Luka's Revenge, Amen Thompson's Hard Foul On Giannis & Which Insurance Mascots Can Hoop?
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This part is where they film Mortal Kombat on 99DD99DD555. Where Liu Kang versus Kitana. Here, here, this is me. It creates a feeling, very nostalgic.

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Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the No Dunks Podcast on the Athletic Network. Couldn't tell, was that on purpose or not? It wasn't, it was not on purpose. Oh, you did it well. You should be a part of those videos. It's Wednesday, February 26th.

2025, that was really weird. Holy. I'm J.E. Skeets here in the Classic Factory, and alongside me, as always, Tess Mellis. Podcast listeners, this is for you. Next to him, it's the bearded one, my top shot hot boy, Trey Kirby. And over yonder, making the magic happen. It's super producer, J.D. There he is, here we are. Okay, we'll stop. You're on fire. On fire.

Fire with the cold opens right now, JD. Yeah, I was told there was none left, and then all of a sudden, we got lots. Yeah, there are a lot of great cold opens. And we always do try and put the link in the show notes. I know a lot of you reach out and say, hey, where's that clip from? I want that clip. So check the show notes after we're done here. So hello to everybody. Hit the like button, subscribe, podcast listeners, five-star ratings and reviews. We're going to get into the games from last night. Obviously, we'll start tonight.

with the Luka Doncic taking on his Dallas Mavericks. We'll eventually get to some beat-stepping, but Luka, 19 points, 15 boards, 12 assists in his first game against the Mavs since they traded him to the Lakers, and LA gets the 107-99 victory.

Lots of drama, obviously, heading into the game. You know, the game was okay. I mean, you know, he didn't have a monster, monster game. First triple-double as Laker. What did you think? Well, I thought it just started fun because Luka, first offensive possession, he almost had a wedgie. He bricked that shot. And they've got the mics on the backboard, so it sounded great.

loud to hear that thing and then he goes on the other end and blocks a shot immediately because he's playing hard defense for the Lakers and then later on hits a three in that first quarter and talks smack to the bench of the Dallas Mavericks great stuff it's not like he was having an incredible game it wasn't an end of a game three but he just wanted to talk some smack and you got Nico Harrison the man who made the trade for the Dallas Mavericks in the building in LA so just great theater yeah I guess he's there to show support for his team and say we

We've got a good team here, which all in all, they put forth a great effort to be in this team because all their supporting guys were bricking their own shots in that first quarter. Yes, Kyrie extremely hot. He was doing his thing, but they needed something from somebody else. It didn't happen. Everyone else in the first quarter was two of 18 while Kyrie had 14 points, but they kept going like Dante Axum.

Miss, miss, miss his first three threes, but he kept going. And Max Christie had some bad shots, you know, only a four of 13 in this game, but you could see he doesn't force anything. He was cut off. He didn't force anything. The Mavs shot only 34.6% in the first half, but for them to get there and to have a close game at the end of this one was everything for them. It just shows that when they get some freaking players back, that they will actually be a good team, which is a weird thing to say because this team is a ninth-seeded Western Conference team right now.

All that to say, the Lakers play extremely hard defense, and that is the thing that we were talking about, the thing that I didn't really see them being able to have going into this postseason. But they do that. They really scramble hard on the perimeter. It starts with that 40-year-old man who gets down in a defensive possession every single time to go along with Luke. I didn't think they could do it. But then you go with Rui Yachimura and Austin Reeves, who people think...

Isn't a great defensive player. They do enough on the defensive perimeter to make up for what Jackson Hayes is incapable of doing head behind. And they have really scrambled. It was a really ugly game in all honesty. But they got it done because they scrambled really, really hard. And LeBron was there, man. LeBron did enough to turn it on in the fourth quarter along with that defense and win this game.

Yeah, this turned into kind of just a regular basketball game, I thought. But the pregame and through the first quarter was amazing. Luka was doing push-ups in pregame. Was he? Ridiculous, man. Came in with a new haircut. Still not a good one. Too short. I thought this guy's going to eventually find a good haircut living in L.A., but we'll give him some time. They had the Jordan activation ahead of time, which you're like, okay.

If you didn't think this was a conspiracy beforehand, how could you not? They're launching a new shoe for Luka Doncic immediately after he gets traded against his former team. It all felt very cinematic to me. And then he was hot in the first quarter. They took the three off the board because he stepped on the line. It was cool to see him yelling back and forth with Jason Kidd.

He got a technical immediately, which was pretty funny. I think it should be rescinded because I think any time the refs miss a call that blatantly, you should be allowed to complain. If they hit you with the tech, the league just has to be like, okay, but they blew it ahead of time. That's not really your fault because that was a really bad. He got slapped in the face. Yeah, he got fouled on the arms and slapped in the face. He got fouled twice. But yeah, this was just fun to watch. And it's so weird, I think, to be watching a Lakers game

You know LeBron James is out there, and still you forget about him at times. Like, they're showing the pregame intros. LeBron's chalk toss is in the background. That was weird to me, too. I was like, they're not showing this? This guy's a sidekick to Luka Doncic, and he kind of is right now. He's never had a season in his career where more of his made shots are assisted than unassisted. LeBron's getting the baskets on his own. In these last two games, as Luka's assumed more control of the layups, 60% of LeBron's field goals.

We're assisted. He's getting easy shots playing alongside Luka Doncic, whether it be running the court, they're hitting the full court dishes regularly. It's happening every single game for him or just easy layups underneath, which then allows LeBron more energy to play on defense. He's been a really great defender here. Things will be different in the playoffs. Like it will be a problem having Luka and Austin Reeves out there. We'll see how Jackson Hayes holds up, but really has been awesome. LeBron has been awesome.

And even though they're small, they've got big guys who are small. Like LeBron's big, Rui's big, Dorian Finney-Smith has size, Luka's a huge guard who rebounds. They do have some size out there. It'll be different in the playoffs, I think, but good stuff from the Lakers. Held the Mavs under 100, and they were just fine giving Dante XM shots. P.J. Washington doesn't have his jumper back yet, so if the Mavs shoot a little better, maybe they pull out this win, but the Lakers did it, and the Lakers have been looking good for basically 40 games right now.

