The Mismatch - Will Anyone Ever Break Steph’s 3-Point Record? Plus: Standings Watch, the Importance of Size, and Our Loves and Loathes.

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Verno and Jacoby go through the Bucks' blowout win against the injury-riddled Lakers and talk about why size is still important when facing certain teams (0:53). They then discuss some of the positive takeaways from the Thunder’s win against the Celtics on Wednesday night before congratulating Steph Curry for hitting 4k 3-point shots(12:30). The guys debate whether anyone could catch up to Steph's 3-point record and how much the Warriors could climb in the West (16:52). As we inch closer to the playoffs, the guys take a closer look at the standings in both conferences (26:10). Next, they dive into their loves and loathes from the week that was (35:30). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producers: Jessie Lopez and Tucker Tashjian Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every week from the Ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. You know what, Bruno? I'm very excited about this show for a couple reasons. But the number one reason is, spoiler alert. The team I love this week is the Memphis Grizzlies and we'll be getting to them later.

But there's a lot to discuss that it's much more important before that. Oh, I've seen them enough. I saw them. Look, there's been four straight home games this week. There's been two Phoenix and then YouTube. tonight I'm going to see Cleveland and then on Saturday night I'm going to see Miami. It's a lot of games in a short amount of time that I'm going to see. But we'll get to them at a little bit.

Let's start with last night. We got the Bucks beating the Lakers. The Lakers are going to have to go through this span without LeBron James and try to get Wednesday. They had moved all the way up in the Western Conference standings. And so now I think you look at it and you go, man, how many of the United States? of these, are they going to be able to get? What, what can their record be by the time they're able to get LeBron James back in the fold as well as some other guys back into the fold?

Because it sounds like Luca may not even play this weekend. And so it puts a little more onus on him, obviously, in the absence of LeBron James, but we're not able to beat the Bucks last night. Did it change your opinion at all about either of those teams? Some of these games can be significant. We're going to get to one in a moment. Some of these games we can just render insignificant because they don't have their full lot of guys or maybe the timing of the game, whatever. Did you take anything away from Bucks Lakers?

Oh, I did. We'll start with the Lakers because they're the Lakers. And sorry, Charles Barkley, that's what we talk about first in sports media. But what I took away from that was perhaps, I'm going to go glass half full here for a second. perhaps this LeBron injury is a bit of a blessing in disguise for a couple of reasons. Number one, I saw like a conspiracy theory post online that you might have seen about how he always gets like injured around this time of year to rest up for the playoffs. I think that he is legitimately injured, but I didn't enjoy that post.

But I'll say that this is an opportunity for Luca to sort of be the heliocentric is me and a bunch of like helpers around me on the court at all times. so he doesn't have to defer to LeBron James, one of the goats. He doesn't have to sort of like try to fit in or fit out, as LeBron said, when he first took the floor as a Laker. I think that him sort of getting some reps as a more traditional Luca role sort of surrounded by shooters and hopefully Jackson Hayes is a role guy will be helpful for them. But last night, one of my biggest takeaways is they don't have enough size to mess with the bucks.

Like the bucks are big. And the bucks just sort of like little brothered them in a similar. the way that we saw the bucks due to the thunder earlier this year in the Emirates playing cup. What do you, or Emirates, whatever we're calling NBA Cup. All right. What do you take away?

I love you. That's goofier than hell. What is? They need the maximum amount of games, minutes, and reps with Luca and LeBron on the same floor. They need to ease, be able to ease Luca back into becoming

Luca and this whole, it's good for him to be heliocentric, that's not what they're going to be, right? You're not getting reps being the old Mavs. You're getting reps being a guy that's not going to be playing like that once LeBron James comes back into the lineup. So I always get the glass half full thing. I don't buy it on this. The last thing you want when you acquire somebody at the trade deadline is to have less

or reps the rest of the way as you are heading into the playoffs. And truth be told, they're not going to have that many minutes together before they've got to play in the most high leverage basketball of the year. And so you want to be, you want to face a lot of different defenses. You want to face a lot of different situations. You want to face a lot of game ending situations as a unit. And those are all stripped away from you in the absence of LeBron. you know, hopefully it can help get Luca going.

But I mean, Luca's already talking about, you know, having to take a little rest here because it's a lot on him. So I don't know if Luca, I don't think people watch him right now and go, this is the Luca that is a carry the team every single night. Like he's not in that kind of, and it stands the reason, as he's missed the majority of the season, that you could just plug him back in and it's like,

all right, go ahead, carry the team, be the guy, make everybody better, right? Like, I don't think that anybody is watching him going. This is the Dallas Luca that we saw down the stretch last year. And obviously he had a little more help, right? He's still going alongside Lively and Kyrie and the rest when they were making their awesome run in Dallas last year and they were the best team after the trade deadline.

I just think that much like they got all those reps with Dallas and ended up having the best record post-trade deadline after they made their moves, that one of the things that comes along with making a big move at the trade deadline is wanting to get, like, you've got a finite amount of time after that in order to get it all together before you're about to play. a lot of these teams that have had a lot of reps, a lot of minutes.

You know, you look up and down the Western Conference, there's not thrown together teams. In fact, the thrown together teams are generally failing, right? They basically gotten, you know, Oklahoma City's been in a lot of different situations together and been, you know, pretty uninjured as a major group for the last couple of years. Denver same way, Memphis same way. I mean, you can go down the list, and there's a bunch of those teams that have gotten that, and that will be what the Lakers don't have as they're having to head into the most high-leverage situations. I think that's fair.

Listen, I'm not going to say LeBron James getting hurt is a good thing for the Los Angeles Lakers. LeBron James not playing is never a good thing. I said it was a silver lining on a dark cloud, but we don't have to mince words about that. But I will say that there are people in Oklahoma City that will say they have been injured. Chad Holmgren has been out last year, and he's been out for a lot this year. same thing. I don't know why you put Memphis in the uninjured category. It seems like every time they lose all you do is tell me about the four guys they were missing

every single time they lose a game. I didn't say uninjured. I said they've gotten groups with tons of minutes and tons of reps together. That's what I said. And that is true. What are you talking about? Hold on. I'm taking them on the team that I love this week. I'm changing them from the team I love this week. Hold on. Jared Jackson, Jackson Jr. Desmond Bain and John Morant have been in playing games. They have been in playoff series.

They have been in four different playoff series together. Like, what are you talking about? They've gotten tons of, they've been together as a group for years. We're talking about being together a group for weeks in the sense of LeBron and Luca. That's totally fair. I'm just so tired of hearing you, every time the Grizzies lose, he was telling me who was missing all the time. You know, I hear that all the time.

Let's not just talk on the grisys. Once I said the word grizzlies, we get sidetrack for five minutes. All right. It's been bothering you. This grizzlies coming later. Did last night, one thing I did like was, you know, former Nick Jericho Sims. Obviously, not a big sort of like headline, deadline move that the Bucks made. But he was impactful and he just adds to their size.

There's going to be minutes when Lopez and Yons are on the bench. I think he can help a lot. And, you know, it just, it also put a highlight that the Lakers, I can't believe I'm saying this. The Lakers need Jackson Hayes. Like they need Jackson Hays. They've got, you know, it's like him and four loco are sort of like their only bigs right now. And that was my biggest takeaway from that one. But I think the bucks are like a sneaky sort of slept on tough out for anybody that faces them in the first round of the playoffs in the East.

I think it is fair to say. And I think this is because, you know, we saw the way they performed in the Emberts Cup. And we know that they have got these two veteran guys that have been through. a lot. I think you will agree with me. It is totally possible that the bucks are a better version of themselves in the playoffs than they are for the regular season. There are some of these teams that are going to be amazing regular season teams that are going to be not that same version when they get into the playoffs. And the most interesting thing that we could possibly have play out is that scenario. You know, a lot of vet team, because they're not going to give it everything they've got every single night, right?

They are, veteran teams are in many cases, much less concerned about the seed they get. And so, and not trying to win every game. The younger teams are always trying to win every single game and get high seeds. The older teams, like, they pace themselves more so during the regular season. And what's going to be fascinating is, you know, you might have a season. 65 plus win team in Cleveland playing against Milwaukee in the second round of the playoffs with the way it could play out. And we could realize like, hey, the bucks were better than what they showed during the regular season. I think you and I are probably both on the same page in that.

