cover of episode The Drop | Revisiting Western Conference Over/Under Predictions

The Drop | Revisiting Western Conference Over/Under Predictions

2025/3/7
logo of podcast No Dunks

No Dunks

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
#professional sports#nba playoffs analysis#comedic interactions#personal confessions#personal anecdotes on regional dialect People
J
J.E. Skeets
T
Tass Mellis
T
Trey Kirby
Topics
@J.E. Skeets : 我们回顾了赛季初对西部联盟球队的胜负预测,并对结果进行了分析。一些球队的表现超出预期,例如开拓者队,而另一些球队则表现低于预期,例如太阳队。我们还讨论了快船队、勇士队、国王队、爵士队和雷霆队的表现,并对最终结果进行了预测。 总的来说,我们对一些球队的预测比较准确,而另一些则不太准确。这说明了预测的复杂性和不确定性,也反映了NBA比赛的激烈竞争和不可预测性。 @Trey Kirby : 我参与了对西部联盟球队的胜负预测,并对结果进行了分析。一些球队的表现与我们的预测相符,而另一些则与我们的预测相差甚远。例如,开拓者队的表现超出预期,而太阳队则表现低于预期。 在分析过程中,我们考虑了各种因素,例如球队的阵容、球员的伤病情况、球队的化学反应等。但是,一些不可预测的因素,例如球员的个人发挥、球队的运气等,也对最终结果产生了影响。 @Tass Mellis : 我也参与了对西部联盟球队的胜负预测,并对结果进行了分析。我对一些球队的预测比较准确,例如勇士队,而另一些球队的预测则不太准确,例如太阳队。 在进行预测时,我考虑了球队的实力、球队的阵容、球队的伤病情况等因素。但是,一些不可预测的因素,例如球员的个人发挥、球队的运气等,也对最终结果产生了影响。总的来说,我对西部联盟球队的表现感到满意,但也有很多需要改进的地方。

Deep Dive

Chapters
In this chapter, the hosts discuss the thrilling game between the Lakers and the Knicks, highlighted by Luka Doncic and LeBron James leading the Lakers to an overtime win. They analyze Jalen Brunson's injury and the Knicks' offensive struggles, while also debating the Lakers' resilience and potential in the playoffs.
  • Luka Doncic and LeBron James were instrumental in the Lakers' overtime victory against the Knicks.
  • Jalen Brunson's ankle injury in overtime was a significant blow to the Knicks.
  • The Knicks struggled offensively, relying heavily on Brunson and lacking support from other key players.
  • The Lakers showcased their depth and resilience, with significant contributions from Gabe Vincent and Jackson Hayes.
  • The Lakers' playoff prospects and potential matchups are analyzed, considering their current form and challenges.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

Support for this podcast comes from Intuit Enterprise Suite. Would you benefit from a robust suite of AI-driven tools to manage your growing businesses in one integrated system? When the business is expanding, your data is scattered. Tools can't keep up and manual work is accumulating. With the

all new Intuit Enterprise Suite. You can keep growing without the increasing complexities. It's an AI powered solution, bringing all your data together in one place, handling financials, payroll, marketing, and more. Visit Intuit.com forward slash enterprise to learn more.

As we progress through the season, every fan knows that big wins are hard to come by and tough losses are even harder to accept. But you know what isn't hard to accept? Discover. Believe it or not, Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. You heard that right, 99%. So make a good call for your wallet and get Discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card.

With 132 million users and an unrivaled selection of sports trading cards and memorabilia, eBay is the home of collectibles. Premium trading card singles, live card breaks, unique game-used memorabilia, all the epic finds you need are right here on eBay. Collect with confidence by downloading the eBay app on the App Store or by going straight to ebay.com slash theathletic. That's ebay.com slash theathletic.

Start building your collection today.

Good morning, sweet world! And welcome to the No Dunks Podcast on The Athletic Network. It's Friday, March 7th, 2025. This is The Drop. I'm J.E. Skeets here in the Classic Factory and alongside me, it's the bearded one, my top shot hot boy, Trey Kirby. Ayo! Ayo! Over yonder, making the magic happen, super producer J.D. Hello. There he is. And last but not least, he's wearing a toilet hat while sitting on the toilet for the final time this week.

It's Tass Mellis! What's up fellas? What do you have on your lap? Oh, it's cold in here. I've been in here all week so I've got a blanket.

I've never seen someone sit on the toilet with a blanket. This is a first. There's a lot of firsts on this show, Skeets. Have you ever watched a basketball show with a man on a toilet? No. That's a good point. I just thought I'd match our wardrobes. My blanket kind of matches your shirts. Trey and I look like we're going hunting here for sure.

hitting the Great Wolf Lodge later today. Touched under 40 degrees for like a split second. We're like, oh, bundle up, boys. Start the bonfire, boys. All right. So yeah, Tass is for the final time paying off his February pick-em loss by sitting on the can, wearing a toilet hat and talking hoops with the fellas. Saw somebody say he was a sandwich.