Yeah. I mean, LeBron is re-energized. Definitely. Defensively locked in, like you said, running the floor because he knows Luka's going to fire it ahead. He had 27 points. LeBron did 16 in the fourth quarter when it was a close game. 12 boards, 11-17 shooting for LeBron to go with Luka's triple-double. And Luka chipped in some defensive stats, too. He had three steals. He had two blocks. I thought a couple other times he did look like a pylon where sometimes a guy just goes by him so easily. But...

know he was a little more engaged as well. Bill Simmons said Lakers Mavericks is already one of the NBA's best rivalries. Now he's projecting moving forward here with the big deal happening once the Mavs like you keep talking them up Tass and you're right like once they have like just hell if they just have Anthony Davis this is a different team. Bill be right here like over the next like little stretch we could see a postseason

between these two teams? We could. It could be like a 2-7 or something like that. Do you think there's some truth to that maybe as early as it is to say Lakers-Mavs moving forward here could be really fun. Maybe like theater every time they play. No, that's not wrong. That's for sure. The weird thing is with the Dallas Mavericks, they could literally miss the play in tournament. They're three and a half games up on the Phoenix Suns. But yes, Anthony Davis back would help a lot. And yes, this rivalry is real.

Still, I think there's questions on both sides. Yeah, Mavis could miss the plan. But big questions, I think, for the Lakers and their perimeter defense. Yes, that 40-year-old man gets into that defensive stance and the other team is picking him to go by him, get him in the pick, and go at Luka or go at Austin Reeves. And somehow they are scrambling extremely hard enough for...

With those three guys and Rui Achimur, who's blocking shots and talking trash. I don't think I've ever seen Rui Achimur talk trash, but he blocked Max Christie in this game. It was beautiful stuff. Yeah, you let him know about it right away. Yeah. I don't think it's... I'm just stereotyping him as just a quiet guy because he's Japanese and he's quiet. I don't think that's what I'm stereotyping. He just doesn't talk. Those four guys were scrambling hard and J.J. Redick was...

mad at them that they weren't able to rebound after being able to scramble really hard at the perimeter. And that is another issue for them, Jackson Hayes being behind them and not being a perimeter defender. This group is chatting right now, and LeBron is playing unlike he has for the last five, six, seven years defensively. Yeah, I mean, he looks better than that. So, yeah, I think it is a question with all those perimeter guys if they're going to be able to do it in the postseason. So there's good questions, but yes –

We could have some good theater in the future. There's no doubt. One of the biggest plays I thought was by Rui when it was still a close game. He totally blew up Dwight Powell, Kyrie Irving sort of dribble handoff situation. It was a little pick and roll. They sort of tried to run it twice. Rui just completely blew it up and then took it the other way and it was an easy score and that was sort of enough room for the Lakers to get the W. What'd you think of the fans chanting, thank you, Nico?

when we had Luka at the line. Gotta do it, man. It was pretty funny. It was like predicted going in and they came through with it. Yeah. And Nico, I mean, you couldn't miss him in his sort of Dallas Mavericks blue suit. That was a choice that he had obviously planned on wearing it there in LA for Luka's first game against his old team. But yeah.

Yeah, it was fun. Like you said, leaning into the game. First quarter was really exciting. It's sort of suddenly when they took away the 1-3 because he was out of bounds. It was like, I don't know. And from there on out, it just turned into a bit of a normal basketball game. But hopefully we get some more drama when Luka plays if...

You know, it's April 9th, you said, I think, on the calendar. You know, depends. Are the Lakers still trying to get to, like, a number two seed? Are the Mavericks trying to, like, get out of the play-in and play? I was like, guys could be playing. Could be, yep. But we could have a really fun game in Dallas there when he makes his return.

LeBron, as you said, he was just giving this game to Luka, essentially. This is your game. He walked off the floor with like 20 seconds left, right? When the game was over, if I'm not mistaken. Because he's like, I'm going to the locker room. They're not going to ask me for an interview. This is Luka's show. And it was all Luka's show. You mentioned the car that Jumpman had out there. It was weird when they did the video thing. It says Luka 77 on the plate.

But the guy who was driving it wasn't Luca. It was somebody else. That was weird. I don't think it was him changing the license plate either. Honestly, I thought that entire ad was AI until they drove the car up. Yeah. Because it looks fake. Yeah, it looks fake. But then it is cool to see Luca with the Luca 4, his new shoe, and he pulled over the tongue, which he's got a little heart on. He pointed a little heart. I guess it's for his daughter, Gabrielle, I assume. The shoe is nice. But yeah, the theater was...

It was alright. I mean, okay, a couple fun moments in the game. Loved when we had LeBron and Luka just passing the ball back and forth to each other. The literally semi-pro play where we just kept sort of putting Luka on the block and then he kept kicking it out to LeBron and then back to Luka and then back out. Obviously it ended with a LeBron 3. That was awesome. And we had an actual no-look pass.

From Luka, that dime over the head, sort of around the back, whatever you want to say, out to Austin Reeves, who banged home the three. A legit no-look. A lot of our no-looks in the league, there's usually looking. That was nice. There's a lot of at least set-up looks, or even sometimes I'm actually looking and then I'm going to look away. Look, everyone's guilty of it. That one felt like he never looked at Austin Reeves and just knew exactly where he was. That was crazy. Alper and Shang-Goon tried it in the Rockets game yesterday. Yeah.

It didn't work. It didn't work. Interesting timing for Shen Goon's attempt at it. But Tass is right. I do think Kyrie Irving is kind of rewarding. Nico Harrison's faith here. 35 last night, seven rebounds, four assists, three steals, two blocks. He's played eight games since the Luka trade, averaging 28 a game, five boards, four assists, a couple of steals and a block. Incredible percentages as well. He has scaled up to being the number one guy.

he's giving them really good leadership. Like, I think he's saying all the right stuff about the Luka trade. Like, it's sad to see him go. Of course, fans should be mad, but we got a job to do. He's the only one who's kind of not downplaying what Luka meant to Dallas. Yeah. The key is getting people healthy. And like, I think it's discouraging to hear that Anthony Davis still might need surgery. Yeah. Like there's no guarantee this guy comes back. They got Dwight Powell back last night, but yeah,

They weren't playing him before. He was the only healthy guy. So, I mean, they need a Gafford back. It seems like he's, I guess, most likely to come back. Yeah, but it's not around the corner, though, either. No, that's the thing. Anthony Davis was on the court pregame shooting around. And, yes, there was the cameras making sure they got Luka in the background as Anthony Davis was on one side. Shooting around, but, like, legit no jumping shooting around. It was like touching a ball, really.

