Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Tatum Return Make Boston Favorites? Wemby Passion Great For NBA + SGA’s Elite Scoring

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk Tatum’s return to the Celtics and if it now makes Boston the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference. Next, we talk about the Lakers’ big win over the Knicks before diving into Victor Wembanyama’s impassioned performances of late. The guys discuss why Wemby’s passion and competitive fire are so good for the NBA moving forward. Then, we discuss the state of the Thunder with their injuries and talk about Steve Kerr’s comments on SGA getting to the line. 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 Hoot Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Sunday evening. Joining us from San Jose, California, where he's out seeing some family, Tim Bontems.

Hello, everybody. Join us from Dallas, Texas, where he'll be for a few more minutes before he flies off to Oklahoma City tonight for a Monday's game against the Thunder Nuggets, is Van McMahon. Howdy, partners? 76 degrees in Omaha today. I bet the Tiki could be appropriate. pretty nice. Well, taking the last flight out tonight and I got get up on Tuesday morning. So I'll have to, you know, I'll wave as I walk by. Okay, FY, we did this podcast in two parts to accommodate various things. So the back half of it will be from later. But the reason we waited to do this is because we really wanted to watch the two afternoon games that were on ABC, starting off with the Celtics and Jason Tatum going into Cleveland. It was, Donna. of the Mitchell return for the calves. Jared Allen was out with knee bruise. He banged knees the other night. I thought he might be back by today because he had four days off, but he wasn't

ready, but that's not here nor there. Guys, I really didn't get to see Tatum play that much on Friday because I was traveling. Today was the first time I got to watch him live, and so I settled in for that first quarter. And Bontem's, he scored 12 points in the first quarter. And I was like, oh, okay. And I mean, maybe if you like used a, you know, a magnifying glass and knew some of the way the defensive assignments and stuff were, maybe you could have argued that he was a little bit rusty. Maybe the Celtics would argue timing or whatever. And he didn't have a quote unquote great overall game. He ended up just six of 16. But considering the guy is coming off of an Achilles, my gosh, did he look pretty good? And the Celtics. with a easy win in Cleveland. Cleveland's one of the hottest teams in the league. They just smack the pistons at home a couple of days ago. Bontem's, I'm not overreacting here to one game because I would not overreact if he looked terrible. But if you are a Celtics fan, frankly, if you're a contender in the Eastern Conference, Jason Tatum really returns, man, looks pretty good

on that leg. Yeah, I mean, look, in Friday's game, obviously we haven't talked about either one of these games. He was awfully rusty at the beginning. I think he missed his first five or six shots. He was clearly trying not to force it. He threw a bunch of passes early, got some assists. Eventually he got a tip dunk late in the first half, then hit a three right after that, got himself going. Ended up, I think he had like 17, 10, and 7. But it was a reminder that, yes, like today, he went six for 16 today. He didn't shoot the ball. Awesome on Friday. But the reason we have talked about the impact Tatum can have and why I've kept saying if he could come back at anything resembling remotely what he was before.

I think they're the best team is because of all this other stuff. He is probably, if not their best rebounder that Nemes Keda has emerged. He's their second best rebounder. He's a really good help defender. He's a good passer. He's a really good shooter. So teams are going to be focused on him. He can create offense.

He can isolate and draw the defense and kick it around to guys. Like he just, his presence on the court alone is going to attract so much attention from the opposition and he's going to be able to do so many things to help out defensively that he doesn't have to come back and immediately be first team on NBA Jason Tatea to have a big impact. And you saw in these two games, he isn't first team all and Jason Tatum today, but he's immediately an effective NBA player. And remember, no offense to Baylor Shireman and Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh, by the way, Baylor Shireman had a very nice game again today. Very nice. Against the Cavs. Arguably one of the best game, probably the best

game of his NBA career. Well, we'll get to that shortly. But the reminder is like for all this talk, which I think has been silly from the beginning at all, Jason Tatum could mess up the Celtics. Like he's taking minutes away from hard playing role players. Like those guys have all had a nice impact, but he's stepping back in and it's only going to be an additive. And through these first two games, I think you can only call it in an unqualified success to see him play the way he is, moving the way he is. Like, you know, I wouldn't say he's exactly in midseason form because he's a little rusty with the shot and stuff. But You couldn't ask for anything better if you're a Celtics fan.

And I think to me, this is reestablished Boston as the clear favorites in the East if he's able to stay on the court. Because, I mean, they've just leveled up dramatically having him back out there. Yeah, I agree with that, especially as we speak. I look up and the pistons are down 20 plus to the Miami Heat late in the first half. Pistons have been, whoof, you know, they've been struggling a bit lately. But I thought Tatev's return was awesome. And yeah, he missed the first six shots. You know, one of those was a great move,

a uncontested dunk that he front rimmed. It's like, ooh. But, yeah, probably a little bit of jittery, a little bit rusty, but 12 rebounds, seven assists. He's moving well. That's the main, like 10 months off in the killies. He's moving well. He doesn't look, he doesn't look like a diminished athlete.

Then today comes out, and after the first court, like, is this guy going to go for 30-something in the second game back? And so he's not, you know, just like the first game, you know, he had a burst of big time scoring. I hadn't quite been able to put a whole game together. But you see that he did. He came through big time for him closing this one out after the calves made a run, had a nice drive for a layup and then hit a wide open three on the backside. And, you know, that wide open three on the back side, like, he can do that.

And that was because Peyton Pritchard was whooping the calves butt so much. They threw two on Peyton Pritchard, get off it to Kada. up, Kata swings it over to Jason Tatum wide open, but there's not a need for Tatum to put a cape on. He doesn't have to come back and be a superhero. He can just fit in and enhance what they have going because they've established themselves as a great team this year without him and without all the guys that they lost. Look, and this is why I really have very small patience for the Tatum Brown discussion. Number one, they're a championship duo that's been proven. And secondly, the Celtics are a system team. Now, obviously, there are going to be sections of games where they may lean into a player or not. But the Celtics, very much by design, very much by Joe Mazzula's hand, are a system team. And so, and the system is the system.

And Jason Tatum, the system was built around him. He will just move in and the system will go on. You know, like, you know, there's certain things depending on their personnel. They may do a little differently in terms of game planning. But I- Well, it's a system built on two-way wing play, right? And it's nice to have a six-eight really skilled one. Right.

Well, between Derek White, Jason Tatum, and Jalen Brown, there might not, there's, I mean, you could maybe argue a couple other teams, but from two to four, there's hardly if any teams in the league that can match the two-way ability to dribble pass, shoot, and defend that those three guys. That's why the Knicks invested crazy amounts of assets into getting Ananobian Bridges because they were trying to deal with that two-way wing dominance. And those guys aren't nearly on the same level. And the Tatum versus Brown thing, it's a tired discussion.

It's a silly discussion. It's something to their credit. They did not let tear them apart. They won a championship together. They have the potential to win more championships together. Brown is, you know, they're both on Supermax contracts. Like, there's no reason. It doesn't have to be won his team or his team.

It can be their team. That's okay. And, you know, Tatum comes back. I'm not going to say he has nothing to prove because obviously these guys are all super competitive. But if Jason Tatum is a shell of himself for the rest of his career, which clearly is not. But if he was, he'd still be a Hall of Famer. He's a five-time All-NBA selection. He's a champion.

