Lakers’ Run Continues & Luka’s Biggest Weakness + Playoff Seeding Battles

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Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up then start streaming in the ESPN app. So all of ESPN all in one place sign up for activate now. Hello and welcome to the who-collective podcast. We talk about the NBA. What you're doing on Sunday afternoon. It's actually Sunday morning here in the central time zone, but joining us from New York City Tim Bond tips. Hello, everybody. Drives from Dallas, Texas and I got to tell you something, McMahon. A lot of videos across my timeline over the last couple days here in Nebraska showing off the Husker fans party at the Tiki.

The Husker fans found the Tiki down in Oklahoma City this weekend joining us from Dallas, Texas, Bend McMahon. How do you partners? Yeah, I know I've gotten reports and I've seen footage and pictures on various social media platforms tips to Tiki have been overflowing. With corn Oscars as has the goat. There's a new sports bar no KC that our buddy Bigger is just opened up and the the Huskers are good for business sweet 16 corn Oscars are guys going to wait that open that bar for about two years it feels like and it's it was good to see it full of and see a tournament fans this weekend.

I don't know where he got it if you borrowed it or whatever, but after seeing how many Nebraska fans had gone to Oklahoma City for the first time in the Huskers have ever won a NCAA game and they won two. Somehow a giant flag like not a flag that you would procure easily in Oklahoma City of Nebraska flag ended up at the Tiki by Saturday afternoon. I'm sure all those sooner's love seeing that. That's a pretty deep rooted rivalry. Yeah, well not as much anymore since we're not in the same conference, but not so sure that Nebraska fans discovering the Tiki and discovering breakdown for the first time,

so I'm sure there were many. The jumping into the canal there. No, you know, you didn't see any Thunder fans jumping into the canal when they won the title last summer.

No, I've never once thought it'd be a good idea to jump in.

No, the canal, the River Walk and San Antonio, none of these are places that you want to take a dip. Correct. Anyway, I don't know if you saw, but the Thunder, we're not going to talk about the Thunder, but they won their 11th consecutive game on Saturday. Oh, Frank is more fistacuffs say what? If the Pistons end up in the final with the Pistons did.

If you, I'll tell you what, we might want to use your guard a little better now.

“I think we just got to make people watch the YouTube.”

I think we saw when we got to my confident too many fights. No, I have them. I don't tend to be. But I'm telling you, Pistons Thunder, if we get a finals of Pistons Thunder, oh, it's a rock attack. It's gonna be working overtime.

Hey, we forget that. We might get it first round.

Pistons Horn, it's round two. True. I would just say that the Pistons are sort of, that's their MO. I think the Thunder, they invite. Teams get in their feelings a little bit about Oklahoma City. The level of physicality that the Thunder play with

definitely leads to some harsh feelings. Like the Pistons do the same thing? Yeah. Well, the Thunder also the champs. There is that. Yeah, I don't think the Lizards are too concerned about how many games you've won.

Yeah, that's not really part of the equation in Washington right now.

“I think the Pistons have lost 15 in a row.”

And the Wizards have lost 14 or 15. I think the spending tonight's game at Madison Square Garden against the next. So we'll see if it extends or not. Yeah, tough, low for the Lizards. That pesky little thigh condition is acting up again for Trey Young. I'm sure that, you know, folks within that Lizards franchise are pretty

disappointing. The trade's not going to be able to play for a little bit of years. And no wait, not wait, not an AD. That six week, time to have a little cover from the hand injury, the mask, but out. Well, we're about about four weeks past that. By the way, before we talk about, before we actually get into the podcast, songs are messing around here in annoying Jackson.

“Did you see Victor Wimbanyama's Tom Cruise asked fly by a Rick Carlisle last night?”

I did. I'm not sure, like, I didn't, I was saying I was not watching Pacer's spur, so I'm not sure what that was about. But he very purposely ran over and like bumped into Carlisle on the sideline. Like he was Tom Cruise buzzing the tower Carlisle got he got back. See did. Carlisle, he can be nimble on the sidelines.

But one of my favorite Rick Carlisle techniques is the angry Rick timeout. Or he like storms out on the floor and will call on a timeout.

Sponsored. Sponsored. Sponsored. Yeah. Sponsored. The Sponsored Rage timeout is where he like, you know, he stomps about 12 feet on the course. He spreads out there like he's running the hundred.

Yeah, you know, I think Sponsored could probably the fastest 40 time of current coaches. Did Sponsored call on you? Those want Luke who was lighting them up for 60. The other night. Oh my goodness. How about BAM? By the way, before we talk about

“The Lakers, how about BAM with a low key trash talk?”

I want to give BAM Sponsored get a special honor. I don't know what I'm going to call it for apologizing to absolutely nobody. I love that. And then Luke put 60 on the on the heat in a absolutely jaw dropping masterpiece performance.

And BAM goes, yeah, man, 60's amazing.

Now you know how hard it is to get to 80. Oh, 83. But, and I tell you, I really, I listen, I know I criticize the stat padding and all that. And hurt some feelings down there in South Beach. Oh, some of those, some of those, you know, unbiased.

Heat media folks and some others. I tell you, though, I can appreciate the way that he'd really leaning in 83. They're selling the jerseys. And as a special tribute to BAM's 83, that is the exact number of games. I think the heat would get enough playing this season.

Yeah, that one in the chamber. You think? By the way, I think they're, I think they're probably going to play at least 84. But we'll, we'll see. Oh, we'll see.

The other injuries to six or five. I suspect the sixers and hornets will wind up. It all serious to slow. Well, I am next. That win over the heat for the lakers and for Lucas going 60 for the bra and getting a triple double.

That was an amazing win. That was such a bad piece of scheduling for the lakers. They had an 830 local tip in Houston the night before, which means 845. National TV game blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, good win over the rockets.

They, the, the bra and had six dunks in that game at the age of 41. I mean, what are we even watching? It's unbelievable. And then they don't get to their hotel in Miami until they're five o'clock. Wheels down.

I looked at their flight. The wheels down at Miami International at 359 AM. Yeah. And so I was honestly surprised. They're all their guys played.

They're really good. They put them as questionable so that they, you know, since they were cleared. Luca Reeves and LeBron were listed as questionable. So that they satisfied all the rules so that they could easily ruled them out.

And then they didn't. And then for LeBron to turn around the next night and go for a triple double. And for Luca to have it like that's 60. I'm sorry. That's more impressive than Bams 83 against attacking team.

That's 60 when you needed all 60 to win a 22 21 hour turnaround back to back. Against a team that is trying to make the playoffs. Well, there was a couple of crazy back to back. So the other day. Denver played at home.