That we wouldn't be surprised if the bucks look better in the playoffs and those kind of scenarios than they have over the course of an 82 game regular season. simply because of kind of, I mean, they are totally veteran-laden. They don't play anybody young. And there's also something that I look at when it comes to the difference between regular season basketball and playoff basketball, and that's sort of like, how much does your team rely on transition baskets to be successful? And that's one of the reasons that I like the bucks and the timber wolves and the Celtics as they make that transition into that slower, dribble it up, more deliberate, offensive

to end defense. And that's one of the reasons that I'm a little concerned about your grizzlies that we'll talk about later, the Pistons. And even the Nuggets and Thunder, because they're all just sort of relying on a lot of transition action, which we know really turns into like a minimum opportunity in playoff basketball. And, you know, I think that that's also a good. No, you're right.

Teams are, look, younger teams want to fly up and down the court, get buckets. They don't want to play a lot of deadball basketball. Yep. And you get a lot of deadball basketball when it comes to the playoffs. And they're uncomfortable in the mud, as they say, right? Like you drag them down into the mud. And now we're in a gutter war. We're in a deadball basketball fest.

You run a play, we run a play. And that's just not typically the kind of basketball that any of the young teams want to play. Yes. And I think that some of the playoff teams are sort of the contending teams that are up in the top of transition points per game. The Grizzlies are actually number one. They get 33.3 points a game. Like, that's one, you know, they'll say the score 120. That's like, you know, that's a large percentage of their baskets that they're getting in transition.

As you mentioned, young team that wants to run. But then, you know, the pittons are in there. I don't think they're going to make a real championship run. But the nuggets in the thunder are at number five and number six. But I also feel like the nuggets in the thunder are so well coached and so good that they can also play in other ways and be effective. I also think that's a good transition to the biggest game of the week that we haven't discussed since the last pod, which was the quote unquote finals preview between the Thunder and the Celtics, obviously. You know, we know how that one played out.

But what do you think about this game? What were some of your biggest takeaways? 63-3s is outrageous? It's a lot. I mean, it's one of those where it's like, it makes you think, you know, you had a miserable Jalen Brown game. Really bad. Like if I'm on the Celtic side, I would sit there and say, look, we took a crazy amount of threes, like record amount of threes.

And the team takes a ton of threes. And you go, like, this is basically what happened last year. It's like the math is going to work our way, right? Like, okay, in a one game deal, we're not going to be like we may have one of these nights, right? It's not like they got run out of the building either. Like, we might have one of these nights where one of our. star players is putrid and we we don't hit this high mark of threes but they're playing the they're they're playing the long game in terms of a series and they're going we think four out of seven times

we're going to make enough of those and when we make enough of those the math is in our way is in our favor right and we don't have to do it we don't have to do it you know four times straight we don't have to do it one time we got to do it four out of seven times and over and over the of time, it will turn our way. Because if we would have hit four more threes, I'm talking from their perspective, then we win that game. And so the nights that it looks amazing, obviously it looks amazing. And then some nights you can't find it. But mega impressive by the thunder, for sure. I mean, like they just, they keep raising the bar. Every time you think that they may run into something that's a little too big a test for them, it feels like they

pass the test. I'm going to do a little bit of a zag here. Kind of of an encouraging loss for the Celtics. Just let me walk you down this road. They shot 63-3s, right? As you mentioned, broke a record. They didn't hit that many of them. Terrible game from Brown. Pritchard wasn't

hitting. You know, White wasn't hitting. Holiday wasn't hitting. And they got Lou Dort over here looking like Reggie Miller. Cason Wallace looking like an all-star. Like the Thunder played up here. The Celtics did not play that well. But if you look at the game, The Celtics are in the game with like four minutes left.

They're standing toe to toe with the team who has their role players firing at all cylinders, hitting shots, playing well. The Celtics do not. They're just basically, Tatum had a great game. I thought he played really, really well. As you mentioned, Brown played terribly. They weren't hitting their threes. They're shooting a ton of them.

And they're in the game at the end against the number one team in the Western Conference. I would say if I'm the Celtics, I'm like, look, we didn't play well. They did play well. And we're right in the game with them. If we do see them in a seven-game series, I'm very. confident in my team if I'm a Celtics fan. It would have been super fun if we could have gotten

the same kind of Denver situation that we had just had with the Thunder, where we got to see those teams play again. Yeah. Like right around the corner. Just to see kind of what those adjustments would be, what game two would look like between

those two. But like, I mean, in the end, I mean, that's two outstanding teams that we, I think we would be shocked if either of those, is not playing in the Western or Eastern Conference finals. And at that point, you're talking about high-level teams playing against each other. And like I said with the Celtics, like they're going to play the math in this. That is a bit, I mean, come on, even with the math, that is an extreme number, right?

63 is great. Come on. It's what they do, though. I got it. It's their strategy. They do sit. They do, but they don't do 63. three. Like, it is.

I mean, the edict is, I think if you're a Boston Celtics player and you have a semi-open three, you get, the coaching staff is upset with you if you don't take it. So you're encouraged to take them, whether they're good shots or bad shots or whatever, and they just let them fly. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't. But I don't, I don't like it when people dumb the Celtics down to, well, did they hit their threes? They don't hit their threes. That's what happens if you win or lost.

I don't think it's that simple. They did not hit their threes, and they were in that game at the end. end of the game. Speaking of threes, Steph Curry hit his 4,000th last night, which when you see it come across the timeline, you think it's like, there's no way that's a real number,

right? Like, 4,000, three-pointers. And sure enough, the number is real. I don't know if you saw when they posted the graphic of the other other ones. It was 8774.

I thought that Stan van did the math really fast. I was impressed. Second place is James Hardin with 3,127. Yeah, so 887. I guess he hit one after the graphic went up. 873. Then he is followed by Ray Allen with 2973. Damian Lillard with a tick under 2,800.

And then Clay Thompson, who has got 2667s. But 4,000 three-pointers for Steph Curry. in his NBA career as of last night. And the crazy thing is to go like, what is that number at the end? Seriously. What is the number at the end? Oh, and also one thing I was thinking,

I was watching this is like, this is incredible. But sort of like unlike LeBron's point total, I feel like this is going down in the next 15 years for sure. Because anyone that has kids or has watched kids play basketball, it's like, that number's coming down.

Everyone's shooting threes. give an eight year old, give an eight year old a basketball and he's going to shoot a three and the ball's going to bounce like right around the restricted line. I'm telling you this number is going down in the next no way. I think I we disagree. I think this is like

Sy Young's win record. No chance. This is gone. Remember remember a couple weeks ago when he hit 113s and we were like he's hit 113s 40 something times? Yeah. The next best is Damien Lillard with like 7. It's like bro, nobody does this. Nobody does this.

You'll see. You have kids. I have kids. You've watched kids play basketball. They're just shooting threes. And they suck at it. It's so, yes, they do. Go watch a middle school game, a high school game, a college game.

There ain't Steph Curry's out around there. There's a bunch of kids that think they are, Steph Curry. But they're not good at it. Go look throughout the, go look. Watch the NBA. Hell, I turn on games every night. I'm like, why is this team taking so many threes? These guys can't make

them? Well, you know, what I was impressed with last night? Forget Steph Curry. Draymond Green. Draymond Green started the game hitting two threes. It was like six to nothing. He had a great game, dog. He's scoring lately. He's actually made

a good percentage of threes this year has Draymond Green. Shockingly, I mean sometimes guys get older and obviously he's never going to take some kind of high amount, but look, 34% is. And they're naked. You know, he gets open threes because the defense gives him to him and he knocks him down. And one thing that I thought is, I remember it was like the second episode we did together.