Toilet on top, toilet on bottom, Tass right in the middle. That's the weirdest Oreo I've ever seen. I ain't ordering that. No, thank you. If you're joining us live on YouTube, hit the like button. Hit the like button for Tass paying this off all week. Hit the like button for JD for making this magic happen. And obviously subscribe, share the show, podcast listeners, five-star ratings and reviews because you might find yourself on the next five-star Friday because you got a few reviews.

coming up later on the drop here. We also have some fun looking at some Western Conference over-under predictions that we did back in the preseason. Let's see how the boys are doing. Quick little check-in if we like that. We'll do the Eastern Conference next week. But we gotta start...

with some of the great games last night, and we had LeBron, we had Luka propelling the Lakers to the 113-109 overtime victory over the Knicks. That's eight straight for the Lakers. They're rolling. Big takeaway from this game, Jalen Brunson twisting his ankle late in overtime. He goes down. We're waiting to find out how severe it is.

Hopefully it's just, you know, a sort of generic, if you want to call that, ankle sprain. We don't want like a grade three sprain. But your thoughts on the Lakers getting the victory over the Knicks? I thought Yovan Buha made a great point over there at the Athletic. This is the first time that the Luka Doncic-led Lakers have really faced adversity against a good team. Down in the second half,

Down late in the fourth quarter, eight-point game with six minutes left, and Luka Doncic just went into playmaking mode. Found Gabe Vincent in the corner for a three, couple of times down, finds Jackson Hayes for an alley-oop, and then finds LeBron in the corner for a three once again. Those two guys, Hayes and Lisa, now Gabe, were incredible in the fourth quarter and overtime for this team. You heard Luka and LeBron both saying, we don't win that game without those guys, and they were both awesome.

Vincent went three for three from three in the fourth quarter. Jackson Hayes had a couple assists in the fourth quarter, added another one in overtime, and then made the two...

free throws, whatever you want to call it. Two big free throws, just kind of hanging in the leg, got the little dish, got fouled, made them both, was making really great decisions in the short roll. And if it was an actual alley-oop, he's going to finish that because, you know, he's a big old tall dude. On the other side, it was just Jalen Brunson. There was nothing else going on for the Knicks. It's like they've got a nice starting five. They got a lot of space out there.

And it's just Tom Thibodeau dialing up ISO after ISO after ISO. And it was working for a while. Brunson was keeping a minute, hitting a bunch of big shots. Then, like you said, rolls his ankle. And then what's supposed to happen for the Knicks at that point? Because...

for whatever reason, it turned into Deuce McBride being the Jalen Brunson. And he ain't quite Jalen Brunson, but that's still the way they were playing. I thought this was nice for the Lakers to not play a very good game, but come through with a major fourth quarter performance. And then they were pretty great in overtime. I thought as well. Tassie, what do you think?

That was a physical game. I thought so much physicality going on. So we got the rivalry we wanted. Luka Doncic versus referee Tyler Ford. Those guys are going at it. Luka not happy with referee Tyler Ford. As we've seen him before, he got a tech for it, was arguing the whole way. But

But I also just thought the Knicks' defensive presence was great. Cat got two fouls early. That brought Mitchell Robinson off the bench, and I think that kind of helped him. It was a little blessing in disguise. Mitchell Robinson didn't play a lot of minutes, but I think it got the Knicks into their M.O. I thought Mikkel Bridges...

was phenomenal. OG Ananobi was absolutely phenomenal on both ends. He was marvelous to get this team an eight-point lead going to the fourth. And as Trey mentioned, it was an eight-point lead midway through the fourth. And then you can watch what's miraculous is LeBron James as a secondary playmaker. Literally just sitting and watching Luka Doncic perform. We've never had to see that in his career. He's never got to play with such a great player in his career. But he's just standing there watching Luka perform,

Passing to Big Gabe, who had two monstrous threes in the last three minutes there. And then we get into overtime, unfortunately. Because, listen, the Knicks, as much praise as I'm giving for their defense, because they were really showing Luka so many sets of eyes. And that is exactly what they got Mikkel Bridges and OGN and OB4, mainly to go up against Tatum and Brown. But this is perfect. They didn't know that Luka was going to the Lakers when they acquired him. But this is the perfect...

setup for Luka. They were giving him so many eyes and that's why Luka was getting so angry. But then on the offensive end,

Just no threes, no threes from real great three-point shooters. Cat was one for six from three. Brunson was one for seven from three. Payne was one for six from three. And McBride was 0 for, and that really hurt them. And we got to a point there where, even though it was fun watching Jackson Hayes guard Josh Hart, it was a smart move by J.J. Redick.