I'm trying to think of that was a national TV game. But then they played. That was the reschedule game and Memphis that they that they. Right. Managing lose.

So I looked at the they landed at Memphis International.

“I believe it's Frederick W Smith International.”

Anybody know who Frederick Smith was? Founder of FedEx. Good job. They landed at 318 AM. So that's a tough turn.

But that's a makeup game. This game was scheduled. Yeah. That's bad scheduled by the NBA. But again, for the Lakers to be able to win it.

In 60 on 18 of 30 shooting fees. And then that's not what everybody's talking about with Luca coming out of the weekend. Which is impressive. Well, okay.

That's well, we'll get there in a second.

But it's just acknowledged some of the three pointers that Luca threw in in the fourth quarter of that game. I've been watching Luca for years now. And I've constantly been amazed at how he looks like he moved slowly, but still gets open. And I was talking with someone who's in basketball. Literally was talking with him on Friday night after that game.

I watched a game on the plain home from LA. Had terrific Wi-Fi. All right. There's awesome. Oh my god.

I was watching it live. I was like, you know, I'm that one of these guys. It reacts to basketball games. But Luca was throwing in some of those shots. I was like, I was like, exclaiming.

And people thought I was watching NCAA.

“I was like, no, I was watching the best thing going.”

And I was talking to someone who knows basketball very well. I'm not going to say it anymore. But he said to me, the reason that Luca is able to do this is because if he's in the lead, decelerator. Yeah.

So when you think about what you want to do in any sport, you want to accelerate, right?

And certainly there's incredible accelerators in basketball.

Or you can get the corner turned.

You know, it's a premium attribute to have.

“But he was saying that if you watch Luca closely and I watched some film back.”

Several games just in the last couple days. And this is what Luca can do. Luca can slow down faster than other people. He's able to change basically change speeds. I actually, I would almost compare it to Greg Maddox.

Very timely reference. Greg Maddox, you know, this is sort of my age bracket here. Greg Maddox, you know, he could barely break a plane of gas. A glass of gas. He could barely break a plane of glass with his fastball.

But Maddox could move things around. He cheered. Every pitch was a different speed.

He, you know, he never walked anybody famously.

And the other thing that Maddox could do is he could throw from a bunch of different arm angles. That's like Luca too, McMahon. Luca can like score over the top of this head. He can chew it from the side. He can chew it like side arm. He can chew it underhanded.

“He's got, he's got a mastery of changing speeds.”

And once, once Luca has you on his hip. Yeah, it is mercy. Because he can slow down faster than you. Like he has you going one direction. He can stop and turn.

Even though the turn isn't fast, he can do that movement. He can slow down faster than you can slow down. First story on this. This was when Luca was still in Dallas. Actually, this was when JJ Reddick was still at ESPN.

And JJ shot this story out on a broadcast. But Luca is a prime example of this. Aren't you so impressive? Yeah, well, the door's broke. Close me too. Not you guys.

Luca, Joker is another one. Anthony Edwards is the, like the example of guy who's got an acceleration and desaleration. But like if you talked to it and I did, I talked to the people at P3.

You know, the performance, uh, blah, basically.

And you know, Luca went there when he was with the raw Madrid, Bill Duffy had him go there and, and you know, train during the summer, uh, the year before his final season in Spain. And the testing, Luca and James Harden, like you could basically put them over each other and the testing graphs were almost identical.

And so the desaleration, the ability to put it in reverse even. That's the step back stuff. And that's also being able to finish in the lane, you know, without traditional explosiveness. And Luca and Joker, especially, they use that desail,

not just to be able to finish. But a lot of times, it's that slow step stuff. And you're seeing like, that's the biggest trend around the league. Now, is that slow step stuff in the lane? They use it a lot of times to, to set up a pass, too.

You know, to, to create that passing lane to get a guy wide open three or to throw, uh, the late lob. Yeah, if you're an offensive player, the thing you want to do is get the defender off balance to create an advantage, right? Doesn't matter if it's by, like you said, if it's Anthony Edwards going super fast,

or if it's Luca or Yoke, it's going super slow. The whole thing is if you can get the defender to hesitate or get off balance,

“and then be able to attack them, that's what makes the lead players so effective.”

And whether it's Shay, whether it's Luca, whether it's Alan Bronson, whether it's Yoke, any of these guys, that's the thing they all have in common. They might do it in different ways. But they excel at making the defender uncomfortable, and not know what they're going to do next.

And when you watch Luca play, that creativity that he's got to find a way to manipulate the defense is what makes him such a special player. And it's what's been so evident during this run is that he is in one of those rhythms right now, where he's feeling good. The lakers are in a good rhythm as a team, obviously.

And he's able to get wherever he wants to go on the court. And as a result of that, he's getting the lakers clean looks, whether it's for himself or others, and it's made them into an absolute juggernaut lately. And it also bears repeating. I looked it up while you guys were talking.

The lakers are 22 and 6 in clutch games this season. No other team has less than 10 losses on the season. And they're more than 10 percentage points better than everybody else. And you could point to that and say, this team only has a plus one point differential and they're not actually that good.

And they're going to lose early in the playoffs because when they get up against a high level opponent, they're not going to be able to survive on clutch time. Or you can point at it and say, they have Luca dotchich, they have LeBron James, they have Austin Reeves, they have three eyes who can all isolate and get buckets,

latent games or all smart decision makers on how to play. And they can manipulate the defenses, latent games and they can make more plays in their opponent against any kind of competition, because they have super high level individual offensive creators.

because that is the core argument, one way or the other,

“against whether this is a legitimate team that can make a run or one that's doing it,”

a smoke and mirrors might be strong, but overplaying what they have because of their ability to perform latent games, and that'll show the opposite way when the playoffs come up. Well, speaking of getting up, something else that I will tell you about the lakers that's a facet. And yes, they probably are a little, you know,

some of that 22 and six record is due to variance. A lot of it's due to the mastery of Luca and LeBron Reeves, but this is interesting stat from ESPN research. So last night against the or our Saturday night,

I should say against the or our magic, which we're going to talk about in a second.

They led that game by as many as 14 points. They ended up winning with less than a second left, which we'll talk about in a second. But when they get up by 14 points or more in a game this year, they're 30 and 0.

Now, we are in the era where no lead is safe. And last night, they could have lost that game. However, it's something to be said for being able to control the game once you get a lead and not let another team back in. So what you're saying about the Lakers is,

if you get into a closed game, okay, they're not going to win a mall, especially in the playoffs against super league competition. But you get into closed game, you got to like their chances. And secondly, if they get up on you, they're not going to let you back in at most likely.

