The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - NBA Reaction: LeBron & Lakers...back? Knicks-Thunder, Wemby & Spurs beat Nuggets

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

Jason Timpf reacts to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder's 117-107 win over Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks. Jason discusses what both teams will rely on moving forward to maintain their championship aspirations and whether he believes in OKC or New York. Later, Jason reacts to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs' 113-110 win over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets and discusses why Wemby is nearly a "sure thing" to be the best player in the world sooner rather than later. Finally, Jason reacts to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers' two-game winning streak and assesses his current feelings toward his favorite team. Timeline: 04:00 - Introduction 5:30 - Knicks-Thunder Reaction 27:00 - Spurs-Nuggets Reaction 44:00 - Lakers win 7 of last 9 (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

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Void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive award. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dk-k-ng.c-o-C-O-Slas-B-Ball. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Saturday, everybody. Hope all you guys are having a great start to your weekend. Quick show for you guys. We're covering Nick's Thunder, a showdown between two of the hottest teams in the league. After that, Victor Wembeying Yombe versus Nicola Yokich did not disappoint.

Both guys put up Monster Box Score games. Spurs get the last laugh, though. Wembe gets a big stop on Yokich late in the game. We're going to break that game down. tail end of the show, the Los Angeles Lakers went two and O on a back-to-back-back-to-monster LeBron games. They are now seven and two in their last nine games. We're going to talk a little bit about what's been turning things around for them. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.

Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, where we're releasing content throughout the year. make sure you guys follow us there. And then last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions

and those YouTube comments. I'm probably going to record my mailbag this afternoon. Again, the schedule's a little weird this weekend because I'm getting ready to head out of town for a ski trip on Sunday. That's why we're doing a show on Saturday because we're probably not going to have shows on at least Monday and probably not Tuesday as well.

So a little funky schedule here, but still time to drop mailbag questions for that mailbag episode later this weekend. All right, let's talk some basketball. So New York played a really nice game in Oklahoma City, specifically in the second quarter. Just a really nice job defensively running out in transition. Mikhail Bridges was brilliant in that stretch.

I talked a lot yesterday when we were talking about Boston, Minnesota, about the concept of spacing being more than just shooting. It's also about like how to position players off the ball when someone's trying to attack, how to relocate or move without the ball when, one, you see your help defender doing something that should trigger a certain type of reaction or two, as somebody cuts, as somebody drives, as you have to kind of be an amoeba with your spacing around that, right? Like if someone cuts down the lane and you're sitting in the dunker spot, you should probably clear out, right? A simple way to think of it is like if you've got a dude isoing on the

right wing and there's shooter in the corner, shooter in the corner, shooter in the corner, shooter opposite wing, shooter opposite dunker spot. And let's say as that ISO's happening, the guy in the left wing just cuts right through to the basket. If he cuts through to the basket, the dude in the left corner needs to relocate up to that above the break spot. The dude in the dunker spot probably needs to relocate out to the corner so that that cutter can kind of fill in in the dunker spot, right? It's important for you to stay in motion because whenever you have two off ball offensive players just standing in the same spot, you make yourself easy to guard.

And that was something, you know, Mikhail Bridges, I thought, just did a brilliant job of that all game last night, but especially in that second quarter stretch, we're like every single time there was a rotation, every single time there was help, every single time. his defender turned his head. Any single time somebody cut or drove in his direction that changed his spacing, he's always cutting and relocating. It's like, oh, my man turned his head. I'm going to flash right to the middle of the floor, make myself available for a quick cut. Like, oh, I'm in the left corner, but I saw my man step up high to a tag a roller. I'm going to cut along the baseline and make myself available right there in the dunker spot. Like, oh, I was in

the corner, but my defender's not paying attention. I'm going to slide up. more towards the above the brake line to create a longer close-out and to make a clear passing window for Jalen Brunson or whoever it is to make that kickout pass. Just did a really, really nice job in that quarter, just demonstrating the instinct side of spacing. Part of it is shooting. Part of it is scheme in terms of the coaching staff, always having a plan for different types of double teams and help out of different spots on the floor.

But a big part of it is just instincts. And guys just having a natural feel for getting open. When I talk about off-ball scoring, this is a concept I've talked about a lot. What is off ball scoring versus on ball scoring? Off ball scoring is literally the ability to be a threat to score, even though the action's not being run for you. And so part of that is like having a natural ability to find open spots on the move. It's one of the big reasons why for a team like Denver, I'm against trading Michael Porter Jr. for Jimmy Butler. Michael Porter Jr.'s off ball scoring is uniquely valuable to Denver because you're usually running through the Yokich Murray two main game. Jimmy Butler, you're not going to get as much of the on-ball stuff out of him because of what they already do on-ball. And if he's off-ball, he's not going to be as much of a threat to score, not just to shoot, but to score off the ball the way that Michael Porter Jr. does.