In the end, the Knicks just didn't have enough offensive guys, as Trey said, around Jalen Brunson, who talk about physicality. That dude is tough as nails. When he went down with that injury, the trainer was out there

addressing that ankle he was it looked like he was literally pulling on his foot and Jalen Brunson threw up the stop sign no don't touch it I'm fine and he wanted to walk it off and he tried to walk it off as much as possible he shot those free throws and had to leave the game so it was unfortunate they really didn't have anywhere to go after that yeah look Cat disappeared in this game down the stretch yes that happens he had a rough game well Luca found him

Yeah, that's true. Looked upon him for a couple of jumpers right in his face and was screaming at him like he was Rudy Gobert. Yeah, I meant offensively, but that's a good point. And then Mikael Bridges, for all the credit you want to give his defense, he's got to give you more than six points. I mean, you traded the farm in terms of draft capital for this guy, and he had a very, very quiet game offensively. OG was the one that was sort of picking up the slack. But then a couple weeks ago, remember, OG couldn't hit a shot or he was disappearing offensively, and now it feels like it's twisted and turned into...

Bridges more so, and maybe even Kat. So they all got to get on the same page. I do wonder, TK, it's going to sound a little insane. We'll wait to find out how severe the ankle injury is. I assume he misses some time. A game, two, maybe a week. You hope that's sort of it for Knicks fans.

Could it be a blessing in disguise to try and get some other guys some more responsibility moving forward and then you get Jalen Brunson back? Because you're right, it's like the JB show at times here, which can get you to victory, but you're asking a lot from the smallest guy on the floor. You are, but that's literally been Tom Thibodeau's offense dating back to the Chicago days. Who else was doing it for the Bulls? It was all Derrick Rose and sometimes Carlos Boozer would hit a 15-footer, yell and one if he was inside. But...

I'm not very confident that things will change because in this game, they just started doing Jalen Brunson stuff with Deuce McBride. That doesn't make sense, but you're right. It would be good to empower Towns to see if you can get Bridges playing at the level he played before.

if not necessarily his Phoenix days when he was looking like the perfect number two, number three kind of guy, maybe at least the Brooklyn days where he can kind of scale up a little bit, but they need some more from those guys. Towns came off missing a game for personal reasons. The Knicks have been really good offensively this year. They are top five offense, so they're still able to score, but Brunson is the straw that stirs the drink and without, without him there, uh,

I don't know that Thibs is suddenly going to become Doug Collins reaching into the playbook, you know? Yeah, the Knicks have four more games on this road trip, and they're only up three and a half games on the Bucs, who are in the third seed in the Eastern Conference. The Bucs have three more losses currently, so that doesn't bode well for the Knicks. The Bucs could catch the New York Knicks. I do want to say, though, I mean, basically you guys are saying that Cat disappeared, but

I wouldn't say that. I mean, he did fight a lot in this game. I thought at first there's too many threes coming from him when the Lakers' weakness is their big man. And their big man, again, as I said, was guarding Josh Hart. Jackson Hayes was just guarding Josh Hart so he could stay in the lane. Now, Cat had six three-point attempts of 13 shots. Sounds like too many when you only have seven twos, when really that's your strength. But he did get to the free throw line seven times.

And he was fighting for rebounds. And he did go to the bench because of the foul trouble, which happens with Cat, obviously. And so I think that took him out of his flow a little bit. But he was scrapping. And he scrapped LeBron so hard that he knocked LeBron into the front row in that

hurt them obviously that foul call late that Tyler Ford made for the Lakers in this turn I thought it was a well-officiated game I gotta be honest but yes as far as the New York Knicks go yeah Jalen Brunson has been that guy Tom Pibro has been that guy so we do need more Mikel Bridges getting into the middle now he hit one of those shots those were the prime Nets days of Mikel Bridges getting into the lane into the mid-range and hitting one of those shots so yeah they are

They're going to be desperate. There's no doubt. It's funny because I think the Lakers are going to be desperate here. We were watching LeBron and Luka Doncic along with now Austin Reeves who came back. Usually it's Rui and Jackson Hayes just scramble and fight on the defensive end. And we all had this...

and a half. The one and a half series victories as the over-under line for the playoffs. And I think we're in a prime spot. We're going to have a fight in the second round to see who, if it goes over or under. Because right now they're matched up if everybody advances to the second round with the Denver Nuggets.

Who has home advantage in that series? Still up for debate, but it's going to be fun. I just wonder how much they can continue to scramble with these old dudes, mainly LeBron, and these other guys around them. They're doing a great job, but I think we're just going to have, along with five back-to-backs that the Lakers have,

The rest of the way, that's tough, I think. So we're going to be watching the Lakers have to scramble a lot here. They did a great job at the end of regulation, scrambling a couple of those plays defensively and was a reason why Josh Hart, who hit the shot at the end, was too late. It was pretty blatantly too late, but man, they were working their ass defensively to try and prevent a shot up. Just to speak on Cat, I'm with you, Tass. He competes. He played hard last night. I get all that. You know, Luka hit a couple shots in his eye. Sure, what are you going to do? Join the club, really?

