The Mismatch - Will Vegas Lose the NBA Cup? Plus: Nuggets Outlast Rockets, Spencer Bros., and How the Cup Is Affecting the Giannis Trade Market.

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

Verno and Jacoby return as they preview the NBA Cup championship between the Knicks and Spurs. They then debate whether the NBA Cup could potentially move away from Las Vegas and what the best options are for the fans to be able to go see the games in person. Next, they go through Monday night’s slate of NBA action. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch! (00:40) NBA Cup championship preview (18:16) Will the NBA Cup leave Las Vegas? (24:06) Nuggets win OT thriller vs. Rockets (32:12) Cade Cunningham shines in win vs. Celtics (35:17) Cooper Flagg makes history in loss to Jazz (40:42) Cam Spencer stays hot and Ja Morant is injured in win vs. Clippers (45:35) How the NBA Cup has affected the Giannis trade market (49:24) Kristaps Porzingis out at least two weeks with illness (52:46) Evan Mobley's calf strain and the Cavs' disappointing season so far The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producers: Jessie Lopez and Stefan Anderson 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. The Emirates NBA Cup final is this evening and the New York Knickerbockers are going to take it home. They're taking it home. First championship since 1973. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Raise the banner. Will you have a parade? Will there be a parade? I don't think they'll be a parade. Well, you have something in your way. And that is Victor Wenbinyama, who made his. come back in the Thunder Spurs game, which led us to this moment.

Let's start with Magic Nix. And so you tell me how the Knicks got here. Beat the Raptors, beat the Magic. They have Jalen Brunson and the other team does not. Brunson is a finisher. I would say Kate, Kate is becoming one of the best finishers in the league. And we'll talk about him later, I'm sure. but Brunson is a finisher.

I feel very comfortable with the ball in his hands in clutch moments. And I think we'll see it tonight. Well, you also had 70 points in the paint versus the magic, which was an extreme number. That is what might very well change against San Antonio, dependent on how much time when Benyama stays on the court. The mismatch is presented by Bandul. Fandul's got it all same game parlay's quick bets for jumping in live and your way to build the bet that fits your play.

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A couple of things on the Spurs. So we'll kind of go through three things on each of these teams. The first thing that stands out is that through the first part of the season, especially in the absence of Wimbadiam, but one of the other things that took place with the Spurs is they never really had their three guards together. Yeah. And so now, not only you might have Jalen Brunson on that Knicks team, but there's three that can be thrown at Brunson and the guards for New York

between Fox, Harper, and Castle, and all of them have had their moments. We've had the Castle, 30-point game. We've had Harper, who's been fantastic since he has returned, and obviously has a really good chemistry with Juan Binyama. And then you have Fox, who you know is the kind of guy that can. could go band for band and clutch time, but also started that run, which kind of led them to this point, which was that game got wildly out of hand. This is one of the best basketball games of the year, this Thunder Spurs game that took place

over the weekend. And it looked like, I tweeted this out on Saturday night, it looked like one of those typical OKC games. They're up by 16. And then they kind of just lost their mind the last couple of minutes of the half. Fox goes for six straight. It keys off this 13-0 run. You look up and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

This is a three-point game going into halftime. But you've got to look at those three guards as something that they bring to the table, right? It's kind of like guards versus wings because you know the advantage on the wings should be Bridges and Ananobe. Meanwhile, we will see it's kind of Brunson up against three. that kind of all do different things and obviously the Castle job on SGA. I mean, he's a dogged defender. I mean, he is a Rottweiler, man. I mean, he is obviously turned up in year two.

And so those three guards are the first thing I kind of think about when it comes to San Antonio. Because regardless of how many minutes when Benyama plays, that should be and has proven to be an advantage for them against other teams. Well, the problem is there's no one to hide Brunson on. Like, there's just, there's nowhere for him to hide. And, you know, he's not the greatest defender. And I think that he's been picked on in the playoffs before. And I expect, I expect him to be really tested tonight on the defensive side of the

ball with those three guards you mentioned. You also have the fact that they were able to drag that game down, right? It's a low scoring game. So there's a second thing on the Spurs. The free throw rates this season. season for Wemby are way up and for Castle are way up. So why does this matter? Well, you just had a game where you had the Spurs have their worst offensive output

of the year in a game simultaneously with the thunder having their worst output of the game. So or of the year. You've got the second ranked offense in the Knicks. They want to get up and down the court, right? There are a lot more pace and space this year. San Antonio is fine dragging you down. You saw them. They'll play half-core basketball with you.

And the reason that the free throw rate matters is because how much dead ball basketball can we play in this game? If we're San Antonio, how much dead ball basketball can we play? Because guess what becomes a lynch pin when you are playing deadball basketball? The seven-foot-five guy that can block threes and block everything at the rim. right? Like, I mean, the maximum amount of half-court basketball I can play when Victor Wimbunyama's in the half court, the better. So I do think that that's going to tell quite the story tonight, like how high. You saw the Knicks. That, what they have, like 70 in the first half against Orlando, they got flying up and down the court against Orlando.

They turned that into, and it is so odd because that's not what you think of when you think about the Knicks. the team that you don't think of them traditionally as the team that wants that pace to be high and flying up and down the court. And yet this version of the Knicks is that, the team that wants to fly up and down. And so for so many years, the veteran team, the team with man strength, all of the things that the Knicks bring to the table, that's the team that wants to play playoff style, half court basketball, and yet I'm not so sure

that that is the case in what we have for the cup final. I'm not against those defenders, and I think what's really going to be interesting is how much when Binyana plays and when he plays. Because they're, you know, against the thunder,

they're prejudicious with how much they put him out there because he changes so much defensively. But if you look at Carl Anthony Towns, who is so talented offensively, Luke Cornett cannot stay in front of him. Right. He cannot. Obviously, Wimbunyama poses a completely different problem for anybody,

especially Carlin'Neary Towns. But if in those Wimbuniamma minutes where he's on the bench, the Knicks need to use that advantage. Because if you put Cornett on Towns, he's just going to go around him. He's going to dribble to his right, set up on the left block and shoot his stupid fadeaway, and it's going to work. Like, he is a problem.