And you were like, are you a comminga guy? And I'm not a comminga guy, but I was just like a little shy to say it early. But I have to say, having Miss comminga for so long, watching him last night I was like this you know what he does he will have an impact on this team like he will certainly be a net positive

when he returns and gets healthy he had 18 points he was seven for 10 from the floor he was playing defense and when you start to look at this team they're obviously missing sort of like a big I'm sorry Mr. Post and Mr. Looney like you know you're not exactly

dominant forces down low except for that that one stretch of three games that Luni had in the playoffs a couple years ago. But with Kaminga Butler, Dremond, you've got three good defenders right there that can switch, that can guard smalls, guard bigs, that you can really use as a sort of Swiss army knife defender. And you put three of those guys on the floor at the same time, a lot can happen good for you. One of those things that we've talked about a lot is some it's not just the individual player it's how the individual player affects the group and we talked

about how jimmy butler would have a profound effect possibly on step curry which he has i also think butler's greatest impact could very easily be on comminga right that is exactly the kind of guy that jonathan caminga needs to look at and emulate more so than the Andrew Wiggins. I don't think he was looking at Andrew Wiggins and Moses Moody and Jordan Poole and even Clay Thompson, right? Like that is

the kind of wing that Jonathan Cominga, I think, can look at and observe how he plays and also learn from on a daily basis and also get that, as

they say, put the battery in his back. You know, I think that butler can have a big effect on the a guy like commingo who's kind of been you know uh up and down in terms of his uh attitude you know that you know in his role within the context of the warriors and everything else and i think that you know butler is the kind of guy that could really help his career along um and speak some sense into him and, you know, show him, not only show him visually how to be, you know,

a great team basketball player, because that's the only trick, right? He's got the requisite athleticism and the talent. It's there are stars and role players. I think that Jonathan Camingo thinks he's going to be a star in the NBA, but I have also thought his destiny is to be a great role player. Yeah. I may be wrong about that.

Maybe there is stardom within, but I think if there was stardom within, they would have, you know, if they thought there were stardom within, they wouldn't have done all that haggling over the contract. And if they thought there was start, if the league thought there was start him within, he wouldn't be a warrior right now. So. I think that's fair. But can't you figure out? Can't you see a world in which that he really contributes in a first round playoff series win

and ingratiates himself with not just the fans, but the franchise and the team. and next thing you know, he stays a warrior for another three years. I can see that happening. Absolutely. I can see that happening. Probably, hey, I can also see it not being at his price. Yes, I was about to say, I can also see him playing so well that drives the price up that he ends up leaving due to his success.

Right. And then he goes and he averages. Sure. He does the, look, this is the Jeremy Grant thing to me almost, right? Like there's always these guys. And it's like, okay, you can go and you can go. and you can go an average 25 points a game in Detroit or whatever. Go play for the Wizards and average a bunch of points and whatever.

Or you can figure out where you are within the context of an awesome team. And I don't think that Kaminga is Jimmy Butler, but there's a lot of good comparisons. There's a lot of things that Jimmy Butler does well that Kaminga can fold into his game. Neither of them are great jump shooters. Neither of them shoot really threes. Both of them like to drive to the basket and slash. And what you can learn if you're Kamingas is, hey, Jimmy, I, I'd like to go to the line eight times a game.

You know, what are the little tricks that you get to do that? And, you know, and I'd also like to be a vocal leader and a sort of like a captain of the defense. How can I do that? And I think that that Kaminga could do a lot to learn from Jim. The Warriors have won nine of their last 10. And if you want to be able to make up games, if you're winning nine to 10. A second time out, is the one lost to the Sixers when McCain scored like 75 points? I think that's it, right?

like the Saturday game, National TV. No, it was Grimes, right? It was Grimes. Grimes, that's right. Not McCain. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, not McKay. Grimes.

Yeah, you're right. That's their one loss. Yeah, to the tanking Sixers. Yeah, 126 to 119. So they have been, they have been mowing people down. They've won nine of ten. And no matter what your, no matter what your situation is ahead of you, if you're winning nine of ten, we talked about how it gets later.

in the season and even if a team starts reeling off a bunch of wins, in order to, you know, be able to overtake if your game's back, you know, you're needing to go eight and two, you know, while that other team is going five and five over a stretch. And the higher you get in the standings, the harder that becomes because the teams in front of you are generally not playing 500 basketball, right? The teams in front of you have proven. themselves over the course of the season to be able to play at a winning rate. And so that being said, they keep all moving up and they're now three games back from both Houston and L.A. So I'm glad you introduced this new segment, which is standings watch, right?

This is when we take a look at the standings and see what's going on. I think we're not actually transitioning into it now. And I'll say that it is interesting and it's tantalizing to project the Warriors' success going forward and saying, can they get from the six to the five seat or even the four seat. You mentioned there are three games back, but however, there are four games back in the loss column. And if I'm looking at the standings, and we're talking about standings watch, I'm looking at the Timberwolves overtaking the warriors as much more likely, even though they've won so many games lately, they're only a half a game up on Minnesota. So like it is probably, I'm not going to say it's going to happen, but it's more likely that

the warriors find themselves in the play in than it is that they find themselves in the four or five matchup in my opinion. Really? I'm just saying just from the math. Like the Warriors are a half game behind them and they're technically, but they don't lose. They're technically three games behind the, the Rockets.

But they don't lose. Do you think they're going to keep this 90% clip up? Like, do you really think they're going to win at this clip? They've got the red hot New York Knickerbockers coming to town. Look, we're about to, hey, I'll tell you this, look, I'll give you my answer.

Look at their schedule. No, no, no. The next three are New York, Denver, Milwaukee. There we go. This will decide it. No, that will decide it. Yeah, there we go. I mean, they're not winning all three of those.

They're all at home. They're not winning all three of those. You know that. I'm telling you this, if they win all three of those, that we need to start talking about them, maybe having home court advantage, which is the craziest proposition ever. See, I think it's much more likely than the plan.

But regardless, as we talk about New York, Denver, Milwaukee, right? And one thing that we always say about the Warriors and the Lakers is the same thing. What about size? What about dominant big men? What about what about bigs that can score? And they're going to see three teams that have them. And we'll see just how much Quentin Post and Kavanaughan Looney can do about the Joker. It can do about Lopez and Atentacumpo and whatever.

No, no. This is going. These next three games, unbelievable. This is perfect. Are you real or not? Are you real or not? That's it. We'll know by Tuesday, right?

No, not Tuesday. We'll have an idea on Tuesday. By the next show, we'll have an idea of the Warriors and are they a completely different team with Jimmy Butler or had they just been hot and played some mediocre teams since they acquired Jimmy Butler? That's right. Because that is a, I mean, if you were lining it up, Jacoby and you were saying, who do you want them to play to prove to me that this is, a real thing and that they need to be looked at as a Western Conference finalist possibly, you would put them up against New York, Denver, and Milwaukee. I mean, that's as good a three as you could possibly line them up against to try to figure out,

are you, and also all three of those expose exactly what you were talking about, which is, yes, like, hey, okay, we think you're really good. We think you're fantastic. We love the way you've been playing, but what happens when you have to go up against towns and Robinson? What happens when you have to go up against Yokic and Yonis? Yeah. I think that is important because I do think the Warriors have everything that they need

except for a big on both sides of the floor. And I also think that, you know, you pooh-poohed my idea of them ending up in the plane, but the Timberwolves have the magic, the jazz, the Pacers, the Pelicans, the Pelicans, and the Pacers, and the Suns and the Pistons. like the rest of the month I can see it happy I can see on Tuesday show that the Warriors are in the seven spot

I'm not predicting they're going to end up in the seven spot but if we're going to sort of project the rest of the season I think it is more likely there in the seven than there in the four just from the the last column alone yeah as it stands right now obviously

Oklahoma City has run away with it you have Memphis and Denver that are tied with the two three spot Memphis has the tiebreaker, right? They do. Okay. As of, as of right now. Well, they're going to beat the Cavs tonight, obviously.

They say no, Mitchell. Who, why? It's disrespectful. They said, we don't need Mitchell to win tonight. That's what they said. Winning streak be damned. We don't need Mitchell to win tonight. You know what?

Enjoy Beale Street. Enjoy some barbecue, Mr. Mitchell. They have not, they have not lost. since I think February 4th. It's ridiculous. It's May 14th, bro. I mean, sorry, it's March 14th. It's impressive.

March 14. March 14th. They haven't lost it. They haven't lost it's like the beginning of February in a game to the Celtics. They're unbelievable. Anyways. No, so you got Oklahoma City, Memphis, Denver. Then you've got L.A.

who obviously is still going to have to try to get by without LeBron, maybe without Luca. Who knows? Houston got Fred Van Vleet back in the fold. So maybe they'll be able to write the ship a little bit. Did earlier this week. Obviously, it stinks that they've lost our man Thompson. And we talked on our Monday show, Tuesday show, about how, you know, the injuries are going to affect all of this.

