Tatum Return Make Boston Favorites? Wemby Passion Great For NBA + SGA’s Elite Scoring

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Hello and welcome to the hoop collective podcast. We talk about the NBA which is

during on Sunday evening, joining us from San Jose, California, where he's out

seeing some family, Tim Buntams. Hello everybody. Join us from Dallas, Texas, where he'll be for a few

more minutes before he flies off to Oklahoma City tonight for a Monday's game against the

the Thunder and Nuggets is bad McMahon. Howdy partners. 76 degrees in Omaha today. But the Tiki

is could be pretty nice. Well, taking the last flight out tonight and I got get up on Tuesday

morning. So, uh, you know, tough to see. Okay, FYI, we did this podcast in two parts to accommodate

various things. So the back half of it'll be from later. But the reason we waited to do this is

because we really wanted to watch the two afternoon games that were on ABC starting off with the

Celtics and Jason Tatum going into Cleveland. Um, it was out of the Mitchell return for the calves.

Jared Allen was out with uh, knee bruise. He banged knees the other night. I thought he might be

back by today because he had four days, four days off. But he wasn't ready. But that's not here

or there. Guys, I really didn't get to see Tatum play that much on Friday because I was traveling.

Today was the first time I got to watch him live. And so I settled in for that first quarter

and bought them C scored 12 points in the first quarter. And I was like, oh, okay. And I mean,

maybe if you like we used them, uh, you know, a magnifying glass and knew some of the way the

defensive assignments and stuff were maybe you could have argued that he was a little bit rusty.

Maybe the Celtics would argue timing or whatever. And he didn't have a quote unquote great overall

game. He ended up just six of 16. But considering the guy is coming off of a Achilles, my gosh,

did he look pretty good? And the Celtics with a easy win in Cleveland. Cleveland is one of the hottest

teams in the league. They just smack the pistons at home a couple of days ago. Bontemps, I'm not

overreacting here to one game because I would not overreact if he looked terrible. But if you are

a Celtics fan, frankly, if you're a contender in the Eastern Conference, Jason Tatum really returns,

man, looks pretty good on that leg. Yeah. I mean, look, in Friday's game, I absolutely

didn't talk to anybody. They're one of these games. He was awfully rusty at the beginning. I think

he missed his first five or six shots. He was clearly trying not to force it through a bunch of

passes early. Got some assists. Eventually hit got a tip dunk late in the first half and hit a

three right after that. Got himself going ended up, they get like 17, 10 and seven. But it was a

reminder that yes, like today, he went six for 16 today. He didn't shoot the ball awesome on Friday.

But the reason we have talked about the impact Tatum can have and why I've kept saying if he could

come back at anything resembling remotely what he was before. I think they're the best team is

because of all this other stuff. He is probably, if not their best rebounder, that name is Keda has

emerged. He's their second best rebounder. He's a really good help defender. He's a good passer.

He's a really good shooter. So teams are going to be focused on him. He can create offense. He can

isolate and draw the defense and kick it around to guys. Like he, he just, his presence on the court

alone is going to attract so much attention from the opposition and he's going to be able to do so

many things to help out defensively that he doesn't have to come back and immediately be first

team on be a Jason table to have the big impact. And you saw in these two games, he isn't first

team on be a Jason Tatum today. But he's immediately an effective NBA player. And remember, no offense to

Baylor Shireman and Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walls. By the way, Baylor Shireman had a very nice

game today. Very nice. I guess the calves are arguably one of the best game probably the best game

was NBA career. We'll get to that shortly. But the reminder is like for all this talk, which I think

has been silly from the beginning at all. Jason Tatum could mess up the Celtics. Like he's

taking minutes away from hard playing role players. Like those guys have all had a nice impact. But

he's stepping back in and it's only going to be an additive. And through these first two games,

I think you can only call it an unqualified success to see him play the way he is moving the way he

is. Like, you know, I wouldn't say he's exactly a mid season form because he's a little rusty with

the shot and stuff. But you couldn't ask for anything better for your Celtics fan. And I think

it, to me, this is reestablished Boston as the clear favorites in the East. If he's able to stay

on the court, because I mean, it just, they've just leveled up dramatically, having him back out there.

Yeah, I agree with that, especially as we speak, I look up and the pistons are down 20 plus

to the Miami Heat late in the first half. Pistons have been, you know, they've been struggling a

bit lately. But I thought Tatum's return was awesome. And yeah, he missed the first six shots.

You know, one of those was a great move, a uncontested dunk that he front rammed. It's like,

but yeah, probably a little bit of jittery, a little bit rusty, but 12 rebounds. Seven assists.

He's moving well. That's the main, like 10 months off in the kill. He's, he's moving well. He

doesn't look, he doesn't look like a diminished athlete. Then today comes out. And after the

first court, like, is this kind of going to go for 30 something in the second game back? And

so he, he's not, you know, just like the first game, you know, he had a, he had a burst

of big time scoring. And quite been able to put a whole game together. But you see that he did.

He came through big time for him, closing this one out after this, after the cast made a run,

had a nice drive for a layup and then hit a wide open three on the backside. And, you know,

that wide open three on the backside, like he can do that. And that was because Peyton Prishard was

whooping the calves, but so much. They threw two on Peyton Prishard. Get off it to Kada.

Kada swings it over to Jason Tayden wide open. But there's not a need for Tayden to put a

cape on. He doesn't have to come back and be a superhero. He can just fit in and enhance what

they have going because they establish themselves as a, as a great team this year without him,

right? And without all the guys that they lost. Look, and this is why I really have very small

patience for the Tatum Brown discussion. Number one, there a championship duo that's been proven.

Secondly, the Celtics are a system team. Now, obviously, there are going to be sections of games

where they may lean into a player or not. But the Celtics very much by design, very much by

Joe Mizzoula's hand or a system team. And so, and the system is the system. And Jason Tayden,

the system was built around him. He will just move in and the system will go on, you know, like,

you know, there's certain things depending on their personnel. They may do a little differently

in terms of game planning. But I system built on two way wing play, right? And yeah,

it's between Derrick White really skilled one. Right. Well, between Derrick White, Jason Tayden

and Jalen Brown, there might not, there's, I mean, you could maybe argue a couple other teams,

but from two to four, there's hardly if any teams in the league that can match the two way ability

to dribble past you defend that those three guys. That's why the Knicks invested crazy amounts of

assets into getting anonobi and bridges because they were trying to deal with that two way wing

dollars. And those guys aren't nearly on the same level. And the tension versus brown thing,

it is a it's a tired discussion. It's a silly discussion. It's something to their credit. They

did not let tear them apart. They want a championship together. They have the potential to win more

championships together. Brown is, you know, they're both on super max contracts like there's no,

there's no reason it's like it then happy one his team or his team. It can be their team. That's

okay. And, you know, Tatum comes back. I might as say he has nothing to prove because obviously these

guys are all super competitive. But if Jason Tatum is a shell of himself for the rest of his career,

which clearly is not. But if he was, he'd still be a Hall of Famer. He's a five time all NBA

selection. He's a champion. You know, he's a gold medalist. Two-time gold medalist. Well, yeah,

let's to spin ahead to the game today a little bit. I wanted to ask you, Brian. That's the

the leader of Cavs Corner. The takeaway I had from this game watching it was the Cavs could do

nothing to bother the Celtics, the entire game. Like even some of these shots that look kind of

difficult that like Peyton Pritchard would take in the fourth quarter like Jalen Brown would take.

