NBA Weekend Winners & Losers | Magic End Cavs' Win Streak, Rockets Rising, Ice-Cold Heat

2025/3/17

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You know how I know I'm getting old? I just had a five-minute conversation with a little chipmunk in my yard, and it was a f***ing stick.

Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the No Dunks podcast on The Athletic Network. It's Monday, March 17th, 2025. Happy St. Patrick's Day. I'm Jay Skeets here in the Classic Factory, and alongside me, as always, Tass Mellis. Podcast listeners.

This is for you. Next to him, it's the bearded one, my top shot hot boy, Trey Kirby. Hey-o. Hey-o. And over yonder, making the magic happen, super producer JD. Hello. There he is. Here we are. Shout out to the stream team joining us live on YouTube. Smash that like button and subscribe podcast listeners, five-star ratings and reviews. Got to start by asking you guys a very important question.

Who else seen the leprechaun say yeah? Yeah, yeah. God, I watched that again last night. It is still a banger. Every character is gold in that skit. That's a classic YouTube clip. Again, happy St. Patrick's Day. Everybody in green. Looks great. Our live show coming up next week. Yeah, that's right. Next week, March 27th at 7 p.m. Eastern at the Seven Stages Theater.

Atlanta Georgia it's our live podcast pizza party with Tabasco we have so much Tabasco right now in the classic factory you would think we're an actually factory it's amazing so come join us yeah you're getting a tote bag yeah a tote

Totally think I'm joking, but no, there's a bunch of Tabasco totes right over there. So go get your tickets if you're in the Atlanta area or maybe you're coming for some March Madness basketball. Again, that is March 27th. Hit the link in the show notes to get yourself a ticket for you and your friends. We're looking forward to that.

All right, it's Monday. We look back at the busy NBA weekend. We do winners and losers. Trey, get us started here. Who's your big winner of the NBA weekend? Look, not a perfect weekend. They lost to the Timberwolves on Friday, but the Orlando Magic are my winners of the weekend because they got one of their biggest wins of the season, I think, on Sunday afternoon, snapping the Cavs. 16-game win streak after Paolo Boncaro hit a 16-footer. Nice little push-off. Simple jumper. Cavs missed a ton of threes in the last one minute.

But a big win for Orlando, who had lost five straight, including two to the Raptors, one to the Bulls. Since then, they've won three of five on a road trip, including beating the Bucs in Milwaukee. That's nice. And the Cavs in Cleveland. That's really, really nice. The turning point in this one was the end of the third quarter. Things were going the Cavs' way. They're up eight. Three straight turnovers, though, forced by the Magic, turned into ten points for them. And then in the fourth quarter, they shot just well enough, I thought, to kind of fend off Cleveland. Anthony Black is...

hit a couple of really timely three-pointers in the fourth for Orlando. You look down the road, potential first-round series here, assuming, well, I mean, a lot of things have to play out for it actually to be Cleveland-Orlando, but they faced off last year in the playoffs. They could meet in the 1-8 matchup again. Obviously advantage Cleveland. Clearly these two teams have gone opposite ways since last year's playoffs. But Orlando,

Orlando would make it pretty tough on Cleveland, I do believe, in a first-round series just because they've got great wing size in Boncaro and Franz Wagner, neither of which who, like, play great but do have the size and the physicality to give a smaller Cavs team who didn't have Evan Mobley yesterday, gave them some problems, I thought, 34 free throws.

for Orlando, 11 for Paolo, 6 for Franz. They just look bigger than DeAndre Hunter, who had a great look at a three-pointer from the corner, and he went Paul George mode off the top right corner of the backboard. That's not what you're aiming for from the corner, but from the Cavs side of things, like I said, no Mobley. They just won 16 straight games, and they had a chance to win this one too. The definition of you can't win them all.

You literally can't win them all. But the Magic picked, at least I thought, a good day being on national television against a good team to snap the win streak to hit three-pointers. Yeah.

I was thinking, like, if you tuned into that game on the weekend, you're like, oh, hey, the Magic, not bad. 13-31, 42% from deep. This team's pretty good, right? They took this team to seven games last postseason. No, that's not really the case. They can't hit a three to save their life. But this one, they hit more than Cleveland. And even Contavious Caldwell-Pope hit one. That was a timely one over on the wing. But,

But good timing if you just tuned in to see the Magic for the first time. Yeah, I don't know how KCP was that open. Weird, weird communication there from DeAndre Hunter and Donovan Mitchell. What are they doing? I mean, they just left him wide open. DeAndre Hunter was having a problem guarding Paolo Bancaro. That's where Evan Mobley would be, right there, guarding that guy all night long. And Mobley...

Now the favorite for a defensive player of the year. He's been doing it for a long time, and now he's probably going to win it. The way things are going for the Cavs defensively. Yeah, DeAndre Hunter just had a bad game. 2 of 11 from this one. And it was Donovan Mitchell's first game back from a groin injury, so he was a little off as well. But very off that DeAndre Hunter shot that hit the side of the backboard. Yeah, I guess he was just a little bit too far in the corner and maybe didn't know he should be there, but...

Weird. The Magic were in scramble mode. Like, they were looks that they would have all season long knocked down, there's no doubt. But at least they challenged these. They have guys screaming out. They talked about it on the broadcast, how they are like a really elite defensive team, the Magic are. But yeah, I mean, then you kept seeing Jared Allen just kept grabbing offensive rebound and kicking it out. You think the next one's going in. It didn't. He grabs another offensive rebound, kicks it out. You think that one's going in. It didn't. Because Mitchell missed a couple that, you know, he feels comfortable taking. And maybe it was a little bit of rust just coming back. He had a huge dunk in this game.

