cover of episode Nuggets Avenge Loss, Crowded West Standings & Durant Trade Proposals

Nuggets Avenge Loss, Crowded West Standings & Durant Trade Proposals

2025/3/11
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#nba playoffs analysis#nba play-in tournament analysis#athlete interview#professional athlete interview#game strategy People
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J.E. Skeets
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Tass Mellis
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Trey Kirby
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The Denver Nuggets defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder, 140-127, despite playing on the second night of a back-to-back. The game was highlighted by exceptional three-point shooting from the Nuggets, particularly in the fourth quarter, and strong performances from Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. The impact of Jalen Williams' absence for the Thunder in the second half is also discussed.
  • Nuggets win 140-127 against Thunder on a back-to-back
  • Exceptional three-point shooting in the 4th quarter by Nuggets
  • Jokic's strong performance (35 points, 18 rebounds)
  • Jamal Murray's crucial contribution (34 points)
  • Impact of Jalen Williams' absence for Thunder

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Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the No Dunks Podcast on The Athletic Network. It's Tuesday, March 11th, 2025. I'm J.E. Skeets, here in the Classic Factory, and alongside me, as always, Tass Mellis. Podcast listeners, this is for you. Next to him, the bearded one, my top shot hot boy, Trey Kirby. Heyo!

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 right now on YouTube. Hit the like button, subscribe, podcast listeners, five-star ratings and reviews. TK, great to have you back. Feeling better? Feeling much better. Big shout out to the brat diet. Bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. That got you through the weekend, eh? Binding. Wow. Well, leave it.

Leave it at that. Hey, this is fun. We got a live show coming up at the end of March here in Atlanta. The No Dunks Live Podcast Pizza Party with Tabasco Brand. Put it on a t-shirt. Yeah, March 27th here in Atlanta in Little Five. That link to buy tickets, it's in our show notes. Thanks to everybody who already grabbed one. They're going pretty fast. So hot start for those ticket sales. So if you've been thinking about it,

I encourage you to get one sooner rather than later. Again, March 27th, 7 p.m. Eastern at the Seven Stages Theater in Atlanta. Doors open at 630. Pizza served. I don't know. I'm not sure what time pizza will be served, but it will. It will. Excellent. Yeah. I hope we get Savage. Oh, yeah. We do have to decide on the pizza. That's right down the street. Yeah, it's local. Yeah, it's a good call. Buy local.

Pizza for the savage in you. Yeah, it's good. Great box. So looking forward to that later on in March. But let's talk about last night's NBA action. Definitely focusing, I think, on the Western Conference from last night's key games because we had the rematch. We had round two. I guess really round four. And Jokic had 35-18.

to lead the Nuggets past the West leading Thunder. 140-127. Denver bouncing back here. Showing some grit against a younger, deeper team in OKC on a back-to-back situation for both teams. But they pull out a really impressive victory.

Yeah, let's start with Jokic. He had his best game of those four rounds against OKC. I mentioned how Hartenstein played him pretty well the game before, one-on-one, and then Jokic just killed everybody who came at him. That's just what he does. It's back-to-back. He had 41 minutes the night before, then 40 on this one. The night before, Michael Malone said to Jokic, just take the night off. He said no.

He went at it. He played extremely well. 35 against anybody who guarded him. Jamal Murray was awesome. The 34 on 22 shots. It's the fourth quarter. Everyone's talking about how did they do it against OKC? That seven of eight three-pointers go down in that fourth. I just don't think we'll ever see that again. I mean,

It was just magic in that fourth quarter. Against OKC specifically, you mean? I think just Denver shooting the ball. They just shot it so well in that second half. And so it's what happened to OKC in that fourth? Can some team take them down in the fourth? I just think they just...

incredibly well. It was just a special, special night for everybody. I mean, you had guys like Peyton Watson. It's a shot that they give up, though. Sorry to jump in there. I mean, we saw that with P.J. Washington in the Mavericks series last year. It's a corner three. It's one sort of thing that they're fine giving up to a lot of teams, but P.J. Washington couldn't miss in that series. And then, like you were about to say, sorry, Peyton Watson.

he hit three in the fourth quarter from the exact same spot right in front of the bench. Right in front of O.K.C.'s bench. Did some trash talking. You know, he tied a career high for threes made with four overall. And the Nuggets were 12-17 in the second half from three. I think it was just a perfect night. I mean, 56 from deep, 60 overall. I questioned why did we have a bad Shea fourth quarter?

And I watched every single minute. Now, the Nuggets played it differently. They had Westbrook face guarding him and getting the ball out of his hands. They doubled him. And Malone said, you have your best, your base defense and then your great player defense. And they literally just tried to get the ball out of his hands. Shea could have been more aggressive than the two points on one of two shots. But they also missed Jalen Williams a lot. Yes. They didn't have him in the fourth quarter, out the entire second half. You know, the night before, he had 13 points in the fourth quarter to lead the team.

So I just think this is a bit of an anomaly. That's all. That's all. Obviously, the Nuggets responded with that grid. And that was great. But to see, yeah, guys like Peyton Watson, Jalen Pickett, he played well off the bench. I mean, it was a special night for them.

What do you think, TK? It all comes down to three-point shooting. That's how you beat the Thunder, like you're saying. They can give up corner three-pointers. All the Peyton Watson threes were from the P.J. Washington corner. That left corner, he got in a rhythm, and every time it left his fingers, it looked beautiful. Splash, splash, splash. Four for four from three. Pickett went two for three from three as well. They went 18 of 32 overall. That's 56%. You shoot like that against any team, you got a good chance. That's why they were able to put 140 on the best defense in the league, but...

In reality, it's Jamal Murray is the X factor for this team. Seems like too good of a player to be the X factor, but he really is. And the two losses to OKC that Murray has played in this season, he's got 29 combined points on 10 of 30 field goal shooting. Last night alone, 11 for 22 from the field for 34. You look at last season, three losses.

all under 50% shooting. The one win last year, he had 19 points and 8 assists on 9 of 14 shooting. He's got to play well. You have to hit shots from the perimeter to beat OKC because they are going to pack the paint. They're going to make it tough on Jokic and they are very picky and choosy about

who's shooting the threes outside. So Westbrook's going to get open looks. Watson's going to get open looks. Like, he'll get these same exact looks in the playoffs. Can he make them will be the question. They made them last night, and that's why this turned into a bit of a blowout for the Nuggets in the second half, especially when you factor in the no Jalen Williams, and the Thunder probably didn't feel the need to go deep into their playbook to figure out ways to get Shea the ball in advantageous positions. They're just like, all right,

We won the game that really mattered, and now you guys are winning this one on the comeback here with Williams going out. Like, is he going to be out for any amount of time, or was this just a...

precautionary thing. We already are so far ahead. We don't need to risk anything here. Awesome win for the Nuggets to be able to respond the way they did. Of course, Jokic is awesome, but Murray playing like an all-star is why they won. Yep. And Westbrook obviously played better than he did on Sunday and Watson hitting threes has found money. I love the blocks that he had early in this game too. Like his sort of first stint, Watson had two blocks early in the second quarter. One, Isaiah Joe attacked the rim.