These guys could get to their spots wherever they wanted and they weren't bothered. And they got

seemingly a wide open three almost every trip. They worked the clock down like 16, 18, 20 seconds

most trips. Got a wide open shot almost every trip. I was just really, I mean, I guess I wasn't

stunned because we have had questions about the Cavs ability to guard on the perimeter at the whole

time. But what was your takeaway on the Cavs today? I was more against these guys. As I was watching

the game, I was more affected by their struggles against the Celtics defense. And this is a Cavs

team that has been the number one or number two offense efficient-wise since mid-January.

And they've been routinely putting up power numbers, particularly generating lots of open

threes. And the Celtics were in their full switch operation. And the Cavs really struggled to

get good looks in this game. They early in the game were attacking their game plan was clearly

to attack Sam Hauser. And yeah, Evan Mobile actually had a pretty good game offensively.

And they were able to get switches and attack Hauser. And Hauser got shown up a couple of times.

But Hauser hit five threes. And he certainly made up for it at the other end. And when they weren't

attacking Hauser, they weren't able to dent anything. And the bench play, I mean, the Cavs

invested a lot in the season to improve their bench. And Max Truce is now working out with

their G league team. And so there's a return. I don't know what you're going to expect from him. But

you know, that their lineup is going to potentially even improve a little bit. But you know,

the Schroeder and the key analysis trays were meant to improve their bench. And also,

you know, with Harden being in the starting lineup, replacing a guy who's missed a lot of the

season. Darius Garland, that improves the bench. It moved Jayland Tyson to the bench. The bench

was, you know, and this, you know, you wouldn't necessarily see this repeatedly in a four-game

series or in a seven-game series. But, you know, I think the bench score was 41 to 13.

Baylor Shireman was 16 and 10, paid Pritchard at 18.

18 and seven. Yeah. Two guys, single-handedly. Two reserves, single-handedly outscored the Cavs

bench. Yeah. And, you know, my takeaway from this game, one man for a guy, 10 months off,

and Achilles Taden looks amazing and can't wait to see how he looks when he's had a month

plus to ramp up for the playoffs. You know, that Joe Masulla said no man's restriction.

Clearly, it's about 27. It's where he's played both games. So Taden looks awesome. And I would

imagine it's only going to get better. By the way, it's a quick aside. If there's a minute

restriction, shouldn't you have to say that there's a minute restriction? Like, that, I mean,

well, I mean, I don't want to get into that discussion, but I was pretty confident, you know,

again, when Joe Masulla declared there was a minute restriction on Friday. It's a man's point.

That's pretty confident. It wasn't playing 45. I know. Anybody think he was coming back playing

35? I mean, I do what to say, but that's a transparency of one wagering like either you're going

to do it or you're not. If anybody was betting that Jason Taden's going to have a full 35-minute

workload, I'd say. It has more to do with the fact that if you announce there's no minute restriction

and stress and I'm with you. I know that there is, but that's what it's for. Yeah, I'm with you.

I'm not going down that path. I'm not going to agree with you. I'm not sure the general

NBA fan realizes just what a stud Peyton Pritchard has become. I know he won six man

the year last year. Bond Tim, he made your all-contract team and it's amazing. This guy's making,

you know, about eight, mill, the next two seasons. By the way, when they gave him that contract,

we all thought that we were like, seriously, that much for Peyton Pritchard, like we would do.

I did not at the time. Well, I'll come up with me in that. But what I would say that's more

interesting than that is in the middle of his third season, which I believe is Joe Masulla's first

season. Peyton Pritchard was trying to leave. Like he wasn't playing. He was ready to be traded.

He wasn't happy. Like he was not thrilled in Boston. And for things to go from where they were

at that point when he was barely in the rotation to this guy that became a lock rotation player,

hitting all these half-court shots when they were on the win the title. Now, like you said,

big man, he's not one of the best value contracts in the league. If he had played more games off the

bench, he'd be a shoe-in to win six man again this year. Now he's back off the bench,

destroying for them. And like I said earlier, at the end of the game, he comes in in the fourth

quarter. And he's just getting to his spots in the mid-range, Janela Tyson, solid defender.

I couldn't do anything to stop him. He's just getting whatever look he wants,

banging in huge threes late. His development into this critical piece for them. It's a testament to

like you said, Brian, the system for the Celtics, I think, is even less about the way they play.

And it's their player development system. They have an unbelievable player development system.

When you look at their roster, Peyton Pritchard comes out of that. It's a late first-round pick.

By the way, it's not even, it's not even, it's not even late first-round pick.

It's not even like skilled, I mean, skilled development, yes. But like part of the biggest thing,

we talked to people in Boston when they talk about Pritchard. The guy, they didn't teach the guy

to shoot. The guy has been a lead shooter since he was a kid. They gave him his confidence back.

His confidence had gotten shaken. Joe Masula came in and with him and his staff said,

Peyton, we're going to get your confidence back. And certainly you look at him now and you say,

well, of course, this guy has confidence. Well, guess what? His confidence a couple of years ago

was vastly reduced. And that's what the, some of the basis of his recovery is.

And he's a guy who, this is, you know, 26, 27, now he's 28. This is a guy making major

leaps at that point in his career. And you know, I mentioned the two Tatum buckets, the two biggest

buckets of the game, you know, Bontans alluded to, they're Peyton, Pritchard, I, Peyton,

Pritchard, Iso buckets after the calves trimmed the lead to single digits with like four

minutes left. Do you know who the most efficient volume Iso score is in the NBA this season?

I would guess it's Peyton, Pritchard. It is Peyton, Pritchard. One point, going into today.

One point, two, three points per Iso possession. Shays 1.17, Lucas 1.11. Those are elite elite

numbers. 1.23. That's crazy. Yeah. And by the way, they, and it looks like he should be playing

in my pickup games. And Missoula has zero, obviously, zero percent qualms, calling his number when

he needs a basket. By the way, in a game where he didn't shoot, he was only two or seven

in the field. Names Kato had 11 rebounds and was plus 13 and was again a monster inside. And

it's another guy that has been a huge feather in the cap of their development system,

bringing him along the last couple of years. And he's just stepped in as a starting center and

been really, really good all year. By the way, was it to a real drive by you mentioned that the

pistons are down 20 at the half the heat. I have no idea what will happen the second half of that

game. We're not going to wait for it, but I'm just telling you, if the heat closed it out and they

are at home and the heat have been very good at home this year, that'd be five straight wins

for Miami. And they went up to Charlotte. Yeah. And Thursday or Friday ended the Hornets.

Two of those wins are against Brooklyn, but nonetheless, if they, and Kate Cunningham was back

playing in this game, he missed the game the other night, but he, you know, cutting him and

during their starting in this game. Between the second half of the net's pistons game on Saturday,

when the nets outscored them 61 to 43 came from, I think, 24 down and one and the first half of

this game against the pistons, they've now been outscored by, I believe 40 points in 48 minutes,

which is not great. I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to

overreact too much for their definitely in a, in a, in a mini rut. And by the way, this, this

heat winning streak is happening with Norman Powell out. So another one of the best ISO scores.

And we'll talk more about them later. I don't want to talk because I feel like Jackson's going

to have to cut this out. If they, yeah, right. Some big second half come back. So anyway,

before we move to, they won't be recorded earlier. I do want to talk about the, the Lakers.