That's too fast. I would prefer a team that doesn't have to play the fourth quarter because they hold those 14 point leads so much that they don't have to play these some close clutch time games. But these are facets of high level teams, just a true.

You know, if you talk to like analytics driven people around the league, they'll kind of be dismissive of clutch stats and say, you know, it's, those are more luck based than anything else. I don't think though that you can just dismiss the fact that they've got guys who are proven closures.

“And also like, hey, I think we've got to give J.J.”

and his coaching staff some credit here too. They consistently draw up stuff in in the game situations that gets guys wide open looks. We saw with Luke Knoard in Orlando. And then I'm thinking even some of the times, you know,

some of their rare misses. You know, the rare clutch losses like there was that debacle where Luke passed up a wide open look and threw grenade to LeBron. The last time they played the magic and they lost that. Yeah, well, that's, well, that's, let's talk about that.

So they both, those games. So that last time the loss of the magic was we're in they were in that stretch where I think they lost like five of seven. Yeah, three in a row. Yeah, they were three in a row there.

And I think since that time, they've won 12 or 13. But anyway, that game in Orlando was where they ran basically that football play where the entire team was behind the, the half court line, they all run across like a, like receivers come out of a bunch formation.

Luke ends up with a wide open shot for like, what would you say McMan 25? I mean, it was probably 27 28. Okay.

Like Luke has never hesitated to take a wide open look at that range.

Like that's a shot that he's come from with and he just for whatever reason. Well, there was some stats that he doesn't really look, it hasn't been taking last second shots. But you see, they're here and over there. I was obviously a really nice play design that resulted in

not winning the game. And that was a clutch time loss. And actually went through a stretch there where they lost a few clutch time games. All right.

So now you look at the game on Saturday. Okay, this game was messy at the end. Both teams did some wild stuff, including the magic, turning the ball over and handing the lakeers to chance to win the game. That's another topic.

But in the end of the game, again, you've got JJ reddit designing a play that I don't know. I don't know what you would call it. It was, it was another trips set.

It was basically, in this case,

Canard LeBron and Luca basically running a pattern, which confused the magic and resulted in Luke Canard getting a, I think 10 and a half foot open shot was what the data showed. And remember what happened seconds before that is LeBron got a layup and it wasn't whistle, but he got the hell hacked out of my,

by polo. And so on this play, it's like, to Luke Canard lead in the lead in three point percentage. How does he get wide open? And this simple answer is that the magic

were so worried about, you know, LeBron set up like he was going to set a screen and then just dive hard to the rim and baits switched it, but polo stuck with the bra. So you've got two on the bra.

Because they're so worried about him diving hard to the rim. And then none on Luke Canard, you know, who's a botched, botched switch, botched communication

“by the magic, but that's how Canard got so open.”

Excellent play and excellent recognition by Marcus Smart,

I'm sure that they've run through this, and that they need knows what to look for. But still, obviously you got Luca and LeBron in the play, and you're trying to get a basket to tie the game or win the game. And,

Canard's the guy opened and Smart hit the open guy. I mean, what's his percentage on that shop on terms wide open shot, catching shoot? I mean, it's probably 60% on that shot. I mean, Luke Canard might be the single best guy in the league to take that shot.

And they designed it specifically to get it for him. Yeah, I mean, Luke Canard on wide open shots. I'd have to go look at the numbers. He might legitimately be the best shooter in the NBA.

I mean, his issue has always been he's a guy that is sometimes

hesitant to let it go if he's not wide open. But his percentages year over year are sky high in part, and part because if he gets an open look, it's going in.

“And when he caught the ball at the top of the key,”

I was like, there's no way this is doing anything but going through the basket. I mean, there was just no doubt in my mind. And yeah, it was an incredibly impressive play. He was so open.

He had time to adjust the shooting sleeve during the play. I didn't notice that. Catch it and then let that thing fly. Well, all right. So on Monday, there is a game that in theory would be pretty interesting,

which is the lakers in the last high stakes game of this road trip, which there already for no on playing into Troy. They finished the road trip in one Wednesday in Indiana, and I would highly recommend they win that game. And I can't see them not winning it.

Good advice. It's a zoo botched by the way out for the year with a broken rib. That's an injury that does not require skepticism. That sucks. So he's not going to play in that game, but anyway,

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Auto-Windows at 2999 per month. That's a free trial unless canceled. Backouts and other terms of plan. However, on Mondays we talked about last week. There will be no kid cutting him as he deals with his own.

Sternum rib cage long issue, which I hope he's feeling better, that no good. And I don't think we're going to see Luca either. We haven't gotten the official announcement as a recording this. McMahon.

But the 16 tech has come for Luca. And I don't think he's wiggling out of this one. I guess I don't know. I guess I've seen things happen. So I guess I shouldn't say that.

He twice as Macton pointed out in his very well-reported story from Orlando where he got all sides of the story.

“Twice, I believe, Luke's last two full years in Dallas,”

that they did understand what would have been the technical that would have been the suspension including. The year they went to the West Finals.

Luca, when he first trained that calf in the regular season

finale against the spurs, he only played in that game because the technical foul was rescinded. So ended up costing him three games and set a one because he strained the calf. The first three games.

The playoffs when Jayden brought some made himself a lot of money. But look, this one. There's a lot of he said he said he started it. No, he started it. Yeah.

Look, I just want to say, it's kind of like I give people a pass on tanking, good people doing bad things for the sake of tanking. I'm not going to judge it. Like, Jayden comes in the press conference and he's like,

"Go go said something about his family." You know, like... Jayden said something. He said something about his mother. And that's what it was.

“Luca said that Go go said, "Bleep is whole.”

I'll bleep your whole family." Right. And so, you know-- But it was all in apparently. It was all in Serbian.

It was all in Serbian. Right. And we're all taking everybody's--

But there was incredible coverage of the detail of the

trash talk that went down. And Go go said, "Hey, I just repeat what Luca said to me." That's the cliff's version. You know? I know one of those guys is it pretty notorious trash talker

and it's not Go go. So, you know, believe what you will. Well, look, I'm just saying like they're different. He said something about his mother. Oh, he said something about his mother.

Oh, well, in that case, that technical is getting rescinded. Like I said, I don't-- They're doing what they got to do. But yes, it was kind of fun. Yeah, it was kind of fun.

Yeah. Because Luca to his credit has done something about his conditioning and made massive strides there. This is the one massive flop that he has. It's petulence.