You have Minnesota at 7, as you mentioned. And then the clippers are the one that have really, like, fallen down the standings. and we just like don't even notice, but they keep kind of creeping down a little bit lower, a little bit lower. So they're now at eight, and then you have Sacramento and Dallas at 9 and 10, who would be in that play-in situation because there are teams behind them that absolutely refuse to take advantage of Dallas's misfortune, which we will get to. on the Eastern Conference side, Cleveland, Boston, obviously, and it seems like those teams have

a great distance between each other and a great distance between the next. It seems like one, two, three, Cleveland, Boston Knicks is pretty much locked. But four or five, six is where it gets really interesting because you have current order is bucks, pacer's pistons. But what's interesting about that is

the Knicks are going to face one of those teams. and two of those teams will face each other. And how that plays out. Okay, rank that in terms of as a Knicks guy, obviously you would least want to face Milwaukee in the first. Yes, yeah. Okay. At least want to face Milwaukee.

And then so you would say if you were choosing opponents, even though Detroit has gone and beaten them in the garden twice, right? If you were choosing opponents, you would want it to be dead. Detroit getting six and have, you know, Milwaukee and Indiana knock each other out, right? Because you wouldn't want to play Indiana either. Yeah, I would, it would go, there's a part of me just like selfishly wants to play Indiana just to sort of like, carmically write the wrongs of last year. But if I were running the Knicks organization, if I were Tom Tibido, I would prefer to play

the Detroit Pistons. And anyone who listens to every episode of The Mismatch knows, that Ed Nause, and we've said playoff experience, experience wins in the playoffs and everything slows down and blah, blah, blah. You've heard it from us before. And I think that this is a very successful Detroit season. And you're going to get this core some playoff experience. But I do not think they get out of the first round. And I do not think they get out of the first round against the Knicks.

It'll be a six-game series. It'll be good. But I would rather play the Knicks and then the Pacers and then the Bucs. And then what a piece of crap the Eastern Conference play in is going to be. It's just ridiculous. So I mean, horrendous. I'm going to talk later about tanking, but I just want to say now, like, it does feel like it should just be the eight and the nine seeds play for the eight seed.

Like what is the 10 seed? The 10 seed currently in the Eastern Conference are the Bulls. They don't want it. The 10th seat currently in the Western Conference are the Mavs. They don't want it. So why are we non-consensually making these teams play playoff basketball? Like, they don't want to do it. I got it.

but I mean year to year that is going to change right and so there are other years where we're glad that there have been more teams that are attempting to be competitive and generally the rules they have made to disincentivize tanking have been good right adding in the play in flattening out the odds finding teams that aren't playing players for nefarious reasons like generally that has been good, but this year it's obviously a disaster as we head down the stretch. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, that's going to be perfect because as we get into our love and load of the week, I'm starting out with the team that I love.

And this is the absolute shocker of all shockers, the Toronto Raptors. You're embarrassing yourself. You're embarrassing yourself. No, no, no. I'm not embarrassing myself. Because this is, I felt like. Wednesday night was the ver it was truly like

major league the movie and I know that some of our audience would be too young but I would encourage you to go watch excellent film they won't let you lose you put these guys out there and they refuse to lose it was a tank off between the raptors and the sixers and look the reason I'm putting them on the love. And yes, this is somewhat sarcastic, but I make my life and my living watching and covering NBA basketball. And also, I am well aware of what is going on in collegiate basketball.

So when there are basketball players that I just, I've never even heard of this human being, I am always taken aback. I'm like, who is that? A lot of these guys I at least remember from college to wit, they start at point guard, Jamal Shed. I loved Shed at the University of Houston. He's had some moments earlier this season, too. There's a couple other guys that played in this game that, like, you know,

aren't real NBA basketball. Shed is a guy. I loved him. All right. And then Yaka Portal, obviously, he's been in the NBA for a long time. The other three starters in the game against the Philadelphia 76ers. Oh, wait, hold up. Before we move on, Yacob Portal started the game.

Yes. But he played like 17 or 18 minutes. That's right. That's right. The other three, Jared Rodin, Colin Castleton, former two-way Memphis Grizzly this year, and Memphis Hustle member, Colin Castleton. I mean, I think.

Colin Castleton is like an actor in like the gilded age. I've never heard of this man before in my life. And then Jameson battle with A.J. Lawson coming off the bench with 20 shot attempts, Orlando Robinson and who he played for legend Garrett Temple, who is now almost 39 years old. I was going to say Jared Temple's been the league since I was four. He is also shooting 24% for the season. I think Garrett Temple.

He's there for the five. Played with Sam Bowie. All right. So, and then earlier this week, they've got to win against the Wizards. And A.J. Lawson, the aforementioned, had 28 points in that game. All right? So you had 28 points in that one. AJ Lawson, over the last two games, has had 60 points on 41 field goal attempts.

Jesus. Jesus. You can never take that away from him. You can never take that from him. He had 60 points in two NBA games back to back. You can't take that from him. I mean, there's nothing funnier to be than the front office probably be like, what the hell?

Colin Castleton, we played Colin Castleton 40 minutes, and we still can't lose. The fact that they won both of these games and the Wizards and the Sixers just refused to let them lose despite the fact that they were running out guys that I've literally never heard of is truly unbelievable

Bravo to you guys on the Raptors that are given your opportunity and refuse to take part in this nefarious activity It is a perfect example of the term players don't tank It's true If anyone who's listening to this

that's ever played pickup basketball in the park wants to win, players don't tank. You can take a hurdle out of the game and you can say Scotty Barnes is injured. You can pull those levers as a coach to lose games

for the betterment of the franchise. The thing you can't do is tell A.J. Lawson to miss shots because he won't do it. You can't tell Jamal Shed not to hustle. He won't do it. Whoever Orlando Robinson is, you can't tell him to get scored unintentionally because he won't do it.

You're going to put five professional basketball players in the game, and these rafters are winning games because they're five professional basketball players. They're not trying to lose. They're trying to win. And they do deserve some recognition for that. I think that's fair. I'm going to, you know what? Fine. Reluctantly, the team that I love are the Memphis Grizzlies.

and they deserve to be celebrated a little bit. Because we all know what happened when they lost those three at the buzzard, the Knicks, the Spurs, and the Hawks, all at home. Just a disaster for the fans, just the franchise. And me and you were having side conversations off mic about what the hell is going on with John Morant?

Like, is he ever going to be jogging? Is he hurt? Is it the shoulder? Is it mental? Is it, like, what is going on there? And they've won four in a row. Granted, it was the math. the Pelicans, the suns, and the jazz.

All right? All down to the wire, too. And none of them were blowouts. No. But for me, what it was is John Morant. The reason I love this team is because if they're going to do anything, make any noise, even just push a series to seven in the first round, they need John Morant to be back being John Morant. John Morant himself said that Sharon Jackson Jr. was the key player on the team,

the best player in the team early in the year. And I feel like in any other year that John Morant was playing basketball, he would not have deferred like that to a teammate. But in this four-game run, he had 31 and 8 assists against the Mavs, 32 and 6 assists against the Pelicans, 29 and 12 assists against the Sons, and 28 and 7 assists against the jazz. And here's the thing, he's shooting 50% from the floor, and all those numbers are just numbers. You watch the games at the end of these close games that give the ball to number 12, and he

figures it the fuck out. And that is what you want your superstar to do. I don't care about how many points you score. I don't care how many assists you get or whether you get a steal or whether you you lock down and you're getting double-teamed or whatever. John Moran is back being to that guy in a clutch situation. You give him the ball and he'll figure it out. You just have faith in that.

And there's probably like seven teams in the NBA that have that guy. And Memphis didn't have that guy until recently. And I will say that that son's team, and you always make excuses about how many guys the Grizzlies are missing. But to beat the sons without Edie, Jaron Jackson Jr., Aldama, and Clark, and Conard and Vince Williams Jr. was pretty impressive because the sons had their people.

I don't think they had Beal. But this game tonight against the Cavs, I really want them to win. It's home, right? They listed Jared Jackson Jr. as questionable. So the inference is he will be back in the lineup for the game. Wow. All right.

