Antonio Daniels In-Studio + Brian Scalabrine

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1:05The Blue Jays are actually in action today. Matt's even got his city connect hat on which I'm sure the Blue Jays social accounts will get a kick out of the Raptors are back in action tonight as well against the New Orleans Pelicans looking to avenge the Dejante Murray thing in a game that we don't think Dejante Murray is going to play because it's a back. I'm going to avenge you right now. Matt Bonner. So for anyone not watching on television, Antonio Daniels is in studio with us and Matt Bonner is giving him the beat down like Joe Mizzula on Monday night, Rob the other night with the fake punches. Antonio, thanks for doing this man. How you doing? Still I'm awesome, man. Thanks for guys having me. This is great. We've had you on before and obviously the headline item, the number one thing on every Raptors show fans mind is Derek Queen as we discuss that length, getting a Derek Queen sponsorship. We did it. Yes, yes, we did it. Or y'all did it. Somebody did it. But yes, he does have a Derek Queen endorsement for the NCAA tournament, which is I don't know what it has to do with. Like I don't know how it works,

2:10but I just know that it's present. I hope it's a custom blizzard flavor like something. It's not. No, no, it's not like you're going like you're really, really, that's like a signature shoe. Yeah, that's talking about like blizzard. Yeah, I don't. Ryan Reynolds have like his own Tim Horton's donut and Poutine or egg thing or something like that. Why not? You know, so apparently, I looked this up. He's in a commercial where someone calls the Derek Queen emergency line and they get Derek Queen instead of the Derek Queen line. And it's part of a bracket buster deal promotion. So I don't know the details and I don't think it applies in Canada. So yeah, I know those of us that never went to the NCAA tournament don't really know about the whole bracket busting thing anyway. Yeah. Oh, it's still take advantage of the deal anytime though. Yeah, Matt's been half these shows asking for a deal like the bra, like his own bracket buster. Oh, madness. I just want cultures for like sandwiches or

3:11blizzards or what donates doesn't matter. I love a belt. Donates is my that's that's my weakness to fly. All right. So just for future reference. Yeah, yeah. We're back in Toronto. Donates. Yeah, we're back in Toronto. You're like, oh my god. I'm an art producer who walked you in is listening to this. And there is a Tim Horton's in the building. So what's your type of donut? Glazed. Okay. Or the twisties, but glazed. Okay. Okay. I'm going to say that again. Glazed. Yeah. Or twisties, but glazed. Yeah. I mean, just I'm just saying if anybody's in the area and they just want to, there's one in the building. So hopefully, hopefully I'm listening. I saw a good endorsement on social media this morning. Okay. Did you watch the college games at all last night? No, he had so we were we were. That's right. Back to back and travel. You're probably tired. But we have a long 41. So yeah, you came from Detroit. So Nebraska and Iowa played. And you saw what happened at the end of the game. Nebraska, Fred Hoyberg catching a lot of heat for four guys on the

4:16court. And the kid on Iowa got a breakaway layup and one because it was no one back to pick him up because they only had four defenders on the court. So someone on social media suggested that Iowa or excuse me, Nebraska should be sponsored by five guys. Wow. Five guys burn. It's good on. Pretty good one. Speaking of Iowa, by the way, we're going to talk about the Pelicans and this Raptors game tonight. But we have to give a show Matt Devlin, who is the play by play voice for the Raptors was on with us months ago. And his son Jack is the student manager at Iowa for their basketball program. And he was raving to us about Bennett starts. And no one had talked about this guy yet. And now they're on to the elite eight as a nine seed. So shout out to Maddie D. He was very, very early. Let us know about Bennett starts. He was letting me have it on the broadcast after the Iowa Florida game. Look at the bright side. Can't find it. What we want a national championship last year. I'm going to tell you what's interesting. I'm going to tell you what's interesting. Now you can

5:18quote me on this anytime you tell somebody to look at the bright side. And there is no bright side, they'll always give you one. Yeah. See, I was the bright side. That's pretty good bright side. No question about it. But initially you were like, there isn't a bright side. Yes, there is. The bright side is y'all won in NCAA championship last year. And I'm happy for my colleague's son who works with Iowa. That too. See how they just start coming once you get somebody to bring some optimism into the conversation. I like it. There we go. Okay, let's see if we can get some optimism from the Pelicans lost last night. So they 129, 108. Yeah, looking around. Okay, I did want to ask you about the business because you just got a good look at them. And there were a lot of question marks about them when Kade Cunningham goes down with his long issue. They're five and one. Since Kade went down Jalen Duran with a huge night last night, what do you see from the Detroit side in that one and how they're adjusting with Kade? Well, Detroit is, they're like a replica of like a 90s team. If you look at them, they're big, they're strong,

6:22they have an identity, they defend similar to Oklahoma City. They're permitted because of their reputation to get away with a little bit more. But I tell you this, Jalen Duran to me is the NBA's most improved player. Yeah, and it's some, there's some guys that you could throw in that conversation. You can look at Jalen Johnson at Atlanta. You can look at Nikhil Alexander Walker and Atlanta. But what Jalen Duran has become with Kade Cunningham without Kade Cunningham, he's a monster and he's now skilled. So that 19 year old young man that came into this league, he is no longer that guy. He is, he is something to deal with. Yeah, it's an advantage too with a guy like Duran's style of play, like you can do it every night. You know, if you're a shooter, you depend on one or two specific things that can come and go. That can shoot you in the foot in a seven game series if you lose it for a couple games. Like that could be the difference. But guys like Duran was like when Shaq was in his prime,

