The Mismatch - The Play-in Tournament Is Increasing Competition Down the Stretch. Plus: Redemption for Marc Gasol, Russell Westbrook, and Carmelo Anthony.

Episode Date: May 4, 2021

This Tuesday, Verno and KOC discuss how, whatever players in danger of falling into it may say, the looming threat of the play-in tournament has indeed worked to increase competition between cusp teams and top teams for seeding down the stretch (0:32). Then they get into everyone’s favorite feel-good story of the season, the New York Knicks, who beat down the Grizzlies on Monday with monster performances from who else but recently dubbed top 25 player in the NBA Julius Randle, plus Derrick Rose (7:48). The stories of this week are truly those of redemption as Marc Gasol proves his worth for the Lakers against the Nuggets (19:22), Russell Westbrook secures a triple-double average on the season (38:03), and Carmelo Anthony breaks into the list of top 10 scorers of all time (48:27). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen up all you New York fans. Veteran New York Sports Talk host, John Dostromsky gives his unique take on all the big stories in the Big Apple and beyond, including guest conversations, gambling picks, and reactions from you, the listener. Check out New York, New York with John Dostromsky on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to The Mischoff, Chris Vernon, joining me as he does every Tuesday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'O.comber, Kevin O'Clymer, Kevin O'Clymer, Kevin O'Clyman, Kevin O'Killion, Kevin O. Kim Birchhater? Kev-O!

Verno! That last one is very untrue. I had to throw it in there because as I was driving into the office this morning, I queued up the low post and his guest was Howard Beck. And at the beginning,

every time Zach has on Howard Beck, he says, What Up Beck? And he said those are the three words that are most look forward to in niche podcasting. And Howard's response was, what is the second most looked forward to? And Zach said, probably Chris Vernon's nicknames for Kevin O.

Kim Birch hater. And then he said that you guys will have a war till the end of days. You will have descendants, and the Lowe's and the O'Connor's will still be arguing about Kim Birch and your slander towards him earlier this season. Well, you know what, Chris? I think I won the war because I got what I wanted. I wanted Ken Birch to play meaningful minutes for a team that has hoped someday, maybe not this year for the Raptors of competing. Just get out of Obama's way.

Just get out of his way. Get out of Obama's way and let him drop 20 points like he did last night. Career night for Moamba last night. So if we're more, I think honestly, like I mean, you're certainly in the lead. You know what I mean? He's retreating. There's no way around that. Meanwhile, Toronto, you know, they're on the outside looking way in now after what Washington did last night.

Let's start with the fact that I, we, you and I are both big fans of the play in format. LeBron is not, but we are. Yeah. Well, LeBron will oscillate dependent upon whether he's involved in it or not, I'm sure, like everybody else in the free world. Right. Yeah. Have you heard anybody from the M. Avericks talking about the play in recently.

I haven't. So they'll start again if it comes back up. But for fans of these teams and fans just of the league as a whole, I find myself getting up in the morning and looking at those standings and like looking at them and thinking about them infinitely more than I. ever have before. Oh, yeah. I mean, that is without question.

I also then am looking at the schedule to see who is playing who within the next couple of days. And these games do matter in a way that they just haven't. And I didn't get to hear all of it, but just at the very beginning, Howard said he had written an article and he had conferred with the NBA. and he said it is documented now that there are more teams competing at the end of this season than ever before in NBA history. There are more teams in the mix, more teams competing than ever before. And so if you're looking for, hey, what was going to be a byproduct of having this?

This is it. and it seems like every day, Kev, now, these standings are changing dramatically and every day gives you a new opportunity to think about the matchups, like how it looks today, what would feed into what, who would be playing each other as of today? Now, as we know, this is all going to change and good luck trying to predict how it all falls, but just the fact that we're looking at it every day and thinking about, okay, here's who we're going to. would play who if the, if the season ended today just makes this so much better than you and I have been doing this for the, what, this is our fourth season? Fifth season. Fifth season.

Yeah. We'll pass the rookie contract stage first four years. I mean, these are dead shows. They just are. They're usually. Usually, yeah. Usually they are. Or May 4th. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like this stage of the season, usually it's playoffs now. But like, yeah, this stage of the season, usually at this point, it's just a little bit of. of a lull. And it's like that for fans of watching teams. It was always like that for me growing up watching the Celtics. It was like like that for me right now and with my career. And now it's not. It's not for any fans, for anybody watching the league, you worry about the six, seven split. You worry about the 10, 11 split. You worry about for that matter, the eight, nine split because

the seven eight only have to win once in the play in. The nine, 10 have to win twice. And like, you feel that right now with your grizzlies slipping to that nine, 10 spot. But, you know, is, is that all of this, whether you're on the good side of it or the bad side of it, it just makes these games more meaningful. And that was the point of the NBA, putting this change in last year in the bubble and now doing it again this year to a greater extreme with seven to ten. I love it. I love it so, so, so much. And I still think it's only going to get even better over the next couple of, you know, week or so down the final stretch of the season. It's still going to get more exciting. Well, let me tell you, because there's nobody named LeBron

James that is quoted on this when it comes out of a place like Memphis. But I found it interesting that players around the league are asked about like those comments of the play, especially those that are involved. And at least two of the guys, Desmond Bain, who is a rookie, De Anthony Melton, who is in his third year, those guys both professed really liking this because of being a young team and that these do matter and that they are learning these lessons along the way. And it is not benefiting them because they are, I mean, they've lost four out of their last five games. And so things are going the wrong direction.

And yet, when they talk about this play-in thing, the fact that they have high leverage games, the fact that these are meaningful games, they find them to be intensely instructive towards what they want to become. Like, they play a game last night against the New York Knicks, who was the first time I got to see the Knicks in person. I'll get to that here in a moment. But they play that game and they, like, that has a different feel. It has a different level of intensity.

