Wolves Shock Thunder, Jokic Drops A Career-High 19 Assists, Woj Auctioning Off Phones
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Here we are. Shout out to the stream team joining us live right now on YouTube. We love it. Hit the like button. Subscribe. Podcast listeners, leave your boys a five-star rating and review. We got a bunch of games to talk about. We got a little up-down report. We'll maybe even look ahead to Luka playing the old team, Dallas Mavericks. I was going to say Luka playing the Lakers tonight. No, he plays for the Lakers. It is still weird to say. But let's start with an insane game.

The Timberwolves erased a 25-point third-quarter deficit against the Western Conference's top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. The Wolves pick up the 131-128 overtime road victory.

Got back in that game in overtime. Came through with a clutch block on SGA, who danced his way to the rim. Looked like he was going to have a game winner himself. And Ant said no. A little Superman-type block from him. And they pull off a huge, huge victory here to come back from that deficit. Yeah, I think from the OKC side of things, you can look back on this as a moment that

Can help you. Maybe. Perhaps. They don't play in one possession games. That's not what they do. This is only their fourth of the season. Before going to this one, it was just three that they had been in. That's the second fewest in the NBA. They haven't played one since December 1st. So I think Dagnall can go into a huddle and say, remember when we were up 16, 340 left against...

Those Minnesota Timberwolves, and they played that zone, and we couldn't solve that zone over and over and over again. So maybe that is just something that they can work on. What also they could work on is just getting Isaiah Hartenstein in the game to kill that zone from the middle. Because they started with 355. Jalen Williams put them up 16 points.

And then they decided to shoot three after three the first couple of possessions. And then it was Alex Caruso as the zone breaker. Get into that elbow and try things out. He couldn't make it work. He was brutal. He was brutal. He cost him the same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The big sink. He's not a center, you know?

Yeah, exactly. Hardenstein and his floater. Boom, boom. I think that would be the solve. More likely. At the zone spot right there to break the zone. Because they're blitzing SGA just running two guys up top to him, just forcing the ball out of his hands. Yes. And then, unfortunately, Caruso with a wild foul. Jaden McDaniels had the ball with 15 seconds left. Caruso on him.

Down three. And for some reason, as Jane McDaniels drove to the hoop, Chris just whacked him and gave him an and-one opportunity. So they tie the game and are able to go to overtime. Where you said that beautiful block happened as they inserted Anthony Edwards into the game in overtime because he had a bum leg and he didn't play those last four minutes whatsoever. Nas Reed was stepping back with a mean three. That guy's step-back three, seven-footer is...

He was expanding the game a little bit, and then to see what he did there. Speaking of Nasrid, they threw three guys at Sheikos Alexander-Walker. It was a pick and roll, so Nasrid gives them a little bump, and then Nikhil Alexander-Walker

SGA's cousin. He stops him one way, makes him go the other way. He swipes at him and slows him down as much as possible. And then here comes Ant. The same sort of block that he had last year against the Indiana Pacers late when it was Aaron Neesmith going to the hoop. And it was a late season block. Start of a road trip just like this one. It's a very different team. It's a different team. You know, now they're up.

games above 500. Last year was 15 games above 500, but it was the first game of a long road trip late in the season. So you can go with that. So yeah, it's a nice little win for the Wolves, but I think this is something that OKC will be looking at and

Yeah, we've got to solve this baby a little bit easier. I think OKC right now is in the same position the Celtics were in about this time last year, where it's like if you win, who cares? And any time you lose, it's like, oh, man, what happened? What went wrong? What can you fix? For sure. Because they never lose, and they never lose like this. It was looking like a scheduled loss for the Timberwolves through three quarters. The first 43 minutes of this game, OKC shot 48% from the field, 38% from three. They went 15 for 40 from three. That's awesome. Mm-hmm.

The last 10 minutes of this game, OKC shot 19% from the field. 4 for 21, 0 for 9 from 3.

And it was because of the defense from Minnesota. Like, Ant Edwards made a great block for sure, but the comeback was because all these young guys were playing. Terrence Shannon Jr., Rob Dillingham, Jalen Clark. I got to learn another new Jalen. Unbelievable! Is every Jalen good? New Jalen just dropped, yeah. New Jalen just dropped, and he plays defense now. But Minnesota's zone was great. It took away the rim pressure that OKC had. Shea couldn't get inside. He was just dropping off, off into Caruso, sometimes to Jalen Williams, right?

yet another Jalen out there. Great block by Terrence Shannon Jr. on him. On the other side, OKC was in a zone as well because it was all smallies out there. Like, Nas Reed is the biggest guy. He ain't a seven-footer. He's like 6'10". He plays like a guard anyways. You had Nas going to the hoop. You had Dillingham going to the hoop. You had Jaden McDaniels multiple drives to the hoop.

Buckets, OKC just couldn't get it going. This was the second night of a back-to-back for both teams, and they traveled in between, so maybe they got tired those last 10 minutes. But it looked like Minnesota had more energy, and I think it was largely because of those young guys. Terrence Shannon Jr. has really been good for Minnesota in February. He's basically only started playing here in February, largely because Dante DiVincenzo is down, but 17 points for him last night, 10 rebounds on the game. He had 11 points in the fourth quarter, six boards. He was cleaning up.

basically every rebound in the zone. It was just good energy from him and Dillingham just like running around like crazy out there. Oh, yeah. That guy's wild, man. The comeback shocked not only the Thunder. I honestly think it shocked the Wolves. They even talked about it after the game. They were like, yeah, I mean, that was amazing that we tied it up and got it into overtime where they then had to play another five minutes and win. Like, that is pretty impressive. But like, Nikhil Alexander-Walker was like, yeah, we were just like, you know, let's end this game

on a good note here to then take that to our next game on the road. And even he was surprised, like, holy crap, that 16-point lead sort of evaporated just like that. And it was, like, it was just run those two guys, two long guys, right, in Nikhil Alexander-Walker and Jaden McDaniels, just like SGA would cross half court.