7:22like you knew you were going to get like 30 and 12 every night, you know, and then maybe even more. My issue with Detroit, and I've been saying this all year, if you look at the difference between Detroit this year and last year, it's not in the regular season because we know with a lot of these teams, they're going to be judged by their postseason. If you remember last year, they had Tim Hardaway, Jr., and Malik Beasley. And if you look at him this year, they lack three points shooting. Duncan Robinson. Yeah. And that, but the thing is, but that's where it stops. That's where it stops. There are so many guys on that roster that you are content with closing out short, you know, and allowing those guys to do a certain Thompson's, the Tobias Harris's, the Ronald Hollins, the Carrots Levert. Now, these guys are good players, but they're not three point snipers. So when I look at the Detroit Pistons as good as they are, and it's good of a job as J.B. Bigger staff has done, develop an identity. I feel like they're lack of three point shooting will be problematic in the postseason. We talk about it all the time.

8:26How easy it is, not easy, but how much easier it is the game plan for a team that lacks three point shooting, because then you can really hone in on who you're shifting off of who you're doubling off of your rotations. With the raptors, it's an issue, especially with a manual quickly. Yeah. With the doubles on, because we're going to have like two people, at least two people on the court all time that are shift guys, cold guys. So, you know, in the regular season, you can kind of, it's a little, you know, in the postseason, it's different. Yeah. In the postseason, when you hone in in a seven game series and you're locked in on those rotations and adjustments and spacing on defense, it makes it really hard to run offense. When you look at the, the postseason in teams that you honestly feel have a legit chance of winning an NBA championship or getting to the Eastern or Western Congress finals. Are any of those teams present that really don't have more than one shooter? No, I don't think so. I feel like you have to have multiple

9:26shooters. You have to. Like OKC is probably the team that has the most question mark, but they still shoot 36% and they've got at such a deep rotation. But the thing is you're the, you're not leaving Chet Homer wide open. No, you're not leaving Isaiah Joe wide open. You're not leaving AJ Mitchell wide open. You can go down the list of different guys, right? Yeah. Doris percentage is good. Yeah. He's streaky. We appreciated him being left open for team Canada. Yeah. It was great. You got red hot. But yeah, you, I mean, you look at the three point shooting, like just even just three point percentage, forget volume and Detroit is easily the lowest of the teams that want to go like a top six in either conference other than the Raptors, but I don't think we think the Raptors are going on, you know, a championship success season for the Raptors. Postseason wise. Make the post season. Yeah. Competitive first round playoffs. Make up, make the ideally finishing the top six, avoid the plan. But if you make the plan, get out of the plan,

10:28plan, just make the playoffs. I feel that. Yeah. I think the first round series should probably be competitive. Like if they get swept, it's going to be a little and did, you know, what was it, but because they're coming out of a couple of years with no playoffs, I think just one competitive playoff round is fair is fine with where they're at. Yeah. But yeah, now they're, they're only half game up on the play and all together now. So we're getting to pretty tough time here. So last time we saw the Pelicans, actually, we had you on earlier in the year, not for a Raptors game, but the Pelicans had won five in a row. And then they cooled off a little bit after that. But now they're pretty good again. 15 to 13 over the last 28. When the Raptors last saw them, they looked really good. What, what has kind of changed? What's developed over the year for this Pelican scene that they're in such a better place now than they were maybe early in the year? Health. And I know that sounds simplistic, but sometimes it just comes down to that. As you can attest, Matt, it's tough to develop any similar to chemistry when you're constantly pulling guys in an alpha lineup. You know, this guy's here. And then he's finally healthy and he comes in

11:31and another guy goes out. So you really don't get an opportunity to develop chemistry. Now you get design tamari back. Now you have a starting five of all smalls. And you can lean into it. You can lean into it. So, so okay, now you can develop some sort of identity, which you see with the Pelicans. But again, when you have guys that are on either minutes restrictions or can't play on back to backs, now it becomes problematic. Because the Pelicans have the second most back to backs in the league, including tonight. Right. So when you, when you, when you have this and you have certain guys that can't play back to back, now you're starting lined up with shifting with shifts, your bench unit. And so I think Jay's break was done a great job. And you know, James, I think he's done a fantastic job at getting the ears of the locker room, which I feel like it's important because I tell you one thing that he does that Greg pop of bitches create that he understands the power of relationships. One-on-one conversations, you know, it feels like

12:34in the past and again, this is no shot at any coach that's been in New Orleans. But this feels more like a unit. Okay. You know, like from a coach to a to a player, you know, like let's talk about this together. Let's discuss this. Where do you want the ball, Matt? How can I put you in a position of success? As opposed to simply saying, this is my offense. This is how we're going to run it. Get in line or don't play. Do you think the vibes, the energy, the buy-in has been there throughout the season despite the losses and all the injuries? Has that been able to been maintained? Yeah, be maintained. Yeah, I tell you, it's always, you can tell a lot about the buy-in and the energy that you're referencing by going to practices and shoot-arounds. Like I've played on a couple of bad teams and the shoot-arounds felt like we were a bad team. The practices felt like we were at the bad team. There's so much energy and shoot-arounds. Now, when I know it sounds like, oh man, quit it.