At the end of that game when they're upset, John Morant thrown out of the game, the coach thrown out of the game because they're, you know, yelling at Tony Brothers. And like, that doesn't happen at the end with 10 games left to go in seasons. It just doesn't. And instead, you're playing these games and they feel so much bigger because they are. They're all play. They're all essentially, they're essentially playoff games. Yes, yes.

And you're playing against good teams. Let me start with the Knicks because this is, this is, it's not like people don't have an awareness of what goes on with the NICs being in the number one media market in the country. But it is, it is now getting in. insane. They have won. They were 26 and 27, Chris. They've won 12 of 13 games. Okay. They have won 12 of 13 games. I watched them in person last night. And so it's the first time, you know, I've seen them on TV quite a bit throughout this season, but it's the first time to get to see them up close or personal. And what stood out to me is they play with a tenacity. They play with a toughness. And they play smart basketball. They don't turn the ball over a ton. They set, and this sounds crazy, but when you watch them, one of the things that I really noticed was guys getting hung up on screens.

And that's because you have been schooled as to how to properly set a screen. I know this sounds silly, but setting a screen with purpose and just little things like that, which are coaching things. Little things like that. They also, they don't, what stands out, they don't take a million threes, but they take good ones. And then I caught them on a night last night where they just shot absolute frigging fireballs. It didn't matter if it was contested or not. I mean, they scored 44, I think in the second quarter.

They shot 77% for a quarter and missed five shots. It was unbelievable. I've seen all manner of great offensive teams over the year. years. And that was one of the great quarter performances I've ever seen in my life. They are good. They are really good. And the sneaky thing about it was we all, I said this on our post game show last night. I've known Derek Rose since he was 17 years old. I know everything about his story and the injuries and whatever else. But if I would have brought somebody to the game that doesn't care about basketball,

that had never seen a basketball game featuring the Knicks before, and they knew nothing of the backstory of Derek Crows, the injuries, the comeback, the once an MVP and now, you know, coming off the bench or whatever else. If you just watched him, you'd go, that guy is unbelievable.

If you were just at the game last night, separated from his amazing story of what he is now versus what he's been through. He was so awesome, Kevin. It was like stunning. And I read this morning, since acquiring him, the Knicks are 21 and 8.

21 and 8! They were below 500 and that was considered a huge win. You know, like being a 500 team was a huge win for the New York Nets. the season. And then they become this team in the latter half of the year. And that's due to Derek Rose playing at the level he is, as you mentioned. It's due to Julius Randall continuing to maintain being an all NBA player. I mean, I haven't finalized my ballot yet. We get two weeks to go still here. But I mean, he's definitely in consideration for all NBA. It's due to R.J. Barrett, you know, being the player that he is, it's due to all these other guys that's something,

you mentioned the screening thing. Yep. Playing with purpose. Everybody on this roster. Taj Gibson, you know, right now you have Neurlens Noel out. Nerlans Noel was playing with purpose who replaced Mitchell Robinson, who played with purpose. Up and down this roster is a bunch of these guys who were just bought in playing together, playing for each other. And the culture that the Knicks have there, you know, Tib's deserving of some, a lot of the credit there.

It has head coached the guys in that roster seemed to really love and appreciate him. you had Julius Randall on the Woj Pod a couple weeks back saying how when he met with World Wide West and he met with Leon Rose before the season, he said, I need a coach who can hold me accountable. And Tibbs has done that, you know, but all these guys, the players deserve the credit above anybody else because they're the ones who make the choice to buy in and play together. And this whole season, they've done that even when they were 500 team. The fact that's now resulting in so many wins, just really, like, it's a blast to watch. It's a truly incredible NBA story. Yeah. You know, versus what anybody, anybody, even the biggest Knicks fan in the world,

expected versus what it has played out. And I just had, I was mega impressed with them. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the way they play. How hard, you know, there are so many times when you watch these games and the ball gets whipped around and it's swing, swing. and it's just some half-ass, you know, I've got my hand up so that you think I've defended this, you know. You know, so I know that I know that people are watching this game. And so look, here's my, I'm contesting it. See, you know.

And it's like, I can't tell you how many times the ball swung and there was a nick, full out sprinting. to the guy about to take a three. It was unbelievable. Like you just don't see teams that play like that. And that's why to me, as I watched them, I'm thinking of myself, you know, they, this story of the Knicks to me is the advantage that you create simply by playing harder than your opponent. Yeah. And they do it all the time.

Over and over again, while so many different teams can go through the motions, they just don't go through the motions. They give it everything they got. And man, if I was a Knicks fan, I would be so excited because, I mean, God forbid, they get some players to go along with Randall. And, you know, RJ's going to keep getting better, quickly looks like a player. But they don't have the roster that should be achieved. what they're achieving.

And the Rose thing, he's like almost 60% from the field, 50% from three average in almost 20 a game, the last 10 games. It's ludicrous. And I just, you know, I didn't know what to expect. But after seeing them in person, I walked out of that arena. Just I was as impressed as I've been with a team. Not that they were the best team that I've seen, but they play harder than every team I've seen. And there's nothing more fun to be a fan of than that.

Are you at the point that you would pick them in a potential playoff series against Atlanta and Miami and Boston? I would, Atlanta 100%. Okay. How about Miami and Boston? Because Atlanta is the kind. I think they could do to Atlanta what they did to the Grizzlies last night, which is there are moments in that game where,

it looks like the varsity playing against the JV because they're just, you know, they know what they're doing and they're tough and they don't have a doubt. It's odd. They're confidence. They don't have a doubt in their mind about what's happening. And young teams, they doubt themselves, you know, when things aren't going their way. And that is something that the Knicks don't have going on right now. Look, I think they can play in long series versus those other two,

but I think it's unfair to discount the fact that that Miami team has guys that just played in the NBA finals a year ago. And that Boston team has two, three major pieces, if you want to throw smart in there, that have played in multiple Eastern Conference finals. So, I mean, they have proven themselves in very high. leverage situations. And so the Knicks would beat Atlanta. I believe that.