Yeah, he did. But yeah, I will say if they do somehow match up in a 1-8 matchup, I don't think it goes seven games this year. No way. No, five seems good. But the things that Orlando can do well are the ways you could theoretically beat the Cavs, right? It's like the Cavs...

despite the fact that usually they're playing two seven-footers, they're kind of a finesse team. The ball moves a lot. They're skinnier dudes. It's dribble handoffs. It's an offense-forward team. You got to be able to push them off their spots and get them out of rhythm, which is...

a team like Orlando can do. The problem is keeping up scoring wise. So you look at other teams in the league, it's like the Bucks have good size, not necessarily perimeter size because Kuzma's kind of their biggest guy out there. But the big one obviously would be OKC. OKC's got wings who are super physical. They foul everybody for 48 minutes to the point where you just can't call fouls on them every single time. So that could be a problem.

that's an NBA finals matchup to come to that. So I think Cleveland would be happy to address that in the final round of the playoffs if it comes up. Yeah. Orlando's moving up, shooting that ball as you brought up, up to 31.1% on the season. That's moving up. They were like 30.5 a few weeks ago. So good. Here they go. Here they go. Yeah. Let's keep it going. Tass, who do you have for a winner of the weekend? Well, the showdown that happened in Detroit between OKC and the Pistons was a great one. The fans got their money's worth. I

I mean, they were just oohing and aahing.

every single play that the Thunder were able to do. Now, they didn't have a bunch of guys. No Chet, no Jalen Williams, and they lost Lou Dorton in this game. But the oohs and the ahhs from the crowd were very vocal. I think Thunder fans are starting to accumulate throughout the United States of America and say, whoa, we're jumping on that wagon. Because those people were in there to watch Shea throw it up to Hart and Sheen with just the left-hand alley-oop crush.

There was a lot of oohs and ahhs. And then Shea putting Beasley on skates. I love it when a guy puts a guy on skates and then decides, as he tries to recover defensively, to go by him again. Just two moves, just getcha. And then the threes with space that were happening out there, a few minutes left, Asar Thompson went flying back. And Shea crushed that shot easily. I think...

That was like 12 feet between Shea and Asar Thompson. We got to measure these distances. That was... They do. That's what Shea does. They track them. Yeah, they track them. I don't really buy it. But anyways, I guess they do. You want different measurements. Yeah, better ones. So how did they do that? They just do the standard camera. Don't ask me. I'm still trying to figure out dunk score, man. Okay. Shea and Sharp had a dunk score over 100 last night. It was a fine putback dunk. The guy can fly, but like...

It was somehow like 30 points better than Anthony Edwards, who had a huge dunk. Mitchell had that big one, like I said. I'm still doing my head in on dunk score, man. You've got to figure out your own track and data. Well, it's Hawkeye or whatever that camera is called. Anyway...

They were just doing beautiful stuff up there. And Shea, when he went back after getting that space, he did the mean face, which he doesn't usually do. He keeps it sort of emotionless out there. But, yeah, even the Pistons broadcasters, Greg Kelser, as he saw Isaiah Joe pull up for a deep three, he just said, ooh, ah, Isaiah and Joe would salute that. I don't know.

I don't know what that really means, but it was funny. Two first names? That's all he could think. Yeah, that's what it was. Sounds like a joke I would make. Anyways, Cason Wallace was awesome again. Two first names as well. Cason Wallace, yeah. Shane Gildress Alexander, two first names and one last name thrown in the middle. Sure. Wallace...

I mean, it's more of a last name than a first name. I'd say it's 50-50. That's a good one. It goes both ways. These measurements are crazy in here right now. Cason Wallace was awesome. He's starting before Jalen Williams. That's the interesting thing about Cason Wallace. Again, we've been talking about him. He was awesome against the Boston Celtics last week. In this game, you can see the lefty finishes a couple times. He had an awesome dunk. He splashed a couple threes.

One to seal it with a minute 45 left as two guys went to Shea. He was wide open. Same sort of thing he did against the Boston Celtics. He sealed it. And he stole it straight from Cade. Bodying up a guy only at 6'3". He looked great and he stole it from Cade. 20 points, 9 of 15, 3 steals.

Again, he's just starting because of the injuries. But it's just so much fun to see this Thunder team. It's ridiculous. How much will this guy play in the playoffs? Probably 10 minutes a game sometimes. Maybe 20 minutes a game sometimes. It's interesting because they lost Lou Dort in this one. He slipped. And...

And he hurt his groin. Hopefully it's not too serious. He missed the next game for the Thunder this past weekend, but he tripped on a teammate's foot and it was reviewed for the hostile act. And that's why J.B. Bickerstaff, he was mad. Yeah, the post-game press conference for Coach J.B. Bickerstaff, there was a lot happening. There was a lot of... Sorry for all our podcast listeners who had to listen to that, but I had to bang the desk like J.B. Bickerstaff did out there. What we saw tonight was disgusting! He went off about the hostile act, which...

They measured to because Lou door stepped on his teammates foot and he went down and they were worried that somehow, I guess Isaiah Stewart was around and maybe it was Isaiah Stewart. I don't know what he was nearby. He had to do something weird. They know. I mean, there was the, it was ratcheted up a little bit in terms of the refereeing, just to see they were in the Pistons, uh,

Worry house. I wouldn't know what to call it here. Worry house. I know it's a weird statement. But they were definitely very aware that the Detroit Pistons, who are a very physical team, are complaining a lot. Yeah. They both are. Yeah. Which is great. Makes for a great basketball. Yeah, they're both physical. This was very weird, though. This was a poorly officiated game. Yeah, somewhat, yeah. This team I thought was bad. And then this is what kicked off then Kate Cunningham getting tossed out of the game.

Yeah, but Cade was extremely upset a couple times going at the referee. I agree with that. Bad on the Pistons, either his teammates, coaching staff, they have to remove him from that because he got his one tech for basically telling the refs, you don't even know what you're doing right now. You don't even know whether we're supposed to be lining up. Why are you even looking at this as a hostile review? So he was pissed off with them. And then, yeah, somebody should have pulled him away. Now, I think they're like, it's Cade.

He's not a hothead. He's not that crazy. He doesn't do this, right? So he'll probably chill out. He'll be fine. But the refs continued to keep screwing up and having no clue what they were doing to the point where it pissed off Cade and he kept talking and saying, do your effing job. And then he got the second one. And then he got tossed. Which, I mean, like, sorry, he was right. Cade was right. I know you don't want to hear it. Like, hey, you don't know how to do your job, but...