Yeah, and as I said, when he got hurt and he was out for a minimum of seven games, I thought, well, their schedule isn't too tough. And they won that first game against the Pelicans. Then they lose two against Golden State in L.A. Now they get a game against Charlotte, so they should win a game. And then a couple against the Bucs and the Kings, and one against the Kings. So, you know. Keep your head above water. You could. They could. They could easily be –

have a win against the Bucs with how hard they are playing. Because to see Kyrie Irving carrying this game, and it was theatrical in that first quarter, to hit that three over Luka, and then he got a steal, and then he went and banged another three. Bang, bang, bang. I mean, that was awesome. And so he was so good in that first quarter. He was carrying this team. They need another guy, as we've said a billion times. I mean, he had 14 in the first quarter, nobody else helping. And in the fourth quarter, they just need one of those bigs that we said.

One of them. Because they missed eight of their 11 paint shots in the fourth. You just need some dinkers and dumpers. They were luckily hitting threes there for a good stretch. And Clay caught fire. Clay was on fire. Yeah, and that was like keeping them around. But you're right. Yeah, just a big guy. They have nobody. Yeah, they missed 10 shots at the rim in this game.

That's it. I mean, you hit a few of those and it's so different. It was just a fun, fun game with some nice passes. It's like, you know, the Austin Reeves pass to LeBron. Oh, man. I mean, that was sexy. Oh, yeah. A hell of a finish from LeBron on that one. Oh, yeah. Just...

Just a wow, wow from Brian Anderson. My goodness. What else was he supposed to say? That was awesome stuff. Any other notes, TK, on Luka and the Lakers getting the victory? I don't think so. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the match. I think LeBron's got to be happy, man. This has got to be the closest it feels like to playing on an Olympic team for him. Just from the least amount of lift he has to do. Because Luka's an offense. LeBron just gets to be a glue guy.

That's never been the case. That's never been. Even when he was on Miami, the team was loaded. He was still the number one dude. Yeah. Right. Yeah. He's never been a glue guy except for in the Olympics.

The other thing I was surprised, I guess he didn't see Najee Marshall call him too small when he scored over him. But that was amazing. Brian Anderson, I thought my eyes deceived you. I thought my eyes would deceive me when I saw Mark Cuban and his dyed hair, except for his sideburns. Like his entire hair is black, but he keeps his sideburns gray. That's just the look. What about Kyrie's new look?

taken off a lot of the facial hair. Very clean shaven. Tiny little goatee. Yeah. I don't know how I felt about it. I feel like it's sort of like me taking off this weird beard I have. That's why we're all nervous to shave our beard. You never know what it's going to look like. Unfortunately, you don't. Or you do, and you're like, yeah, it looks better with that weird beard. That was my great cold open we had the other day.

You don't know what you're going to look like. But last thing, Klay Thompson giving the doctor who gave him the surgery a championship ring is...

after the game. I mean, that was pretty cool because he was the guy that gave him his new, was it ACL? The ACL injury, the Achilles injury, I should say. And he said, I wouldn't be the second leading scorer on a championship team if it wasn't for you. So that was kind of cool. Thank your doctors. Thank your surgeons. It's respect.

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But that's 299 points, baby. And the only reason they had overtime was John Morant, TK, scored the Grizzlies' final 11 points in the fourth quarter. And he hit the one that tied it with, like, less than two seconds to go. He hit a three before that. I mean, he literally sort of took over there to get them into OT where they took care of business. Fun overtime game. I mean, some big shots being made, but what do you think? What?

The Suns were up like four with 16 seconds left. That's hard to lose that way, but it was basically John Morant hit a couple of crazy shots. And I feel like this game was kind of a microcosm of his season. Just very weird. 0 for 8 in the first half. Couldn't get anything going. Then he catches an alley-oop with his head at the rim. Just kind of like threw it down. That was like a David Robinson dunk off an alley-oop. That looked incredible. And then he took over from there like crazy.

In the first half, I'm watching this, and it's like you're just standing there in the corner. You're doing nothing. You're hardly involved in the offense here. Then, of course, he takes over. So I'm like, is this just extreme Isaiah Thomas original?

I play normal point guard basketball for three quarters and then take over in the fourth quarter. He didn't do really much in overtime either. So I don't really know what's going on with John Morant, but he showed up when they needed him the last 11 straight. Call 12. Great stuff from him. Jalen Wells, I thought was huge in this one. Made a couple of big baskets in overtime. Santi Aldama was good as well. And the Suns, man, they just, they're bad. They're bad. They made 21 threes last night. They shot 57% from the field.

It's the fourth time this season that they've hit 23s. It's their best percentage all season, and they lost. It's hard to lose a game when you make 23s and shoot better than 55%. It's happened 117 times in NBA history. Only the ninth time a team has lost. They don't play defense. They play bull bull. They don't play defense. They play bull bull. That's like, what are you doing? I think they're 2-6 when Booker, Durant, and Beal combine to score 75 or more. So what's the point?

Yeah. They brought in Mike Budenholzer. This is the end, it feels like, of Kevin Durant as a Phoenix Sun. You would think. You would think. We don't have to get into that right now. But they are. It's wild. They should have won this game like eight different times. Yes. It felt like. Like even in overtime, Durant at jumper was like a minute 15 to go. They're up four again.

And what happens? Nobody plays Aldama out at the three-point line. Hits a three. Like, wide open. Yes. Big three. That was ball balls, man. I mean, yeah, just completely wide open. It's like, okay, now it's suddenly a one-possession game again. And I will give Brandon Clark had a hell of a play. Like, John Morant, I think he maybe got blocked or he came up really short.

Brandon Clark, like right Johnny on the spot, like somehow tipped it in with like 35 seconds ago. That was incredible. Yeah, that was awesome. And then Durant missed a bunch of threes there down the stretch. But what do you think? This feels like the end. This feels like the game that was a lot more painful than losing to the Raptors on Sunday. The Raptors bombed away the last couple of minutes on threes. But this one was winnable. They played good enough to win against the second seeded.