It's a brilliant effort from O.G. and Anobi and Mikhail Bridges in that stretch. But it kind of turned into a war of attrition in the second half where all Knicks starters played over 40 minutes in this game. and Shea and J-Dubb in particular both played 37 minutes. The other Thunder starters played in the low 30s. So there was a substantial gap in workload between the Oklahoma City starting lineup and the Knicks starting lineup. Not to mention the fact that for Oklahoma City,

they have a tendency to kind of put starters in and out based on what the game calls for. Aaron Wiggins, for instance, getting a lot of run down the tail into this one. So as a result, all of these effort and fatigue-related battles started to go towards Oklahoma City in that fourth quarter. order. They started to win all of the loose ball battles. Isaiah Hardenstein got a huge save on a ball that was going out of bounds that led to Aaron Wiggins hitting a three. The Knicks lost a huge

offensive rebound battle late on the weak side where it was Josh Hart and Carl Anthony Towns versus Isaiah Hartnstein and Aaron Wiggins. And Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Hartinstein just beat those guys to the spot, forced him to fumble it out of bounds. And it was a possession for the thunder that turned immediately into another three for actually, no, Gildes Alexander hit a little jump shot against Carl Anthony Towns and drop off of that. So like another offensive rebound that led to an extra two points. It's five extra points that the Thunder got in the fourth quarter just off of effort and energy stuff.

Like every Knicks jumper seemed to be short off the front of the rim. Down the stretch of the game, that's always a big sign that your legs are starting to get tired. And then the Knicks started to get sloppy with their execution. Like they weren't matched up in transition a few times. They left Aaron Wiggins wide open on the left wing on a transition runout. Jalen Brunson, who was doing a really good job. handling pressure for the most part, like made a couple really sloppy mistakes late in the game. The one in particular where he tried to fire that bounce pass, I think to Josh Hart in the dunker

spot, that one was obviously fatigued to me. It wasn't open. And when you see offensive players start to kind of like get rid of the ball, even though people aren't open, it's a sign that they're just tired. And they're kind of just like looking for somebody else to do something to try to help them. He had another turnover against some ball pressure late in the game. So you could just tell that the fatigue element really started to work against New York late in the game, which by the way, the strength of Oklahoma City, they have that depth. They don't need to lean on those players as much. You go to the Knicks, and it's like Landry, Shamit, Precious Shua, and campaign are the only guys playing for them off the bench. And those guys all have big issues. They're just, they're not as

good as the guys coming off of the bench for Oklahoma City. They just have a depth advantage there, and that manifested over the course of this game. Aaron Wiggins was really the guy who iced it. He hit the three off of the Hartinstein offensive rebound. He hit the three on the play were the Knicks didn't get matched up in transition. He hit the three on a relocation. Another kind of similar type of relocation. He was in the corner. Lou Dort slipped out of a ball screen.

And when he slipped out of the ball screen, all this congestion happened right at the basket. Aaron Wiggins just slid up the lane line or up the corner three point line and came up to above the brake line. Dort was able to hit him. He knocked down a big three. He got an and one slipping out of a screen of his own. That was kind of the story of the game in terms of late game execution for Oklahoma.

the city. Everything was really just about Shea attacking Jalen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns, and specifically in hedges. And so what was happening is Shea would just like call Lou Doord up into the screen. Lou Dort's being guarded by Brunson. Brunson would hedge. And right when Brunson would hedge, Dort would slip. And as he's slipping, you can imagine if Shay's dribbling at the top of the key and his on ball defender, Mikhail Bridges, is on him. And Brunson is briefly on him in a hedge. You have two on the ball and Dort slips out of that, you hit him in stride. All of a sudden it's a four on three on the backside. All the Knicks help at the rim that leads to the wide open three for Aaron Wiggins. Aaron Wiggins is the and one that he got. Same exact thing. He on that play, I believe, was being

guarded by Carl Anthony Towns. He, uh, Carl Anthony Towns tosses a hedge. Wiggins slips out of it. Boom. Bounce pass hits him right in the, uh, the pocket. He goes right up with it and he ends up getting that A and one. Even the final, the final little jumper that Shegildos Alexander hit kind of coming off of that curl on the sideline out of bounds. It was a drop coverage play for Carl Anthony Towns. Like Carl Anthony Towns was dropping. Shea's got his defender chasing him over the top. He knocks down that little mid-range jump shot. So that was kind of like the half court surgery part. Like the Thunder were defending. The Thunder were getting out in transition. They were causing a lot of havoc on those offensive rebound sequences, on those transition sequences.

but it was a big part of like the half court element down the stretch of the game was just Shea picking on Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson. And then the dagger, you know, the one that kind of ended up icing the game, it was like 108, 103. And again, they had been hedging and slipping and getting stuff out of the hedge with the slip, right? So on this last possession, Jalen Brunson just switched, right? So like if Jalen Brunson is hedging, and again, all the hedges is as the screen is coming and Shays trying to come off the screen, the guy who's hedging, his one job is just to show, like to get out there and stop him from turning the corner, right? Because if you aren't there, he's going to come off the screen and he's going to go downhill. So you get out there to stop him from turning the corner and then you

sprint like hell back to your man. That's how hedging recover works. But that brief little instance where he's hedging, if the guy slips, he can get open. And that's how they were causing the problems, right? So on that final one, Jalen just switches. So allowing the defender that was guarding to follow the screener, right? Now it's a one-on-one situation, but the advantage is Shea has New York's weakest perimeter defender on him. He just goes right through Jalen Brunson

and gets to the basket and gets a layup. It was really just like a really well-closed game for the Thunder. I thought J-dub was brilliant in the early fourth quarter stretch with his athletic aggression. He was just going downhill every time he saw an opening, which was usually on chaos, like, oh, semi-transition, I'm going downhill and I'm attacking. Oh, I missed a three, but the ball came right back to me.