And they would just, McDaniels would just run right up to him and be like, okay, SGA's going to make the easy pass. So now it's four on three basketball. But it was like Caruso was just botching it every single time. He's not an offense guy. Yeah, he was fumbling it away. He couldn't hit a couple layups. Now there was one where J-Dub should have finished inside. I feel like if any one of those shots go down. Oh yeah.

My gut says they win the game. Like, maybe it gets close, but they still pull it out. And they just, like, thought... They just were like, obviously took their foot off the gas and were like, okay, we got this. There's like three and a half minutes to go. We're up big. One more bucket goes, be it a Wiggins three in the corner, be it whatever, we got this. And they just couldn't get it to drop. And yeah, those young wolves, they're like, well...

I mean, nobody expects us to come back here and just play like madmen. You had that huge step back three. You said Nas Reed. He had another one where he took it in, finished with the left hand. Gorgeous shot. And then McDaniel's attacking and all these guys like Terrence Shannon Jr. too. Just a wild comeback. And you just wonder, yeah, can it be one of those wins that catapults you a little bit?

Like a crazy comeback. The young guys did it. Finch stuck with them. Then Ant did his part in overtime with the big block. You know, can you use that to ride a little wave here despite missing a bunch of your guys and no Gobert, no Randall, no DiVincenzo? Yeah. Can you? Can you look back at that last one last year and see Anthony Edwards skied way up the block. Aaron Neesmith. That was a mean block.

And yeah, you got this one where he basically said, didn't even feel like I jumped that high. That's what he said. And I said, okay, maybe the first look, he didn't look like he jumped high, but then he got the second. Then you got the floor look, camera from the floor. He was up way high. I mean, he jumped obviously to the sky again. And yeah, Caruso just wasn't that guy in the middle of the zone to kill it. No.

They went 3-3, then Caruso, two attempts, no go. Then they tried Jalen Williams. He missed the short shot, as you said. And then they missed a couple more threes. Thought Aaron Wiggins could have dove to the floor like the Wolves did on one possession where it was a loose ball. Didn't do that. So, yeah, you can point at all these little things. Alex Caruso also drew a charge, obviously,

that he thought, but it ended up being a defensive call with 345 left in the fourth. Dagenau challenged it, didn't go his way, so that was also big. Wow, he never loses challenges. He's one of the best challengers, and that was the turning point in the game. Even he took his foot off the gas. Yeah, man. Yeah, they called it a moving shoulder. It's like Caruso was stationary, but he just leaned because Terrence Shannon Jr., who they call TJ sometimes, the Wolves do. I don't get it. Just because you don't want to say Jr.?

TJ. Yeah. TJ Shannon. Terrence Jr. Yeah, yeah, I guess. But I know, but it's like, Jr. Anyway, yeah, he was awesome. And he has been awesome. He's been helpful, for sure. Yeah, without Dante DiVincenzo and Julius Randle, who's supposed to be back soon. Yeah, he's been huge. Minnesota, just the second team since 2002-2003 to come back to win a game after trailing by at least 16 points.

with 345 to go. That's by way of the Wolves PR team. And the only other team to do it was the Kings. Did it against Minnesota in 2020. But it's been a very long time to be down that much and come back and get the victory. Obviously, it took overtime, but...

I saw an even more cherry-picked stat that was something involving that this is the first time it has happened on the road against an opponent that has an 800 winning percentage. And I think I read this perhaps in the ESPN recap, and they had to go to OptiStats for that information. I was like, what? They didn't even reach to Elias. Elias was like, I don't know, man. I don't have it.

Who is off the stats? I saw that too. That's crazy, bro. I was like, wow. You got to go deep if you're going to like a third tier stats thing. I don't know. Should the Timberwolves go on a run? We'll see. They're on a road trip right now, but it's an easy road trip. They got the Lakers on Thursday. Then they got the Jazz Friday, the Suns Sunday. Then they got the Sixers at home, followed by the Hornets, the Heat, and the Spurs. Hmm.

They should go like 7-1. They'll probably go 4-3. 4-4. 5-3. How quickly is Randall back? Hey, man. 2-2 without Gobert. I'm going to OptiStats because I do want to know the 800 team that OKC is, how many games that they win by one possession? Because as I said, it just doesn't happen a lot with OKC. They haven't had one since December 1st.

So I think it is good for them just to have that experience. Get some reps in close games, I guess. Yeah, where's Mr. Pusha? Why wasn't Isaiah Hartenstein out there? He got hurt. He did get hurt. And no Chet Holmgren in the game, too. So it is different if one of those two guys is playing, I would think. It would at least change the way maybe Finch is aggressively trapping or trying to get the ball out of SGA's hands late. Oh, he's done that?

before and they've had some success with it. He said he didn't want to do it all game because he was convinced they'll be ready for that. So he busted it out late when they're down 16 and it feels like the game's sort of over, at least in the fourth quarter. But it worked and they got a huge win for the Wolves there. Did you like the hat Chet Holmgren was wearing on the bench? It had a huge...

I don't know, some sort of logo. I can't trust your dimensions when it comes to hats, though. You told me about a John Morant hat once. Yeah. And you were saying it was huge. It was big. Then even you were like, eh. It was all about the angle. For a profile angle, it looked bigger than dead on. It was a big ski hat. A big toque. Don't worry, you're going to be wearing a real big hat soon enough. Yeah, that's why I'm asking. Just a segue. Anyways, it just looked like, you know, the old New England Patriots logo.

With the actual football player. It looked like a big, just a big sort of cartoony gimmicky thing. I don't know what the team is. I'm looking everywhere here. He was on the bench. Look at OptiStats. OptiHats. There you go. All right, well, you look up Chet's hat. Let's move to... You got it. I think we got it. You got it? Okay. It's a tall hat. It's very tall, and it looks like it has... Oh, it looks cooler from up close. Does it have Chet Holmgren on it?

It's got the back of a basketball player wearing number seven. He is number seven. Yeah. He's got his own hat. He's wearing a hat grin? A hat home grin? Here's some. We'll share that photo on our socials. Yeah, you're going to want to see this hat. That's a nice hat. Let's move on to Aaron Gordon and Jokic leading the Nuggets past the Pacers 125 to 116. Jokic with a career high, Trey. 19 assists.

I don't know, it sort of caught me by surprise. I didn't check OptiStats, but I was like, "Really?"