Western Conference team. This was way more painful to get there up for 16 seconds left. And Morant hit that leaning three. It was a ridiculous three to make it a one-point game. And then Grayson Allen goes to the line and misses one. He's a good free throw shooter. He misses that one. And then Morant gets that two from the mid-range. Another fairly tough shot. But, yeah, he just came off. He got off exactly in the fourth quarter just to do enough. And, again, four-point lead that they –

They bomb in overtime. So really, really strange. I mean, they're two and a half games out of the plan, but still, they still have the toughest schedule the rest of the way. Still got the Cavs and the Thunder and two more against the Celtics and the Nuggets, Grizzlies again, and the Knicks. That's hard. Yeah. And remember, I saw Zilla write this in his newsletter this morning. Phoenix started the season 8-1.

8-1. They were off to an incredible start. They're 19-30 since that 8-1 start. Two and a half games out of the number 10 spot, like you said. Just two games ahead of the number 12 seeded Portland Trail Blazers. That's sort of how bad this sun season's been. The Blazers are on their heels. Just another brutal loss. But good stuff there from the Grizz as they, I guess...

What did that do? Keep them in second. They're tied there with the nuggets, right? They're technically in second.

And I will just say, did Jalen Wills win Rookie of the Year last night? I mean, nobody's going to notice it, but those overtime points were huge. I mean, the one was all done by John Morant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The one that was like full court and suddenly Jalen Wills has a dunk or a layup on the side. But he was good. He is damn good. Yeah, he is. He did the up and under against Bull Bull, who... Yeah, that was nice. That was nice. Bull Bull...

He can score points. He can score points, man. But, like, literally it's him that was guarding Aldama on the walk-up three. He's a big part of the reason they...

The Grizzlies threw an inbounds pass to the far other side of the court, and John went fall court and found Wells for a dunk. Wide open. Wide open. Unbelievable scenes from the Phoenix Suns. But this, yeah, you said it's a microcosm of their season. They had five guys score 20 points. That's a lot of guys to score 20 points. The Suns did. Yeah. I mean, overtime is a part of that, but still. Let's move to another guy that scored over 20 points. Jalen Green, 25 for him as the Rockets held on.

for the 100-97 win over the Bucs. What a fourth quarter. I think it was 15-12. What happened? The first six minutes of that fourth quarter was insane. Like, neither team could really score. It was...

you know, I don't know, defensive juggernaut here, but a little bit of bad offense as well. But the Rockets do get the victory. Now the one thing, we'll show you the clip here, was Bucks down two with about four and a half minutes to go. Ahmed Thompson, he's pulling down Giannis, trying to stop the easy dunk or the easy layup, and he pulls him by the head, he pulls him by the neck as Giannis went up for the shot in the lane. They reviewed it, as you would.

And they determined that to be a flagrant foul too. Thompson was ejected. Do you think the officials got that one right? Yeah. In going with the flagrant foul too? Yeah. Well, the Rockets broadcast didn't agree with you. No way. They were complaining about that? Dang.

were after they saw a few more replays it really is that last part where it looks like he puts an ether claw on his nose yeah ridiculous they sort of were coming around I think they were leaning towards flag and foul one but yeah they didn't make a big stink about him getting tossed yeah makes sense Giannis afterwards like no hard feelings I don't want the league to be soft

I thought that was a great thing. He's like, yeah, I want to knock down guys like that too. Eat your heart out, Mike Dunleavy. The competitive nature got the best of him. Fair enough. Both coaches were like, yeah, he should have been kicked out. Yeah. That's fine. Yeah. Yeah. It was a weird fourth quarter, but Giannis, he was fighting. He was scrappy. He dove on the floor, blocked a shot late. He was fighting for his team that couldn't do much, even though he got pulled down by the mouth.

Literally, that was like a rag with clover form on it. Like, taking him out. That's what it looked like. Yeah, to see this Bucs team struggle in the fourth quarter, score only 12 points. They didn't score for the first six minutes. It was Kevin Porter Jr. and Kyle Kuzma leading them at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Like, you're the two guys. You do it. And they just struggled. Porter basically hit underneath the backboard. And Kuzma, I mean, he was blocked late.

He just didn't have it either. And this is a game that could use Bobby Porter's junior. I know that's reaching a little bit, but their fourth quarter offense is just a problem, period. And Dame tried to bail them out at the end, but it did not happen, which is a pretty funny ending, the way it is.

That all happened too. It was a very, very weird game. A low-scoring game, of course, 197 in today's game. But, yeah, good win from the Rockets, who obviously had been... Yeah, you know, they had that big stretch there. They were sort of losing a lot of close games and losing games. But 19-9 at home and trying to stay within striking distance of the second and third seeds. I mean, they want to keep... Home court advantage would be awesome for them in a first-round series, which will be tough no matter who they play.

Exactly. We'll see who they end up matched up with, but I imagine that most people will be picking against the Rockets in the first round, but having home court advantage would be helpful. It's just going to be tough. They're going to be an inexperienced team going against these teams that are in the play-in right now or, you know, like five on down.

are pretty experienced teams. They're teams that have a little bit of playoff reps. Jalen Green's been pretty good. This is his time of year. After the All-Star break, he turns it on. Once it gets to March, this guy absolutely dominates. And I think small guards really give the Bucs problems because Torian Prince, he's more of a three who has to guard twos and ones.

So maybe Gary Trent Jr. should move into the starting lineup. I don't know. You nailed it. Kuz and Kevin Porter Jr. were pretty good in the first half for the Bucs, but in the fourth quarter they combined to go 0-6 with five turnovers, I think. They just play too big of a role for this Bucs team right now with no Portis, with Giannis and Dame kind of working their way back into shape. You look at those Bucs scores, it's hilarious. The fourth quarter. Because Dame scored seven points. Giannis scored five points. No.

Nobody else on the Bucs had a point. Jalen Green had seven points. Alper and Shengun had six points. Sorry, you snuck in at two in there. But yeah, just extremely low score. Five guys scored in the fourth quarter across both teams. And Shengun with 13 seconds left. There's no reason to do what he was doing. That was awesome. You could just dribble it out, basically. No, I say throw it over your head.

And just to go back to how we started this game, I did love, like you said, Giannis. No hard feelings, man. You know, he's trying to stop an easy basket. My favorite part of his whole thing that he talked about with the media was like,

These are simply part of the game. Like, they are. Nobody wants to get hurt, nobody wants to see it, but if you are playing hard, it's going to happen from time to time where maybe you got a little too high and got me on the neck and the face and stuff like that. Yeah. It's an extremely physical game. And I think more, like, again, nobody wants to get hurt, you don't want to see a neck injury or anything, especially to a superstar like Giannis, but...