Oftentimes, in the reps, in this case, it was out of another player. The result was the same. He got another technical foul.

But he definitely put the blame on Go go.

“And Go go talk in a Mac 10 and the Orlando Sentinel beat right over the phone”

because he wanted to get his side on the record.

You know, basically he said, you know,

talk about respect for families, bubble buy. He said he just said some inappropriate things in the Serbian language, which I played at Serbia. I understand. I don't know if you knew I understood what he said.

So I just said it back. And it was nothing towards his family. But his family really truly respect them. But basically saying I repeated back to Luca, what Luca said to me, so point being look.

Here's what happened. Luca, who's been on a sizzling street, even by his standards, couldn't hit a shot in the second half. Right? He started 10 to 15.

And I used to think he finished 1 to 13. I think after that. Something like that. And Luca and Luca getting this thing, where there's trash talk in Serbian,

while Luca's at the freethal line. You know, he said he said whoever started it. What do you know? We need to mitigate. We need your coach to come in and determine,

you know, he needs to be like the rough. And I'd be sure the Edict on whether or not this technical should stand.

So Luca misses the first free throw.

And then his protest on the referees, he just said this in the middle of the thing. It makes a second free throw. Then they go back down the court and they're barking, they're barking and they're barking and then double tees.

And then the Lakers are mad. They said they weren't warning issues. Warnings issued. Mark Davis to the the rep told the poor poor. Yeah, there was a warning issue when they were going at it.

Well, Luke was at the freethal line. Yeah, based on the poor report, it does not. I mean, look, I like I said this is very simple. If Luca Dodgers doesn't want to get suspended for technical files. Guess what?

Don't get technical files all the time. Like, this isn't, this is not some sort of conspiracy against Luca Dodgers and the Lakers. Like, give me a break. Like, if you're going to act like this all the time and get technicals all the time. And yeah, this is, there's a reason why McMahon was on poor port of duty when he was in Dallas.

And every time Luca could get a technical, he would go down to the rest room and they wouldn't interview after the game. And find out why I got a technical because this became a story every single year. Because the guy is flirting with a suspension every single year or getting a suspension every single year. And they're fighting to get these texts rescinded because he keeps getting them. So just don't get him anymore.

I'm thinking about it whenever McMahon comes up. I got some adopt a poor port that he didn't know did the ref's height though. I didn't.

“That's the first question very important.”

I just don't really have a Matt Aluka's gone. Really? But I'm just so tired of this whole discussion for that reason. Like, just don't, don't put yourself in that position. We're talking about a guy who's on his third contract in the NBA.

Like, come on. So it's not like, we're not talking about a teenager. I know, obviously.

But, you know, I know obviously in Laker fans, and always go together.

Or Luca fans for that Matt. Well, that's the same thing at Dallas. It's not like this is new. Yeah, of course you're going to defend your guy here. I'm just saying, look, I will say this.

Luca was averaging a technical about every three and a half games. We'll give him a, we'll give him a, a nudging say he was averaging a technical every four games. He hadn't gotten one in nine plus games. He's a 10th game since he had gotten a 10th game since he had gotten a 10th. I cover the two games in Houston.

And the first game I was on red alert on multiple occasions. Okay. So you said he was going to get that direction. It was. And here's what they like, let's just do.

Rests followed the league. Rests don't want to be the guy who gives an MVP. Can it? Luca is back to being a legitimate MVP. Can't know what this will run his on.

Rests don't want to be the guy who given him gives an MVP. Can it? A one-game suspension. They know he has 15. Just like when when Luca or Martin Davis is one of the top officials in the league.

It's the drama. Get the technical foul three minutes into the game thing and then go crazy to rescue the game. And because he knows the Rests aren't going to want to throw him out. Because the Rests are trying not to put the thumb on the scale in the game. And Luca's done the same thing.

And you know, J.J. was asked.

“I think after the heat game, again, when Luca, I mean 60 points on that kind of back to back against.”

That's insane. It was a half and smoothly master piece. It's a new thing for basketball. It's on the short list of his best performances. And guys had a 60 point triple double.

He's at all kinds of monster. But J.J. is asked about that game. Basically why wouldn't Luca be the MVP and J.J. Kind of gave us a start. He's like, I don't know.

Because he complains for Rests. But like dude, it is his biggest flaw. I would say not just complain to Rests. The patchalance, right? In this case, it's going at opponents.

And sometimes that stuff fuels him. Sometimes it distracts him. The Rests. But here's the thing. And I can empathize with Luca.

He's going through a very, very difficult time in his personal life that unfortunately has become public knowledge with the custody battle and all that stuff.

When times are tough for Luca off the floor.

“That's when he's at his most patron on the floor.”

He went through some very difficult stuff in his personal life and Dallas that, you know, he has not discussed publicly. And just it's, I don't know. I, I, like, I sympathize with the guys. It's, he went through some really tough things.

But there was, it was a situation where, like, people with the Mavericks knew just based on who was in town. Like, hey, Luca's going to be volatile tonight. You know, and Luca, he goes at Rests in particular when he's venting because he's really frustrated with other things.

Sometimes frustrated with, with things within the franchise a lot of times. It's stuff in his personal life. And like, you can sympathize with that and say, hey, like, it's really the one thing that's holding you back. And again, it's not just, hey, he gets technical files.

It's, hey, he's not getting back on defense because he's so engaged in the referees.

It's, it's that kind of stuff.

And again, he gets distracted. He gets, he gets knocked off his game because again, we're talking about one of the best players on the planet. And look, this is the same stuff that Nicole Yokech had dealt with as dealt with at times in the past two.

“I mean, remember, before Yokech won the title,”

I mean, he got ejected from the end of that playoff series against the sons. Like, he's, he's had some moments like that too. And then he went through and won the title. And now, like, that's all in the review mirror. So Yokech has been pretty volatile lately with some of the physicality stuff.

But I hear-- I agree. My point is when you get to the mountain top and you win the title, that stuff gets pushed to the side, right? And people just think of you as winning in the end. So whenever, I mean, I expect Luke got some point in his career to win the title,

because the guy's one of the most talented players ever.

So at some point, I am guessing there'll be a similar path for him.

But yeah, if you're talking about flaws in his game, when he gets off-kilter and gets distracted, that's when the defense slips, as far as folks on the refs, he gets out of the rhythm that he's been in. And we've seen it the last few weeks.

When he is playing like this, like, there's a reason why it was so insane Dallas made the trade. Which again, it's an obvious thing to say. But like, you watched this last month.