He hasn't done that before? It doesn't have a 20 assist game? But, wow. I mean, it's a lot. Don't get me wrong. It's a ton of assists. But what did you think here? Yeah, this guy's the man. He's a great passer. 19 assists. Let's get the 20, buddy. Jokic did score 10 points in the third quarter. I don't know what was going on with the Pacers. It seemed like they came out at halftime and said, we're going to try guarding you one-on-one because you're slicing us off with your passing in the first half. Guess what? It didn't work. You went five for seven from the field. He saw the single coverage. He's like, ha, ha, ha.

Give me some of that, Miles Turner. Give me some of that, Thomas Bryant. Then he went back to maestro mode in the fourth quarter. I don't know if he touched the ball every single time his last six minutes, but it felt like he touched the ball every single time. And he found Christian Brown for a layup 90% of the time he was handling the ball. It was like the two-man game, and then whoops, Christian Brown is right there. They kept calling him little buddy on the broadcast. Is that his nickname? Oh, he's...

A little dish to little buddy. I thought it was just slipped in one time, but they kept coming back to it. I guess that's his nickname. Four assists to Christian Braun in the fourth quarter alone for Jokic. Aaron Gordon, like you said, was also awesome in this one. Like a hundredth percentile game for him. He's scoring off cuts and drives. That's what he always does. But he was also knocking down catch and shoot threes. Pull-ups, getting into Pascal Siakam, give him the shoulder, step back mid-range jumpers. He looked incredible in this one. Aaron Gordon shooting 43% from three this season on three attempts.

Really, really good shooting. And they need it because this is obviously not a team that takes a ton of threes, doesn't have a ton of shooters. So any little bit they get can help. But it kind of feels like for every other team in the league, they want to clear out the lane and have as few guys as possible in there to make it easy to score. It's almost the exact opposite with the Nuggets. It's like the more guys we can put in the lane, the more the defense is going to get confused. And we've got the one guy who can figure it out because they're

There's like six guys in the lane on every possession and somehow it's a layup for the Nuggets every time. I'm so glad you brought that up. I watched every single assist because I wanted to see how many of these were like of the bullshit variety where it's just like kick it to a three-point shooter, he knocks down a three and you get an assist for it. You're like, okay, well, you got an assist, but what did you really do? 11 of the dimes.

were two Nuggets teammates in the paint. TK, you're dead on. There's like so many bodies in the mix there. And it's Jokic as the only guy it feels like in the league that can just like find the little angle, little touch over somebody, whatever it is. So he was hitting Aaron Gordon inside, Zeke Najee, Westbrook, and then all those Christian Brown ones later in the second half where it was just like time after time after time. Some of them in transition, but a lot later.

It's, I'll operate. I'll see what you're going to do. Are you going to play me one up, Miles Turner? I'll score if you send the double. Don't worry, I'm going to find a little weird quirky angle here to a guy that's just in the dunker spot, if not closer. It was time and time again. It's really wild to watch. The Nuggets had a 74 to 46 edge in terms of points in the paint. And that was the huge difference maker.

There's a reason why they lead the league in assists. It's this guy. It's Jokic finding guys underneath. Now, Aaron Gordon back in the starting lineup for a while now. When he came back after the injury, it was Russell's spot. And there was talk that Aaron Gordon wasn't going to be back in the starting lineup. I thought that was the case. I bought it. But Aaron Gordon deserves to be in that starting lineup, obviously, because it's flashbacks to 2023 when he is in that dunker spot making things happen.

And so 39 assists for the Denver Nuggets because of that guy who has a career high in assists in 19. Now the second highest person with assists for the center spot.

Ever. So Wilt Chamberlain still has the record? Wilt has a record of just a single game, 21 assists. So Jokic could easily do it. Oh, sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, he could. I guess J.J. Redick got him ready for this game. When they played the Lakers the game before, they throw the double at him. He had to pass to everybody. So he came into this one and said, all right, I'm going to make – I'm going to get my own record because I've only had 18 before in a game. Yeah, J.J. got him ready. And obviously this Nuggets team, as I said,

The starting lineup just looks, again, with little buddy Aaron Gordon. Big buddy. Yeah. I thought his little buddy would be Russell Westbrook in the starting lineup, but Russ is now back to the bench for Aaron Gordon, and they look right.

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One other note about the Nuggets, something to watch at least. Zeke Nagy, has he jumped Peyton Watson?

in the rotation for the rest of the season because Watson's out right now. He is injured. I think he's missed like 10 games and Najee, I think has played really well over a majority of that 10 game stretch. I looked it up six games over that stretch. He saw 20 plus minutes of action. Najee did. He had a really good game against the Pels where he had a couple of threes. Two of his best games of the season came in those games against the Blazers in back-to-back wins. And then last night he went six for eight from the field, three boards, two blocks, three,

You know, I don't know. It'll be something to watch when Watson comes back. Do you want to continue? Like, Najee's a little bigger, maybe more of a four than a three like Watson is, but just something to keep an eye on here. And it was a quality win I liked from the Nuggets, because even when they lost to the Lakers, Jokic was like, yeah, we had a nine-game win streak, but we sort of played nobody. So, Pacers, I

I said that the other day, we're one of the best teams since 2000, since the calendar flipped to 2025. So that's a good win. Yeah. The Zeke Najee thing. It's a situation where they need somebody off the bench. Like they, they tried Justin holiday last year that didn't work extremely well, but they,

Peyton, they just throw in the corner and hope he can hit those three-point shots. Sometimes they go in. Sometimes they don't. He's an incredible defender. But yeah, I could see this happening for sure. They're both going to play. Yeah, probably. And they're both going to get played off the court at times. And they'll both get another opportunity. Like, they need all of those guys because none of them are super reliable. Like, this is the best stretch of Zeke Najee's career. Yeah, it is. And they would have happily traded him two weeks ago if they could have. Yeah. He's been there a lot longer than I have.

I thought, too. Yeah, they gave him that ridiculous contract that people think is one of the worst in the league. Yeah, I know. It sort of surprised me how long he's been there. It's like five or six years now at this point. Let's move to one of the hottest teams in the league. Cade Cunningham leading the Pistons to their seventh straight win. 106-97 victory over the Clippers. Again, missing some of their key guys, but...

