Thunder-Cavaliers Lived Up To The Hype
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Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the No Dunks Podcast.

It's Tass Mellis.

What's up, everybody? Day four here, being outside. Definitely the coldest one. Yes, and it's gotten colder and colder as the week has gone on. We are showing right now minus four Celsius, which is about 25 Fahrenheit. But JD said, Tass, it's not as windy, at least. Is that true? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think he's right. I will definitely be covering up my face because my face is a little colder than it was yesterday. Trey mentioned I should bring a balaclava. I don't have one of those, but I do have the snooze snood. Everybody needs a snood. I

I still don't know really what a snood is. It's this. It's a scarf? Yeah, it's a scarf, but like if the ends were attached, so it's a big circle. Oh, yes, yes. Here, I'll let you visually see it. Yeah, okay. Okay. Tass is showing us. Yeah, it's that. Okay, it's that. It's a scarf that's attached at the end is a great way to put it. Yeah, or a hood that's not attached to your clothes. Or that, or that. All right, well, Tass is, let's try.

get through this show as quickly as possible here today. Get Tessa inside. We did have another wedgie, which is great. Wedgie number 19 on the season. It happened in Indianapolis last night. Bulls Pacers and this was Kobe White with the three-point wedgie. Nice stick job there.

funny to hear both of the broadcasts, both the Pacers and the Bulls talk about this one. You know, Stacey King says we need like fruit of the loom sponsorship and Quinn Buckner doesn't seem to like talking about wedgies. So it's great. It's great. Yeah.

This is a monster blowout, so something exciting to talk about. Yeah, yeah. Quinn Bucketer called it as it was in the air before it wedged. He said, that's way off. That's way off. Yeah, and then it stuck in there. So that's nice. We're getting some wedgies here over the last couple of nights. But let's get into the big topic today. It was the Cavaliers beating the Thunder 129-122 in a meeting of the NBA's top seeds. Cleveland ends OKC's 15-game win streak. They improved...

To 32-4. A start so hot that they're on pace to match the Warriors' record of 73 regular season wins back in 15-16. But Tass, man, I don't know about you. It felt like the game of the year to this point, but I'm interested to hear your big takeaways from Cleveland beating OKC.

It definitely was the biggest game. I'm glad it came through because the NBA was wishing that it came through. They flexed this game. It wasn't a nationally televised game until December, and they said, we need to put the top two teams on national TV, and it came through on both sides. I know I'm going to start talking about Cleveland, but first, it was great to see OKC play better than they did yesterday.

in the NBA Cup final. This was a great performance. They've got to show their faces in the playoffs in a different way as the number one seed this year. The Cavs in the same boat. I think we see now that the Boston Celtics aren't going to do what they did last year and just run their way to the final. Cleveland showed that they are capable of playing with anybody. And when I say anybody, I mean anybody on their team is able to play when Donovan Mitchell isn't all that good.

being a factor in each game. Dagnall doubled him. They got Lou Dort on him. They made sure that Donovan Mitchell didn't get into a flow, and that happened. Donovan Mitchell scored 11 points, and the Cleveland Cavaliers still won this game. Donovan Mitchell's first bucket was just before half. It was a beautiful dunk. But really, the Cleveland Cavaliers supporting guys came through in this game. Every single one of their supporting guys. They had seven guys in double digits. Darius Garland came through big time.

Evan Mobley and Jared Allen is where the focus should be because it was the bigs that made the difference. This was a close game. At the end of three quarters, Kenny Atkinson being interviewed as cast coach, he said, well, this is a great game. This is awesome. This is great. I wish I was watching this. That was amazing. It didn't seem like he was the NBA head coach for one of these teams. He was just enjoying himself, but his guys came out and performed. But this was a two-point game with a couple minutes left. Yeah. And

As I said, the bigs came through. Jared Allen got an offensive rebound after a Cavs miss. He goes to the free throw line. He makes it a three-point game. And then the Cavs get more offensive rebounds. Obviously resulted in that odd Donovan Mitchell coaches challenge. The only coaches challenge. But after all that, Evan Mobley had the opportunity in a three-point game to go up against Isaiah Hartenstein one-on-one. He lined him up from the three-point line. He...

burrowed into Hartenstein's chest. Hartenstein took it and then he went at him again and he scored over top of him. Huge, huge bucket. Was that the biggest bucket of Evan Moley's career? Yes. Yeah, I totally agree. So they're up. And then Darius Garland, 30 seconds left as Donovan Mitchell off the ball being guarded by Lou Dort. Darius Garland just had to do it himself.

took Kaysen Wallace to the rim, scored, made it then a seven point game. It was over, but throughout the game, even though Donovan Mitchell wasn't himself,

Jared Allen, Evan Mobley, those passes that were happening over and over and over again. Evan Mobley, seven assists. Jared Allen, six assists. To go with their offensive game just period was fantastic. Mobley, 21 points, 10 boards, seven assists. Allen, 25 points, 11 boards, a lot of them offensive, and six assists. I would love to see Chet Holmgren on the other side.

but Darius Garland came through as well with 18 points. I just mentioned all those three names because coming into this game, coming into this season, even last season, we didn't know, number one, if the bigs could play together. Number two, if Darius Garland could show up in big moments. I think this team is ready to play in the playoffs. Yeah, this one went back and forth, Trey, for...