I'm predicting a win. I'm predicting win for the Grizzlies tonight. Whether Mitchell plays or not. Grizzlies are winning tonight. Let me open up my family. That's a little. That's a little strong. I'm opening up a fan duel right now.

I'm going to put $20 American dollars on that. Don't do this. Don't do this. It's 20 American dollars. I'll send you a Venmo request that they lose. This team has not lost since February 4th. There's 10 teams that have beaten them all year. Don't do this.

First of all, we've all seen these Cavs games. They're not like rolling through the competition. They're going to overtime against the heat. They are awesome. Did you watch? I'm Tuesday night. Tuesday night. I'm not letting you do this. I'm not letting you do this. Every Friday, I come on here and I say, oh, the player I load this Deer & Fox and then I have to watch him hit a game winner. Or I talk about whoever the next opponent that I'm going to see in person, I'm not doing this. The Cavs are one of the greatest teams in NBA history, statistically. Any, just being competitive would be a win.

All right, well, so you would, you would consider that the people that sort of make the lines at, at Van Duel sort of know what they're doing, right? You consider them as like people that are good at sort of projecting how basketball games will play out, right? I'd hope. I'd hope so. They're very good at it. Is anyone who's ever bet in Over Under? They're very good at it.

And they have Memphis plus two. Oh. Money line is plus 116. It's basically a pickup. That says to me that Mitchell's probably not playing. That's what it says to me. I am stunned. All right.

So I'm predicting Grizzlies win. Grizzlies win tonight, baby. Big win over the cast. You're the war. You're doing this on purpose. And just so you could be mad about it. No, next one. Team I loathe, the aforementioned, a team I saw in person earlier this week.

And I was just like, this is ridiculous. The Phoenix Suns, they absolutely refuse to take it. advantage of the Mavs misfortune. It's ridiculous. They lost to the Grizzlies. And the Grizzlies were, like, their entire front line was out. Jay Huff started. Okay? A basketball game for the hustle? No, for the Grizzlies against the Suns.

Okay. And they lost that game. And then they turned around and they lost by the loss of the Rockets this week. So another losing week and they had gotten Bealback for the Rockets game. They are now 30 and 36 on the season. So they would have to go 11 and 5 to go 500 this year. That is not happening. So they're going to end up with a losing record for this NBA season.

They are probably a pretty decent one. They are still two and a half back from Dallas, who is two and eight in their last 10 games. And they are in 11th place. and by the way, they're only two up on the spurs and two and a half up on Portland. Now, the spurs are probably out of it as Fox is out. But like, what if Portland just decided? You know what?

This is old winning some games and, you know, getting these young guys, some reps in a playing game might be, you know, not the worst thing in the world. Like, I swear to God, if they don't make the play in, this is going to be the most hilarious thing ever. Like, how? How are you not getting to, how are you not even getting to 10? Listen, the Maverick season, disaster.

Disaster. They traded Luca Donchage. AD got hurt in like 40 minutes. And then, and then Kyrie got hurt. That's a disaster. The Sixers season, disaster. Embed, never himself. Paul George, not himself.

And, you know, McCain, their rookie sensation, got hurt. The sons don't have these kind of excuses. Like, KD missed like, I don't know, 14 games once upon a time, like in around Thanksgiving. But the sons have their guys. The worst thing that happened is that Devin Booker wouldn't shut up in the huddle. Yeah. Well, that's probably the problem. What happened to the Sons?

Well, in 10 years from now, we'll be like, what happened to the Sons in 2024 or 25? Oh, Devin Bucker was too loud in the huddle and it tanked the whole season. The Sons don't have excuses. I cannot explain why they are this bad. It's not just like, oh, Nurkich wasn't good. It's not. I don't know why they're this bad. I mean, every time there was some level of misfortune that took place with the Mavericks,

we came up and be like, unbelievably, door opens for Phoenix. Like, they refuse to walk through the door. They refuse. It's like they refuse to walk through the door. The problem is, is Kevin Durant has one and a half feet out of it. I think that might have something to do with their lack of success. Maybe so. You might have something to do.

Kevin Durant is on Zillow every single plane ride, just looking for places in Houston, Oklahoma City. And he's got the slider on like $10 million and above. The team I loathe this week, and I've secretly loathe this team for a long time. And I cannot understand this. And I'm going to ask you a question about this team. What happened to the Miami Heat?

Like, Jimmy became like, oh, they traded Jimmy Butler for Andrew Wiggins and others. Now, you could say, well, Jimmy Butler is a better player than Andrew Wiggins, and I would agree with that. But Jimmy Butler wasn't playing for the heat and they were winning games. Jimmy Butler wasn't trying for the heat and they were winning games. Since the deadline, they've played 16 games and they've won four of them. They've blown 17 double-digit leads this season. Bruno, they've flown 17 double-digit leads this season. The last time they won was March 3rd.

Against two. The Wizards. That's the only win in March. The Wizards. The only win in March. And by the way, also includes losses to the Bulls and the Hornets. Who loses to the Hornets? They lost to the Cavs and the Timberwolves.

I'm like, all right, whatever. You're going to lose to those teams. They lost to the Bulls and the Hornets. And then the clippers. Like, you still have Tyler Hero. You still have Bam. That is the nucleus that you were supposed to build around once rumors of Jimmy Butler not being long for the franchise. It's like, oh, we've got Bam and we've got Hero.

We're going to build around them. They're available. Wiggins is back and available. He's playing. Terry Rozier is doing whatever you see him doing on the internet. Kelle Ware is supposed to be good. Like, I'm just sort of shocked that between Kelle Ware and Bamatabio, you can't limit Zubotch.

You know, it's like you can't, you can't not be dominated by Zubach. But like if you just pull up like even one of their random games, like that loss that I mentioned to the Hornets, okay, they do have Bamadabio and Tyler Hero. Their other three starters are Andrew

Wiggins, Davion, Mitchell, and Khalil Ware. I like all three of those players. Oh, stop. I like all three of those players. That cannot be your other come on. And again, Those can only be your other three starters if the other two guys are crazy high level, like superstar caliber players.

The Raptors just won with Orlando Robinson and Shed and A.J. Lawson and Battle and Temple. But they played against a team intentionally losing. Wiggins. The Hornets trying to win? I'm sorry, but look, I would rather have their lineup that night. I'd rather have Lonzo, Mark Williams, and Miles Bridges. That's better. I just don't understand how it's this team.

Wait, hold on. Yeah, I like Wiggins and Bam and Tyler Hero. Over Mark Williams and Lonson. No, no, no. And I'm Melo Ball and Miles Bridges. Yeah. I mentioned the other two. Davian Mitchell and Khalil Ware in the starting lineup.

I like both those players. Okay. Well, they lose every night, Jacoby. You said you loathe them. It seems like you love them. Because I loathe them because they should be winning games. They should be winning games and they're just not. It's like what happened to heat?

Sounds like you can't decide whether you love to love them. What happened to heat culture? What happened to Eric Bolster being like a top three coach in the NBA? Like what happened to this like we have a cut and paste culture that doesn't matter who's wearing the uniforms. We're going to manufacture wins. And they've proven that to be true in previous years, but this year is just not working. They don't have good enough players.

And Andrew Wiggins is the least heat culture player I've ever seen in my life. I mean, that's an overstatement, but sure. Come on. Okay, fine. No, D'Andre Aiton is actually the least heat culture. DeAndre Aiton plays in AirPods. What about Deon Waders? Oh, wait, he wasn't the heat.

Yeah. All right. Let's get to player that I love. Oh, you're going to love this. It's McKell Bridges. You know what? I've never been so happy. I haven't been so happy to be up at one in the morning since I was like 29.

Set the quiet part out loud and then delivered a game winner. Oh, tell us about the Tibbs thing. Yeah, the quiet part out loud was him talking about Tom Thibito and says that he had a conversation with Tibbs about the extreme amount of minutes. that they play. Tibb says, nobody ever talked to me about that. So let's talk about this. Let's break this down.

So, Mikhail Bridges, who is like Cal Ripkin of the NBA, hasn't missed a game since I was like 30 years old. Goes to coach Tibido. Right? And this is not like, this can't just be like,

oh, we were talking about the last episode of White Lotus and I happened to bring it up. This is like, go to your office, knock on the door. I have an agenda. is going to be a difficult conversation.