Nothing easy, also. You know, to be a little zaza about it. Ahmed playing hard, and I guess he's got a lot of goodwill, it feels like. This is the second time he's been ejected. Remember he threw Tyler Hero with like a hip check to the ground. So...

If you're going to play that hard, sometimes it's going to bite you in the ass and you're going to cross the line. The second time here in this season. Are you saying he's a dirty player? No, no, no. Better say your prayers, Simon. So other takeaways from Tuesday night's NBA action. We had Jalen Brown scoring 24. Celtics won again. Six straight for them. They beat the Raptors by 10. Cavs destroyed the Magic. 122-82. No garland, but the Cavs win their eighth straight. Warriors...

thumped the Hornets 128-92. There was so little to actually pull from this game that they had to go with the Warriors franchise's 3,000th win. Congratulations. And the Pelicans, my Pelicans, overcame a big deficit. We'll get to them in a second, but any of those games you wanted to touch on?

Well, I know you don't want to hear about it, but the Raptors are going through some trials and tribulations. That's what they wanted when they made the trades for Quickly and Barrett to get that last year, the calendar year of 2024. That's what they wanted to do. So it's fine to see Emmanuel Quickly make some mistakes. Like, I thought he was a ball stopper earlier in this, early in the game. Just move it, man. Or they had a great matchup with Scotty Barnes being guarded by Peyton Pritchard, just not passing it to him. I will say, though, there are lots of good moments.

even though they're going through those trials and tribulations quickly just has to get better has to be a starting point guard so that's that's fine for these last 20 games to be exactly that but

But I will say quickly, he's knocking down 45% of his pull-up threes this season. That's number one in the NBA of players who take three or more a game. That's some great stuff. He's shooting 42% on above-the-break threes. That's also great stuff. Our man Asparah Henney giving us that stat. So there's good things. That's all I got to say. It's over. Nobody else needs to hear anything else about the Toronto Raptors for the rest of the season because...

Literally, there is still a chance. There's still a freaking chance that they make the play-in tournament. Probably not. Probably not. I love when Tass tells me a player's having a good shooting season from the Raptors, and then I look and Emmanuel quickly went 0 for 6 from 3 last night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like when you told me Scotty Barnes was having a great mid-range shooting season. I looked at the box score. He was 5 for 21 that game. Bad timing. Jared White made more 3s than the Raptors did last night. Yeah.

He made six. They made five. Celtics are rolling. They're 9-1 in their last 10, as is Cleveland. They play on Friday. That's awesome. Yeah, and the Celtics, I mean...

They went up to Toronto last night, and they won, so that's not an issue. But, like, they started Sam Hauser, and they started Torrey Craig. Like, they gave a couple guys a night off, you know what I mean? It was like, we're not too worried about this. But, yes, okay. Quickly. Keep knocking them down, man. We like to see that. What about you, TK? Any of those other games? Ty Jerome had an awesome game. No Darius Garland. 20 points in 21 minutes. He was 4 for 6 from 3. Came after he went for 26, 5, and 4 in the win against Memphis.

12 a game, two rebounds, three assists, and a steal on the season for Ty Jerome. 52 from the field, 44 from three, 88 at the line. Damn. Like, I don't know. He's going to be on ballots for sixth man of the year and for most improved, I have to think. It seemed like it might just be a hot start to the season, but he's been able to keep it up. And, like, he's an additive player for the Cavs. They bring him in. It feels like they lose nothing. He gets the handle of the ball, shoots some shots. Really, really good stuff from him.

You know who would love to have a tie drum is the Orlando Magic. They scored 82 last night, seventh time this season under 90. It's only happened 51 times all year in the NBA, and seven of them are for Orlando. They're tied with the Hornets for the most, and Cole Anthony got hurt last night. Yeah. Yeah, they cannot score. They can't score. I mean, I guess this could be a potential rematch too, a postseason match between Orlando

in the Magic, if the Magic are one of the play-in teams that win the 8 seed and stuff like that in a 1-8 matchup. It's possible. It's possible. I can't wait to see how much Ty Jerome gets in free agency because he's playing well. The Cavs are paying a lot of guys, so they may have to give up on Ty Jerome who's balling...

With his best friend, after the game he was interviewed, he was asked about DeAndre Hunter. He said, yeah, that's my best friend because they played at Virginia together. Won a title. Trying to do the same. Yeah, trying to do the same. And DeAndre Hunter can help out do that. He came off the bench, bang, bang, bang, hit his first, second, third, three-point shots. I mean, he's helping. He's helping be that perfect guy. He ain't passing. That's not what he does. That's not what he did here in Atlanta when he was a six-man-of-the-year candidate.

but he helps out big time. And I did mention it there just to give a little nut dust bowl update. Pelicans once again, overcame a huge deficit to the Spurs. They were down 19 in the first half. They come back to win 109, 103. And so that gives me a half a game up on you guys.

in the nut dust standings Tass's Hornets like I said they lost again they're 14 and 43 Jazz 14 and 43 that's TK's Jazz and then my Pelicans getting that victory coming back they're 15 and 43 so I'm a half game up you should finish with the best record

The Pelicans. Yes. Let's hope so. Yeah, they've got Zion. They've got the best players by far. Yes. Tass's advantage was that he had more games to play, which theoretically could have resulted in more wins, but Charlotte loses by 35 every night. Yeah, they're on a slide right now. And the Jazz have been in games, for sure. Lost some close ones. Yeah, they're who knows. I think it's going to be tight. I think it's going to be very tight. Just a weird thing about De'Aaron Fox, obviously acquired by the Spurs on February 3rd.

He's yet to play an actual home game in San Antonio because their two home games, I'll throw them in air quotes, were in Austin against the Suns and the Pistons. And every other game's been on the road. And that's going to increase to 11 straight road games because they got two more on the road. This guy's going to have gone like a month almost without having played in front of Spurs fans. And he had a rough game last night. Another rough one in terms of shooting the ball. It was not a good percentage. Yeah.

as the Pels came back. Big Zion dunk. That was nice. I don't know if you guys saw that. In traffic.