But he also had two shot attempts in 15 minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime. He got to the free throw line once within those 15 minutes. That's just not enough. So it's not even like, that's not even on him really. That goes to sort of what they're running and getting him involved a little bit more. Two shots? I mean, he hit the one in the fourth quarter, hit some free throws, and then only one shot in overtime? That's what I meant by the disappearing act. That's fair. And again, it's not new. We've seen it before.

So that's something to watch. And maybe it changes a little bit if Brunson misses some games here. Really entertaining. Super entertaining. Just last question, because the Lakers came back from that eight-point deficit. They were fighting extremely hard. And I just wanted to know about what J.J. Redick was referring to when he had his end-of-third-quarter interview and he was coaching a team that was down eight and basically said, you know, we haven't had to ask these guys to play hard for two months. We haven't had to ask these guys to play hard for two months. I didn't know what that meant exactly.

Isn't he just saying these guys are taking it upon themselves to turn our season around and play really hard? Because that's what JJ's been saying in the press the entire time. Our superpower is we're playing hard right now. So yeah, we haven't done that since. But he said we haven't had to ask them. Yeah, they're doing it on their own. Proactive. Yeah. He personally. I think it's a compliment. Yeah, it was a compliment. It was a compliment. I just wanted to know. We're going back to the beginning of the year.

So the first, like, oh, okay, he's saying they fought hard since that two-month period started. And that he, as the coaching staff, that's something they don't have to focus on because generally the players bring at least the intensity. They brought it. They brought it. And this was their first game of adversity, as you said, Trey, where they weren't playing extremely well and they made up a big deficit. Yeah, it helps when you add Luka Doncic to your team. Yeah.

Nico Harrison. Yeah, we kind of glossed over the fact that LeBron and Luka had 60 combined points and 20 combined assists.

That's amazing. LeBron is the second guy on this team right now, and he's loving it. So, yeah, I mean, they're not an old team at all. LeBron's old. Dorian Finney-Smith is 31. I think everybody else is 25 and under. They're locked in right now. That was a loud arena. I mean, it was loud for the Knicks, too, every time they scored. People were going crazy. Awesome atmosphere. Yeah, when I said old about this team having to go forward, yes, LeBron is definitely somebody I'm referring to as a guy who has to scramble a lot.

But I was the one who said that this defense was not going to be great. I was obviously wrong here, but I just wonder going forward, Luka with a banged up body, having to carry the perimeter defense along with LeBron, I think is a fair question because we saw last year, it was Luka and Kyrie,

that managed to get it done and got to the finals with Derek Jones Jr. beside him, PJ Washington, and Gafford slash Lively at center. I just wonder this combo of Austin Reeves, Rui, and Jackson Hayes along with these older, you know, I'm throwing in quotes, but it feels like they're older. I guess that's what Nico Harrison was thinking. This guy is banged up and old. Got to get rid of this 25-year-old. I don't know what he was thinking. Nobody on this earth knows what he was thinking. It was for money. But either way, it's going to be a fun last...

last six weeks and then into the playoffs it just feels like that's a long time for a 40 year old it's dumb to say because this guy doesn't feel like a 40 year old he's playing like he's 30 really he's better at 40 than he was at 39 yeah he turned 40 he's been awesome and honestly like the way the Mavericks played the second half of the season has to give you a little bit of optimism for Luka Doncic like he was on a good defensive team he was the worst defender out there but their team was awesome defensively rode that to the finals that's exactly what's happening with the Lakers right now can they go to the finals it's a

tougher task I think for the Lakers than it probably was for the Mavericks last year after the Nuggets got bounced but that's why we'll see what happens in the playoffs who actually are the Lakers going to run into let's talk about another old guy still bringing it Steph Curry

Still good. Not as old as LeBron, but he's old in terms of basketball. And he scored 40 points as the Warriors finished a 4-1 trip with the 121-119 victory over the Nets. And he had some spectacular shots in this one. That one at the end of the first half...