13:39But it is. You know, when the music is playing and guys are high-fiving each other and there's just so much energy and noise and shoot-arounds that it's, it's, it's kind of an awesome feeling. Like I promise you, if you didn't know, if you had no idea and you came in a shoot-arounds, I promise you, you wouldn't leave a shoot-arounds thinking that the New Orleans Pelicans were a top six, top 18, by the vibes alone. Yeah, and I mean, I guess the big question that flows from all this is to what degree do you think, like obviously the West is very difficult and the Pelicans don't have cap space and they don't their own pick. But to what degree is what they've done over the second half of the season, things that they can build on for next year, since they won't have that top pick coming in, they won't have a big free agent signing. Like how much of this is real and you know, they could get back to maybe being a play and level team next year. I think, I mean, obviously that's well above my pay-grage, you know, as far as, you know, with James Brago being the interim head coach and you have different guys on different deals and but as the Jean-Tain Murray said like a while back when he first came back, you want to

14:44start building winning habits. That's what it comes down to. You want to start building winning habits that will carry over into next year, just because you're not going to the post season, doesn't mean that the season's over. You know, there's still something that you can salvage from this season that you want to carry over into the summertime and into next year. We were just talking about Derek Queen, Jeremiah Fears. Like these guys are getting really good reps now that will be beneficial for next season. How have those guys handled because one of the components of the team has gotten healthier and some of the veteran guys have come back is those guys were starting a lot early in the year and they've moved to the bench and I know they're still playing mostly big minutes, but we didn't see Queen a lot against the Raptors in the last meeting. I know Fears has played in every single game and still gets his 20, 25 minutes. How have those guys adjusted in your view to, you know, getting moved to the bench and seeing their role change as some of the veteran guys got back? Well, on the outside, it looks awesome. I don't know internally.

15:44I told Jeremiah because I just did a podcast with both Jeremiah and Derek Queen. And I remember my rookie year, 97, fourth overall pick in the draft going to Vancouver. And I remember starting for, I don't know, 45 games or so, whatever it may be and then being taken out of the starting lineup. That was after four years of college. And I can tell you this Jeremiah handled it a lot better than I did. And that's a, that's a young man that has reclassified forward and should now be playing in the NCAA tournament right now. Right. So for me, from the outside again, I don't know what these guys are feeling internally, but I know from the outside, they've handled it a lot more professional than I did when it happened to me. Yeah, you started 50 or first 51 games. Yep. It's not a good feeling because you, you, you can imagine, but as you get older, you start, I, my mom used to tell me this all the time. It's not starting. You know, we love to, to start. And you know, you want to hear your name called. And as I got older, I found out it wasn't about

16:50starting, but it was more about finishing, which is more important, which shows a lot more trust in actually starting the game. And for, like, for me, it was, I narrowed it even more. Like, it was about doing what you need to do to help the team or whatever minutes you get. That's being a pro. It could be six, one six minute rotation. There's games where I just come in for the last possession of every quarter to space the floor. Yeah. Two for one guy. Okay. Did you learn that in San Antonio? Yeah. Oh, yeah. What about before San Antonio? I had a pretty steady rotational minutes here. Yeah. It's funny how that works. Like you develop winning habits when you are in a winning culture. Yeah. When you're in a winning situation. Sometimes it's difficult because I didn't learn so much like my rookie year. I believe we were 1963. I believe. Yeah, exactly. We were bad. Think about that. Yeah. We won 19 games. So it's a lot of habits that you develop at that time

17:51that aren't healthy. Yeah. And the walkthrough thing is a great point too when you talk about habits because like the last third of the season, you're basically out of the playoffs. All the guys are like showing up at the last possible second of leaving is just coming in doing the bare minimum. No, you're not getting the guys doing the extra work before practice after practice. So like as a young player, you're seeing those habits. And you don't know what you don't know. And then when I went to I always tell the story. I go to San Antonio. I'm like, I'm going to get there two months before camp. No one's going to be there. I'm going to show I'm a hard worker. Everybody was there. Used to do those open gyms in the office. You were there. That's where I like, I'm like, whoa. Yeah, that's why I learned to become a professional. When I think about those San Antonio teams and the amount of bets that were on those teams, the Terry Porter's, the Avery Johnson's, the Mario Ellie's, the Steve Kerr's, the Jerome Kerr's, you can go down the list, David Robinson, Jaren Jackson. You know, you can go down to Danny Ferry, the list of different

18:53guys that I got an opportunity to learn what it actually meant to be a professional because I didn't know prior to like you said, there's so many different things that you that you see as a rookie. It's like, Oh, okay. Well, practice is that 10 and everybody's getting in here at 9.55. You know, literally walking on the floor, but when you get to San Antonio and practice at 10, guys have already got their workout done. So you kind of learn winning habits. In a winning environment and film, like their own personal film, like it's like different level. Yeah, it's even when like the Raptors had a pretty good culture for that under Kyle and Demar, but like even when Kauai came here, it'd be like, Oh, shoot around at 10 and we show up as media and like Kauai has like already lifted and done his film and stuff. And like some of that might be Kauai, but there's the spurred comment. Right. Yeah, it's very much. You see the best player doing that. You want to get it off. You're like, I have to at least do that. Okay. So we've touched on your grizzlies and spurs parts of your career. I do. I want to ask you, this is not related to the pelicans tonight,

19:53but you played for Seattle. And we got the new, we've all speculated on it for a little bit, but now they're going to move forward. They're going to vote on. They're going to open it up the bids to get a team back in Seattle. How cool was that for you to hear as a former Sonic? I think that I literally, me and my wife loved the city of Seattle. Loved it. And again, no disrespect to Oklahoma City. They have obviously done a great job with the team down there. But Seattle is, if there was a NBA expansion of just one team, just say the NBA said by some chance, you know, we're just going to expand with one team. Seattle needs to be that place. Yeah. You can keep Vegas as your hub for the NBA cup and summer league and stuff like that. Seattle, it's a great sports town. The sea hawks, the mariners, you know, it's just, it's a great sports town. And it will be awesome to have an opportunity to go back to Seattle in any capacity for me. Yeah, it should be very cool. I didn't get to do a science. But when I lived in Vancouver, sea hawks and mariners, the quick trip down.