48 minutes almost the entirety of this game. 30 lead changes, 8 ties. Again, tons of end-to-end action, some star-making plays, the role players stepping up. I'm seeing comparisons from Jared Allen and Evan Mobley, the stat lines they did in that game last night together.

to David Robinson and Tim Duncan of the Spurs? I mean, it looked like it for that night, but do you agree with Tess that this was the game of the year at this point? What do you think of it? I think by far the game of the year. It was high-level basketball the entire night. Didn't come down to the final possession, but it did come down to the final minute. I feel like a cold night...

in Cleveland on a Wednesday is a go-to meme for talking about the NBA. Do you care about a random game in January? I cared about this game a whole lot and it was intense the entire way through and it felt like both teams were playing great defenses, but the

Offense was better from both teams. 129 for the Cavs, the most the Thunder have allowed this entire season. The Cavs as well, a good defense. They gave up 122. The defense was there from both sides, but the offense was just a little bit better, and the Cavs just had a little bit better shot making, and they definitely had more size. I'm thinking now, the last two games the Thunder lost, and I'm talking about the NBA Cup Final, which isn't included in this so-called winning streak. Nonetheless, the last two games they lost have been against teams in the Bucs,

and in the Cavs who ran double bigs. And it was a factor, absolutely. Like Tass mentioned, 21-10-7 for Mobley, 25-11-6, seven offensive rebounds for Jared Allen. They found each other big to big so many times. OKC very aggressive putting guys on the ball. So when the ball would get inside, it would get to Allen. The help is there from Hartenstein, but he's able, Allen or Mobley, to find the other one of them at the rim because there's no other –

person over 6'8". For the Thunder out there, they assisted each other three different times in this game, and I thought it was such a big show of confidence from Kenny Atkinson after the Donovan Mitchell challenge to go to Evan Mobley and say, go ahead and attack. I don't think they wanted him on Hartenstein because...

Strews, I think, sets a screen for Mobley to come up. So they're trying to get him switched on to a smaller dude. It ended up being the biggest, baddest dude for the Thunder. And Mobley bodied him, put him in the basket, finished over the top. That was a three-point possession. That play that Tass mentioned with all the offensive rebounds, it took 55 seconds. That was a clock-killing drive from the Cavaliers. It looked like a team just handed the ball off three straight times, and they get the first down to really end the game. Great stuff from them.

I thought the Cavs guards were really poised in this game. 11 assists and three turnovers combined for Mitchell and Garland. Obviously, Mitchell didn't shoot the ball well, but Garland did, had the big finish there at the end. They've got two quality ball handlers, and they seemed completely unfazed by Kaysen Wallace and Lou Dort. Dort did a good job on Mitchell, but it wasn't them turning over the Cavs, which is a good way for the Thunder to score. This was just awesome.

Awesome game. All the role players showed up for the Cavaliers. Crowd was hyped. Great stuff. I think we were helped out, Tass, that both these teams hadn't played since Sunday. So that's two full days to not only prepare for the other team, but obviously to get rest for all of your guys. I think that helped add to the elevated atmosphere of this game. It was really hyped. I love that part of it. That's where it almost felt like football.

maybe a potential finals preview. There's a lot of time off in between games and people can rest up and sort of game plan a little bit more. So that was cool. Were you surprised by the overturned call there where the Cavs really did pull away with that critical challenge off of the Mitchell, Dort, Diddy push off, rebound incident? Were you shocked that they did overturn it in the end to then give the Cavs another chance? I never know what to expect. In all honesty, I could have gone either way in that direction.

To me, I understand why they overturned it. I wouldn't have. Did you think it was an odd call? So the call for those that didn't watch the game is obviously Mitchell gets whistled for sort of pushing Dort a little bit to then secure the offensive rebound. That's called a foul. Hold on. Kenny Atkinson and the Cavs, they're going to challenge that. And yeah, and you slow it down. You look at it and they assessed...

It was minor. And they talked about it on the broadcast, who also I thought was great last night, that Dort's sort of engaging with him, and there's not a huge, clear push-off from Mitchell. Like, let the boys play is what I always want when it comes to rebounding, for the most part. So I was almost happy in a weird way, but I was surprised, because I thought, nah, they'll let that one stand at this point in the game. I thought they would, but they didn't.

I thought so too. I thought they shouldn't have called it when it happened because it didn't look like a foul when it happened. But when they showed the replay, you can see like Mitchell's arm is a little bit extended. So I thought they would uphold the call on the court. It went the other way, but I don't think that that was a huge controversy in the game. We barely saw the referees. There was one challenge. Neither team is complaining about free throws.

good reffing. We didn't have to see too much gobble. That's true. That's true. That's really the only incident where we went and looked at a monitor and that was fine. It didn't take forever either and then we got going again and then obviously the huge Mobley play. And if you're a Thunder fan, it's more like grab the rebound and then we don't even have to deal with that foul. Yeah. And I think on the next play that we're talking about there where Evan Mobley ended up going up against Hartenstein and it seemed like

The Cavs wanted a switch. I think it was Shea Gildress Alexander that was supposed to be involved. They wanted to go at Shea because he had five fouls. And the reason why he had five fouls is because the Thunder were undersized and he had to fight for boards. And that was the pleasant thing of these monstrous two guys and Jared Allen and Mobley. They had the size advantage. There's no doubt.

But OKC wasn't out physical in this game. They fought, and Shea fought, and he had to fight every single time as a support rebounder, and that's why he had five fouls, and that kind of stinks. And that's why you, yes, of course, it would be wonderful to see not only Chet Holmgren, but Alex Russo take off his ski hat and play basketball. Although, you know, it's cool. It's a cool hat. That's for sure. It's no snood, but it's a cool hat. It was great that the officiating was good.