And it's like, this guy can do things. Hardly anybody who has ever played the sport. Can do. And like, you're seeing it with this Lakers team. And as we've talked about, it's an imperfect, flawed Laker team

that isn't a great fit overall for what his skill set is and what you can really do to optimize him. And they're still on this run. And they still could potentially have a chance. Before we split topics, what you're about to do?

I don't want to switch it. Okay. I got a couple of the points to make. The real quick, Luka is averaging in this where they're 12 and one in the stretch. Like, and the Lakers have morphed into like, hey, we got it.

If we're going to take the nugget series, he's a container in the West. We got to include the Lakers in that conversation. Luka's averaging 36, eight and eight with over two steals and almost a block per game during the stretch on remarkable efficiency. And Wendy, what do you think is it going to be the Luka topic

when you're on get up Monday morning? I'm not doing get up on Monday. I can't have it. Yeah. Okay.

I get suspended. Yes. Get up and first take. That's going to be the topic. Yeah.

“And the other thing though that's happened is, like, when do you set it on multiple occasions?”

We all set it. And, you know, the data at the time was off. The convincing that Luka reads the bronze at Trio didn't work. That's right. Since that three game losing street, you know,

that lost to Orlando was part of it that we mentioned. So starting February, in 216 minutes, that Trio has a net rating of plus 18.3. Offence of rating 124.

Defense rating, it in 106, not range. And that was, there were minus 4.9 and 230 minutes before then. What's happened? The bronze accepted his backseat role. And the bronze has been an absolute monster.

As a few of them 15 field goal temp per game guy. Like, he's average almost 20 per game. The bronze ISOs are draw have dropped dramatically. LeBron, you know what? You know what's that?

You can look at to see the difference between how the bronze playing now is, to those, the number of dribbles per game LeBron is taking is down, like a huge amount. But again, he's been awesome. Like he's after 19.7 points.

Sheen about 60% from the floor. Six rebounds, six assists. He's still as dominant of it. I mean, he's leading the league in fast break points. I watched two games and used in the man dunk nine times.

Like six of them were absolute high real ducks. LeBron and less is definitely more for a 41 year old, which isn't a shock. The shock is a 41 year old still.

But they've got a clearly defined pecking order now. The bronze thriving in that role. And if you to told me in late February.

“Hey, LeBron might actually be back in LA.”

Which when you always try to leave wiggle room,

and I never wanted to hear it. I'll listen now because they've got and like this team, they're enjoying each other. Like the chemistry has done a 180. His true shooting percentage since the All-Star break is 62%.

His usage rate has gone from 28 to 23. So there's your, Let's see where things are at in a month before. Well, there's not, here's what we just say that. Here's what we just said.

I'm just saying like, you know, let's see where they're at in some really, really good days in this game. So they're just beaten tanking team. They've played great. I mean, listen, in the last week, they, I mean,

look, did they get lucky to beat Denver? Yeah, but they won. Did they get lucky to beat Orlando? Yeah, but they won. They beat Houston twice on the road in a baseball series.

It's very hard to do.

“They win this crazy back to back in mind.”

I mean, like, they're, they're beating real teams. And beat the next beat the world. Right. They're playing great. All I was saying about,

let's wait a month and see where things are at. Let's see how the playoffs go before we get too far into this. That's fair. The chemistry is improved. LeBron might be back.

All this kind of stuff. What you guys were talking about with what's happened with the Lakers Big 3 and what you're talking about. Tim Swaz. Let's see what happens in the playoffs. I have spent my most of my career covering the NBA.

And I have developed a three word statement that covers all of these eventualities. There's always time. That's right.

Don't make them always time.

Before we move on. Because you're talking about the actual three words were leave wiggle room. You're better at than I am. There's always time. Don't make predictions.

I said, don't make opinions. I mean, don't make predictions. All right. How about, can I just point out that recent Mavericks trade, peace, quit and grimes is putting up like humongous numbers. Since Tyrese Maxi went down.

He's put up humongous numbers from basically the moment he got to Philadelphia last. Well, but not really this year when when B.G. Edg. He took some of his, I mean, he was still playing very well as there's averaging eight less points per game this year. But I just want to point out since Maxi went down grimes who's going to be an unrestricted free agent is having. And they had a, they beat Utah.

It'd be Utah and sack over the last couple days on the road. That's not-- That was the second worst trade of Nico's final deadline. I just say he's had a whole bunch of really high level performances. He's played great.

Yeah. I think he's pretty much played every game this year. He's made the missed one game or two games. Well, maybe he's missed a couple more. He's been awesome for them.

I mean, he's been one of the best, one of the best six men in the league all year. It's going to be very interesting for agency and in light of the Jared McCain trade. Like when Philadelphia made that trade, like there's obviously it's been a hot league debated topic in Philly. But when you make that trade and you keep grinds the idea clearly as you're going to have him as your third guard with Tyrese Maxi. And B.G. Edg.

Going forward and if he somehow leaves the summer as a free agent and they don't retain his services. It's only going to put a bigger spotlight on that trade, which on top of how Grimes has played. Certainly you would think would give him some leverage in those negotiations to get a payday in Philly. Well, I don't mean to poke the Mavericks even further, but they lost their how many games in a row now. Well, the Mavericks are trying to lose.

I understand. But I saw they haven't, we haven't won it home in two months. The Mavericks are, the Mavericks are in the midst of their worst 25 games stretch of this millennium. That's all you need to know.

The Mavericks are having an incredible stretch because, you know, look, the NBA.

I think sort of ridiculously brought the hammer down only on Indiana and Utah back in February. And you could say they should have brought the hammer down on Indiana and Utah.

“But if you're going to do that to me, you should be doing it to everybody.”

And the last month has been a joke, as we know. We don't talk about tanking. Well, you're just brought up Dallas. You got Memphis, you got Dallas. You got Indiana and Washington, losing a million games a row now.

Like the Mavericks, like their tanking measures aren't that extreme. They just stink. Like Memphis and Washington, some of his other teams are being very creative. The Mavericks you stink. Dallas now has a 37% chance of getting a top four pick.

Well, and forget that. The key for me is that Dallas has gotten themselves into having an extremely high probability of having a top seven pick. And in this draft, you want to have a top seven pick. There's the four guys at the top. And whatever order, a Jada Bance of Darren Peterson, Cam Boosar and Caleb Wilson.

Then there's the three guards keep the Kadenwagler from Illinois. Kingston Fleming from Houston. Dallas guy. And Dairy Sake Cuff. And Dairy Sake Cuff already from San Antonio and Dairy Sake Cuff would believe a Dallas guy from Arkansas.