So that was a excellent win for the Celtics today. Real, you know, warning, I think, to the league,

really strong performance by the Lakers, particularly defensively today against the Knicks at home.

New York just scores 97 points. The Lakers led this from start to finish. I think their lead was

at 26 at one point. LeBron was a late scratch, or maybe not a late scratch. He was questionable

coming in, but he was a scratch with a left foot thing that he sometimes misses games with.

I don't need to give like treetop analysis here, like, but, you know, the data shows that when

LeBron plays, when one of the three is out, they tend to be a little bit better defensively. It's

not an, it's not a shot at anybody directly, but when Luca and, and Austin Reeves are together

this year, their lineup data says that they're about seven points plus seven over 100 possessions.

And when they all three play together, they're in the negative. So it's, you know, there could be

a whole bunch of different reasons why. Well, let's, let's just be honest. The reason those three

guys don't fit together is none of them at this point play much defense. And you can sort of get

away with having two guys who aren't going to guard. It's hard, it's hard with two. It's almost

impossible with three. And that, I mean, that's the biggest problem they have. They're trying to

fit all of those guys out there at the same time. And it, it's hard. Take any of them off the court.

You're probably going to have more balance because you got to have two ball dominant guys. And then

three guys around him who are going to more likely. So they can start Hashemura and smart who,

you know, Marcus Smart was one of 10 shooting today, but he was plus 27. So what does that tell you

about what happened when out when he was out there? And, you know, it allows them to, you know,

allows them to play Vanderbilt, who's a better defender. And this particular game, Luke Kinnard,

hit three, three. So you got a basket, you got a floor stretcher out there. They, when they

divvy up those minutes. And again, it's not an analysis of LeBronza player, obviously, or Austin

Reeves is a player. It's an analysis of the fit of the roster. And, yeah, the, the data ball,

baller data here, like the little lineup combinations. Reeves and Luke go without LeBronza,

I don't know if this includes today or not, but it's a plus 16.9 net rating in 329 minutes.

With all three of them together, it's plus 1.5 and 293. And they're sigma plus, by the way,

it's been in the negative for a big point. Yeah, and there's significantly worse on both ends

of the floor when they're all three together. And again, I think LeBronza can go somewhere and give

a team a boost. I just think the fit of the Lakers. And that's why I like, I still think the Lakers

can build a contender around Luke and Austin Reeves if they add, if they use the financial flexibility

from LeBron leaving and add like a quality 3 and D wing in a real rim protectorate and played

well the day. But the guy you can count on on a night and night out basis, I think I don't think

the Lakers are just, you know, miles and miles and miles away from being a real factor in terms

of contention. I don't think it's happening with LeBronza on roster. The Knicks had a miserable

shooting day today. They were eight of 34 on three. I mean, I'm just laughing in games, especially

getting savings time. It's just like I'm just like New York afternoon games. That's right.

I guess the Spurs last week. That's right. It was all this time. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't want to

overreact, but it's a really nice winning thing. The Lakers are, you know, they've been playing 500

or worse basketball for the last, you know, couple weeks. And you're starting to look behind

you at that play in situation. And so to get a win like this, well, and again, it's worth pointing

out the rockets and wolves and the nuggets continue to have brutal losses. The nuggets have all these

injuries. We talked about that later on the pods. So we'll leave that. But as of right now,

the Lakers are a game back of Minnesota, who they host on Tuesday, and they're a game back of Houston.

Like they're like, do I think the Lakers are one of the three best teams in the Western

Conference? No, I do not. I think they have real flaws. I think they'd probably lose to most of

these teams in a playoffs series. However, they've won all these clutch games. They put themselves

in a position now where they can make a push down stretch here. Like they could get to third.

Very easily. Like the world should keep checking away these games. And third place, third,

the three C in the West is a remarkable place because you obviously are on the opposite side of

the bracket as the thunder. And you get homecourt in the first round. And then I don't know who's

going to win. But you know, you get a young, spurs team in the second round. Like I, the spurs

would be favorite in that series, but you know, it's better than playing the thunder in the second

round. So if you're, look, if you're going to create a scenario, which the Lakers are going to

make a playoff run and get to the conference finals first, the first bullet point is you get

the three C before we handed over to ourselves from earlier. Just a point out, did you see that in

the, I think it was in the third quarter of this game that Luca gave the money sign? Yeah,

when they didn't call the charge. He had turned the ball over. It was, it could have been called

it. I mean, I mean, I thought it was a charge. Yeah. But like, dude, you're up. I think they're up.

Might even been double figures at the time. Like, come on, man. And he's been fine for that before.

So he gets knocked to the floor. He's laying on the ground out of the basket. He looks over at

the official. Like, seriously, you're not going to call this. He gives the money. And I will say

this. He's probably going to get fine for that. He's, as you've mentioned, he's been fine before.

You know, Rudy, go bearer got fine. The second time Rudy got fine. He got fine to 100 Gs. I don't

know if it'll be that bad. But like, had the referee seen it? He might have 16th T. He might have

16th technical, not might have. He would have. Yes. And so what I would say is it could be worse.

Whatever fine he might get, he could have gotten a text. So that would have been much,

much more expensive and also would have been missed the game. So. And would have missed this

gaming. It's again, would have missed this gaming. It's the walls on Tuesday, which is a massively

important game for them. Yes, which I'm hoping to attend. Oh, wind in the house. All right,

we shall now pass it to ourselves earlier today when we are younger, more naive, and now we're

older and wiser. So we go to our younger selves from earlier today. More hoop collective podcast

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So we had what I thought was one of the more memorable parts of the regular season with a couple

of spurs games last week. And this, it happened at the end of the week, so I'm not sure how it hit

the news cycle. But the spurs had back-to-back victories. They had just come home from their rodeo

trip. And they had a real quality win over the pistons. The pistons match up with the spurs is

not a convenient one for Detroit, because the the perimeter pressure they can put on Kadingham

and the rim defense with Victor is it's a tough one. If that ends up being the finals,

which it's on the board, I would like the spurs in that match up, which we can talk about in a second.

However, they finally have a little bit of a respite and they come back and they play the

Clippers. And you could just tell in this game that there was a bit of an energy crash plus

Brooke Lopez had an awesome game for the Clipper. Clipper is actually the highlight.

Lopez is raining. He was making Wimby Gordon out there.

I'm not sure if it was his best game of the year, but it was certainly up there, you know,

Kauai. By the way, as a quick aside, you know, on Monday, Shay is going to, right, McMahon,

he's going to potentially tie the record for World Chamberlain. Yeah, he's tying him Monday,

breaking it in the next game. I would say I would assume he's breaking it. We're going to see

if he can do it, but it's done at 125 or 104 was it 125 straight now? I'm pretty sure 126 and 127

are on the horizon. By the way, he did it. He did it against the he extended against the

magic when he strained his ab in the first half. I know he's going to get that record. That's true.

All right. Anyway, so it's 125. Is it right now? Yes. Kauai is at 41.

And again, more than anything, that means that Kauai is finished 41 consecutive games that he's

played. You know, that hasn't been an early exit. Kauai had a good game that night and Jordan Miller,

who's been there, sort of G league discovery, had a good game that night. So anyway, the Clippers

in San Antonio build a 25 point lead. And you know, the Spurs had been through a number of

real tough games. Clippers actually been playing relatively well. All things considered

in the wake of the trades. They've been putting up some decent, some decent, decent numbers. Anyway,

so what did it get to make bandit? It gets a 25. It was 75 to 51 point. Okay, that's clean.