Period. After three quarters, I could hear in my head, old heads say, 103, 102? These teams don't play defense. But number one, the officiating was good. Number two, the defense was damn good, but the offense was just...

better. It was so good. It's the classic when you're playing pick-up hoops and somebody's trying to encourage one of their teammates, great D, great D, and then the guy still hits the shot and somebody yells out, better O. That felt like the third quarter especially. You're always saying that when I score. 43-41 in the third quarter though. That's when all

the WhatsApp chat started flying with our friends like, this is amazing, this game. Like, hopefully it comes down to the end and it did for the most part. But, I mean, like, we're basketball sickos. We want maybe casual saying, whoa, we got a bunch of teams on winning streaks here. Oh, they're telling us this is a big game. Maybe I check it out last night. I don't know. We'll see the ratings on ESPN. But if they did, they got a hella entertaining game. Yeah.

So that was great. It wasn't, unfortunately, like the NBA Cup where the Thunder couldn't hit a shot to save their life in that game. And it got out of hand and it was boring. This wasn't the case last year. This was an ideal basketball game. It was awesome. It was awesome. And it was tight and intense the entire way through. It never felt like these teams were going to fight each other. Maybe they do next week when they meet again, which is also going to be cool. No way it lives up to the hype once again, but what if it does?

But what if it does, Keats? Yeah, I saw Ziller write in his newsletter. I have to agree with him. Ziller wrote, quote, I actually wish the rematch scheduled for next Thursday was further out so we could have some more buildup as these teams run through all the other teams, all the other comers. And like, unfortunately, we're not going to have Chet Holmgren again. Who knows with Caruso? But I sort of agree with Ziller. I'm pumped for it. I almost wish it was like a little bit further.

further down the line, and specifically Chet Holmgren, because that's a question. Would he have made a huge difference in this game in taking away some of that Cavaliers' Pete dominance and at least negating some of those bigs from the Cavs? I mean, who knows? Honestly, you think yes, but also I want to see what the Thunder look like, period, with Chet and Hartenstein on the court. They haven't played together yet this season, so the best version of the Thunder with Chet and Hartenstein understanding their roles and how to play together, yeah, I think that has an effect on...

against Mobley and Allen just because it's like two similar type players going against two similar type players. The big beefy guy who's at the rim, the more switchy, uh, rangy guy who does it on the perimeter as well. It feels like that would be a fair matchup, but I think there's going to be stuff for the Thunder to iron out playing Hartenstein and Chet together. It will happen eventually. Uh,

And it will be an impact for the Thunder because the size was too much, definitely, for the Cavs in this one. And their zone defense was awesome. They kept going to it in the fourth quarter. If they would make the shot, they would get back in zone. If they would miss the shot, they would be back in man. And it just ended up being way too much Hartenstein, I thought, for the Thunder because they're trying to figure out a good way to crack it, getting the ball inside, getting him at the free throw line. He had the floater working for the most part. Yeah.

But if the game is coming down to Hartenstein making floaters or making passes to break down the zone, there are better ways to go about it if you're the Thunder. Surely they want Shea Gilgis-Alexander more involved in those plays, but that's why Kenny Atkinson was calling that because he's having to see two, maybe three bodies every single time. So great coaching from Kenny Atkinson. Too early to show his cards? Never. Yeah. I guess a lot of the Cavaliers players were telling Kenny Atkinson Tass after the game, we don't win that game last year.

It's a different squad this year, like, taken down OKC, the way we played, through our bigs, obviously everybody contributing. So it was sort of cool to hear Kenny say that's what the players are saying. So they've obviously grown here as a team. Oh, yeah, there's no doubt that they've grown. Darius Garland, in 30 seconds left, finishing this game off.

We all questioned whether or not him and Donovan Mitchell could work. And this is their first full season together because Garland was hurt last year. So we never really truly saw it. But I always questioned whether Garland could come through in key moments like that. Same goes for Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. OKC would jump into that zone and they'd be good at taking away the three-point shots on this Cleveland Cavaliers team. Those two guys and their passing, the big-to-big passing, was fantastic.

So good. And we had to question both those guys. Would they even work together? We wondered last year. You're right, Tass. I mean, like a lot of people wanted to trade one of the guards or one of the bigs. And the Cavs obviously showed some patience and they did. What most teams do is, nah, just get rid of the coach. Bring in a new coach and see if they can unlock it. And so far, so amazing. I mean, they're 32 and 4.

Is that the greatest coaching cycle that's ever happened? Because J.B. Bickerstaff has been awesome for the Detroit Pistons, Kenny Atkinson obviously awesome for the Cavs, and Monte Williams is making $100 million to just sit there. Just hang out, yeah. Perfect. Yeah, everybody's coming out a win-win-winner there. Do you have a crowbar?

right now, Tass? I don't know if you can hear it, but it's coming through on the mic. Wow. No, this is a distant crow. It's like 100 feet away, I'd say. You look like a blue jay to me. Oh, okay, okay. Well, I don't have to be specific. Okay.

I wanted to give this one more takeaway from this game because I saw a lot of people writing about it. The one hole maybe in the Thunder's elite number one vaunted defense is that they do allow their opponents to shoot a lot of threes in the corner. Specifically role players because they're really good at taking away star players because you got Dort. You can put that guy in the Dort chamber. But all these role players get looks from the corner. No team allows more corner three-point attempts than OKC, FF3.

at 11.3 and again this is the NBA you can't take away everything that's the one thing they've sort of decided to give up Cleveland took 14 of them from the corner last night they hit 8 of them and a lot of them were you know Struis Wade Karis LeVert those guys went 10 of 15 I think combined from 3 point land and it was reminiscent a little bit

the Mavericks series in the second round last year where there was two things, right? They were getting killed on the glass. Derek Lively was a menace so they go and get Hartenstein to fix that a little bit. You know, I think it's worked. But they gave up a ton of corner threes and it was PJ Washington and it was Derek Jones Jr. hitting them at an absurd rate for them and that was a big part of why they lost that series. So,

I think they're not going to change the number one defensive lead, but it's something to watch. And they're playing, obviously, the long game where they're not going to be able to do that four times out of seven or whatever in a series. And I think it does change when Chet's there as well, where now you've got another big back there, and maybe other guys can still stay a little more attached to their guys because you at least have Chet once. Either Chet or Hartenstein's put in a pick and roll, against the Cavs specifically.