He did that help side defense. I mean, that guy can sky for blocks. Perfectly timed it. And then he had the one where he blocked Chet Holmgren on sort of like a turnaround jumper.

guy's got a long wingspan he's got the hops and he timed that perfectly so he started with the defense and obviously hit the threes but yeah this is great it's great that they split this hopefully we see these teams in a matchup yeah Peyton Watson is fun to watch as you said I've been out of practice to see him dunk if we do that under heralded guy that's in the dunk contest again Peyton Watson could be there uh he's he just could he can just sky uh he's that good uh I

I think for the Nuggets to respond that way, it's definitely led by Nikola Jokic and him just wanting to play again because he did bang up his arm in the first one. And then he came out and played. And as I said, Michael Malone said, tick the day off. He said, nah. And then Jamal Murray clearly is...

The guy that we always have to talk about because, as we've said, I mean, this guy, three MVPs in four years. If he played with Jamal Murray at his best, we'd be talking about a different Nuggets team that went to more finals and that probably won another championship. Jamal Murray just has to be that guy. And he has to play in the playoffs because he did miss two playoffs during this whole Jokic run. Anyway.

a lot of fun to see the Nuggets respond that way. There's some grit in that team. Yeah, Jamal Murray was actually really good when Jokic was sitting, which I think is the big key for the Nuggets because, you know, they're going to be offensively powerful when Jokic is out there handling the ball and touching it every single possession. That's a given, but they're not always great offensively when it's just Murray as the main guy, especially without Aaron Gordon there to kind of help with playmaking as well. But Murray just went off. It was really, really cool.

I do not, though, like the NBA baseball schedule. I hate this. The back-to-back doubleheaders. It robs the second game of hype. And, like, the first one means more. It does. Both teams rested coming in, like, geared up for this game. This one, it's like, okay, Jalen Williams went out.

Both teams on a back-to-back. It loses something the second time around. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. It's also maybe a little weirder, too, when the teams are not on opposite coasts. You know, it's like one thing, I guess, if it's an L.A. team flying all the way to the East Coast. It's like, okay, to cut back on travel, you just play both of them there. Or obviously, I guess you wouldn't have to play the other conference. Point is, Denver is not that far, all that far from OKC. So it's a little strange. Zach Harper wrote today that this MVP race needed this split. Yeah.

between these two teams for two reasons. One, the discourse would have been too dismissive if the Thunder had beat the Nuggets again last night and just sort of taken both of those. And then these two teams now have split their season series as I started with. They're now 2-2. And the numbers are pretty damn impressive from SG8. And Jokic, when you look at them, the combined four games, the averages are pretty amazing. Not far off from what they obviously average on the season.

That's probably true, too, especially in this little baseball series. If the Thunder had sort of waxed them last night, I mean, like, eh, would have fell in a little flat or taken a little bit of out of the MVP race sales. But it's still there, obviously, with 35 and 18. And we sort of just glossed over the guy's game. Yeah. I mean, he had highlight that wasn't after highlight that wasn't. You see him going into half. He gets an inbound ball, snaps.

70 feet away from the hoop and he gets stopped one way so he has a turnaround hook shot attempt at a 65 footer I mean it was it was look looking like a post move because he was stopped by Chet Holmgren and then he had that no look pass to Russell Westbrook underneath when Westbrook made that baseline cut it was a beautiful pass Westbrook gave it back to Jokic for a bucket so the no look doesn't stand out as much but just some

some beautiful stuff from this dude. And he fights, man. And I think that's the important part is that they look like that team. Again, Aaron Gordon, as he said, Trey, not there. I thought he'd be the second unit guy, period. When he started coming off the bench, when he got hurt, he came back. Russell Westbrook was in the starting lineup and it was great to see the non-Jokic minutes led by somebody else. And in this game,

They have sort of thrown Jamal Murray as that secondary guy. And Aaron Gordon is now in the starting role. So we'll see if Jamal Murray can do that in the playoffs because they do need somebody off the bench.

the bench like period to leave those non-yokage we know he can do it because we've seen him do it before it's just consistency from jamal murray is always the factor right string them together for series and weeks at a time especially when you get into the playoffs uh big win from denver because it also helped them in the western conference standings with what happened in some of the other games let's pivot to the nets tk snapping their seven game skid by beating the lakers

111-108 in the Lakers' first game since LeBron's groin injury. We had this one on at least at the end on playback. We did. We're talking earlier in the year. Do the Nets maybe want the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference? They don't.

They don't at all. But this was an impressive game plan they had against a Lakers team that was missing basically anybody who would be playing in the front court. They started Alex Lenn in this game. LeBron out. Jackson Hayes out. Rui Hachimura out. Dorian Finney-Smith, not a starter. Huge piece for them. He's out as well. Yep.

Trey Jemison was out there eventually. He doesn't do much, but he runs into guys a lot. And I thought the Nets were pretty smart. They're like, we're going to double Luka every time he has the ball. And then every time Austin Reeves has the ball, we're going to double him as well and try to survive everybody else. Luka and Reeves combined to go 11 for 40. They had eight turnovers. Some of the other guys played really well. Gabe Vincent, nice game. Dalton Konek, good.

good game. Jordan Goodwin, good game. But your stars have to show up and play pretty well to actually get a win when you're this shorthanded. JJ said after the game, everybody wanted to take shortcuts, and that's really what it felt like it was. A lot of gambling, 16 offensive rebounds for the Nets. They forced 16 turnovers, just shooting wide open three after wide open three. JJ said, we don't want any dare shots, but they were giving dare shots to De'Ron Sharp and Noah Clowney. Those are guys that play in the NBA, and they make three-pointers, and

if they were getting challenged, it was by a shorter did, and they're both like seven footers, right? So easy stuff. I thought the Lakers got off to a big lead in the first half. They're probably like, we're good. We're going to win this one. And you have to play the entire 48 minutes, it turns out. Yeah, Redick was sort of pissed.

after this game from the effort. Well, he's calling out the team now. Remember he said, I haven't had to say play hard for a month. And he said it after the last two games. Yes, that's right. Specifically last night, quote, want to be a good team? You want to win in the NBA? You got to do the hard stuff. We couldn't even pass to each other. We couldn't enter our offense running ball screens literally at half court. Yeah, that's going to end up in a turnover. I don't know what we were doing.