20:54And I'd imagine you're like, obviously Vancouver grizzlies fans would still prefer their own team back. But I do think they'll probably siphon some Vancouver fans who, you know, maybe didn't want to make the change to Raptors fandom when the grizzlies left, certainly didn't want to fall to the new Memphis. And now we'll have a team that's at least geographically close. How much money does Pearl Jam have? They have enough money to buy it? No, LeBron doesn't even have enough money to buy a team Pearl Jam certainly doesn't. That'd be sick. Come on. Pearl Jam, but hey, box on it. Yeah. No, they might they might be able to buy the USBL team that John T. Porter's playing on it. Yeah, the super hawks. I don't know probably try to play for it. Yeah, I don't know about a $10 billion MBA team, AD before we let you go. Train Murphy set out last night, Tijante Murray played. This is the second night of a back-to-back putting you on the spot a little bit, but we would not expect Tijante to play on a second night of a back-to-back. Tijante, since he's been back, since he's been back from his Achilles injury, has not played in back-to-backs. This is our opportunity. No small watch hockey. No. Sometimes in hockey, if there's like a grudge coming into the game, they do though face off. And then everybody just gloves off. Yeah,

22:00it's like a full-on brawl. Yeah, this was our chance tonight, but now if he's not playing. Yeah, that's more in hockey movies. You might get you might get two guys square off in real hog. I don't know if we're getting five on five. The avalanche. Remember the San Antonio avalanche and the HL or you are already left. The San Antonio got a HL team, the avalanche. I went to a game once and that happened. All 10 guys gloves off every. Okay, how do you stop that? How do you actually stop the fight? And I mean, it just kind of peeders out because there are only three wraps. So they can't go one per guy, but I mean, I'm sure you guys have been in tussles and scraps for it. It kind of just ends on its own at some point, especially the kind of rule of thumb is once you hit the ice, it's over. So if you're standing up and you're going, once it hits the ice is done. Okay. It's very rare to see guys keep fighting on the ground. So they like 30 seconds or so and maybe it'll kind of it'll kind of resolve itself on its own. You could tell a couple of them are like, Hey, man, I got to do we got to do this. So like, all right, I'll let you hit

23:03the game. Look, this is a better question. So Nick Kipperios is in the studio later. I'll ask him. He he fought a bite. He has like 1500 career penalty minutes in the NHL and has been in a lot of fights. So it's so basically if I'm getting my tail, we'll actually just drop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hit the ice and it's like implied that like we're done here. That's about it. AD, thanks so much for doing this. Sure. Always. I was going to say looking forward to seeing at the arenas tonight, but I'm up Blue Jace tonight. So we have the Blue J. So I'll be here in the studio. Okay. You didn't want you to game either? Yeah. Well, I'll be here. I do think there's probably a donut waiting for you outside the door. So we at least got that. You know what? They did made this all worth the trip. Yeah. Okay. I got to do an ad read. So bear with me here before we let you go officially. A little acts of kindness at a time when it seems everything is hopeless is one small way to make things better. And one simple act you can take today to have a direct and immediate impact on your community is donating blood at your nearest Canadian blood services donations that are this small act can say multiple lives. The need is always there and it could bring a sense of contribution to a world in need of solutions. Choose a moment of hope today make a donation appointment by visiting blood.ca the give blood app or call one AAA to donate.

24:06All right. So Raptors, Pelicans tonight a 30 weird timing one on the no idea what's going on there. But AD you'll be on the call. Thanks so much for doing this man. Really appreciate it. Blake Matt. Thank you guys for having me. Appreciate you guys. And so no day is you can see him on the Pelicans broadcast. Matt will be on the Raptors broadcast. So I mean, you guys just listen to flip over the Pelicans broadcast. That's upright. All right. We'll take a break. On the other side, we'll talk to Brian Scalabrini. We'll talk about that Celtics Thunder game from the other day and maybe you'll need a little bit some rookie of the year stuff, Matt. I'm a team Cooper flag to him from New England. Yeah. I'm just you guys argued about it so much last year. That's true. I do need to let him have it. All right. That's next. That's the Raptors show continues to Blake Murphy and Matt Bonner. Thank you to Antonio Daniels.

25:14Welcome back to the Raptors show. Blake Murphy and Matt Bonner with you. Brian Scalabrini will join us shortly. What a hitter of a show. Antonio Daniels and Scalabrini. We're bringing it in you. We're bringing it kind of me. I'm mostly here. Kind of me too. Yeah. It's Friday. You were it. Look, it's a this is it. We were talking in the break. I had a concert cancel last night. It's like, oh, heading into opening day with like multiple shows. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe I'll go to bed earlier and then the sweet 16 is on and opening day baseball and that's not how it works out. No, that's not how it works out. We'll talk maybe a little NCAA basketball. We wait for Scalabrini. Time now for fast break. Brought to you by bad MGM, an authorized gaming partner of the NBA. It is Pelicans at Raptors heads up. It's an 830 start tonight, even though it's a home game. It is on sports net so you can get more of Matt Bonner with Schirm and Brad and Daniela and Grange a little later. I on the other hand will be on Blue J Central 530 to 7. And I have J stock plus two to three later. So if you're looking for more J stuff, check that out as well.