But I would not. I think it might be a bridge too far playing against somebody that's got an immense amount of playoff experience under their belt. You and me are on the same page that I'd pick them against the Hawks and I'd give them a chance against the Heat and Celtics. I don't know if they would beat them, but they would definitely make it

one heck of a tough series. It could go six, it could go seven. I would not be shocked either way. This next team is that good. And by the way, like I said earlier, Julius Randall is that good, too. He might be first team all NBA, Kav. I don't know about first team. He might end up.

Do you know in the last 10 games he's averaged at 31 points a game? 31. He's shooting 50% from three on high volume. Yeah, but you got, you know. I'm saying by virtue of the injuries. I know, but you got Janus and Kauai. Yeah. Well, I was missed 18.

games. I could hurt them. I'm not so sure voters are going to take that into consideration for all NBA, but we'll see. We'll see. I mean, do you have Janus, Leonard, George, LeBron. Maybe LeBron could fall to third team because of the games missed. I would say, look, I mean, again, we don't need to get in this discussion.

I would just say what he has done, he is carrying that team. Yeah. There is nobody. The drop off from Randall to whoever you want to say is the second best player on that team is immense, immense. What he has done, I mean, he carries them to frigging home court advantage. I don't, I'm not going to, look, I'm not going to roll my eyes at any accolade that kid gets, because that's ridiculous. I don't know how many guys could be the best player. I'm serious. I flip out Randall four, name the guy. And I say, all right, I flip out Paul

George. I put Paul George on that team instead of Julius Randall. You think. they got that record? Hell no. No way. No way. They probably suck. I mean, that that was the surprising thing to me about we at the ringer we voted like some members of our staff voted for the top 25 players of this specific season. And Julius Randall ended up being 21st. I was a little bit surprised he ended up that low. I think I had Randall higher on my personal one. But like this is coming from like a former Julius Randall hater. I've never been a fan of Julius Randall. Not when he was at Kentucky, not when he was, you know, with the Lakers early in his career, not when he was with New Orleans, not last season with the Knicks. I was never a Julius Randall fan. And now like suddenly, boom,

he's a brand new guy. He's the best potential version of himself. And you look at him and it's like, oh, now he's this. What can he be next? You know, as his dribble jumper continues to improve like his spot-up jumper has. I mean, we've talked about Randall a bunch this season and we will many more times in the weeks to come with the playing, the playoffs, and all that. This guy is just awesome. And it's so cool to see him becoming the person that he is. Another massive game that took place last night was Denver versus L.A. And we got the welcome back, Anthony Davis.

You know, we had not seen this version of Anthony Davis since he had returned into the lineup. It has not been an easy assimilation for them. But I think very, very impressive for the Lakers to be able to win that game without LeBron James and without Dennis Schrooter. And because when we look at them and potential matchups, and that could be one where they are playing against Denver, for them to be able to win that game without Schroeder, who's going to be out, you know, it looks like 10 to 14 days.

And without, while LeBron's, Ron sitting, I do say, I do think says something about them. And interestingly enough, the story of the night, Mark Gassall. Mark Asall. For those that listen to the mismatch, you know a couple of weeks ago, I expressed my extreme discontent over the Lakers signing Andre Drummond. At that point, I got a, I got a lot of feedback, many Laker fans included, telling me that Markis Hall is not what I thought he was. Mark Gassol isn't as good as you remember him being. Mark Gassol is washed up, whatever it may be. And there was a level of excitement for Andre Drummond. And then when push comes

to shove last night in a high leverage situation against the MVP of the league, they deploy Mark Gassol on Nikolayokic and it completely changes the tenor of the game. Honestly, you go back and look throughout the month of April. Since April, they played 17 games. Eight of them, Mark Gassol has played in, eight of those games. In those games, even despite only playing in eight of the games, he has the second best plus minus of any of the rotational players from that point. And so hopefully this was a come to Jesus for Frank Vogel. I said when it happened that Mark Gassau will be better at basketball than Andre Drummond when he's 75 years old. And so I took great delight in people recognizing the value of Mark Nassau.

And I promise you this, if you go up against a great center, he's going to be the option for the Lakers, despite the fact that they tried to, you know, render him, you know, close. collecting dust on the bench. I loved it. Absolutely loved it because that is, that's the guy I watched for over a decade. Prideful player who, Kev, he hates the whole,

we go out on a screen and your guard dies on the screen. And so we switch. Mark detests having to play against the rim runners and having to go out and guard guards. But if you just say, you guard Gobert, you guard Yokic, you guard Mb, you've got a one-on-one matchup, I can't tell you how many times I watched him stymie a guy,

completely. If he's just got that one-on-one, the rim-running thing, that's a different deal, right? If you got somebody that's fly into the basket or your team goes small, because that's not the deal. But if it's just one-on-one, one, your job is to make life on this guy difficult, there's still nobody I'd want guarding another

center. I mean, it's like Yokic said last night. People forget he's a defensive player of the year. He said two times. He gave him an extra one. I corrected them right there. I thought that was funny. He said two times, the defensive player of the year. It wasn't it, LeBron, who at one point said, like, he should have won that year. Am I, am I misremembering there? Okay. No, he did say that. Okay, yeah.

And there should be no plan too, right? There's two others. Tony Allen, to this day, every time he would see Marcus Hall would tell him, give me my trophy. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Because he feels like that's his award that he should have gotten a defensive player of the year that year.