You know, he's a gold medalist. Two-time gold medalist. Well, to spin ahead to the game today a little bit, I wanted to ask you, Brian, that's the leader of Calf's Corner. The takeaway I had from this game watching it was the Cavs could do nothing to bother the Celtics the entire game. Like even some of these shots that look kind of difficult that like Peyton Pritchard would take in the fourth quarter like Jalen Brown would take. These guys could get to their spots wherever they wanted and they weren't bothered. And they got seemingly a wide open three almost every trip. They worked the clock down like 16, 18, 20 seconds, most trips got a wide open shot almost every trip.

I was just really, I mean, I guess I wasn't stunned because we have had questions about the Cavs ability to guard on the perimeter the whole time. But what was your takeaway on the Cavs today seeing them up against these guys? As I was watching the game, I was more affected by their struggles against the Celtics defense. And this is a Cavs team that has been the number one or number two offense efficient-wise since mid-January. And, you know, they've been routinely putting up power numbers, particularly generating. lots of open threes. And, you know, the Celtics were in their full switch operation. And the calves really struggled to get good looks in this game. They early in the game were attacking,

their game plan was clearly to attack Sam Hauser. And yeah, you know, Evan Mobley actually had a pretty good game offensively. And they were able to get switches and attack Hauser. And, you know, Hauser got shown up a couple of times. But Howser hit five-threes. And, you know, he, you know, he certainly made up for it at the other end. And when they weren't attacking Hauser, they weren't able to dent anything. And the bench play, I mean, the Cavs invested a lot in this season to improve their bench. And Max Trues is now working out with their G-League team. And so there's a return. I don't know what you're going to expect from him, but, you know, that, their lineup is going to potentially even improve a little bit. But, you know, the Schroeder

and Keanuelis trades were meant to improve their bench. And also, you know, with Hardin being in the starting lineup, replacing a guy who's but this missed a lot of the season. Darius Garland, that improves the bench. It moves Jalen Tyson to the bench. The bench was, you know, and this, you know, you wouldn't necessarily see this repeatedly in a four-game series or in a seven-game series, but, you know,

I think the bench scoring was 41 to 13. Baylor Sherman was 16 and 10, paid Pritchard at 18. 18 and 7, yeah, two guys single-handedly, two reserves single-handedly outscored the Cavs bench. And, you know, my takeaway from this game, one, man, for a guy, 10 months off in Achilles, Tadem looks amazing and can't wait to see how he looks

when he's had a month plus to ramp up for the playoffs. You know, Joe Mazzola said no minutes restriction. Clearly, it's about 27. That's what he's played in both games. So Tadam looks awesome. And I would imagine it's only going to get better. By the way, the quick aside, if there's a minute restriction, shouldn't you have to say that there's a minute restriction?

Whatever. I mean, well, I mean, I don't want to get in that. I was pretty confident, you know, again, when Joe Missoula declared there was a minute restriction on Friday, to McMahon's point, I was pretty confident he wasn't playing 45. I know. Did anybody think he was coming back playing 35? I mean, I hear what you're saying, but that's a... Transparency of one wagering, like, either you're going to do it or you're not. If anybody was betting that Jason Tatum's going to have a full 35-minute workload, I'd say...

It has more to do with the fact that if you announce there's no minute restriction and certain people know that there is. But that's another story. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm not going down that path. I'm not going on that path. I agree with you. I'm not sure the general NBA fan realizes just what a stud Peyton Pritchard has become.

I know he won six men the year last year. Bond Tim's he made your all contract team and it's amazing. This guy's making, you know, about eight milled the next two seasons. By the way, when they gave him that contract, we all thought it. We were like, seriously, that much for Peyton Pritchard? What a deal? I did not at the time. Well, come on.

that. But what I would say that's more interesting than that is in the middle of his third season, which I believe is Joe Missoula's first season, Peyton Bridger was trying to leave. Like he wasn't playing. He was ready to be traded. He wasn't happy. Like he was not thrilled in Boston. And for things to go from where they were at that point when he was barely in the rotation to this guy that became a lock rotation player hitting all these half court shots when they were on to win the title. Now like you said, McMahon, he's not one of the best value contracts in the league. If he had played more games off the bench, he'd be a shoe in to win six man again this year. Now he's back off the bench, destroying for them.

And, you know, like I said earlier, at the end of the game, he comes in in the fourth quarter and he's just getting to his spots in the mid-range. Jalen Tyson, you know, solid defender. Like, couldn't do anything to stop him. He's just getting whatever look he wants, you know, banging in huge threes late. Like his development into this critical piece for them. It's a testament to, like you said, Brian, the system for the Celtics site, I think, is even less about the way they play. And it's their player development system.

They have an unbelievable player development system. When you look at their roster, Peyton Pritchard comes out of that as a late first round pick. Jordan Walls, who's the second round pick. Baylor Sharman late first round pick. It's not even like skilled, I mean, skill development, yes, but like part of the biggest thing, we talked to people in Boston, when they talk about Pritchard. The guy, they didn't teach the guy to shoot. The guy has been an elite shooter since he was a kid. They gave him his confidence back.

His confidence had gotten shaken. Joe Mazzula came in and with him and his staff said, Peyton, we're going to get your confidence back. And certainly you look at him now and you say, well, of course this guy has confidence. Well, guess what? His confidence a couple years ago was vastly reduced. And that's what some of the basis of his recovery is. And he's a guy who this is, you know, 26, 27, now he's 28.

This is a guy making major leaps at that point in his career. And, you know, I mentioned the two Tatum Buck. because the two biggest buckets of the game, you know, Bontem's alluded to, they're Peyton-Prichard ISO buckets after the calves trim the lead to single digits with like four minutes left. Do you know who the most efficient volume ISO score is

in the NBA this season? I would guess it's Peyton Pritcher. It is Peyton Pritchard. That is a stunning. That is a stunning. One point two, three points per ISO possession. Shea's 1.17. Lucas 1.11.

Those are elite. Elite numbers. 1.23. That's crazy. Yeah. And by the way, they... And he looks like

he should be playing in my pickup games. And Missoula has obviously 0% qualms calling his number when he needs a basket. By the way, in a game where he didn't shoot...

He was only 2% or 7 from the field. Namus Cato had 11 rebounds and was plus 13 and was again a monster inside. And it's another guy that has been a huge feather in the cap of their development system,

bringing him along the last couple years. And he's just stepped in as a starting center and been really, really good all year. By the way, we'll just do a real drive-by. You mentioned that the Pistons are down 20 at the half. I have no idea what will happen in the second half of that game. We're not going to wait for it, but I'm just telling you, if the heat close it out and they are at home and the heat have been very good at home this year,

that would be five straight wins from Miami, and they went up to Charlotte. Yeah. On Thursday or Friday ended the Hornets. Two of those wins are against Brooklyn, but nonetheless, and Kate Cunningham is back playing in this game. He missed the game the other night, but he, you know, cutting him and Duren are starting in this game. Between the second half of the Nets Pistons game on Saturday, when the Nets outscored them 61 to 43, came from, I think, 24 down and won. And the first half of this game against the Pistons, they've now been outscored by, I believe, 40 points in 48 minutes, which is not great.