Hey, Custer Dallas guy. I thought so. I could be wrong about that. But if you, if you get one of those top seven guys to pair with Cooper Fly going forward, I think the Mavericks are going to be feeling pretty good about where they're at.

Yes, they are.

But the this slide has gotten the Mavericks down into pretty good position to get one of those picks,

which would be pretty big time for them if they don't jump up. Question. What was the biggest win in the NBA on Saturday? It comes from Detroit. Sorry.

I'll just say. Mess that up.

“What was the biggest win in the NBA on Saturday night?”

Bigs from the NBA on Saturday night. All the way. It wasn't like who's over magic. No. Clearly not.

Oh, cabs corner. Pass Chad Cavs corner down in New York. You know, the pelicans had won seven consecutive home games. Hey, it all seriousness.

James Brago is doing a great job down there in New Orleans.

And I don't think he's going to get legitimate consideration to be the head coach on a full time basis moving forward. And I think that is evidence that you've got a bad front office in place there. Go on. Well, I don't know whether he's going to get consideration or not. We haven't.

Okay. Have you heard that he is? Haven't heard that he isn't. I don't think that he is either and I would agree with the man. Okay, like Wendy, this is a case where you don't want to say what you know, but you know that I'm not pulling things out of thin air.

So go on. I agree.

“I'm just trying to protect you from getting aggregated.”

I don't keep a crap. All right. Anyway. Yes. James Brago's doing a very good job.

The mandate because they don't have their pick was to win. That was the mandate given when he took over when and he has made decisions that have been focused on winning specifically with who he's playing. Including not starting the guy who's the reason you don't have the pick. Go on. That's true.

He's he put both rookies into the onto the bench fierce and queen and also they got back to Jonte Murray in this stretch. And Jonte said some has significant impact. That is also helped. And they're one of the few teams that's trying and so they're for by default. You're picking up wins against the team.

That's true. But they also want some games against teams that are trying. Like they just beat the clippers twice or twice. Yes. The clippers have hit a bit of a skit here after they were going well.

Although they did win and over time. Oh, they if dude, if they'd lost that one, they'd be looking at a losing streak that includes losses to the King's twice to the pelicans and the Maddox. They pulled it out no tea, but they were in serious danger zone. It's good to see Darious Garland back. He had 40 and and Kauai at 35 in that game.

I watched Garland's pregame warm up. There was like he took like 15 deep 3s and row and didn't touch the realm anyways. Go on. He's a very talented guy. He's a live body when he's healthy.

The guy who was traded for though, James Harden, the calves are now 13 and 4 when Harden plays. And this is a low key good win for the calves. They just finished a 3 and 0 road trip. I was I'm not sure. So when you look at the Eastern Conference right now, you obviously have Boston.

And Tatum is looking better basically by the game.

That should be a loud sounding something that's very loud in the Eastern Conference. To me, they are the number one favorites right now. You've got Kate likely out for the rest of the regular season. They should be okay. Their schedule is not simple.

But they have a four game lead in the lost column plus the tiebreaker over Boston. They have tiebreaker over New York.

“Not that I think New York's also making a run.”

The nicks and our the nicks and the calves are sort of kind of doing the same thing. Different ways they're racking up winds but unimpressively. But anyway, the calves just went on a 3 and 0 road trip. They wanted the walkie where Janis didn't play and it was an unimpressive win. Then they went to Chicago and they got up by 29 and let the lead all the way down to 1 in the fourth quarter.

Before they put it away. Escape. And then they were down 15 in the second half to the pelicans who were trying to win their 8th consecutive home game. And then they had a huge rally in the fourth quarter. Harden and Donovan Mitchell were excellent down the stretch of this game.

Donovan, I think, had 12 or 14 in the fourth. Cleveland. We haven't talked about him in a while. Donovan had a very good end to that game. But ever since he's had a groin injury and he missed three or four games a couple of weeks ago.

His numbers have been leveled off a little bit. He's dealing with this eye thing too now. Yeah, and his eye. Well, and Cleveland did have one of the worst losses in over the last couple weeks when they somehow managed to lose by double figures to that. Fabric team.

We just were hammered. Last Sunday. On the road by the way, a couple nights after beating him by 30 something. That's right. And again, I, I would like to see the itinerary the previous night of a certain cap star player.

Well, it, yeah, and to go back to Detroit real quick. Just because it's interesting with the Kate thing. There's schedule the rest of the month is Lakers at home.

Pelicans on a back to back at home.

Then at Minnesota at OKC and then home for Toronto on a back to back. That is not an easy stretch of schedule, particularly without Kate. So if they can go three and three in that stretch are better.

“I think they're going to be in pretty darn good shape to keep the number one seed.”

But if they go one in five, two and four and Boston can rip off a few wins. You know, in April, they've got another game of Minnesota. They have Philly. They've got Orlando. And they've got Milwaukee and Indiana and in Charlotte final couple games of the season.

So Indiana Milwaukee should be wins. But all these other games are against teams that are trying to play for something and have been on decent runs. So the pistons are going to have some work to do to keep that number one seed without Kate. And it is going to be an interesting test to see what they look like. Because as we've talked about the big question about this team is what do they do without Kate on the court in general in the playoffs.

And now like they're going to have a lot of time down the stretch to see what that looks like. So the calves with this three game win streak have opened up a little bit of a cushion on Toronto for the last home court seed in the east. Toronto has sort of been spinning its wheels for a while here.

Toronto has the tie break with the calves now have a three game lead in the lost calm calves also have the third easiest schedule.

They're going to be six games up on Charlotte at the aren't Toronto at the end. I don't think that's the question. I think the question is can they catch anybody in front of them. They're a game. They're projected to be one game back to the next and two games back in Boston.

“If you're Cleveland, would you rather be three than four?”

No. No. They do not match up well against the Celtics. They've done better. They should have beaten the pistons three out of four this year.

But you know, the one game. We've talked about Jalen Tyson foul 70 feet from the basket in over time. So if I'm Cleveland, I don't want any part of the Celtics that I have to plan. So if I could be on the opposite side of the bracket of them in the next, that would be fine. If I were that, just let them play and sort it out later. More hoop collective podcast after this.

Do you know what you mean? You're a player of the game. You're a player of the game. Do you know what I mean? Do you know what you mean? Yes, exactly. Like this player is the player of the game that is simply different.

The game on the studio, the job or the job. That's right. I don't want to be a player. You're a player. You're a player. With this player.

They've had some issues with Orlando in the past, and they play Orlando again this week coming up.

