[MUSIC]
Hello and welcome to Loop Collective Podcast. We talked about the NBA, which we drink on Sunday evening. Joining us from New York City were he attended. The New York Nick San Antonio spurs game today, where spurs losing streak, or winning streak, I should say, was brought to a crashing end at the hands of
the powerful New York Nick's Tim Banteps.
>> I'm not about powerful, but they're out the next and they did win. >> Hello everybody. >> Joining us from Dallas, Texas. He's just back from Oklahoma City, where he saw you clearly look at almost hair, the face off of Lou Dort.
And I said it out to LA in a couple of hours here. It's a band-mic map. >> Howdy partners, also my little pit stop. A pregame to go see the thunder tonight in Dallas. >> Didn't seem to need to stick around for the actual game.
But didn't want to ask more diagonal what he thought of David Adelman's two days later. >> Come on, something a little fracist there, getting that later. >> We certainly will. >> Let's start in the right there in New York, Banteps. Let me just say that, you know, it's been a quite a bit of discussion
about the fact that the spurs are four and one against the thunder this year. And you know, we've talked and counted the plus-minus point differential with the pistons being three and o against the next, what is it 84, 80 something, you know.
“I think if you're going to stick with those types of things, then it must be recognized”
that the New York Nicarbuckers are three and o against San Antonio's spurs this year. >> No, they're not. Not officially in the standings. >> I think the next lost, because that was the start of their slide. The spurs came back and beat the next on New Year's Eve.
>> My preparation for the podcast is a disaster. >> Yeah, I would say I even studied the I even studied the box score from that game. >> Oh, that's for me or a good experience. >> I mean, yeah, they beat them on Christmas. >> Did they beat them in the end of the quarter four?
>> They beat them in the end of the next. >> The next are two and one against the spurs this year and led a lot of the other game before they completely collapsed in the fourth quarter in lost. >> All right. >> They beat them and they beat the mess out of them today.
>> Honestly, the next needed like a convincing win against a good team, because they've had some, they went the other way on them recently, against some quality competition.
“And then the spurs rolled through February, but what, what?”
>> Out like a lamb and like a lion, is that what a old march? >> Game little lion treatment. >> He blanked out Christmas day this year because Cats Corner came to New York and lost.
>> Cats Corner with a powerful win over the next today.
>> The spurs also had a pretty memorable Christmas day where they spanked the thunder's little butts up there in OKC. >> That is finished. >> That's three and twelve. >> And I've been at Madison Square Garden on many and afternoon on Saturday and Sunday over the years, where the road team, whether the nicks been good or not, has come into the building and look like they were asleep,
which is I would say a large part of what happened in this game today. >> How long have they been in New York? They've been in New York since Thursday, right? >> They got to New York, they got to New York Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday. >> Played the next Thursday and in New York.
>> It was back back, so they got an early Thursday. >> That's right, early Thursday morning from Toronto, then they played the playbook, play the next day. >> What game is this on the rodeo road trip? >> It's pretty high up there. >> They played the Austin, they played the Austin Gaze in the middle of the break it up a little bit,
but they've been on the road for a long time, then they go to Philly to play the Joel and Beatless Sixers on Tuesday. >> The Joel and Beat, injury is at an oblique and not a leg injury, so there's at least there's not a leg injury, it's not going to melt. >> That is true, and then the spurs go home on Thursday to play the pistons again.
>> They last played in San Antonio on February 7th. >> Yes, circle Thursday, that one's going to be interesting because I'm pretty sure the pistons will come down there.
“Determine approval point, no, obese do, I believe, will be back for that and rest in”
>> Reflection, yeah, yeah, I'll be a fun one. >> And look, to your point about the next Tim, it was good for them to get a win against a big opponent on national TV at the garden, they have been very up and down of late. It was a nice win for the next Sunday afternoon MSG stuff aside, they played well, they look like the spurs might run them out of the building out the jump, they got out to an early
lead, and then the next played pretty well the rest of the way and took care of business.
First, had a lot of weird turnovers, but yeah, for a team that's been, I think it's fair
to say, flailing around for a while and is not really had their legs undone for a while to get a win like this, particularly, they had a pretty tough back to back later this week. They go to Toronto on Tuesday and then they come back to New York to play the thunder on Wednesday, certainly getting a win over the spurs today was a nice change of pace for New York to get them back going in the right direction.
Yeah, and I'm not going to over react to the spurs, obviously, they just want to love in straight games, you know, the win be turnovers, okay, he shot it better at least scored
Better, scored more physically than he had over last week, you know, he admit...
the game and Toronto that the night that he was basically exhausted from all the travel
and the schedule come out of the All-Star Break, even though he was absolutely just dominating things defensively, this was a game that the spurs starting gourds, you know, it's one of the better backwards in the league, Deanna Fox, and it's the final castle, both them can't lay eggs and they both lay eggs today. Yeah, Victor pretty much by his standards has been offensively, at least in a slump, defensively
he is not ever in a slump really, but he did, you know, he's, I'm not, I still, it still makes me get a little queasy when he takes so many threes, but I'm going to have to move past it because he's, this has been the case for his whole life and he doesn't care what anybody thinks.
“I think I think ultimately he will, I suspect, ultimately he will learn, especially in the”
playoffs that if he's going to lose a playoff game, it's going to be with him playing inside,
but he doesn't, he doesn't want to play that way, so I, there's, I'm not really much, but I'm going to say that's going to affect that. Well, and this is all part of what is to come for the spurs over the next few months. I mean, they play to find castle, who at this point is a negative shooter. They play Dillon Harper with this point is an unproven, if not negative shooter.
They play Dillon Fox, who's not a big volume, three point shooter, like part of the, part of the, not issue with their team, because they have an awesome team, but like part of the bill their team is that Victor is one of the better shooters on their team, and when it gets into the playoffs, like I was talking about some of the spurs writers after the game today, including a Corville Wright who's here. I mean, when they get in the playoffs, they're playing
a team that's game-playing it for them. They're going to say, "It's to find castle, we're going to stand 25 feet away from you, and we're going to let you shoot the ball, and have
“a, have a time, and how is he going to handle that? How are the spurs going to handle that?”