So there's at least two other players that think that they should have Mark Markesaw's award. But the truth is, he was a defensive player of the year. year. You know, the interesting thing is, you know, I wrote about Yokic yesterday on the ringer and had a good stat in there from Second Spectrum about how Yokic dominates when he's single covered on the post. The Nuggets dominate when he's double team. They score 1.4 points per chance when Yokic is doubled on the post, which is just an absurd number because he can just pick apart defenses and put the ball in the perfect spot, find the open man. Well, when Gassol was on Yokic

last night, they did not double. They didn't double. They didn't double. because they wanted to make that a one-on-one battle on the post a tough, big, large defender and Gasol defending Yokic instead of giving him the open man. When you give Yowgich the open man, you're asking for trouble. And so they took, I mean, it's a lose-lose situation for the defense. They took the lesser of two evils and asked him to be a score. And Gasol did a heck of a job, man. And this is likely, this is likely the formula if these teams feel.

face off in the first round. I mean, we'll see how the standings shake out. But, you know, even against the clippers, I mean, the regardless of the match of you have, you have a big, that's what you're probably going to try to do instead of double teaming, unless he's just totally, you know, shredding you. But the Lakers showed what they can do. And by the way, they showed why they've still managed to stay above, you know, shred water without LeBron, without AD for a long time because their defense is still elite.

And they didn't have, they didn't have two of their most offensively potent players in LeBron and Schroeder last night. But, you know, my whole standpoint with the Gassau thing when I went down was this team doesn't need guys that I don't care what his box score numbers are. This team needs guys that are going to play defense, grab rebounds, keep the ball moving. Like that's how, you know, there's got to be, there's stars and there's role players, right? I don't need somebody else that's going to give me 20 points a night or 18. points a night, right? I need somebody that's going to quarterback my defense and make it even more

devastating. And then on offense, you know, stretch the floor, shoot the occasional three, and just keep the ball moving. Like, I don't, I don't understand. I don't know. I think that in some quarters, there's at least, and maybe it was a small segment of Lakers fans that thought they were signing up for a guy that was going to go out there and get him double doubles all the time and that was going to be all-star caliber guy. They got an awesome role player at this point in his career. And that's, I thought, what they needed. The whole idea was, and he said this,

I thought I was signing up to come here to enhance the other two. Like that, my job is to make them better. And as far as I know, he was doing that, you know. and then they wanted something different. And at least last night was a bit of reality. Because if they had kept drumming in that game, they would have lost. Yeah,

they would have lost that game. Yeah. Gassol was that good in the second half. He was that good. I mean, he was the difference. What did he end? Is it plus 17?

I mean, I think I saw this. He's a plus 17 and 17 minutes. And Drummond was a minus 11 and 22 minutes. It's a 28 point swing. Yeah. Drummond had some really bad. possessions last night. Really bad possessions. And I think with the Lakers, if you're Frank Vogel,

we talked about this week's back, Chris, when you sign Andre Drummond, you have a rotation of Biggs. It's like a bullpen, you know, you can pull out your lefty, you can pull out your fastball, or you can throw your different styles of pitcher, you know, now you can do that with your bigs. You're going to have some series where Montres Harrell plays a lot. You're going to have some series when he doesn't. You're going to have some series when Drummond is getting some DMPs. you're going to have some where he's getting opportunities to play. And having this rotation, you can play so many different styles. And depending on the opponent.

So it's a good thing for the Lakers to still have Andre Drummond. It's just he may not be as important as the name Andre Drummond would suggest. And I will just say on the mark front, I'm not telling you that he is a million percent useful in all situations, right? Like I told you, those teams that are going to whip it around, those teams that are going to shoot a bunch of threes, those teams that are going to try to constantly get bigs out on an island guarding guards. That's not, he's never liked, you know, having, you know, he likes to be able to guard the other center.

I'm responsible for my man, you know. And so we're not going to switch everything at the top. And you're not going to have me chasing Steph Curry all around out here. But if you've got somebody that makes their hay in the paint, you know, and if you got somebody that's hurting you in the post, that's where he becomes intensely useful. And maybe if teams go small, you've got the drumming thing.

Maybe he can just totally overwhelm and dominate with his size. That happened with Dwight some, you know, when Dwight had his good games. And you've also got the harold angle when you were talking about, you know, kind of the bullpen that if they want to play a rim runner, we'll play a rim runner too.

We'll play small also. And one thing to watch for last night, according to the second spectrum, the Lakers ran five pick and rolls with Anthony Davis as the ball handler and Andre Drummond is the screener. Something to keep an eye on in the weeks to come if the Lakers continue to try to use that within their half court offense, especially if LeBron James is off the court and you do have those two AD's with Anthony Davis and Andre Drummond. So I like those big, big pick and rolls. It didn't do well last night, but I think it's a nice wrinkle for their half court offense and to try to jump straight.

start things. So just something to keep an eye on. So as it stands right now, between the Lakers, Dallas, and Portland, those three teams, which are five through seven in the Western Conference, are separated by one game. Now, in the case of a tie, those teams end up with the same record, Dallas actually wins the tiebreaker, which is incredibly strange, because it does not come down to how these teams performed against each other. Even though the Lakers in Portland have a huge game coming up, I believe, this weekend. And that's going to decide their tiebreaker. So if it's two teams, obviously it would be head-to-head.

If it's three teams, Dallas would win because they are a division winner. Wait till LeBron hears that. Wait a minute. Can you say that again? That's true. They would win a tiebreaker. If they have the same record, the Lakers, Portland, and Dallas, Dallas wins the tiebreaker because they will be a division winner.

They will lead the Southwest Division. I know. Wait till LeBron hears that. Don't anybody tell him because he'll lose his mind. It's true, though. I didn't even... And the number of tiebreakers, like, was that like the third tiebreaker? It's the first.