Unbelievable, where he's like double or triple teamed at half court, and he hits the turnaround, and he knew it was in as soon as it left his hand, and he's running to the tunnel. This guy was looking at the crowd, dancing, celebrating. It felt like after every shot last night. And again, a 40-burger from Curry here on the road. This guy loves to put on a show. Goes to Brooklyn once and...

shows up and puts on an absolute clinic. I wonder what the Warriors record is when Steph Curry makes a half-court shot at the end of the half because it feels like they've got to be undefeated. You're right, that one that he hit last night, it was like a turnaround from the post. They're like Kobe Bryant would hit over a double team, but it was from 40 feet. That was amazing. He also had a layup like when he won the unanimous MVP championship

middle of the fourth quarter he splits a double team somehow another double team is there splits that double team goes around clacks then finishes with the reverse over a seven footer that was incredible he hit the night night after an inbounds play

The Nets just ran away from Steph Curry. Left Steph Curry. That was a crazy one. They're like, we got to go double out here. Curry go hit it from the corner. He knocks it down. I guess this was probably the closest that the Warriors have come to losing a Steph Curry night-night game because that put them up by like 10, I think. Yeah. And the Nets got it close there in the end. But great stuff from Steph.

Great stuff from Jimmy Butler as well. 25 points, the most he's scored since being a warrior. And the Draymond to Jimmy Butler high-low. This is a real weapon for this team. Draymond drags the big guy out. You've got a guard on Jimmy Butler, and he's too big, too strong. Just throws it over the top. They got it three times, the high-low, simple lob in there. And then they have one more Draymond drill up to the hoop and through an alley-oop as well. So that seems to be working for them. Yeah, that is working in

well. Jimmy had a great game. It's one of his best games with the Warriors, 25 points, and they have an unbelievable record when he plays Tess.

Yeah, that's a great play, that high-low pass. I imagine other coaches in a playoff series will say, no, don't switch that. Get out, get that big man underneath to Jimmy. Switch that, not switch that, switch that. So the big man goes to Jimmy and allow Draymond to have lots of space. Let him go, let him go. That's got to be the lineup. I think this is Steph Curry's best stretch of his career.

In the regular season. No, I didn't go look at the numbers, but this has got to be... Since Jimmy's been there, these are like his unanimous MVP.

They're very similar. That was a great season. Yes, he did win a unanimous MVP. But as far as the best stretch, the most he's just said, I am the superstar. The most individual carry the team type of stretch. It feels that way. Now, maybe I'm just living in the moment, but it doesn't feel like those stretches had a 56 Steph Curry. And then this ridiculous game here. I just feel like they're relying so much on Steph.

I don't think we've ever seen that. We saw it in the Olympics. We don't really see that going back to the days where he had incredible shooters around him or KD. It just feels like the super-duper Steph's performance that is getting a record number of

seats sold at the Barclays Center. They had a record attendance at the Barclays Center. I read that from the Associated Press and I thought, what? In 24-25, the most seats filled, you know, numbers wise. I was kind of surprised, but that's for Steph. It is absolutely for Steph. Listen to this. The Warriors' latest East Coast, excuse me, the Warriors' latest East Coast road trip. Steph Curry averaged

35 points per game, 8 assists. He shot 55% from the field, 52% from deep. He scored the 56 points in Orlando off 12 threes. He dunked for the first time since 2019 in Philly. That was a loss. He played in front of his pops in Charlotte once again. He had Madison Square Garden going nuts, absolutely rocking the other night. And then, like you said, Tass, he attracted the largest crowd ever for a basketball game at the Barclays Center, where he put on such a damn show that...

That the crowd is chanting MVP at the end of the game. Yeah. He's this guy's the Beatles right now, man. Like you got to go see him like while he's here right now. I mean, literally he's been the face of the league for 10 years. And that's the thing. It's like, is this the best stretch of his career? Who knows? Because he was awesome from 2014 to 2016 before, uh,

Kevin Durant showed up. He was doing this every single night. But the thing is, is that he wasn't doing this every single night until Jimmy Butler got there. And he's like, wait a second, I can snap back into it right away. He knows this team has a chance to advance and make some noise in the playoffs. And that's why Steph is able to throw it back right now. There were questions at the time of the trade deadline, like, OK, so we bring in Jimmy Butler. Does that really change anything? Steph's still a top 10 player, but he's not a top five player. He can be a top one player any single night. And I think that that has

been a that has been as much of a benefit to the Warriors as just bringing in Jimmy because if Steph was playing the way he played the first two thirds of the season they would still be good but the fact that he's able to throw it back to MVP levels is what's making them a dangerous team yep so LeBron and Curry they still got it as they lead their team in victory faces of the league lead our show here in 2025

Weird. True. Any other takeaways from last night's action? We had Trey Young having a great game. Hawks got the win. Kaka! Over the Pacers. Tatum had 35. Shorthanded Celtics. They beat the Sixers.

Kobe White scored a career-high 44 points. Bulls get the victory over the Magic, and then the Rockets took over after halftime. They beat the Pelicans. Did you want to talk about your guy Kobe White there? Yeah, just for a second. Seven threes, opened up the lane for a bunch of really strong drives. He hit his career high on a dunk over Paulo Banqueiro, caught him on a switch and was just a little bit too slow. Talked about the Bulls a lot. It doesn't matter. Win or lose, they're going to finish in the 10th seed.