Come on, man. Cade. Best player on the floor again. Again? Easily. Complete control, I thought. I mean, he still has his turnovers. He still has his weird turnovers, too. Seven. And there's just some ones where you're like, what are you doing, Cade? Come on. Protect the ball a little bit more. One where Chris Dunn, it was in the fourth quarter, he sort of pressed up on him a little bit, and he sort of just haphazardly tried to throw it over him. Dunn just popped it out. Took it. It's like, you don't want those ones. But man, otherwise, 32 points, nine boards, seven assists.

4-9 from deep for Cade and 10-12 at the line. I like that little balance of hit some threes, get to the line. But he's on fire during this win streak too. Yeah, he's on command of that ball wherever he wants to shoot it, whether it's from three-point land or not. 32 points, 32 wins for the Detroit Pistons. That's more than the last two years combined now. That's crazy. Yeah, it is crazy when you think about it like that.

like that. 14 last year and 17 the year before that. Bang! They've changed it. And what I like about this game is that they won a different game than the one they won the night before. They won a huge offensive game where they allowed 143 points to the Hawks and won that game. And in this one they allowed just 97 because Asar Thompson was really good against James Harden. He was slowing him down. That was the guy that you could say,

Go get James Harden. And they do that. And they turned it around in the third quarter. Really, it wasn't just Harden going 5 of 22. It was their entire defensive rotation. It's always led by Isaiah Stewart. He always comes in and, yeah, he was...

against Drew Eubanks, which isn't a good sign for the Los Angeles Clippers because they want Ben Simmons out there to be their backup five, which they've gone to, but he wasn't playing in this game and no Kawhi, no Powell in this game. But Isaiah Stewart was really good at turning this thing around in the third quarter, the fourth quarter. They did the same against the Hawks. They turned it around at half to some degree. JB gets in there and he does it somehow. He talks to his guys and they're just, they're comfortable with closing games with Isaiah Stewart over Jalen Dern.

And Duren has to be comfortable with it too. Even though Duren had 12 points and 19 rebounds, they make defensive offensive substitutions and say, Stuart, you're in. Duren, you're out. So impressive to me that they just won this. This was an ugly game. I was watching it with our playback friends. And you know that the Pistons are going to turn around after halftime. It's what they do.

Somehow they do it. But it was an ugly. It was an ugly basketball game. I couldn't stand to watch it. Hey, good teams win ugly games. Yeah, that's what this was for the Detroit Pistons. 143 yesterday, only 97 in this one. Cade is averaging 27, 10, and 6 with a block and a steal. Shooting splits of 52, 45, and 88. This is over the win streak.

where he's played a majority of it. I think maybe he missed the first game of that win streak. But yeah, what'd you take away from the Pistons winning their seventh straight? Cade is good at playing fast and playing slow, which I don't think you would say heading into this season. I don't know if the numbers back it up, but it feels like he has more dunks this year where he grabs the ball off the defensive glass and nobody can stop him. And honestly,

in a full court transition kind of setting. He's getting to the rim pretty regularly. And then he's got control on the offensive end when it's in a half court situation. Yeah, the turnovers are bad. The shooting percentages, like he was nine for 22 last night. He still has some efficiency concerns at times, but he's in control of his game and he knows how to get to his spots consistently.

got a lot of confidence in the jumper right now. I actually think Dern has been a lot better this season, but I think it's smart to go with Isaiah Stewart as the defensive guy when it comes down to it. And Asar Thompson has really come on lately now that he's getting into the swing of things after dealing with his blood clot issue over the summer. He looks...

with Amin Thompson. I know. Athleticism-wise, and it was like Amin was kind of in a blowout over Asar at the first half of the season, but he's doing all the same things out there. He's catching up to his twin brother. I'm with you there. Ten points, three boards, three assists, four steals, and then two blocks for Asar last night. And the two blocks were like top ten highlight worthy. Like they're insanely athletic blocks. There might be a Shaqton fool moment. It was wild to see him. He had an open layup, and it looked like

He stepped on something ridiculously wet, but he didn't. And he just fell down just because he, it's everybody on the, on the playbacks as we were watching and the broadcasters were thinking it was just nerves. I mean, he really, he really just, he ate it. He just stopped moving and he fell down. It was a really weird one for a Sark Thompson.

I just wanted to get that before Shaq got to it. There we go. I'm sure he will at some point. Also, Chris Dunn just took in a layup with a few seconds left to turn this... The game's over, basically. To turn this game from an 11-point win to a 9-point win. That's a moment that people will say, ah...

That's against the rules. And the Pistons didn't get mad whatsoever. Surprise. Isaiah Stewart didn't get mad at that. He's growing. I guess. My final note about the Pistons, just because I don't think we've talked about it enough. We went sort of crazy, like applauding the Rockets when they went and got a couple vets and added them to their team in Van Vliet.

and obviously Dylan Brooks, and it had an impact. They became a 500 team, and they've only gotten better this year with all their young talent. That's really what the Pistons have done here, too. It's a similar game plan. They just added some quality veteran guys to a lot of their young guys. They signed Tobias Harris. He's been really steady. I mean, that's him in a nutshell, honestly, but he was really good last night. He scored a lot of buckets when the offense wasn't clicking, sort of bailed them out a couple times.

This is a guy that's played like a thousand games almost. So he's been around for a long time. You sign Malik Beasley. He's a long-time vet in this league. They got him for like, what, $6 million I think they signed him for? He's turned into Steph Curry this year, for crying out loud. And then at the deadline, they even picked up Dennis Schroeder, which we liked at the time too. Like, oh yeah, he'll have a role on this team. And he didn't shoot the ball well last night, but he had a timely bucket, had a couple nice assists as well. So like, it's sort of the same game plan that you're seeing. I mean, you have these super young teams that just lose, lose, lose, lose, lose.