How is it going to impact their spacing? What are they going to do to react to that? Like, there's a lot of stuff that like that that's going on, that's really going on during the regular season, because over the course of 82 games teams are not game-playing, like that really for an individual opponent. When you get in the playoffs, they're going to start to hone in on stuff like that, and this is all part of the growth that's going
to be required from the spurs to get where they want to go, and the stuff they're going to learn about their team, and the same goes for Victor. We all know how insanely competitive Victor is, and he might want to win with style points, but at the end of the day, he's going to want to win, and I suspect if the way to win is to play in a different style than the way he has been, he'll play in a different style.
Yeah, it's the funcass that has improved as a three-point shooter over the course of the season, over the last like six weeks or so. It's, you know, he's in the mid-30s, but I agree with you there. My thing with Wimbie, it's not necessarily how many threes does he take,
“and I'm a shot's around the rim. It's the quality of three that he's taken, and honestly,”
more than the threes, there's a lot of possessions from like, let's go, let's dribble. Somebody else dribble. I don't, I know, hey, for a 7-6 guy, he's got a great handle, but he's a 7-6 guy. I don't need Wimbie, you know, pounding the dribble and trying to go between his legs and around his back through traffic, very often. Well, this goes back to what I've we've talked about all year. The more he plays like a wing,
the more you're giving the opposition a chance, but there's an issue around the play creator. There's the way to go right now. The, it's not to say that he can't be an awesome wing, but the more he plays like a wing, the more things other teams, which is what Kevin Durant was essentially saying a few weeks ago. But having said that, there are going to be times when this dude hits six out of eight threes, and it's an undefensible shot. It's just less
undefensible than inside. If they hit threes, it's going to be like that game against pistons when I think 18 for 40, and like they shoot 40 percent from three. They ain't going to lose.
Like that's that's the bottom line. So, you know, yeah, when the threes go in,
it's going to look awesome. But, you know, when they don't go in, then they've got to change things up. Right. But the idea is that he can be 7-4, 7-5, whatever he wants to list himself at, he can be that every night. The three, the three can have variants. His size for the same every night. That's just a basic part of it. They've got a couple guys who in Devon Vesell, you know, three of nine from three today. But Devon Vesell has really been cookin lately. That's a pretty
big development. Because he is their best shooter in that starting line up. And then Julian Champeney has become a critical part of that team. He's, you know, become a permanent fixture to the starting line up. You know, took Harrison Barnes spot, Barnes has come out of the bench. Julian Champeney has kind of the epitome of that 3 in D type of role player. And it's fun. I looked up his 3-point percentage of the day and it was like 37. I'm like, man, I swear,
almost every time I watch his guy. It feels like he's a mid 43-point shooter. But those two guys
Are going to be huge for the spurs.
inexperience is something that is just a fact. And then aside from the inexperience, they're the biggest
“blimish on their contender resume is that, you know, they're a little bit light on the shooting.”
Since getting blown out by the pistons, the nicks have one four out of five games. The problem when you ever talk about this going forward with some of these teams, you've got to go back and look, well, how many tankers did they play? They played the bulls who are in tank situation. Hey, big win for the bulls today. What do you mean? I know, they beat the bucks. They ended there. They, they, they, they, they were winless in February, but March 1st, they got a W for the bulls.
But they, they beat, they did beat the bucks the other day who are, or not tanking. I was just point out that the, the nicks have one four out of five. They can take you to be reasonably formidable at home on terms like, this is the thing, really, for instance, the star of the season. They were pretty awesome at home and then they had a favorable schedule, very home heavy early on and then when they had to start playing road games, you know, and they have some, had scratching losses and probably
will continue to have them. But when you play them in the garden, they're, they're pretty formidable. It remains the case with this one for sure. Yeah. I mean, for these top four teams in the East,
“I don't really think there's, the only one that we're going to learn. I think anything real about”
between now and the end of the season is Boston. And that's assuming Jason Tatum comes back, which I do think will happen at some point. And then obviously there's going to be some adjustments there. But like for Detroit, they are going to be who they are and we'll see how it goes on the playoffs with the nicks. They are going to be who they are. We'll see how it goes in the playoffs. And with the calves, like we kind of know what the calves are, even though they have these new
pieces, because it's going to be James Hardin, Donovan Mitchell with the ball. They're going to be playing with the two bigs. And to me, the biggest questions there are, obviously we'll see what it have to say to James Hardin, something, but that shouldn't be a long-term deal. So we'll donovan Mitchell be healthy when they get to the playoffs. And then how does this wing rotation looking, you know, can Max Drew's come back? Like, well, they will they be healthy when they get
to the playoffs. But like, they're main core guys, even though James Hardin is new, we kind of know what they are. So it's kind of in it, to me, for the most part, I mean, wait and see mode until we get to mid April with all four of these teams at the top of the East and at least until we see James Hardin on the court. Speaking of Tadeum, by the way, we take this a little bit before the
Celtics played the 76ers on Sunday. I should point out that today, the second episode of the
Tadeum documentary, The Quiet Work, which is chronicling his cover from that torn Achilles is on every Sunday on the NBA NBC and produced by our friends here at Omaha. Episode two has now come out without him coming back. So there was a lot of conspiracy theory that today would be the day, then you know what the new conspiracy theory is? Bond Temps, have you heard the new conspiracy theory on Tadeum? I have a theory that I know what it is, but I will let you
tell me. Do you have you heard it, McMahon? Is this the Mac tin numerology theory? Well, it's not just him, but you know, Dave McMahon, our guy, Dave McMahon is, he's a, he's a believer in numerology. And so when he heard this, basketball numerology list, basketball numerology, yes, just to be clear. Yes, there's a theory that Jason Tadeum has planning a comeback on
“314, which you know is the Is of March, isn't it? Beware of the Is of March?”