There's a runway. I'm going right downhill. I'm attacking. Oh, I'm on the weak side. Guys closing out at me. I'm going right downhill. I'm attacking. Even on defense with that huge block on OG and Anobie at the room.

He had another big play where he drove and drew a foul and got two free throws. Like, J. Dub, just his straight line athleticism, his powerful straight line athleticism caused all sorts of problems for the next down the stretch of this game. And then like, again, once things got stuck in the half. court because that was the thing. There was a lot of that pressure from from jdub, a lot of really good defense, forcing turnovers, getting out in transition, attacking the offensive glass, all of that stuff that's made OKC, OKC over this stretch, and then just that surgical approach from Shay down the stretch attacking mismatches whenever he could get a chance to. Other notes on the Thunder, the value of depth within their play style. Again, like this is the value of having

a guy like AJ Mitchell that can step in, a guy like Aaron Wiggins, a guy like Hayson Wallace. they have so many different guys, Kenrich Williams. They can go, Jalen Williams, I thought had a nice stretch. He hit a big pick and pop three early in the game. They have so many good players that can come in and play that it allows them the ability to play a style like what they play. Because when you do apply a lot of ball pressure, when you do a lot of blitzing,

when you do a lot of existing in rotation and covering the ground, running up and down the floor in transition, that tasks your body with a lot, right? And so if you can alleviate that by keeping minutes down and keeping guys in and out of the game so that you have fresh legs, that goes a long way towards affording you the ability to play that play style. Teams that aren't as deep aren't going to play nearly as aggressive defensively in those situations. The Knicks are running an eight-man rotation and be really, really tough to try to play with like good defensive pressure for an entire game in that sort of situation, right? the value of making shots. Oklahoma City shot lights out in this one.

They converted catch and shoot jump shots at 1.57 points per possession for the game. They were 8 for 11 on catch and shoot jump shots in the second half. They were 5 for 5 on catch and shoot jump shots in the fourth quarter. I've talked about this a lot this year, but this to me is the factor

that will determine the fate of Oklahoma City's season. For the entire season, according to synergy, their ability to convert unguarded catch and shoot jump shots ranks 18th, even after last night. They've been a bottom third type of team or a bottom half type of team in terms of the ability to knock down those like concession jump shots, the shots that teams are giving up. When they make them, they look unbeatable. When they don't, their offense can stall out. And by virtue of that number 18 rank, that is one of those things that goes to show you

that that that's a potential outcome. But that's going to be the thing that determines whether or not Oklahoma City can win for playoff rounds. They're going to have to hit shots. They're going to need Aaron Wiggins to hit shots. They're going to need Lou Dort to hit shots. They're going to need Kaysan-Wallis to hit shots. They're going to need Chet Holmgren to hit shots. That was a huge swing factor down the stretch of that game.

When you connect everything Shea does as a, when you connect everything she does as a half-court surgeon with everything this team can do defensively, with everything about their spacing principles, the way they run, their running principles in transition. When you combine all that, with guys paying off the shots at the tail end of those sequences, that's what turns this Thunder team into a championship threat, a legitimate championship threat.

Shea and J-dub, I thought, you know, one of the things that we talk about is we talk about all these things on the margins. Oh, here's what this role player did. Here's what, here's this, you know, random margin, whether it's offensive rebounding or transition scoring, turnovers, whatever it is. Here's this area where they're doing damage. But a lot of things come down to like,

you need guys to just get buckets in certain matchups, right? there was a lot of Carl Anthony Townsend drop coverage. And how do you beat that coverage? Like a deeper drop coverage where Carl Anthony Towns is not letting the roller get behind him. A no roller behind coverage is defending a pick and roll two on two. If you're defending a pick and roll two on two, the kickout reads aren't there. If the kickout reads aren't there, then you have to beat the coverage by knocking down shots. And throughout the game, a lot of good mid-range shot making from Shay, from J-dub in that drop coverage.

like that's what you have to do. That's, that is what the Knicks were conceding within that coverage. That big shot late that Shea Gilders Alexander hit against Cat and Drop. That's a big one. Another big one is just like attacking your defender. Like there were times, there's a big one in the fourth quarter. She was like, I got Mikhail Bridges on me. I'm just going to take him to the basket and get a bucket here. There's a certain amount of like, there's a certain amount of like you have to just beat the coverage sometimes. And there was a great amount of that from Shea and J. Dubbin last night's game. And then Aaron Wiggins. Like we talked about the shooting stretch that he had at the end of the game. It was cool when he hit that last three, the one that, I think it was the one that tied the game. But he had a bunch of threes down the stretch.