End quote there from JJ Redick. That's just a small piece of what he was saying in the post-game press conference. Not happy with, yeah, the effort from his team there. Or taking their foot off the gas at the very least. They were sloppy. The Nets wanted it. That's for sure. I think the bad teams can play spoilers here in March. That can happen. And those doubles that were coming at Luka or Austin Reeves, I mean, the Nets were getting after it as soon as that double came to recover to make some nice turnovers. That was a lot of turnovers leading to extra points there.

I saw Tyrese Martin pick up full court. Tyrese Martin, shout out to that guy. These guys are playing ridiculously hard. Jalen Wilson, I respect that guy. These guys just played really, really hard recovering after those doubles. And there was a lot of lazy passes and a lot of lazy plays. Alex Lennon.

In the first minute, he fell over with the ball. And that's just something that shouldn't happen. I mean, it shouldn't happen because Alex Line shouldn't be playing. He fell out and the ball was given to the other team. And he didn't catch the ball once. It went out of bounds. So some bad moments for just a guy who...

shouldn't be playing a ton. That's for sure. Just looking at their depth. And yeah, the Nets just got after it a lot more. To have a great game from Gabe, 6 of 9 from 3. Jordan Goodwin, 5 of 6 from 3. His career high in 3s.

They could have lost by a lot more. The surprising that those guys hit that many threes. That helped. And yeah, Austin Reeves just had a really bad game. If you're doubling Luka, the guy who's going to help out is Austin Reeves. But, you know, he didn't shoot the ball well three of 14 and those turnovers didn't

They hurt. They hurt him. Luka hit a, I don't know what it was in the box score, 35-footer. Oh, yeah. To cut it to like 108-106 to give the Lakers a chance to maybe steal this game back. There was like 10 seconds to go, but Nets called a timeout, and they ran a pretty nice play to get, I think it was Noah Clowney, free, and he sort of dunked it. Really nice play just in the middle there. Had guys going every which way, sort of back-setting picks and stuff like that. He got fouled on that play and gave him a five-point advantage, and they

They sort of took care of business from there. Yeah, season low, seven turnovers for the Nets. So, didn't hurt themselves. Tells you not much ball pressure from the Lakers and definitely not the rotations that the Nets had because you're right, Tess. Like, the Nets would get the ball out of Luka's hands and then they were all over who was catching the ball next and that's why they forced as many turnovers as they did. Meanwhile, they were playing free and easy on the other side. Skeets, did you like Luka's hair after that deep three? Mm-hmm.

Can I talk to the manager hair? Yeah, the Karen hair. That John and Kate plus eight hair? Yeah, it was very fluffy. Very fluffy. It looked like a rooster a little bit, too. Yeah, a little slick in the front. Yeah. He was complaining to the manager quite a bit last night. He was. He was. This was...

dispiriting Luka game, I would have to say. He wasn't moving all that well, wasn't shooting well, didn't finish inside, and was complaining a lot. That means he'll probably have like 50 in the next game. That's usually how it goes. When he gets to his absolute nadir of being a temper boy, he turns it around for one game and smiles and has a good game. Yeah, that's true. I mean, it's crazy. He had a triple-double. So he had 22-12-12. It looks good, but then you're right. 8-for-26. Yeah.

Five turnovers, continually getting blitzed by two defenders and being forced to give it up. And yeah, and his hair looking insane. He did look like a Karen out there. And if there's anyone who's not going to be great in back-to-backs, it's probably Luka. Their next six games are all back-to-backs. So that hurts. There's some easy ones in there. It's at Milwaukee and at Denver. That's their first back-to-back. Not easy. That's tough. And then you get home to Phoenix and Spurs. Eh.

That's easy enough, but then you play the Nuggets and Bucks again at home this time. Well, we were debating on yesterday's show, yeah, like how far are they going to slip here with LeBron in the Western Conference standings? Can they hang on to the second or third seed, or are they going to fall all the way down to fifth and maybe even sixth, I guess, if they have a really bad run here?

Yeah. The LA Fires have given them plenty of back-to-backs here. So three more there, another two after that, I do believe, which is crazy. Unless I'm counting one. Anyway. No, I remember them having a ton. Yeah, they definitely have plenty. So, yeah. Maybe Nico Harrison is smiling somewhere, I guess, saying, no, that Luca guy, he's not in shape or something.

Whatever he's thinking. I don't know. Well, the Mavs won last night, so it's possible he is smiling. Nah, nah. That's terrible stuff. Just stay away from the Mavs. The referee in the Mavs game left injured. Everybody on the Mavs is injured. Everybody. And then Sean Wright left the game. They had two referees out there. Stay away from the Mavs. Just that stuff. Cursed.

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So Denver won, Lakers lose. Well, how did the Memphis Grizzlies do? They won! John Morant, 29 points, ton of assists, climbed out of an early hole to beat the Suns, 120-118. What are your takeaways from this one, Tess? It's wild. The Suns hit 23s. That's a lot of freaking points, man. 60 points from three-point land and they still can't win because they just don't have that fight. They do have some fight.

Durant talked trash to Cam Spencer. Cam Spencer hit a three in his face and talked trash to Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant loves to talk trash, whether it's, you know, on the internet, on the tweets, or somebody. I'm going on Skip Bayless already. Yeah. Hilarious. Skip Bayless said, Kevin Durant's done. Kevin Durant said, we're both done, I guess, man. See you later. Um,

We're both washed. That's a great comeback. We're both washed, yeah. Great, yeah, see you later. Yeah, the Phoenix team is troubling. They're just playing too many good teams, so even when they have great offensive games like this one. Again, splash, splash, splash. Kevin Durant was awesome in this game. They're not going to win. They're just not going to win because there's going to be fight from the other side, including Cam Spencer.

Pat's bro. Not to be confused with Pat Spencer, yeah. That's his bro. That's his brother. This is Cam who had 51 points for the Memphis Hustle in the G League. This guy can score. That's why he's in the league, man. Yeah. As Trey said yesterday, we were watching...