Well, what has proven to be true, and this was true for Minnesota back in the day. It was true for the Knicks last year during the playoffs. One of the major issues that towns can pose is if your center has to guard him and he's just going to stand out at the three point line, right? How far away can they force Wembe to not be the guy that's in the paint all the time? you know can they stretch him out all the way and the way to do that is towns right they don't really play a center right like they're not gonna play Mitch out there yeah and so there's so much you can put him out there right and so and then can you can you hold up on the boards right with those wings and just have towns pulling him away from the basket as far as you could possibly pull him so that you can end up make honestly like the problem with wimby is he doesn't need to be he can be too steps away from towns and still

contest a three point shot. That's the problem. I mean, he's so big. Like, they still can test a three-pointer and you don't really need to, he doesn't need to stick to towns if towns is on the three-point line because two steps and he's there. Like, he's so big. Yeah. One of

the things that John Schumann put in his article was watch for corner threes because this was a crazy stat. It said that the Knicks are averaging five corner three a game, which would be the most in the 47-year history of the three-point line. Really?

Yeah. Five is the most? I would think the number would be higher. I would think the Celtics last year would shoot shot more corner three. I thought so too. But yeah. And so like the whole idea is how far can you pull this guy away and open it up by knocking those down?

A lot of those are just people leaving Josh Hart alone. That's really what's happening. I watch all the next games. And people just leave Josh Hart alone. If he goes four for eight, completely different ballgame. But if he misses his first two threes, it's just like, and then people just leave him alone. And then the offense just really starts to look very beatable if Hart can't knock down those threes. I don't know how many times I have seen something as impactful as what I saw from when being that game.

Like every time they brought him in the game. Oh, yeah. They look, like, if you didn't know that one of those teams was 24 and 1, you would have thought the other team was better in his minute. I mean, obviously, they're plus 21 in his minutes. But it was the damnedest thing I've ever seen. Like, every time, he didn't even play the first quarter. Comes in the second quarter, like, as soon as he's in the game,

he tips the ball over two guys. Just a complete different game. Completely different game. Totally different game. Yeah. And so now, look, is this your Luzbenyama reckoning? You have, you have talked real reckless about Lus Binyama. Victor Wembe Nama. And now he's facing your team for the first championship since 1973. We can't call it a chip. It's a cup. It's something you put in the cupboard. It's a cup. They'll hang a banner. They'll put a little something up there, but like, it'll be next to like championship.

It'll be next to like the Harry Styles banner. The Taylor Swift banner. There's like a Harry Styles consecutive sellouts or something. Billy Joel and Harry Styles and Taylor Swift have banners. No, no, no, no. Billy Joel deserves his banner. Like for what he has done. Does he?

Yes, with regularly playing at the garden for the amount of years that he's done it, he deserves a banner. The Harry Styles consecutive sellouts is the one that needs to be next to the cup. Billy Joel lives in Sag Harbor, right, on Long Island. He has a house just in the middle of town. Like no gate, no driveway. Like, he's just like right in the middle of town. Like, that's Billy Joel's house.

And it's just like right there on front street. Like, you just walk up and knock on his door if you want to. It's the weirdest thing. I love Billy Joel. You love Billy Joel? I love Billy Joel. I love him. What?

Yes, I love him. I love Billy Joel. I don't even have Billy Joel opinions. Like, he's fine, I guess. I love them. What's your favorite Billy Joel song? Um, you don't love Billy Joel.

It wouldn't take you 10 seconds to come up with your favorite Billy Joel song. No one loves Billy Joel. That's my take. Nobody loves Billy Joel. Hold on a second. I'm literally trying to decide what I want my answer to be. You can't think of a Billy Joel song. This is like LeBron.

What's your favorite godfather of scene? I grew up on my parents playing New York State of Mind all the time. It's like one of my mom's top three favorite songs ever. But I don't want to say that. Seems from Italian restaurant, probably. Probably. No idea what you're talking about. Never heard that song for my life.

How dare you? I've never heard that song before. You know what? Seems from an Italian restaurant. You should be deported from New York. You should, I hope ICE picks you up from New York and sends you somewhere else. because you don't deserve to be a New Yorker. You don't.

Seems from an Italian restaurant. Is that a song? Seed from an Italian restaurant and moving out is my favorite. That's my favorite one because that is my daughter's favorite song. We love Billy Joel. We're a Billy Joel house. And if you don't like him, hey, you know what? And I'm going to go one further.

If you don't like him, you can go to hell. I don't. How about that? I really don't have strong Billy Joel opinions. Well, I want you to go buy the double disc. that's how old I am. I'm not buying a double disc, but I will listen to the scenes from the giant restaurant. Go ahead.

Bottle of red, bottle of white. How dare you? Oh, God. How dare. Knicks are definitely winning the cup tonight. Definitely. Last year, the Spurs were 34 and 48. This is obviously the big move forward that they are making.

They lost one Benyama last year to the deep bone thrombosis, which we had to learn about. now this year they've been without within three weeks for a calf. But there is no question that with him in the lineup, we look at them rather differently because of what has transpired in this cup. Right. I think nobody's because of what happened against one game, right? One game changed everybody's outlook on what is possible. Yes.