I can't even remember all of them. But he hit that one on the left wing. He's like running up and down the floor, like jumping and screaming. I was like, dude, it's such a good feeling when like you put in a bunch of hard work behind the scenes and then shots start to fall. And then it just feels like a lot of stuff coming to fruition. But I thought his success started in his first shift. He came in and Mikhail Bridges was red hot. Mikkel Bridges was doing a bunch of damage attacking,

like Shea and Isaiah Joe in the post. He came in and cooled him off, forced him into a really tough one, like fade away. That kind of disrupted Mikhail Bridges' rhythm. He started to miss some shots during that stretch. He broke up a transition runout with a steel against Landry Schammett. He blocked Josh Hart at the rim in an ISO. Like, he got into the game and he started to impact things defensively.

And again, that builds confidence, which makes you feel better about yourself and less pressure to knock down shots, which can lead to you knocking down shots. very, very impressive win for this red-hot Oklahoma City Thunder team. Again, that everything's going to come down to knocking down shots. That's going to be the story of the season for this particular team. On the next front, a couple things. Fatigue is the reality of running an eight-man rotation. You know, obviously everyone kind of strengths their rotation to a certain extent when you get into the postseason, but depth is not a strength of this Knicks team. And that's just something to keep in mind. It's a reality as we discussed them compared to other teams around the league.

like they will get tired if they run that type of rotation. And by the way, that's kind of what happened last year. They just ran out of gas, got hurt against Indiana. The attacking of Jalen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns in action. It was how Oklahoma City got all their shots late in the game, other than the ones that were in chaos situations. And again, that problem is not going away. You're going to have to come up with a plan to deal with that.

Team slipping out of hedges is a problem because you're constantly getting compromised. You got to be more active with your hands there to try to, like, here's the thing. If a team's going to slip out of a hedge, then it can't be a hedge. You might as well blitz at that point. Because if you're going to be stuck with two on the ball, you need to try to disrupt that first pass. If you disrupt that first pass, meaning like if you make it deflected or make them throw a weird looping pass over the top, that buys you a chance to rotate. But if they're cleanly getting out of those hedges with pocket passes, you're going to be picked apart in those four on three. So like, whether it's implementing a little bit more of an aggressive blitz in those sorts of situations to try to disrupt that action, like just tell Brunson, like, as soon as a screen comes, just sprint at the ball handler and a table handler in a time.

attack the basketball as hard as you can, like that sort of thing. But they're doing that. They're attacking Brunson. They're attacking cat. They're going to have to come up with a plan for how to deal with that in late playoff situations because that's a reality. And then I just want to shout out Mikhail Bridges. I thought he played a great game. I talked about his spacing principles earlier in the game. He's doing a bunch of damage posting small guards. His off ball scoring ability is still, in my opinion, one of the most valuable traits in the league for a guy who's also playing a pretty damn good defense as of late.

Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And we were thinking I'm originally calling it. one of the early names of our band

before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say,

Hey Jonas, and then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel,

help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicleaf 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. but grotesque, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness.

So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion-dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, Just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know.

Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, moving on to Spurs Nuggets. Wembe, I thought the story of this game was him posting mispatches. It's an interesting type of thing that he's going to have to do, especially as a playoff score, because it's the type of chess match piece that you're going to end up running into a lot,

a team that feels comfortable putting someone on Chris Paul and someone on Wemby, that they can switch the action to prevent him from getting easy pick and pop threes or easy slips to the rim. Okay, well, how do you attack that? You take that person to the post, and he was doing a ton of damage in this game, particularly on the left block, although he also got a big one on the left elbow late against Christian Brown,

where he hit a little step back. but a lot of damage on the left block against guys like Russell Westbrook, against guys like Peyton Watson, against guys like Jamal Murray, just smaller defenders quickly getting good position, identifying when a guy was trying to front and creating a passing angle for that over-the-top pass or for that more of an angled pass, and then just quick-efficient moves to get easy baskets to beat those switches. I thought he just did a wonderful job of that all game.

And then the transition threes, which ended up being a huge part of the game late, because he hitting him off the dribble, just like kind of dribbling. up the floor, catching a screen at like 27 feet and just like crossing over and knocking down a three or those trailer threes. The transition trailer threes are what all the best stretch bids in the league do because opposing centers have a tendency to run back and transition to the rim. But he's sitting a bunch there and then he was able to weaponize that with his passing ability to get Kelden Johnson a big and one late. He took like a faked like he was going to take like a 35 footer up above the break. Three nuggets jumped at him. And all of a sudden there was just

literally a four on two on the backside. He hits Kelden Johnson. in stride and he gets the end one. He made a bunch of huge defensive plays late. He forced Yokic to settle for a bad three above the break. There were still like eight or nine seconds on the shot clock, and he just like heaved one up over the top of Wemby. And then the double, the late play, the play that led to the Devin Vassell steel and the transition dunk,

really smart double team that doubled two Yokic's right shoulder. And they had to, and this is some of the reality of when Aaron Gordon's out and you're closing with Russell Westbrook, you don't have your spacing principles that you've had literally for the last five years, or not quite five years, but for the last, you know, very long time. And so as a result, the spurs were able to kind of effectively double Yokic out of post-ups in the last few possessions without any trouble. So Yokic had no choice.

