashtag Caves Corner down in New Orleans. You know the Pelicans had won seven consecutive home games. Hey, in all seriousness, James Barago is doing a great. job down there in New Orleans, and I don't think he's going to get legitimate consideration to be the head coach on a full-time basis moving forward. And I think that is evidence that you've got a bad front office in place there. Go on. Well, I don't know whether he's going to get consideration or not. We haven't. Okay. Have you heard that he is? I haven't heard that he

isn't. I don't think that he is either, and I would agree with McMahon. Okay. Like Wendy, this is a case where you don't want to say what you know, but you know that I'm not holding things out of thin air. So go on. I agree. I'm just trying to protect you from getting aggregated. I don't give a crap. All right. Anyway, yes, James Brigo is doing a very good job. The mandate, because they don't have their pick, was to win. That was the mandate given when he took over, win, and he has made decisions that have been focused on winning, specifically with who he's playing. Including not starting the guy who's the reason you don't have to pick. Go on. That's true. He put both rookies into the, onto the bench, Fears and Queen.

And also they got back to Jante Murray in this stretch, and Jizante's had some significant impact. That has also helped. And they're one of the few teams that's trying, and so therefore, by default, you're picking up wins against the teams. That's true. But they've also won some games against teams sort of trying.

Like they just beat the Clippers twice in a row. Twice. Yes. The Clippers have hit a bit of a skid here after they were going well, although they did win an overtime on Saturday. Dude, if they'd have lost that one, they'd be looking at a losing streak that includes losses to the king. twice to the Pelicans and the Madvics.

They pulled it out in OT, but they were in serious danger zone. It's good to see Darius Garland back in... He had 40 and Kauai had 35 in that game. I watched Garland's pregame warm-up. He took like 15 deep threes in a row and didn't touch the rim. Anyways, go on. He's a very talented guy. He's a live body when he's healthy.

The guy he was traded for, though, James Hardin, the Cavs are now 13 and 4 when Hardin plays. And this was a low-key good win for the Cavs. They just finished a 3-0 road trip. I was, I'm not sure. So when you look at the Eastern Conference right now, you obviously have Boston. Tatum is looking better, basically by the game.

That should be a loud sounding, something that is very loud in the Eastern Conference. To me, they are the number one favorites right now. You've got Cade likely out for the rest of the regular season. They should be okay. Their schedule is not simple. but they have a four-game lead in the lost column plus the tiebreaker over Boston. And they have tie-breaker over New York.

Not that I think New York is so I'm making a run. The Knicks and the Cavs are sort of kind of doing the same thing different ways. They're racking up wins, but unimpressively. But anyway, the Cavs just went on a 3-0 road trip. They won in Milwaukee where Janus didn't play, and it was an unimpressive win. then they went to Chicago and they got up by 29 and let the lead go all the way down to one in the fourth quarter before they put it away. Escaped. And then they were down 15 in the second half to the Pelicans who were trying to win their eighth consecutive home game.

And then they had a huge rally in the fourth quarter. Hardin and Donovan Mitchell were excellent down the stretch of this game. Donovan, I think, had 12 or 14 in the fourth. Cleveland, we haven't talked about him in a while. Donovan had a very good end to that game, but ever since he's had a groin injury and he missed three or four games a couple of weeks ago, his numbers have been leveled off a little bit.

And he's dealing with this eye thing too now. Yeah, and his eye. Well, and Cleveland did have one of the worst losses over the last couple weeks when they somehow managed to lose by double figures to that Mavericks team. were hammering last Sunday. On the road, by the way,

a couple nights after beating him by 30-something. That's right. And again, I would like to see the itinerary, the previous night of a certain cab star player. Well, yeah, and to go back to Detroit real quick, just because it's interesting with the Cade thing, their schedule the rest of the month is Lakers at home, hawks at home, Pelicans on a back-to-back at home,

then at Minnesota, at OKC, and then home for Toronto on a back-to-back. That is not an easy stretch of schedule, particularly without Cade. So if they can go three-and-three in that stretch or better, I think they're going to be in pretty darn good shape to keep the number one seed. But if they go 1-5, 2-4, and Boston can rip off a few wins, you know, in April, they've got another game of Minnesota, they have Philly, they've got Orlando,

then they've got Milwaukee, and Indiana and Charlotte, the final couple of games of the season. So Indiana and Milwaukee should be wins, but all these other games are against teams that are trying to play for something and have been on decent runs. So the Pistons are going to have some work due

to keep that number one seed without Cade. And it is going to be an interesting test to see what they look like. Because as we've talked about, the big question about this team is, what do they do without Cade on the court in general in the playoffs? And now, like, they're going to have a lot of time down the stretch to see what that looks like.