I had no idea who this guy was. He mentioned, yeah, he's the UConn man. Two-time champ. Two-time champ. That's why he goes to the line and knocks down two game-icing free throws. 16 points. That's a two-way. But the story was John Morant. This guy's actually playing really well. Right now, the Grizzlies kind of riding the ship after losing three straight on buzzer beaters. Now, they're not beating the best teams, but I think it's still encouraging that they seem to have figured out some sort of treatment plan for John Morant's shoulder here. He said during, I think, or after the Mavericks game...

I don't think I'm supposed to say this on TV, but I got some help. So whatever they're shooting in his shoulder is working. He's had 31, 32, and then 29 and 12 last night. He was playing so well that he threw an alley-oop to Marvin Bagley and it went in the hoop. So things were going Memphis' way, certainly. But Joss handling the ball a lot more now. He's playing in pick and roll a lot more now that Jaron Jackson Jr. is on the bench with an injury. It looks a little bit more.

like a Ja Morant forward team rather than an ensemble team, which maybe is what the Grizzlies need heading into the playoffs here. Because if they're going to make any sort of noise, they need Ja to be like a 30 point per game score because their half court offense can be so brutal. There were still a chance they could have thrown this one away. Desmond Bain tried his best.

gave Kevin Durant a shot, but Durant missed it. But I think the fact that the Grizzlies have been able to get a couple of wins here and Ja is rounding into form, even if it's this late in the season, that's got to be a good sign for them. I thought Ja looked really explosive last night, for sure. You said the one where he like throwing an alley-oop to Bagley, who he threw a couple other ones to that actually obviously converted. But this one, he just chucked in by accident. But then, you know, he's having a good night when

the goggles are coming out, the awesome dimes that he's diming up left and right. He had those going last night. And can I just say to a defender out there that's playing John Morant, in a close game where the Grizzlies need a bucket and John Morant's isolating at the top, you know what he's going to do?

He's going to dribble to his left, get around the corner of the free throw line, and then do his little push shot with his right hand. He does that all the time. I know, easier said than done trying to stop Joffric and Moran. But man, try and take away him going to that spot. He wants to go to that side every single time. And he got that little teardrop or little push shot to fall. He reminds me of Iverson when he does that. Just like a bigger, sort of taller Iverson. He had that shot in his bag, I thought. But

But awesome, awesome game from him. And I'm with you. Like they're playing after all those like devastating losses for them to pick up three straight now to be in fourth, to be right there behind Denver, basically right there with the Lakers. Yeah. You know, this is a team like probably more than those other teams. Like they'd really like to have that home court advantage in a potential second round. Not even gonna be easy to get there no matter who they play, but them more than even the Nuggets or the Lakers to me, it's like, oh yeah, they would love a number two seed to at least help their chances to advance. Yeah.

And they will need Ja, as Trey said, as a number one-ish type of player if Jaron Jackson Jr. is balling out there. Hopefully he'll be back soon. But Ja, yeah, brought the dunks yesterday, brought the ball fakes yesterday. He had it all. As for those other teams near the top of the West standings, J.D., you can throw up the standings right now. I guess we grabbed it from one through eight today.

Because it is toit. Very toit. We had Jabari Smith Jr. starring for the Rockets as they beat the Magic. Third straight win for Houston. So they're there in the mix. And then you see the Warriors there. Curry scored 24. Jimmy Butler triple-double. They beat the Blazers.

for their fifth straight win, TK. What a mess here. What a glorious mess in the Western Conference. Look at all those win streak skates. I know, man. Four through eight all have a three or better game win streak. Memphis and Houston at three. Golden State, Minnesota at five. The Clippers at three. Even if you're winning, you can't make up any ground in the Western Conference right now. Golden State, though, has won 10 straight games with Jimmy Butler in the lineup.

That's up to D'Anthony Melton range right now. They're nine games over 500. I think this team is better than the D'Anthony Melton Warriors from earlier in the season. Jimmy says it's simple basketball. If you're open, shoot it. But if there's another guy open, pass it to him. He's got a better shot. That's all they're doing. They're moving the ball and they're getting great performances from their stars in Butler and in Curry.

They look great. They have top five on both sides of the ball since the Jimmy Butler trade. I think they're a realistic contender, even if they're still way down in the standings. Yeah, I was just going to say, I think a lot of people probably would agree with you. The Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry Warriors, in a potential matchup with any of those teams outside of maybe OKC, maybe even OKC to some people, they might be taking the Warriors over all those teams, Tess.

Two through five, I guess, ahead of them. I think that's fair to say, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, the motor that this team has now, it looks like the Miami Heat that went to the NBA Finals. Yeah, Jimmy has had an effect, there's no doubt. I know you don't like DeAnthony Melton, but DeAnthony Melton was great. He was, but he's not Jimmy Butler. They had a nice hot start, for sure, when he was healthy. Yeah. They had a different mentality then, and they have one now.

Because of Jimmy. Yeah, the size is definitely a worry to me, how it's Jimmy at the four and Draymond. And the team with OKC, will they be able to take advantage of that?

We'll see. We'll see if Hardenstein and Holmgren still have not played a ton together. I mean, it is like about 300 possessions now that they've played together. I do still think that that is the team to beat. I mean, I'm not taking Golden State over that team, but Golden State's going to feel good because of everything they've done. Draymond is going to talk so much trash, but the confidence that Jimmy Butler has brought to that team and the extra motor, that secondary motor, that's

I guess it's going to keep up in the playoffs. It's still a question. You know, Jimmy didn't play in the playoffs last year. TBD. But, yeah, outside of the number one team, even though they are the young team. So, yeah, the Warriors are going to feel great. The Lakers were feeling great until LeBron got hurt. So they'll feel good too. Any other notes on Rockets win there or Warriors win or that Western Conference mess? I gave my piece. I will say, just from the Warriors-Blazers game,

I gotta assume Denny Avdia's winning some fantasy basketball leagues right now for some owners. He's hooping, man. He had a monster game again last night. I know he missed a couple games in March, but I think he's averaging like 20-10-5 and sort of shooting the three ball really well in March. So if you don't have Denny Avdia, I mean, go pick him up. I'm sure he's on a lot of rosters by this point, but he's putting up some numbers. Other takeaways from last night's very busy season.

NBA slate. I mean, there's another like seven games here. Any you want to touch on? Well, I just, you mentioned Danny Avdia. It's white guy season in the NBA. Those are the guys you got to watch. Guys like Baylor Shireman playing for the Boston Celtics. Cam Spencer. Colin Gillespie.

Colin Castleton? It's Colin season. There's so many guys out there. Well, Sam Houser, too. I mean, he's a super white guy. Yeah, you know of these guys. You know of Sam Houser, these other guys.