When the double came on the final possession, he had to turn over his left shoulder. Doubles coming at his right shoulder, has to turn over his left shoulder. Wemby immediately identifies it and just sells out to that left shoulder. move ends up getting that steal on Nicole Yokic, which leads to the runout. Just a monster game from Wembe. I thought he showed some growth as a passer. I know you see the turnovers and yeah, he needs to turn. He needs to stop turn the ball over too much.

Reminds me of KD where like when he was younger, we're like, he's just so far off the ground that every time he's dribbling, the ball's exposed and then he's got such long arms that the ball is always exposed because of how far the ball is away from his body. Some of that is just the reality, but he'll get better at that in the long run. I still thought late in the game, he was getting rid of the ball quickly against doubles, which was leading to good shots. They were getting good stuff out of Wemby drawing double teams and just quickly getting rid of the ball. The Julian Champany three on the left corner. Victor draws a double team. Yokic is the double.

Victor gets rid of the ball to Chris Paul. Yokic rotates back down to the paint. Chris Paul just rifles a pass to Julian Champani in the left corner who caught Yokic sleeping and he knocks down the three. That was something that came out of the positive effect of Wembe drawing a double team. He's just playing at an insanely high level. And that really was the big thing. I was texting my buddy, Domon, about this last night. I don't think since LeBron, we've had a player that has been more of a sure thing

to be at least five years as the best player in the world than Victor Wemannium. Since LeBron, we haven't had a guy like that. and I don't think there's a safer bet in all the players that we've looked at since then. There's this combination of talent, which is obviously freaky. You know, Yokic just makes it look so easy against everyone else. And by the way, Yokic still made it look easy against Wembe a few times last night, where he just pump fakes a little bit, gets Wemby off his feet, and leans back a little bit, knocks down a bank shot,

or just that drop step into his left shoulder where he can just dislodge Wemby and get to where he needs to go. There were times where he made it easy, but there were times where Wembe won that battle. And he's got the talent to smother a player that seemingly seems unsmotherable, right? In Nicole Yokic. He has the talent, like, you know what's crazy?

I was actually thinking last night, I remember when I watched the first Victor Wembeen Yama game that I watched, which was that the exhibition game against Scoot Henderson, the two games that they played that were on ESPN. And I remember the first thing that stood out to me, those of you guys who were following the show at that point will remember this. I was like, this is a movement shooter. Like, everyone was

talking about him as like the next grade center in the league. And I was like watching that game. I'm like, this is a movement shooter. This is a guy who's very comfortable stepping both directions like left right footwork going right, right left footwork going left, off the move, off the dribble, turning over each shoulder. Like, this

was a guy who very clearly was headed on a trajectory of being an advanced shot maker. Now we're watching him like getting NBA teams, the triple team him 30 plus feet from the basket. The talent is obviously there. But then you combine it with the fact that he has that competitive obstinence that all the grades have had. That like, oh yeah, they beat us, but they're not better than us. That, oh yeah, none of these guys work hard enough. I'm better than these guys. Even last night, just like putting his hand on Russell Westbrook's

shoulder and kind of like talking down to him a little bit, there's just a audaciousness with Victor Wemnon Yama, that competitive fierceness that combined with his talent makes him a sure thing. And then the big concern with all tall guys is injuries. And I don't want to, like we want to knock on wood here. I don't want to sit here and pretend like he's incapable of getting hurt. But this is a guy who spends an enormous amount of time on pliability and stretching and prepping his body for this. It is obsessive work ethic, obsessive competitiveness, an insane natural ability. It makes him the surest thing to be the best player in the world. for a long time. It feels a certainty that he will win multiple MVP's.

It feels a certainty that he will be the undisputed best player in the world for a five to ten year stretch. And it's because of the combination of all those factors. We've seen a lot of guys in the league that have all of the talent, all of the work ethic,

but don't seem to have the personality. We've seen all the guys that have the personality, have the talent, but don't have the work ethic. We've seen combinations of those. It's exceptionally rare to have a player that has transcendently great talent, transcendently great competitiveness, and a transcendently great work ethic.

And it just makes him a sure thing to be a truly dominant player in NBA history. And I'm excited to see what he can do. Other Spurs, I wanted to shout out. Julian Champany had 15 points. He's one of their most trustworthy catch-and-shoot guys. So he's been getting a lot of big late game opportunities. Hit that huge corner three. Also had a big play where he met Jamal Murray at the rim late.