So the Cavs with this three-game win streak have opened up a little bit of a cushion on Toronto for the last home court seat in the east. Toronto has sort of been spinning its wheels for a while here. Toronto has the tie break, but the Cavs now have a three-game lead in the loss column. Cavs also have the third easiest schedule. Yeah, they're projected to be six games up on Charlotte at Toronto at the end. I don't think that's the question. I think the question is can they catch anybody in from them? They're projected to be one game back of the Knicks

and two games back of Boston. If you're Cleveland, would you rather be three than four? No. No. They do not match up well against the Celtics. They've done better. They should have beaten the Pistons three out of four this year, but one game we've talked about Jalen Tyson,

fouled 70 feet from the basket in Boston overtime. If I'm Cleveland, I don't want any part of the Celtics so I have to play them. So if I could be on the opposite side of the bracket of them and the Knicks, that would be fine if I were done. Just let them play and sort it out later. More Hoop Collective podcast after this.

They've had some issues with Orlando in the past, and they play Orlando again this week coming up. If Orlando ends up as the five, that four or five matchup, I think, depending on Franz Wagner, that would be a, I think, a real battle. I would favor Cleveland in that battle, but Orlando has given them some problems.

Well, Orlando's got some, some winning to do if they're going to get there. Hey. Yeah, they've now lost four in a row. And by the way, the Atlanta Hawks. There you go. Not beating a real team since the All-Star break, are 12 and 1 since the All-Star break.

They have a couple of decent wins. They just, in Orlando when they beat them was hot. No, they don't. Well, Orlando is the one. That's right. Orlando's the one game. Because the Philly was all banged up, and every other game was against a tanker.

Like, it's not their fault. They beat everybody that's in front of them. Now they're going to get Detroit. without Cade and Isaiah Stewart. But they played Houston on Friday in a real test and they got smacked. Didn't go well. And look, they've played much better, to be clear. But it has been a remarkable stretch of schedule for them.

And they've taken absolute full advantage of it. I mean, like McMahon said before, you know, Cleveland nearly lost several of these games to tankers, lost the game to Dallas. Like, you got to beat who's in front of you. But just by doing that for a month, they went from being a disappointment all season and floating in ninth or 10th and like within a game or two of Milwaukee.

Wasn't that long ago when they had roughly the same record as the Bucks. And now they're way over 500. They're into the top six. And they've got a chance to, you know, maybe even get up to five, which is crazy. Think about how much the Hawks roster has changed over the course of the season. Yes. There is zero, there is basically zero drama in the back half of the West playoffs. Phoenix has lost five in a row.

So it's now Minnesota and Denver are tied basically at fifth and sixth. And then it's four games, Phoenix, four games clippers. There's no drama at all basically there. And there's nine games. Yeah, the drama is who's going to be eight or nine, clippers or blazers. Right. There's nine games separating 10 and 11. And in the east you've got three games separating five and 10.

It could go in any direction. Right. So let me give you. And all I can. care about is a loss column. Don't tell me the win column. The loss column is what you can control. Yeah, by the way, Atlanta, who do they play Monday night? They got Memphis at home. It's going to be 13 and one in their 14 games since the All-Star break. All right. So right now, as we're doing this pot on Sunday, Atlanta has 32 losses. They're technically in six. They've got some tie break over

Philly. Atlanta's got 32 losses. Philly's got 32 losses. Orlando's got 32 losses. Miami's got 33 losses. Charlotte's got 34. So any of those teams could end up between six and 10. You could see any combination. And Toronto's only a couple games ahead. They could easily wind up back there, too. Let me see how tough Toronto's got. Toronto's got an easy schedule coming in. Charlotte and 10th there had all those teams.

If you want to look at like a larger sample size, like called since the 26th part of the schedule, since January 1st, Charlotte's played the best basketball of all those teams. Well, listen, as of right now, our projection system is a Sunday afternoon, has Toronto finishing fifth with 46 wins, the Hawks finishing 6th with 45 wins, then Orlando having over 44 and a half, so we'll say 45 wins,

and then Philly, Miami, and Charlotte, all having 44 wins. So it's probably going to be tight all the way down to the last game of the season. And one sneaky thing that could wind up being a factor in all this is the division. is the division and the fact that the four of those teams are all in the Southwest Division, or Southeast Division, like whoever wins that division is going to have a giant leg up

on the rest of these teams that are fighting in that mix. Also, one of the tiebreakers down the list is your record within your division, your divisional record. And guess who's got the best divisional record amongst the Southeast Division teams? Who? That would be the Buzz City Killers, baby. The BuzzCity Killers are 11 and 5. Yep.