This is going to be a conflict. This is my boss who I'm going to criticize. This is going to be hard. He probably talked to his wife or girlfriend before he went over there. Like here's he probably, he probably rehearsed to this conversation. Goes to Tibbs says, hey man, maybe we should play less minutes.

Remember last year what happened in the playoffs to your team? Well, he also says, he also says, look, I think we've got good players on the bench. If they've got it going, you can leave them in there, ease it up on us a little bit, right? we need some guys. We want these guys that are on the bench to be able to feel like they can perform

and we're going to need them. Landry Shammit? Yes. Who are we talking about? That's hot porty. Who's on the bench? I watch this team every night. Who's on the bench for them?

That we need to get more minutes besides deuce. Name somebody. I'm waiting. He named Landry Shab. No. Yes, he did. On the nights that Landry Shammett? What night does he have it going?

When did I miss this? When was the night that Landry Shammon had it going and didn't need an opportunity to stay in the game? Someone find that game for me and send me the box score on X because I don't remember that night. I don't remember the night where I was like, man, Landry Shamans three for three from three in the last six minutes. I can't believe they have subbed them out. That would not happen. It's never happened. It's not happened.

But let's celebrate Macal though. I'm sorry that I took your thunder here, but I do want to say that must be an extremely difficult conversation to have. And imagine in the scenario that he presents, that he has that very difficult conversation with literally his boss. And then someone asks his boss if the conversation happened. And his boss says, that never happened. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know who to believe here.

He said, we never had a conversation about it. The facts are the facts. When you look at our team and the way it works, Jalen plays 35 minutes, and I think he's 20th or 21st and average minutes in the league. towns who's a primary score plays less than Jalen. He's like 25th in league average. He then continued that since wings like Bridges and Hart are matched up against the other

team's wings, often the other team's best players of primary scorers in the modern NBA, that they'll be called upon to play in the mid-to-high 30s each night. He added, you wouldn't want to play reserves against the likes of Durant, Tatum, and Brown. So he says my guys play this extreme amount of minutes because, you know, look, the other teams are playing their best players a lot of minutes. So what do you want me to do? Be it a disadvantage against those. And that all works, except he does it against like the wizards. You know what I mean?

Like I give it a 20 point lead in the fourth quarter against the wizards who are not trying to win. There's four minutes left and you got starters in. That's the part I don't understand. He refuses to break his substitution patterns regardless of like the down and distance. Like if you're ahead by 20 points against the team that's not motivated to win the game, we can, you know what?

Campaign and Shamit and Hawk Porty can land this plane. We'll be okay. It's just always been a hot button issue, but to have a guy, because Bridges has the ultimate credibility in this. He's the ultimate credibility. because this guy has been like the NBA Ironman.

Yeah. And so he has the ultimate credibility. And then, like, you know, so he touches on this hot button issue, gets everybody talking about it. But then obviously it's the game winner. Right after all this is sizzling. I stayed up to watch that game. And I just want to briefly say that I was very happy to see Scoot Henderson

performed the way that he did. You know, all the hype that he had coming to the draft. and sort of, you know, it didn't have an amazing rookie year, but like he, he looked like a star. He said, give me the ball with the game on the line. He had a big Ann one. He had a big impact at the end. Deni Abia had a huge play in that one. And I was looking at that game towards the end.

And I'm thinking, I lost the Lakers, lost to the Clippers, good win against the Kings without Brunson. But if they lose this one and they lose to the Warriors, that's a one and four road trip. and that's not good. And I think without Brunson to win that game, to say at minimum, this will be a two and three road trip, was a huge, huge win and a huge shot from Bridges. Huge shot from Bridges.

Player that you love. I'll make this short, we've discussed him briefly. And for me, it's not just that I loved him in one game this week. I loved Chet Holmgren this week because he was bad against Denver in that loss. He was over five and three, three for 11 from the field, and just looked like someone who was coming back from injury that didn't sort of had their sea legs underneath them. But that game in Boston, granted, no KP.

I get it, all right? But Chet Hongren was aggressive, 23 points, 15 rebounds, and just three-level scoring, hit his threes. There's this one play on a roll. He set a pick for SGA and then rolled. And SGA didn't give him. him like that quick pocket pass, he kind of got all the way to the basket.

SGA threw him the worst pass, a bullet pass, which is like, you know, in the NFL, they talk about catch radius. Like at the very end of his catch radius, he has to reach his hand back just to catch the pass was like an amazing play and then finished it. And I was just like, man, this guy is just hungry and aggressive and wanted to win. And sort of like had had edge to him and it felt like he was extra motivated to prove national TV, I'm back on this platform. I'm going to play well.

And I think that granted, J. Dubb was out of the game. But I'm looking at Chet and his development and what he can be projecting forward. I think he will be the second most important player on this team, the second most offensive output player on this team. And I think that his potential is so high that I found myself just absolutely loving Chet this week from bouncing back against that game against them. player that I loathed. This is easy.

Easy. Paul George. I was going to put him down to. Paul George, done for the season. And of course, you know, like we just went through podcast P.

You're not going to do the podcast because he's going to focus on saving the Sixers season. But then that went to hell. But then that went to hell. They can't, they don't want to lose their pick. So then now they're just going to tank the whole thing out. And that's,

fine. Just tank the whole thing out. But don't insult us all with the, he's now consulting doctors because his groin and knee, he may, he may need to get surgeries, right? He may need to get surgeries. And so it's like, bro, just, just stop, right? This, this feels like an effect of, you know, on Wednesday night, I went to Memphis versus Utah and I don't expect you to have, you might have seen the headline. Did you see, like, it was literally that afternoon that the jazz got fired, uh, find a hundred grand. Yeah. That's a, yeah, Lori Marker. Because Lori, oh, he's been, he's been dealing with such injury for so long. They find him 100 grand. He was in the starting lineup that night. Like, I just feel like

Paul George is always like so extra. And now, now it's like, bro, just sit out. You're her. That's fine. But this whole, now I'm consulting with doctors and I might need to get surgery. Bro, just sit out, tank the rest of the season, go back and do the podcast and you can analyze the playoffs. Like, enough is enough. I feel like it's just been, it's been entirely too many Paul George headlines for what is possibly the most disappointing season of a franchise that we have seen in the last 10 years. Why is he always on my feet? Always.

I get more Paul George on my timeline than fucking LeBron James. It's unbelievable. And it's also like, oh, you're consulting doctors. It was the same thing they did with Mb. We're going to find a doctor that says you need surgery and then we're going to shut you down for the season. So you're going to go to doctor number one says you don't need surgery. All right, we're going to doctor number two says you don't need surgery. All right, we're going to doctor number three.

Oh, doctor number three said there's some minor procedure that I might need. That's the one we're going with. Shut down the season. Give me the minor surgery. We can pretend like this is essential and to get me ready for next to you. Bro, just say, just say our pick is top six protected. Everybody knows the deal. Even when Shams reported it, it was, quote, including a possible procedure.

So then the headlines become Paul George consulting with doctors. Like, stop. Everybody knows. Like, just stop. Stop the ruse here. You're not getting surgery on anything. In fact, there's probably nothing wrong with you. Well, one of the things that really bothered me about the Paul George saga this week,

on the timeline was, oh, he's going to, you know, he's consulting doctors. He might need surgery. He's basically not, basically them announcing he's not playing for the rest of the week. And then we get the rumors, Paul George is on the trade block. What are you getting in return for Paul George this offseason? Explain that to me. What team is like, oh, we're Paul George away? Once we get Paul George in the building, we're going to explode.

Hey, Jacoby, four years, $212 million. That was the extension. We have not given the Clippers enough credit for dodging this bullet. Oh, that's a good point. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's a good point. Because I assumed, and the Clippers had an offer on the table. This is one less year.

So I don't know if they dodged this bullet as much as the bullet dodged them. Yeah, maybe. Didn't hit him. Didn't hit him. Didn't hit him. Didn't hit him. That's right. But again, like, the idea that he's on the trade block is hilarious to me.

I don't know what, what, who wants to take on that contract? I could sell myself on him beat. But I cannot sell myself on Paul George this offseason. Player that you loath. Player that I loath. This is simple, all right? The players that I load this week are Marcus Smart, Steph Curry, and Mason Plummel.