I'm not going to, I mean, Kay didn't play against some dads. I'm not going to overreact too much, but they're definitely. in a mini rut. And by the way, this heat winning streak is happening with Norman Powell out. Another one of the best ISO scores in leagues. We'll talk more about them later. I don't want to talk because I feel like Jackson's going to have to cut this out if they pisses make some big second-off comeback. So anyway, before we moved to what we recorded earlier, I do want to talk about the Lakers.

So that was an excellent win for the Celtics today. A real warning, I think, to the league. Really strong performance by the Lakers, particularly defensively. today against the Knicks at home. New York just scores 97 points. The Lakers led this from start to finish. I think their lead was at 26 at one point. LeBron was a late scratch, or maybe not a late scratch.

He was questionable coming in, but he was a scratch with the left foot thing that he sometimes misses games with. I don't need to give like tree top analysis here. But, you know, the data shows that when LeBron plays, when one of the three is out, they tend to be a little better defensively. It's not a shot at anybody directly, but when Luca and Austin Reeves are together this year, their lineup data says that they're about seven points plus seven over 100 possessions

and when they all three play together, they're in the negative. So it's, you know, there could be a whole bunch of different reasons why. Well, let's just be honest. The reason those three guys don't fit together is, none of them at this point play much defense. And you can sort of get away with having two guys who aren't going to guard. It's hard. It's hard with two.

It's almost impossible with three. And that, I mean, that's the biggest problem they have. They're trying to fit all of those guys out there at the same time. And it's hard. Take any of them off the court. You're probably going to have more balance because you're going to have two ball dominant guys and then three guys around them who are going to more likely fit into roles. So they can start Hashimura and Smart who, you know, Marcus Smart was one of ten shooting today,

but he was plus 27. So what does that tell you about what happened when he was out there? And, you know, it allows him to, you know, allows him to play Vanderbilt, who's a better defender. In this particular game, Luke Kennard hit 3-3. So you got a basket, you got a floor stretcher out there. And when they divvy up those minutes. And again, it's not an analysis of LeBronza player, obviously,

or Austin Reeves is a player. It's an analysis of the fit of the roster. And, you know, the data baller data. here, like the little lineup combinations. Rees and Luca without LeBron this year, I don't know if this includes today or not, but it's a plus 16.9 net rating in 329 minutes. With all three of them together, it's plus 1.5 and 293. It's just went to plus, by the way. It's been in the negative for a big pun. Yeah, and they're significantly worse on both ends of the floor when they're all three together. And again, I think LeBron can go somewhere and give a team a boost. I just think

the fit of the Lakers. And that's why, like, I still think the Lakers can build a contender around Luke and Austin Reeds. If they add, if they use the financial flexibility from LeBron leaving and add, like, a quality 3-D wing and a real rim protector, ain't played well today. But the guy you can count on a night-in-night-out basis, I think the, I don't think the Lakers are just, you know, miles and miles and miles away from being a real factor in terms of contention.

I just don't think it's happening with LeBron on the roster. The Knicks had a miserable shooting day today. They were 8 of 34 on three. I mean, obviously. L.A. afternoon games, especially like savings time. Just like New York afternoon games. That's right. They had one against the spurs last week.

That's the tail is oldest time. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't want to overreact, but it's a really nice winning. The Lakers are, you know, they've been playing 500 or worse basketball for the last, you know, a couple weeks. And you're starting to look behind you at that play-in situation. And so to get a win, like this.

Well, and again, it's worth pointing out the Rockets and Wolves and the Nuggets continue to have brutal losses. The Nuggets have all these injuries. We talked about that later on in the pod, so we'll leave that. But as of right now, the Lakers are a game back of Minnesota, who they host on Tuesday, and they're a game back of Houston. Like, they're, like, do I think the Lakers are one of the three best teams in the Western Conference?

No, I do not. I think they have real flaws. I think they'd probably lose to most of these teams in a playoff series. However, they've won all these clutch games. They put themselves in a position now where if they can make a push down the stretch here, like they could get to third very easily. Like the Rockets and Wolves just keep kicking away these games. And third place, the three seed in the West is a remarkable place

because you obviously are on the opposite side of the bracket as the Thunder. And you get home court in the first round. And then I don't know who's going to win, but you know, you get a young Spurs team in the second round. The Spurs would be favorite in that series, but it's better than playing the Thunder in the second round. So if you're going to create a scenario in which the Lakers are going to make a playoff run and get to the conference finals, the first. The first bullet point is you get the three seed. Before we hand it over to ourselves from earlier, I just point out, did you see that in the, I think it was in the third quarter of this game that Luca gave the money sign?

Yeah, when they didn't call the charge, I'd throw your up. It was, it could have been called it. I mean, I mean, I thought it was a charge. Yeah. But like, dude, you're up. I think they're up might even have been double figures at the time. Like, come on, man. And he's been fine for that before.

So he gets knocked to the floor. He's laying on the ground under the basket. He looks over at the official. Like, seriously, you're not going to call this. He gives them money. Now, I will say this. He's probably going to get fined for that. He's, as you mentioned, he's been fine before.

You know, Rudy Gober got fined. The second time Rudy got fined. He got fined 100 Gs. I don't know if it'll be that. bad, but like, had the referee seen it, he might have. He might have. He might have. He might have.

He would have tepped him up if he'd seen it. Yes. And so what I would say is it could be worse. Whatever fine he might get, he could have gotten a tech. So that would have been much more expensive and also would have been missed a game. And would have missed this game against, again, would have missed this game against the wolves on Tuesday, which is a massively important game for them. Yes, which I'm hoping to attend. Ooh, windy in the house.

All right. We shall now pass it to ourselves earlier today when we are younger, more naive, and now we're older and wiser. So we go to our younger selves from earlier today. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. So we had what I thought was one of the more memorable parts of the regular season with a couple of Spurs games last week. And this, it happened at the end of the week. so I'm not sure how it hit the news cycle, but the Spurs had back-to-back victories.

They had just come home from their rodeo trip, and they had a real quality win over the Pistons. The Pistons match up with the Spurs is not a convenient one for Detroit because the perimeter pressure they can put on Cade Cunningham and the rim defense with Victor is it's a tough, it's a tough one. If that ends up being the finals,

which it's on the board, I would like the Spurs in that matchup, which we can talk about in the second. However, they finally have a little bit of a rest bit, and they come back and they play the Clippers. And you could just tell in this game that there was a bit of an energy crash. Plus, Brooke Lopez had an awesome game for the Clipper. Clippers actually been playing. Lopez was raining him. He was making Wimby Gardham out there.

I'm not sure if it was his best game of the year, but it was certainly up there. You know, Kauai. By the way, as a quick aside, you know, on Monday, Shea is going to you. Right, McMahon, he's going to potentially tie the record for Will Chamberlays. Yeah, he's tying him Monday breaking it in the next game. I would assume he's breaking it. We're going to see if he can do it. He's done it 125 or 124, what is it, 125 straight now.

I'm pretty sure 126 and 127 are on the horizon. By the way, he did it against the, he extended against the magic when he strained his ab in the first half. I'm pretty sure he's going to get that record. That's true. All right. Anyway, so it's 125 is it right now? Yes. Kauai is at 41.