Oh, it's part of March, that's March is the 15th. I believe that's March is the 15th. Pied day is the 14th and it's also the area code 314 of the Lou, where he is from. Sand was yesterday. Jason Tadeum comes from. Is it the story that he signed his contract? He could assign for 315 and he signed for 314? Wendy. I'm like, Dave, unlike our guy Dave, I do not study the numerology to disagree. I just think he'll be back sometime in the near future if he's going to
come back because he's got to have some time to wrap up before the playoffs and you know, we're only six weeks out from five weeks off from the end of the regular season at this point.
Does Jason Tadeum like Pied Wendy? I don't know. I will never assume anybody likes Pied again.
I will further study that and I will get back to you. Well, I really hope he does come back on March 14th. For the simple reason that I was able to get my little nephew, Jamison, take it to a Celtics game. It will be the first time in his life. He's a suburban boss kid and our buddy Drew Carrer came through for us. Oh, wow. I know. It's a miracle when Drew comes through the fair. I mean, rising star in a broadcast and industry. So that would be great playing
the wizards. I was able to guarantee a win from my nephew's first Celtics game. Good job.
The lizards, I should say, my bad.
Jonathan Caminga coming back, getting those two performances with the Hawks this week. But they were against the wizards. My list of perfect time to come back, right? Seriously. Yeah, another 20 and 7 against the, you had another 20 and 7 against the blazers today with Lord Denny Avi on the other side. But I will say this. Yeah, Avi has missed a bunch of games here. And I will, you know,
as a sort of a, we're going to talk about Denver, the Denver Timbles game here in a second.
But the Warriors announced tonight that Steph Curry was going to be out at least one of their 10 days as he does with that knee issue. And look, they're going to make the decisions based on Steph's knee. I'm not saying they're making them the decisions on trying to get the, you know, the eight, the seven are the eight seed in the West. But one thing that has made it a little easier on the Warriors is that the teams behind them are losing. Primera, and the team in front of them,
the sons have been losing, you know, because they've had injuries. And the blazers have been,
“they've been on, I think they've been on a road trip throughout East right now. But, you know,”
they've taken some losses. The Warriors are guaranteed, guaranteed. It's a car. It's a quarter. Our guy Charles Barkley of being no lower than 10th, no matter what they do the rest of the season. So, right. Well, they have a lotters have down there. Yeah, I'm just, yes. But the blazers have even a kind of home court. There's been no pressure. No pressure applied behind them either. So, they've got maximum flexibility to try to coax Steph's knee back as much as they can and get them
ready to go for whatever the stretcher on this kind of look like. They didn't get about there. More who collected podcast after this. All right. So, today in Denver, the timber walls completed a 3 and 0 west trip with the win over the nuggets. The wolves, by the way, are now 11 and 4 in their last 15. And while they like the nicks are known for a maddening loss or two of the, we've talked about this of the sort of
non, you know, elite teams in the well. I mean, I guess they would say they're probably elite. No, you can't. No, they can't. Well, of the contenders in the west. There's, you know, there's easy to find flaws with a lot of these, you know, alleged contenders. Minnesota is of that
middle pack. I've always felt that they were the most formidable because they play it both ends
of the court. Yeah. And they went to the conference finals. Each of the last couple of years, which is because they played both ends of the court. Now, neither of those conference finals were competitive series, but they went to the conference finals, both the last two years. And they had the kind of superstar who, in any given playoff series, he can get you a couple of wins. I mean, and Edwards is, is good enough to, I don't, yeah, we've seen it. Like, we've seen him
basically just, it's been more than like first round type of series, but we've seen him just have games and playoffs where it's like, dude, not beat that guy today. They're right now, a half game, they're a game, they're a game back of the rocket, actually, tied with the rockets. One
more win, one more loss. So percentage points behind the rockets for third and the west. And look,
if they can get to third in the west, and they can get on the side of the bracket, but the lakers again in the first round, and a spurs team assuming the spurs are in second, that has absolutely no playoff experience on the other side of the bracket. Like, they're going to feel pretty good about their chances of getting back to a third straight conference finals.
“Honestly, even if they match up with the nuggets, because they've knocked the nuggets out before,”
and, you know, today's another reminder, the Timberl's have no fear of Necolia, which is nuggets. I just more meant that the way it's set up right now, one in two, and some more looks pretty comfortably to be San Antonio and Oklahoma City, and I think it's probably going to be Oklahoma City, one in San Antonio, too. So really, the spot you want to get to is three. You've wooded the thunder all the way to the conference finals, and you probably also have
wooded Denver all the way until the conference finals, you've been a soda. And like, you saw the wolves right now, they don't have to play out, they play out to be one of those teams to make the finals. But yeah, I don't think any of us are picking them to be either team, but that's the path that you want to have, and it's a path that they'll likely take if they can get it. So I would point out, the Denver, the season series is over, and Denver has,
has beaten them three out of four. They won the season series, but of course, Minnesota, are we sure? No, not sure. I thought it was the case. I thought it was. I'll double check your match, just a bit. I guess you better do the rest. I do think you're right. I'm on to tell you apparently. I mean, I study the game and everything,
“and I remember Jim Penny have exist big performance, and I was like,”
we can't get in my arm. They are in the next part. No, no, I'm come dumb stone cold sober.
The third game, by the way, was that Christmas day games, speaking of Christmas,
when Yokek only had 56, 18, 15, and over time, and that game that I believe we recorded the podcast before that game started. We did not. It turned into an epic game. Yeah, it was an unbelievable come back by and had that shot the quarter to tie it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, Yokek had all tied games. Family, a fairly notable performance amount. Yeah. Well, that was Christmas day. We had to draw the line somewhere. What blaming? It was just fine. I listened
to I talked to Chris Finch a little bit, but listened to him. It's in interviews the other day
in LA, and two things that he said. First off, he just, even though that was the night that
he got into the back and forth with Ant. One of my, one of my favorite things about that little back and forth, he said, "Ant, Finch is telling him to pass." Ant hits the game winner, step back over to Clipper Defenders, and starts barking at Finch. Like, this is what I do,
“right? This is what I believe in this. That's what I believe in this. That's what I believe in too.”