It's the first tiebreaker. You remember they used to do this and they switched it a couple of years ago where... Wouldn't head-to-head be the first? If you won a division, you ended up getting a higher seed, even though you could like... It used to be you could win even the sorriest division, but you would be the four seed over a five seed that actually had a better record than you. This happened with the with the Grizzlies and the Clippers once upon a time. So, so first one is better record in head-to-head games. And then second one's division winner.

No, no, no, no, no. But if it's a three-way tie is what I'm saying. A three-way tie. If it's a three-way tie, it goes to the division because they're not doing the head-to-head thing. Sorry. All right. I'm, I was all confused. It is head-to-head.

That's why I'm saying that Lakers Portland game becomes immense. Because it really could end up time. Very interesting. Yeah, the second tiebreaker would be best head-to-head winning percentage among all teams tied. Right. But you're right, division winner is the first one. Yes. Very interesting, Chris.

Which is crazy because people can't even name divisions, Kevin. Yeah, so I know. You don't even know who's in what division. If you ask me, who is the Celtics division? I don't know. Who is winning? is the Knicks? I think you could guess the Atlantic.

I mean, is it all just those East Coast teams? So the Knicks and the Wizards and the Celtics and the... I can't. Is Philly in there? I don't know. Philly's in there. Brooklyn?

Yeah, Brooklyn. Oh, they're all in there. So wait. Boston. And who? Philly, Brooklyn, New York. And then what's the fifth one? I said Washington.

No. Toronto. I mean, I would have no chance. I cover the NBA for a living. But why would I care? Because divisions don't matter except for tiebreakers. It's literally the first time I've had to know who was in a division was when I saw that it meant a tiebreaker. Yeah.

Like, it makes no difference. Like, I like in the NFL how you do play your division more. I like that, right? The NBA has never gone that way. There is no importance to divisions. You know, you don't play your, there is no division rival. You don't play those teams anymore. And honestly, the only way it even comes up is this, this bizarre way of a three-way tie for a playoffs fight.

And now it's like, oh, I should have cared about winning my division all year long. Dallas is going to be like, they're going to say, Dallas, you get the higher seed. because you won your division, they're going to go, we did? We did. Who's in it? Who's in our division?

I mean, I promise you, now again, it's the youngest team of the NBA. If I went to ask the Grizzlies, who is in your division, I would bet a large amount of money, not one player could name the division.

Maybe Kyle Anderson. That'd be pretty funny. That'd be like a good question. Ask, yeah. Hop on media availability. Ask Desmond Bain. Oh, yeah. Who's in the division?

Yeah. Yeah, no chance. Absolutely no chance. But anyways, yeah, that's how that's going to work out. And so you see all of these teams. I mean, that Western Conference is crazy because Utah overtook the number one spot last night, which you have talked about being extremely important, but there's no way to know. how important, right?

Like if I'm Phoenix, I love being two today. Because Portland's seven. Now, I know they're going to have to plan a play in, but let's just say Portland wins their game. So Portland seven, that's great. If the Lakers lose their last next game and they drop the seven, two is awful to have, right? And there's just no way to jockey with this.

Half game separates one and two. no games separates three and four with Denver and the Clippers. And then between the Lakers, Dallas, and Portland, you've got a game separating them, and then from Golden State down to San Antonio, a game and a half. And so good luck figuring out, you know, how this is going to shake out.

It's just impossible. For sure. Yeah. There's no chance. Especially with all the weird losses. And some of these teams, I was looking last night at like the records of these teams versus like good teams. The Lakers do not have a good record against 500 or above teams, interestingly enough.

I mean, they've missed guys too. I know. I know they've missed guys, but they also don't have a good record against the. It's kind of startling to look at their record and then all those other teams, you know, have generally winning records. but the way the way fascinating one how about this the Mavericks the Mavericks have a better record against 500 or above teams

than they do against losing teams that's almost impossible to pull off you usually see with all playoff teams they beat up on the crappy teams they all have really good records against the crappy teams and then you know they're okay

or and then the good teams have good records against the good teams. But somebody like the Mavericks, they got good records against the good teams, and then they have a work, I think they're 16 and 13 against losing teams. It's just very rare to see that. I don't know what to make of it. Is the lack of focus? Is it the timing of those games?

I don't know. They get up for the big time games, but don't. For the sorry opponents? I don't know. what do you think i don't have any thoughts make any sense on that no i mean it's strange for sure i mean i i just think this is overall a weird season so i mean it's just all of it is a weird season with so many games missed due to injury to health and safety protocols there's so many variables more than any normal season um that it's incredibly difficult to judge stuff like

that let's see what i had up coming up next oh here it is here's a next bullet point uh get kevin what does that say? Get Kevin to apologize to Russell Westbrook. Okay. So that was the next part of the show. Okay. I thought Kirk Goldsbury

summed it all up in his article today on ESPN about Russ. Oh yeah? Kirk wrote a great, great piece just analyzing Russell Westbrook and just said, you know, he is one of the most magnificent players in the league to watch.

Still can be frustrating with the amount of inefficient shots. he takes. But also, who cares? Because he's fun and he's awesome. And right now it's leading to the Wizards to a heck of a lot of victories because even though he might be an inefficient score, he is creating some of the most efficient shots as a passer, being able to get to the paint, kick out, find, lob

threads, guys in the dunkers spot around the baseline. Russell Westbrook is playing at some of his best basketball right now. These numbers are absolutely freaky. 21 rebounds and 24 assists in the same game last night, had 14 points to go along with it. I don't know how inefficient, though, you can be when you only take eight shots. He took eight shots in that basketball game. I mean, eight shots and then has those kind of crazy numbers. And I read this morning something that just absolutely floored me.

that game, which of course, the numbers in it are absurd, as are many of the numbers that have been accumulated this season, both individually and team-wise. That game last night, between them and the Pacers, had 17 players score in double figures. 17. That's wild. It's wild. What? 17.