And then the Spurs walk them down. And you know, we routinely see big comebacks. So 25,

that's pushing in a second half, 25 point comeback. That's 25 in the second half of the game.

That's the second half of a back to back for a team that has its MVP candidate on a tight

minute restriction, because they ramped his minutes up the night before. Victor played 39

the night before. So they, you know, they weren't going to run his minutes high. That 39 is the

second most of the season. And so, you know, they weren't playing in more than 20, 22 minutes.

And so yeah, it was, it was pretty unlikely to come back giving all those things, even though they

were at home. Right. So they walk them down. And then there's this play. I don't know if you

want to describe this in-bounds play late in the game. You know, Tyler's unbelievable thing.

Yeah, Tyler drew up an awesome play where they had Victor guarding Derek Jones Jr. in the second

half. I think a lot of that's because Lopez was so effective in the first half. They wanted them.

I got there a more comfortable sagging off of. Anyways, they set a back screen on Victor. This is

out on the left wing, pretty high up out on the left wing. I forgot who set screen, but a great

screen. And the play is a back screen on Victor Jones blob over the top. And if you pause it

at the right time, Jones is in position to launch. And Wimby is up above the elbow. I mean, it's,

he's, you know, 15, maybe 20 feet away. And Batum looked at it. Yeah, Nico Batum is inbounding

the ball from the side out of bounds. Yeah, Batum looked at it right next to the clipper bench,

right? Yeah. Yep. And but guys are very familiar with Victor, I mean, Yamis skills as fellow

friends. Yes. And he, he didn't go to it. And you know, after the game, Tyler said, you know,

Nico thought Victor was playing in between. In other words, he thought Victor was going to be able

to get to it. Not only that, he stepped over the line. Well, no, then he passes it in to Lopez.

And Lopez is like, there's one to play. Lopez passed her right back to Batum. Batum hadn't gotten

inbound yet. Yeah. So the point of critical turnover, the point of this is Tyloo draws up a play

that was probably going to work. And Victor Wimbanyama successfully defended. I want you to,

I want to be clear, Victor Wimbanyama successfully defended the rim from 20 feet away from the rim.

What I would say is the threat of Victor Wimbanyama successfully intimidated Nico Batum and

not trying to qualify it. That's defending the rim. Sure. Yeah. Just his presence on the floor.

And as we were talking about this on our, on our group chat, you even said he goes, not only did

he defend the rim from 20 feet away, he was getting scraped. Yeah. He was scraped. And again,

Batum, I'm sure when Batum watched that film, he was like, man, but, but when being a sensible

reaction, yeah, Wendy is such a dominant presence that he forces guys into being so hesitant

that a lot of times as hesitancy is the right decision. In this case, it wasn't.

So the spurs, I can't remember now because it's been four days. I mean, I did, um,

did Darren Fox, I think Darren Fox, he was being fourth quarter, Darren Fox. I can't remember who to

credit some of their offensive plays. Victor had an incredible block at the where he blocked one end

and then ran the court and finished with a dunk at the other end during the comeback. That is

probably a top 10 highlight for him this year in terms of actual eye candy.

Um, Pa, I don't know, man. I don't know. There's a lot. There's a lot of competition. I know.

But that's a long list. That, that, that was doing it at both ends was pretty special. Yeah.

Um, okay. Fine. I'll back that off. But whatever it was. So, um, but you're, you know,

McMahon, I didn't realize this. I'm just now looking at the box score.

Dude, he only played 22 minutes. That's what I'm saying. He was on a tight minutes restriction.

And because again, he played 39 tonight before. And let me just, let me just, in 60,

roughly 61 minutes over two nights, the man scored 65 points, grabbed 26 rebounds,

block nine shots and hit eight threes and was a plus 30. Again, that 61 minutes over 30 hours.

And he was tired and he was emotional when that when that final buzz was down.

Okay. So this is what the bucket to seal it was. Uh, he ends up challenging a a

quiet three that's, that's very short. And he just leaked out after the challenge. Fox got

the rebound and just toss it up front and Victor had an emphatic dunk for the dagger.

And that that was the play that sealed it. So by the way, so you know, the Spurs fans call, um,

that the, the, the Stefan Castle, Wembe Nyama, you know, defensive, you know, duo.

They call it area 51 because castle number five, Victor number one.

Great nickname, you know, it's kind of like the dorker chamber, you know, area 51,

uh, Kade was in area 51 on, uh, was a Wednesday night, you know, both times they played.

Right. The jackals are the, uh, the nickname for the, uh, the fan group at, uh, the Spurs Arena

Frostbanks Center. And obviously the alien or Wembee, great, great nicknames associated

all with all of them. So anyway, they get this victory. And this is, you know, this reaction, uh,

Victor is emotional to the point where he's in tears. Would you say they were, they were,

they were, I wouldn't say there was some water. There was water. There was some water.

There was some water works for sure. And it was a, it was a, it was emotional. He was exhausted.

Right. You know, not full boo-hooing, but certainly some, some, some tears.

And after the game, he said that it was the most emotional 30 hours of basketball of his life.

I think that's how he framed it. Yeah. That, that honestly surprised me a little bit just

because I would imagine some of the, like, uh, you know, playing for the French national team.

Right. But that, that surprised me. When the French national team won the quarterfinals and semi-finals

in Paris when they were underdogs in both, that was, that was pretty big, but it didn't have

the component of this comeback. So it may not, you know, I'm sure it was very nationalistic,

but whatever. I'm not going to hold them to that statement, but, you know, I think some people could

use it as maybe a, a use it against him as kind of a sign of weakness. I mean, there will be,

there will be nerds on the internet who do and people trying to be cool on the internet for sure.

But this is what I, what I really like about it is that he values competition and winning so much.

And this is one of the things that, you know, Bontemps and I have talked about this for years,

about the need to have something to play for and enjoy as a team and a fan base beyond just a

championship. Because if you just have the championship as your only goal, the percentage of fans

that are not going to enjoy the percentage of players are, I mean, it's, it's not, it's not feasible.

And, you know, what I would call low level ecstasy. And Victor cares so much. And, you know,

it's kind of like the whole concept of him with the drum, the whole concept and the whole jackals

thing. Yes, it's to let's enjoy this regular season, you know, let's enjoy this regular season,

let's enjoy this process. And, you know, I just remember when I went to a spurs game during

rook victors, I think his rookie year. And he had a 40 20 game and they beat the, they beat the,

the mix in over time. That was a night that Jalen Brunson had 60 very memorable. You know,

they give Victor the microphone after the game. And it's a March game. It's right about this time

a year, actually. Or, yeah, I'm just about right about March. They're, they're not going anywhere.

That's the reason, right? And Victor like announces to the crowd. I love it here, you know,

everything like that. I think he's number one. I think he's being genuine. Number two, I think

that this is something that we, you know, like he's such a breath of fresh air for the league. And,

you know, this is him saying, listen, we're going to, I'm going to play in the All-Star game. Like,

whether you guys want to or not, I'm going to play in the All-Star game. I'm going to introduce

this fan section. I'm going to introduce this, this post game ritual of us, you know, pounding the

drum. I know that that's not a unique idea because the light the beam was sort of the beginning

of that concept. But, and it's all sort of stolen from Oak from European stuff. But, you know,

this is him basically saying, like, let's enjoy every sandwich, you know, like, let's, let's,

let's pay attention to ordinary time. You guys know, every breakfast taco. Yes. I've,

I've got this lame concept in my, you know, my philosophy of life, whatever. But, you know,

I love ordinary time. This is one of my favorite times of the year in the NBA, ordinary time.