You can benefit from just getting some guys that even if they're not like, oh my God, we just knocked it out of the park with this one. This guy's a superstar. No, you're a crappy team. That's going to be tough to lure those players. But guys like this, Harris Beasley, in this case, obviously what the Rockets did, there's a spot for these guys. They are winners and they're at least going to help your team learn how to play professional basketball. Yeah. And the Quentin Grimes for Tim Hardaway trade before the season helped out. He's their guy at the starting shooting guard. Even if he was over it,

It's good to be over. It's one of those guys, you've got to shoot it so they respect you. And the night before, he was on fire. He's been on fire. Any other takeaways from last night's NBA slate? TK, you want to talk about your Bulls snapping a six-game skid by destroying the 76ers 142-110. Well, I'm happy they won because I got a new Bulls shirt for my birthday and I hadn't been able to wear it yet. This is very nice, by the way. I do like it. I got so much Bulls gear that I have multiple brown Bulls shirts now.

That's ridiculous. And that's just your hat city edition plan. Uh, yeah. White boy spring is in full effect. Josh Giddy had 25 and 16. Kevin heard our draft pick had 23 evil. Zach Collins had 19. Matas Booz Ellis had 17 and Kobe white had 15. See you soon. Cooper flag. You can't outtake the Sixers.

They had Paul George and Tyrese Maxey playing, but this team has completely given up. They gave up. They're done. Just, I mean, canceled their last 30 games or whatever they have left. John Hollinger had a write-up at The Athletic this week that said there's going to be a 50-loss team in the play-in in the Eastern Conference.

And it's going to be the Bulls. 50 loss team. Why do they keep it around? You shouldn't be in it. Yeah, it's crazy. You shouldn't be in it. Okay, so yeah, Sixers. And then I guess I want to pair with that because we've got our eyes on the play-in tournament in the East. Somebody's got to watch it. The Wizards. They snapped their losing streak. They beat the Nets, Tass. 107-99. I slipped your name in there because I thought you told me on yesterday's podcast. Well, that's going to be a Nets win. They're playing the Wizards. Hmm.

I definitely said that. Somebody said it. Yeah, I don't know who it was. Sorry, sorry. And we jinxed it because Poole had 26 and the Nets lost. And they are trying to race these teams. So it's sort of important. Yeah, a guy like Chris Middleton helps out this team. He was actually very important just going down the stretch for this team. He helped out. He didn't have a big night, but it helps to have those guys on the floor just watching it and play back.

Because those games were ugly to start. To start last night. Yes. Thank God the Wolves-Thunder game was very entertaining. Yeah. Later, but... They saved it. They saved the night. The Wolves saved the night in those last four minutes of regular. It's true. Kind of. Yeah. That was a weird schedule. Eight games on last night, I think. Three of them had...

both teams on the second night of a back-to-back. Oh, yeah. It felt like it. I went down to State Farm Arena, Hawks versus Heat. Somehow the second time I've seen a Hawks-Heat game here in Atlanta. The Hawks coming off the loss to the Pistons, 148-143. The Heat coming off a loss to the Bucs where they blew a fourth-quarter lead, and both of these teams looked

completely gassed. The Hawks shot 26% from three and had 18 turnovers and were by far the crisper team out there. Miami shot 32% from the field.

18% from three. They had 18 turnovers and got outscored in the paint 58-38. Seven steals for Dyson Daniels. Bam was invisible in this game. Tyler Hero, four for 19. Alec Burks, one for 12. And there's just some dudes that play for the Atlanta Hawks on the bench. Karis Levert, 15. Terrence Mann, 15. George Niang, 11. Clint Capella, 8. These are all guys you've heard of.

This is a random collection of guys right now on the Hawks after the Bogdanovich trade, after sending out Murray in the summer. Miami currently has lost six of their last seven. And Atlanta jumped up in the standings. They got a 2-0 tiebreaker on them right now. Miami is really struggling since the Jimmy Butler trade.

I thought that would clarify things. I thought Wiggins would be good. He was pretty solid last night, though he was the only guy that could really score for Miami. The only other note I have is I saw a guy in the crowd wearing an Atlanta Hawks Rajon Rondo jersey. Yeah, I saw you tweet that. That was great. I had to go to basketball reference to make sure he played for the Hawks, and it wasn't just like a jokey, oh, he was traded here, he got released. No, he played 21 games. Did he really? In 2020. Wow, what a guy.

well, I don't remember that. Same. So I went and looked. He had 12 points and eight assists in the first game he played for the Hawks that season. It ended up being his season high for the Hawks that season. I was like, that guy had to buy that jersey then.

Yeah. You know, it's the start of the season. He had a good game. You're like, oh, Rondo? Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe like, maybe he's a longtime Rondo fan. Longtime Rondo fan. You know, and then he joins your team. Could be from Kentucky. Yeah. Rondo went to school. I don't know, but I was shocked to see that. Wow. That's, to see that in person, that's something else. Well, we could have played what, like, yeah, I guess what you got.

And we would have done it. What was the worst or the more insane outcome? The Sixers losing by 32 to the Bulls or the Heat scoring 86 points against the Hawks? The Hawks have... That's the fewest points they've allowed in like four years. That's very difficult to score that few points against the Atlanta Hawks, man. So I don't know which one you would have gone with, Tass, but any other notes from those games or any of the other ones from last night? Yeah, it was weird to see Tyler Hero...

drop 40 the night before and then go 0 for 9 from 3 just didn't have a good night the next night though yeah the heater you mentioned all the guys on the atlanta hawks they're the new guys i mean the heat are just also just juggling to see what they got terry rozier a dnp you know he's undergoing an investigation i don't know if that's part of it he's just not playing well jaime hawkins has kind of been out of the rotation played only seven minutes though so they're trying to find stuff

Because they were a good offense until January 1. They were top 10 before January 1, and now they're 25th best offense since. They just dropped off the planet. And Dyson Daniels was freaking awesome. He's freaking awesome to watch him. But I think the Sixers just absolutely crumbling is a little more surprising. I mean, how do you lose by...

that many points. I mean, they actually made the score a lot more respectable. Surprised 32, you know, it was up to, what was it? Close to 50, right? It was, it was at least 50. I don't know if I got over 50. I don't remember, but yeah, the 10th place team in the Eastern conference will be the worst team that makes the plan. I assume, you know, cause I did the research beforehand. I think it was a 34 and 48 Spurs team that made it once upon a time in 21, 22, I think, but this is going to be worse.