He's still good, man. They shouldn't have 13 wins this season, or 14 wins this season. 15 now, baby. You're right. It was a bad year. I thought Charlotte would be okay going down the stretch here just because LaMelo Balls play sometimes. And I thought when they got bombed yesterday by 42, I thought he didn't play. But he played. That's the weird thing. I mean, they beat the Lakers, and then they've got bombed by the Blazers and Kings in two games that LaMelo Ball played. Yeah. Surprisingly. Surprisingly.

By that much, they shouldn't. But he had two poor, poor nights. So road trip, I guess, is tough. And they go to Dallas, and Dallas is going to get a win for sure. Oh, he's calling it. Oh, yeah.

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But Angel Hair Pasta, Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. All right, let's hit the beach. Answer some questions. You got the buzz. I got the rockets. You got the nuts. I got the chocolates. We got that chit-chat down pat, blah, blah, blah. You got that certain special. Genesis, wah! Let's go, bitch!

Alright, we're hitting the beach to read your emails and tweets. We got some silly ones today, but very fun ones. Let's see your answers in the stream team or in the YouTube comments. First one from Michael. Ayo! My friend texted our group chat that he got challenged in his 2K career by Jimmy Butler and Jake from State Farm. What? What?

Didn't know you could do that in the game. This caused the group to suggest other insurance mascots to be his teammate and got me wondering, what would be the best starting five of those? Would a pick and roll with Lemu, Emu, and Doug be deadly? Has Shaq taught the generals some moves, maybe some post moves?

That question from Michael. We're looking for insurance mascots that can hoop, TK. I don't know. Do you have a starting five or do you want to go through some that you think might have game? I've just got some notable insurance mascots. Insurance companies have mascots. Yeah. All of them.

Geico has like a hundred mascots. Yeah. It's crazy. You could do maybe a starting five of Geico mascots. I mean, and then so, I mean, I know Flo is the number one from Progressive, but they have like a whole roster. They got Jamie. They got the Caveman. They got the Gecko. They literally have at least five players. Wait, wait, wait. No, the Gecko is Geico. And Caveman is Geico. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Progressive and Flo. Progressive doesn't have mascots though, do they? What? What?

Flo. Flo is the mascot. Flo. I mean, she's a person. Yeah, she's a person. But character. I'm calling mascot as representative. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just didn't know. I just didn't know where we were going with these starting fives. Because the Geico's, yeah, they're stacked, man. I think they're stacked. Because I think you can call the caveman mascot. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm calling them all mascots for this question because they're representatives of the insurance company. Fair. But who can hoop? Well, my first question was, can Jake hoop?

Yes, he played D3 ball. Scored 10 a game. Damn. Oh, I think he's got too bulked up. He's pretty bulky now, man. He's real Grayson Allen. Exactly. Didn't ruin his shot. We shall see. My number one draft pick, though, would be the Geico Caveman. I love the size. I'm going to dumb it down for him. Set screens, roll to the hoop.

My concern is that the caveman hates being told to do simple things. You can do so much more. It's going to be Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic all over again. No, I want post-up touches. I want to show my handle. No, man, set screens, roll to the hoop, you're a caveman. Rebound, yeah. That's who I want is my number one pick. I also think Mayhem from Allstate. I like Mayhem. Fan favorite, guaranteed. Oh, yeah. I don't know what position, but he's like a Della Vadova or a Steven Adams.

Yeah, I pictured him as a bigger guy. Like, in this fictional world. He's banging. Yeah. And he, in one of those commercials, I swear he plays basketball. Or is he watching, like, two brothers play? Do you know what I'm talking about?

Somebody rips down a net in something. He's both brothers and your brother takes things too seriously. So he's got a love for the game, you know? He's scouting. I like Mayhem. I'm almost thinking Mayhem over Caveman. I think that would be a hell of a battle to watch. That's true. Anyone else? Mayhem likes to throw down. He likes to scrap. He would scrap against Caveman. I do think Gecko, Geico the Gecko, he's smart. Yeah.

I mean, he's tiny, but he has sticky hands. That means he'll never lose the ball. But he is small. And that's my, I mean, the mention of the general in the question. He's tiny. He's from the 90s. You could play in the 90s, maybe. But not now.

He's a Muggsy. So you would take the Gecko Gecko, I guess Gecko Gecko, over Affleck? Over the duck? Over the duck? Yeah. Probably. He only shows up at the end of commercials.

That means he'd be the last guy back on defense. He would never show up. The duck? The duck. Oh, okay. Yeah, he'd be the last guy. He'd stink. And the Limu-Limu and Doug. Ooh. Nah. No? Nah. You're like the synergy. Played together for years. The guy in the glass is always like. Doug? Yeah. He's like, why are you eating that thing? As opposed to the Limu. The Himu. Well, it's funny. The Doug. Doug is the sidekick.

Yeah. I mean, Limu Limu, he's the man, the main guy. He's the emu, technically. He's the mascot. Oh, yeah. I'm just saying, maybe the picket's the other way around. Yeah. Sorry to interrupt. No, no, no. Anyways, Doug the Duck is always asking Limu the emu, he's saying, why are you eating that thing?

Call him Duck the Duck. We're literally just melding all of them together. Anyways, that was a fun question. Can an emu fly? I don't think so. I don't think so. Flightless bird? Probably get up a little off the air. Who you got one on one? Aflac Duck versus Lemu Emu. Emu with size. More size for sure. Huge. It's a huge bird. What about coach? Coaching this team? Professor Burke?

From Farmers? Is that J.K. Simmons? Yeah, okay. I feel like he'd be a good coach. He commands respect, right? Gravitas. Yeah, oh yeah. You saw how he whipped that guy into shape in Whiplash. That's right, yeah, yeah. I never saw it, but I think he's intense. Kobe Bryant liked that movie, so it must be crazy. Two guys I don't want, Liberty Bibberty. Can't remember the place.

And last on my draft board is Jamie from Geico. Yeah, I hate Jamie. I got not a team player. I already hated Flo, and then somehow Jamie came along, and I was like, wow, that's smart. Now I don't mind Flo as much. That's why they brought Jamie in, make Flo look better. Yeah, that's what I think. I think so. All right. Good stuff, Michael. Yeah, emus cannot fly. No? Just wanted to confirm that. So like an ostrich can't fly.