That'll be a lot of arms on the court when Chet is there with Hartenstein and then Jalen Williams also is a really lengthy three. So that definitely will be something there. But maybe there's a little bit of a recipe for how you can beat the Thunder. You just got to crush them on the glass and make all your threes. Okay, good luck. Do that four times in seven games is exactly what the Thunder are going to be arguing. But that's why you like to have home court advantage. The Cavs,

I think it was a factor. Definitely. Donovan Mitchell said after the game, everybody that came in did something positive to affect the game. That's a team win. Absolutely. Three threes for Dean Wade. Five for Max Struess. His hair is too beautiful. Oh, my God. It looks like Tass with that headband, though. That big fat headband. That hair is too pretty to be on an NBA court. I think he needs a haircut. Karis LeVert, two threes, and then Ty Jerome. What? Yeah.

Yeah. Ty Jerome was on fire. Then it was like, what's going on? We're seeing too much Ty Jerome. And then he caught fire again. He was awesome. It was incredible to see him come through like that. I was trying to think who's the equivalent on the Thunder. I think Wallace probably would have been the guy. He had a nice game. But getting 15 points from Ty Jerome, him cooking off the dribble time and time again, that was huge for Cleveland.

Yeah, and those corner passes are available because Evan Mobley's just damn good at passing. And Jared Allen is damn good at passing. Those are passes that Evan Mobley didn't make last year on a regular basis. He's grown, period. And Jared Allen was really good at it. I think we're skipping over, you mentioned Kaysen Wallace, who would probably go to a bench in this type of series, in this type of matchup, if they're throwing out Holmgren.

and Hartenstein. Case and Wallace would be on the bench. We'd see what he would produce off the bench.

just need to mention Jalen Williams was awesome for the Thunder. Shea was awesome in his role and Hartenstein had to do probably a little more than they wanted with his 18 points, but Jalen Williams dropping 25 and Shea dropping 31. And, you know, in my brain, I'm already putting everybody in their pecking order. What is Kaysen Wallace doing off the bench? What is Caruso doing off the bench if they're all there? But everybody was great. It really came down to the last two minutes of this game and the bigs

out bigging just being being a little uh just a little more aggressive and just coming up with those huge offensive boards oh man like when jared allen had that block on hartenstein which then went the other way i think resulted in a donovan mitchell corner three yeah in transition that put them up seven that was huge jared allen was probably the best player last night yes overall mobley had the huge bucket garland did well to ice the game but yeah jared allen was a beast and the play making your right taps from both those guys awesome

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Any random notes?

this one? Anything that you wrote down, jotted down from this game? Mostly just about Max Struess' hair. And Richard Jefferson I thought was pretty good on the call. I like the combo. They're good together. They found a mix. I think this mix is better than when it was Redick in there for Richard Jefferson last year when Redick was on the call. And what

Why do you think that is? He's got a different voice. He's got a louder, more expressive voice, and he's a funny guy. They should put him in Cleveland more often because they were honoring the guy on the Jumbotron in between breaks. That was awesome.

Tess, do you have any random notes from this game, this broadcast? Yeah, I have to agree with Richard Jefferson, and I'm going to geek out here for a second, but the NBA Finals broadcast crew has not been decided quite yet. It's Mike Breen, Doris Burke, and then the third is a question mark. It could be Richard Jefferson. It could be Jay Billis. It could be Tim Legler. But it's got to be Richard Jefferson. They just work so well. It's a stark difference between...

doris and him and they play off together extremely well they set each other up even doris burke who is not you know the setup announcer was setting up richard jefferson just to geek it out richard jefferson i thought was extremely funny evan mobley had an air ball from the corner that landed in jared allen's hands underneath the hoop so richard jefferson said this said they talk about those big to big passes and everybody just started giggling that was perfect that was good we didn't get enough jokes

Last year in the finals. I got to agree with you guys. You guys said it at the time. We said it. Reddick's not like that. Him and Doris are similar commentary styles, I think. Yeah. I did. Speaking of the broadcast, it just made me laugh. I think it was a bit of a brain fart. It must have been early in the game. It was a Cassidy Hubberth sort of, what do you call those? Where they chime in while the game action's going. I'm going to add a little color right to this story. And for some reason, she called SGA Shea Alexander. Uh-huh.

Drop the G completely. I don't need it. I was like, well, I've never heard that. It blew my mind for some reason, but a little brain fart. One thing to add about Shea Alexander, the intros, I enjoyed the intros. It was a loud arena. Richard Jefferson, Doris Burke, Mike Breen doing the setups, and up comes the graphic where they're trying to promote Shea Gildress Alexander as they're pushing him as a star.

Shea is there with his shoes on, but they're untied. Very weird look, I thought. Oh, his poop shoes, too. Yeah, the poop shoes. I thought of you. I always think of you when I say brown shoes. They're brown. Yeah.

Just an odd look. Yeah. Great game. I guess I saw people saying there's some complications with NBA's YouTube page and the highlights this morning. There's hardly anything up there right now. What a bad timing for that. The one game you really want to get those highlights up. The crazy one, they got a thing up that's like fourth quarter uncut. It's a big game. I was like, cool, man. I'll rewatch this whole fourth quarter. But it was only like 10 minutes long. I was like...