And well, I also liked Derek Jones Jr. He was like trying to get to his bench, his clip was called Timeout, and he ended up basically in between Finch and Edwards as that was going down. And he just sort of smiled. Let's listen to it. But one of my favorite parts about it is, as Ant is barking at Finch. Finch is just saying, "All right, all right, all right." And that relationship is actually an awesome relationship. I agree. And, you know,
Ant said that for the game, he's right 98% of the time. But he, and he was right on that case, it's just, he coaches him hard. And with the right result. He coaches him hard. But he was saying, he was praising Ant before the game, and really praising his work ethic, and his drive to be great, like, you know, up one side down the other praising Ant. The other thing that he was praising was Rudy. Rudy go bare. He was like, you know, our defensive improvement is so tied to Rudy. By the way,
did you see the drive by that Rudy? Rudy takes so many shots. It's, it's crazy. Did you see the drive by that he got today on the broadcast? I did not. So, Dante Divenchenzo is wearing the mic. Okay. And he missed a free throw. I don't know if he missed two free throws, but he missed at least one free throw, like really about what he said. I'm shooting free throws like shack. Right. So he said that
during the first half. So they, they come back to have time for inside. And of course, they play it
and shack, like, has a push on. And he's like, you know, if I, if he's like, he's lucky. I'm not playing. If he did, I would have flagrant foul them the next time I saw him. And, you know, so with all laugh and at it, and then he's like, yeah, you know what, he's like, I like the even chance. I wouldn't flagrant foul them. I just would have flagrant it, Rudy. Uh, just for hell of it. Well, at least it didn't bring up Rudy's free throw percentage. Well, that's true. But anyway, he, he's been praising, uh, go bear,
go bear at 15 rebounds today is plus 12 and 30 something minutes. And listen, if it wasn't for whimpy, there would be a real deal conversation. And it would be probably, it would probably be,
“I want to say confrontation with word, I'm controversial. How could I not remember the word”
controversy? You know that all. It would probably be controversial. But if not for when you Rudy would be a very deserving defense player that you can at it this year. Well, it's 27 points per 100 possessions better when Rudy go bear is on the court when he's off defense. And it was
funny. You know, and, and, and since this is one of the things why we'll always, and I, I find myself
at two or three timor roles games a year during the regular season, usually, and I always make sure I go, a lot of times, I, you know, end up on the court, talk in agents and scouts and stuff. But I always go to the public press conference for Finch because you never know what this guy's going to stay as one of the best quotes in the league. And he said, yeah, he goes, yeah, the other night we were playing in Portland and don't even clean, we got the better. I'm for three quarters. But
he woke up with the fourth and shut him down. We won the game. And, you know, that's the thing, like, I, he will talk about how Rudy is like helping drive this turnaround and drive their defense. And I'm like, yeah, Clayton was kicking his ass for three quarters because, you know, he'll be honest. But, um, well, it didn't, and the same thing with Anne. And that was kind of a perfect,
“little, uh, flashpoint of that relationship. Because the thing, I think that he's gone on,”
and the most over the years is dude, make the right play when you're doubled, make the right play as much as you hype your teammates up, and like you pump your teammates up with your personality, pump them up with your decisions, pump them up with your play. And so that's been a source of friction and coaching and Anne has improved significantly over the years. But he just had jumped on Anne about a bad shot. Right. And it took another record. That's a worse shot. And it's just,
The teams really cracked 90.
You talk about 11 in four for, um, for, uh, many. Denver is now four and seven and they're
“last 11. Four and eights and sugars are turned. Oh, is that what it is? Okay. Four and eights and”
sugars are turned. Yeah. Please check my all check all data right now. They, uh, Yogich played better in this game than he had been playing. Cam Johnson was terrible in this game and left with an ankle. And said afterwards he's dealing with an ankle thing. And David Adam and set after the game that even though it's like been the sort of the long standing strategy for the nuggets to not stagger Jumal Murray and, uh, Yogich's minutes because they want
them on the court as much as possible, particularly at the end of games, um, that he's going to have
to change his rotation, basically, to make sure they're Murray or Yogich are on the court
because they're getting hurt when they're off the court, which is, you know, kind of sounds like stuff that my compatriots might come alone might have said in recent years about the teams. That, in this case, they've, they're just really hurting defensively without Aaron Gordon and they had Watson, particularly Gordon. We've talked about this, um, they're just not the same team. And, um, they're, they're, you know, they, they were holding steady in the standings, but
now with, you know, Yogich is not been able to carry them to as many winds as before the injury
“and so they're, they're losing, they're losing, uh, positioning. I think they slip to fifth now”
behind them and sell it after this. Yeah. And so four and eight since Yogich returned, um, I don't know if today was technically a clutch loss or not was it within the last five,
within the last five, I guess they were one and the second half was played even, they were,
they fell behind, uh, in the set, they got both race in the second quarter and basically played the rest of the game, either. So there were one and six in clutch games during that stretch going into today. Maybe one and seven now. I asked, out of them and about that, uh, the other night and basically said, you know, the way teams are loading up, they're basically, like, obviously, they're, that two-man games is good two-man games. There's been maybe in this really. The way
teams are loading up against it, and they're basically forcing, uh, their guys to take the shots
“like that was a night where Cam Johnson missed a clean look at what could have been a winning three,”
uh, in regulation, but so look, the injuries are obviously really hurting them and they've dealt with them all year long, but with Gordon Watson out, it's killing their defense, it's killing their depth, um, they expect those guys back soon, but they've really got to be careful with Gordon, because this is two straight years of repeated soft tissue injuries with him, and especially the hamstring, so as much as they want him to have time, and they want seating, they want him at time
to get in rhythm for the playoffs, like it got to be real careful. Um, but the injury that's not even on the report, they're really concerned about is Joker's wrist. Not the knee that kept them out of month. He's been dealing with this wrist thing for years often on, and it's kind of like a day-to-day type of thing where some days, he wakes up and it's not bothering him in some days, it's stiff as hell. He's been under 50% from the floor six times during these dozen games,
which for most guys, like, okay, for Joker, it's shocking. Like this is a guy who probably has the best paint touch in the history of the game. Like he shoots his paint percentage is like a rim runner, but it's a bunch of like tough hooks and floaters. He's under 50% in the last, in the last month, which is I know, we should have stats and info look up the last time. He said a month, where he's under 50%, I'll bet it's been years. And he's really struggling with three ball, you know, even today
shot it much better from the floor, but one of four from three, okay, see he was too much more turnover today as turnovers are way up. And, you know, he used these just such a money player in traffic on what should be tough shots in the paint. And it's been very, I didn't miss since he's been back. And so again, the knee kept them out for a month, but the wrist is a bigger concern. He won't, he won't talk about it. Like, you know, I asked him today how you feel and physically really good.