On a play coming off of a screening, actually, where he forced him into a big miss, really solid role player minutes from Julian Champani. Chris Paul, too, so many big plays. Hit that huge pull-up three over Yokic late. He had that pass to Champani, which was genius, just caught Yokic sleeping. Like, Yokic, as soon as he got out of the double, he just relaxed for a second and just sat in the paint for a second, and Chris Paul made him paid for it. That late blowby of Russell Westbrook, which you want to be like, okay, what's up with all these blowbys that Russell Westbrook's giving up in late game situations? But very old Chris Paul

just toasted Russell Westbrook one-on-one off the dribble for his scoop shot. late. That was a huge bucket in that game. Just having competent ball handling next to Victor Victor and Wemanniamas made such a huge difference this year. And then Devin Vassell, he had that runout dunk late. Obviously, he had this beautiful driving dunk late off of this nasty hesitation dribble against Nicole Yokic and a switch. But I was really impressed by his offball defense in this one. He's got really good size and quickness. And he can cover some ground in rotation. He had a couple plays where he was chasing multiple shooters off the line. He cares. He makes the effort. And specifically, his combination of length and effort and athleticism made him an interesting ground coverage option late in that game,

which I thought was an interesting kind of thing to keep an eye on in terms of the spurs and the big picture and how to use Devin Vassell as an off ball defender. On the Denver front. So Yokich goes for 41, 18 and 9, and yeah, Wembe won some battles, but Yokic won some battles too. There were three or four times in this game where Yokch scored on him one-on-one and made it look easy, which was obviously fun to watch. And that's an unbelievable box score. The main frustrating thing for me with Denver watching that game was just their defense. Just several sloppy mistakes late. Like Yokic, like I talked about lingering in the paint for too long when Julian Champany was wide open in the corner.

There was a random play towards the middle of the fourth quarter where like Zach Collins just took Yokic one on one and just busted his ass with a drop set and hit a little bank shot. And I'm like, dude, you got like, you got to stop Zach Collins there. And it's not even like when B can or it's not even like Yokic can. Of course he can. Or of course he can. He just, he was falling asleep. He's falling, making mistakes in those situations. and I understand there's fatigue. He's taking 30 plus shots. He's tired. There's a lot into it. But like he just has to do better. And then like that drive that Russell Westbrook gave up again. Like that's multiple times this year where it's a late game situation. And Russ is like opening up his stance and just letting a guy go right around him.

Chris Paul, like no resistance just went right around Russell Westbrook there. They've got to find a way to defend at a higher level. That's been the biggest thing to keep an eye on with them this year. And then San Antonio was able to double the ball at a yoke just handed. a few times without giving up an advantage, especially late in the game. And again, part of that's the deal when you're closing with Russ instead of Aaron Gordon, but I thought that that was just something to keep an eye on. I said this last night about contenders. It's the last thing I'll say about Denver.

Boston kind of trying to trick us into thinking they're bad. I think they're just tricking us. I still think Boston is the favorite. Mixed in with all of these bad losses that they've had have been these incredibly dominant wins. so it's clear that like even though they're having a lot of nights where they're relaxing, they just lock in and they get the job done, which makes you feel like even if you were to take an early playoff series lead against them, that they would be able to just kind of engage themselves and get to the level they need to get to. But at least, Boston's at least trying to trick us

into thinking things are more wide open. And as a result, there have been all these peaks, right? Like Milwaukee and what they did to Oklahoma City in the in-season tournament and everything they did during that massive win streak that they had. That was like a really interesting peak as a contender. Oklahoma City in the run that they're on right now. The Knicks have had a couple stretches this year where they've looked really, really good. The Cleveland Cavaliers winning at a 72-win pace, right? Like all of these teams are like lining up Denver's or Dallas is a team that like,

even though they haven't really had a peak because of injuries, it's a roster that I feel pretty strongly about. Everything feels pretty open. It's, again, I think it's a little bit of fools goal because I think Boston's clearly better. But like, everything feels open. And Denver's one of those teams that like I can't count out because I know Yokic is capable of doing things that no one else in this league is capable of. But it's a little concerning that they haven't had that stretch yet where they put together,

you know, 10, 15 games where they just look like that type of excellent basketball team. And I'm hoping that we see that from them at some point here soon because it feels like they're due for that type of stretch. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember.

I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas.

And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite.

Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action.

with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth.

He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me?

Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, before we get out of here, I want to talk a little bit of Lakers. So Lakers on a back-to-back, they go 2-0. They beat a bad Portland team, and then they controlled a pretty good Atlanta Hawks team last night. They are now 7 and 2 in their last 9 games, 7th in offense, 12th in defense, 8th in net rating over the course of this 9th. game span. I want to talk about the offense for a minute. So obviously, there's seventh in offense during the stretch. They're also 10th in offense since losing

Dilo, which was a major concern, right? And again, when you go that direction, when you go towards defensive personnel as a team, they've gone towards a defensive focus, I was concerned about their offense being able to stay afloat. But it's been pretty solid so far. And the main thing is when Dilo went out, it just put a lot of pressure on Austin Reeves and LeBron James to be their primary shot creators. And those two guys have just been absolutely crushing it. Look at these numbers. LeBron's last six games. Again, 40-year-old LeBron James, last six games, 30 points, five rebounds and eight assists, 58% from the field, 46% from three, 88% from the line.

That's insane. Just 2.7 turnovers, too. Remember, focus was the big thing that he was having a problem with in that bad stretch that he was having, just turning the ball over, just seemed like it wasn't really paying attention. He's been so locked in and so good since he came back from that little break that he took. And again, 58, 46, 88 splits on 35 and 8. That's like top five player in the world type of production from LeBraw James. Those are the types of numbers that LeBron was putting up post-all-Star break last year.