And I know it's lame. You can make fun of me or whatever. This just hits me. Like, this is the type,

it's such a breath of fresh air. And so I'm all for this. I'm not arguing that winning a game in March

is more important than winning a game in June. But I'm, I am arguing that you can say, listen,

what do we have in our lives in San Antonio that's better on a Thursday night in March than

watching Victor Wembañama. And what isn't there of value that Victor Wembañama uplifted

an entire city who was in, you know, in that game. And then anybody who was watching it out there

was like, wow, what an amazing experience. Is there, is it not worth something that, that, you

know, that you can, you know, this is, this is what I did years ago on Twitter where I was talking

about how almost every night in the NBA, something amazing happens. And, and this is what Bontemps

has been doing. Bontemps did you stole that from Wendy? Not whatever. But this is what Bontemps has

been doing this year. He said that. He is basically saying, like, can we not enjoy that on a random

Tuesday in January that Jalen Brunson leads a 10 to run in the last two minutes to win in,

in New York. And, you know, neatly Yokech has a triple double in the first half. Like, you know,

just, sorry, I could go on and on about this. Well, this is, yeah, this is, this is another

reminder that the league is an unbelievable shape going forward with probably the two leading people

into the next generation being Victor Wembañama and Cooper Flag to insanely competitive young stars

like that. That is a really important thing for the league. And it's the same reason why

for the past few months now, I keep banging the drum on the need to change these incentives

at the end of the season to where all these games have meaning and to have wins count towards

lottery positioning. It's all, it all goes back to the same thing where, you know, 0.2 percent of

people at this point know what ordinary time is. I know. I kid who went to Catholic school,

who's, I know, I'm not in a practice of Catholic, but just it's a concept of it. Yes, but it is like,

yeah, of course, again, doesn't know, but it is, I didn't think it was something like revolutionary

concept. Listen, I, you know what? Let me take a, let me take a detour and I'll just tell you,

when you're a kid going to Catholic school, you have Advent, which is around Christmas, where you

got to do a bunch of extra stuff. And you have lent around Easter, which is going on right now,

we got to do a bunch of extra stuff. I didn't like doing the extra stuff, okay? The ordinary time.

There's all kinds of different rules. You had to give up stuff. No meat on certain days. What have

you, okay? The summertime was known in the liturgical calendar as quote, ordinary time.

A liturgical big word. That's what it was said, like when I was dragged to church when I was,

you know, and it would be like, you know, mid-June, and I just really wanted to get outside and play,

you would see on the, the, the thing it would say, welcome to, to mass on June 17th, 1989,

the 16th Sunday at an ordinary time. Ordinary time was great. No extra stuff. It was in,

it was the best weather time of the year. I knew when we, like, when I saw the calendar go, and it's

now ordinary time, I was like, yes, ordinary time. I love ordinary time. So this is my, sorry,

that's the detour. Go ahead. No, it's all good, but it is, you know, right now we're an ordinary

time in the NBA. We are an ordinary time in the NBA, and it often leads to a lot of

dud nights, especially in the last couple of months of the season. And before the playoffs start,

and it's why every person I've talked to, general managers, scouts, coaches,

players, anybody, all agrees that anything to make these last couple of months of the season

not be this interminable slog where you have all these teams taking games off and trying to lose

and, you know, manipulating lineups, whatever, you know, it'd be nice if we had a full slate of

games every day where we could have things come out of it like this Clipper Spurs game and like the

Piston Spurs game where you have two teams competing all the way through. But it, it, it was awesome

to see. It was awesome to see Victor get that into a game on a Friday night in March. And like I

said, the fact that these young stars are so competitive and so into playing for everything

every night, I think it's a great, I think it's a great thing for Lee going forward. And, you know,

it's another sign of why the Spurs are a team to be reckoned with, even though they have the

lack of postseason experience that would typically mean it's probably going to take a year or two

for them to get where they really hope to go. But they're, they're going to try to talk about that.

Yes, people can use this against them and say, well, how are you going to manage the emotions

of going through two months? Because that's one thing like the playoffs are the exact, you know,

antithesis of ordinary time. There is nothing about playoff time that is ordinary. And the, if you

get emotional after, you know, two games and 30 hours, how are you going to be when you've gone

through a, you know, 13 day seven game second round war? And it's like, okay, you have 36 hours

to prepare for game one of the Western conference finals. Like, let's go, Victor, like, you know,

and my answer to that is he'll take that challenge like he takes every challenge.

Well, and first of all, there's no such thing as ordinary time with Victor,

women, y'all, but there's no such thing as ordinary with Victor, women, y'all, but this

is extraordinary with every single step that he takes every single game that he plays every

tier that he sheds. And I can tell you one place that Victor will not waste a single shred of

energy will be on the reaction of people he doesn't know. This is a guy when he lays in bed at night

at 9.30 or 9.15. He's got to get to bed by 9.30. He's a big proponent of sleep. Well, you know what

he's not doing? He's not doing this. He's not scrolling on his phone, seeing what people he has,

no idea, look like, think about him at all. He's reading a book, right? And my point is like,

hey, you know, if the people that are making fun of him, he doesn't care. He's not going to see

that. He's not going to worry about what some pimple face, um, who has a, you know, an anime

avatar thinks about him. Who cares, right? And listen, there would tell you about, sorry, I'm sorry,

good. No, like, okay, the guy, the guy, and like, you know, in B got made fun of, and that was a

completely different situation. But in B, when he boohooed after the, uh, after the coaxion,

I would cry too. Like, I don't know if I would cry. I would, I would have endeavored not to cry

in the, uh, on the court, but, you know, he cares. Yeah. I would much rather have to say, man,

that guy would come kind of nerdy because he, or kind of, went because he was crying. I'd much

rather have a guy who cares enough to shed tears. Yeah, I think some of that was a camera that was

in the back hallway. Yeah. And, and whatever. Who cares? Like the guy can cry. What do you damn do?

That's not the point. What do you damn do? You know, I went to the IT department, uh, lectures me

about all the time. Like toxic masculinity is making fun of a guy for shedding a couple tears.

Um, I'll bet I'll bet I'll bet I've heard of the time. But again, Victor Wimbanyama cares about

every game he plays about every step he takes towards, not just towards a potentially championship,

but you know what he, he really, truly cares about achieving his potential and understanding that

his potential is perhaps unprecedented. I was told by, I remember their coaching staff that he

thought that the game against the pistons might have been the best defense performance he'd seen.

Like their, their, their guards apparently weren't, weren't awesome defensively in that game.

And Wimby just cleaned up so many things. And dude, that's one of the best all around games that

we've seen this year. The guy has 38 16 block five shots played 30, 39 minutes. You know, it was

just all over the floor on both ends. The first play of the game. He, he, it's like a shot clock 27,

28 footer swish. That says at home poor Jalen Durham wasn't a hell trying to guard him on the

perimeter. Like two or three of his fouls were crap. I got to go contest out here. Oh, it's a pump

fake. He's off the dribble. A big man's not used to guarding somebody who can go pump fake off

the dribble like that. That was like all of Wimby. And you know, for him to come back the next night,

if anything, my concern would be how's he going to hold up to the playoff grind, not, not a motion

but like physically, but we're seeing one of the most incredible talents and a guy who wants to

squeeze every bit out of that talent, just having an unbelievable run. And to me, the MVP shave versus

Wimby now. That's the conversation. I'll, I'll do respect to Joker who's not been the same since

coming back from the knee. And then the two games against the spurs. I'm sorry. I can't put K above

Wimby on a ballot watching those two games. At a fair point, I had him ahead of the ballot one.