Because that team trashes every. everybody, the thunder trash everybody, and we have never seen them bleed like that, where it was like, oh, wait, is the other team better than them when he's on the court? I needed that. I needed them to lose. I root against the thunder every time I watch a Thunder game because they are so good. I want to see something happen. I don't want to see them win by 30. Like, that's what I've watched every single night. It was so rewarding to see them lose like that to the, the Spurs who are probably, I don't know, the fourth best team in the Western Conference, but it just, it just proves that they're human. It proves that I'm so tired of the dynasty talk. Like, why are we, why are we labeling this team of Dynasty that was losing in game seven of the finals? Because guys like you came on literally our last episode and one of your loves was the chase for like 80 wins. Oh, 74 wins. So that's why. And that was one of my loves. Yeah.

Yeah, that's why. And because they have the Clippers picks, which are, probably going to be the number one pick of the draft, and they've got their last two draft first round draft picks. One of them's, you know, got testicular cancer, the other one's out for the season. And it's like, what if they're awesome too? And it's like, I mean, come on. That's why we're talking dynasty,

because they are loaded with more to come. And so that's why that began. And one win is not going to take that away. But I am interested by this. If we came on here on this show, and many people will listen to this after the fact. You wouldn't be talking this way if they were playing the Thunder. Nope.

And you came on here talking about we're winning the cup. Yes, yes. If they were playing the Thunder who were 25 and 1, I would, I might not even watch the second half. So that is the interesting thing, is that though we respect the Spurs for what they were able to do, you still look at it and go, yeah, but are they going to be a, and this is the veteran-laden team

who has certainly got scars versus no the next oh okay yeah they're the veteran laden team that's taken their lumps that have had the heartbreaking defeats that have had the ball hit the rafters and drop down against them against Indiana whereas the spurs they haven't played a playoff game against each other so this is you know say whatever you want about the cup

it is a heightened level of intensity and this matters to them no question absolutely absolutely and I also think that it's so easy to look at Wimbenyama and focus on Wimbenyama when you're talking about the spurs. But like, he wasn't the difference in the game. It's Castle, it's Bissell, it's Fox, like it's their guards. And they win without him. He only played what, 20 minutes? Yep. I want to say. But they were plus 21 in those minutes, Jacoby. He was the difference. I'm saying it's easy to look at him because he's seven foot seven or whatever. Then he's a freak and he goes between the legs and shoots threes, but they are so much more than Wimb and Yombe, Lusben Yom.

Well, you think he's going to do to towns. Well, nothing. He's going to play for 20 minutes. Okay. He's going to be on minutes restriction. Okay. Okay. Ethical Wemby.

All right. How about the cup moving from Vegas? There was that report yesterday that this may have just run its course. I didn't go last year or this year. I went the first year when they called it the in-season tournament. And it was weird. There's no way around it. It was odd because the first game was the Knit or I'm sorry, the Bucks and the Pacers.

And what you realize is people, you know, because of the way the schedule goes, there's no way for a fan base to like schedule a trip and just go and fly. Right. No one's, no one's just taking Monday and Tuesday off to go to. Vegas. And you don't even know your team's going to be there. And so then they kind of got bailed out because the Lakers were there. And so then the Lakers destroyed the Pelicans. And I mean, I remember being there. The whole damn, the whole arena was Laker fans. And then, of course, the Laker fans were there for the finals of that. I'm, I'm on a million group chats about the NICs. Not a single,

not a single person in a single group chat said, hey, is anyone flying to Vegas or should we buy tickets? I don't think there's anyone flying from New York to Vegas for this game. Not a single person. I wouldn't be surprised, especially, you know, in January, the Grizzlies are going over and playing against the magic in a two-game set in like Berlin and London or whatever. And then you've gotten all these reports about NBA Europe and trying to get a footprint over there, whatever. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to do this. If they try to make the cup. Oh, no. Yes. I would not be surprised. I would, I really would not be surprised if they like,

because those are those are a hundred percent pack the arena moments. Right. The arenas will be packed if they have the games overseas. I'm not sure you could pack an arena on a neutral site in America. You just, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. especially on a Tuesday. Yeah, I'm not sure that you could pack an arena on a neutral site. If you have, if you said, if you, let's say you had Saturday's games, right? And then you said next Saturday will be the finals in Vegas.

You might get some fans on planes. But when you have the games on Saturday and then say the game's Tuesday, you're not going to get fans on planes. It's hard. I mean, so I have lived through this. Obviously, when the Memphis Tigers would go to the NCAA tournament, I would always go.

So like, but I would, I mean, I flew to San Antonio when the final four was there and I flew to Auburn Hills. But the rest of the time, like if it was in Columbus, Ohio, Tulsa, Oklahoma, wherever the case may be, I would always drive. And if it was in like San Jose, I'd just say, no, I'm not going on all the way to San Jose or wherever. And it's hard because Selection Sunday is on a Sunday. and then you have to plan. But I was doing it for work, and it was hard to, like, do the turnaround

and to figure out where I'm driving or where I'm going to be flying. Like, you're just not going to get a massive amount of any NBA fan base flying to a neutral site. You're just not. But then where is the game? Would it be in San Antonio or New York?

I don't. I think if you're doing it neutral, they will do it international. That's my guess. Again, I have no information on this. I have no information. But that's weird, too. Because the game doesn't count for your regular season record.

So now you're flying, now you're going to make me fly across the ocean to play a game that doesn't count for my record. Honestly, honestly. So we can put a ribbon up next to Billy Joel. I mean, honestly, it's pretty far from New York to Vegas, brother. Yeah, man. You might as well go overseas.