So, FYI. Real quick, before we move on, but the calves, the calves are, they are very hard to read right now. There are stretches in games where they look very good defensively. Overall, defensively for the last 20 games, they've been a middle of the pack to bottom 10 defensive team. There are stretches in games where they look good defensively. Stretches in games where they look horrible defensively. Tretches and games where they look awesome with James Hardin out there, stretches of games where, you know, Dennis Schroeder has really had more.

subpar games than good games so far for them. He had a point yesterday. And Jared Allen remains out sort of indefinitely with what Kenny Atkinson calls severe knee tendonitis. Ooh, that doesn't sound great. So they ruled them out of this entire road trip before it even started. Maybe we'll get an update on Monday or Tuesday. But anyway, before we go, McMahon, I just want to check in because you were just in

Houston. The Rockets have had an interesting week. You know, they had two wretched. fourth quarter performances against the Lakers, extenuating, extenuating, I totally botched that word. Pontems is the one of the good words.

Pointing out their fourth quarter issues because they just got totally outplayed. There is all kinds of stuff. They fall all the way down to the fifth seat, almost on sixth or whatever. Then they bounce back with two good wins over the weekend. Durant passes Jordan and scoring. They get a, you know,

It was a game winner on Saturday night. It wasn't close. Game winning tip-in by a men Thompson. That's right. Put back. And then they're celebrating the locker room, celebrating with KD, dumping water on him, and now they're all happy.

Ordinary time. Ordinary time in the NBA is what I would call that. But just check in since you just spent a bunch of time there. So a couple things. There was definitely a lot of discussion about KD's moodiness, right? The body, bad body language. There was a lot of vibe checking going on. Well, and he had the quote about, you know, maybe I shouldn't even have the ball.

I mean, that wasn't just as moody. And look, the two losses to the Lakers that had gotten recently before that, blown out in Denver, blown out in San Antonio, like, things weren't going real well for the Rockets. They'd been an awful offense for a while. And KD, after they blew out the Hawks came in and, you know, I don't know if you guys know this, but KD's online a little bit. So he comes into the press conference and he bases says, you know, hey, how are the vibes tonight? You know, how is Biden like and, you know, kind of is mocking it. But he's very, that kind of got his backup about it, which is fine. But there's a, like, there's a reason that people are looking at that stuff.

But he's basically saying, hey, the vibes are good right now. So the vibes are good, or at least they've taken, they've taken a significant tick up during these last couple games, which was needed. But the biggest development in the last couple games is Imayudoka put Reed Shepard into the starting lineup. And Tar He was really shooting it well early in the season. He cannot buy a bucket. He's got his mom tweeting lethal shooter asking for help.

I'm not even joking about that. No, I know. His mom is active on the Twitter. Yes, very much so. But Imiodoka, before the Atlanta game, plugged Reed Shepard in the starting lineup. And it's interesting. Like you understand why.

Again, they've really been struggling offensively. He's a great shooter. You know, he's a, you know, a boost of offense. The lineup data with that group was not impressive before the Atlanta game, but it's definitely been impressive in these two games. and EMA has said, you know, that the Rockets are going to give this. He didn't commit to the rest of the regular season, but he said, we're going to give it a good run here, basically,

to see if this is what we want to do moving forward. And, you know, like obviously this game came down to the, against the heat, the 83 gamers. This came down to Amin Thompson with a spectacular putback. By the way, 24 points and 18 rebounds. for a men, Thompson. That was his 18th rebound of the game. But Reed Shepard, 23 points on 8 to 12 shooting 14 assists. There you go. Shouldn't this have happened sooner? You could make that argument. Well, but the defense, he's going to get attacked on defense. So. But look, here's the reality. Okay. The reality of the situation the rockets are in is the rockets are not good enough this year, right? Probably.

Like, they're just not. They're a really good. they're not good enough. They're a really good team. They have a bright future, but they're not good enough. So to me, the most important thing from this season is to figure out between the combination of Reed Shepard, Amanda Thompson, and O'Paron-Shangoon, how do those guys fit together, what is the maximum ceiling you think of that group, and how much growth can you see from those guys?

And I'm glad we're at this point where Reed Shepard is in the starting lineup. I think he should be in the starting lineup. And he should be in the starting lineup as far as this team goes to see what it looks like at the highest levels with him out there in critical situations with these guys that the rockets are building around going forward. Like, I understand if you didn't do it from the first day of the season, but I think it probably should have happened sooner than Saturday

or last Friday, I guess, the Atlanta game. And I'm glad it's happened because I think this group should get a run. to see just what the ceiling of this team is and to see how bad the defensive issues are, can they be fixed, or can you find ways to work around it, and how will they look with Reed at the controls, with the shooting he provides and the passing he can deliver? Like, I'm glad we're seeing it,

and I think it probably should have happened soon. Well, and Wendy, what were you focused on for the Rockets leading into the trade deadline and then when they stood pat? I thought they could have given themselves a guy to initiate their offense lading games with experience. And they either couldn't find that player. They may not have found a deal they liked, but I felt their lack of veteran point guard play would hurt them.