They didn't know what they were doing there. And so the frustration built and then they toss him. The kid was extremely upset about not having guys beside the free throw lane. That's exactly right. Cause they were confused about what happens out here. And he was going at one particular ref and he was swearing. He was mad. And,

Jimmy Bickerstaff also didn't get a review for an elbow that went up close to someone's face, and he wanted a hostile act review for that. So he was just very, very mad. And he was very sweaty. I think we need a... Oh, he was gushing. Yeah, he was. He was. But he talks about, like, I get into games. He does. As if I'm, like, a player out there. He was so sweaty. Yeah. Oh!

We need a sweaty coach of the year award. Because I thought Chauncey Billups would own this award. But then you see what Jimmy Bickerstaff brought, and I thought it would be him. How many towels does that guy go through a game? It was crazy, that one shot. It is dripping down his face. Between those two, then Eric Spolstrick gets mad, but not as mad. I don't know if there's any other nominations out there. Let us know if there's any other nominees. From a pure sweat perspective. I would see a guy gushing. We always talk about the sweatiest guys in NBA history.

Patrick Ewing's. Yeah. Coaches. Where are they? It's Billups. Because he gets mad too. And JB Bickerstaff. You just see it on a guy's face. I couldn't think of another one. Eric Spolstra again. A little bit.

But I don't know. Yeah. He doesn't seem that sweaty to me. Yeah. Maybe it's because he's slick. Yeah. The slickness is throwing off. The hair, yeah. Like, is Tom Thibodeau sweaty or is it just that little bit of hair stays wet? I think it's more like the guys like Bickerstaff who's really every possession. He's barking out. He's like trying to like, he's almost like a college coach. Yeah. Those animated college coaches that are like going up and down the sidelines.

Anyway, I had no problem with his complaints after banging the table. He's sticking up for his guys. And they are building or have built this identity, too. We're not pushovers anymore. We're going to play with an edge. I don't think it's bad boys that are pistons, but...

in today's NBA where everybody's lovey-dovey, they're going to bat for each other. So I didn't mind that. And I do think the officials were like, they looked like deer in headlights, a couple of those guys. They were like, what's going on? They were confused with the checking and lining up and all that. And like, okay, Cade should have stopped. And again, I think that's on another guy to like pull him away, get him out of there, let him cool down. But you don't want to see a star player get tossed for that.

No, and Jimmy Bickerstaff was clear to say, we're doing something that is good for the league in playing physical. And I understand the referees may want to keep it toned down. And I think he named Mark. I think he said one official's name. I believe it was Mark. And he said, I said that official's first name once. And that, I guess, got under his skin. But yeah, it is the Pistons. And I suppose the referees just weren't happy.

These two teams play again, I think. I think we have Thunder Pistons once more on the docket. I'm pretty sure because the Thunder are now 24-1 against the Eastern Conference.

They have five games remaining. Sixers, Hornets, Pacers, Bulls, and Pistons. And, you know, very easily could win all five of those. And I think that would set the all-time win percentage against an opposing conference since they did realignment back in whatever, like in the early 70s. Yeah, I don't have the crazy stats for that. And the first game, or excuse me, the next game would definitely be an OKC, obviously, because you only play once in the other conferences. Barn, but those fans...

Had a great game. Yeah. Great Saturday night game. That was super fun. And I know we're talking about all the tensions, but the play was awesome. And Pistons to be able to fight in this game to keep it close until the end. Although Jalen Duren dunked and they had to repair the rim for several minutes, which was...

Oh, yeah. Painful to watch. To see a level. I always feel bad for those guys. Yeah, those guys. Under the most pressure. Bringing out the drill. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, tough. Tough bringing out that level out there. Getting on a ladder. I would just always be like, yeah, it's fine. Let's go. All right, so that's a winner. Just that Thunder Pistons showdown. Maybe besides the officiating.

Thank you.

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I'd like to give a winner of the weekend to the Rockets, who I thought had themselves a nice little Friday and Saturday. Maybe a nice little Sunday too. I don't know. Hit the Home Depot. Get some flooring. Maybe hit Bed Bath & Beyond. Who knows? But on Friday night, Tari Eason scored a career-high 30 points to lead Houston to an easy 133-96 win over the depleted Dallas Mavericks.

So nothing to get all that excited about. You're playing the Mavericks who are down to basically us three playing for them. But Houston, I just like that it was never in doubt. They led by double digits most of the night. Most of their starters didn't have to play the fourth quarter. It was just an ass kicking. They dominated the glass.

29 second chance points to two for Dallas in that game. Don't see that all that often. So that was good. And then on Saturday, they followed up in a back-to-back. Jalen Green scored 28 points. He is on his annual March Madness heater right now. You know, Mickey Mouse March, whatever you want to call it. This guy's cooking. And the Rockets extended their win streak to six straight with the 117-114 win over the Bulls. So a lot closer. I thought the big takeaway from this one was...

especially the first half play of Fred Van Vliet because this guy recently came back. He had 21 first half points for Houston, so that was really good. And here you have Houston now taking advantage of their schedule. They've had a lot of home games where they're really winning a lot of them, and they've moved to 43-25 on the season.

And they're actually in the second spot in the West holding tiebreakers over the Grizzlies and Nuggets right now. So they're all tied, exact same record, but Houston has the number two seed. So impressive stuff. A lot of us thought maybe they would drop, maybe they'd fall, and...

They're hanging in there and having just, honestly, an awesome season. They're going to be flirting with a 50-win season here when it's all said and done. You get to 50 wins by beating bad teams, and that's what they're doing. They beat the Pelicans twice, the Magic Suns, and then the Mavericks and Bulls, like you're saying. But they've got tiebreaker advantages over the Nuggets, I think, right now. They've maybe only played one time. They already locked it in against the Grizzlies. So looking good from a hanging on to the second seed perspective. Yeah.