But Orlando is struggling. They've lost their last three games to the Raptors by two, to the Raptors by one, and to the Bulls by two. All of those are at home. In fact, they've lost five straight all home games right now. They scored two points in the last four minutes of this game against the Bulls. No Vucevic out there. Both Bulls centers had fouled out at that point. Zach Collins and Jalen Smith, if you care. You don't. So it was like literally Julian Phillips and Matas Bouzelis were playing center for the Bulls.

And the Magic could not score. You throw in the fact that the Hawks won, and now Orlando is down to ninth in the Eastern Conference. At the start of the year, January 1st, they were 20-15, fourth in the Eastern Conference. I know Jalen Suggs is out, but there are going to be a lot of questions to be answered for this Magic team in the summer, I think. From a coaching standpoint, like Jamal Mosley's got these guys bought in. They are a great defensive team. This may be the limit for a Jamal Mosley-led Magic team. The personnel is also just not good.

Like Jalen Suggs, if he comes back, he's not changing things, I don't think, that much for a Magic team when it really matters. This has been a really disappointing 2025 for them. I could not help but think of you, Trey, in seeing the highlights from this game because I didn't watch the entire 48 minutes of you saying around the deadline, Orlando Magic should be a team looking to try and go get Kobe White or someone of that nature. Obviously an explosive scorer they could really use. But you have any thoughts on that one, Tass, or any of the other games?

Yeah, it's great points about the Magic, how much they've gone down. It's a roller coaster. It felt so good when Jalen Suggs was there. They felt like the entire team was there, but now it's just Suggs. And Paulo Banqueiro, you know, he's an inside-out type of size, but he's an outside-in type of player. And these are the moments where you kind of just need him inside, and that's it, because you don't have a guard to create. Mm-hmm.

They need to find something like that. But he's looked at himself as a perimeter type of player, and he's great at that. But it is so odd to see that talented of a player, along with Franz, again, who's the same type of player, not to be able to produce anything. So it is odd that I would rather have the Atlanta Hawks if I'm betting on someone in a play-in tournament game.

It's the Hawks over this Orlando Magic team. They're definitely playing better. Yeah. Not a question. No. Oh, it's not a question at all. Trae Young was awesome last night. Yeah. He's got his son saying buckets. Titus, his little son. He's been hanging out with Lee Ellis. Yeah. Because he says buckets. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Trae said, what are you going to say when I shoot? And, you know, he whispered in his ear. So.

I guess you got to repeat what your dad says in postgame. He says, buckets. Yeah, he's great at it. Obviously, yeah, the Hawks are peaking at the right time. 22 points, 16 assists for Trey last night. Indiana's guards...

could not stay attached to Trey Young. Halliburton didn't play. I think he was kind of a late scratch, so maybe that threw things into disarray. But every time they would go into pick and roll, either Indiana would give up the switch too easily or they would try and play Trey over the top. And Miles Turner was giving him so much space.

They'd sometimes trap, and Trey was just too fast for him. Just run around the double team, put Indiana into rotation. You got to give a little credit to Okongwu. I thought he was setting good screens, finishing really tough inside. And then these guys, these random dudes, the Hawks got back in the Bogdanovich trade and the DeAndre Hunter trade. George Niang had 24 points and four threes last night. Terrence Mann had 12 points off the bench. Karis LeVert only scored eight.

But since coming to the Hawks, those three are averaging 39 points per game off the bench. They've instantly replaced DeAndre Hunter and are outplaying Bogdanovich right now. And that's why the Hawks have been pretty decent recently. They have depth.

Still waiting to see George Niang on the Beltline here. Yeah, I can't wait to see him. I can't wait. His new nickname is going to be the Bird Scooter. Oh, that's instead of the minivan. Yeah, still slow, but you can see it out there on the Beltline. Yeah, they even crank the settings down on those on the Beltline. Yeah. Right? You got to watch out for dogs on leashes, buddy. Hell yeah, you do. And bikers, honestly. Some psycho bikers, just like whatever, mountain bikes or road racing bikes. Yeah. Too fast on the Beltline. Absolutely.

There's too many people, too many dogs, too many kids. I saw a guy with a monkey once. Occasionally there would be a guy with a parrot on his shoulder on the Beltline. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen that guy. Yeah. A parrot guy? Yeah. A lot of rollerbladers. There's a famous guy that's always singing. Oh, yeah. He's good. He always says hi to you. There used to be a woman that always would walk and play the flute. Oh. Just walk back and forth. I used to see her all the time. I haven't seen her in a long time. Is that after the...

The album? The album, Great 3000. Yeah, maybe. Inspired? Way before. Yeah, I think he was inspired by her. He probably saw her on the Beltline. She's good. Yeah, I should do that. Tales from the Beltline. I love it.

Thank you.

Powered by QuickBooks and trusted by millions. Visit Intuit.com forward slash enterprise to learn more.