Somebody's going to drop 50 games. I assume those Eastern Conference play-in games are going to be on NBA TV. Because, wow. It's going to be, I guess, probably, let's call it Magic Hawks. And then it's going to be Bulls, let's say, Nets or Sixers. Heat right now. Heat, Heat, Skater, KMG, any of those teams. That'll be on NBA TV.

And then just quickly, nut, dust, bowl standings. Two losses for your teams last night. Jazz lost by two to the Blazers. And then your Hornets, Zach Levine scored 42. He was on fire from deep. And Hornets lost 130-88. The Hornets have lost their last two games by a combined 95 points.

So I know that doesn't matter in the NetDust Bowl standings. It's just win-loss records. But, man, that's pretty rough. 95 points over the last two. When do they play the Sixers? Because that would be quite the matchup between teams who are ready for the season to be over. I went and looked at all the stints of Zach Levine playing for the Kings last night because this is interesting to me. He didn't score until Monk was pulled four minutes into the game.

But then the Kings immediately went on a 9-0 run. Monk checks back in for DeMar DeRozan. Levine had 10 in the first quarter. Nice. Second quarter, Levine sits to start the quarter. Checks in for Monk. Five and a half minutes left. 12 points right away. Third quarter, all three start. Levine only scores two.

And those didn't come until after he subbed in for DeRozan the last two minutes. Fourth quarter, Zach and Monk start the quarter. DeRozan sitting. 18 points for Zach Levine. DeRozan never checks in. Definitely a plan by Doug Christie to keep only two of those three guys on the court at the same time. And guess what? It worked better. It was against the Hornets. It helps play the Hornets. Good time to get right. But still, they're not going to all be able to play together. It just doesn't make sense. So good stuff by Doug. Love it, Doug.

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Hey, it's Noah Chestnut from The Athletic. If you're into games and sports, pay attention. I'm going to give you four sports terms. You tell me the common thread. Ready? Axel. Lube.

Lutz. Saucow. That's Axel, Loop, Lutz, Saucow. This one's like medium hard. The answer is figure skating jumps. Now, what if I gave you 16 different terms and you figure out how they come together into four different groups?

If you're up for the challenge, you'll want to check out Connections Sports Edition. It's a new daily game for sports fans. There'll be some that are going to stump you, some that make you laugh, and some that remind you when you were a kid watching sports for the first time. Connections Sports Edition. To play today's puzzle, go to theathletic.com slash connections.

Alright, well let's move from last night's games. Again, not too many all that entertaining, but let's go to the UpDown Report. UpDown Report. UpDown Report.

Yeah, let's throw some thumbs on some topics. First one, fans will hear a new voice when watching ABC's NBA Finals broadcast this season as Richard Jefferson will be on the call next to Mike Breen and Doris Burke, according to The Athletic's Andrew Marchand. RJ's elevation doesn't necessarily mean he has the job long-term.

Because his contract is up after the season. Jefferson has some interest from Amazon to potentially join their number one team. But TASCOT has started here. Are you thumbs up or thumbs down on Jefferson joining Breen and Burke for at least this year's NBA Finals broadcast? Yeah, let's go thumbs up. What the kids want are some jokes. And you guys called it last year when we went away from Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson beside Mike Breen.

that Doris and JJ Reddick weren't jokey, fun enough. Doris does enough with the analysis and JJ was beside her providing a ton of analysis beside her. So we just got, we got a lot of analysis.

We'll get more of that with Doris, but you want somebody who's funny beside her, and RJ does that. Just jokey jokes. In this day and age, when we're going to Amazon, and things are becoming a little bit more splintered, yeah. I think it's totally fine. Totally fine to have both. You have both. Best both worlds, I think. Okay. What do you think here? I'm thumbs up on it. They had RJ on the call. They had their finals crew going for Lakers versus Nuggets, so kind of reading the tea leaves, you're like, hey,

Lakers, LeBron and Luka versus the best player in the league, Jokic. And look at who they have on it. Makes sense to me. Awesome timing for Richard Jefferson to get elevated to the number one team officially heading into a contract year where his partner from Brooklyn Nets games is already locked in as the number one guy, Ian Eagle there. So it should be cool. The kids want jokes and us millennials just want somebody to say nice when a team has 69 points. And you know, Richard Jefferson will do that. Always going to give us that.

So yeah, this team will also call the Western Conference Finals because that's what that ESPN has this year and marquee games here throughout the remainder of the year and early rounds of the playoffs. So it's not like he's just going to be there for the finals. They've been doing this team. They're going to continue to do this team. I'm with you. Like, hey,

Don't blow it, RJ, because you could very well get the bag here. They either love you, a part of this trio, and throw a bunch of money at you, or, like you're saying, Ian Eagle, your guy, is going to be Amazon's number one play-by-play guy. Maybe you knock it out of the park and they're like, we got to have him. So, yeah, just don't mess it up. No pressure. But, hey, continue to be yourself. It's funny to see the reaction to this. People, man, they have opinions on it. Some people like us are like, yeah.

We like him. It's better than at least the Redick-Burke-Breen sort of trio worked. We think it's a better balance between sort of like the fun side of RJ with the analytic side of Burke. But other people are like, ah, no, not this guy. Anybody but this guy. Rudy Gay, not this guy! Some people don't like his, I guess, sarcasm. He's pretty sarcastic and...

Maybe his voice. I don't know. Never buttons his shirt all the way. We're fans. Next one here. Adrian Wojnarowski is cleaning out his office of cell phones and press passes, and he's offering dinner dates in a bid to raise NIL funds for the St. Bonaventure men's basketball program. So the former NBA insider, best known for the Woj bombs, hit social media yesterday to announce this online auction.

to support his role as GM of that Atlantic 10 team. So, TK, get us started here. Are you up or down on Woj auctioning iPhones used for Woj bombs to raise NIL money at St. Bonaventure? Think how insane that sentence fucking sounds. That sounds insane. But are you up or down?