So it was cut. That doesn't make any sense to me. It jumps from like 11 minutes to three minutes. I was like, significantly cut. Can't put that in the title though. Yeah. That is cool. And I think that they might have had one other one. Uh,

But they had none of the other games as well. People were too excited. But also, maybe they couldn't go into the office. I don't know what's going on. Look, Clip Pro was down for everybody. Yeah, Suck is down. Let me riddle you this. When you're watching these two teams, the two best teams in the league, playing the game of the year so far, we're still a month to the trade deadline. Either team, are you like, they should make any sort of a move? Yeah.

I honestly don't see it for the Cavaliers. If I'm being honest, I think they're more set with their sort of roster construction. I think, well, they could do it because they have a million draft picks. Another creator for OKC. I will say in this game last night, the offense for Cleveland just came easier. It was more in flow. And this is against the best defense for the most part. Whereas that, you know, the OKC, the way they play at times, it feels, I mean, sometimes it's like Shea.

Do your magic and he'll hit the shot more times than not or Jalen. It's like just feels a little more tough sometimes. No, there's no chat. There's no Caruso. They don't have their whole team, but maybe one more creator like just off the bench. I could see helping them, but that was it. Yeah, I kind of agree. Yeah, that's where Kayson Wallace maybe off the bench is a little bit different than in the starting role. Yeah. He is not Ty Jerome. He's not Ty Jerome. That's for sure. It's a different... Ty Jerome, man. He was awesome. I will say...

thinking of the bench, one note, Kenrich Williams, the guy had a one-legged fadeaway.

In the biggest game of the season, Ken Rich Williams, just shooting off one leg. I was sitting with all the old heads thinking, how does he do that? Just shooting like that, number one. Number two, I think on the NBA's YouTube page, what they should have is a video compiling all of Ken Richard Williams' haircuts. Because his haircut was even different. He's got a new haircut this season. He changes a lot. Just a little...

I don't know what you'd call that thing, but a little tiny little patch on the bottom, but it's kind of shaved now. There is a name for it. Ducktail. No, the Ducktail's gone. I say patch, but it's gone now. It's different. I'm putting a video together. Okay. Yeah. So we can all... All right, let's move on. There were some other games last night. We'll touch on a couple of them, and then we have some news. But Chris Middleton came off the bench for the Milwaukee Bucks last night in a win against the Spurs, eight points. But Doc Rivers, TK...

was pretty emphatic about, hey, the reason we're bringing Middleton off the bench and he's coming out of the starting lineup, it's a health-based decision here rather than his sort of on-court performance. You know, the idea that he wasn't, like, moving all that well and we're trying to cut his minutes back and maybe just in a roll off the bench it'll work a little bit better. But what are your thoughts on

Middleton to the pine. I don't think it's going to last for very long. Doc Rivers benching a veteran doesn't seem like something that happens that regularly. I guess it did at the beginning of the season. Yeah.

But he's bringing in a vet as well. The Bucs do need a playmaker on the second unit. I agree with that. So you can understand why Middleton kind of leading those units could be a thing. But the best Milwaukee team will have Chris Middleton starting, functioning as a third ball handler outside of Giannis and Dame. So, you know.

I think it's just fine. A quality vet performance by the Bucs in this one. 19 threes, 26 assists, only 11 turnovers. They just kept getting good shot after good shot after good shot and did a great job on Wemby. He had seven points in the first quarter, and he finished with 10 on 10 shots. They were super physical with him. They really amped up the ball pressure on the guards who were bringing it up, and San Antonio really just couldn't get into their offense. Yeah, two of those Wemby points were pretty spectacular. I don't even know what you would call that offense.

Yeah, that lucky flip shot he had. That was pretty lucky. The finger roll flip shot looked nuts. It just swished perfectly. But you have thoughts on Middleton coming off the bench, Tass? I mean, again, Doc said we're cutting his minutes back a little bit, just trying to make sure he gets through this. He's obviously talking about the double ankle surgery that Middleton had in the offseason, and he's slowly been working his way back into shape. What do you think?

Well, I saw him come off the bench yesterday and he played the two-man game really well with Janice on one of his early plays. Then he was off the ball and Lillard set him up for a three. I think he looks totally fine. But yeah, the minutes might work better coming off the bench. Just watching this game, maybe it was just me being in bed at 4 a.m. watching this game, but I thought it was awesome. Just period. I thought Janice versus Wemby at times played well.

up very well. I mean, early, yeah, the one-legged three from Wemby, I was watching the Bucs broadcast, Wemby hit the three, and they immediately cut to Pat Connaughton, Bucs Pat Connaughton on the bench, and he had his eyebrows furrowed, kind of wondering...

What is that? It almost looked like a TV show. Here goes this one-legged shot from the guy, cut to a guy who can't believe what he's seeing. And really, it was a beautiful shot. But then Giannis guarded Wemby on one possession. He just got down and guarded Wemby for a good 20 possessions. And Wemby passed out after a while. Now, Wemby got Giannis a couple times with a couple beautiful blocks on the other end. But, yeah, Giannis was just ready. It seemed like...

the NBA cup game part two. I know the, the Bucs, uh,

Got into a little bit of a lull after the NBA Cup win, but I felt like Giannis looked exactly the same. He had beautiful footwork on his dunks. He was making beautiful passes outside to Brooke down low, who had a monstrous game, hitting like four or was it five threes? And Giannis was passing it to AJ Green, who really was a huge difference in this game, making threes. And then he lined up Wemby in his eye.

And he hit a shot right in front of Wemby. So he was feeling it. He almost hit an end-of-first-quarter three ball from midcourt. They were really feeling it. But Chris Paul wouldn't let the Spurs die. That was just an awesome performance. He had an in-and-out dribble with three threes in the third quarter. Graphic came up. Only two players in NBA history have at least 20,000 points and 10,000 assists.