I would just say I don't really know what to make of this Rockets team right now because, like you're saying, Fred VanVleet just came back. Awesome. But Amin Thompson just went out as well. Jabari Smith just came back, but they haven't been able to actually figure out what their starting lineup is going to be going forward. So nice to see them stacking up wins when they need to be getting these wins because they're all going to matter from –

accounting standpoint down the line. We got the 76ers next, the Magic, the Heat. They can obviously keep this rolling. I guess their next big game is on the 23rd against the Nuggets. Like, that's a big measuring stick game. It's going to be big for tiebreakers as well. I did see Jeff Green had another big dunk in this one against the Bulls. He completely froze Patrick Williams with a pump fake from the corner.

Pump faked and held the ball up there for a split second. Williams goes flying by Statue of Liberty dunk for Jeff Green once again. Like the most ridiculous looking pump fake I've ever seen. It looked like a joke, but it worked. I would add that Elprin Shen Goon had a pretty good weekend too. He played well. And this surprised me. And I know they're a great defensive team, the Rockets are. Elprin Shen Goon has the fifth lowest defensive rating in the NBA right now.

It's like OKC guys, Hartenstein, J-Dub, SGA, and then Jared Allen, and then it's Shengun. I think Anthony Davis is maybe still in the mix, but he's obviously missed a ton of games at this point. That's really impressive because for a guy as young as he is that a lot of people have said, can you really have a good team, a good defensive team with him as your big? I mean, he's proving that you can. You've got to have other pieces around him.

But, you know, he takes care of the glass and all that. And he's, of course, a great offensive player. He's a much better offensive player than he is a defensive player. But he's not really a liability. So just wanted to give him a little love for that. Definitely his best season on the defensive end. Ime Udoka has him going hard. And it's so fitting. I am going to talk about a play with Alperen Shenkun and that guy you just mentioned, Anthony Davis, a little bit later. Very interested in that. You mentioned Jeff Green's dunk at the Statue of Liberty. There's got to be a meme out there. Video produced. A bald...

Statue of Liberty, you know like cuz it's it's because it's like the super bald guy Dunks it with the Statue of Liberty like somebody's made that video. I can't wait to see it cuz he's gotten balder here the Doesn't usually go the other way. No, it doesn't but here Wayne Rooney Durand will be interesting

Anyway, he's had a billion good dunks, but nothing with a bald head. Nothing with a really, really bald look. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, Jeff Green. Like the, you know, the montage is awesome. That's why the mixtape's going to be amazing because you're going to see him age as you put together the Jeff Green super mixtape. At least his hair. Yeah, but there's not too many. Bald.

With him. I'm just saying. Like in the last couple of years. You're acting like he's almost done or something. Yeah. This is it, man. Yeah, just wait until he goes completely gray. Looking like Coutinho Mobley out there. All right, so Rockets get winner of the weekend. Let's do another round. Back to you, TK. I got the Memphis Grizzlies. They did lose to Cleveland on Friday. That's when the Cavs still had their streak going. But in that game, they got Jaron Jackson Jr. back.

After five games out, he went for 13 points, three rebounds, four steals, and a couple of blocks. But I'm giving them a winner for their victory on Saturday. They completely destroyed the Miami Heat on the second night of a back-to-back. No John Morant for the Grizzlies. And they led the entire game. Jaron Jackson Jr. was awesome in this one. 31 points, six rebounds, and two blocks. Like I said, he only missed five games. Grizzlies went 4-1.

And Jaron Jackson Jr., I think, is still live for awards right now. He's played 61 games this season. I thought he was going to be out for much longer with this injury. So he's going to be eligible for awards. He was the leader for Defensive Player of the Year when he went out with the injury. I guess Mobley was just resting on Sunday. It's not like a major injury for him. So I think that's still...

a race to be decided here in the last 15 games of the season. He's still got an outside shot at all NBA. I would say as well. I think he was pretty close to being like a third team, all NBA guy. And we'll see if the Grizzlies are able to keep things going. Like I said, they led the entire night against the Miami. He outscored him 72 to 50 in the points in the paint. Zach Eady had 12. Brandon Clark had 12 and Desmond Bain had 10 rebounds.

That was interesting to me. So I looked it up. He's had 10 rebounds nine or more times, nine times in his career, three times in March.

Wow. I guess this guy's a Mickey Mouse March rebounder. Right now, those short arms. Getting in there. He had his career high 16 like a week ago or something like that. But yeah, I guess Desmond Bain, DB, does board. Also, postgame, they retired Tony Allen's jersey. Yeah. That guy invented grit and grind. Literally. No way they're going to lose. No way they're going to lose a game. That's right. They were bopping for Tony Allen. Lupe Fiasco performed at halftime.

A good halftime show. Damn. Yeah. Chicago Connection, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure, but they loved it out there. Lupe Fiasco is doing halftime shows, eh? It was good. Okay. Kick Push? Oh, okay. Superstar? Lots. Lots. He wasn't going full song for each of them, you know. No, okay.

He played the hits. Give you a taste. Played the hits. But yeah, the crowd was rocking. I liked the jacket that Zach Randolph handed him pregame. It was pretty stuff. But yeah, the crowd was ready for Tony Allen. Unfortunately, this Grizzlies defense is just, it hasn't been the same watching them. They're just not into it every single possession. Like they have been the 19th best defense since January 1st. I ain't good enough. They're the 10th best defense overall, but they've just dropped off the last couple months.

And it's not just Jaron Jackson Jr. being out. I mean, he was just out for five games. And now he's back and looks great. They just don't look.

The same to me. So they're not a defense team. No. Yeah. And you think of the Grizzlies as like a grit and grind team, but they are definitely an offense first team. And I think like a larger part of that is Jaron Jackson Jr. Like the guys become an awesome offensive player. It's weird to see him and Bam Adebayo. They're like very similar guys. Switchy defensively, good rim protection, not great rebounders. But Jaron Jackson Jr. has 10 times the offensive game that Bam Adebayo does at this point.