As we progress through the season, every fan knows that big wins are hard to come by and tough losses are even harder to accept. But you know what isn't hard to accept? Discover. Believe it or not, Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. You heard that right, 99%. So make a good call for your wallet and get Discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card.

Thank you.

It's like having a friend who knows all the best deals, but without the smug grin. You could save as much as $1,025 a year, and you might even cut your bill in half. The best part, it's all online. No phone calls, no spam, no nonsense. You could be covered in as little as 10 minutes. And with an excellent star rating on Trustpilot, saving feels less impossible. So why not give it a shot? Visit insurify.com and see how much you can save. That's

All right. Let's do something fun here. I wanted to do a little Western Conference over-under review.

How the boys doing? Or how did the boys do? So I went back to our season preview podcast and I re-listened yesterday to our over-under picks for the Western Conference. Again, if you like this, we'll do the East next week. Maybe on the drop, maybe earlier. But...

I wanted to see how we did on all the over-under picks that we all agreed on. Okay. I thought that was like the fascinating part. So there were seven teams in the Western Conference that all three of us agreed were either going to hit their over or hit their under. Unsurprisingly, we nailed some of them. Okay. We will likely win a few of the other ones, and we've already lost some. So I want to tackle them in order of, whoops, my bad, to cha-ching!

Okay? So we'll start with our worst consensus over-under picks in the West. First one, Blazers. 22 and a half was their over-under. They're currently 28 and 35. Okay. They smashed the over. Hell of a season from Billups and the Blazers. We all had the under. We all ultimately went that way. Tass, you called them a... You went under, but you said they're going to be a beautiful mess. Mm.

was your quote. And, you know, you and I were thinking there just has to be some bad teams in this conference. And we thought they would be one of them. We just thought they'd be one of the worst, obviously. And they're not. You know, they're a little bit better than some of these worst teams. I also thought they would trade guys at the trade deadline. They didn't do it. And it's not like they're winning games because they didn't trade those guys. It's all the young guys are playing well. That's right. That's right. So that's a whiff. So that's our worst one because that one we just already got wrong.

This one, we are very likely getting wrong unless the Phoenix Suns can do the impossible and win 20 straight games to end the season. Suns were 47 and a half, Tass. They are currently 29 and 33. So they got, what, 20 games left to win 19 to hit the over. And we all had that over, Tass. We all did. We all did. We all got there in the end. Trey was a... I may have locked it. No, you didn't. You didn't. Blessings. You were a bud ball.

I was a Bud Ball believer, though, you said. I was a Bud Ball believer. You got to learn things. And one thing I've learned from this season is that the Olympics don't matter when it comes to the regular season because I saw Devin Booker being the best blue guy out there. I saw Kevin Durant in takeover mode, and it do not matter once we get into the NBA.

Paris threw me for a loop. Yeah, so Tass, that one, again, we're wrong. We're wrong on that one. They're not hitting the over. I feel very confident in saying that. Yes, you're correct. Was there any talk of Yusuf Nurkic shooting three-pointers? Oh, I must have thought about it. Tass definitely brought up Nurkic. A lot of Tyus Jones talk. Oh, yeah. But like, you know, great signing, great value signing. Yeah, but I'll give you

I'll give you credit. You were like, Tyus Jones and Nurkic, are you kidding me? Like, they're not going to be difference makers. So you had that part. I always thought those guys sucked. Why'd I go over them? I don't know. Well, how many wins did they have last season? They had a lot. They had a surprising amount. They were like 46 wins maybe last year? Yeah, maybe 40. Yeah. They were decent. They were good. So that was our thinking. We're like, oh,

It was like, they're going to be healthier, was a big part of the equation too. 49 wins they had. Yeah, man. They are garbage. They are one of the most disappointing teams in the league by far. And they have the highest payroll. So they fired Frank Vogel for Bud. Yeah. That really helped. Yeah. They made a bunch of moves around the aprons, but yeah, nothing mattered. Okay, next one here. Clippers. Over-under line was 40.5. Yeah.

I think this was one that wasn't on BetMGM and we had to get from some of the other books, if I remember correctly, because it was like, is Kawhi going to play? Is he not going to play? We all took the under on this one.

Tass did his classic Tass thing where you sort of... All your points made it seem like you were going to go with the over. Like you were pointing out the new stadium bump. You brought up the schedule. Like now they don't have to share it with the Lakers in those afternoon games. They'll win those. I thought it was a great point. And then you were like, the Clippers have won 13 straight seasons. They're always over 500. But then you went under. So we all went under with you though. So I'm not just making fun of you. And...

Right now, they're 33-29. So that's 20 games left, and they only have to win eight. So it's not a done deal. Right. They're struggling a little bit right now, too. Tass, do you think they'll hit the over? You think they hit 41-plus? I do. Okay, but Josh? I think Norm enters the bar again and starts to play ball again. Because Norm is a big factor for this team. But how can you bet against this team?