And I'll tell you why. Because each one of those individuals decided in the last week that they're going to start problems with Isaiah Beef Stew and Stephen Adams. Marcus Smart, I'm sure you saw this. with him and B. Stu going back and forth. They had this like, I'm not the one off. I don't know when I'm not the one. I'll tell you this.

So, Lexington. This is my opinion. I, look, I'm a Stewart guy too. You saw Stewart has reacted much more viciously towards other guys. As soon as Marcus went at him, it was not, I felt like a bit of viciousness came off of. No.

It was, no, it was a, I'm not the one. is what it is. I'm not the one to mess with. But I felt like Beef Stew looked at Marcus Smart and was like, like this guy's actually serious. I think beef stew can bully

pretty much 95% of the league. And I think he saw one that he wasn't going to be able to. A guy that, like, there are very few guys that would actually fight him. Marcus is one of those guys. I don't care what anybody says.

Didn't Marcus Smart punch a fan at Oklahoma State? No, he just ran a push. It ran into him. Ran into it. Okay. I take that back. I'm a journalist. Pushed. Well, Marcus Martin. Then, Steph Curry was talking trash in front of the, the Pistons bench and Beefstoo got involved a little bit.

And Steph Curry and him went back and forth. We all saw what happened with Mason Plumley and Stephen Adams. We've expressed our undying, deep love for Stephen Adams before. So if you're getting into it with Stephen Adams, then I loat with you. It's just that simple. Don't mess with beef stew. Don't mess

Stephen Adams, just don't. Those are the players I love this week. Okay. A thing that I love this week. Oh, the Mocheeks reunion. All right. So for those that didn't see, and you could go watch a video. Very famous moment.

This is pre-internet. This is when everybody was watching SportsCenter highlights back in the day. But every time that somebody brings up like very famous national anthems, There's obviously on the bad side. There's the Carl Lewis one. On the good side, there's the Whitney Houston one, or the Marvin Gay, on and on and on. Right.

But one of the ones that always comes up, every time a national anthem discussion comes up, is in game three of the Portland Trailblazers and the Dallas Mavericks in 03, on national TV in front of a pack crowd, a girl named Natalie Zito, who is now Natalie Gilbert. but Natalie Zito was 13 years old

and she is singing at game three of the Western Conference playoffs and she forgets the words. At that point, the head coach of the Port of the Trailblazers, Mo Cheeks walks out and he helps her and he helps her finish the song. And it was this incredibly heartwarming moment.

It's one of the great moments that has happened before a game. And it was on, it wasn't just some regular season game. This was a huge playoff. game that this was taking place in. And so there was one of these redemption moments that took place. 22 years later, Natalie Zito is now Natalie Gilbert.

And this week went and sang the national anthem and Mo Cheeks was an assistant for the opposing team. And so there was a reunion. And by the way, she absolutely killed it. Of course. She was great. She was absolutely great. And so just this moment, this incredibly sweet moment in NBA history that took place 22 years ago,

now you see this lady who is an adult out there and Mo Cheeks still around. And Mo Cheeks is there and it's 22 years later. It was just, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It's super sweet moment. It's perfect. It's one of those things where the people are, you know, like basketball players are humans first. You know what I mean?

And this poor girl was struggling through the anthem, and Mo Cheeks was just such a great moment. And it wasn't a coincidence that he happened to be in the building that day. I just thought it was really well orchestrated. It was really well done. This thing that happened this week that I loved, first, you know it's a good story when the first thing you do is make sure that it's not ball sack sports or NBA Centelle.

That you have to like double check to make sure it's real. The second question I had is, is this even legal? Right? I was like, is this real? And the second thing I said was, is this even legal? We all watched. A quick, quick time out because you brought up an NBA central. Tell me you saw that, I, that was what, they got me on one of those like, pause for a second where it's like, this is so damn funny.

But like, there's no way, right? Where they put up, Kevin Durant has just surpassed. and career free throws and I was tired. Like they had the list and they had SGA. I was laughing so hard, bro. Because they too many think. Kevin Durant's been in the league for like 25 years. And it said he just surprised SGA in career free throw attempts or something.

I was like, just a very quick NBA side quest. I don't know why people are so mad at SGA for like being a quote unquote free throw merchant because I got a dirty secret for everybody. buddy my favorite team jalen brunson is an absolute free throw merchant at jimmy butler is an absolute free throw merchant but we celebrate jalen brunson and jimmy butler i don't like any of them we celebrate them i don't like it i don't like any of it and this goes back to this goes back to harden and try young my here i'll give you there's a difference through free throw merchanding

Like I, when I feel like your goal on your move was to get foul. Yes. Rather than your goal was to go score. That's when it gets under my skin. I watch a lot of Jaylon Brunson, Berno. The point of the play. The point of the play. And Brunson, he is trying to get foul.

Oh, I got it. I got it. No, it drives me crazy. Yeah. I hate it. I hate it even when my guys do it. It's like, it just, bro, go score. Play basketball.

Like, when the point of. the play is to get fouled, that's when I get annoyed. Yes. And I just don't know why SGA gets criticized when there's so many other players in the league doing the exact same thing. But whatever. After they beat the Celtics, Converse, who is SGA's sneaker represent, he represents Converse. He's got a Converse sneaker is new. They Batman signaled. SGA's logo on TD Garden,

on the Prudential Tower, which is like the Empire State Building of Boston. And like these are landmarks. I was shocked that it was real, number one. And I can't imagine it's legal to non-consensually blast a logo on the side of a building without permission. People pay millions of dollars for billboards.

And to put one right on the TD Garland. after a loss, it was so disrespectful and so petty and so rude that I have to celebrate it. I mean, if this doesn't catch on, forget lighting the beam, light the beam right at the opposing arena that you just won a game at. I'm shocked at this happened. It can't be legal. And if this is legal, we should have Batman bat signal billboards all over the place. They should take this on the road.

Every time the Thunder win a game, they should shoot his logo at the opposing arena. That's the first time I've ever seen his logo either. They just came out with it. It's a brand new logo. But I was just shocked. I was absolutely shocked that this happened, that it's legal, that it was executed. I loved every second of it. I loved it.

Yeah. I thought it was AI or something first, too, or like a media. I mean, somebody had created it Photoshop. They must have cleared it ahead of time with the buildings, right? Like, you can't just do that, can you? I don't know. Is there a law against shooting a light, shooting a light somewhere. Please.

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I'm talking about. I also want to say this, just one quick aside, a little take I've always had. If you are a professional athlete and you're with a company that wants to design you a logo, don't have them incorporate your initials into it. I hate it. Every time, it's just like, oh, let's take their initials and make them look cool. Like, no, I don't want that.

Do what Kobe did. Do what Jordan did. Have a logo, an icon that is not just your initials. All right, move on. Thing that I loathed this week, I love Shaquille O'Neal. Of course. I do.

And I think he's hilarious. But, bro, this whole, like, pistons thing, that's mega depressing, especially when the whole topic this year has been about, you know, You have on one end, you have where people, you know, have talked about the ratings and everything like that. And then you have the other end where people say people are too overtly negative about the NBA. Or then you have the, they only talk about, you know, the star teams or whatever.

And then Shaq going on with my buddy Adam Lefco and insisting that they're like four games under 500. Then going on TNT and saying that he loved what Chauncey. is doing there. Like, bro, like, come on. Like, really? Really? And then, I mean, I've looked, shot to the Pistons for putting up the meme where, and then calling the Pistons boring

and not, and I don't watch the Pistons and don't care about the Pistons. And the Pistons then tweeting out, you overlooked us in 0-4-2 and had them all holding up the title. I like that. With everything. So that was good. But I mean, like, what is the deal here? Like we have been talking about as a basketball fan, I don't know how you can't love the Cade Cunningham Ascension and the story that is J.B. Bickerstaff taking over

what was a totally moribun franchise. And the Mille. Beasantz. Yeah, and the whole thing, and they are fun to watch. And they do have good chemistry. And we have highlighted them throughout the entire year. And then like when the when the common trope is like we don't care about these kind of teams. And then you have like a fun one.