Chris Paul, obviously one of them. LeBron. And LeBron, the other. They just threw that up there. The Bucs just throwing up those. The other guy had 40,000 points. Yeah, I thought this was awesome. I just thought it is crazy when you think 40,000 points. Yeah, they're highlighting this guy who's got 20 and 10. Chris Paul, one of the greatest point guards of all time. And he's doubled them up. Yeah, it's nuts. But it was great.

It was a great finish. Yeah, you said Brooke hit a bunch of threes. It was five of 11. He had 11 three-point attempts. And then you had Gary Trent Jr., perfect from deep, 4-4. Derry Bird, he hit four, 4-7. Not an utter celebration in sight, though. Disappointing. Luke Kennard as well, just shaking his head, I'm sure. Utterly ridiculous. Yeah, well done. And then Dame hit four as well. Yeah, you said a lot of three-pointers there from the Bucs.

Yeah, they had Wemby looking like Roy Hibbert out there chasing Brooke Lopez around. He was too far. That's the key. You've got to be able to be seven feet tall and also shoot from seven feet behind the line. You'll get open looks. 11 three-point attempts for Brooke Lopez, and they were doing it every time. They're like, Wemby might be 7'5", but he's not 8'5". It's great. Great point. All right, let's move on to Malik Beasley scoring 23 points to help the Pistons win their fifth straight game. 113-98 over the Brooklyn Nets. Tass, the Pistons.

The Pistons are above 500. This is one of the feel-good stories of the NBA. What was their record at this point last year? Like 3-34? Yeah. Something like that. They were 3-33 after 36. And they're 19-18 now. And this wasn't even a monster Cade Cunningham game. This was just like, actually like, oh,

maybe they are a really good team. Now they're playing a team that had nobody playing for the Nets, a bad team that is leaning into being bad. Try and capture that flag. We get it. But they just took care of business because everybody else contributed and did their part, especially Beasley with 23. Yeah, Beasley now in the starting lineup. And that's something to admire as well from this Pistons team. Jaden Ivey went down. They've played a bunch of starting lineups since Jaden Ivey went down. It's now...

Wendell Moore Jr. started the first one when Ivy was out. Asar Thompson started the next one, but then he had an illness. He's got an illness, yep. So Malik Beasley has started the last couple. Came through. But it's great to see Cade Cunningham this late in the season of year four for him being above 500 because, as we said, the only time he's been above 500, period, in his four-year career was when they were 2-1 last year. So...

to them they're playing ball here again it's January it feels weird that they're above 500 yeah I mean they were the Nets were down pretty big and like midway through the third quarter and then you had Brooklyn go on a run and you're like okay come on Pistons you should have put this game away but they counted with like a run of their own Fontecchio was awesome he was hitting threes and then it was like way out of control and the lead ballooned from there but quality win they've won eight of their last nine I guess the hottest teams in the league now are the Cavs the

The Pacers, the Kings still, and then the Pistons. The Pistons. It's crazy. Do you have any takeaways from this one? Not a lot of takeaways. This was a Pistons versus Nets game. I'm going to read to you a bunch of names, and you tell me who didn't play for the Nets last night. Well, I know there was ten inactive players. Yes, yes. Nick Claxton is the most notable player on the Nets. Yeah, I was going to say he played. You know him. I'm going to list you a bunch of names. Stop me when you hear a name that's not...

that didn't play last night. Noah Clowney, Tyrese Martin, Zaire Williams, Artis Ivy, Keon Johnson, Jalen Wilson, Tosen Owoma, Reese Beekman. Whoa. Reese Beekman. Reese Beekman. I'm staying quiet. I think he played. Yeah, I mean, those guys were active at least. Yeah. Because you haven't said anyone that hasn't. Well, Artis Ivy is Coolio's birth name. So he did not play last night, but he fits in with all those other names.

the most anonymous team going. No Cam Johnson. They're like, hey, man, you just chill out. We'll get you traded here in the next month. But this was a game. Yeah, no Cam Johnson, no Cam Thomas, no D'Angelo Russell, no Ben Simmons, no Maxwell Lewis, no Melton, Bogdanovich, Sharp, Watford, Dereek Whitehead. All 10 inactive. No Whitehead. Yeah, no Whitehead. You don't have a chance. Artis Ivy, rest in peace. They're playing dead guys. Oh, man. Oh, geez. Yeah.

They're drawn dead at the very least. Some nice finishes from Cade Cunningham, I thought, in this one. Didn't make a three-pointer, but six of seven from two-point. He's shooting a career-best 49% from two. Still a little below what you'd like to see, but he's a lot stronger in the lane, keeping the ball and keeping his poise, and his floater game is a lot better. I had to watch the NBA.com recap on this one. Jared Greenberg is the one narrating, and he starts it by saying, this isn't your dad's Detroit Pistons.

Which made me think, because my dad's Detroit Pistons, they won back-to-back championships. My kid's dad's Detroit Pistons, which would be me, they won a championship and went to six straight conference finals. So this is not...

A dad's Detroit Pistons. I 100% agree. But not necessarily in the way he meant it, I don't think. It depends who he's talking about. It depends what dad we're talking about. What generation of dad? It's been a while. I also, what Greenberg said was, Pistons are above 500 in January. I took Jerry Greenberg's line and repeated it myself. That's fact. That's just a fact. It's also a fact.

Other takeaways from last night's games. That's a question for you guys. I'll quickly go through them if you want. Siakam scored 26. Pacers beat your Bulls. Handedly. Though we did have a wedgie. That was nice. Maxey scored 29 to lead the 76ers past the Wizards. Towns had 27 and 13. OG had a great game. Knicks beat the Raptors. 1-12-98. Danny Avdia scored 26. This guy's actually hooping.