And again, more than anything, that means that Kauai has finished 41 consecutive games that he's played. Right. Back to there hasn't been an early exit. Kauai had a good game that night. And Jordan Miller, who's been there, sort of G-League Discovery, had a good game that night. So anyway, the Clippers in San Antonio build a 25-point lead. And, you know, the Spurs had been through a number of real tough games. You know, the Clipper has actually been playing relatively well, all things considered, in the wake of the trades.

They've been putting up some decent, some decent numbers. Anyway, so what did it get to McBand? Did it get to 25? It was. It was 75 to 50 at one point. Okay, that's clean. And then the Spurs walk them down. And, you know, we routinely see big comeback.

So 25, that's pushing in a second half, 25 point comeback. That's 25 in the second half. of a game, that's the second half of a back-to-back for a team that has its MVP candidate on a tight minutes restriction because they ramped his minutes up the night before. Victor played 39 the night before, so they, you know, they weren't going to run his minutes high. That 39 is the most, second most of the season. And so, you know, they weren't playing in more than 20, 22 minutes. So, yeah, it was a pretty unlikely comeback, giving all those things, even though they were at home. Right. So they walk them down. And then,

there's this play. I don't know if you want to describe this inbound play late in the game. Man, it's a Tileu. It's an unbelievable thing. Yeah, Tailu drew up an awesome play where they had Victor guarding Derek Jones Jr. In the second half, I think a lot of that's because Lopez was so effective in the first half. They wanted them, a guy they were more comfortable sagging off of. Anyways, they set a back screen on Victor.

This was out on the. the left wing, pretty high up out on the left wing. I forgot who set screen, but a great screen. And the play is a back screen on Victor, Jones blob over the top. And if you posit at the right time, Jones is in position to launch, and Wimby is up above the elbow.

I mean, he's, you know, 15, maybe 20 feet away. And Batum looked at it. Yeah, Nico Batum is inbounding the ball from the side out of bounds. Yeah, Batum looked at it. Basically right next to the Clipper bench, right? Yeah. Yeah.

And guys very familiar with Victor Omaniamis skills as well French. Yes. And he didn't go to it. And, you know, after the game, Tyloos said, you know, Nico thought Victor was playing in between. In other words, he thought Victor was going to be able to get to it. Not only that. He stepped over the line.

Well, no. Then he passes it in to Lopez. And Lopez is like, this wasn't a play. And Lopez passed right back to Batum. Batum hadn't gotten in bounds yet as what happened. Yeah. So the point of this is, the point of this is, Tailu draws up a play that was probably going to work.

And Victor Wembenyama successfully defended, I want to be clear, Victor Wembenyama successfully defended the rim from 20 feet away from the rim. What I would say is the threat of Victor Wimbunyama successfully intimidated Nico Batuman and not trying. However you want to qualify it, that's defending the ring. Sure. Yeah. Just his presence on the floor. And as we were talking about this on our group chat, you even said, he goes,

not only did he defend the rim from 20 feet away, he was getting screeched. Yeah. He was getting screamed. And again, Batum, I'm sure when Batum watched that film, he was like, oh, man, but, but Wimby is an understandable reaction. Yeah, Wendy is such a don't. presence that he forces guys into being so hesitant that a lot of times hesitancy is the right decision. In this case, it wasn't. So the Spurs, I can't remember now because it's been four days. I mean, did Deer and Fox, I think Deer and Fox, he was being fourth quarter Deer and Fox. I can't remember who to credit some of their offensive plays. Victor had an incredible block where he blocked

one end and then ran the court and finished with a dunk at the other end during the comeback that is probably a top 10 highlight for him this year in terms of actual eye candy. Paul, I don't know, man. I don't know. There's a lot of competition. It's a long list. It's a long list. That was nice.

That was doing it at both ends was pretty special. Yeah. Okay, fine. I'll back that off. But whatever, it was. But you, you know, McMahon, I didn't realize this. I'm just now looking at the box score. Dude, he only played 22 minutes.

That's what I'm saying. He was on a tight minutes restriction. And because, again, he played 39 the night before. And let me just, in roughly 61 minutes over two nights, the man scored 65 points, grabbed 26 rebounds, block nine shots, and hit eight threes. And was a plus 30. Again, that's 61 minutes over 30 hours. and he was tired and he was emotional when that final buzzer sounded. By the way, the bucket to seal it was he ends up challenging a Kauai 3 that's very short.

And he just leaked out after the challenge. Fox got the rebound and just tossed it up front. And Victor had an emphatic dunk for the dagger. And that was the play that sealed it. So by the way, so you know what does the Spurs fans call the the Stefan Castle, Wembenyama, you know, defensive, you know, duo. They call it Area 51 because Castle number five, Victor number one. Great nickname. You know, it's kind of like the torture chamber.

You know, Area 51. Cade was in Area 51 on, was a Wednesday night. Both times they played. Right. The Jackals are the nickname for the fan group at the Spurs Arena, Frostbank Center. And obviously the alien or Wembe, great nicknames associated all with all of him. So anyway, they get this victory and this is, you know, this reaction. Victor is emotional to the point where he's in tears, would you say? In tears?

There were, I wouldn't say tears were flowing. There was water. There was some water. There were some water works for sure. And it was emotional. He was exhausted. Right. You know, not full boohooing, but certainly some, some, some tears.

years were shit. And after the game, he said that it was the most emotional 30 hours of basketball of his life. I think that's how he framed it. Yeah, that honestly surprised me a little bit just because I would imagine some of the, like, you know, playing for the French national team. Right. But that's surprised when the French national team won the quarterfinals and semifinals in Paris when they were underdogs in both. That was, that was pretty big. But it didn't have the component of this comeback. So it may not, you know, it was very nationalistic, but whatever. I'm not going to hold them to that statement. But, you know, I think some people could use it as maybe a use it against him as kind of a sign of weakness. I mean, there will be nerds on the

internet who do and people trying to be cool on the internet for sure. But this is what I, what I really like about it is that he values competition and winning so much. And this is one of the things that, you know, Bond Tempton and I have talked about this for years about. the need to have something to play for and enjoy as a team and a fan base beyond just a championship. Because if you just have the championship as your only goal, the percentage of fans that are not going to enjoy, the percentage of players are, I mean, it's not feasible. And, you know, what I would call low-level ecstasy. And Victor cares so much.

And, you know, it's kind of like the whole concept of him with the drum. The whole concept, I mean, and the whole Jackals thing. Yes, it's to let's enjoy this regular season, you know, let's enjoy this regular season. Let's enjoy this process. And, you know, I just remember when I went to a Spurs game during Rick Victor's, I think his rookie year, and he had a 40-20 game and they beat the Knicks in overtime. That was a night that Jalen Brunson had 60, very memorable. You know, they give Victor the microphone after the game. And it's a March game.