I felt that way since November, to be clear. There's a couple of factors in the rocket's decision not to address the point guard position. Number one, Fred Vimbley is very much in their plans next season. By the way, when we talk about vibe check, the fact that they lost their leader in the preseason trip to the Bahamas, the guy was supposed to kind of balance out Katie's moodiness and then lost Stephen Adams, who's like this larger-to-life personality. That's part of the divide struggles. Can I ask one question quick, man? We haven't heard an update anytime recently on Fred. Is there any chance?

You haven't? You should listen to Howdy Partners, the hit YouTube show that we do. Okay. How about that for a tease for you, buddy? Every Thursday. Yeah, no. So is there an update on Fred and his podcast? potential to play. Yeah, I'm, I've learned from Wendy to leave wiggle room, but I was basically told, dude, Fred's not, it's not happening. Like, if it was going to be realistic, he'd have to be back in the mix now, because they're not going to, like, even if he's cleared for the first round, you can't drop a guy. It would have been insane. It would have been insane to do it, but Fred is,

I mean, I've known Fred a long time. Yeah, I know. He's kind of crazy. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't think anybody's going to tell Fred, there's no way, but I'll just say hope is not flickering for Fred Bamblite to come back this year. Okay. So, but he's very much in the plan next year. So that's part of why. That's a good way to get around aggregation. Hope is not flickering.

I like that. I'm going to write that down. That is part of the reason. But the other major, major part of the logic here for them not addressing the point card position before the trade deadline or at the trade deadline is because what position is Reed Shepherd play? Point card. So you want them to bring in a stopgap.

point guard who would be taking minutes away from Reed Shepard. They're like, no, we, the Rockets decided as a front office, we would rather live with the growing pains of Reed Shepard and to a certain extent, I'm in Thompson as well. Okay, well, they are living with those. Then they are living with them. And so, yes, this, now here, now, you know, Reed Shepard's got a huge opportunity in front of him, and EMA is committed to giving it a large enough sample size to decide. whether that's the way they're going to roll going into the playoffs.

But again, they didn't want to bring in, you know, a Tyos Jones type of guy or, you know, Cody White's not even really a pulling guard. But you know what I'm saying? They didn't want to bring in what they felt would be like a veteran stopgap type of guy that would take minutes away from Reed Shepard, who management in Houston still firmly believes this kid has star potential. I think Reed Shepard is going to be awfully good, too. That's why I was fully on board with them doing that too. Like, I'd rather just see how it goes with Reed Shepard this year and see, see where it lands and then figure out what you're going to do going forward from there. Like, I think that's the prudent strategy.

I just also would have coupled it with having him starting for it last month. But, look, we're getting down to the part of the season when the games are really going to matter. And for it to be happening now is good. And I'm excited to see what that looks like over the next month or two months. months or however long the rocket season goes. I think it'll be very fun to watch. Listen, if they can emerge from this whole thing with the four seed, which is where they're at right now, and there's a lot of basketball still be played, like, and they

could get home court in the first round, that would be a significant accomplishment. Right now, they're projected at the same record as Denver, right there. And the Lakers are almost three games clear. Incredibly, this streak has got them in really strong position to be third. That loss that Memphis to Denver had, even though, like I said, it was a tough turnaround. That could end up. Could cost them. anytime you lose to a team that's upset that they won.

It's tough. It's tough giving back games to tankers this season down the stretch. You got that right. It's not one you want to do. All right. Well, that'll do for now. I look forward to our next podcast when we also lead with the Lakers. All right. Thank you.

Hey, if they win the rest of the season, we're going to keep leading with the Lakers problem. It's one thing when they're farting around 500 and people want to say, are the Lakers contenders. It's another thing when they won 12 with 13. They've merited some spotlight, is what I would say. No, listen, I thoroughly enjoyed. I had as much fun watching that Lakers heat game as much as I've had watching any regular season game this year. It was a joy to watch.

Just a quick little footnote, that same night, Wimby, hits a pull-up midranger game winner to Sealty Spur's first playoff appearance since 2019. Right, and then calls for the drum. Like, that was awesome. Look, I agree the instant away tournament is great stuff, but like on the first of the NCAA tournament, Lucas scored 60 and Wembe hit a buzzer beater basically to send him to the first playoffs in seven years.

The pros for a reason, Brian. Yeah. Pros for a reason. All right. Thank you so much to Devon, Mark, and Jackson, putting this together. Thank you to McMahon and Bontemps. Thank you for reading and reading,

listening and watching The Hoop Collective. We'll talk to you later this week. Adios megos.