It's crazy to think. You wouldn't have probably, if you were picking between the two a couple years ago, I don't think you would go that direction. Back to Tony Allen. That means three of the four, Grit and Grind, Grizzlies boys have had their jerseys retired, right? Yeah. Tony Allen, Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, and then we're waiting on Mike Conley. Still playing. Still playing. He'll get it. He'll get it done. So his number eventually will go up there. All right, Grizz.

in that awesome race there again. Yeah, that 2-3-4 in the Western Conference with the Rockets, as we showed some love to already. It's a race, man. Oh, yeah. Back to you, though, Tass. Who's your other winner of the weekend? Kristaps Porzingis and the Boston Celtics overall, but Kristaps Porzingis coming back because he had that viral illness that he didn't know what he had exactly. He said it was bronchitis or something like that that really...

Just set him back because he was laid out and then he was just so fatigued. Every workout he had, every time he tried to come back. He tried to come back against the Los Angeles Lakers where he was in warm-ups and was ready for that big game. But then he was just too fatigued. He said, I can't do it. So he sat out even more games. Something going on in that body, but he's back against the Nets. He had 24 points in 31 minutes. They bumped up that minutes restriction to get him out there as much as possible.

I mean, he just looked great. First play, a pick and roll to him. He goes Euro step. It's a roll. And the fact is, he played inside a ton. This whole thing that people are all talking about with the Boston Celtics. They're just a three-point shooting team. They can do the other thing. He did so many things. Pick and roll, catch and dunk, catch and shoot over a small defender. Of course, a pull-up jumper, pretend that dribble handoff and drive in. He had a huge dunk.

on De'Ron Sharp. 8 of 9 on twos, 7 of 8 in the paint, and the Celtics only shot 38 threes, which is 10 below their average number of threes, below their average of even last year. So the Nets shot way more. And the thing with Chris Asporzingas out there,

Even with Al Horford out, rest. You can rest an old guy. I think that's allowed. They just went to the double bigs, which is going to be ideal, playing against Evan Mobley and Jared Allen if you need it in that sort of series. So it's with Luke Cornett in this instance, eight minutes, and then another seven with Nemeish Keita. And also, as far as the Celtics go, I didn't realize...

This is, I think, too deep in the record category for me, but Peyton Pritchard set the NBA single season record for three-pointers coming off a bench. That's something you'll never remember, I think. I think that's a little too much. But anyway, 219, which is like starter threes. That's crazy. It's a lot of threes. 219 off the bench. Still, what, 15-plus games to go.

Yeah, because he's never had an instance where he was the starter. You know, that wasn't... You guys were debating, you know, where are we at with the defensive player of the year? Has Pritchard run away with sixth man of the year? Does Beasley have a chance still? Anyone else I'm forgetting? Beasley's got 264 threes this season. I guess a lot have been starting. He's started 14 games, though. Okay, okay. Wow.

Wow. How many? It's got to be close. It's got to be very close. Yeah. And who had the previous record? Was it the Golden Arm himself? It's something like that, isn't it? Wayne Ellington? Wayne Ellington? I think, well, Wayne Ellington had a ton off the bench for the Heat way back in the day. I think so. You'd have to fact check me on that. All right. Good stuff. Porzingis. I keep thinking something you said last week, I believe, TK. Like, last year, the Celtics won a championship basically without Porzingis. And this year...

for them to repeat they're going to need Porzingis and I think that's true I don't think that's far-fetched they need him at this elite level gives you that inside outside game he's obviously a great defensive player too he's huge and he's a big difference maker no doubt for them and their chances to get by Cleveland and get back to the finals and maybe win again he's a switch killer

And that's the main way the Celtics get twos is by going to Porzingis in the post when they switch these actions out on the perimeter because you can't give up a three. Obviously, he's a good shooter as well, but he's become a great post player and just money basically from 15 feet in. So, yeah, Porzingis is able to be healthy. What do you say? He's like, I don't know if it was bronchitis or pneumonia. So just sounds like a nasty cold for the most part. But, yeah, he was laid up and got...

Got enough time to get his legs underneath him heading into the playoffs, which means he'll be fresh for the playoffs for the most part. Yeah, that's good. And that is why the Cavs got DeAndre Hunter, because they have obviously Allen and Mobley, but they play the switch and they want to be able to switch and guard Christoph Sporzingas. And it just wasn't happening with Max Drus or Isaac Coro or Dean Wade. So that's what they went with. Here's your stat for Malik Beasley. It's 201 off the bench and 63 as a starter.

So he was cooking in those games. 14 games? So that's four per game, essentially, as a starter, yeah. Okay, keep your eye on that. A few other NBA weekend winners. Draymond Green, he put the Knicks to sleep. Did you see him do the Steph Curry night-night on the dagger layup?

It's a little different than the dagger three that we're used to seeing from Curry when he puts a team to sleep, but he did drop it. And look, the Warriors stay winning. I just wanted to bring that up. They're 14 and three since the trade deadline.

Number five offense. Number two defense. This has worked perfectly. They're back in the mix. You sort of have to start considering them as a potential team to at least go very far in the West if not represented. So they stay winning. So do the Wolves. Hold on. I thought that was a sweet win for the Warriors because we just saw them beat the Kings and they scored like 140 points. They're like, we won with offense. And then they beat the Knicks by playing awesome defense. 97-94 or something like that. Yeah. Completely different type of style. Yeah.

The Wolves also stayed hot. Now, they crushed the Jazz by 26 points on Sunday for their eighth straight victory. Edwards, amazing, 41 points for this guy. And Minnesota pulls themselves closer to the Warriors for the number six seed. So now suddenly Minnesota's back in the mix here trying to just get into the playoffs.

Both these teams right now. I mean, again, we're talking about the top of the West as loaded as it is with especially OKC, but now the teams in the sixth and seventh spot are two of the best teams at least over the last two weeks or so, or maybe even since the deadline. That just makes for even more explosive matchups and battles wherever we get. Anything to add on? Minnesota. No, Minnesota. Yeah, well, they should get to a double-digit win streak. They should be able to do that with their schedule and that they're –

All home games. Similar to the Warriors, but the Wolves' schedule is easier. Now the Warriors have Nuggets, Bucks, Raptors. Yeah. They should be able to handle that as well. But...