Like I watched the Knicks in person last night. I think they had like three. I think, I mean, I know Rose had a big night and Randall had a big night. I think RJ had 15 or something. But like I think that was, I think the rest of them had like nine or less in the game. 17 players with 10 or more points in a basketball game. And it just, Westbrook's been absolutely unstoppable. and it's been great, as has that team, which is, I think, if you wanted to put up a picture of

who is the reason the play in is good, it's the wizard, right, Keff? Yeah, it is. It is. I mean, they're one of those teams where, you know, giving them an opportunity to get in and make some noise with Bradley Beale and Russell Westbrook. It's fun. And just one of the quick thing, you mentioned last night's game, with 17 guys scoring and double digits. This is the type of game I want to see Russell Westbrook play more often. I know he's not going to get 24 assists every night. It's the eight shots.

It's the eight shots. It's like if he just shoots less and passes more, it will lead to better overall results because he is a great passer. He is not a great score. And last night, I really think it's like we talked about weeks ago with Stefan Curry. I said, I want to see Stefan Curry get 50.

15 three-pointers per game. He's doing that the last couple of weeks. Russell Westbrook, I want to see him get 8 to 10 shots per game instead of 15 plus. I think it would be better overall for the Wizards and would make him even better, make the team even better. And last night was just a great example. I mean, like the way they played, the way they sprayed the ball around the court, especially Westbrook, a lot of fun to watch.

Well, and they, you know, the Pacers, they played, I think this would shock people. They played with the fastest pace since, like, the All-Star break, which is crazy to me, given their personnel, right? It's a team that when I say the Pacers, you think of Malcolm Brogden and you think of Demontas Sabotas. You would not think that this is a team that flies up and down the court. And yet they have played the fastest pace. And, you know, that that was running into a buzzsaw. Like, you just want to sprint up and down the court? you know, this is, we would love to do that with you, said the wizards, right?

And they could just do it at this devastate. I mean, that is, I mean, that's like an all-star game. I mean, and let Russell Westbrook play in that kind of game. Next thing you know, he's got 24 assists and 21 frigging rebounds. It's ludicrous. There's only two guys that have ever, I mean, there's only two guys that have ever done that in NBA history. One of them is Will Chamberlain, the other one's Russell Westbrook, and Westbrook's done it twice. And I read this morning, which was, this is freaky.

I know that everybody, you know, there was the jihad on the triple doubles and that they don't matter and whatever else a couple of years ago. But he is going to average a triple double again this season, which is going to be the fourth time that he's done it. He could record zero points, zero rebounds, and zero assists in every game the rest of the same. season and he would still average a triple double. I mean, that is freaky. Yeah, that's not. He could have zeros in every game for the rest of the season and it wouldn't drop his averages below to where he wouldn't average a triple double.

That's how far above it he is now. I can't believe that. Did you see his coach last night saying he's like, what did he say? Did he say he's the best playmaker ever? Or, no, I think he ranked him behind Magic. I'm serious. Scott, type in Scott Brooks, Magic Johnson. I think Scott Brooks said Magic Johnson's number one, Westbrook's number two.

Because I saw people this morning debating Westbrook and Chris Paul, interestingly enough. Because those are kind of- Westbrook said, I feel like I'm the best playmaker in the league. And Scott Brooks said he thinks Westbrook is the second best point guard behind Magic. because, quote, point guards don't do what he does. Wow. There you go. So Scott Brooks.

That's it from Scott Brooks. It's finalized. Westbrook, second best playmaker ever. He said it. He said it. He said it's magic. And then Russ. That's it.

Which is, you know, I hate that that happened because, you know, instead of now, like, people like celebrating this and not taking Russell West Brooke for granted, as so many have, this turns into another talking point where it's like a way to crap on him. I wish that wouldn't have been said because now the topic turns into second best point guard. He's not even the single best point guard. You know what I mean?

And it's like, damn, man. Like every time he does something great, it's got to turn into what he's not or where he ranks his story. I mean, it's very strange. I've always found all the Westbrook stuff to be rather strange. But the Wizards are a great story. And I tell you this, Boston or whoever that team is that's got to do the play in and play them, I'd be worried playing against them.

I don't want to go up against him and Beale in a one-game scenario, especially when their record has been as good as it's been recently. They might be able to do something special. last night we had the Marvel game and the Warriors beat the Pelicans. They play again tonight. They turn around to play each other again tonight, Kev. I think Draymond had 15 assists in the game last night. He's had several of those this season already.

But they could maybe, like, this is probably the final nail in the coffin for the Pelicans if the Warriors dump them tonight. Yeah, it's three and a half back. from San Antonio right now who's sliding lost four in a row. And, you know, it might not, you know, actually be the nail in the coffin, but it's pretty close to it. Well, it's just because the amount of games, you would really, I mean, because even if the team in front of you has a semi-bad record, like they go three and five, you still would have to just completely sweep the board and they have shown zero capability of doing that.

And by the way, their schedule is not an easy one the rest of the way. Very difficult schedule for New Orleans. They're on the road. And so what are we making of the Warriors right now? We went through that high, high, high, where Curry was just blazing everybody there for about two weeks straight. And they were super hot. And then they went into this lull. And then you see last night, do you view?

them as somebody that, let's just say they're able to get past that play-in round. And so they were able to get seven or eight. Do you view the Warriors as a real danger to one of those teams, Utah or Phoenix, who are there at the top? I would say yes, because they have Stefan Curry. And it's like Juan Tisano Anderson said last night after the game. If you get into a street fight and you've got Mike Tyson standing on the side of you, How are you going to feel? You're going to feel like you have a chance, right?

Absolutely. Okay. So, I mean, that's the way I would feel with the Warriors, that they would have a chance because they have Stefan Curry. Say it, Kev. You're rocking with Juan T. I'm rocking with Juan T. Honestly, it was still one of my favorite quotes of the year.