Thank you. I think it'd be a little aggressive dropping Yoke a child completely. But I, I would

agree also completely that Jade is not going to win. We're going to have another year without

an American MVP barring like, you know, catastrophic bad injury luck across the board for the other

three guys, because it is going to be one of those three guys. I, I don't know if I'd say Yoke

is out, but now he would continue to go to my ballot at this point. Yeah, that's, that's fair.

But Victor, Victor certainly continues to keep himself in the mix with games like this. And while

keeping them, keeping the spurs within at least shouting distance of the thunder for that top

scene to watch your conference. Oh, I got to, I got a stat that's going to really annoyed the

USWB. The spurs nine and oh, now when Wimby hits at least four threes, including these last two

games. Yeah, that, you know, I'm not surprised that they have a great record when he hits a lot of

threes. Like that makes sense. It's, you know, if you told me for the game, he's going to make four

or seven threes or four of eight threes, I would say, yeah, great. Do it. That's not, that's not the

issue. Yeah. And yes, I, I'm on team bontems on this one. And Victor would slap us both down

in a tenth of a second. He doesn't want to hear it. But eight and two only attempts at least nine.

That's fine. I'm prepared to admit I'm wrong when they're holding the trophy. And he's shot

them with three pointers all the way through four rounds. I'm prepared to do that. I don't mind

Victor. Again, to reiterate, I don't mind Victor shooting threes. I just don't want Victor. I'm

even less concerned about Victor shooting threes, especially if they're catching shoot threes.

Yeah. And if he's handling the ball on the perimeter, that's really the bigger thing for me.

I just wanted Victor to be finished in place. If that's catching shoot threes, fine. That's

catching shoot lobs for dunks at the rim. Fine. Like whatever the play, I just, I've said it a

million times, but Victor is a play finisher on offense and a play record on defense. That is the,

that is the optimal way for him to play at least today. Maybe at some point in the future,

his handles will be tightened up to the point where he can really also run offense,

but it's just not the case now. And I think if he focuses on being a scoring machine and

catching the ball and finishing, especially with all these guys, all these talented guards,

you get them to ball on the spurs. I just think that's a better way for them to go than him trying

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Speaking of Shay and the Thunder, we're your headed to later tonight, McMahon, to go see the

nuggets play the Thunder on Monday in OKC. The Thunder of 1-5 in a row, there are 5 in Austin,

Shay came back, he's played in four of those games. I think they've won eight of nine overall,

starting to hold teams to, you know, 100 or less or in the less than 110, again, more regularly.

And they went through that rough stretch. They were, you know, they were giving up some higher point

numbers. The Sunday Saturday game against the Warriors missed opportunity for Golden State, I'm

sure, because they had three gold state gold state. I'm not sure I'd call it a misopportunity

that they were in a close game with half the team out. Yeah, I know, but that was not a premium

performance by the Thunder. Sure. No, and the Thunder are really banged up now.

Heart and Stein are calling a calf contusion, which is at least good news that it's not a strain.

You know, Karuso missed this game after taking a shot to his hip. Yeah.

JW is still out. AJ Mitchell's still out. Yeah, AJ Mitchell's still out.

AJ Mitchell's pretty close. Yeah, I think AJ Mitchell's pretty close. I don't have a great

feel on exactly when double be back, other than just that they're clearly going to air on the

side of caution, given that he came back and then tweaked that hamster, strain that hamstring

right away again. Well, they got to keep, they got to be cautious with Heart and Stein too. I mean,

it, I mean, he's gone back and forth with the calf injuries, but I mean, this has been a going

back the last season. He's had all sorts of different ailments with them. And that's, you know,

obviously they're the most talented team and the deepest team, but especially if they're going

up against, you know, if they got to go up against Yolkich and Victor to get to the finals, say,

they're going to need Isaiah Heart and Stein out there to play against these teams. So, you know,

that's a, that's a pretty tricky injury to manage. And, you know, it hasn't really been an update on

his status other than he's just missed the next game after he came out of the update.

They called it a contusion, which, well, but I, I meant in fur in terms of like any sort of,

yeah, timeline. Well, the spurt, the, um, the thunder only scored 37 points in the second half

of this game. And they won. Okay. So they, they, they limp, sort of limp through it, but Shay

hit a crucial three pointer with, um, around a minute left. That pretty much,

a little going right step back. Yeah. And I mentioned this last night. I think I took

on temps. I love that, that the, uh, the, the, the, the arena of the Pay Com Center, they played

Queen. And not we are the champions when there's their victory song. We, just in general,

as I, uh, as I continue to grow gray hair and I develop my stick in the mud qualities,

I, more queen and more James Brown at NBA arenas. That's my, James Brown. Yes. Absolutely.

Should be more James Brown. Tell me when James Brown is a bad decision or not. I just didn't,

I didn't expect that to be coming from. Absolutely. That's all. Absolutely. The truth.

At arenas, like for arena rock, like, this is just perfect for you. Dance, you know, like,

I feel good. Dan and then, I mean, I'm not saying I'm dancing. I'm saying I'm enjoying the music.

Cinder Black does that shimmy whenever music is on. All right. All right. Let's see. We'll

give him a international debut. Anyway, this was not one of Shay's best games to say this. He

has had a couple of excellent performances since he's come back. Look like he came right back

into the worry left couple of high mid to low 30 point games. But in this game, you know,

just to get people in their feelings, he, uh, he was six of 15 from the field, which is one of his

worst shooting games of the year and 14 of 15 at the line. And oh, no, Shay went to the line

a lot. I know. It's an international controversy. I know. And so, um, there's now like a whole library

of opposing coaches, like, you could almost sort of just line them all up when opposing coaches

have commentary. You know, because the media asks them after every game when she has a game like

this. And Steve Kerr, I thought, you know, sometimes Steve Kerr can get a little over his

keys with the media. Sometimes Steve Kerr can be pitch perfect with the media. He's very interesting

all the time, which we appreciate. Anyway, what he said is I don't have a problem with Shay doing

this. He's not breaking the rules. He's operating within the rules. It's the rules that are the

problem. And I would like to say to Steve that that is the most mature thing that many,

then many people have been given chances. Now Mike Brown kind of said something somewhat similar

when the nicks were when last weekend, when the nicks were when the spur of the thunder were in

New York. But basically, every coach is pulling their hair out over it. But Shay is just, he is

operating within the ecosystem that exists. And this is the way it is. Like by the way, it's like

how many different officials have called Shay gives us Alexander games this year? 50, 60, how

many different referees? I'm sure that I'm sure the NBA has a number in us database. How many

different referees have called a shooting foul where Shay gives us Alexander has gone to the line.

Like it's not a bias. It's it's a he is playing, you know, he is incentive. He is playing to the

incentive. And it won them. I also again, I just pushed back on the thought that what we're seeing

from Shay is some kind of anomaly in terms of how often he gets in the line as a 30 plus point

per game score who does the vast majority of his damage off the dribble. And you know, it's funny

because Shay doesn't lead the league in free throws. And it is a guard who leads league in free throws

is Luca Dongech. But then the conversation about Luca is never like, oh, he gets too many whistles.