But the Timberwolves is even easier. So, yeah, they're not going to stop losing. The only weird thing that happened in the Western Conference is the Nuggets losing to the Wizards for the second time this season. If they meet in the finals, I'm going Wizards. Look out. Wizards are technically not eliminated yet from the play-in. That's right. That's right. That was my final winner, Jordan Poole, that huge shot against the Nuggets. I think they called it a 35-footer in the end. And, yeah, they somehow beat them twice this season. The Wizards beat the Nuggets.

He was awesome in the fourth quarter, Poole. Every shot was insane. He had 19 points. Alex Saar had a great game. His best game of his young career. He had 34 points against Jokic, of all people. So very weird that they're 2-0 against Denver. And those could be losses that obviously matter in terms of who the hell they're playing in a first-round matchup. Jordan Poole said, just get me the ball. That's what he called. And he did.

He was right this time. Yeah, that was a nice shot. That was deep. All right, let's go from winners to losers. Trey, where are you starting? Well, outside of my jazz, the coldest team in the NBA is the Miami Heat. Seven straight losses after going 0-2 this weekend. They've scored 91 points in a loss to the Celtics on Friday. Followed that up by scoring 91 points in a loss to the Grizzlies on Sunday. Weren't even competitive this week.

against the Grizzlies, like we mentioned earlier. So with regards to the Boston game, only 14 points in the fourth quarter for Miami. I think it was the fourth time this season they've scored 15 or fewer in the fourth quarter. That's hard to do. I think there were three separate three-minute stretches in this one that Miami did not score.

They have to work so hard to score the first three quarters. It just feels like they completely run out of steam in the fourth quarter. Since the All-Star break, they're 25th in offensive rating, 30th in fourth quarter offensive rating. And Eric Spolstra, he's just out there sweating and searching.

Davion Mitchell started. Then they started on Friday. They started Jaime Jaquez for Mitchell. And then they're like, whatever, let's play our defense lineup and started Khalil Ware for Jaime Jaquez. And then they gave up 72 points in the paint despite playing Bam and Khalil Ware. They just aren't a fun team to watch right now. Offensively, they're brutal. Like, Hero's having a great season. He's been awesome this year. But if Tyler Hero's the number one guy, you're a bottom 10 offense is what it's turning out to be.

down to ninth in the Eastern Conference are Miami. They're only a game up on the Bulls, which is good for their pick. One through 14 protected. They would get to keep it right now, but bad for their season because they're trying to win and it ain't happening. And nobody has an answer. Like every post game, it's basically like, I don't know what we're trying to do here. Well, how do we win? We'll figure it out. And,

They haven't figured it out. They are such a tough watch. They play so slow as it is. They obviously struggle offensively.

I don't know if it's just because we've had these like tournament games, you know, over the weekend and last week, and now we're getting into March Madness. They feel like watching a college basketball team at times where you're just like, oh my God, this is a brutal type of basketball because it's so difficult and there's just no rhythm to them. So some similarities to that, maybe a Wisconsin-Michigan game that I watched a little bit of and then, you know, had this heat game on before that on the weekend.

Not good for Miami. They're going to be in the play-in. I mean, they're still going to be there, but I don't think it's going to be for long. No, no. Either is Khalil Ware's chance at Rookie of the Year. I thought after that good run that he had, and then he jumped up to the Rookie of the Year odds as the number one Rookie of the Year odd. Nope. Ain't going to work for him either.

Because there are flashes for him. But, yeah, there's just no guys to go with. If you're looking for an offense, it's not Terry Rozier, unfortunately, who's having a terrible, terrible... Scary Terry for a different reason. Yeah. Is there some sort of connection with the investigation going on there? Because...

I mean, there's something troubling with Terry Rozier. He just doesn't look like himself at all. He looks terrible. And, yeah, the Jaime Jaquez experiment, I wish they had gone to it earlier this season and just started the dude. But, anyways, that's from the outside looking in. Yeah, it looks very bad. Who is going to win Rookie of the Year? Nobody knows. Who is going to take this thing? Probably Castle. Yeah. I think it's going to be Castle. Best, I think, narrative.

Is Castle, yeah. He's playing great right now. He's playing well, yeah. Yeah, he's averaging 14-3, 3.5, if you want to call it that. Obviously, Jalen Wells has had a really good season for the Grizzlies, too. The numbers are a little bit less than Castle's. Alex Saar is turning it on here as of late. Same with Richa Shea a little bit, too. We'll see. We'll see there.

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All right, Tass, who else do you have for loser? Oh, well, the Dallas Mavericks. Yeah, the fans were already feeling pain, but then it became full circle playing against the Rockets on Friday because they played the Rockets their first game after getting Anthony Davis. And in that first quarter, Anthony Davis pushed Alper and Shen Gunn out of the way and just dunked it. And he screamed, I'm here! And two quarters later...

He was gone. He was not there. He was done, and he hasn't played since. Against the Rockets, there was a lot of lack of size. That was very apparent. They got killed on the boards, almost doubled, 67-34. They have no Davis, no Gafford, no Derek Lively. So that's a reason why. But they only had nine players healthy, and then Dante Axum goes out, so they finished with eight.

Axum broke his hand, probably gone for the entire season. So the guard spot has become extremely weak to go along with Kyrie Irving being out. They only had one starter from that February 8th game against the Houston Rockets starting this one. Clay Thompson. Nobody's playing.

But they still might be in the play-in. Still in 10th. Because the Phoenix Suns suck. Yeah. And their schedule is extremely tough. So it's difficult to make up that gap for the Suns. That's not sleep on the Kings being absolute garbage either. Oh, yeah. Like, the Mavs could stay in the play-in. The Suns could get in. But it could be the Kings falling out. Because they can't take control of their spot either. Yeah. And the Mavs might get some guys back.