“If Orlando adds up as the five, that four or five matchup, I think, you know, depending on Franz Wagner, like, you know, that would be a, I think a real battle.”

I would favor Cleveland in that battle, but Orlando has given them some problems. Well, Orlando's got some, some winning to do if they're going to get there, they're hey. Yeah, they've now lost four in a row. And by the way, the Atlanta Hawks. There you go. Not beaten a real team.

Since the All Star Break are 12 and one since the All Star Break. They have a couple of decent wins. They just, in Orlando, when they beat him was how they don't. Well, Orlando, Orlando, Orlando's the one. That's right, Orlando's the one game.

Because this Philly was all banked up, and every other game was against a tanker. Like, it's not their fault to beat everybody. It's in front of them. Now they're going to get to try it without a kid and I say, let's do it. But they played, they played Houston on Friday in a real test and they got smack.

Then go well. And look, they've played much better to be clear. But it is, it has been a remarkable stretch of schedule for them. And they've taken absolute full advantage of it. I mean, like, man said before, you know, Cleveland nearly lost several of these games to tankers.

Lost the game to Dallas. Like, you got to beat Houston front of you. But just by doing that for a month, they went from being a disappointment. All season and floating in ninth or tenth and like within a game or two of Milwaukee. Wasn't that long ago, and they were had roughly the same record as the box.

And now they're way over 500. They're into the top six. And they've got a chance to, you know, maybe even got up to five, which is crazy. Think about how much the Hawks rosters changed over the course of this season. Yes.

There is zero.

There is basically zero drama in the back half of the West playoffs.

Phoenix has lost five in a row. So it's now Minnesota and Denver are tied basically at fifth and sixth. And that it's four games, Phoenix four games clippers. There's no drama at all, basically there. And there's nine games. Now the drama is who's going to be eight or nine clippers or blades.

Right. There's, there's nine games separating 10 and 11. And in the east, you've got three games separating five and 10. It could go in any direction.

Don't tell me the wind column, the lost columns, what you can control.

You know, it's way, you get up. Who do they play Monday night? They got Memphis at home. Oh, it's going to be 13 in one in their 14 games that see all start break. All right. So right now as we're doing this pod on Sunday, Atlanta has 32 losses. They're technically in six.

They've got some time to go for Philly. Atlanta's got 32 losses. Philly's got 32 losses or land does got 32 losses. Miami's got 33 losses. So any of those teams could end up between six and 10. You could see any combination.

And Toronto's only at Toronto's only a couple games ahead. They could easily wind up back there too. Let me see how tough Toronto's got. Toronto's got an easy schedule coming in. Charlotte and 10th there at all those teams.

“When, if you want to look at like a larger sample size, like,”

like, called since, you know, the 26 part of the schedule since January,

first, Charlotte's played the best basketball of all those teams.

Well, listen, as of right now, our projected system is of Sunday afternoon has Toronto finishing 5th with 46 wins. The Hawks finishing 6th with 45 wins. Then Orlando haven't over 44 and a half, so we'll say 45 wins. And then Philly, Miami and Charlotte all having 44 wins.

So it's probably going to be tight all the way down to the last game of the season. And one, one sneaky thing that could wind up being a factor in all this. Is the division is the division. And the fact that the four of those teams are all in the southwest division are southeast division. Like whoever wins that division is going to have a giant leg up on the rest of these teams are fighting in that mix.

Also, one of the tiebreakers down the list is you're record with in your division, your divisional record. And guess who's got the best divisional record amongst the southeast division teams? Who will be the boss city killers baby? He's silly killers are having five. So FYI real quick before we move on.

“But the calves are they are very hard to read right now.”

There are stretches and games where they look very good defensively. Overall, defensively for the last 20 games, they've been a middle of the pack to bottom 10 defensive team. There are stretches and games where they look good defensively. Stretchers and games where they look horrible defensively. Touchers and games where they look awesome with James Harden out there.

Stretchers of games where they where you've been a shooter has really had more subpar games than then good games so far for them. He had a point yesterday. And Jared Allen remains out sort of indefinitely with what Kenny Akinson calls severe knee tendonitis. Ooh. And then sang great.

So they ruled them out of this entire road trip before they even started. Maybe we'll get an update on Monday or Tuesday. But anyway, before we go McMahon, I just want to check in because you were just in Houston. The rockets have had an interesting week. You know, they had two wretched fourth quarter performances against the lakers.

Extend, you know, accentuating. Accentuating. Accentuating. I don't know. I totally budget that word.

On terms of the law and the good words. Pointing out their fourth quarter issues because they just got totally outplayed. There is all kinds of stuff. They fall the way down to the fifth seed almost on six or whatever. Then they bounce back with two good wins over the weekend. Durant passes Jordan and scoring.

They get a, you know, was it, you know, was a game winner on Saturday night. I, in one close game winning tip in by Min Thompson. That's right. Put back. And then there's celebrating the locker room celebrating with KD, dumping water on him and now they're all happy. Ordinary time, ordinary time in the NBA is what I would call that.

But just check in since you just spent a much of time there. So a couple things.

“There was definitely a lot of discussion about KD's moodiness, right?”

The body, bad body language. The, you know, there's a lot of vibe checking going on. Well, and he had the quote about, you know, maybe I shouldn't even have the ball. I mean, that was, that wasn't just his moodiness. Look, the two losses to the lakers that got recently before that blown out and dimper, blown out in San Antonio.

Like things weren't going to real well for the rock. It's they've been in an awful offense for a while. And KD after they blew out the hoax came in and, you know, I don't know if you guys know this, but KD's online a little bit. So he comes into the press conference.

Any basis says, you know, hey, how are the vibes tonight? You know, how was the body line? And, you know, kind of is, is mocking it. But he's very, I kind of got his back up about it. Which is fine, but there's like, there's a reason that people are looking at that stuff.

But he's basically saying, hey, the vibes are good right now.

So the vibes are good. Or at least they've taken, they've taken a significant tick upwards during these last couple of games, which was needed. But the biggest development in the last couple of games is Emio Doca,

his, he was really shouldn't well or in the season. He cannot buy a bucket.

“He's got his mom tweeting lethal shoot or asking for help.”

I'm not even joking about it. No, I know. His mom is active on the Twitter's. Yes, very much so, but Emio Doca before the Atlanta game, plug Reed Shepherd in the starting line up and it's interesting.

Like you understand why, again, they've really been struggling offensively. He's a great shooter, you know, he's a, you know, a boost of offense. The lineup data with that group was not impressive before the Atlanta game, but it's definitely been impressive in these two games. And Emio has said, you know, that the rockets are going to give this.