And that's kind of a stock answer. Well, but they're concerned. Well, speaking of yoke it's physically and the other night, let's just speak a little bit about this incident with Lou Dort. This has gotten a lot of people under their feelings and it's spilled over into today. So wonder if you could talk about what happened today, McMahon. Real quick, you probably saw,
If you're a listener of this pod, you probably saw it, but in case you didn't...
The other night, when Denver was Friday, night, when Denver was in O.K.C. Yoke itch and Dort, what did Yoke itch hit Dort with an elbow? No, it was, so before you, and then we get into this, just because I just looked it up, do you want to guess the last time to call Yoke it's shot under 50% in a month before? Oh, well, you did that. That was an impressive amount. I'm going to say probably just once that can be on basketball reference. Probably second year in league. I would say
“it was not this decade. That's the one I think I'm going to say. It was not his second year in the league.”
However, it was also not this decade. It was November of 2019. It's our 2019-20. It's fifth season
in the league. You shot 45% from the field in November. And I believe he never shot below 50%
again until this month. Yeah, I'm missing again. It's crazy because like, you know, the guy's putting up 26, 14 and 9 and you're like, man, Joke is just not right. He's in a slom. And a quick, I ball of it. I think there's more 60 plus months than 50 plus months in that stretch. That's wow. But that's pretty, it's pretty close. That's wild and clear. It's a what happened in that game. So obviously, look, these two teams scrapped for seven games in the playoff last year. They don't
love each other. The thunder are a very physical team. Joke is a very physical player. There's a lot of push and shove and grab and tug and, you know, getting tangled up and a lot of flopping on both sides. All that good stuff throughout the course of the game. Four's quarter, pretty early fourth quarter. Joke is running up the court. He's in the back court. And Ludoor put it in reverse and it was a hip chip. No, but didn't something happen before this. I mean,
they got tangled up. There were some during the game. There were a hundred things that happened during the game. The ball had been seeking out a bound. And as the Koyoke just running up the court without the ball, while the balls being inbounded, Ludoor, look like he tried to hit him in the
“leg that he's hurt. That's what it was. He put it in reverse. He's treated it. He did the blind”
hip check and then he stuck his right foot. And you get hit the floor, hip chip combo like a redwood
falling. I've never, I don't know, I've ever seen him hit the floor that hard. And he rolled over
like he was going down a hill like when he was a kid. Yeah, because he hit it hard and then he's basically rolled over, got back up and, you know, lose to the, what I do thing and, and Joke got right up in his face, gave him the chess bum was really tough in his face. It's, it's a legendary the fury, the Serbian fury in that face was, that's going to be a legendary moment. But that party saw as when he grabbed Jane Williams. Now listen, let's just start off with this.
For any complaining from Oklahoma City about Ludoor being ejected about the call on this play on anything else that happened, it's just ask one question. Is there absolutely any possible justification for Ludoor's actions on this play? The answer is unequivocally not at all. It was a dirty play. It was an obviously dirty play. Any neutral person watching the game would universally agree. It was a ridiculous thing to do. It was his most efficient non neutral funder fans would
recognize that there's no too. His unique reaction afterward was also completely ridiculous first
marked him and like he didn't foul him and then right to be like, oh, yeah, wait, what are you talking about? Well, and then marked diagonal with all due respect to I've got a lot of respect for him, but marked diagonal saying didn't he say McMahon? He was like, well, I guess going forward anybody gets trip to be ejected. We essentially he his thing was if that's a flag you know, let's I'm gonna find his exact quote just to make sure that we get this right, but his his deal was
his deal was basically hey, if that's a flagrant to then it's a flagrant to no matter who ends up getting tripped, which I got the quote right here if you if you didn't go ahead and we need it, let me find it. And then we'll get to that one. I will say this. Anybody who was tripped like that, it would be a flagrant too. So I guess I would agree with them on that. Go ahead and read the quote Bon Thames. Yep, I'm just wait, I'm just trying not kind of read the. All right, I can't hold
“things. I'll just read the whole thing. If you're watching the game, I think it could be very clearly”
very early that it was a chippy game. These are two days of played each other in seven game series or in the same division. We've played each other a hundred times, you know, they know our playbook, we know their playbook. It's just what it is. Like I said, it's going to be a perfect game, it things get, you know, they escalate like that sometimes. I know Lou, I know Yolkitch, I know Jay Welch, Jay Williams is the other guy who came in late with when sort of defended door.