It might happen. But anyway. Yeah, it's brutal. When you see, like, it's getting shared. It feels like every game now, the Dallas Mavericks, like, injury report. Yeah. And now you add Exum, like you said. It's like, holy crap, that is wild. On top of, of course, trading Luka at the deadline. Fans still booing Nico Harrison. Respect to them. Still sticking with that. I love it.

a hat tip to them. If I had a green chief hat on right now, I would absolutely tip that. Stick with it, Mavs fans. He's going to get booed for the rest of his life. I know. And probably posthumously as well. Oh, damn. Probably. Bulls fans do it. Bulls fans do it to a guy that helped them win six titles. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The Mavs get it. Like the Mavs right now, it's like,

literally roll a die and that's going to be their leading scorer for the night. It was PJ Washington. He had 29. He's back. Yeah. One game was Brandon Williams. Just if you play, you might be the leading scorer for the Dallas Mavericks, but I think Suns ultimate losers because if they can't catch the Mavericks, that's honestly ridiculous. The hardest thing about the schedule for the Phoenix Suns is that there's 14 games left and they don't want to play any of them. Yes. Yeah. They're done. They're trying to lose. They're like, we cannot play even a single more play in game. Mm-hmm.

You heard PJ Washington after the game say, we're sick and tired of the fans calling for Nico Harrison's job. Which is weird. You want that to stop? Just fire him then. If that is a real big deal. Don't worry, it's not with the ownership. Yeah, he called it. He said, he vocally yelled back at a fan apparently and said, we're tired.

We're tired of it. It ain't going to stop, man. No, it's not. No, especially with what, you know, Luka had some good moments over the weekend, too. I guess could have maybe considered the Lakers, though I guess they lost to the Nuggets in that first game on the weekend. Jamal Murray hit the big three, but... Yeah, Luka resting in that one. Yeah, he did, yeah. Austin Reeves, man, he's balling right now. Well, it's funny we brought up the Bulls there and the championship titles and banners because my loser of the weekend...

This might be a first. I got to give it to the heavy metal band Disturbed. We talked about this. I told you guys about this last week, but we got some follow-up because two weekends ago, the heavy metal band Disturbed, they took their tour to their hometown of Chicago. That's where they formed in the mid-90s. And they brought major pyrotechnics to the United Center. Someone named Zach, a fan of the show, sent this into us, some footage of

No joke. Like they have some pyrotechnics, a lot of fire, and then they pan up there and you can see the banners, championship banners, I don't know, getting an effect somehow, probably from the heat more than anything because they have been damaged where I told you last week they took them down but they were going to get them right back up. Not anymore. The United Center had to release a statement Friday afternoon that the staff discovered minor damage to the banners and they're going to be down for the rest of the season. They just took all six down.

from the rafters. Now again, yeah, my gut says it's more heat than like actually like

flames on the banners. Maybe they're like crinkling at the bottom chart or something. I don't know. But those are some... That's a crazy stage set up there. For Disturbed? I know, man. At like a huge arena? I mean, people are seeing Disturbed and you gotta put on a show like that. I guess it is a homecoming show. It is. Right. Cool. Yeah. So anyway, we will not have those banners up there for the rest of the year. Yeah, for people who are listening...

That was a lot of flames. That's a lot of flames. Yeah. I thought that would be an outdoor stage when I just saw the flames going on. I mean, that is, that was like five layers of flames. Yeah, it was like towers of flames. And even, I was just going to say, like, when you go to a Hawks game, go to any NBA game, because a lot of them do it, you know, like during player introductions, at some point they're like, like drop the flames off, usually the top of the shot clock or maybe the big scoreboard. And even if like you're 30 rows back, it's like, whoa.

you get a little blast it's very warm so I'm like imagine that no wonder these things are all probably charred or warped or something like that yeah bad stuff man and they're way up there way up there they're so far out there we've been up to

up to those banners up there. Hopefully they can just find the same people who made them. Because if it's like one that's messed up and you fix it, it's going to look different. That's what I was thinking. And I was like, no way they had to take down all six. But I'm like, you sort of have to if one or two gets damaged. It's almost weirder.

If you just took down the 92 title banner and leave the rest. Something about that's weird. There's such like... The six are together. At least the three and the three. It's got 30 years of patina up there. You gotta clean them all. It's like I damaged the door in my kitchen yesterday updating sensors.

So I was like, okay, I got to paint this part of the door. Oh, yeah. But then it's like, I'm going to paint one part of the door. Suddenly I'm painting an entire door. Oh, no. Just to update my SimpliSafe. Oh, no. Ridiculous. You had to put a new sensor? Yeah, yeah. I had Jack and Carol's. We updated it to Trey and Laura's. That was a whole thing. And I knew it. I knew it. I was like, hopefully this doesn't damage anything when I pull off the first sensor. I just peeled it away.

But now my door looks great just like these banners are. You know what would be awesome is getting a new banner to hang next to them. There's six that have been up there for 30 years. And nothing else. No. No. Let's get a new one. Yeah. I saw Chad GPT says the Bulls are going to win their next title in 2101.

2101? 2101. I did see that going around. Somebody did a, who's going to win the next 75 championships? Yeah, the Raptors have one coming in like the next 20 years, I saw. Much more, much sooner than the Bulls do. I was, that was sad that even the computers were like,

They're not going to win one until you are 118 years old. The Guangdong Tigers won one before the Bulls did. Don't believe everything you hear. Because I've heard every time somebody does a SimpliSafe ad, it's so easy to install. So I don't buy it anymore.

Just have to paint your doors. You referenced the song last week when I brought this story up, Down With The Sickness. Oh, yeah. Disturbed song. Do you know any other disturbed song?

Just out of curiosity. I think they did a Limp Bizkit cover. No, no, no. Down with the banners? No. I think they did a Pink Floyd cover. Wish You Were Here or Behind Blue Eyes. That might have been Limp Bizkit. Sound of Silence. Is that a song they did? The Sound of Silence. That's what I was looking for. That's the one I thought you might get. I didn't know any of these other ones.

It's down with the sickness for me. Disturbed, I guess, was the headliner for this? Yeah. New metal. Yeah. Seven Dust, I think, performed.

There's a couple. It's a hell of a show, you know? Cool. Literally, this just sounds like the pregame mixtape for my high school football team. You had this? Disturbers on it? I'm sure. Oh, yeah. Tough guys. These guys are serious. Oh, Drowning Pool? Remember that? Yeah. The bodies hit the floor. Oh, yeah. Fuck! Fuck!

This sounds like an awesome show, man. We gotta go to this. That was crazy. Something tells me they're not gonna be touring through Atlanta with Disturbed. I don't know why. I just don't think they're coming. You don't think so?