How can you be anything but up? Because there's the only way to type on a phone. You've got to use your thumbs up. Down? No way. I just want to know if it still has the pictures on it. You get Woj's apps. He's still Wojspn on Twitter.

So you have to think maybe he didn't break his phones. I don't know. I don't know. These are like up to $1,500. Let's see the Paul George Kawhi one. That's at $1,500 though. If you're an OKC, you would say that's the Shaggy. I'll just Alexander phone. The COVID phone. 1,500. Of course, uh,

The Farewell Tweet, only $675, and that's the most up-to-date phone. You're getting the most current version of the iPhone. And the Wemby Draft Phone, $975. I would spend my money other ways. Yeah. Well, I want to say one cool thing about it. Cool, I guess, objective. But it says if you win these auctions for the press passes, the phones, you can request Woj to sign it.

Can you request him to take a selfie with it? That would be amazing. Yeah, make it like your screensaver or something like that. We don't even know. Does the phone actually work? Yeah, that's the thing. I highly doubt. It's got nothing on it. Yeah, he cleans it. I'm sure. So that's the weird thing. You get these phones that he used. Well, that's why at least if Woj signs the back of the phone, it's like you could put that up. We could have that here in the factory. Yeah.

We could. We could. It's a great idea. Place a bid. It's a great idea to have the background photo at least. Do something. You take a pose. Something funny. Getting down and dirty and tweeting something. You could see him using the phone in a photo. It's hilarious. It makes sense why he's raising this money. Yeah. That part is awesome. Yes. That is very, very smart of him. He...

he gives a crap about St. Bonaventure and was comfortable leaving his position to do this. So this is very cool for him. I just, I wonder, yeah, if people want these old credentials. Sometimes I want to keep mine. I have a couple of mine. I chucked out a ton of them. Yeah. I think I have all mine. If anybody wants to buy them. Well, I was going to ask you, yeah. Is there any like items that you're like, now you see this, so you're inspired by Woj to do a little no dunks auction. Anything in particular come to mind? Yeah.

I got random credentials and phones lying around if anybody wants them. But what would your phone say? Like, what's your best tweet you've ever tweeted? Phone using to take Instagram photo of me and Drake. Yeah, right. 2019 finals. Oh, who took the photo of you fist bumping Guy Fieri? Maybe Matty O? Ooh.

Lee definitely took one of those. I don't know if that was on his phone. He could probably sell that one for a pretty penny. That's good. I've talked before. I mean, I guess if I were to do an auction or give something to the No Dunks auction, definitely we'll auction off the underwear that Shaq ripped off my body. Nice. He gave me the wedgie. Yeah, that's a good one. I'll give you that one. That's got to go for big money. Frame that. Yeah. Anything else come to mind you got?

Nothing really jumping out of my head. I mean, yes, I have credentials. Nobody wants those. Yeah, nothing really noteworthy.

I don't know. I'm trying to think. JD, anything come to mind for either Tass or yourself? We have our old puppets. Oh, the puppets. Puppet versions of us. That's not bad. Those are old, too. Yeah, really old. I got this neutral sign behind me. Yeah, you want to auction that off? There it is. There it is. I mean, it works. You have tons of crap behind you. King K.P. Yeah. I mean, all of it. All of it for the right price. Contact us. Okay, the auction is currently scheduled to conclude on Tuesday, March 4th. So I do wonder, what will...

Well, we'll get up there the highest. What did you say is leading the way, TK? Right now here with a couple days to go? $1,500 is the high prices on the phones right now. His ESPN ID badge from 2017 to 2024 going for $2,000. That looks to be the high ticket item right now. Then there is the, I guess, Dinner with Woj. Dinner with Woj I think would get the most. Yeah, these ones, they're not putting the high off.

The high offer up there. Yeah. You just got to come with it. I was looking at this, obviously, and I was like, what site is this? Dapps Bounty, huh? Well, I started digging into it. It's sort of insane what this is. You literally submit a bounty. Name any athlete or sports figure. Tell us any item or experience you want from them and offer your price. And then what they do is they take it to the athlete and

They take the bounty. They're like, okay, hey, what do you think about this, Player X? Would you give up this for this price? And then they decide, like, yes or no, and then you pay them. That's sort of insane. One of the things you can click on their dropdown is Instagram follow. You can buy an Instagram follow from your favorite athlete. Oh, wow. Don't do that. Don't do that.

This is cool. This is fun. Don't do that. Instagram follow. Get an Instagram follow from Lonzo Ball. See if this site catches on here. I'm trying to, I don't even know where I would start though. I'd be like, well, it's like, I guess I would like, hey, Steve Nash, you got any cool shoes? You know what I would ask for. It's kind of the opposite of getting a personalized video, whatever website that's called. Cameo. Cameo. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like the opposite of that, where they offer the amount for a personalized video. I mean, this is the weird part. This isn't like, I'm an athlete. Here's all the stuff I have. Do you want to buy it? It's like us as the fan go, what could I ask for from my favorite player, my favorite athlete? That's sort of odd. Or experience, too. It doesn't have to be an item. Like a personalized video of Salt Bae dropping salt. Same as Crystals. Yeah, exactly. Crystals, straight up Crystals.

I'm putting it in order for one of Michael Jordan's berets. There you go. That's what you should do. Michael Jordan Paris beret, 1997. I offer $300. Oh, you're going to have to... It's going to have to be like $30,000. Come on. Yeah, Jordan beret? Of course. But yeah, we got to start doing...

Just guess. Oh, man. You wake up one morning accidentally. You've won all these bounties from Dennis Rodman. You're in the hole. Yeah, yeah, exactly. All right, final one here. This one is from the weekend. Spurs Hall of Fame coach Greg Popovich. He's not expected to return this season, and his NBA future is uncertain as he recovers from a stroke that he did suffer in November. League sources told Shams this on Saturday. A few days earlier, you might remember, I did tell you that Sam Amick was hearing whispers about Pop

and how he could be hanging it up for good. I brought that on the show that I heard on the NBA Daily podcast. But anyway, the up-down from this is the likelihood that...