It's right about this time of year, actually. actually. Or yeah, right about March, they're not going anywhere that season, right? And Victor, like, announces to the crowd. I love it here, you know, everything like that. I think he's, number one, I think he's being genuine. Number two, I think that this is something that we, you know, like, he's such a breath of fresh air for the league. And, you know, this is him saying, listen, we're going to, I'm going to play in the All-Star game. Like, whether you guys want to to or not, I'm going to play in the All-Star game. I'm going to introduce this fan section. I'm going to introduce this, this post-game ritual of us, you know, pounding the drum. I know that that's not a

unique idea because the light the beam was sort of the beginning of that concept, but, and it's all sort of stolen from, from European stuff. But, you know, this is him basically saying, like, let's enjoy every sandwich, you know, like, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, every breakfast taco. Yes, I've, I've, I've got this lame concept in my. my philosophy of life, whatever, but I love ordinary time. This is one of my favorite times of the year in the NBA, ordinary time. And I know it's lame. You can make fun of me or whatever. This just hits me. Like this is the type, it's such a breath of fresh air. And so I'm all for this. I'm not

arguing that winning a game in March is more important than winning a game in June. But I am arguing that you can say, listen, what do we have in our lives in San Antonio that's better on a Thursday night in March than watching Victor Wembenyama. And isn't there a value that Victor Wembenyama uplifted an entire city who was in that game. And then anybody who was watching it out there was like, wow, what an amazing experience. Is it not worth something that, you know, that you can, you know, this is, this is what I did years ago on Twitter where I was talking about how almost every night in the NBA something amazing happens. And this is what Bontas has been doing this year. You stole that from Wendy? No, whatever. But this is what Bonds.

Contempts has been doing this year on social media. He is basically saying, like, can we not enjoy that on a random Tuesday in January that Jalen Brunson leads a 10-2 run in the last two minutes to win in New York? And, you know, Neelyiokic has a triple double in the first half. I could, you know, just, sorry, I could go on and on about this. Well, that hits me. Yeah, this is, this is another reminder that the league is in unbelievable shape going forward with probably the two. leading people into the next generation being Victor Wembenyama and Cooper Flagg to insanely competitive young stars like that. That is a really important thing for the league. And it's the same

reason why for the past few months now, I keep banging the drum on the need to change these incentives at the end of the season to where all these games have meaning and to have wins count towards lottery positioning. It all goes back to the same thing where 0.2% of people at this point know what ordinary time is. I know. A kid who went to Catholic school, who's, I know, and I'm not even a practicing Catholic. It's, but just it's the concept of it.

Yes, but it is like, yeah, of course, again, doesn't know. But it is. I didn't think it was some like revolutionary concept. Listen, you know what? Let me take a detour and I'll just tell you. When you're a kid going to Catholic school, you have Advent, which is around Christmas, where you got to do a bunch of extra stuff, and you have Lent around Easter, which is going on right now. We've got to do a bunch of extra stuff. I didn't like doing the extra stuff.

Okay? The ordinary time. There's all kinds of different rules. He had to give up stuff. No meat on certain days. What have you. Okay. The summertime was known in the liturgical calendar as quote, ordinary time. The liturgical, big word. That has no clue what it's that word is. That's what it was said. Like when I was dragged to church, when I was, you know, and it would be like, you know, mid-June and I just really wanted to get outside and play, you would see on the thing, it would say, welcome to Mass on June 17th, 1989, the 16th Sunday at an ordinary time. Ordinary time was great. No extra stuff. It was in. It was

the best weather time of the year. I knew when we got, like, when I saw the calendar go and it's now ordinary time, I was like, yes, ordinary time. I love ordinary time. So this is my, sorry, that's the detour. Go ahead. No, it's all good. But it is, you know. Right now we're an ordinary time in the NBA. We are an ordinary time in the NBA. And it often leads to a lot of dud nights, especially the last couple months of the season.

And before the playoffs start, and it's why every person I've talked to, general managers, scouts, coaches, players, anybody, all agrees that anything to make these last couple months of the season not be this interminable slog where you have all these teams taking games off and trying to lose and, you know, manipulating lineups, whatever. You know, it'd be nice if we had a full slate of games every day where we could have things come out of it like this Clipper Spurs game and like the Pistons Spurs game where you have two teams competing all the way through. But it was awesome to see. It was awesome to see Victor get that into a game on a Friday night in March. And like I said, the fact that these young stars are so competitive

and so into playing for everything every night, I think it's a great, I think it's a great thing for the league going forward. And, you know, it's another sign of why the Spurs are a team to be reckoned with, even though they have the lack of postseason experience that would typically mean it's probably going to take a year or two for them to get where they really hope to go. But they're going to try to. Yes, people can use this against them and say, well, how are you going to manage the emotions of going through two months?

Because that's one thing, like the playoffs are the exact, you know, antithesis of, ordinary time. There is nothing about playoff time that is ordinary. And the, if you get emotional after, you know, two games and 30 hours, how are you going to be when you've gone through a, you know, 13 day, seven game second round war? And it's like, okay, you have 36 hours prepare for game one of the Western Conference finals. Like, let's go, Victor. Like, you know, and my answer to that is he'll take that challenge like he takes every challenge. Well, and first of all, there's no such thing as ordinary time with Victor Wemayama. There's no such thing as ordinary with Victor Wimba.

This dude is extraordinary with every single step that he takes, every single game that he plays, every tear that he sheds. And I can tell you one place that Victor will not waste a single shred of energy will be on the reaction of people he doesn't know. This is a guy when he lays in bed at night at 9.30 or 9.15, he's got to get to bed by 9.30. He's a big proponent of sleep. That's very important. Well, you know what he's not doing?

He's not doing this. He's not scrolling on his phone, seeing what people he has no idea look like, think about him at all. He's reading a book, right? And my point is, like, hey, you know, if the people that are making fun, he doesn't care. He's not going to see that. He's not going to worry about what some pimple face who has a, you know, anime avatar thinks about him. Who cares, right? And listen.

Did I tell you about, sorry, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, like, okay, the guy, the guy, and like, you know, M.B. got made fun up, and that was a completely different situation. But M.B., when he boohooed after the, after the Kauai, bounce, bounce, bounce, bucket. Like, I don't know if I would have cried, I would have endeavored not to cry in the, on the court, but, you know. Sure, but who cares? Yeah. Like, I would much rather have to say, man, that guy looked kind of, kind of nerdy because he was, or kind of,

when because he's crying. I'd much rather have a guy who cares enough to shed tears. Right. The other thing is, some of that was a camera that was in the back hallway. Yeah, and whatever. Who cares? Like the guy cried. That's not the point.

Whoopty damn do. You know, as the IT department lectures me about all the time, like toxic masculinity is making fun of a guy for shedding a couple tears. I'll bet. I'll bet. The guy cares. That's awesome. That's awesome. I've heard of the time routine.

But again, Victor Wimbuner, Kiyama cares about every game he plays, about every step he takes towards, not just towards potentially a championship, but you know what? He really truly cares about achieving his potential and understanding that his potential is perhaps unprecedented. I was told by a member of their coaching staff that he thought that the game against the Pistons might have been the best defense performance he'd seen. Like their guards apparently weren't awesome. defensively in that game and wimby just cleaned up so many things and dude that's one of the best all-around games that we've seen this year the guy had 38 16 block five shots played 30 39 minutes

you know it was just all over the floor on both ends the first play of the game he it's like a shot clock 27 28 foot or swish that says it to tell him poor jalen durin was in hell trying to guard him on the perimeter like two or three his fouls were crap i got to go contest out here oh it's a pump fake he's off the dribble. A big man's not used to guarding someone who can go pump fake off the dribble like that. That was like all of Wimby. And, you know, for him to come back the next night, if anything, my concern would be, how is you going to hold up to the playoff grind?