The South, they pick and choose to come to the South types of music genres. Come on, metal takes off here, though. We got our old friends Rick Camel and Todd Crow. They love their metal. Yeah, but didn't they have to drive? No, you're right. They would have some shows. But they'd be outdoor shows if there was flames everywhere. No, I don't know where it was. But it feels like it was at

The Lakewood Amphitheater. It wouldn't light up the State Farm Arena with flames like that. That was ridiculous. I'm interested to see how this banner is damaged. Yeah, show us the photos. Why aren't they showing it to us? Yeah, let's see what happened. I did respect that video from Zach, though, where you see at least it's waving and being affected somehow. So thank you, Zach. They're coming to Duluth. Gas South Arena. I knew they were coming to Atlanta, man.

They're dodging us. All right, let's get to Pick'Em for Monday night. There's a lot of games on tonight, Tass. Where are we going? It was an easy decision. Denver versus Golden State. Why the heck not? Minus five and a half for the Golden State Warriors. It's an ESPN game. I hope Richard Jefferson is on the call. He seems to be a former teammate of Nikola Jokic. He spent his last season there in Denver. Former teammate of Jamal Murray, Michael Moparik.

Yeah.

I forgot. We'll have some stories, I'm sure. Understandable that the three of you guys took Golden State to cover that five and a half. I got Denver to cover. I think they'll be a little upset for how they lost to the Washington Wizards. And, yeah, we should get a close game. Although, Golden State and the way they play offense will score a lot of points, I do think, in this game. But so should Denver. I mean, Jokic generally owns them. But it'll be fun. I didn't remember Richard Jefferson playing for the Bucs.

Played a full season for the Bucs and averaged 20 points per game. 20 a game? What? Jefferson's on a lot of teams. I think this is a forgotten year because it's after his long New Jersey stint and then he went to the Spurs and I remember that, but he played one full season with the Bucs, all 82 games. What a guy. What a guy. All right, so you got the Nuggets. Keep it close. Everybody else taking the Warriors to cover. We got a new podcast on the Athletic Network or at least a revamped podcast called

No rest in the world of women's hoops. Man, they go from NCAA straight to the WNBA draft in that season. You got Unrivaled, of course, going on. I believe the playoffs have started for that. No shortage of excitement, which is why The Athletic has launched No Off Season, that revamped women's basketball podcast featuring a lot of our friends. Zena, Chantel, Sabrina Merchant. She's been on the show. Ben Pickman,

So new episodes Tuesdays and Fridays. No off-season. Search for it on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you download and listen to podcasts. Good stuff. Excited for that. Revamped this week. We are back tonight on Playback.

Every Monday night, we jump on there, bounce around a few of the games, catch some endings. We're going to go on around 9.30 p.m. Eastern tonight. Yeah, of course. You know, it's not the sexiest slate of NBA games. The good one is going to be...

Probably Nuggets Warriors, but that's a late start. But, you know, we'll be bouncing around the early endings around 9.30. That link is in the show notes. Join our playback room. Not staying up till 1 Eastern to watch Golden State Denver on playback. It'll be a late one for sure. You either got to stay up or catch it in the morning. Wake up early and do that. All right. Thanks for joining us. Later this week, we will fill out our men's March Madness bracket. We'll just make an entire show of that. Probably do it on Thursday.

You're Wolverines. Big win. Big win. Great shot by a guy named Trey. Love to see it. Got a guy named Wolf. Yeah. Seven footer. Handles the ball. Yeah. I did watch a little bit of it. I was like, okay.

He was fired up. But you guys are a fifth seed, I saw, despite winning that conference, I guess. I think they got hot in the tournament. They had a pretty poor close to the end of the regular season before getting into tournament time. And then, you know, it's only one game. Any team could win. That's right. And the SEC, talking about the South here. 14 teams? I think that's a record for a conference to have. That's crazy.

It's just like it's the entire bracket They should put them all on one side the SEC is so good all of their football schools are good at basketball now It's like Auburn yeah Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Georgia's in this um in turn. I think they're a nice tech didn't make it I don't think so. Yeah, okay cool basketball That's the time to watch it be a home game for Georgia if they make it to the Sweet 16 I guess they're having a few games here in Atlanta. Oh

A few games now. 16-8. Why are those first four games that start on Tuesday and Wednesday, why are they always in Dayton, Ohio? And what's the reason? Good question. It's been like that since the beginning. Like 2010, 2011. Must be a thing. Yeah, tradition. Yeah. How much do they pay for that or something? I don't know. Dayton. It's like, why there? Yeah, I don't know. I guess it's in the middle. Anyway. Wait.

Yeah, whatever. It's in the middle. You can watch it. That's possible. Okay. If you know, let me know. All right. We'll be back tomorrow. Talk some NBA. So join us at 10 a.m. Eastern until then. Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, watching teams rest their stars here at the end of the season, it's pretty painful. But that doesn't apply to fantasy.

You can rest your stars this week, Esh. I need you to just throw it this week. I'm playing Esh, and he's going to make the playoffs, so he can rest his guys. I ain't. You want him to help you. I ain't. It's borderline. It's coming down to the wire. Just rest your dudes. Just don't tell the commish if you do it. Race of the day, people.

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What up, y'all? Zena Kata here with a huge announcement. We're dropping a new show. No off-season, the Athletic Women's Basketball Show. Same place, same time, but we're bringing the heat with some brand new energy. Join myself, Ben, Chantel, and Sabrina as we give you an inside look at the game with candid conversations, in-depth analysis, and taking on the hottest topics around women's basketball. Plus, we're bringing in the

biggest names in the game to weigh in on all the action. So mark your calendars because no off season. The athletic women's basketball show is launching Monday, March 17th with fresh episodes every Tuesday and Friday. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

NBA Weekend Winners & Losers | Magic End Cavs' Win Streak, Rockets Rising, Ice-Cold Heat 01:00:01 Share

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NBA Weekend Winners & Losers | Magic End Cavs' Win Streak, Rockets Rising, Ice-Cold Heat