The New York to Vegas flight, people have, they have such big energy when they get on that flight and they're getting beers and stuff. They're so excited to go to Vegas. But like by hour three, you're just like, asleep. It's just like it sucks. Yeah. And so anyways, Spurs Knicks, obviously, this is worked out really well, though.

We do have a super interesting cup final that I do think every NBA fan's going to watch. Hell yeah. Also, what the cup brought us is a budding rivalry where now Christmas with the thunder and the Spurs looks infinitely better than he even did. and everybody's going to warm bark out like when the NFL is like now bastardized what was the NBA's day Christmas Day but I'm for sure watching Spurs Thunder like I'm not missing that now there's no way I'm missing that and if it would have played out if that that's the difference if they're up 16 with whatever couple minutes left to go in the first half if they just run them out like a typical thunder game,

it doesn't have the juice. But now not only do we get this Spurs Thunder thing that now is like, oh, and Chet and Wemby. Chet and Wembe have a got thing. And look, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves because you never know the way this stuff's going to play out. But that's like five to ten years of this. Maybe 15 where it's like these teams are going up against each other.

Meanwhile, you've also got the rockets. who are cracking. So you got all these teams between in the Western Conference. These, you know, maybe top three, top four all going against each other. The Western Conference playoffs by virtue of what happened in that Thunder Spurs game and then last night's Nuggets Rockets game, everybody is watching this going. Like, okay, you said maybe they're the fourth best team in the West, right? The Spurs.

Maybe. Okay. Maybe. Maybe they are. But the idea that we could get to one versus four and that be the matchup and two versus three. What we saw last night. We watched last night. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Last night's game was like a finals game. Oh. It was like a finals game. Okay. And little lighter in the pocketbook for E. Meo Doca today. Let's play what he said after the game last night.

We're playing the whole thing because this is just, this is an all timer. What did you do following out men there at the end of regulation? Tiki-Tack. Went along with the game tonight. So not surprised by the crew we had out there. When you got the technical earlier, because Jokic was pushing on Alpi and they wouldn't have called. Is that part of the BPL, I guess?

Yeah, I guess. I mean, just in general, I think it's poorly officiated game. I've seen a long time. Two have no business being out there. And the crew chief is acting starstruck. so you're seeing all kind of inconsistent calls. And I'm sure we should have got a few more texts. What do you say to your team when a game is being called the way that it was tonight?

Keep being who we are. We're not going to adjust to poorly, poor officials. So we're going to do what we do. And hopefully they can adjust and call it the right way against two physical teams in a high-level game. All right, we got to the boy, he didn't like, he didn't like, He didn't like, he didn't like Shengun's defense either. Two guys that have no business being out there and a crew cheats that was star struck. And that's my guy, Zach Sarba.

I have mutual friends with Zach Jarba. A couple of guys in my rec league team hang out with him. And I met him. Yeah, yeah. He lives in Brooklyn. We watched a Buffalo Bills game with him. He's awesome. He's hilarious.

I love Zach Zarba. And they're coming from my guy. They're coming from my guy. Zach Zarba. Starstruck, he called him. I'd rather someone say that I don't belong there than say I was starstruck. Well, look, this is planting the seed

because they're going to turn around and play them very soon. This game went to overtime. It was 128 to 125. And this Nuggets team, who is without Christian Brown and without Aaron Gordon, one of the craziest stats that I have seen is that recently when in the absence of Brown and Gordon, that this starting lineup that they've got going right now,

which has got Spencer Jones and Peyton Watson, has outscored opponents by 21 points per 100 possessions. Jesus. That's the starting lineup that they're playing now. That's without Brown and Gordon. Watson and Jones for the last 11 games have shot 30. 33 for 74 from 3. 45%.

I mean, that's the deal, right? We play off this very Yokic pick and roll. We kick out to you. Can you make the shots? Yeah. And they make the shots. There was a run at the end of regulation. When Yokic hit a three, Shepard hit a three.

Oh my God. Yokic created a Jones three, which is exactly what you're talking about. Yokic is dribbling in the middle of the paint, gets doubled, and he kicks to Jones. It's like, you're going to get a. open catch and shoot threes. Knock them down. And then Jones hit one. And then after that,

Durant hit a three, I was like, I think this is the best basketball I've ever seen in my life. Oh, and then Shepherd. It's amazing. Then Shepherd.

It was Yoakins, Shepherd, Jones, and Durant. Back to back to back, possessions. You know, I was having so much fun

on my couch. I made my wife watch. That's how much fun I was having. I was like, you need to watch this. She's like, I don't care. I really,

I was like, well, you have to watch this. I'm forcing you to. Well, and tough for Amman Thompson at the end of the game. That was bullshit. That was bullshit. I thought that call was bullshit.

I mean, what they say is shin? His shin hit his foot and he fell over, Hardway Jr. I just thought it was a ridiculous call. Yeah. Sometimes people fall over. Sometimes your feet get tangled or whatever. It's no one's fault. That's not a call.

And obviously, Udoka mentioned Murray, who he was mad about, who was 14 of 15 from the free throw line. One thing I will say, though, about the Denver Nuggets. We talked about how their new starting lineup is still devastating, even in the absence of Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon. Last year, their bench was in the bottom 10 in the NBA, right? They could not survive in the non-yokage minutes. This year, even as of right now, their bench is ranked fifth, and they regularly win non-yokage minutes. And you've got to think about it through the prism of.

of, yo, and look at Watson and look at Jones. And when they get Brown and Gordon back, that just bolsters their bench more. Like, we liked their off season. We thought like, all right, they actually did. The Valen-Tunis thing, the Bruce Brown thing, they got some guys now, right? You notice we haven't brought up Cam Johnson once.