We've heard of Tristan Vukcevic of the Chicago Bulls, but now he's playing too. Wizards. Oh, the Wizards, yeah. I'm going to get a Tristan Vukcevic, not the Vukcevic. Jon Conchar's playing now. It's white guy season. Silly season for sure. Here's a white guy, Josh Giddey. 29 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists. He's

did sprain his ankle and left in a walking boot. Bulls got their first win against a 500 team since January 27th. That was Zach Levine's last game with the Bulls before he got hurt and got traded.

I'm worried, guys, because I got a text from my dad and from my Tommy Poro. And now I got to ask, what are the Bulls going to pay Josh Giddey this offseason? They traded him for Caruso, also a light guy. Giddey in nine games after the All-Star break, 23 points a game, 11 rebounds, 8 assists per game, shooting 52 from the field, 52 from three. What? 87% at the free throw line, taking four threes a game.

You know Ball called him the Punxsutawney Phil of Mickey Mouse Mars. When this guy starts playing well, you know the games are getting silly. But this is when you start making money because, I don't know, the Bulls obviously have his restricted free agency rights. I can't imagine another team is getting suckered into this, but the Bulls will. The Bulls 100% will. So what do you think will get paid?

Oh, boy. Haven't thought about it, huh? No, not really. But he's making himself money. Yeah, for sure. I can't believe he's shooting 52% from three. That's why the Thunder got rid of him. If he was a 50% three-point shooter, he'd probably still be with OKC. I think so. I think so. They're like, this is the one guy that can't shoot. Get him out of here. But yeah, he's on fire. I don't know. What do you think his starting salary is going to be at? I think he'll get $30 million a year. Minimum. And I hope it's not $40. Wow.

Wow. He puts up numbers when he has the ball. He does. He pushes the pace. He's a big guy for a guard, so he gets rebounds. He's a good passer. Plays downhill. It actually is fun to watch him and Kobe White play together. Him and Matas Bouzelis.

But your team's going to lose a lot if Josh Giddey is your number one option. Which is maybe good, you know, because the Bulls, they shouldn't be winning, even though they keep winning. They're usually beating bad teams, but they actually beat a good team last night. I guess no Halliburton for the Pacers once again. They're struggling right now.

Another team, my Jazz, they might not win another game this season. Uh-oh. John Collins took 30 shots last night. Yeah, he had like 25 shots like almost halfway through the game. Unbelievable. We were like, what the hell's going on in this game? All right, 25 players this season, now that Collins has done it, have taken at least 30 shots in a game. He's only the sixth player of those 25 who is not an all-star.

Okay. At any time in his career. Okay. So I'm gonna offer you guys one guess apiece. Okay. If you can name, you get one guess, if you get it I'll give you a dollar right now. Oh so you're saying we cannot get these? There's five other guys here. Five other guys. I'd like to throw out a Jordan pool. Boom! Give me that dollar! Yeah! There we go. Alright! Man, this is Josh Giddy money here. Yep, that's right, that's right! I want another dollar. You got another four. Is there another Jazz?

I'm not giving you any hints. Okay. Okay, I'll give you one hint. Two of these guys play on the same team. Kobe White? You're out. I'll give you another one. Yeah, I want to say, I don't think he got there, though. Go Colin Saxton. Really? I don't know. What do you think, Chad? I was going to go, I don't think he got there, but I'm going to go Kyle Kuzma. No, no, no, not bad, not bad. Who are they? Miles Bridges, Aaron Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Brandon Miller, CJ McCollum.

non-All-Stars to take 30 or more shots in a game this season. That would be a good one, yeah. Oh, man. If you play for the Hornets, you're just allowed to take 30 shots in a game occasionally. LaMelo's done it, I think, the most of anybody this season. And then Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges who did it twice. Wow.

Wow. But anyway, so yeah, John Collins, two of 11 from deep. I know, I know. Let her rip. Johnny there. That's crazy. Just back to the Bulls. I saw a note that they had to take down the six championship banners to get cleaned. They weren't up in the rafters last night.

Because they've been up there so long? Because they had a concert on Saturday featuring Disturbed, Three Days Grace, and Seven Dust. Oh, no. They got the sickness all over the banners? That's right, man. I guess there was a lot of pyrotechnics, a lot of smoke. Dust. Dust, yeah, Seven Dust. And so they had to take them down, and they're cleaning them. They'll be back by Thursday, don't you worry. All right.

That's great to know. Over the weekend, I was stained down with the sickness on the toilet saying, Miami Heat, they are struggling right now. It was unfortunately infuriating watching Miles Bridges hit massive shot after massive shot in the fourth quarter last night. But the Heat, four straight losses and they just keep blowing big leads. They blew a 17-point lead to lose to the Bulls on Saturday. After the game, Tyler Hero said, if we knew...

how to stop this we would do it not really sure how to get over the hurdle right now but just continuing to stick with it and then they blew another 17 point lead against the worst team yeah i think that's pretty disappointing the heat this season are 25th and fourth quarter offense they're middle of the pack defensively but they're 26th in that rating they get killed on the glass they

They turn the ball over way too much. They play super slow and then they just can't overcome it with shooting. It came down to like bam out of bio, taking a game winning three from the top of the key. And he missed like the stream team last night on playback would say it was shoot a fan shooting for $500 at halftime.

It was that far off, and it was like that was your clutch time look. Things have not gone good for the Heat in the post-Jimmy Butler era. You know, since Andrew Wiggins has been traded there, he hasn't really stepped up much. Last season, it was Hero hitting a lot of big shots, and it just hasn't quite been the same this season for the Heat. So...

They are dropping, dropping, dropping down the standings. They're playing just as bad as the Magic are right now, I think. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the thing. The Magic and the Heat, they're playing so, so poorly, but they're still going to be in a play-in tournament there in the Eastern Conference. I can't imagine the Raps, Nets, or Sixers are catching them. So they'll be there, but man, the Heat are 9-18 in their past 27 games, and they've lost nine games after leading by at least 15 points. That's crazy. And three of those have come in the last nine days.

Like you said, you mentioned a couple of those games. So they keep getting up and getting these leads, and then they just blow them time after time. Yeah, the Atlanta Hawks are the team in the play-in to beat. They look so good. They are the best team. No Trey Young yesterday. Got some worries about that lineup. Nah, they're all good. Dyson Daniels balling 25-25.