He didn't commit to the rest of the regular season.

So we're going to give it a good run here, basically,

to see if this is what we want to do move and forward. And, you know, like obviously, this game came down to the, against the heat, the 83 gamers. This came down to, um, a Mid Thompson with a spectac, they're put back, by the way,

24 points and 18 rebounds for a Mid Thompson. That was his 18th rebound of the game. But Reed Shepherd, 23 points on a to 12 shooting, 14 assists. There you go. Shouldn't this have happened sooner?

You could make that argument. Well, but, but the defense, he's going to get attacked on defense. So, but look, here's the reality, okay. The reality of the situation, the rockets are in.

“Is the rockets are not good enough this year, right?”

Probably, like, they're just not. They're really good, they're not good enough. They're not good enough. They're a really good team. They're, they have a bright future, but they're not good enough.

So, to me, the most important thing from this season is to figure out

between the combination of Reed Shepherd. I'm in Thompson and O'Parench and Goon. How do those guys fit together? What is the maximum ceiling you think of that group? And how much growth can you see from those guys?

And I'm glad we're at this point. We're Reed Shepherd is in the starting lineup. I think he should be in the starting lineup. And he should be in the starting lineup, as far as this team goes, to see what it looks like at the highest levels with him out there

in critical situations with these guys that the rockets are building around. Go and forward. Like, I understand if you didn't do it from the first day of the season, but I think it probably should have happened sooner than Saturday, or last third, what Friday, I guess, the landing game.

“And I'm glad it's happened, because I think this group should get a run”

to see just what the ceiling of this team is. And to see how bad the defensive issues are. Can they be fixed or can you find ways to work around it? And how will they look with Reed at the controls with the shooting he provides? And the passing he can deliver?

Like, I'm glad we're seeing it. I think it probably should have happened sooner. Well, and Wendy, what were you focused on for the rockets leading into the trade deadline and then when they stood pat? I thought they could have given themselves a guy to initiate their

off on slating games with experience. And they either couldn't find that player and you know, they may not have found do they liked. But I felt their lack of veteran point guard play would hurt them. I felt that way since November to be clear.

But there was a couple of factors in the rockets decision, not to address the point guard position. Number one, Fred Vimpley is very much in their plans. Next season, by the way, when we talk about vibe check, the fact that they lost their leader in the pre-season

trip to the Bahamas. The guy was supposed to kind of balance out Katie's mood in this. And then lost even Adams, who's like this larger life person. That's part of the divide truck. Can I ask one question quick, man?

We haven't heard and update any time recently on Fred. Is there any chance you haven't? You should listen to how to partners. They hit you two to show that we do. Okay.

We go one for Lee's for you, buddy. Every Thursday. Yes, they're in update on Fred and his potential to play. Yeah, I've learned from Wendy to leave Wiggle Room.

But I was basically told, dude, Fred's not.

It's not happening. Like if it was going to be realistic, he'd have to be back in the mix now. Cause they're not going to like even if he's cleared for the first round. I mean, it would be safe. It would have been safe to do it.

But Fred is so. I've known Fred a long time ago. Yeah, I know. I don't think anybody's going to tell Fred there's no way. But I'll just say hope is not flickering for Fred's family to come back this year.

Okay. But he's very much in the playoffs next year. That's part of the block. That's a good way to get a round aggregation. Hope is not flickering.

Yeah. I don't know. Why does that down?

But the other major major part of the logic here.

“For them not addressing the point car position.”

Before the train deadline or at the train deadline. Is because what position is read Shepherd play? Like are. So you want them to bring in a stop gap point guard who would be taking minutes away from Read Shepherd.

That was they're like, no, we. The rockets decided as a front office. We would rather live with the growing pains of read Shepherd into a certain extent. A men Thompson as well. Okay.

Well, they are living in a stop gap. Then they are living in a stop gap. And so yes, this now here. Now, you know, read Shepherd's got a huge opportunity in front of him. And he may as committed to giving it a.

A margin of sample size to decide whether that's the way they're going to roll. Going into the playoffs. But again, they didn't want to bring in. You know, a tie is shown type of guy or, you know, Cody Wright's name really a point guard.

But you know what I'm saying? I don't want to bring in what they felt would be like a veteran stop gap type of guy that would take minutes away from read Shepherd who management used and still firmly believes this kid has star potential. I think read Shepherd's going to be awfully good too.

“And that's why I was fully on board with them doing that, too.”

Like I'd rather just see how it goes with read Shepherd this year and see. See where it lands. And then figure out what you're going to do going forward from there. I think that's the prudent strategy. I just also would have coupled it with having him starting for the last month.

But look, we're getting down to the part of the season when the games are really going to matter and for it to be happy now is good. And I'm excited to see what that looks like over the next month or two months or however long the rocket season goes. They're going to be very fun to watch.

Listen, if they can emerge from this whole thing with the four seed, which is where they're at right now. And now there's a lot of basketball still to be played.

Like, and they could get home court in the first round.

That would be a significant accomplishment right now. The project has the same record as Denver right there.

“And the lakers are almost three games clear.”

Incredibly the streak has got them in really strong position to be third. That loss of Memphis to Denver had even though, like I said, it was a tough turnaround. That could end up. Good cost them any time you lose to a team that's upset that they won.

It's tough. It's tough giving back games to attackers this season. You got that like, it's not one you want to do. All right. Well, that'll do for now.

I look forward to our next podcast when we also lead with the lakers. All right. Thank you. Listen, if they win the season, we're going to keep leading with the lakers problem.

It's one thing where they're farting around 500 and people want to say, "Are the lakers contenders?" It's another thing when they won 12 or 13. They've married at some spotlight as what I would say. No, listen, I thoroughly enjoyed.

I had as much fun watching that lakers heat game on the matches I've had watching any regular season game this year. I was it was a joy to watch just a quick little footnote. That's same night. Winby hits a pull-up mid-rangeer.

I know game winner to seal the spurs first playoff appearance is 2019.

Right. And then calls for the drum. Like that was that was awesome. I look, I agree the incident by tournament is great stuff. But like on the first, I then set up by tournament Lucas scored 60 and won.

The loser beater basically to set up the first playoffs in seven years. The pro's for a reason, Brian. Yeah, pro's for a reason. All right. Thank you so much to Devon Mark and Jackson.

Put in this together. Thank you to McMahon and Bontham. Thank you for reading and reading. Listening and watching the hoop collective. We'll talk to you later this week.

Adios Migos.