Right. Well, he's like, he's a. I thought he would be a much more significant part of their offense. No. Then he is. He certainly has proven. He's been shooting it better recently. He's been shooting it better recently, but I thought he would be like a big piece of what they do offensively.

And he is one of those. Just catch and shoot when you're open. Yolkutch will get you the ball. Well, and here's the other thing we've got to pay attention with because while we've all been dazzled by the thunder and the 24 and two run that they've been on and the 16 wins in a row. And then the spurs. And it's like, oh, what about the spurs? And you watch these two teams last night. you'd be like, hey, man, we can't give these guys short shift because Nuggets are now six and one against the top four in the West.

Huh. So when they have played the best teams, they have taken care of business. And you watched that game last night and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Now, that Spurs Thunder thing was super high level. But this one and you really do, and you really do feel like, um, there's no way if you've watched basketball over the course of the past three days you're like dude these western conference playoffs are going to be lit what i saw last night those are two championship teams those are contenders and that's not even the lakers and the warriors and the you know the usual suspect right when you're getting into the playoffs these are these are teams that are built for it and you could just see just absolute wars when you come to these playoffs this year Hopefully everybody can stay healthy. But yet, Ema Odoca is going to get slammed with a fine.

Two guys that have no business and a star struck crew chief. That's my guy, Zach Zarma. The worst officiating. I've seen it a long time, he said. I think he's got a kid that goes to my buddy's school or something. You know those like dad friends that you have? Well, and they're going to turn around. I didn't know Zagsar, but was in New Yorker.

I bet he knows Billy Joel. Billy Joel, whatever. By the way, the Rockets and the Nuggets, they play Saturday afternoon. Oh, no. That's true my weekend. So, all right, tell my kids, I'll see him another weekend. Yeah, they do. They play them Saturday afternoon.

So it was like a 4 o'clock? Not only is he going to get to find. That's going to be up against the college playoff games? It'll be 5 o'clock, your time. All right, I'll take the kids out in the morning. Talk about some other. possible contenders. Detroit had a game against the Celtics last night.

Cade Cunningham has now moved into a totally different class this year because he is the best player on the best team in a conference. And he had 32 and 10 last night, huge plays down the stretch. Jalen Brown has continued to just absolutely carry the Celtics and at 34, 8, and 7. But from the end of the first quarter to early in the fourth quarter, the Celtics missed 20 of 21 three-pointers. Damn. Yeah. So, I mean, you kind of know what their offense is there to generate.

And it's like, all right, I can tell you what happened in this one. And so then the second half was about the pistons and they were able to take control of that game and then Cade down the stretch of that game. Love the kerfuffle with Jalen Brown. and beef stew and Jalen Brown holding up his arm like beef stew did against Portis. This is a fun game to watch, though. And the Celtics, again, they're generating all of these threes. And it's like if they make them, they've looked awesome, especially recently. And then you have a game like this where if they're going to miss 20 of 21 threes they take,

it's going to be tough. I'd say, where is Kate on the like, if you need a bucket? in a tight game, in the fourth quarter. He's, I mean, Brunson, K. Luca, like, he'll get you that basket. And he's shooting it and you know what's happening. He also is playing to make the basket. He's like SGA without the foul baiting.

Yeah. He's ethical SGA. Oh, wow. Yeah. You're going to SGA. By the way, I had him third. Tim, I don't mind say this. Tim Bonteps, you know, is going to do his straw poll.

And I always send him who I would vote for. I had K third right now. Again, not that this stuff matters. But MVP. It doesn't. Yeah. It's December. MVP.

I had Yokic SGA K. Yokich SGA Kade. Yeah. And then I had a really tough time. I mean, the Lucas stats are just freaky. And they're still pretty high in the standing. So I had him. It's a tough watch, though.

Luca is constantly trying to get to the line. And every time he has the ball, he's trying to get to the line. Well, I mean, look, I think there's probably going to be a lot of people that roll their eyes when you're a Brunson guy. So what are you talking about? Brunson's in the mix of that, too. Come on. Come on. Come on.

You're right. You're right. Yeah, but I had K third in MVP right now. That fair? I can see that. Yeah. I mean, the number one team in the Easter conference. That's what I thought he deserved to have his name in the top three.

I think that's fair. And I mean, the Yolk it's season is just like, come on. That's crazy. 34 tributt double last night. Anyway, other games that went on, you had Cooper Flagg made history in a loss. For first time an 18-year-old has scored 40 points in a game ever. The most ever was LeBron James with 37. And so they lost to the jazz.

But 40 points. and he has averaged 26 in his last seven games. Yeah, the last 10 games, he's really turned it on. This is. He's made a loss. But it's a loss to the jazz. But no, but I'm going to give him credit because he's the reason to like watch the Mabbs.

He's the reason, right? Like it's like, all right. Well, at least I get to watch Cooper Fogg. Like, I mean, if you can single-handedly make me want to watch you, just because you're that awesome. And him being this awesome at this age, All right, here's your barbed of the night for anybody out there. Cooper Flagg was the fourth Mavs rookie to score 40.

Okay. And I got to tell you, this has got to be the most impossible question. Lucas are not on here. When he was a rookie, did he have 40? And the list I saw did not have Luca or Dirk or like some of the other guys. It is Jay Vincent put some respect on his name twice in 1982. Jay Vincent twice. Yeah.

Okay. Mark O'Guire. Oh, yeah, yeah, he can heat it up. And in 2010, I'm telling you, this is the bar bet. 2010. Roddy Boubois. Oh, no, I would never get that. You could give me a million guesses.