Anyaka Okonkwo, 15. Mo Gay, 14. Off the bench, here comes George Nyang and Terrence Mann, 18 and 19. I've been impressed with Zachary Rissache. He also had 22 in this game. 22! He's shooting so well from three-point land this year. It's been surprising because he started the year off poorly. A 19-year-old...

shot 23, then 30, then 29 the first three months. The last two months, 44 and 44%. You don't see 19-year-olds. You don't see rookies get better as the season goes on. So he's just been steady. He's been steady to help out Trae Young. Again, Trae Young can just chill and get healthy because they obviously need him for a playoff series against the Boston Celtics, who they are very good at.

They somehow have beaten the Boston Celtics twice in each season. So he can go get healthy because Orlando, Miami, they're probably not going to catch him, in all honesty, which is really weird to say because they're everybody's. The Hawks are below 500. And they're leading the Southeast Division. Yeah, that is freaking weird. Whoa.

How many games are they under still? Three games? Yeah. Whoa, wow. So they're leading the division, what are they, 31 and 34, something like that? Yep, that's correct. Didn't that happen to you, NFL? You hanging that banner? Wow. That division championship banner? I mean, you don't have to put the record on it, so yeah. You don't have to. Let's say we won the division. We did it. Cool. The other games we didn't touch on, A.J. Lawson, you might drop a who?

on that. Who he played for at least. Plays for the Raptors. Good old Canadian boy. Came up the other day. He had 32 points. It's silly season. Raps won 119-104. They beat the Wizards because they played a two sort of game set here over a very short time at least. And then we had the Knicks crushing the Kings. So they got their first win without Jalen Brunson. They needed that. So that was good for the Knicks there on that little road trip. And then with only eight healthy players, the Mavericks beat the Spurs.

133-129, they snapped a five-game skid as well. I think we got them all in there. Too many games, especially too many weird-ass games. A lot of weird games. Where you're looking at the lineups and going, who the hell is that guy? Getting actual quality minutes, if not starting in some cases. Or someone like John Collins is shooting 30 times. Just insane.

I play Wordle and Spelling Bee every single day. That's the first thing I do. Play Wordle while making coffee. I pour myself a cup and do the crossword, which is the jewel of my morning. What's our starting word today? I think it should be ocean. I have seen you do Spelling Bee during meetings. The New York Times crossword is a moment of Zen that cleanses my brain. I wish the days were shorter and the Wordles were longer.

Join us and play all New York Times games at nytimes.com slash games. Subscribe by March 16th to get a special offer.

All right, well, let's get from the games last night. Let's talk some hypothetical trades because a lot of the talk over the last week or so, and that will continue through the next couple weeks and into the summer, is which teams could be in the mix for Kevin Durant trading for him this offseason. Again, it's a topic we've already discussed. It's going to continue. I saw that ESPN, they asked four of their top analysts, hey, propose a realistic Kevin Durant trade.

Chuck them out there and then have Bobby Marks decide on the winner. And I thought they did such a great job with their proposed trades. I wanted to throw them at you guys, throw them at the viewers here and the listeners, and then we could grade them. Basically grade the hypothetical trade. A plus all the way down to F, I guess. So let's look at all these, discuss them, and ultimately throw a grade on them. All right, first one from Chris Herring at ESPN. His KD trade offer. He's got KD going to the Mavericks.

Kevin Durant, a Dallas Maverick. Suns get in return. Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, Najee Marshall, Derek Lively II, and a 2025 first-round pick. So why the Mavs would do this? I'll give you a little bit of reasoning from the guys. Mavs do it because they dealt the younger Luka for a 31-year-old Anthony Davis. They made it no secret that they view their window to win a championship over the next few years.

Even though they were just in the finals with Luka Doncic. But that's sort of maybe their thinking. So they continue to push all their chips in, right? You know, wow. We got Kyrie. When he comes back, we got AD. Let's add KD. Why the Suns would do this? Pretty good haul. A lot of good players get that draft pick. That could be enough to convince someone like Devin Booker

that the franchise wants to remain competitive and again you get win now guys in washington marshall clay even a little bit and then probably most importantly derrick lively is the big piece the capable big who can bring it on both sides of the floor so let's grade that trade mavs sons katie going to dallas what do you think

I'm a B-plus on this one. I like this trade. I think, spoiler alert, this is going to be my favorite trade of these fakies that we got going here. I think it works for both teams. I don't necessarily agree with the Mavericks' viewpoint on things, but they've gone down this path where they're built around older players in Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.

Kevin Durant's an older player. He's not going to want a super long contract. You could pretty easily line him up with Anthony Davis, who has a player option in the 2028 season, so 27-28. I think that would be reasonable for Kevin Durant to sign a two-year deal after his contract expires in the 26th season.

It definitely upgrades the Mavericks' talent level. They do basically become the Phoenix Suns. Yeah, that's my concern. But what other chance do they have?

It would be my main question. I don't love giving up Derek Lively, but they've got Anthony Davis now who can play center. They've got Gafford, who's a solid center as well. And from the Suns' perspective, you're getting a draft pick this year, even though they hate drafting. These guys despise it. But you're getting players who can play in P.J. Washington, Derek Lively. Noticing Marshall brings defensive acumen as well. And Klay Thompson, still a shooter. Definitely miscast right now as the number one option in Dallas, but...

Give him something to play for. Maybe good things happen. I kind of like this from both sides. Okay, B+. Professor Kirby grades it. What about you, Tess? Yeah, I think the Mavs do this in a heartbeat. And I think the Suns do it too. It is weird. The Dallas Mavericks have already shortened their window.

This is like the Brooklyn Nets with Kyrie and Durant and James Harden. But now you've got Kyrie Durant and Anthony Davis, and they're just way older. In the West, too. Yeah, and you could see it ending in a similar way. I mean, the Nets' peak moment when they had those guys was 2021. They went to the second round at Game 7. Kyrie Irving unfortunately got hurt when he stepped on Yastetakumbo's foot. They got to seven games. Harden was just...

barely able to walk and play. And that sort of same thing could happen. And Durant's feet haven't gotten any smaller. And so that shot didn't happen in that game seven. It's very, very similar. It could end like that.

And the Mavs are okay at giving up a pick, I would say, in this instance. They do have other picks. They still have a lot of their own. They have OKC's number one pick in 2028. They have the Spurs pick in 2030. So they go from Kyrie, probably Max Christie starting with Klay or PJ Washington at the three, AD and Lively to Kyrie, Max Christie, Durant, AD and Gafford.