It's Luca, Luca, why they're not the whistles that he doesn't get where Shay, I have to I'd have to,

I'd be curious to look this up. I would bet that Shay has fewer technical fouls in his career

than Luca does averages per season. I would bet that. Well, Luca has 15. Aren't you glad you're not

in Mactene? She was like back in the old days. You don't have ever been in those shoes.

No, I'm saying aren't you glad you're not anymore because when Luca would get to 50, has he actually

been suspended for text or is he, he's had, he's had a 16th rescinded.

Basically, he had a one time, he had the 16th rescinded. And so he was able to play the final

game of the season when they had some seeding stuff on the line. And that's when he strained his

calf for the first time in this first three games of the playoffs. Right. So, okay, when they play

the jazz, I mean, and I'm not expecting you to know the subtop of your head. But so he got his

15th last week with roughly five, six weeks left in the season. Do you think he can go? No,

yeah. And I, I wondered if that one was going to be rescinded simply because like,

when, if you just watched the, as the T's being called, like, he didn't say anything. Well,

no, what happened was he said what he had to say. He, he said what the ref deemed worthy of a T

as the nuggets were getting out in transition, which honestly, more than a T's, that's a big

problem. Jackson has the number. Jackson has the number. It's actually have, I have the number

from ESPN.com, which is different than the one Jackson has. Oh, okay. What do we got? It's,

the number on ESPN.com is nine, which is still far lower than Nicole are looking to judge this

year. What a show's career. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. Shade doesn't, how many drops of sweat

has he? And one of them was the other day for throwing the ball off the same. One of them was,

one of them was the other day in that nuggets game when he threw the ball off, Nicole Yokich,

after he got fouled after the whistle. And I don't know what gets you a better whistle. I don't

know if the constant complaining, because there are times where I think like, hey, Luca earned that

call with the complaining two to three possessions earlier, or does just the, like, calm, cool,

like, I'm gonna give that guy the benefit of the doubt, because he's not wearing me out all at

time. I don't know what's more effective in terms of actually getting calls. Well, Luca, I don't

want to say this. I don't. Luca doesn't bait. He just, yes, he does. Well, yeah, it's not

predominant. Listen, Luca is one of the best offensive towns of all time. If Luca falls down,

I'll give him that. Luca falls down. And Luca, Luca is very good. Luca is as good as there is

and Lee and as good as one of the best ever at being able to create contact to where basically,

if you're not found him, he can't defend him. He's he's he bullies guys. That's a really good

point. Yeah, he bullies guys physically when he gets down low off the dribble. It's crazy to see

how it's slow. It appears Luca moves. And yet how often he's able to get open. Yeah. And he's

it's really a fascinating to watch. He's his both of these guys, but actually both Luke and Shay

are similar in a sense of their footwork when they pick the dribble up is as good as there is.

Like, umbly Brunson's up there. Actually, Ann Edwards is up there with umbly will footwork,

but the combination like footwork balance using the pump fake. And then Luca is just so big and so

strong. Like when he puts that shoulder into you off the dribble and it's not a it's not an

offensive foul. When he puts that shoulder into you off the dribble, the only way you can respond

is with all-out physicality. And it's hard to respond with all-out physicality. Also not foul.

Luca's ability to like shoot from all different angles. Yeah. Like on the clock, he I feel like he

can he can score from like 10 o'clock to like four o'clock. Like however he releases. And he's

six eight and he's built like a brick wall. I mean, it's you know, it's I mean, it's why he's

to big bands point. He's such a unique he's such a neat talent. But those guys both know all the

rules. They know how to manipulate the rules to their advantage. It's a big part of why they're

successful. And by the way, speaking of that, I think since we talked about this a lot the other day,

I do think it's worth pointing out since we last did the pod that Lou Dork talked to Joelle Lorenzi

of the athletic friend of the pod. And he admitted to the last part. I'll say his friend of the pod.

And he and he admitted that he went over the line on that play with Nicole Yokech last week,

which I thought was the right thing for Lou to do and to say since he did. And you know, we're

obviously getting big bands. I was going to be at that game tonight. And these teams could easily

play seven games in the playoffs. I hope they do because I think it'll be an awesome series. And

I thought that was a responsible way to handle that. Yeah, I think organizationally after the

thunder got back in and kind of evaluated the film and took a look at the whole thing. They

were like, you know what, we're all for defending our guy. But yeah, this one, sometimes you make

a mistake. Yeah, we made a mistake. So Mark Dagonal, Mark Dagonal sort of toned back their rhetoric,

Lou Dork proactively went out and raised his hand. And Dagonal just stopped commenting.

And he pulled it back. He pulled it back for sure. So, you know, but yeah, the thing about this

game will be who's on the act of list for the nuggets. They haven't announced anything yet on

as we speak here on Murray. Yeah, I'm told they don't think that's a major ankle sprain,

but he clearly twisted that ankle. Well, look, I mean, they help back to the locker room. You're

you're probably going to miss some time. The Knicks, you know, throttled them and they played really

well. And, you know, OG had a great game that night, etc. But, you know, that was a relic of the

nuggets by that game. So I'm, you know, I'm not sure what we're going to see in Oklahoma City.

Although, look, Denver has repeatedly been able to overpatch themselves up and overcome this year.

But did get air back for the first time in six weeks, though, that was big. Yes, obviously,

about, you know, he's going to be on minute restriction. But I think still back on,

he's still back on these, I'm sure he'll be on a restriction, but he's still back on the court.

That's a huge thing for them overall going forward. Yes. By the way, I just, I just want to,

on the free throw thing, I just want to put this in perspective. Just did a basketball reference

search guard who scored 30 plus points per game in a season. Shay ranked by free throws attempted.

There's been 49 guards, including the guys this season, average 30 points per game. Shay's

free throws this season when ranked 32nd most on that list. So again, it's not even even Luca,

Luca, who's leading league in free throw percent or free throw attempts, Luca will rank 21st at

49. Like when you create that much off the dribble and you have the style of play they have,

it's not like these are crazy. Here's, here's my hypothesis. My hypothesis is that when you

can't stop something, right? And he's not stoppable scoring wise that you start appealing,

you look for the any way that you can stop it. I think it's just human nature, right? Sure.

And so when you get beat by this guy who's just an absolute expert at it, you, you know,

you appeal to the, you know, you can't beat him straight up. So just, you know, you appeal to the

to the arbiter. Sure. You're just trying to change the rules. And the court is held a guard without

failing. And Shay, as, as much as I talk about like how strong Luke is and how physically

plays that shoulder Shay gives, he looks, why are you trust me? Right. And, and we've seen,

you feel it when you, when he, and it's not an option, it's a foul. Now sometimes like the key shot

he hit, what was that game three, I believe, against the Pacers, he actually extended that

usually doesn't extend the chicken wing. Usually just gives that shoulder and create space.

That thing is you have to, well, he's such a dominant mid-range. He uses the arm, though,

he may not extend it, but he certainly uses the arm. And that's, that's fine. And if they

started calling that, he would probably just have to adjust. And I would like to see them start

calling that more, like Jason Tatum, you know, obviously talked about him earlier. He is the

king of the, you know, use the, use the arm to create space. Yannis is a big time. Yannis uses

that arm and shoulder like, well, right. I would, it's so hard to guard these guys. I would like

the NBA to take that tool away, because it does make it virtually impossible to guard these guys.