I would never get Roddy Boubois. That's not even a real person. I don't do that. No, that's not a real person. He walked so. He ran so Frank Nilakina could crawl. 2010. Is Frank Nilakina in the league right now?

No. Roddy Boubois. Roddy Boubois. Yeah. When I saw he's the last, the last Babs rookie to score 40, it said Roddy Bubois. I was like, no way. No way. 15 years.

But yeah, and he did it at 18 years old. Obviously, they lost to the jazz. So it sucks that, you know, when there's huge games coming at loss. But 40 is 40. And to do it at 18 years old, I mean, it just speaks to his superstar potential. I think it's also worth mention that George had 37 in that game. Because I'm locked in. I'm locked in on Nuggets Rockets.

Like I'm watching the commercials. Like I said, I'm dragging my wife out from the bedroom. But then I looked at that. I was like, whoa, this guy has got a 42. points. Okay, hold on now. And Georgia 37. Okay.

The Kianti George, I saw him in person on Saturday night. He was the best player on the floor in Grizzly's Jazz. He was a force of nature. It was unbelievable. Like when I think about that game, I think about Kianti George being unstoppable in the game. And then, because he had 37. Was it 37? Last day he had 37.

They lost. No, no, no. What did he have in the Grizzly game? It had to have been 37. He had over 35. I just saw they lost. Yeah. He had over 35 in that game.

Well, Kevin Love had, I think, 17. 20 or something. In the game, I mean, it was, I mean, it was crazy. He just standing out there. It was on Friday night. Keonti George, he had a career high 39. Jesus. So he had 39.

So he said 39, 37? Yes. He has had, boy, we need to. And by the way, they're 10 and 15. Their record does not suck. He's averaging 23 and a half points, seven assists, four rebounds, 45% from the field,

35% from three. And he has had, yeah, 39 and 37 back to back. That's an average of 38 points to do the math. God, bless Chiante George. Yeah. Okay. No one's noticing. Well, we did.

that's why you come to the mismatch. The Raptors had lost four in a row, but they beat the heat. Heat have kind of come back to Earth. That was their, you know, that's the first time all season. They've been held under 100 points. The heat?

Yeah. First time. And Yovich wearing like a damn cast on his arm. By the time he walked back out on the bench, did you see this? You got to see this. He's wearing like a big-ass air cast. And I was like,

Okay, that's terrible. He had this elbow injury that took place. You don't see guys walking back out with an air cast. I mean, it was crazy. I was like, yo, go back to the locker. This is depressing me. You just break your arm. You just break your arm out of you?

It really did look like he broke his arm. So that's pretty gruesome and that's no good for them. But yeah, first time that they've been held under 100 this season thus far. and they've kind of come back down to Earth. That took place last night. And then Cam Spencer. I mean, it was the Cam Spencer game. It's the Cam Spencer game.

The Spencer brothers are like, they're like that rock band from your hometown that blew up. It's like now everyone's talking about the Spencer brothers all the time. The Spencer brothers and you have not, here's the thing. Not only are they psychos, not only have they had big games, They're both amazing heat check guys because not only do they heat check, they make the shot, and then they start screaming at everybody. Lose their minds. I mean, it's a level of intensity that most cannot reach. It's fucking crazy.

It can't be reached. Cam Spencer is shooting 51% from three. No. On the season? Yes, he is. And that's what he does. He's unbelievable Spencer brothers. He had 27 last night.

He's at 20 and 27 in back to back games. In the game against Utah, he was six of six from three. And then last night he's seven of ten six on Friday night. Yes. And now we last night he was seven of ten. See, I don't think you should ever go six for six. You just got some firing him up. You got to go six for seven.

You know, you're talking about heat checks. Like you can't go six for six. Come on, Cam. Cam Spencer has gotten to the. the point where when he misses, you're like, what's wrong with him? What happened? Call time out. Because all he does is make shots. And I will tell you, that's because he practices it, seven hours a day and then plays the game. By the time Kim Spencer takes a three in the game, he's already shot a thousand that day. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't have social media.

He doesn't have a girlfriend. Ball is life. That's. We got to have. We got to have a girlfriend. That's We got to talk about jogging hurt. I mean, end of the game lands on Zubot's foot and then hobbles away. It's just, it's like, was it a second game back? Seriously. Yes, he just came back against Utah right after they had lost Zach Eady. Zach Eadie has an ankle. Like, you got to, I mean, honestly, you've got to wear like the Steph Curry

ankle braces up to your shin. Like at this point. I don't understand it. How concerned are you as a grizzies guy? Insanely concerned. What do you talk about? It's like it's one thing after another. You also can't trade him. You can't trade them.

No. Nobody wants John Moran right now. I mean, it's just like to come back and then just relive the horror of injury after injury after injury because it came back last year then got clipped out of the air in the Oklahoma City series right when he was playing well in the first half of that game three and then it's like all right and then you come back into this year

and you get the calf, you get the ankle and you get the calf and now we're an ankle again and it's like what is going on what is going on? Because it's not like he's been he hasn't been playing much less playing recklessly.

How many games has he played this season. And it's all this weird stuff like that one. Stepping on a guy's foot. It wasn't even jumping. Wasn't even jumping. Wasn't even jumping. Wasn't it even jumping. I don't know, man. No. It's just tough. Tough year to be a Christmas fan. Sucks. And I mean, I guess unless you forget that Cam Spencer is on the team and Sedgert Coward is the next Kauai. Build around, build around Cam Spencer. What? players can we bring in to maximize Cam Spencer's effectiveness?