You sound sexy. Caleb Martin, Dinwiddie, Exum, and OMAX probably coming off the bench. You know, it sounds good. Again, they've already started to push their chips in. You got to push all these fricking chips in. I think that's what it comes down to. Although I did see, I'm not sure what Chris Herring, what he was working with, what trade machine he was working with, that the Mavs would have to send out some more money here to get it actually proper and actually happen. Because Dallas is hard capped. So they'd have to send out something like 5.6 mil. They'd get it done, I guess. Because...

They're going for it. They shortened this window just to get good now. Yeah, they're going for it, but what about the torn ACL on Kyrie Irving? That's an issue here. Like, how much time is this guy going to miss? People recover from ACLs these days. I guess. It's amazing. I mean, it's true. Yeah, well, they still have to play next season. He's still out next season regardless. It's probably a better team, Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis, than Max Christie and Anthony Davis. Mm-hmm.

Okay, so you're B plus or B, something like that. All right, you guys didn't mind it. I think Kyrie Irving's already, it's super early, but they've already said that he could be back for next season, which is wild. They, we'll see what the doctors say, but yes. Okay, next one here from Zach Cram.

His KD trade offer, he's got KD going to the Rockets. Obviously a popular potential destination. Suns get Dylan Brooks, Reed Shepard, Cam Whitmore, Jock Landell, and then the 2025 and 2027 first round picks by way of Phoenix. That 25 firsts would be conveyed after the May draft lottery. So Tass, the Rockets would do this, according to Zach, because they're just a natural trade partner for the Suns for two main reasons. One, Durant slots neatly.

into Houston's largest hole. They really do lack a go-to scorer, and you're basically adding one of the best of all time in KD. And then secondly, the Rockets control Phoenix's draft picks in 25, 27, and 29, which the Suns had initially sent to Brooklyn when they traded for Durant. So you're sort of getting some of those back. Why do the Suns do this? Well...

They get those picks. They get their own picks back. That would be helpful. And you get some useful players in Brooks and young guys with a lot more upside than any of Phoenix's young guys in Shepard and Whitmore. Grade that trade, Katie, to the Rockets. The Houston Rockets, it's tough for me. Kevin Durant, obviously, would help them out. There's no doubt. But I think it's pushing in for it a little too early to me. I don't think this makes them a championship team the next few years.

I think you wait a little bit more. This team that they'd go forward with would be Fred Van Vliet, if they keep him around, Jalen Green, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, and then Shang-Goon Amin Thompson. It's freaking good. I don't know if it's a championship team. I think I would wait. It's tough to say because you are giving up... Yeah, Reed Shepard and Ken Woodmore are the main parts.

My trade machines say they would have to throw somebody else in, and that would be Tari Eason. The numbers work perfectly. He's been very, very good, plus two first-round picks. I think it's just pushing it a little too early for me. I'd go the OKC route and just wait it a little bit longer. That's what I would say. Kevin Durant is that guy that could send a team over and put them—

right to the goal line, but I don't think it's this Rockets. Yeah, this is what I'm fascinated about with the Rockets is would they be more likely to do something like this, like in a Kevin Durant trade, if they were to lose in five games in the first round? Or just come short of making a conference finals or even a finals, like they had a magical run, and they're really, really close. And it's like, I don't know which one where you're more likely to do a potential trade like this for a guy like KD Stature.

an early flame out or like, holy crap, we're close. Maybe he's the guy that gets us over the edge. I don't know if you're taking that. Probably the latter. I think so too. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean, look what OKC did last year. They lost. I don't know if it was a disappointing season. They were the number one seed. They lost in the second round.

Most other teams, you're like, that's a disappointment. But it was their first real go-around in the playoffs, and they tinkered around the edges, right? They added Hartenstein because they needed rebounding. They added Caruso because they needed more perimeter defense and three-point shooting. So, like Tass is saying, they played it slow. Look at where they are now. Favorites in the Western Conference. That's what the Rockets should do. I think Kevin Durant gets them closer to a championship. I don't know who the Rockets are eyeballing out there.

who's going to improve their team more than Kevin Durant. The question for me would be, what would the Suns... Why would they do this? Because what are they going to do with their picks? Are they going to tank? I don't think so. Are they going to use them in trades? Maybe. Maybe, yeah. I don't know. This one's a B to me, though, because I think Reed Shepard is good. I don't necessarily know if he's a game changer. Cam Whitmore, just a piece. Dylan Brooks, helpful. Uh-uh.

And the picks are going to be okay. Like, you're keeping your picks. The only way they get good is if you decide to be terrible, and that doesn't seem like Matt Ishbia's style. I'll give it a B. Yeah, Bobby Marks really liked this one because he thought it checked, for the Suns at least, a lot of things they would hope to accomplish in training Kevin Durant. Draft picks, obviously getting those back, depending on what you do with them in the future. Controllable contracts, players who can help now, which you are getting some, and then financial flexibility would also help them as well. So Bobby Marks was high on this one.

But I think it really does depend on what happens with Houston here in the postseason and how good or poorly they look. All right, next one. Andre Snellings. KD trade offer. Durant to the Knicks. They're always big game hunting. Knicks get Kevin Durant. Suns get O.G. Ananobi and Mitchell Robinson. That's what Snellings had here. Knicks would do this because...

You know, they probably ask a little too much from Jalen Brunson at times to carry the offensive load. So Katie helps fix that. You'd have a great offensive foundation and the upside looks pretty tremendous. Suns would do this because you get a 27-year-old in O.G. Ananobi on a similar career timeline with Booker. That sort of helps. And they need more size and muscle in the middle. And when Robinson is healthy, he's one of the best defensive rebounders in the league. That's the thinking here. How do you grade it, Trey?

Shout out to Kendrick Lamar.

It's not enough. I don't think the Suns should pay OG Ananobi four more years after this of $40 million. Doesn't really change the calculus for me from Phoenix's point of view, so I'd rather have Kevin Durant unhappy and then you're off his contract after next season. I would prefer that. Mitchell Robinson doesn't really factor into this for me. Like, he's fine when he plays. He's a good guy. There's a lot of good centers out there, but it is intriguing to see Kevin Durant on the Knicks. Of course, everybody's wanting to see that. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

C minus. That's why it's in there. It's an ESPN article after all. Exactly. And for sure, that's how they tweaked the headline. You know, it led with KD to the Knicks, question mark, and other potential KD trades. Yeah, that's why this one is just hammered in the middle here. The front, we led with a good one. I think that's

Phoenix-Dallas one, that's a sexy one. That's a sexy one that sort of makes sense. This one, this doesn't really change anything for the New York Knicks to me. Obviously, it's Kevin Durant, and he can score the ball. They kind of need Mitchie. They need that muscle that you said in the middle, and he helps in a weird way. I know he doesn't play a lot, and that's a freaking problem.