And we even said it's kind of reminiscent of the whole light the beam wave that took place to Sacramento. It's like I have been a little defensive on the like, oh, come on. We just laugh at what they say anyway. And they don't actively hurt, you know, the product. They don't actively hurt the product by being down on the current generation or not caring about the smaller market team. or the teams that aren't the regular great teams. But I do think it hurts, right? I do think it hurts with one of the biggest voices in the whole, you know, NBA

ecosphere on media. Like if you were listing off media members, like those guys on TNT are the biggest to say, like he's telling you that like what is actually one of the best stories. And I know people can just write it off and say like, oh, yeah, that's just Shaq or Shaq doesn't pay attention or whatever. But I mean, I don't understand. going out of your way to talk about what is truly one of the great stories in the NBA and then telling everybody, because it's not boring.

It's for sure not boring. They are not boring. No. Right. And they've got good personalities. And he even mentioned. And then to just freely admit that like you really don't even know anything about this or what's happening here.

Because at one point he said, I like what Chauncey's doing there. I mean, that's crazy. Like, are you, are you real? Are you really still just always going to be mad at them for beating you in the O'4 finals? We've both been doing this a long time. We've both made mistakes like that, right? It just happens sometimes. Like you just have a brain fart.

You say something dumb. That part doesn't bother me. What bothers me about this, and I love Shaquille O'Neal as an on-air talent. And I think when he first started on that show, he was awful. Honestly, he was really bad, like that first season. But now I can't imagine that show without him. And he's shown a lot of growth and improvement in his, media presentation, I commend him for that.

The problem I have with this is you can't sit at the same desk with the guy who complains about ESPN just talking about the Lakers and saying we need to shed more light on teams like the Cavs and the Thunder that have been playing really well. And then you have another team that's been playing really well that had lower expectations like the Pistons and you sit and then you have Shaq saying, I don't watch them. Chonis is doing a great job there where it's like, well, which way do you want to have it? Is it we only talk about five teams or is it we cover the whole league and we're sort of like, we keep an eye on everything and we'll shine a light on some of the smaller stories.

Like which one is it? Because it can't be both. And it sounds like he wants a little bit both. Right. And it is one of those things that I do feel it does not happen in the other sports. Well, I freely admit that. It does not happen in the other sport where, you know, the national. broadcast are telling you not to care about something.

That's interesting. I just want them to be themselves. It doesn't really bother me if they speak negatively. I just want them to just share their innate feelings that come to them. And if they're negative, they're negative. That's fine. And I know that deep down their hearts, they all love basketball. So it doesn't bother me. But I will say one thing about Shaq that I learned this week. There's a woman named Jess hilarious. See, I think, I don't think that your former co-host would bring this sort of content to the table. And maybe that's the better, but just hilarious. She's on the breakfast club. Yes, she did

an interview and she said that she was at Shaq's house yesterday and that Shaq was living like Neo had four women living in his house. It's amazing. She said they were big booty white women.

Big booty white woman? Let's just move on before I get in trouble. Okay. I love your KOC. player that I loathed? No. This is, I'm just going to, this is, this is, this is, no, thing that you love.

Thing that I load, this is easy. And we've discussed it. To me, it's very simple. The flattening of the lottery ads has, lottery odds has improved the tanking situation in the NBA. It still has not fixed it. And this time of the year, I find it very frustrating because I imagine most of the people

listen to this podcast, also have league pass and they click the stupid button and they see all the games that are on. And now at least a third of the games, I just don't even have to watch because there are teams that are trying to lose. It's just frustrating to me to have six or seven teams actively trying to lose games at this point in the season with like 15 games left. Well, and this was going to be the great test, honestly, because this is the first great draft we've had in a while. Yes, good point. Like, I mean, truly where people think my franchise could be altered by this draft. Last year, nobody was sitting there going.

And so it's not as bad in a year like that because you're not sitting there looking at Zachary Rees-Chae and Alex Saar and Reed Shepard and going, my franchise is being altered. I need to lose the maximum amount of games. In this point, people are looking at Cooper Flag. They are looking at Dylan Harper. They're looking at Ace Bailey. They are looking at these guys. and they are going, I want to have the maximum.

I don't care if it's flattened. I want the maximum amount of ping pong balls in that deal. And because even though it's flattened, okay, I've got the maximum amount of ping pong balls there. I'm still at worst getting four. If I got the absolute worst record, I'm at worst getting four. If I've got the second record, right, like you're only bopping me down to four. five, six, if I've got one of these, that's my worst case scenario. And I think there are great players that are still available there.

So now with a truly great draft, now this is the real test again. So you were for sure going to end up having more teams that are trying to get the maximum amount of chances at it. If you didn't make the playoffs, if you didn't make a playoffs, it's a flat chance to win the lottery. It's as simple as that. I just don't see another way of doing it because I'm looking at the games. It was like the Bulls Nets game.

I'm watching Tuesday night, I had a recl league game. I played pretty well. Double figures. I don't score that much, but I played pretty well. Good job by me. Turn up. Yeah, I did. I think it was like six for nine from the field.

It was great. It was great. But after the game. Colin Castleton number. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And after the game, I wasn't drinking. We usually go for beers, but, you know, I'm not drinking.

Got a kid coming. So I'm trying to, you know, be on top of things. Never knowing you get the call. And I was watching. the Nets, Cavs game. And the nets are up by like 14 in the first half in the second quarter. So I pull out my Fandual app. And I'm like, well, we all know how this is going to play out.

I'm going to bet in the Cavs to win. And sure enough, they won. And then last night, you got the Bulls Nets. You had the Raptor Sixers game earlier this week. It just, it bothers me that in all of the matchups in any given day, there are at least two or three, there are foregone conclusions. And there's going to be teams that do things like what. the Raptors did this week.

And it just bothers me. The problem is it's like a quarter of the season too. Exactly. We still got 16 to 20 games left. And it's also like the Spurs trade for Deerrin Fox. Yeah. Right? And it's like we're making a run.

Let's get Victor Wembenyama in the playing, maybe in the playoffs. And I love it. I'm like, that's a good match for Wembe and Yama. I think this is a good deal for the Spurs. This is great. Let's see what happens. And then the second that he gets a blood clot, it's like, oh, now Deeran Fox is.

out. Now we're just trying to lose. You got poor Clay Thompson over in Dallas who's just like, he thought he was going to play with Luca and Kyrie, and now he's sitting there with Spencer Dinwiddie and Dwight Powell. And like, they're not incentivized to lose games. I'm just like, this part of the season frustrates me as someone who loves the NBA, knowing that there's going to be a percentage of the games on the slate every night that are foregone conclusions. I know who's going to win and I know who's going to lose. and it's just like, it's just frustrating to me. And I think that they did a good job by flattening the odds.

I want the odds to be fully flat. Someone tell me why the odds should not be fully flat for everybody in the lottery. Explain it to me. Why should it not be that way? I'm not going to, look, I'm the most anti-tanking guy in the world. And it's for a myriad of reasons. But one of which is the level of competition you're talking about. I also just think it, I mean, I've been around.

I've covered a bunch of tanking teams. I have a strong feelings on this. I think it ruins guys careers in many times. Yes. I do. I think they never, they never become, yes. I'm trying to sell my 10 year old son and go into like a tagging team's game.

Well, it's good that they lost son because now they might have a 16% chance of getting Cooper flag. Instead of a 14% chance getting Cooper flag. He's going to be like, who the hell is Cooper flag? And why did you drag me out to watch this team lose by 20? Right. It's just frustrating.

I'm very frustrated by it. And I don't see a good reason. reason why the odds shouldn't just be flat. Because this isn't working. This is not working. And the idea that, like, Deeran Fox doesn't need this. If Deeran Fox was on the Kings and they were pressing for a playing

in a playoff position, he'd be playing. If Paul George was, if the Sixers were in a position to be truly pressing to make a run like they made last year, he'd be playing. So now it's just like, the second that there's a chance that you're not, it's binary. You either contending for a championship

or you're contending for the number one pick. And the middle ground isn't explored enough. And I just, while I'm finishing this, I want to say I want to commend Chonsie Billups, not for the work he's done in Detroit, which he did some great work there, but for the work that he's done in Portland with the Blazers. They're trying to win games.

They're doing everything they can to win games, and they're probably not going to make the play in. Probably not. But they're doing right by the league, right by their fans, and right by their players. And I'm just frustrated by the tanking. I think it should be of flat odds if you don't make the playoffs.

I don't understand why it's not the case. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez and Jacoby. I'll catch up with you next week.