26:16The Raptors in this game are eight and a half point favorites over under set of 229.5. A manual quickly has already been ruled out. Third game. He'll miss as he deals with plantar fasciitis. Chucky Hepburn is out as well as he recovers from the meniscus surgery. But the other two ways could conceivably be available if needed on the Pelican side. They're on the second night of a back to back. So we don't know for sure. Trey Murphy was out last night with an ankle injury. Bryce McGowan's is also out. And Dejante Murray played last night, but he has not played him back to back yet because he's recovering from an Achilles injury. So Antonio didn't think he would play tonight. The speculation yesterday was that he was probably only playing in one half of this back to back. Matt, I got to say a bit of a bummer given what happened last game and how you know, I don't expect like Marquell Fultz to like deck and to deck Dejante Murray and like become a Raptor's legend or anything. But I think they would have liked the chance to you know, at least get a W against Dejante Murray after what happened last time.

27:18Yeah. I mean, some hard screens. Yeah. I mean, you can really drill someone on a screen. I don't advise that as a form of revenge because you get whistled and it's turnover. The place you get someone is on when the shot goes up on the rebound. You want to deck someone and get away with it and get revenge. And it can be an illegal a not illegal, but a legal way. It's on the shot. Shot goes up. Everybody's looking at the ball. No one's paying attention. You just ramp someone. Get away with it. So you're not saying to do the Kelly O'Linnick Kevin love, uh, you know, judo flip into an arm bar. You just say give him a little shot. If you're going to do the screen, you got to do it very early in the game to like send a message. Yeah. Like set a high screen and roll and just lean into it. But to your point, it's a turnover. Yeah. It's said this is similar to like you do it early. So it doesn't like affect that. I'll really affect you. This is always the tough thing in baseball. The unwritten rules. I go, if you hit the star player on the other team with the pitch, the pitch is going to come back and hit one of your guys, but it puts a man on base. So if it's a close game, like, yeah, that's almost helping the other team.

28:23You feel the hard foul. Someone on a shot and it was two shots anyway. But now they like review everything and it could be a flagron or a technical. So you never know. Okay. It's a riskier. Here's what you do. You go up 20. Yeah. I mean, obviously. So that's that's what I was going to get at. All right. Dejante is not playing. Even if he was like at a minimum, we're going to come out and play extremely hard and send a message. Like this is what you get for messing with us. That's what I want to say. You would hope so. And you also need to do it not just for that reason. But as we've been tracking the standing, let's do a quick update from yesterday. The hornets beat the nicks, the magic beat, the kings and the pistons beat the pelicans. So what that sets up is the hawks are still in fifth. The raptors are half a game back. Raptors are half a game up on Philly. And then one and a half up on Orlando Charlotte and Miami. So all those teams are only a game and a half back now of the raptors to potentially knock them into the play. And Philly's relatively healthy now. Yes. And beaten Paul Georgia back. So the raptors have the pelicans in the magic at home this weekend. The hawks are at Boston and then play at home against Sacramento

29:27on the second. I have a back to back Philly's at Charlotte or landows off for two days and then he at Toronto here. Charlotte's got Philly and Boston on a back to back. So tough weekend for Charlotte. And then Miami is at Cleveland and at Indiana. So mixed bag there. Charlotte's got a tough one. But yeah, this is this is what you put yourself in by having a if you're a couple of months very, very tight in the standing. So that was fast break brought to you by bed MGM and authorized gaming partner of the NBA. Higher up in the standings are the Boston South who's sitting second in the east and just beat the Oklahoma City Thunder. Let's talk to Brian Scalabreeni about it. He joins us now. Scal, how are we doing? I'm doing well. You guys pretty good over here. Matt's a little cold today. But otherwise it's cool. It's opening day for the blue jays. Buzz in the city. Well, no, I got to work the broad kit with the raptors of playing tonight too. I'll be on the broadcast with that video. Random question. If you like like here, we got the dome.

30:29You can open and close it. If you're a park up north and it's like today, it's freezing here Scalab. It's like in the 20s. Bundle up and it's below zero in the outdoor. They still play the game. Bundle up. Yeah, yeah, they below zero. We don't have below zero. But it's like you could. I don't know, man. It's below zero here today. What if it was not you? I mean, it's not totally. There's no way Boston is not totally different than Toronto's climate. You got to have the producer look up the coldest April fools day or the coldest day in April. We'll just go with that. Why don't we just go with that? Because I think baseball is starting a little bit early. It used to be April 1st. So I doubt it's that cold. The coldest April temperature in Boston recorded was 13 degrees Fahrenheit. There you go. This is what I'm saying. I should go with the Dewey Glitter versus the DuPros T. I hope April 1st, 1923. There you go. I remember playing Little League in New Hampshire. In like the first two weeks of the season, we're like freezing.

31:33If fast on the ground, you hit the you hit the ball and your hands. Things so bad. I think you still go. I don't I don't know. And I think they try to schedule as many road games as they can early on. Right? Yeah. Anyways, I don't I don't go. I I've been to one. Finnways tough. Like your seat is facing like centerfield, but your neck is always turned the other way. And if you're if you're six nine and playing the NBA, you're you're not surviving. A day like that. I can't fit in the like 90% of the seats at Fenway until they did the recent renovations. It wasn't even that comfortable for a five foot 10 guys. So I can only imagine for you guys. By the way, it's supposed to be the red socks start to season on the road. It's supposed to be 27 degrees for their home opener next week. So we don't know if that's true. No, I mean, that's what that's what it says now. I'm just fair and high to everybody. Yes, I just yes, 27 Celsius. We'd have a global warming issue if it got that warm that fast. Scout Celtics beat the thunder earlier this week. First loss in a month for OK. See, I know it was a couple days ago. Now, but can you take us through it a little bit? What did the what were the