Not emotionally, but like physically. But we're seeing one of the most incredible talents and a guy who wants to squeeze every bit of that talent just have an unbelievable run. And to me, the MVP, Shea versus Wimby now. that's the conversation. I'll do respect to Joker who's not been the same since coming back from the knee

and then the two games against the Spurs, I'm sorry, I can't put Cade above Wimby on a ballot watching those two games. I think it'd be a little aggressive dropping Yoko Chow completely. I think it'd be a little aggressive

dropping Yoko Chow completely, but I would agree also completely that Cade is not going to win. We're going to have another year without an American MVP, barring like, you know, catastrophic bad injury luck across the board for the other three guys

because it is going to be one of those three guys. I don't know if I'd say Yokic is out, but Victor continues to... Not out, but he would be third on my ballot at this point. Yeah, that's fair. But Victor certainly continues to keep himself in the mix with games like this and while keeping them, keeping the Spurs within

at least shouting distance of the thunder for that top seat in the Western Conference. Ooh, I got a stat that's going to really annoy the USWB. The Spurs, 9 and 0 now when Wimby hits at least four threes, including these last two games.

Yeah, that, you know. I mean, I'm not surprised that they have a great record when he hits a lot of threes. Like, that makes sense. It's, you know, if you told me before the game, he's going to make four or seven threes or four of eight threes. I would say, yeah, great. Do it.

That's not the issue. Yeah. And, yes, I'm on team bontems on this one. And Victor would slap us both down in a tenth of a second. He doesn't want to hear it. But eight and two when he attempts at least nine. That's fine. I'm prepared to admit I'm wrong when the,

they're holding the trophy and he's shot them with three-pointers all the way through four rounds. I'm prepared doing that I don't mind Victor, again, to reiterate, I don't mind Victor shooting threes. I just don't want Victor, I'm even less concerned about Victor shooting threes, especially if they're catching shoot threes. And if he's handling the ball on the perimeter, that's really the bigger thing for me. I just want Victor to be finishing place.

If that's catch and shoot threes, fine. If that's catch-and-shoot lobs for dunks at the rim, fine. Like, whatever the play, I just, I've said it a million times, but Victor is a play finisher, on offense and a play wrecker on defense, that is the optimal way for him to play, at least today. Maybe at some point in the future his handles will be tightened up to the point where he can really also run offense, but it's just not the case now. And I think if he focuses on being a scoring machine and catching the ball and finishing, especially with all these guys, all these talented guards to get him the ball on the spurs, I just think that's a better way for them to go than him

trying to be a guard. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Speaking of Shea and The Thunder, where you're headed to later tonight, McMahon, to go see the Nuggets play The Thunder on Monday in OKC. The Thunder have won five in a row. They're five in O's and Shay came back. He's played in four of those games.

I think they've won eight of nine overall, starting to hold teams to, you know, a hundred or less or in the less than 110, again, more regularly. And they went through that rough stretch. They were, you know, they were giving up some higher point numbers. The Sunday game against the Warriors,

missed opportunity for Golden State, I'm sure, because they had three or four. Golden State, I'm not sure I'd call it a misopportunity. They were in a close game with half their team out. Yeah, I know. But that was not a premium performance by the Thunder. Sure. And the Thunder are really banged up now.

Hartenstein, calling a calf contusion, which is at least good news, that it's not a strain. You know, Caruso missed this game after taking a shot to his hip. Yeah. J. W. W. is still out. A.J. Mitchell's still out. Yeah, A.J. Mitchell is still out. I think A.J. Mitchell's pretty close. I don't have a great feel on exactly when Duff will be back,

other than just that they're clearly going to err on the side of caution, given that he's came back and then tweaked that hamstring that hamstring right away again. Well, they got to keep, they got to be cautious with Hartenstein, too. I mean, I mean, he's gone back and forth with the calf injuries, but I mean, this has been a, going back to last season, he's had all sorts of different ailments with them. And that's, you know, obviously they're the most talented team and the deepest team. But especially if they're going up against, you know, if they got to go up against Yolkich and Victor to get to the finals, say they're going to need Isaiah Hartenstein out there to play against these teams. So, you know, that's a pretty tricky injury to manage. And, you know, it hasn't really been an update on his status.

So then he's just missed the next game after he came out early against the next. They called it a contusion, which. Well, but I meant in terms of like any sort of timeline. Well, the spurt. The Thunder only scored 37 points in the second half of this game and they won. Okay. So they limped sort of limped through it. But Shea hit a crucial three-pointer with around a minute left that pretty much...

Pretty. A little going right step back. Yeah. And I mentioned this last night. I think I took on temp. I love that the arena of the Paycom Center, they played queen. And now we are the champions when there is their victory song. Just in general, as I continue to grow gray hair and I develop my stick in the mud qualities,

more Queen and more James Brown at NBA arenas. That's my... James Brown. Yes, absolutely. It should be more James Brown. Tell me when James Brown is a bad decision. I just didn't... I didn't expect that to be coming from you.

Absolutely. That's all. Absolutely, the truth. At arenas, like for Arena Rock. Like, this is just perfect for it. You dance? You know, like that feel good? I mean, I'm not saying I'm dancing.

I'm saying I'm enjoying the music. Cinderblock does that shimmy whenever music is on. All right. All right. We'll have to give him an international debut. Anyway, this was not one of Shea's best games to say this. He has had a couple of excellent performances since he's come back. He looked like he came right back to where he left, a couple of high, mid-to-low 30-point games.

But in this game, you know, just to get people in their feelings, he was 6 of 15 from the field, which is one of his worst shooting games of the year, and 14 of 15 at the line. and oh no she went to the line a lot yeah i know it's an international controversy i know and so um there's now like a whole library of opposing coaches like you could almost sort of just line them all up and opposing coaches have commentary you know because the media asks them after every game when she has a game like this and steve cur i thought you know sometimes steve kirr can get a little over his skis with the media. Sometimes Steve Kerr can be pitch perfect with the media. He's very

interesting all the time, which we appreciate. Anyway, what he said is, I don't have a problem with Shea doing this. He's not breaking the rules. He's operating within the rules. It's the rules that are the problem. And I would like to say to Steve that that is the most mature thing that many people have been given chances. You know, Mike Brown kind of said something somewhat similar. when the Knicks, last weekend when the Knicks were out, when the Thunder were in New York. But basically, every coach is pulling their hair out over it. But Shea is just, he is operating within the ecosystem that exists. And this is the way it is.

Like, by the way, it's like, how many different officials have called Shea Gilles and Alexander games this year? 50, 60, how many different referees? I'm sure the NBA has a number in us database. how many different referees have called a shooting foul where Shea Guilds, Aligh Alexander has gone to the line. Like, it's not a bias. It's a, he is playing, you know, he is incentive. He is playing to the incentive.

And it won them to get. Again, I just push back on the thought that what we're seeing from Shay is some kind of anomaly in terms of how often he gets to the line as a 30 plus point per game scorer who does the vast majority of his damage off to dribble. And, you know, it's funny because Shea doesn't lead the league in free throws. And it is a guard who leads the league in free throws is Luca Donchich. But then the conversation about Luca is never like, oh, he gets too many whistles. It's Luca whining about the whistles that he doesn't get.