But yesterday, he was a plus 26 for the New York Knicks when he played out there. He's helpful. It's an incredible offense already. I mean, they were in top one, top two for a long time. They're so damn good. They need a different mentality defensively. And although Kevin Durant was a great defender on those Golden State Warriors championship teams, he ain't changing that.

for the New York Knicks. They need to change that side of the ball more importantly. So I'm looking at it from a Tom Tibbs point of view. What are we going to do here? They're just going to get beat again. And if somebody can come out and make Mikkel Burgess a better player, that would be more helpful, I think. I mean, just they need something different. And so this one doesn't really do it for me. So you're low on this one. Yeah. You're like a D.

Don't like it. Yeah, it's fun. It's fun for the SEOs. It's going to get some clicks, but other than that, not so much. Okay. Final one then from the machine, Kevin Pelton. His KD trade offer, it's a three-way. He get Kevin Durant.

Suns get Nikola Jovic, Andrew Wiggins, 2025 first round pick by way of the Warriors, a 2030 first round pick by way of Miami, and then a 26 second round pick from the Lakers. And the Nets, they're the third team in this to make all the numbers work. They get Duncan Robinson, Keyshawn Johnson, a 29 first round swap, top four protected, a 23 first.

Sorry, excuse me, a 2031 first round swap, also top four protected, and then a second round pick way in the future as well. Pelton writes, Miami doesn't have premium draft picks or young prospects to offer and must send out more salary than Durant's $53.3 million for 25-26 to avoid a hard cap at the lower luxury tax apron, necessitating...

sending some of the pick value to the Nets to take Duncan Robinson's basically $20 million salary in the cap space. But his thinking the Suns would do this cuts a lot of money from their payroll, get some forward depth there in Wiggins and Jovich, and the Suns get these first-round picks by way of the Warriors and then the Heat there in the future. Who wants to grade this one first? How do you feel about this three-way? I don't feel so good about it. From the Phoenix Suns' perspective, they're not getting enough back.

From the player perspective, Wiggins needs to be on a damn good team to be a huge factor. Jovic, I'm not so sure what he's going to be exactly. And then these first round picks ain't that sexy either. I don't think it's enough for Kevin Durant. So I'm not high on it. Period. And that's coming from one of the biggest Andrew Wiggins fans I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to be a little realistic here.

I liked him on the Warriors. He was very good there. He had that one year. Haven't talked about him much on the heat, have we? What a shock. Okay, what do you think? You low on this one as well? I mean, they got to be confident that the 2030 first round pick from Miami is going to be a jewel because that's really the best asset they would be getting in this draft along with some salary cap relief because I'm with you, Wiggins. Maybe he helps, but he's got a year and a player option, so you're out of his deal before

pretty quickly. I think that's good. The Warriors first rounder this season isn't going to be all that juicy, probably more of a trade pick for the Suns at that point. But I don't think they're thinking in 2030 terms. So this one is a B minus for me.

The Heat, I guess that's interesting. They need somebody who can do something in the fourth quarters. Yeah, right. It makes more sense for them. Yeah, they're not giving up a ton. They love to trade a pick way down the line. They're like, we'll get a free agent by then. They haven't really, but that's what they think. But they'll just keep selling us on that for sure. Okay, so there they are. The four trades from ESPN and all their analysts there. Again, Bobby Marks did like the Rockets one.

the most. He thought that made the most sense in terms of what the Suns get back and maybe Kevin Durant taking the Rockets to the next level. But let's hear from you in the stream team and obviously in the comments and maybe you got a better one. Drop your KD trade ideas in the comments below. Okay, pick them Tass! Another win for a majority of us.

Unfortunately, not you. You took OKC to cover again, and Denver straight-up money-lined him. Yeah. What a fourth quarter that was. Well, tonight, I made this pick because I need a win. I'm 2-4, so I picked Bucs versus the Pacers because I wanted to pick the Bucs.

And I'm first into that dock. And so, bang, bang, here it is. And Skeets, you're the paster's line, I guess. Yeah, can you guess who was last into the dock this morning? Yeah, because we have this rule that all four of us can't pick the same one. So unfortunately...

I'm not making up a game on the two teams that I'm closest to. That's true. Trey and Esh, unfortunately. Early, early days. Early days here in March. I was shocked, and then I was a little upset. I was like, man, I'm rolling right now in the month of March. I got a great record. And then I look, everybody's taking Milwaukee. I am forced to take Indy. That's fine. Those are the rules.

But I really do not believe Indiana's going to cover tonight. They have not looked good. No, they haven't, but they've played the Bucs well in the past couple of seasons. Yeah, there is that. There is that. Could be another potential playoff matchup between these two teams, too, in a 4-5. So, I don't know. But then again, you swerve. Sometimes it works. So, I got Pacers. I got some points to play with. Yeah, plus two and a half at home. You never know. They play each other twice in the next...

Four days. Oh, whoa. I guess that's five days. They play on the 11th. They play on the 15th. Bucks beat them twice this year. Okay. Revenge. Let's go Pacers. Yep. All right. That's tonight. Not a lot of games on at all.

Because we had a million on last night. There's four games on tonight. It's a light one. Yeah, and they're not that sexy. So, hey, you got a question for us? Maybe we'll hit the beach tomorrow or Thursday. Send in your questions to nodunksattheathletic.com. Tweet them in at nodunksinc or drop them in the YouTube comments. And I would say if you're a Bucs or a Pacers fan, definitely tune into the show tomorrow. We'll be likely talking about this. This is definitely the feature game of the night.

The other three are winning team versus losing team. Is this TNT tonight? Yeah. Oh, wow. I consider it a max game myself. Oh, me? I'm a true TV guy. Okay, so we got Lefkoe on tonight. That's great. Wow. Nets, Cavs, Wizards, Pistons, Clippers, Pelicans. And then this one. Hey, man. Zion's hooping. Zion's playing well. That is a rough, rough schedule, though. You're right. Anyway, we'll be here. Yep. We'll be doing 30 minutes on it.

This one's for the Midwestern boys tomorrow. That's right. Bring your corn. Bring your cheese curds. Appreciate you joining us here. Hit the like button, subscribe. Podcast listeners, five-star ratings and reviews. Until tomorrow, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, Nets Cavs is going to be a close game at the end. Book it. You're probably right. Yeah. Sweet. Jordan Poole made me a dollar today. That was nice, man. Respect. Respect. Brace the day, people.