That's pretty good. Was Draymond Kisad, keep saying, I'm rocking with Juan T. Got to put him on a T-shirt, right? Yeah, they did. They did. They did. They did. Yeah, yeah.

Some Warriors fans did. They said it to me. the WOTT shirt. We do want to give a quick congratulations to Carmelo Anthony, who is also a guy that has had holes poked in his game for many, many years, despite his rather incredible records that, you know, he's one of those. I think history will end up looking much more fondly on Carmelo Anthony

than the present day does. I think that we're going to look back at 20 years and kids are going to see that name on so many of the lists. He's going to be a Hall of Famer and that when you see his name on so many of those lists that the details of the career become muddled over time. But what does not is your place in those record books, right? because that's forever and inevitably people will pass him, but, boy, it is hard to get in that top 10 of scoring. It really, really is difficult. You've got to have been an amazing, not good, amazing scorer and durable to accumulate the

amount that it takes to get in the top 10 because look at look at some of those other names that are up there in the all-time scoring list and obviously you know you take notice of malone and jabar there at the top and that seems just i mean outside of lebron it's like who could ever even think about possibly getting near those numbers it's just so freaky um but look man top 10 score all time in NBA history that one is

that one's insanely impressive Kev I gotta say pretty pretty good man from the same draft class the O3 draft class I mean on Darko and Mello and Wade

and Wade too yeah Wade too well either two in the top 10 of course Wade 30th all time which is still a heck of an accomplishment too obviously yeah Carmelo passed Elvin Hayes last night and he is behind

the nine players he is behind Moses Malone Shaquillo Neil. Huh? He'll catch Malone. Oh yeah. Moses Malone, Shaquille O'Neill, Wilk Chamberlain, Dirt Novitsky, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carl Malone,

Karima Abdul-Jabbar. I mean, that's wild. Something else, man. That is wild. The name's behind him. Melvin Hayes, Hakee, Oscar Robertson, Dominique Wilkins, Tim Duncan. Yeah. What a list.

Crazy. And somebody finally beat the Blazers last night. They had, they looked like they, when we talked about it, they looked dead in the water to lose a nine of 11. And then they did turn up. They beat the Pacers on the road. They beat the Grizzlies on the road. They beat Brooklyn on the road. They beat Boston on the road.

Tough road trip for them to go through. And then they finally got caught last night by. the Atlanta Hawks. But I've been pretty impressed because they were trending the wrong direction rapidly. And it's kind of turned it around here at the end.

Use of Nurgich has been better. I think that's been a real key factor for them the last 10 or so days during overlapping with this wind streak. Nurchich looked a lot like more himself. Whether this sustains or not, we'll see. But that's encouraging for the blazers in the weeks ahead. When they're fighting for their spot in the

playoffs too. Well, we talked about how their starter numbers and their numbers with their catch on the court are all good. They are. It's once they get into that dreadful bench. And so, you know, you start to try to limit those minutes, you know? That's what they're doing. Yeah. They're running like an

eight-man rotation. That's right. And look, stop playing players that suck. I try to tell all these teams, they don't listen to me. They just don't listen to you. They don't listen to me. It ain't that. It's not rocket science here, right? Play the positive impact guys and play them more.

How about that? And now when it gets super high leverage, now you see those teams doing that like Portland and it is reaped real benefits for them. They're back in the mix at least. Another thing, Chris Haynes came out with an article Yahoo. And it's this whole thing about, I guess it was transcribed from a podcast that he was on where Kevin Love professed his love

no pun intended for the city of Portland and how he loves Portland so much and he loves Rip City and he loves that arena and in fact that arena's the first time I ever kissed my girlfriend and I mean I just I wanted to puke

really like truly I'm sorry. I can't take it. I really can't take it. I mean, there was a game over the weekend. He didn't take a shot. What's wrong with reflecting about good times of being your class, Chris? I think it's great, but you are in the middle of a contract that you are not playing up to at all.

He's getting paid $30 million a year. He's like, I love CJ, I love Dame, I'd love to play with them. I made out with my girlfriend in that arena. And I'm like, bro, I used to, I mean, I was. I'm a Kevin Love guy, but damn it, man. Like, he makes it so hard. Like, this is not, I guess if you're a Cleveland fan, you're just like, who gives a shit? But if, I mean, I do think of fans in this particular situation always.

And it's like, what if, what if, like, I don't know, come up with Jalen Brown, right? Okay, so you're up in Boston. If Jailen Brown came out and he's like, you know, I've all. always considered myself a West Coast guy at heart and just watching Curry every night. God, wouldn't it be amazing to get to play with Curry? And, you know, Steve Kerr, I've always had like, and I remember my mom taking me to Oracle when I was a kid and how much that meant to me. And it's like, oh, everybody would think that's super effed up that he's saying that

because he's on a pretty good team, but then because a guy's on a rat team, we just accept it. It's messed up either way. bro, you're on a team. Like right now, you know, with guys that are playing for contracts, with guys that are worried if their career's going to last, with guys that want to build something towards the future, to go on and profess your love and actively try to say, hey, please, Neil O'Shea, give something up for me is, I don't know, man. Like, like, it was last week, it was the just slapping the ball in bounds and not giving

of crap. And now this week, it's like I'm reading about how he made out with his girlfriend in Portland. And like, bro, go out there and get 20 and 15. All the meanwhile, I'm watching this weekend and freaking Blake Griffin's damn near jumping over Akia again. This just isn't good for the league. It just isn't. It's not good for the league. I mean, I'm sure at some point we will be reacting or talking about rumors that Kevin Love could be getting bought out. That's inevitable at some point in the near future that that time will come when we're talking about a Kevin Love buyout and maybe he'll be going to Portland to team up with his buddies over there. Not it does. I mean, and I think if you're probably be awesome again. And if you're a fan of the