Where Shea, I'd have to, I'd be curious to look this up. I would bet that Shea has fewer technical fouls in his career than Luca does averages per season. I would bet that. Well, Luca has 15. Aren't you glad you're not in Mc10 shoes? Like back in the old days You don't think I've ever been in those shoes? No, I'm saying, aren't you glad you're not anymore?

Because when Luca would get to 50, has he actually been suspended for Tex? He's had a 16th rescinded. famously, he had one time he had the 16th rescinded. And so he was able to play the final game of the season when they had some seating stuff on the line. and that's when he strained his calf for the first time and missed the first three games of the playoffs.

Right. So, okay. When they play the Jazz. And I'm not expecting you to know this up top of your head, but so he got his 15th last week with roughly five, six weeks left in the season. Do you think he can go? No. Yeah.

And I wondered if that one was going to be rescinded simply because, like, if you just watched the, as the T's being called, you're like, well, he didn't say anything. Well, no. what happened was he said what he had to say. He said what the ref deemed worthy of a T as the nuggets were getting out in transition, which honestly, more than the T's the biggest problem about to complain. Jackson has the number.

Jackson has the number. I actually have the number from ESPN.com, which is different than the one Jackson has. Oh, okay. What do we got? The number on ESPN.com is nine, which is still far lower than Nicola or Luca Dantridge. year, let alone. That's Shea's career. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, and that's the thing. She doesn't... How many drops of sweat has he... And one of them was the other day for throwing the ball off of... Well, one of them was the other day in that Nuggets game when he threw the ball off Nicole Yokic after he got fouled after the whistle. And honestly, I don't know what gets you a better whistle.

I don't know if the constant complainant, because there are times where I think like, hey, Luca earned that call with the complaining two or three percent. sessions earlier, or does just the, like, calm, cool, like, okay, I'm going to give that guy the benefit of the doubt because he's not wearing me out all the time. I don't know what's more effective in terms of actually getting calls. Well, Luca, I don't want to say this. I don't, Luca doesn't bait. He just. Oh, yes, he does. Well, it's not predominant. Listen, Luca is one of the best offensive talents of all the time. Luca falls down. I'll give him that. He falls down.

And Luca is very good. Luca is as good as there is in Lee and as good as one of the best ever at being able to create contact to where basically, if you're not foul on him, he can't defend him. He bullies guys. That's a really good point. Yeah, he bullies guys physically when he gets down low off the dribble. It's crazy to see how slow it appears Luca moves. And yet how often he's able to get open. Yeah, and he's, it's a combination of,

he's, his, both of these guys, actually both Luca and Shea are similar in a sense of their footwork, when they pick the dribble up is as good as there is. Like, unbelievable Brunson's up there. Actually, Ann Edwards is up there with unbelievable footwork, but the combination of like footwork, balance, using the pump fake. And then Luca is just so big and so strong.

Like, when he puts that shoulder into you off the dribble, And it's not an offensive foul. When he puts that shoulder into you off the dribble, the only way you can respond is with all-out physicality, and it's hard to respond with all-out physicality, and then not foul. Lucas' ability to, like, shoot from all different angles. Yeah.

Like on the clock, I feel like he can score from, like, 10 o'clock to, like, 4 o'clock. Like, however he releases it. And he's 6'8, and he's built like a brick wall. I mean, it's, you know, it's why he's, to Big Bands' point. And he's such a unique, he's such unique talent. But those guys both know all the rules. They know how to manipulate the rules to their advantage. It's a big part of why they're successful.

And by the way, speaking of that, I think since we talked about this a lot the other day, I do think it's worth pointing out since we last did the pod that Lou Dork talked to, Joel Lorenzi, or the athletic friend of the pod. And he admitted he's the last part. I'll say he's a friend of the pod. and he admitted that he went over the line on that play with Nicole Yokic last week, which I thought was the right thing for Lou to do and to say since he did. And we're obviously getting McBan's obviously going to be at that game tonight.

And these teams could easily play seven games in the playoffs. I hope they do because I think it'll be an awesome series. And I thought that was a responsible way to handle that situation. I think organizationally after the Thunder got back in and kind of evaluated the film, and took a look at the whole thing. They were like, you know what? We're all for defending our guy, but this one... Sometimes you make a mistake.

Yeah, we made a mistake. So Mark Dagonal... Mark Dagonal sort of toned back their rhetoric. Lou Dort proactively went out and raised his hand. So... And Dagonal just stopped commenting and just, oh, we have so much respect for him. That's what I'm saying.

He pulled it back. He pulled it back. For sure. So, you know, but yeah, the thing about this game, will be who's on the active list for the Nuggets. They haven't announced anything yet on as we speak here on Murray. I'm told they don't think that's a major ankle sprain, but he clearly twisted that ankle pretty good.

Well, look, I mean, the Knicks. You got to get help back to the locker room. You're probably going to miss some time. The Knicks, you know, throttled them and they played really well. And, you know, OG had a great game that night, et cetera. but, you know, that was a relic of the nuggets by that game. So, you know, I'm not sure what we're going to see in Oklahoma City. Although, look, Denver has repeatedly been able to patch themselves up and overcome this year.

But, yeah. Did get Aaron Gordon back for the first time in six weeks, though. That was big. Yes, obviously. You know, he's going to be on minute restriction. Right, but I think. He's still back on these. I'm sure he'll be on a minute's restriction.

but he's still back on the court. That's a huge thing for them overall going forward. Yes. By the way, I just want to, on the free throw thing, I just want to put this in perspective. Just did a basketball reference search. Guards who have scored 30 plus points per game in a season, Shea ranked by free throws attempted.

There's been 49 guards, including the guys this season, average 30 points per game. Shea's free throws this season would rank 32nd most on that list. So again, it's not out. Even Luca, who's leading league in free throw percent, or a free throw attempts, Luke would rank 21st out of 49. Like, when you create that much off the dribble

and you have the style of play they have, it's not like these are crazy free throw numbers. Here's my hypothesis. My hypothesis is that when you can't stop something, right, and he's not stoppable scoring-wise, that you start appealing, you look for any way that you can stop it. I think it's just human nature, right?

Sure. And so when you get, beat by this guy who's just an absolute expert at it. You, you know, you appeal to the, you know, you can't beat him straight up. So you just, you know, you appeal to the, to the arbiter. Sure. You're just trying to change the rules. And they're hard as hell to guard without fouling.

And Shea, as much as I talk about, like, how strong Luke is and how physically he plays, that shoulder Shay gives, he looks wiry. Trust me. Right. And we've seen. You feel it when you, when he, and it's not an offensive foul. Now, sometimes, like the, uh, key. shot he hit, what was that game

three, I believe, against the Pacers. He actually extended that. That usually doesn't extend the chicken wing. Usually just gives that shoulder and creates space. The other thing is you have to be such a dominant mid-range shooting. He uses the arm, though. He may not extend it, but he certainly uses the arm. And that's fine.

And if they started calling that, he would probably just have to adjust. I don't think... He would just adjust. And I would like to see them start calling that more. Like Jason Tatum, you know, obviously we talked about him earlier. He is the king of the, you know, use the arm to create space. Janice is a big time proponent of that.