It's got to be considered. It has to be. It has to be. You know, look, if your team's not going to be what you wanted it to be, at least be fun. They're fun. And it was more fun when Eadie was out there, though. When he was putting up 30 points, it was like, just weird. It's interesting.

Cedric Howard is like an awesome rookie to watch and is fun to watch. And the Cam Spencer thing, the fact that he plays 20-something. So like when you tune it in, you do watch him. And like he can't miss threes. It's the craziest thing. They're not very good. They're not good, but they're fun, but, but they're not miserable to watch. No, they're not good, but they're not a hard watch.

Like the worst part is being terrible and being tough to watch. I've been through that. I mean, hell, I've watched 25 seasons of it. I've seen a bunch of it who's tough to watch, dude. No one's going to talk about this game except for hearing the mismatch. the fucking bucks got blown out by the nets blown out by the nets like Janus is so gone he is gone

he was your team gets blown out by the nets okay so can we talk about this can we talk about this anything you want I actually think I meant to bring this up I should have brought it up earlier because I think this is you want to show over it's just so smart it's just a smart thing to say

oh my god did you just say whatever you're about to say is so smart. I'm hanging up on it. This is ridiculous. Where's the producer, Jesse? What are we doing here? My co-host just said, this is so smart. Before he said it.

I'm not listening. When I thought of it. I'm going to keep interrupting you. When I thought of it, I got jealous of myself. Oh, my God. You're embarrassing me. All right, look. The NBA Cup screwed up the Yannis market.

you think about the teams that have been talked about, right? Oh, okay. Oklahoma City. Yep. San Antonio. Knicks, heat, spurs. And the Knicks. So if you want to throw in the heat,

even though it's like, what are they giving up? Whatever. The bucks want Andrew Wiggins or Tyler He wrote. For those teams to play so well in the most competitive of regular season games, when they're all, you know, playing with playoff intensive. trying to win the 500 grand. And if you look at it and you go,

if you're San Antonio going, eh, I think I'd rather have this grow together. And if you're Oklahoma City, you're going, eh, we've got a chance at like, winning 70-something games and whatever. And if you're the Knicks, could tonight tell a story

that if you lost to Wembe and the Spurs, you would go, I don't know. Like, we might need to, if we're trying to win the title, but I also think that there's a real possibility because of the success of all of these teams and that they have performed at such a high level when they're playing other high level teams

that you would inevitably face in the playoffs, that the market for Wembe, if these teams would have gotten, if you get blown out if you're San Antonio by Oklahoma City, you may think about things differently. If you get beat by Orlando and you're the Knicks, you may think about things differently. So the genius take is...

Oh, my God. The NBA Cup actually suppressed what would have been the honest market and makes it infinitely more likely that something would happen in the offseason rather than in season. That's not a genius take. It's not even smart.

Of course it is. I think the fact that he had a non-contact calf injury is probably more impactful to his market than the success of the spurs and the Knicks in the NBA Cup. Because who did the Knicks really beat? They beat the Raptors and the Magic. Like they're not like, you know, that's not the class of the Eastern Conference. I actually emailed that take to Mensa, the high IQ club, and they returned back to me, oh, my God, this is unbelievable. nobody here even thought of this and I was like yeah I know

and so it's fine like look you can be a hater you can be jealous that's fine but the take is it's impregnable as Mike Tyson would say impregnable you're never going to believe this

but Chris Sforzengis is out for a long time with an illness this is crazy what are we doing what are we doing Chris has Porzengis I mean, this is now like scary territory, right? Because last year we're like, what is going on? And like the fact that like you wonder is at some point you do have to look at it and go,

is this career threatening? Oh, yeah. Because when you're starting to miss extended amounts of time and you can't deal with the illness and it is keeping you out because it kept him out last season and now he's with this new team and it's like here it's happening again. It's scary stuff. He's got postural orthostatic tachardia syndrome. I don't even know what that is.

I don't know what that is. Would you like me to explain it to you? Yes, please do. I can't. I'm kidding. I was just going to try to ask smart again. It just sucked. Honestly, when I read about this, it made me thankful for my health.

I was like, thank God. I don't have to deal with. with this odd thing that he has. Well, and obviously even dealing with it and, you know, he suffers from this, but they haven't been able to figure out how to manage it. That's, it's such a mystery. It's such a mystery because it's like, then he came back and he was available for like the playoffs. And then he's out.

The best doctors in the world. Right. That's what's crazy about all this. And they can. And they cannot figure it out. And that's a completely different Nick Celtic series if he was 100%. Absolutely. I mean, he was just not a threat at all.

He was not a threat. A shell of himself. Yeah. And that Nick Celtic series is completely. All we talk about is, oh, the Celtics, you know, they blew their 20 point lead and they blew a 20 point lead. But if Chris Hasperos is 60%, that's a completely different series last year. And so it did obviously rip his season away from what it should have been last year. And now it feels like we're doing this again.

And it's scary. It's like, are you going to be able to have an NBA career? Can this be managed? That's the question, right? And he had health issues before this, too. Right. He wasn't always available when he was with the Mavs, when he was with the Knicks even. You know, he wasn't always available.

And now with this thing, it just, it sucks. It says it's a, here it says, which is an autonomic disorder causing rapid heart rate and dizziness when standing as blood in the body. doesn't evenly distribute across the body. I don't know what that means, but it sucks. Yeah. Like, to be a professional athlete, when standing, you get dizzy, your blood's not appropriately distributed?

What? Yeah. Sucks. And obviously, what is he? Seven foot five or something like that, right? I mean, there's a lot more blood to be distributed than like in my body.