32:35Celtics able to do against the thunder? Would you see for that one? All right. So let's just go with thunder came out and they were dominating. I mean, Joe Mozilla had to burn two time outs, which he doesn't like to do to kind of get the team right. They kind of write the ship a little bit in the first quarter. Second quarter, Jason Tatum came out and he had basically probably the best Jason Tatum game given the circumstances of who you're going against. I had a couple pull-ups off the screen and roll from three, got downhill, a couple of dump offs. You know, he's not where what he was last year, but he's getting closer to that on a daily basis. Fourth quarter, it was the Jalen Brown versus SGA show. SGA couldn't score on Jalen Brown and Jalen Brown could do whatever he wants against SGA. And that's really the how you unpack that game. The reality is I think Mark Dagnall, he, um, he went 11 deep. I think that's a mistake trying to play against the Boston Celtics and it wasn't like 11 where two guys play like six minutes or four minutes or anything like that. It was like an 11 man rotation. Um, and Wiggins didn't even play who I love, by the way, and who's

33:39like a quintessential Boston Celtic defender of you. Like you want big long athletic that could shoot three thing in guard and he didn't even play. So right now that was the first game all season at Oklahoma City had their quote unquote rotational roster healthy. And they just need to cut that down a little bit. And I think, you know, like that happens in the NBA, a coach will throw 11 guys out there just to prove to everybody that we can't play 11 and then they'll kind of pull it back and find whatever their rotation is going to be. But I think what that proved to me is like you know, in a box like Jalen Brown might not, you know, have 60 something wins this season or whatever it is. But in the fourth quarter, when you got two dudes going at it, like that's basically, uh, Jalen Brown outplayed SGA and I give him a lot of credit. But you know, like, what was it, two weeks ago, SGA down the stretch, even though Jalen Brown was right there. He outplayed Jalen Brown. So that low MVP conversation was a cool little matchup. I mean, SGA wasn't exactly chopped liva as they said. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He had 13 out of 12 field goal attempts. But

34:43he's got to watch the four. Yeah. Jalen Brown had a paper points. I call them paper points. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not at all. It's just, when it was time to get a bucket mat, he couldn't do it again. She was Brown. So he was super, he couldn't get a shot off. It wasn't like he was missing. He couldn't get a shot off. Like Jalen Brown claiming to everybody, he's the best two way player in the world. Uh, in the fourth corner, in the fourth corner, he is is the best two way player in the world. A lot of people, pundits, analysts, tend to think of the NBA championship this year is like whoever comes out of the East is gonna lose to whoever comes out of the West, whether it's the Spurs or the Thunder, whoever. Do you think that's true? Like if you had to put a percentage, like do you think those Celtics are the favorites in the East coming into this post season? And if so, in the NBA Finals, like what percentage would you put them at being able to beat? I don't know. It comes out of the West. Yeah, you got like, you know, I don't like to,

35:45there are some things that we know as analysts, we can like use our experience and saying, you know, like we've seen this before, like I've been, since Washington Charlotte live, I've been like pumping their pom-pombs, like you guys have no idea how good they are until you see them live, right? Keep telling people, see them live, and they're like communicating, like a championship level team, like, hey man, yeah, I hear what you're saying, my bad, I got you, like very, very high level stuff, not from like Lonzo Lamella Ball and Bridges, where this is like, these guys have matured to a unreal level. So you see them live, you say that. You can base it off as things you see. With Tatum, I just don't know where he's gonna be. If Tatum continues to get better, then I could see the Celtics being, like you got two top five players, but like that's assuming that Tatum gets to that point. He's really good, but like, it's actually, people are so funny, analysts are. Tatum looks like he did before. It's actually disrespectful to say that about Tatum last year, to say he looks the same.

36:47If I went to Tatum and I was like, man, you looked the same as you did last year, he would say, damn, you must have thought I sucked. I'm not sure. Because I feel like there's like, I mean, and this is a big percentage for a star player. I think it's 30% of the way to go. He's still not, guys aren't flying off his body. He's not dunking it on those picking roles where he splits the defense. He still has a long ways to go, but he keeps getting better. And I think Oklahoma City Game was his best game, but I just have no idea what that Achilles have went through and what that journey looks like. Do you, it's, I remember Matt, if we said, a guy sits out an entire year and he comes back, we don't expect that guy to still be good. We expect him to have some rust on him. Even the great Michael Jordan was rusty after he came back from baseball, right? So it's like, everybody is like, Tatum's gonna be the same. And I'm like, wait a minute, what are we basing this off of? So if he does get to that level, then I think we could beat San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

37:49But I just don't know. And there's nothing that I have any experience with in my life that shows me like that he's definitely gonna get there. He could, he's already broke all the odds. I just don't know if he's for sure gonna get there. Yeah, it's fascinating because like, you know, obviously the two months of playoffs is a war of attrition. You gotta stay healthy and he's just coming back. Does the first month of that runway, you know, let him get to an even higher level because there are no back-to-backs and he gets the high level reps and stuff. Or is it too much, too soon coming back? We don't really know. So in terms of getting there, the way the East shapes up, and you mentioned how OKC has a, you know, 11 arguably even 12-man rotation that they're gonna have to pair down and figure that out. The Celtics seems like they've got the nine figured out. One is, is that, yeah, is that fair to say? And then two, we don't need to look ahead to the NBA Finals necessarily. But you've seen a lot of the other top teams in the East. The Pissons look a little better than we expected without Cade. The Nix have been the Nix for a long time here.