Arm and shoulder. Like good luck in front of that shoulder. I would, it's so hard to guard these guys. I would like the NBA to take that tool away because it does make it virtually impossible to guard these guys. But again, Che and Luca both. They know every ounce of every inch of the rulebook

and they maximize their ability to get to the line and score and dominate games. Like I don't. Yeah, Luca knows it. He debates it in real time. Well, yes. He definitely wants to tell you. Over the last couple of years, we've seen the officials change their level of allowed physicality.

It's sort of gone up and down. It ebbs and flows, for sure. Well, and Shea has not, the streak has barreled right through that. That's right. Okay. By the way, you know the guard on this list who has the most free throws per game, number one and number two on the list? Bob Petit was a forward.

By the way, Bob Petit has showed up in our, hold on, keep going, and then I'll tell you, You got the error right. Cousy? And the complexion as well, that's another hand. Cousy? Jerry West. Oh, Jerry West. Is it the line getting free throw merchant chance at him?

Good luck. I'll tell you something. If you ran across Jerry West and you called him a... By the way, I don't understand why that's an insult, but obviously it is. But if you called Jerry, especially when Jerry West was like had the adrenaline flowing, I mean, I've told you the story that he told me. Jerry West, another guy who was not a small guy. Oh, my God. No.

in any sense. He would have been able to slot right into today's NBA and play. Jerry West once told me that after one of the years, the year in 69, I think when he won the MVP

of the finals, I think it was 69, and he won the MVP of the finals and they lost in seven. He didn't leave his house for three weeks, three, four weeks, just couldn't leave his house.

And he finally was like, I guess I'd better start. He thought he was getting out of shape. And so he, like, for the first time, like other than like, you know, going to the grocery store and like I had in glasses

or whatever, he finally, like one out for a jog and was jogging, you know, and a guy like a few blocks from his house, a neighbor said some bleep to him about losing in the finals. And he stopped and cocked his fist. And then dropped thankfully for all parties, dropped it and kept going. But, but again, a month later. So imagine if you call Jerry West a free throw merchant, you know, as he was walking off the court. Well, not have ended well. So on Saturday night, I'm not sure if they're playing today Sunday.

The Hawks beat the 76ers, which, by the way, I don't know if by the time this pod comes out, there may be an announcement on Tyrese Maxie. It sure looked like he may have seriously injured his hand or finger in the waiting. I was hoping the way it sounded like he was eating in the locker room without anything on it after the game. I was hoping there was this real freak play. There was a loose ball. Think off a free throw. And he ran into a Dem Bona, the center for the Sixers,

who's built like a brick wall. And Bono was like he really hurt Bona, which was like almost the Bona was like injured. Yeah. So I'm hoping he just kind of got a stinger the way it went. He didn't have like feeling in his hand because it. I hope you're right. But I don't, I haven't heard anything yet today. It didn't look good in real time.

Well, he did the thing where he put his uniform over it and like walked immediately to the back. Yes. Sixers, by the way, fell to eighth with that loss because Vijay Edgecom is now dealing again with the back issue and uh and and Bid is out with an oblique injury so anyway uh the hawks won one and a half games ahead of atlanta ninth and one and a half games behind toronto and fifth that is hey okay c might still get a lottery pick right now it's top four protected actually might still get two lottery picks one from the uh sure sixers clippers and clippers anyway the hawks won their six straight game on saturday night and um jaylon johnson had 35 10 and six

seven. Most of those games, not exactly against a league competition. I would agree, and I think the Hawks would agree with you too. However, there are six wins in a row as we build towards Magic City Night. Ooh, Luke Cornett. Luke Cornett does not like that and blogged about that eloquently. Yes, Luke Cornett is still working on the liturgical calendar. So that's the fourth time this season that Jalen Johnson has said 35, 10, and 5. Fourth time. That's the second most all time for the Hawks franchise. Bob Pettett had more twice.

Oh. That's what we were building twice. I was wondering why you were going there. In 58, 59, and 61, 62, he did it five and six times. All right. You know, whenever, listen, whenever Bob Pettett, comes across, across our world. The stats.

We got to get him in the pod. We are getting him in the pod. All right. Everybody has safe. By the way, hold on. Get back to where we were earlier. Wimby has now had 16 career 4 plus block,

4 plus 3 performances. That's the most in NBA history. Yeah, let me see how many Bob Pett had. Does anybody else have 10? Don't ask me things that on. I mean, 4-3-pointers is a high bar for... Yeah, for a guy swathe's shot. I don't know.

I'm going to try to do a quick sad head search before we go and check that. Because I can't imagine there's been many, there's been many of those. It's a pretty, it's a pretty impressive little variance in a guy's game. That's for sure. Yeah. How many times, how many times did Bob Pettit defend the, the rim from the elbow or from the, you know, the elbow extended? No offense to Bob. I'm sure Bob probably did it in his own way,

just with intimidating stares and his knee. I don't think back in the day there were a whole lot of al-hoops being thrown either. You don't think backdoor all-oos off of... Who was our guy who... Who was our guy who... God, we had this pod reference, and the guy who the al-Upe kind of started with. God, I don't remember.

I think Donned something. Anyways. I don't know. All right. Fontempt is still looking it up. I'm doing a quick scan here. James Hardin's done it four times. Jaron Jackson's done it five times.

Rafe LaFrenz did it five times. Maverick's great. Current MBA Center has done it 12 times. Embed? No. Don Co. Just was a guy, by the way. Porzingis.

We didn't talk about Porzangis on the pot. He's done it 11 times. There you go. Pozzingis. guy's done it, another guy's done it 12 times. Porzingis played on Saturday and said that he thinks he's past his illness issues. I hope that that's true. I hope so too.

Ramona Shelburne and Anthony Slater had a story on Porzingus that ran, I think, on Friday, talking about the issues with this. And, you know, unfortunately in that story, there was three or four instances where he had said exactly the same thing or essentially the same thing. So, you know, I hope it's true. I will say also in that story, Mike Dunleavy, the Warriors general manager was quoted as saying when he made the trade with Atlanta, comminga for Porzingis, whoever else was in that deal, the Warriors medical staff cleared it.

They took whatever information they were given. They did their background research. They did it and they cleared it and then they did the deal. And Dunleavy said, I have complete trust and belief in our staff. And so he's on the record as saying that. So that's what it is. So the four, three, four block double figure club is Wemby, Brooke Lopez with 12, which we should have guessed. Oh, okay. And poor Zings for the 11. That's right. Okay.

This happened 1098 times in NBA history, and Wemba Niyama's done it 16 times in two and a half years. And you know what? Wimby might do it 198 times in his cool. I mean, considering all the games, he's missed already, he might have done at 25 already or 30. So it's pretty wild. If he has his druthers, that's what he, that's the. the way he wants to play. So,

I just looked it up to see, because Brooke had four threes against the spurs the other night. He also had four steals, but no blocks. So he gets credit

for a four steel four three-point game. That's probably not as rare. Probably not as rare, but no, because all these guards would have done it. However,

for a center, that's pretty, pretty good. All right, everybody travels safe. Thank you for listening to HOOP Collective. Thank you to Jackson, all of our producers for putting this together.

Another week of spectacular podcast content starts off as we are in week whatever of ordinary time. And we'll talk to you later this week. Adios amigos.