You know what I mean? Like, it ain't got to go that far in my body. Well, you've got that genius brain. that's sucking a ball. The distribution is really tricky. You're emailing Mensa, your sports takes. They've got you blocked. Report junk.

Evan Mowbly's out with a calf injury. We have a calf pandemic. What the hell is going on with these calves? What is going on? That was actually a double entendre. You have calves and calves. What is going on with these calves? They both stink.

The cab's like in the playing right now. They're just saying. They've been decidedly average. And me with Donovan Mitchell playing like he's frigging 1984 Bernard King. It's crazy. He's like carrying them to anything they do. Oh, no, he's stunk. He has been.

He's not himself all. And look, they were all over Mobbys' ass all year for not being good enough. And now he's out. And so now they've got to survive without him. Everyone's got a strained cap. everybody. Boy, you want to talk about a team. Like, there's always going to be that team that we expect to be at the top of the

standings that's just not. They just went through the season from hell. And it certainly appears as if, because by all accounts, everybody had them in the top three in the east. Even if you didn't, even if you preferred the Knicks. Sure. It was Knicks Cavs and then a huge gap. I think that's true.

And everybody, every single person. That pays attention to NBA basketball before the season, said Nick's Cavs, huge gap. And then we've got this group of hawks, magic, pistons, whatever. Pistons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. And then you just decided who you preferred of those three. But you're right.

And so, but now, like, this is, you look at it and go, there's, it's almost, it's very difficult to see them being a home court advantage team. I'm saying. So you go from a team that won all those games that had the number one seed last year, and you're going, man, they might have to go on the road against a really good team to start this thing off. And this is a second apron team, right? They, like, they got to do it with what they've got. And you're now, like, that's scary stuff, right? It's like, we got to do this with what we've got.

And now you're putting yourself in by virtue of what takes place in the regular. season, they could really be up against it by the time we get to playoff time. Not trying to get too out of ourselves, but if you're out of, if you got Mowbly out for a month, this could get gnarly. Oh, yeah. They're playing team right now. And also, when you think about the calves in the postseason, I think if only they were healthy, if only Donovan Mitchell had help because he's scoring 40 in almost every

playoff game. And now he has to do it in the regular season. Like, that is concerning in its own way, because he's, you know, he's not. He has to go. He has to run a marathon every single game just to get them wins. Yep. It's tough. All right.

Last thing before we get out of here, I've got to ask you this at the very end of the pod. So we're done with everything that's on the rundown. So now you're going to, this is going to piss me off. I can tell. It's for sure not. Okay. So right above, when we're filming the podcast, right above your right shoulder, is the great Christopher Wallace, notorious B.

I see that picture. And I can't help today, but when I see that picture, think about, did you watch it? Did I watch it? Hell yeah. The Diddy doc? I watched it hard. I had to ask you because I see that notorious BIG picture every time we're recording a pod. I thought of you as I was watching it.

I was like, oh boy. I was talking to my buddies yesterday. So I said, I say, number one, obviously never have an enemy like 50 cents. Who are your buddies, by the way? You don't have buddies. Oh, I've got tons of friends. You're talking to your buddies yesterday? Yeah.

That sounds like someone who doesn't have buddies. What are you talking about? You want me to tell you their names? No, I don't want to know. But where were you? You were talking to your buddies? Rosa and Devin. Oh, okay.

Your colleagues. Yeah. Okay. They're my friends. Okay. So I say to them, I said, look. I watch this thing. And a lot of times you watch a documentary.

And there will be somebody within the course of the four hours that says something nice. No. For four straight hours, for four straight hours, not one person said one nice thing. I was like, damn, this is the level of hatred that is undefined. 50 is undefeated. 50 is absolutely undefeated. Dude, to go four hours with nobody saying he did this for me, he made it.

That one person said one good thing for four hours. I was like, holy mackerel, bro. He's always been implicated in the Tupac murder, but to implicate him in the Biggie murder, I was like, what? What are we doing? The whole thing is like the most unbelievable character assassination I've ever seen. Honestly, for anybody

doesn't know, it's a P. Diddy the Reckoning. It's on Netflix. Yeah, I'm not, I don't think it's an objective, unbiased, journalistic. You know, you know, you know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of the last time I watched something like this, where I like got done with it and I was like,

damn, was the, the Brett Farve one. that they put up. And it's like, golly. Like it was like the whole thing was made just in case someone didn't live through it. Let me just, I know that you think Brett Farv was a football hero, but no, he's a dirt bag. And here's an hour of telling you what a dirt bag this guy is. And it's like, God.

I totally forgot about that. event that he had where nine people got killed. Oh, yeah. That was like when we came on the scene. I totally forgot about that. There was a lot of stuff I forgot about. Yeah. It was,

it was, it was a lot. It was a lot. I do not think that was an unbiased, objective, journalistic endeavor. Let me just say that. I think that maybe perhaps

Curtis 50 Cent Jackson had a little bit of a, a bone to pick. Perhaps. I mean. I mean, it's worth watching. It's worth watching. And some of the footage, they had that footage. You know, so you know the story about how they got that footage of him, like, when he was about to go to trial?

Yeah, so I guess he just went and offered the guy the money and didn't pay him. And he's just like, oh, I'll just give it to 50 cent. And he's doing this like, these PR thing while he's going to trial. He's like, God told me not to do anything. So someone else needs to make a. statement because God told me not to do anything. The whole thing was just crazy. Absolutely crazy. Anyway, all right.

It's got to do it for this episode of The Mismatch. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez. As always, Jacoby, talk to you later this week. Must be 21 or over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 100 gambler or visit RG-Haltb.com. 1, 888-78-9-77-7-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD

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