That's I don't think I thought like Joker's stare. Yes. Was it Jay Welch? Yeah, he was able to get twice. I mean, Jay was able to stay for the three hours. Then Jay Welch came in. I don't think anybody's
Trying to hurt anybody.
it just boiled over. I think it was nothing more than that. And then this is the part you were getting to. I will say this. If a player gets, if a player gets, if Jay Welch is running up the floor, gets tripped, we expect a flager 2 from this point forward. That's all. You know, if that's the precedent, if that becomes a malicious play, and flager 2 is the line on in the sand on that, we would expect that if it's Jay Welch. We would expect that if it's anybody. And if that's the
case, we're good to which my guy, Tim McBan, came in after that and said, was the flager 2 upgrade because it was the three time MVP you got tripped. And Mark said, no, I'm not going to answer that question like that. I said what I needed to say about it. And here's my deal. I hear what you're saying. Hey, if that's a flager 2, fine, if it happens to any role player, then it should be a flager 2. Okay. Yeah, I do agree that a blatantly intentional dirty trip should probably be a flager 2.
Like that's not a basketball play. His Joker said it was an unnecessary action and a necessary reaction.
“That was Joker's quote. But here's the thing, especially if it's to a superstar. And I would say”
these same thing if a role player, you know, I'll just say Bruce Brown because he's a, you know, tough role player for the nuggets. If Bruce Brown takes that kind of shot at Jay Guildess Alexander, absolutely, he should get kicked out of the game. You cannot have guys take and cheap shots at MVP's. I'm sorry. I would go as far as to say this. I would say that if there's any player who has a known injury to his left leg and is running up the court and a guy on the other team
does what Lou Dort did, universally, it's not hard to leap forward to what that characters and no injury. That was a bad play. You don't need to be blindly gripping. You don't need to be doing it regardless. That's what I mean. That goes back to the beginning. Any complaints about the way this was handled to me should be answered with a very simple answer to that question. Is there absolutely any
reason Lou Dort should have done that? The answer is no. There's no reason at all. It was 95
from the basket. He didn't have the ball. He should have been nearer. All right. So McMahon, it carried over to today a little bit. Yeah. And so Adam and the nuggets were still heated today. And I think what happened was they started to see the replays. I'm not sure they had seen the replays really and they they trust me. They saw the replays. The replays have all the replays immediately. They definitely had. Yeah. And they'd seen the replays. And anyways, I'll get to the money,
the money point of Adam and it's a pregame quote today. He said, then for Dort to take that shot. And then I guess it wasn't that big of a deal from their standpoint. How they looked at it is ridiculous. That was malicious. It was a cheap shot. New Dort's a great player. And that's not what I've
“seen him do before. But at some point, you have to stand up for yourself. And the team does as well. And so”
basically, look, Lou Dort does have a bit of a reputation for being dirty. I think a lot of things
people point out like the the job play last year, the branding and play. I think there's been plausible deniability. This is a guy who makes his living as a tough physical aggressive defense player. There was no plausible deniability. It was not a basketball play. It wasn't a defensive play. No. There's just a dirty play. And by the way, all those other plays in the past, McMahon, I think you said the key phrase. Lou, who we all have a big respect for. I voted
him first. He involved defense last year. He's a tremendous player. His story is sort of the epitome of the thunder ethos, right? He's an undrafted player on a two way. He comes in. He's turned himself into this fantastic defensive player. He's a great player. And to develop the three points, who's a huge part of their championship, exact part of their culture, huge respect for him as a player. However, he has had plausible deniability. That job or anti play brought it to me several times
by people this weekend. Like there's always been abilities say, well, you know, you could you could
“always sort of argue it. Like I would say going forward, I think this is a pretty big mark on”
Lou d'Orts reputation. And I think a lot of the plausible deniability he's had in the past, going forward will not exist. And thunder people, I will probably say that's not fair. But at the end of the day, all these other things in the past, he was on the line of making a basketball play and you could always say, well, you know, if you look at it this way, look, look at the context of the play, you could see why it happened. This is the kind of play that for
fair or not is going to be remembered. And is going to be in the back of people's minds. If other things come up with Lou d'Orts in the future, not so different than things that have happened with drama, green and Dylan Brooks and other guys who have gotten in a bunch of things before, even if Lou d'Orts doesn't have anywhere near the history of flagrant twos and other things that those guys have. But this was a very significant play. And it's, I think, going to stand out
because of that. Now real quick, I did ask diagonal at the his pregame availability.
What his response was to David Ottomans comments today.
in the question instead, gust about how much respect that he and everybody else in the thunder
organization has for the dimmer nuggets. So that was, you know, that was basically diagonals,
way of saying like, hey, you know, I don't want to get into a back and forth on this. And by the way, I'll see both those teams again, March 9th in Oklahoma City. That is going to be a game to watch for sure. Yeah, and perhaps again in May. Oh, look, this is, you know, that it's, I mean,
“it'd be an unbelievable playoff series. If it happens, I think they're, I think they're the”
two best teams in the league. Whoever wins that series of it happens, semi-confidence, semi-finals could determine who it's a title. And, you know, it's, they're both, like you said before, may man at the start, they're both physical teams, you know, they both, they both know all the rules with the rafts. There, there, there, there, there's a lot of stuff going on there. And, you know, this is, I'm sure not the last time we're going to talk about some sort of thunder nuggets,
referee and controversy, whether it's this season or in the future with how often these two times are like two teams are likely to go ahead ahead for a while. More who collected podcast after this. Is there still a lot of stress here, also this cool aspect, just overshadowed and then hopefully it's the end. Paul, no, gar nicht, wie so steuer is so my safe space.
Hmm, do you mean that's all it's about? Yeah, genau, wie so steuer is so deep steuer app that I just understand. Egalobstudium, job, or on-to-stint. Cross, I don't feel like steuer then. Steuer is in the lead.
Save. With wie so steuer. All right, before we go, and we got a sendic man over to the airport, I just want to point out a little something that keeps going on the lead here, because we, we kind of, you know, because mock me a little bit when I keep talking about Charlotte.