Yeah. I thought they could, like, get up a little bit. They get up. Yeah. They can play a little. Play a little around the room? Yeah, they get up for, like, a second and come down. There used to be a local emu here that was really cool to go and see. Big Lou. Really? Big Lou the emu. Yeah, he was at one of the land trusts around here. Just passed away recently, though. Oh, damn. Sad stuff. Send in our best. Never got to play ones with him.

Yeah, I believe it. I believe that there's some... Big looby-ee-moo. Have you ever been to the drive-thru safari here in Atlanta? I don't know. Because there's two. And there's the one where the ostriches come up and they start packing. Oh, yeah. They give it to your window. I hate that shit, man.

They give it to your window. Oh, yes. I mean, I went with my kids. They scared the crap out of the kids. They start banging on that window. No, thank you, man. They start giving as hard as they possibly can. That's great. It's fun. It's scary. It's fun. But anyways, that's what you just reminded me of. RIP to Lou. Yeah. Anyway.

Next one. Gents, we are entering the stretch run of the season, which obviously means it's time to think about what gimmicky, kitschy memorabilia teams will give to end-of-season NBA award voters. For example, my trailblazers, who somehow forgot to tank this year, should obviously send security kamaras, or kamaras, okay, to highlight how deserving Tumani Kamara is for an all-defensive team.

If you ran a team's PR department, what gift would you choose? That's from Jamal. The camera, security cameras, that's a great idea, Jamal. So what do you guys got? Do they still do this? This used to be a big thing like a decade ago. Yeah, we did. I don't know. I feel like it died out a little bit. I don't know. Maybe we're just out of the loop. Yeah, we may not get them, but I feel like other like...

I heard Zach Lowe would share them a lot and stuff like that. What did we get? We got Ty Lawson. That's the first one I think of is Ty Lawson. I think we got like a Carl Anthony Towns cash cab one that came with a beret or something like that. We also got, there used to be like Kevin Love Windex when he was like gobbling up all the rebounds. This was way back. Way back in the day.

Yeah. Ty Lawson was the I Love Ty in the I Love NY New York style t-shirt. James Harden? Like, the Rockets sound like a Monopoly game? I think it's probably behind JD somewhere over there. But anyway. Yeah, they sound a lot of stuff. Corey Brewer, like, coffee? Yeah. Corey Brewer's brew dogs? Yeah.

But am I crazy? I feel like it's died down a little bit over the last little bit. I don't know. We don't hear as much about that. Anyway, it's a good question. So if I ran a team's PR department, what gift am I choosing to try and bolster the case for someone to win an award? Well, I think the Rockets and the Pistons, their PR departments should team up, should come together like a Lemu, Emu, and Doug and make something for the Thompson Twins.

And they're all defensive, let's say, chops. Like their chances to make an all defensive team. Thompson Twins, British pop band from the 80s. I think their most popular song was Hold Me Now. JD, is that probably right? Yeah, I would say. Off the top of my head. Great song. It is a good song. And that song starts with, I have a picture pinned to my wall. So I think you sneak into media members' houses and pin pictures of the Thompson Twins.

to like the wall of, you know, Fred Katz and Sam Emmick. Yeah. Yeah. Something creepy like that. But they got to work together. Thompson twins. It's right there. Wow. Go with it. Now they're, they're breaking the Fred Katz's house and hang a picture of them. I do like it. Hanging a picture of them ties into their nickname, which is the terror twins. That's good. Um, now, well,

No, that's the Rockets. That's the Rockets, Amand Thompson. That's really funny, though, that they gave a twin a twin-related nickname. He's like, no, I have to level up so I can be a starter, so I can actually be only related to my actual twin. He had to go better. Yeah, so just have Amand Thompson and Asar Thompson on that poster and sneak it in. I mean, they're terror twins. Here's the funny thing about the Thompson twins. The pop band.

There's more than two. What? Yeah. And there's no twins, I don't think, in it. That's exactly right. Yeah. So there we go. So let's fold in... Who did it? Tari Eason. Sure. That's like next level PR work. It's like, oh, Thompson twins. They're twins. But actually, there was more than two in the Thompson twins from the mid-'80s. I know, man. Hey, there's the Thompson twins. Wow.

They're not twins. I don't think so. For the YouTube viewer, come on over and you will see they're definitely not twins. We know that much. So anyway, that's mine. What do you got, TK? I guess the two could be twins. Well, I guess it could be, but they're not. I know they're not fraternal, you think. Yeah, you never know. You never know. You got a couple Thompson twins. You throw in a Tari Eason. You got that band right there. We got something there. All right, I'm going to say some things and you guys tell me if they're good.

Peyton's Pringles for sixth man of the year. Once he pops, he can't stop. Love it. He's got like an animated Peyton Pritchard. Yeah, and people want food all the time. Yeah. So send Pringles out. Yeah. Pringles. Nice. Santy Claus hats for sixth man of the year. Instead of ho, ho, ho, it says vote, vote, vote. It's got Santy Aldama on the front of it. Sure. All right. I don't mind it. Some kind of Khalil Ware Superman tie-in. Ooh. The movie's coming out this summer. Yeah. Yeah.

His rookie of the year case has fallen off a little bit, I think. He had like three good games and people... He rose to literally the top of the favorites and we haven't heard from him since. Dyson Daniels dustbusters. Yeah, that's a no-brainer. For defensive player of the year or all defense. And then I don't really have anything for Evan Mobley except for saying most improved player.

Could they do something with that? Mopst. Mopst improved player. It's like saying Jeff Probst, but Mopst. Jeff Mopst. Yeah, give him Jeff's hat. Give him a blue shirt. Okay. Tiki torch. He goes and asks for people's votes. They say no.

Or maybe, maybe, maybe listen to this. We take all the most improved candidates and have them play Survivor. Okay. See who wins in the award. And he goes by Jeff Most. Yeah, you said Dyson Daniels. I couldn't help but think about Dyson Daniels potentially winning defensive player of the year and just sending fuzzy dice in Daniels. Fuzzy dice for a rear view mirror. People like putting things on the rear view mirror. And you'll have Dyson Daniels' face on the dice, the fuzzy dice.