But again, Jay and Luca both, yeah, that's why every, every, every inch of the rule book,

and they maximize their ability to get to the line and score and dominate games. Like I look,

yeah, Luca knows when to base it in real time. Well, yes, he definitely loves to tell you,

but over the last couple of years, we've seen the officials change their level of allowed

physicality. It's sort of gone up. Well, it ebbs and flows for sure. Well, and Shay has not,

the streak has barreled right through that. That's right. Okay. So you know the guard on this list

who has the most free throws per game number one and number two on the list. Bob Pettit was a forward.

By the way, Bob Pettit showed up in our, hold on, keep going. And they'll tell you Bob Pettit.

You got the error right. Coozy complexion as well. That's another hand. Coozy Jerry West.

Jerry West is at the line getting free throw merchant chance at him. Good luck.

Tell you something. If you, if you ran across Jerry West and you called them,

I find the way, I don't understand why that's an insult, but obviously it is. But if you call Jerry,

especially when Jerry West was like, had the adrenaline flowing, I mean, I've told you the story

that he told me another guy who was not a small guy. Oh my god. No. In any sense,

anyway, he would have been able to slot right into today's NBA play. Jerry West once told me that,

after one of the years, the year in 69, I think when he won the MVP of the finals, I think it was 69.

And he won the MVP of the finals and they lost in seven. He didn't leave his house for three weeks,

three, four weeks. He couldn't leave his house. And he finally was like, I guess I better start.

He thought he was getting out of shape. And so he like, for the first time, like other than like,

you know, going to the grocery store like I had in glasses or whatever, he finally like went out

for a jog and was jogging, you know, and a guy like a few blocks from his house, a neighbor

said some some some bleep to him about losing in the finals. And he stopped and cocked his

fit and then and then dropped. Thankfully for all parties dropped it and kept going. But but again,

a month later, you know, so imagine if you called Jerry West of free throw merchant and, you know,

as he was walking off the court, we're not evented well. So the on Saturday night, I'm not sure

if they're playing today Sunday, the hawk speed to 76, which by the way, I don't know by the time

this pod comes out, there may be an announcement on Tyree's maxi, it sure looked like he might have

seriously injured his hand or finger in the. I was hoping the way it sounded like he was

eating the locker room without anything on it after the game. I was hoping there was this real

freak play. There's a loose ball. I think of a free throw and he ran into a dem bono, the

center for the sixers who's built like a brick wall. And he really hurt bono, which was like almost

the bono was like injured. So yeah. So I'm hoping he just kind of got a stinger the way it went and

he didn't have like feeling in his hand because it helped you. But I don't I haven't heard anything

yet today. It didn't look good in real time. Like he did the thing where he put his uniform over

and like walked immediately to the back. Yes. Sixers. Sixers by the way fell to eighth with that

loss because VJ Edge come is now dealing again with the back issue and and beat us out with an

oblique injury. So anyway, the hawks won the six games. I had a one and a half games out of Atlanta

and ninth and one and a half games behind Toronto and fifth. That is a okay seem like still get a

lottery pick. Right. Now it's top four protected. I sure might still get two lottery picks. One from

the church was clippers clippers. Anyway, the hawks won their six straight game on Saturday night

and Jalen Johnson had 35, 10 and seven. It was most of those games not exactly against elite

competition. I would agree. And I think the hawks would agree with you too. However, there are six

wins in a row. Hey, guys who build towards a magic city night. Oh, look. Cornette look. Cornette

does not like that and blogged about that eloquently. Yes. Luke Cornette is still working on the

liturgical calendar. So that's the that's the fourth time this season that that Jalen Johnson

said 35, 10 and five, fourth time. That's the second most all time for the hawks franchise. Bob

Pettit had more twice. Oh, that's why you're going there in the 50 a 59 and 61 62. He did it

five and six times. So, all right. You know, whatever listen, whenever Bob Pettit comes across

our little bit of the stats. We got to get him in the final. We are we are getting him in the

pod. All right, everybody has to get back to where we were earlier. Wimby has now had 16

career, four plus block, four plus three performances. That's the most in NBA history.

Yeah, let me see how many Bob Pettit had. I don't know if anybody else had 10.

Don't ask me things. I don't have to do three pointers. He's a high bar for

the high bar guys. I don't know. I'm going to try to do a quick satin search for we go and check

that because I can't imagine there's been many to do many of those. That's pretty it's a pretty

impressive little variance in the guys game. That's for sure. Yeah. How many times

how many times a Bob Pettit defend the the rim from from the elbow or from the you know, the elbow

extended. I know if that's the Bob, I'm sure Bob probably did it in his own way just with

intimidating stairs and I don't I don't think back in the day, there are a whole lot of

all you've been thrown either. You don't think back door all you've soft of

who is our guy who we had this pod reference and

the guy who the all you kind of started with. I don't remember. I think don't don't

something. Anyways, I don't know. All right. Bonds have to still looking it up. I'm doing a quick

scan here. James Harden's done it four times.

Jerry and Jackson's done it five times. Rafe LaFrance did it five times. Maverick's great.

Current MBA center has done it 12 times. Embed. Nope. Don't know just by the way. I don't

remember. We didn't talk about poor Zingas on the pod. He's done it 11 times. There you go.

Poor Zingas. Another guy has done it. Another guy has done it 12 times. Poor Zingas played on Saturday

and said that he thinks he's passed his illness issues. I hope that that's true. I hope so too.

Ramona Shelburn and Anthony Slater had a story on poor Zingas that ran I think on Friday talking

about the issues with this. Unfortunately, in that story, there was three or four instances where

he has set exactly the same thing or essentially the same thing. I hope it's true. I will say also

in that story, Mike Dunley, the warrior general manager was quoted as saying, when he made the trade,

with Atlanta, Caminga for poor Zingas, whoever else was in that deal, the warrior's medical staff

cleared it. They took whatever information they were given. They did their background research. They

did it and they cleared it and then they did the deal. And Dunley, he said, I have complete trust

in belief in our staff. And so he's on the record is saying that. So that's what it is.

So the four three four block double figure club is Wimby Brook Lopez with 12, which we should

have guessed in poor Zingas to the 11. That's right. This happened a hundred eight and 98 times in

NBA history. And Wimby Niamas done it 16 times and two and a half years. And you know what,

Wimby might do it a hundred and 98 times in his company. I mean, he's missed already. He'd

done it 25 already or 30. So if he has his druthers, that's what he that's the way he wants to play.

So I just looked it up to see because Brook had four threes against the spurs the other night.

He also had four steals but no blocks. So he gets credit for a four steel four three point

game. That's probably not as rare. Probably not as rare. But no, because all these guards would

have done it. However, for a center, that's pretty, pretty good. All right, everybody travel safe.

Thank you for listening to who collective. Thank you to Jackson, all of our producers for

putting this together on the week of spectacular podcast content starts off as we are in week

whatever, a ordinary time. And we'll talk to you later this week.

Two teams, one cup. The prime time stage is set for the TGL presented by SoFi finals, Los Angeles

Golf Club versus Tiger's Jupiter links. Keep up, it's playoffs. Tune in Monday, March 23rd,

9 p.m. Eastern on ESPN 2 and Tuesday, March 24th, 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN and on the ESPN app.