I'm mocking you. So the hornets, we just don't like you, or at least I don't like you repeating the nickname "Puzz city Killer 7." I like that. That's all. I know you do like this.
Maybe they're putting on that. Let's point out, you said at the first time on this.
Oh, I would like to better if you go back to the buzz cut. You went Hollywood like that. Go on. You know, not only that, but like, I haven't been able to see my haircut person. We, it's, my hair gets out of control fast. Like it's like a tipping point in the game.
“We need a bunch of the killer for windows here. That's what we need.”
Yeah, I do need it. Cut it off. So they, they are my clip from Delay for you. All right, yeah, please, y'all see you this week. They had an afternoon game with the blazers on Saturday.
Which they beat the players. There's no Denny Avia. But just a couple of things going on here that I just want to point out.
So first off, the moose is loose again.
It's off as off suspension. So they won the game. They blew them out. I think they have a little bit. I got to check my facts here. I'm fairly certain they blew them up. So let's go back to this, that they're starting line up of Lamello ball, conkiniple branded Miller Miles Bridges and Moose Diabate are now 18 and two as a starting line up. It's pretty good. They have one of those two. One of those two was the game that they all
“got thrown out of. I believe. Right. I mean, the way they've been some games in there still.”
There's been some games in their turnaround where Lamello hasn't started and come off the bench because in back to back situations, they bring them off the bench. So there's a small asterix in there. But when those guys start, but how, but forget about that. They've outscored their opponents by 179 points. So far this season. That's the best five man line up going in the league. And as far as what they're doing to teams, let me point this out. They have now one four
straight games. Now I'm going to go, I have to go look at who they played because I got to check the tanking meter because maybe that's in there. But they've won four straight games by at least 15 points. That's the longest streak in franchise history. And they've made at least five more threes in their opponent in eight straight games. Which is one of, see, it's the, there's only been two longer streaks in NBA history. Well, look, let's just do it this way. Let's just do it this way.
It's the eighth most used five men line up in the NBA. Okay. So it's played a lot of minutes, 281 total minutes, 29 games, offensive rating of 136.2, a defensive rating of 105.7, a net rating of 30.4. Just for comparison, and you don't want to call them the both city killers. I got it. Good to know. The most used line up in the league has been a soda starting line up. They're six hundred minutes plus nine. Like, that's great. That's awesome. The Detroit's
starting line up, 457 minutes plus 14. Like, again, great. This, this line up in a little bit,
Smaller sample size twice as good as the starting line up with the 60 win Det...
Like that, we're not talking about a small sample size anymore. That is a lot of minutes.
And, and local, I personally, this podcast in general, and frankly, the league as a whole, when you talk about front office, scouts, etc, have been very down on the middle ball. We're was very down on the middle ball going in the season early in the season. You've got to give the middle ball credit. The question was, can the middle ball, this Harlem Globe Trotter type of dude ever really drive winning in the NBA? And fellas, even, he shouldn't have 40% from the floor.
His net rating is plus nine point six. They are a minus 2.3 without him. It's about a dozen points swing. Even with him, not shooting a great. Their offensive rating when he's on the floor
is 1, 20, 3.5. Historically, elite. And it goes all the way down to 109.3 when he's off the floor.
Over a 14 point swing, offensively, now they've got talent around him. You know, Brandon Miller, Colin Knippell, who, by the way, is now officially the rookie of your favorite, according to draft Kings, you know, Miles Bridges, but as much as we doubt it, as much I'll speak for myself,
“as much as I doubted the middle ball, you have to recognize this dude is having the kind of season”
that we, I was not sure he could have. And that's making a major impact for a team. That's winning. Now, they are, this, I just looked at this, so these last four wins are against Washington, Chicago, Indiana, Portland. Portland is not officially tanking. The other three teams are tankers. So, but this is not, we're not reacting to a week. We're reacting to months. Right. Well, January 2nd, they lost to Milwaukee to fall to 11 and 23. They had lost three
in about that point. Since that game, they're 19 and eight. And by the way, they right now are in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings. They are 1/2 game behind Atlanta, which itself has gotten going. Thanks, apart to plants and tankers lately, got back to 500. They're two games back of the magic and the heat, who are tied for seventh right now. And their four games back, five in the lost column of the sixers, who have had Joel and be dealing with one thing after
another for the past few weeks. And, you know, I've been up and down themselves. Like, it is not only not inconceivable that the Hornets can get into the seven eight. It's not inconceivable they can get into the six in the Eastern Conference when they looked dead and buried for all, it started January. We were thinking about them being down there with all these teams fighting
“for a lot of position. I think frankly, if you gave them true CM, they were expecting to be down”
there fighting for a lot of their positioning. This is not what the Hornets, I know what the Hornet's planet coming into the season was. They were going to let the young guys play and see what they look quite, but they didn't think they were going to be a playoff team this year. Like, this has been a total flip around at the point where they're buying Kobe White at the trade deadline and they're adding him to their mix. And like, if you're the pistons, if you're the next, if you're the
calves, if you're the Celtics, like whoever winds up in the the two seed or the three seed in the east, or if it's the if they end up in the one eight with Detroit, this is not your typical eight, you know, six seven eight seed, if they continue anywhere near this pace over the next, you know, four to five, I guess it's six weeks from today is the end of the regular season. Like, if they're playing anywhere near this level, I mean, they're going to be a team literally no one's
going to want to place playing the first round of the playoffs. Yeah, now haven't haven't said
all of that, the Hornets track record of the play under the mellow is hey, listen, the Hornets are directly a super young team that hasn't done anything. Like, it's all the caveats, you know,
“I've certainly talked about with the spurs or some of these other teams times a thousand, right?”