38:51How do you see that top half of the East shaping up the way things look right now? I think with Detroit, they've been banging down threes with Cade out and that's why they're winning. Can they do that at a playoff level? I don't know, you know, like if they can, they know be good because they're defensive ridiculous and those bigs are nasty. Like, beef stew and Jalen Duren are nasty. I would like, man, those guys are, they are set for a while. And I did as two were having a great year. I know we, like, thinking him as a guy. And he can't, like, do stuff like that and the playoffs gets suspended for two games. Like they won't, they won't recover from that. But as long as they have a VAS tour and who can guard down the roster, you can probably guard like five, fours and threes. Like they're going to be in good shape. So for them, it's about making shots. And the Nix, man, they just pout a lot when I watch them. It's like, I want to believe in them, but I'm not a really a big powder of a guy. Like I don't really gravitate towards people that complain on stuff. Like I can acknowledge that you're great. I always feel like that distraction

39:53could be overwhelming in the playoffs for things to get like exacerbated. So I kind of feel like if the Nix and like get it together, like they did last year during the against the Celtics, then they'll be fine. But man, they do line a lot. And it's weird how, like, Carlton, he counts having a good year, but he's like the human punching bag of New York, right? So that's weird too. So I don't know. And then Cleveland, every big gain they don't deliver. So I don't know if I can count on them. So it's almost like by default that the Celtics are the best team in the East. That's a good point with towns. I feel like with the new media landscape with all the podcasts and everything, teams get so overanalyzed one game to the next. It's insane. Like, you know, these 82 games, like you might have three or four games where like you're a little off. You think about when they came here earlier in the year and like towns wasn't closing games for them and there was talk of like better with Mitchell Robinson because it'd been like three games in a row that closed with him over towns or whatever. I mean, New York's always been like that with the media, but now it's going to be so much worse than my God.

40:54You know who's the happiest guy in the world? Rudy Go Bear. Because he's a pound on Rudy Go Bear. Now they don't just pound on Carltony Town. So no one mentions Go Bear anymore at all. No, you're right. No way, I feel like that Timberl is just don't. We've talked about this before. Like because they're just like they quietly go about their business and win a bunch and they don't get talked about as much as a team that has a couple conference finals appearance in the last couple of years. They're really good at thinking get it together. Yeah, and if it ain't can get healthy in time. Scott, you mentioned the, sorry, did you get it? I had something with a scale. I wanted a conconniple huge game last night. I wanted to talk about rookie of the year, him versus Cooper flag. Not that they're like arch rivals or anything. And just kind of get, yeah, I know Cooper flags are boy. Just kind of get your thoughts on Cooper flags. I'll never, I'll just tell you, let me just tell you. So I've been really transparent, like listen to me talking about Jason Tatum and all that stuff, right? Like I'm as transparent as it gets when it comes to my,

41:56my analyst of the NBA or my analysis of the NBA. I was straight live every day of the week when it comes to Cooper flag. Because I know Kelly and Kelly listens to everything. So you know what Cooper flags are rookie of the year. I'm not afraid of Cooper flag. I am definitely, because you guys know I coach ACE, right? I'm my AAU team, but I am scared to death, the Kelly flag and Ralph. And like I'm not so first, hey, I don't care. But from now on, if Cooper's up for the award, I don't care what anybody said. That man is winning rookie of the year. I respect that. Yeah, that's, it's well said and I appreciate the transparency. She will burn me, dude. I'm telling you right now. I saw her like two weeks after Jamal Mashburn said Cooper flag will go eight. She was, she was destroying you know, unreal. Okay, let's frame this differently. I don't ever want to be on the opposite end of Kelly flag. So I'm just picking Cooper flag. Okay, let's, we'll save you from Kelly flag here. Because the Mavericks are not going to make the playoffs this year.

42:56Let's ask you this way. You mentioned when you've seen the Hornets up close, you've raved about them. We actually caught them a bunch of times earlier in the year. And they were still not good yet, but our takeaway was kind of this is a tough team. Yeah, like why are we struggling against this team? Because at the time they were win lost wise, terrible. So now they're tied with Orlando and Miami. They're only a game and a half back of the Raptors to avoid the play in entirely. To what extent do you think they could be a noisy team in the, but obviously it's early on their development curve to go on a run or anything like that. But as far as being an annoying first round exit, if they make it through the play in, how is it too soon for that? Do you think they're at that stage where they'd be a tough out for one of the top teams? Gosh, when did we play them? Have your producer look up the time that they came into Boston and be us by like 30, right? But that day, the next day on radio, I'm like, dude, this team's going to make the, they're not going to make the plan. They're going to be in the top six. I just like, and I looked at their schedule and I said, I don't care, man, these guys are

43:58tough. By day are tough. They guard. They can be, like I said, they communicate at a really high level. They're not a bunch of knuckleheads out there doing stupid stuff or like when Lamella Ball takes a one leg jumper, then the next guy takes a bad shot, then the next guy, they're not like that. They operate like a championship level team. They're just like inexperienced, right? And then con-knipple. Come on, dude, that dude looks like he's been in the lead 12 years. So he's amazing. And one guy that changed everything, they were starting called Brenner. Called Brenner's all right. Like I watched the last time, I'm like, you guys kind of get this guy out of the game. But Musa, Dia, Bhattay, man, any of y'all could have had him. We could have had him. That dude's like a machine. He doesn't breathe air, he doesn't drink water. Like I don't even know how he's out there. He had a dunk where he jumped from like half-court, like this guy. He's not even human. Just said no, there's a two way for a couple of years too. It's crazy, man. Like I don't even, I remember like reading him on a scout report somewhere, but I can't even tell you when I saw him play before like with the clippers and stuff.