Everyone needs those. People need those. Those were a big thing. Yeah. Fuzzy dice. Huge dice, right? I don't put anything in my rearview mirror anymore. I don't either. Seems like a hazard to me. Disappointing. I want to get dice now. Dice would be cool. Or Stefan Castle could win Rookie of the Year castle hats. Jaden Smith was wearing that castle hat.

at what was it was it the Grammys what was it anyways yeah whatever award show Oscars Oscars I don't know no Oscars doesn't have it must have been Grammys must have been yeah he was there yeah I guess so I guess so and

We were looking for those hats because I'm going to be wearing something really stupid next week. Oh, I think it arrives today, by the way. Oh, great. So I think we are going to have it for Monday. Yeah. Delicious. But it's not a castle hat, unfortunately. No, we couldn't find it. It's worse. It's worse than a castle hat, what we got. I believe it is. Yes, absolutely. But better. Better, but it's worse. Yes, but better, yes. Yeah.

Final one here. Hey, no dunkaroos. Happy belated birthday, Trey. Thank you. My kids think it's cool I share a birthday with you. That is cool. That's very cool. That's a very low bar, but that's pretty cool. I was watching a Cavs game recently, and when they went on a big run, it was called a Cavs-a-lanch.

Okay, I like it. Such a fun troll comedy move and the fans would probably love it. Can you think of another fun troll or comedy moment teams could institute? Love the show. That's from Sean in Seattle.

That is a funny idea with the Cavalanche there. Just send over a St. Bernard dog to rescue him. Good cue. Who wants to go first? I don't have a good answer, to be quite honest, but when a blowout happens. A blowout is when a baby...

Just has big poop. Okay. Okay. Go on. So can you bring over some... You probably can't do it with the actual players that are getting blown out. That just wouldn't happen. But let's say you're in an arena with the opposing fan that has their jersey on. You bring a diaper over.

that's full of let's say brown stuff to the you know to the child to the fan I should say and you show it on camera and he'll just look at it and think it's poop and that's it that's your moment that's your moment it'll make social media moving on that's it what about you said you didn't have a good one yeah that's a great one what about put it in the t-shirt gun

Fire it at them. Oh, that's good. Especially at the Intuit Dome. Intuit Dome, they can pick any seat you want, so they'll know where all the opposing fans are. Fire a diaper full of crap at them. The camera's already locked in on that person? Yeah. You show it? Yeah. That'd be great. Yeah, that's really good. TK, do you have anything better than that? No. Oh. I might. Shooting diapers? Well, no. Full diapers with brown stuff could be anything. Yeah.

Golden State, when Klay Thompson came back, they gave everybody captain's hats. So we know they had the capacity to get stuff out to the crowd. They should hand out pillows for when Steph Curry hits the night-night. All the fans do it as well. Dude!

Look at that. There's only one good celebration going on in the NBA right now. So you got a pretty damn good one. The other one I think is that OKC fans should start wearing dog masks around because they're all barking. They're always barking. Like, you know, they've got the, it's good. The Eagles a few years ago had like the full face ones. You can also go with like the little kid ones that just had the string and just the nose on it. Yeah. I, uh, I took your Steph Curry, the night night celebration. I took it in a different direction. Same idea, of course, but I'm picturing you're in the chief center.

The Warriors are crushing the Hornets, right? Blowing them out. Yeah. No, no, no. Pacifier, pacifier, pacifier. It's like, obviously, when Steph drops the night-night, Chase Center drops the lights down, lullaby music...

Throughout the entire arena. And then we go over to the opposing bench. Start handing out blankets. Warm glasses of milk. Right? Just really rub it in their face. Go to bed, you little babies. You little babies. Yeah. But same idea. I love it. At least play the lullaby. Play the lullaby. That would be badass. They can easily do that. Yeah. Yeah. Do, do, do.

Yeah. Just that. That would be so good. And just drop the lights a little bit. It would be great, too. I think it would be funny. That would be very funny. All right. Great questions. Banger after banger after banger there. Let's hear your answers in the stream team and in the YouTube comments. Maybe we'll hit the beach a little bit later this week as well. Okay. It is over.

Tass, you picked up another L last night. I mean, by half a point, or by a point, I guess. Sort of. Yeah, the line was seven and a half, although when we started doing it, when we started talking about it on yesterday's show, it was already up to nine. And they didn't cover nine. But that's totally, totally fine. I was already down by four anyway, so yes, I'm going to be wearing a dumb hat for it.

February's pick-em payoff next week. And maybe a little bit more than just a dumb hat. Yeah. Right? We'll leave it at that. Could be funny. You might not be at the desk. We'll see. JD is picking it up in Austin. But whatever you're doing, you're doing it all week. All week. That's been the theme this year, yes. So tonight, Boston at Detroit. I just think it's a good game. Detroit getting four and a half points at home so they can lose by four or less and still cover the spread. That's why I'm comfortable taking them.

As is Trey, while Skeets and Esch think the Celtics are going to win by five or more. Should be a fun game. Yeah, you know, back-to-back situation is tough. For Boston, yeah. Though, like I said, a couple of those guys didn't play. Good test here for the Pistons, I'll tell you that. Excited to see it. I'd love to see a close game at the very least. Yeah, I thought the line looked a little small to me, even though the Celtics are on the second night of a back-to-back. They probably just rest different guys.

Like Porzingis, he could play. Yeah, they might. Jalen Brown, take a nine off. Who knows? I mean, what? Both these teams are on winning streaks, right? Six and seven games, respectively. Boston and Detroit. I think I have that right. That's right. Yes. Maybe seven now for Boston? Anyway, it's a lot. No, that's right. Okay. Yeah. Six and seven. Somebody's streak comes to an end tonight. That should be a good game. It's probably one of the better games on tonight. You know what else is on tonight? Survivor. Season 48.

That means No Buffs is back tomorrow afternoon. So we'll have two shows for you tomorrow if you're a fan from the Classic Factory. No Dunks at 10 a.m. Eastern, No Buffs at 1 p.m. Eastern, TK, JD, Nora, and myself breaking down a guess what? Two-hour premiere. Oh, boy. Chunky. What the hell was that? Beach sound device. A wave. It was still going and I had it.

I thought you were playing it because we were talking about Survivor. Yeah, play it if you want. That's going to mess up. Okay, don't worry about it. So anyway, we will see you here tomorrow. Hit the like button, subscribe. Podcast listeners, consider leaving your boys a five-star rating and review. Till then, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, the three hottest teams in the NBA are all in the Eastern Conference. That's right. Cavs 8.

Celtics 6 and Pistons 7. Who knew it? Easter Conference basketball is back, baby. Better than the West, I'd say. Brace the day, people. I don't mean that.