But, you know, they're not a team. If I was one of these teams at the top of the east, I would not want to see this track meet Hornets team that's been the hottest team in the league, since the start of the year in the first round of the playoffs. They're playing as well as anybody decided the pistons in these from conference. Yeah, I mean, that, it's just, you know, it's going to be fascinating to think, keep it up because this is, it's about as out of left
field, especially in the middle of a season as a thing, as we've seen in a while, particularly for a team that didn't make some, it's like they added some major piece in the middle of the year and flip things around. They just took off pretty wild. Yeah, and that three-point shooting edge, like, that's, and that's, you know, you want to talk about a pathway to doing something
In the playoffs when the three-point shooting contest every night, especially...
There might be more talented than you if you're just bombing. If you could bomb it 25-3s, I couldn't, that could pretty fundamentally change a game no matter what else is going on. And, and, and what's the, what's the biggest reason that they are winning that three-point contest every single night? Wow. The guy who's hit more threes than anybody is a rookie in the history of the league. Yeah. I mean, what con can Apple is doing, and again, he is officially
Gordon Draft King's the rookie of your favorite part of that, because Cooper Flag's been sitting for a while with his brain foot that the timeline keeps kind of getting bumped back and back and back and back on. And by the way, there's no, there is no 65-game role for rookie. There's not, but Cooper's going out to get back on the court and play well, because his college roommate has been playing so well. I mean, we've got how many games left in season? He's already broken
“the record for three-pointers made by, I think he's got, there's about 22, 22. How many are”
left he broke the record in February? And, and guys, he has a true shooting percentage above 65. He shouldn't 49-44 88, basically, on high volume three-point. Yeah, he's a 50-40-90 season is very much of then his graft is a rookie. He, and his average in 19.3 points per game. And, you know, he rebounds these averages like three-naps since he's an okay team defender. He's a hell of a player.
I mean, the fact that we've never seen a rookie shoot it like this on this kind of bomb.
After his 19-point game with this high of a true shooting percentage has literally never happened by rookie. I had this discussion with some average people when they were in town. And I said, "Oh, I said, look, I mean, as of today, I'd vote for Cooper Flag for rookie year as of today." But, what I said was, I think there's a very real chance, con, win rookie a year. And it's due a combination of him leading Charlotte to a pretty unprecedented turnaround in the middle of the season.
“He's been one of the biggest reasons why that's happened. And he's also, to your point,”
McMahon, unequivocally having the greatest rookie shooting season of all time by leaps and bounds. Like, it's not even, there's not even one in the same stratosphere. As him. So, if somebody like Cooper Flag did not win rookie a year, it takes something pretty remarkable to happen. And both con, con, upels play and play of the Hornets is putting that in play. And, you know, hopefully Cooper can get back out there because he's fun to watch and it would be a fun
race down to the end. But, to your point, if he misses much more time, it's going to be very difficult for him to catch con, but both the way he's playing and the way they're playing. To compare him to Steph, as a rookie. Now, Cooper takes a, or a, could upill takes eight threes a game. Steph took five threes
a game. So, the volume, it's just a different era. Yeah. Steph shot 43.7 percent. We'll call it 44,
but it's 43.7 percent. And, con, upels shooting exactly 44 percent right now. He's higher at the free throw line than Steph was as a rookie. And, he's two, two points to game more. Again, it's B to play is different. But, also, point out Steph was a year older. Steph was, Steph was several years older,
“I believe. Well, yeah, I think, yeah, he played C play three years of Davidson or two. I can't.”
Yeah, three. Okay. So, yeah. So, I think, yeah. So, Steph was age 21 at the start of the season. He turned 22, well, whatever. The point is he played three years in college. So, yeah. So, like, now, they don't quite, you know, they're not the same type of player in terms of, uh, they're, they're, they're make up, but like, couldn't pull like Steph works his ass off off the ball. Well, and, and, and, can Nipple is not just a catch and shoot guy. He's a move, move and guy. And he
likes Steph. He has more stuff off the dribble than you would think. You know, there's, like, you
don't shoot 49 percent from the floor being a high volume 3 point shooter without him. Doesn't get to the
line yet as he gets older in the league. He'll figure out how to get to the line more. I think his upside is a score or is he's a monster? Yeah. Yeah. He's an absolute monster. But beyond that, you know, because Brad, there's a, there's a Brandon Miller stat here that I lost, but Brandon Miller's been killing it too. I don't want to make it all about him. Brad and Miller, he had a big game on Saturday. They're all team is killing it. Like, they're, it's just unbelievable how this whole thing
is flipped around the past two months. Like, they, you know, I mean, they were, they were showing some sides of making some nice progress this year, and Conno's playing great. And like, they were able to get Miller out on the court, and he and the mellow and com were all playing. Like, the things were going the way they hoped they would. But, I mean, nobody saw this happen in the last two months. It's good. It's completely turned everything on its head. I saw one more point I do want to make on
the rookie, the year thing. Typically, an impact on winning is not really a significant factor in the
Rookie, the year race.
aren't able to impact winning because they're on terrible teams. Correct. Well, this was a
“terrible team. And Canipple's impact in winning. Brad the Miller has made five free pointers in”
each of his last four games. So he is also shooting very well. He's averaging 21 points on 43
percent shooting for the year. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's been a really fun story. And it's going to be
“interesting to see how these next six weeks go and where they land. Like I said, if I was one of”
these older veteran teams at the top of the conference, I would not want to see this track meet team
come flying in Bob and 45. There's a game in the playoffs. I have a absolutely no conscience, because you know they won't. Don't worry, McMahon, the USWB says no good nickname for him, though, whatever whatever. Oh, no, that's right. All right. Are you going to the airport instead, don't run it into the ground? What the USWB or bus city killer? I mean, you run that into the ground
“for quite a while. I don't think we have bus city people. I still get asked what does USWB stand for?”
And I just want to clarify for people is stands for the urine soaked wet blanket. I think it's fitting. Just as those city killers are. All right. Thank you to Jackson, Mark, and Devon, our producers. Thank you very much to McMahon and bottoms. See you soon, McMahon. Thank you for watching and we'll see you in a couple of days. Are you some egos?