of the cavaliers, the thing that would hurt me, it's like even though it's a season in which, you know, it's not about making the postseason as much. The fact that the guy who's there and supposed to be the veteran example isn't really bought in to helping Colin Sexton and helping Darius Gall and Isaac Okoro and has a wandering eye. It's understandable in some ways because you're losing and he's a veteran and he wants to win. But in other ways,

it's just really deflating. It's not understandable to do it in public. Yeah. It's not. Like, I mean, I don't think that it should matter what team, like, for a guy to go out and actively talk about how much he wants to be on another team,

that's not cool. You know what I mean? that's not i mean and again people could say well Cleveland did him wrong you know i suppose there's probably somebody out there that thinks that like as far as I know he's still getting his $32 million check

so they're not doing him that wrong they're paying him $30 million to do literally nothing except crap on their own franchise and set a terrible example for their young players you be i can't believe you you have to pay $30 million for that but you do they're paying that

and that's their that's the return that they are getting for their $30 million. So despite whatever the situation he's in and how maybe it's certainly not ideal and it's not how he wants to be playing out his career, save me the he's been done wrong by Cleveland because it ain't that wrong. And then before we get out of here,

look, I made you talk about Westbrook, which was intensely uncomfortable, I know. I am going to give you the opportunity to talk about the great monster in the middle for the magic of Orlando. Mo Baba. Mo Baba. 22 points. 15 rebounds. Two assists.

Dominant. Dominant. Against the Detroit Pistons hit and jumper. Scoring all over the court. Chris. Mo Bamba. I saw him in person. I didn't tell you that.

I saw him over the weekend. How to go? I mean, Orlando scored 75 points. They were awful. But Cole Anthony ripped the Grizzlies heart out the next night. But in the game here, Mo Bamba came off the bench and he was good. Like, I think he had 15 and 10.

He knocked down some threes. And it's, every once a while I talk. about how there are some guys that you need to see in person just to appreciate. Now, I have seen, I've seen Taco Fall in person. The first time you see Janus in person is startling. The first time you see LeBron in person and realize how big he is is startling. I'll give you another one.

Steph Curry, the first time you're up close to him, you realize he is not short. He's not like he looks on TV. It's a different deal. But he is not a short guy when you are out there. No. Like I mean, I think people think of him as a six three. No, I think people think of him as a little guard though, you know. Yeah, they do.

And he ain't little. But Bomba, you just don't see human beings like this. I mean, when he outstretches his arms, it doesn't even look. real. Like truly. And you know who's another one like that is his teammate, Isaac, who I've seen in person before, who is just freaky long too and has grown since he's been in the NBA. And my God, if they could ever put those two guys next to each other, I mean, I feel like if they both extended their arms next to each other, they could take up the entire baseline. I don't know how long it would really be,

but it feels like that. He didn't suck, man, at all. He didn't. He didn't. And I think with Moebaum of a 7 foot 10 wingspan, just absurd. He has a body comparable to Rudy Gobert in terms of the length and the height. Right now at 231 pounds, he's getting closer to Gobert, who's over 250. Gobert, 22 years old, was an 8 point per game player, you know, coming off the bench part of the time with the Utah Jazz.

I'm not saying Mo Baba will become one of the best defensive players we've ever seen like Rudy Gobert. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that Mo Baba is only 22 years old. And he turns 23 later this month, still a young player. And the flashes we're seen with him hitting jumpers the way he is, scoring around the rim, finishing, playing with better effort, playing, you know, with better toughness because he's out of that weight. Just give it time. Just give it time. And I still believe Obama is going to be in this league a long time.

He'll be in the league a long time for sure. I mean, but he is a, yeah, I agree. I would agree with you as much as I goof. The book is not nearly written. Not even close.

Like, it's just the beginning. He's got some shooting talent, man. He does. Oh. He's a very unusual player because like even if he's only like, he's unusual.

Even if he's half as good defensively as like Gobert. I mean, which half is still pretty good. If you're as good as Gobert, if you add a little bit more on offense. He doesn't have that thing where he does go try to block everything. He could block more than he does. You know what I'm saying? Like, Gobert, that's one of the things that makes him really good at the rim is he tries to block everything.

He does. Like anybody that comes in there, he doesn't let you just lay it up. He's always trying to block it. And so Mo's got to get more active like that. But yeah, I mean, in some ways, the comparison doesn't work because it only works. It only, well, yeah, it works when you look at what Gobert was before he entered the NBA. Gobert clearly had a lot of potential. But I don't think anybody expected him to become the guy that like broke the dunk record or has become the type of defensive player that he was.

I expected him to be potentially a good, you know, big in a rotation. And then he became what he did. Bombay is something to be a good big in a rotation. And I feel high confidence in that. Well, especially when you see. Look, they put the Gobert playing the G-League, for God's sakes. Yeah. You know?

I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't just some immediate assent for Root. No, it took a while. Yes. So, hey, I had to shout it out. The guy had a career night last night. It's all you've been asking for. And obviously, Zach Lowe feels very dumb today. You know, because his guy, Kim Burd.

was just he was the he was he was he was a roadblock to mo bomba's career night you know what mean he was a roadblock shout to kembert's though going to the raptors he'll be home in toronto next year shout out to kem birch for for going where he wanted to go he's been pretty good with the raptors i've loved watching kem birch with the raptors you don't you dare it's great no i have i love kem birch on the raptors i hated kem birch on the magic it's going to do it for today's edition of the mismatch. Of course, we'll be back on Friday. We always want to thank our fantastic producer, Sasha Ashile.

And we'll be back talking on Friday when the standings will look completely different. I'll hollered to them. I'm looking forward to it. Have a fun week, everybody.