As the Blazers beat the Zion-less Pelicans 119-100. And then Jamal Murray and Westbrook did really well to help the Nuggets crush the Clippers 126-103. TK, we'll start with you. Any of those games worth breaking down for us? Breaking down, no, but here's some factoids. The Pacers had the lowest jersey total possible on the court last night. They had a double zero, a zero, a one, a two, and a three. It'll never be broken. It's incredible. That's an unbreakable record right there. Oh, you don't think we'll ever get a triple zero?

Squid Game style. Never say never. You're right. They might change it up. But good game for Tyrese Halliburton. 16 points, 13 assists, and only one turnover. Love to see the high assist, low turnover games from him. Pacers have won four straight, 10 out of their last 13. In those 13 games, they're fourth in offense. They're looking a little bit more like the Pacers, getting some guys healthy with Nembhard being back on the court as well. Thomas Bryant giving them big.

Big minutes. Yeah, they're 20 and 18. Not bad, yeah. The Pacers are. So after that slow start of turn things around. Tass, any thoughts on them or any of those games? Well, big question as far as jerseys go. What is it? Is it maybe and one where there's somebody who has half on their back? It's just half. Half man, half amazing? There's a mascot.

Oh, there's a mascot. Is it the Spurs mascot? No, he's got an exclamation mark, doesn't he? Anyways. I remember Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears once wore number one and a half and half for the MTV Rockin' Jocks celebrity game. So maybe that's what you're thinking. Oh, absolutely. Of course, I'm thinking of the Rockin' Jocks. Oh, Little Penny, I think, had a half. Oh, yeah. See? Maybe somebody wears that, you know, a half. Just throws it on. But, yeah, the Pacers...

Halbron kind of had a quiet game. The guy has been so hot. Three games in a row, he had scored 20-plus. 23 his last game, 27 the game before that, 33 and 15 the game before that. And yesterday, just 16 with 13 assists, only one turnover besides that 13-assist mark. He's taking care of the ball, giving it to Pascal Siakam. They are 20-18. He has come back.

He almost looks like the Halliburton from last year. They're 11-2 this season when he scores 20 or more. So they're just a damn good team, period, because he looks like he's back. Nembhard is very key. I think him coming back got him into his flow. I love watching Andrew Nembhard play defense. That guy plays frigging hard. So, yeah, they look kind of like they did last year.

Weird but true stat from the Nuggets victory over the Clippers. Nuggets improved to 8-0 on the second leg of back-to-backs. So, you know, they don't have like a lights-out record overall here, sort of struggled at times. They don't have a good record in the first game of back-to-backs. I think they're 2-6 in those games, but 8-0. Great at responding. Weird, yeah, for sure. And no Jokic in that one. Revenge game, though, for DeAndre Jordan. Playing against the Clippers, got his first start of the season.

season high in minutes 12 points a season high nine rebounds season high yokichu yokichu yeah and well i mean the clippers may have their minds on other things uh right now and fair enough and we can spin into that because according to chris haynes clipper star kawhi leonard you know stepped away is stepping away from the team to be with his family and help them with the massive fires and the impact due to the massive fires that have erupted in southern california in recent days so

They played last night in Denver, obviously the Clippers did, and then they do return home here for a game against the Hornets on Saturday.

And I think the Lakers have a game against the same Hornets tonight. I'm sure they're considering their options. But, you know, we already saw the Los Angeles Kings postpone a game. I think there's going to be more postponed games coming here. But obviously tough for a lot of people that in the NBA world tasks, let alone the Lakers and Clippers. A lot of these guys have homes there and family that live there. And this is having an impact on everyone. Absolutely. Yeah, I hope the Lakers game is postponed tonight because people have

real life to deal with. J.J. Redick said his family is evacuated and his wife's family is evacuated. Steve Kerr mentioned his mom is already evacuated. It's occurring everywhere. So understandable that the Clippers didn't perform the way they wanted to perform. Ty Lue said it before a game. He said, I don't know if we can play basketball. How good we're going to play out there. And so that was a part of them, I'm sure, getting

off the floor the way the Nuggets did. Yeah, as of now, as of going live here on Thursday morning, this destructive firestorm has, I think, killed five people, burned down 2,000 structures, displaced at least 130,000 people. That's a rough estimate on that, but man. And look, impact on NBA players, personnel, and all that, colleagues at the Athletic,

Our good friend Matty O, who is safe and I think got his power back, but obviously on pins and needles because you never know when you're going to have to evacuate because this wind is not seeming to die down out there. Very scary and sad stuff. Basketball is surely the last thing on a lot of the people out in L.A.'s minds, whether they're on teams or just fans of the team. So thoughts and prayers to everybody affected by the fires for sure. Absolutely.

In some good news here, Magic star Paolo Bancaro is expected to return to action in one of Orlando's back-to-back games at home, either tonight against Minnesota or Friday against Milwaukee. Now, he's been out since October 30th due to that torn oblique after that monster start to the season, which included a 50-point game. He was averaging like 29 points per game through the five games he'd played. He looked at

incredible um but he did participate fully in Wednesday's practice task so hopefully we see him either tonight or Friday it seems likely that he'll play at least one of these games yeah I am uh number one I'm a Minnesota Timberwolves fan I just want to see how their season flows so I was looking forward to this matchup period because I I am an also an Orlando Magic fan just how hard they've played yeah uh since Paolo Bancaro was up so yes I was excited for this and

in the first place but I hope he comes back tonight yeah they're 22 and 16 the magic car fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings despite losing their two-star players in Palo who went out early and then Franz Wagner same weird torn oblique injury but the manners that they've the fact that they managed to tread water here Trey is pretty damn impressive without these two guys

I don't even think they treaded water. They swam to the top of the pool. They just swam. Yeah, they just were swimming. 19-13 without Paulo Boncaro. October 30th, you said, was the injury? Yeah, last year.