That's when I was screaming from the mountaintops. Like, LeBron's playing at a top five level. Like, is anybody skiing this? And again, those two guys, LeBron and AD were monsters against Denver. It just wasn't enough because of the issues with their supporting cast. But like, this is the kind of thing that if LeBron can sustain, this team has an upside that I think we need to recalculate. This is the player that we didn't get over the course of the beginning stretch of the season.

Again, it's only six games. So I'm not about to say that this is like, feels like a dependable thing at this point, but LeBron seems to be getting his legs underneath them, and he's playing some really special basketball over the course of this stretch. Austin Reeves last 10 games, 21 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists. He's now averaging 18.3 points per game this season, 4.6 rebounds and 5.9 assists.

There are only 14 players in the entire league that are hitting those numbers, 18.3, 4.6, and 5.9. That's the type of production that Austin's giving you. And then what, like 21, 7, and 8 in the last 10 games, some absolutely monster games, a triple double. Like, Austin is hooping his ass off. And so since LeBron James and Austin Reeves have been playing this well on offense, it has allowed Anthony Davis to refocus his energy as a defense. first player. And as a result, he's back to playing some of the most special defense that he's

played over the course of this season. He had another six stock game last night, six steals and blocks. He's averaging four stocks per game over his last 10. The Lakers have a 106 defensive rating with Anthony Davis on the floor over that stretch. So as a result, you're getting defensive player of the year type of play from Anthony Davis, extremely high level offense from LeBron and Austin are basically giving you 50, plus points and 16 plus assists hyper efficiently over the course of this stretch. As a result of that, it is creating these small, achievable roles for everyone else, and several guys have started to play really well.

Max Christie, including what he's doing on the defense event. He's averaging 12 points a game over the 7 and 2 stretch, 51% from the field, 45% from 3, excuse me, 93% from the foul line. That's really, really good. he's doing a lot of work on the inverted ball screen screening for lebron and slipping out of it he had another dunk last night where he posterized a dude with two hands he's so good at like quickly bouncing off the floor regardless of the you know the regardless of the footwork that feeds into it he could just pop up off the ground off of two feet and dunk on anybody he's playing really good basketball dalton finally broke out of his slump last night during finney smith he's you know he hit a three last night he's not quite hitting shots at the level that you would hope for as a lakers fan yet but Just having a guy out there that's a good defensive player that seems to know what he's supposed to do offensively and as a guy that's guarded as a shooter is already revealing itself as a huge value add to this team. He's closed the last couple of games, which I think is interesting as Rui's kind of been struggling a little bit. I'll say, I don't know if it was the embarrassment.

I don't know if it was something else, but the Lakers have been playing the most consistent stretch of serious basketball. I've seen them play in the first half of a season. since they were fighting through those injuries in the Western Conference final season. Last year it was a lot of like just chilling until it got desperate and then they locked in and they played really good every night for a long time.

But like that last year, or the year before that, the year they made it to the Western Conference Finals, they were doing that earlier in the season, but it was because of injuries. LeBron was out for a while. Anthony Davis was out for a while. You knew a trade was on the horizon

and those guys were fighting every night just to stay afloat in the standings. This is like, they're in a good spot in the state. They have the fourth best record in the Western Conference. They have the seventh best record in the league. And they're just staying focused. And I think that is encouraging.

It's way too small of a sample size to take them seriously. But it is absolutely a positive trend for this team. I was listening to JJ Reddick's post-game presser last night. And he said a lot of things that were really interesting to me. First of all, heavy emphasis on game plan discipline. He was bitching about the boy, the Bogdan McDonovitch slips. So we were talking about this earlier with Hedge and Recovery as it pertains the guys like Jalen Brunson with the Knicks, right?

But like what they do is they have Brogden just, excuse me, Bogdan-Bgdon-Bgdonovich run into pretend like he's screening for Trey, and then he'll just sprint pass or run to the three-point line. The idea there is you hope they confuse like they're about to switch, and then in that interchange, Bogdanovich has a chance to sprint and get open. and JJ Reddick went to his guys before the game and was like the last five times Bogdan Bogdanovich has played every single time he's run up to set that ghost screen on Trey Young he hasn't set the screen he's just run past so as a game plan just stay attached

the on ball guy doesn't need to do anything the guy who's running up with the screen or tell him you know whatever their identifier was if they say ghost or stay home or whatever it is they yell that identifier out and they just sprint and they stay guys not open right in the first half they were fucking that coverage up time and time again. JJ Reddick was super pissed about it. JJ Reddick was super pissed about some of their basic game plan discipline stuff. He's calling dudes out in press conferences. Max Chrissy, I didn't like your shift the other night.

Dorian Finney Smith, I didn't think you did a good job defensively in the first half. He's calling dudes out. He's holding them accountable. He's understanding the importance of the game plan. He had a speech. He goes to the guys and he goes, you know why we need you guys to pay attention to this game plan? because I don't want to coach a good team. I want to coach a great team.