Greg Popovich is ever coaching the Spurs again. So, you know, thumbs up, you're like, you think it's going to happen, thumbs down, you probably don't, and that we've seen the end of Pop. What do you think? Well, I can't go thumbs up or thumbs down because Pop would just hate it. I think Pop would hate us talking about him right now. He would just say, shut up. Let me just do my thing and be where I am. And, yeah, all thoughts are just with Pop. And that's that. And whether or not he wants to coach or not.

He's 76 years old. Right. I mean, he turned 76 in January. Oldest coach in NBA history by a significant amount. I think Hubie had it. I think Hubie was 71 when he coached his last game with the Grizzlies. But Pop, five years older. What's your gut say, TK? I mean... I mean, I hope it's up. Yeah, you hope he's back. Just because, like, there wasn't a last game for Greg Popovich, right? Like, he just was...

had his stroke, has had the recovery afterwards, and he's just been gone. And we didn't know he was going to be gone, even if it's like literally a one-game thing next season. It would be awesome to have him come back and be honored and get to actually say his goodbyes rather than being, I mean, forced out isn't the right word, but just being out of the mix because he has to be out of the mix. So hopefully he gets at least one last go around. Yeah, with you on that. All right, Pickham.

Tass, you're in trouble, my man. The Pistons can't lose. I had them last night. I had points to play with. Clippers, again, we're missing some guys that was maybe part of that line. The uncertainty when it comes to LAC, who's playing. But you, I believe, have to win outright here to tie me.

So one more loss, and you will be wearing a very big hat, Tass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very, very big hat. To tease it a little bit, but what's our game? Yeah, I have to win outright, you have to lose outright. Yeah. Because I'm four behind you. I mean, we'll just pick on opposite sides. Yeah, I'll definitely pick the opposite of you, and I felt that you were going to pick the Lakers tonight. Hosting the Dallas Mavericks. Luka playing against his old team. Oh, yeah. It only feels right to pick with Luka.

Minus seven and a half, this line started. Looking around now, it's getting bigger and bigger because people are all over the Lakers thinking that they are going to smack the Mavericks. And it makes sense that the three of the four of us picked the Lakers, and I'm stuck with the Mavs, which is totally fine. The lines are out there. I'm checking the lines of Luka. You can bet on whether he's going to score 35 points.

Or more. 35? Bet GM, 35 plus points. What do you say? What do you say? Sounds like a lot. I'm going under. Yeah, I would go under. I'm going under. I think it's going to be not just Luka revenge. I think the boys are going to play hard for him.

the rest of the Lakers. But, I mean, this could also turn into, it could turn into a blowout too, so that's part of the equation. Yeah. Don't parlay bets, but I see this parlay. You bet the spread for the Lakers, which is now minus nine and a half. Luka to score 35 plus, yes. And LeBron to score 25 plus. Oh boy, oh boy. You get 10, 10 pays out 80. So it's plus 700 odds on that. This is fun though to consider. Could Luka deliver one of the biggest revenge games in league history?

I saw it by way of Zach Harper and the bounce. Some of the top performances in the first game against an old team are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975. He had 30 points, 20 boards, 9 blocks, 5 assists in a win over the Bucs.

Here's a fun one from 94. Clippers forward Dominique Wilkins posted 36 points and 10 boards in a win over the Hawks. In 96, Rockets forward Charles Barkley scored 20 points and grabbed 33 rebounds. That's a lot of roast beef. That's too much roast beef, honestly. In a win over the Suns. And then this season, Carl Anthony Towns put up 32 points, 20 boards, and 6 assists in a win over the Wolves.

I was in Minnesota, right? I think so. I think so. So anyway, those are a couple of the biggest revenge games in terms of trades. We're talking about the next game against your old team. So yeah, can Luka...

Can Luka add to that list? That's something that's sort of fun to watch. Can he put up, not maybe that Carl type numbers, the 20 rebounds, I doubt that's happening, but yeah, 35 and 10 and 10 or something. I'd like to see 33 rebounds. That's how he gets his revenge. Watch this. Pure effort. You think I'm out of shape? I'm just rebounding. He's counting them up like Trey Kirby playing pick up hoops. That's right. Unfortunately, they only have, the only other time the Lakers play the Mavericks in Dallas is...

April 9th. That's a potential rest the room kind of game, you know, the last couple of weeks of the season. Weird stuff. Yeah. So it would have to be this one. Maybe it happens. I see another line here as to whether he'll get a technical foul. You can bet on whether Luka will get a technical foul against his old team because he's a little feisty.

Hasn't had one in LA yet? I don't think so. It's been pretty well behaved. I like that. I like that one. That one on BetOnline. Not our friends at BetMGM. Yes. Plus 600. Plus 600? That's not bad. I don't mind that.

That pays pretty well. All right. But I don't think he's going to be angry. He's not. He's mild-mannered right now. Right now? Yeah. I feel it. So that's the second game on TNT tonight, Mavs-Lakers. First one is Cavs-Magic at 730. Other games, Celtics-Raptors, Bucs-Rockets, Suns-Grizz, Spurs-Pelicans. Come on, Pelicans!

I need a win in the Nut Dust Bowl, and then your Hornets are playing again. Oh, why are they playing so much? Keep it a little bit closer. These weird back-to-backs happening late in the season. I'm not a scheduling man. But the way they gave off so many days for NBA Cup days, NBA Cup games around those games, plus the All-Star game.

It creates these late season back-to-backs, which doesn't help teams. The Hornets were unfortunately a part of a couple of the LA Fire cancellation games as well. Yeah, that's why they played on that Wednesday one. The Lakers have a ton of back-to-backs. Six the rest of the way.

All right, we'll call it there. We're back tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern. I'm sure we'll be leading with how Luka plays against his former team in L.A. tonight and any of these other games. If you've got a question, maybe we'll hit the beach. Send them in, nodunksattheathletic.com or leave them in the YouTube comments. 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, don't bet.

You can bet on a lot of things. Guess the amount of three-point field goals over-under line. What that is for Luka tonight. The over-under for three-point field goals. Me. Me. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. It just says three-point field goals. I think it's going to be... Go ahead. I would have said three and a half. I was going to say three and a half or four and a half. You guys know. Three and a half. That thing's easy, man. It's so easy. Just pick the right answer. Praise the day, people.