We've had four holidays since then. Jeez. Yeah. If you consider new year as a holiday, I do generally get it off. Good stuff. Uh, but yeah, I mean the fact that they were able to play above 500, like I think if they went 13 and 19, great job. You stayed in the mix. Instead, they're still fighting for a home playoff berth and getting Paolo back. Uh,

Might take a little bit of time, but you know they're going to play defensively and he's only going to make their offense better. So hopefully he's able to stay healthy for the rest of the season. And the fact that he was able to return and will be able to get a nice chunk of time before the playoffs, assuming he stays healthy, maybe that means Franz Wagner will make his way back eventually as well since he got injured in the first half of the season. Yeah. All right, well let's get to another game tonight, which is our Pick'Em Game Task. Where are we going for Thursday night's Pick'Em?

Well, we're going to a back-to-back for one team. It's surprising that...

This is a three and a half point line for the Detroit Pistons who played last night. They're favored by three and a half points against the Golden State Warriors tonight. Seems like a juicy line, but when you look at the records, well, the Golden State Warriors are a 500 team. The Detroit Pistons are now above 500 teams. So I guess it's not all that drastic. Detroit's got to travel from Brooklyn to go back home. I guess the Warriors have been chilling, waiting for them. And

I feel like Golden State will play them a close game. They've lost two in a row. Now, the last month, they've had two three-game losing streaks. This one, just two. I feel like Detroit, you know, with...

Tremont Green kind of close to home. They'll play a decent game against the Pistons, but who the heck knows? That's why a couple of you have taken the Pistons, Skeets, and Trey, while myself and Escher are taking the Warriors because the Pistons have won five, obviously, as we just mentioned, in a row. Un-frickin'-believable. It is a back-to-back for the Pistons, but I will say, because of the blowout nature of last night's game against the Nets, not a lot of minutes for their star players. They were playing some...

you know, some crazy names. Not even fake names, Trey, but they were playing some crazy names because it was such a blowout. So they did rest them a little bit. But you're right, they had to travel and all that. It's weird to see Detroit minus three and a half at home with the Warriors coming to town, but...

I'm with you, TK. Yeah, I just feel like the Warriors are in a bad spot right now. They scored 99 in each of their last two games, both disappointing losses. So I'm going to need to see a bounce back from Golden State before I'm feeling any sort of confidence in them. All right, so we're split on that one tonight. Going to remind everyone that we are on the call for the Skyhawks versus the Motor City Crews game this Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern. Yeah, Bluey going to be there.

I'll have to get a photo with him. I'm going to have to start standing in line an hour before the game. That's okay. Bluey will be there for kids' day, but we are pretty excited to be on the call again for this. We had a lot of fun doing this last year. So that G League game at 2 p.m. Eastern. Crews, Skyhawks. Who's your favorite guy to see?

Honestly, Wallace. Keaton Wallace. Keaton Wallace. And Plowden's been ballin' for the Skyhawks. Plowden been ballin'. Yeah. Tony Bradley, former Bulls. Can't wait to see Tony Bradley. I love it, though, because we get the info on the Skyhawks. We get to watch them during these couple of games. And then when they start performing well for the Atlanta Hawks, you feel very proud for them. Yeah, yeah, that's true. I will say, Tass, I don't know about you, I'm a little...

Like, I'm a little worried that we're coming into Sunday's game and calling this because the Skyhawks are actually, like, rolling right now. Oh, no. Like, they're kicking ass. Oh, no. So I just, like, I don't want to be, like, the obvious scapegoat if they fall or have a bad game. And I'll be like, oh, it's these no-dunks guys. Get them out of here. So that's where my mind goes. But I'm a pessimist. Yeah. They rolled last Sunday. I was there watching. They handled the herd. No problem. The Wisconsin herd. Yeah. Kicked them out of there. Yeah.

You never know though. You mentioned who you want to see.

Atlanta Hawks can show up. Last year we were there. Trae Young showed up. I got to hang out with him, watch his kid eat some popcorn. We just sat there and watched the game together. That was fun. It's a great time, especially if you're in the Atlanta area or if you are in any area where there's obviously a G League team. I encourage you to go check it out. It is fun, high-level basketball, and it's so cool. You get to usually sit fairly close, affordable tickets, stuff like that. We're excited. We'll keep you posted on that. But that's it for today's show. Let's get Tass inside. And look...

The plan is to finish this pick-em tomorrow, Friday's drop, Tass outside. It's supposed to snow. Come on. I've got it easy out here. I will love the snow tomorrow. Yeah, no, I'm saying I just want you to be able to drive safe. For everybody to be able to drive safe to their locations. That's all. Yeah. What you're saying down here in the south, people don't know how to drive in the snow. Well, we've seen it firsthand. Yeah, we have. 2014. Things have changed, though.

they're ready they're ready i heard the city the city has been lining the roads with salt overnight the night the night before it hasn't started snowing it's not gonna snow till friday but they have been lining the streets with salt on

Wednesday overnight to Thursday. So we're good. We're still calling for a couple of inches here. And if we can all get in here and again to our spots, we should have snow while we're doing the show at 10 a.m. Eastern. It would look beautiful. I hope we see it. I just don't want to put anyone in danger for the sake of comedy. It's not that funny.

But thank you so much for joining us today. Hopefully we'll see you here tomorrow. 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, tomorrow I might be in snow. Maybe yes, maybe no. But the hope is to make it funny. As Skeets was just mentioned, it's not that funny. But for everybody out there listening...

Send in some suggestions. How can we make it funny? It's going to be tough. We do need some more pick and pay off suggestions because we haven't decided on the loser for January. So if you've got something good, let us know in the YouTube comments. Tweet at us at NoDunksInc. We'll see you tomorrow, hopefully with some snow. Brace the day, people.

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