JJ is appealing to their pride. He's appealing to their pride and he's holding them accountable as part of a goal to play real basketball. The last thing I'll say about it, the thing that stood out to me the most was his comment about playing pickup versus serious basketball.

And he was talking about the Hawks and he was talking about the Kings and some of these teams that play up and down in transition. They're teams that defend and weaponize their athletes in the open floor and they just kind of play off

of the advantages that that creates, right? One of the things that JJ said is like, if we play that type of game, if we play a pickup game with these guys, we're going to lose. Why? We're not as athletic. We don't have like a bunch of dudes that can just like thrive in that type of setting. And so what JJ said is like, we have to play serious basketball. What does that mean? That means we do have to get back in transition every single time. When we get into the half court, we have to be organized, meaning like we got to run action. We have to set good screens. We have to sell every part of the play, every cut, every screen, every fake. every relocation, everything has to be a sprint, everything has to be a good, solid screen. Everything has to be executed for this team to get to where they want to go. This is something that I've been screaming about from the mountaintops forever. JJ kept emphasizing in the post-game presser habits, establishing habits. Why? Because when you get into a big spot against a great team in a late playoff series,

everyone on the floor is good. All the players are good. You know what ends up being a big determining factor over the course of the hundreds of possessions that take place in a playoff series? How often do you not do your job? How often do you give up a wide open something because you're not sharp

because you don't have good habits compared to the other team? If they have an advantage there against you on that front, it's a problem. And as JJ has pointed out, he kept saying, this Western Conference is really good. Everybody can beat everybody. He's right.

been saying for the last couple of days, this conference is wide open because Oklahoma City can go so cold as perimeter jump shooters. This conference is wide open and the Lakers are not the most talented team in the conference. So if they're going to win, if they have a real goal, if the guys in that locker room really want to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy, it starts now, or more appropriately in the Portland Trailblazers game when they started to turn the season around. It started then. And it has to be a lot of. It starts. And it has to go to mid-April. That doesn't mean it has to be perfect. You can have a bad night here or there. It's like I talked about. What concerned me early on is weeks. You go two and five

in a seven-game stretch and then quit against Miami. I had many comments. Like, why are you so much more forgiving of Golden State than the Lakers? You guys are missing the point. I think the Lakers have more talent on the roster right now than Golden State. Golden State is a more serious basketball team, or at least they were over the course of the entire season. They have overachieved relative to their talent. The Lakers, hell, they should probably be a couple games better than they are right now. When you look at the games they've blown. I am talking about the overall effort and focus.

Golden State doesn't have that issue. They have a talent issue. If they address the talent issue in the trade market, they have a chance to go on a run. It's a slim chance, sure, but it's a chance. For the Lakers, they have the talent. they also could use some more talent, but they have more talent. They, in the early part of the season, they won those first three games, and they were in chill mode for the next month. That's not how you play championship basketball.

That's not how you establish those habits. This Lakers team has to be so sharp that they keep every game close against the best teams at the top of the league so that maybe just maybe the thing that won you would chip, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, with the shot creation of Austin Reeves, can squeeze out a little bit more. than the other team and you can advance. But they are not going to overcome execution errors. LeBron James, Anthony Davis,

and Austin Reeves are not going to be able to outplay Luca and Kyrie, Jada, Shea and Chet, like Yokic and Murray, these guys at the top of the West, they're not going to be able to outplay them enough to make up for a bunch of execution

errors. The only pathway for them is attack the regular season and become the sharpest team that they could possibly be. That's what JJ is preaching. It's up to the players to stick with it and to build that identity out over the remainder of this season. I think Rob Polinka, by supporting them with Dorian Finney Smith has provided them with a little

bit more belief, I think he needs to further that by continuing to anchor this. I've seen a lot of people talk about like, oh, you don't want to trade, make a trade that takes Max out of the starting lineup. I'm not necessarily saying that you need to take Max out of the starting lineup, but I would like to have another option for a veteran guy there in case you get to a playoff series and Max peas down his leg and you need to have somebody that you can go to at that two spot. But like, that's the type of move that I still think the Lakers should make at the deadline. Just something preferably to turn Rui into a starting caliber two guard that doesn't necessarily

need to start. If you want to invest in Max and give him all the starting reps and all that kind of stuff, but if it's a close game late and Max isn't the guy, you need to have an option, a starting caliber two that you can go into that spot. If you bring in that talent, if you make another talent play if you're Rob Polinka, you will further incentivize LeBron James and Anthony Davis to stay bought in by virtue of them believing that there's an opportunity here to get this thing done. Excellent stretch from the Lakers to get back on track. Confusing-ass basketball team.

I can't believe this is the same group that did what they did in Miami. But it's not about 10 games. It's about 82. Got a lot of work to go to get to where they want to go. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Remember to drop those mailbag questions for the mailbag that we're recording later this afternoon. And then I'll see you guys when I get, uh, I'll see you guys for the mailbag.

And then after that, when I get back from Flagstaff. The volume. What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys, I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you. But if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.

Hey guys, it's us The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions.

Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel

help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment,

and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds, I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman.

Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion-dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is someone, coming after me. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.