45:01I'm like, this dude is amazing. So they got to go and I know a few of their coaches from, they were on Boston staff and now they're down there. I guess when Musa Dia Bhattay was doing sprinting drills, he was smoking everybody in conditioning. So he's like the modern day, like not dating Madonna or dressing in dresses Dennis Rodman out there. Like he has an endless motor. So that's the key. That's the skill, the motor. It's like motor underrated attribute and obviously you can't have five guys like that because usually guys that are high motor guys aren't super skilled. You need one or two on your roster that can just set the tone and just be relentless. And like I said, be on that all annoying to play against team. By the way, it was March 4th and you guys have him twice more before the end of the season here. So good luck to you. I told my, I told my friend to, I was like, you guys fly down to Charlotte. Let's go hang out and go watch Charlotte Celtics. She's like, it's going to be a playoff game, it's going to be amazing. So I have a big, I'm like super excited about this Sunday watching those two play.

46:05But I'm, I'm as, I can't tell you like, they're my league pass team. Every year I pick a league pass team that no one talks about and I'm just like watching them. And I wasn't like that at the beginning of the year. And then I started watching them in like January, go look at it. You know, they have the second best five men unit since January 1st or January 22nd. And then Atlanta has a top five men unit. So like, in fact, there's some really good teams that are coming on late. So if anybody ever thought like you shouldn't trade, trade young, just kind of look at what they're doing in Atlanta right now. So I kind of like both those teams. I think Charlotte can make some noise. I am hoping and praying against basketball gods or to the basketball gods that Charlotte doesn't match up with Boston. Even though I know that'll be super entertaining. That's all the more motivation for the Raptors to make the top six. Yes. Because those play in teams, I mean, Charlotte might be in their Atlanta might be in there. They're in their hot. They're going to make it guys like because I think Philly Orlando and Miami are like, they're like this really in a tough way. These kids.

47:05They're just not good. And I know Charlotte. I mean, I know Toronto's been falling. I think they're going to make the playoffs. I think they'll make the play in. I think that they'll end up winning probably that 78 matchup. I hope you're right. Because yeah, the Raptors starting lineup not bad plus eight net rating plus 29 for that Hornets unit that you're talking about. Plus 29 net rating on the season. It's murder people. It's unbelievable. It's not even funny. Like the next did not want anything to do with them last night. It was a big game. Like the next have a chance to pass the Celtics. And they were like, no, I'm good, man, we'll pass them on a different night. Down 18 going into the fourth quarter. Yeah, and this is, I mean, you want to like if the Hornets had fattened up on the bottom of these, but no, they did that to the Celtics. They did that to the next. They did it to the Raptors twice earlier in the year. They split the four set with the Raptors. So fun team that yeah, hopefully the Raptors can avoid in the play and scale enjoy that game on Sunday. Thanks so much for doing this. You got it, guys. Let me know. I love talking to you guys. So just hit me up, man. Anytime Brian Scalbrini. Thanks so much.

48:05Man, yeah, we talked about some of the schedule watching for this weekend, but it's uncomfortable with the Celtics having the Hornets twice more because you're in a spot where like, I don't imagine there's a Raptor fan out there who's super comfortable with like, oh, yeah, we got got cheer for Boston for two games because you need the enemy of my enemies, my friend kind of a kind of situation, but the scale's point. I don't think it matters who the Hornets play at this point, the way they're playing. I just mean like in terms of like who you get and assist from. Yeah, you want them to help us, but yeah, it's a, by the way, remaining strength of schedule, I guess the one thing going for going against Charlotte is they do have of any of these teams, the hardest remaining schedule because they still have a couple with the Celtics. They still have the Knicks, the Timberwolves, the 76ers and the Pistons. So pretty tough there Atlanta also has a pretty tough schedule Orlando and Philadelphia, not bad, but above 500. And then the Raptors have actually turned the corner. Even though they still have the two with the heat and the one with the magic,

49:08which will be really important for seating, they have they're more of the cake games than any of the teams that they're they're battling with in the Eastern Conference. So pretty important to get the win tonight. I agree. This is where it starts one game at a time. See, I you said that and then I was about to ask you about the Orlando game on Sunday, but I guess we're doing one for the players. Do you? Yeah, we can talk about. I mean, that one feels it not only is it the Bonner Bowl, Matt against that deep, but it is it feels pretty big like the Raptors would get these season series clincher against Orlando, then I believe, which they have the tiebreaker against a couple of the teams they're dropping with. They sell two games against Miami and they they're tied with Philadelphia. So a pretty important game on Sunday as well. Yeah, head to head with anyone in that five to 10 range is massive. It's also like you start looking at like the three team tie scenarios to where it matters with the other two teams that against each other. The easiest solution all of this is just win your game. Just win. Yes, when you're actually. All right, that's it for today, but you can get more of Matt Bonner pregame, halftime postgame

50:12on tonight's sports at broadcasts of Pelicans at Raptors. It's an 830 start, though, despite it being in Toronto schedule wise. If you want some more me some more opening day stuff, Jayce high plus two to three Blair and Barker have you four to six Blue Jay Central on the TV side is 530 to seven and fan pregame will have you leading into that one as well for today for the Raptors show. Thank you to Antonio Daniels and Brian Scalabrini for joining us. They saw him in Mon, Andrew Adams and Jake Schultz behind the glass. We will be back on Monday to I mean, hopefully the Pelicans game goes such that we're only talking about the magic game on Monday. That would mean they won pretty good tonight. I would like that. All right, have a great weekend.