James Harden seems to be peaking. And Kawhi is still playing basketball, so they're not banged up. They just need the right guys in there. Yeah, and one takeaway from re-watching this, a lot of these teams, we were like, Clippers hit the under 40 and a half, making it sound like they won't win 30 games. A lot of these, we kept repeating ourselves, like, oh my God.

Vegas is good at this. It's going to be one game either under, one game either over. It's going to be these tight windows for a lot of these teams. So this was one of them where we were just under. And they might. They might, but they probably won't. They'll probably hit the over. Okay. Let's get to some ones that we're likely going to hit here. The Warriors, 43.5%.

Very low line, you might remember. We were like a little shocked by that. They're currently 35-28 after last night's win, so that's 19 games left to win nine, and we all took the over. Tass, you were sort of the most confident in the over. You and I were just overs. So, way to go, Tassie. It looks like you're going to get this one. We're all going to get this one.

It's the annual thing for me when it comes to over-unders where I say over for the Golden State Warriors and every single fan out there calls me a warrior lover and gets extremely mad at me. Why do you have so much faith in this team?

Well, there he is. He's wearing number 30 and he can score 58 points anytime. Okay, it's 56, but whatever. He can score anything. And so, yeah, it's hard not to go with the Warriors. But a funny season when you think about it, right? They started red hot and then you're like, well, they're definitely hitting the over. Then they could not win to save their lives. And suddenly you're going, oh, I don't know. Are they going to hit 44 wins? And they make the Jimmy Butler trade. And now it's like they're going to probably hit the over.

You never know what's going to happen at the trade deadline. I'm sure we didn't talk about Jimmy Butler being traded, period. I'm pretty sure I had the heat as a lock for our Eastern Conference ones when we get to it. I remember thinking Jimmy Butler's going to have a bounce back season. He had normal hair at media day. In the Western Conference talk, Jimmy Butler's name came up when we talked about the Rockets potentially consolidating a bunch of guys and making a trade. And we threw out the names Devin Booker and Jimmy Butler.

as potential names that they would look at. But we all had the over for the Warriors, and again, we're probably going to hit that one. I think the Warriors will win nine of their last 19 games. All right, next one here. Kings, 46-and-a-half, currently 32-and-29. So that's, what, 21 games left? And they've got to win a lot. They'd have to win 15 of their final 21 to hit the over, which is why I'm proud to say we all took the under. Tass under, Trey under.

me just under. Though we all thought they would have a similar record to sort of the season prior. And, you know, they'll be happy if they're even sniffing that at this point. Yeah, I think I had them tabbed at...

45 wins seems pretty unlikely at this point. They're just an inconsistent team to be able to string together. You'd probably have to have a 10-game win streak at this point to hit the over. Likely not going to happen. You've always been the backer of the Sacramento Kings, Skeet, so is that why you went just under? I think so. I actually surprised myself in rewatching this. I was like, oh, I'm going to say over. I'm going to say over. Oh, here we go, you dummy. And I did it. I said just under. That's exactly right, Tass.

I was like, nope. Because we thought they'd be similar to what they did the season prior. But just like a game or two. And they had a disappointing season. Though they're going to be in the play-in and fighting for the playoffs. I guess that's good. All right. The Jazz. 29 and a half. Currently 15 and 47. Yeah. 20 games left. They got to win 15 of those games. They're not doing that, people. Right? So...

We hit the under. Yeah. And we had a couple locks. We had a couple locks from the boys on this one. Trey and myself, we locked in the Jazz under. And a lot of it was they want to be bad. They're going to play their young guys. Roll the dice for a chance at Cooper Flagg or a really good draft pick. And that's probably the right move. Yep. Yeah. This one, thinking back on it, seemed like an easy one because you're like, they should tank for this season. They don't have the franchise cornerstone, even though they've been basically bad for three straight seasons. Or...

I guess a couple of straight seasons. This will be the third one after Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert trades. But they're making it even easier on us now by the lineups they're throwing out there late in the season as things get down to the nitty-gritty on the tank-a-thon standings. They'll play anybody. Yeah, and the concern task with the Jazz, as it had been a couple seasons prior, was like...

well, they might start hot or start decent, and then around the all-star break, you know, oh, somebody's hurt. Oh, let's play these guys now more and, like, lean into that because we had seen that a couple times from them. But, you know, they didn't get off to a great start, and they're going to easily hit the under. Yeah, and some under performances from a lot of guys. I don't want to just put it on Jordan Clarkson, but Jordan Clarkson looks like a different player. He doesn't look like anywhere close to how good a player he was, and that's a guy who would give you –

a 20 spot and win you five games if he's leading it properly. So yeah, they look like a different team. It was...

It was a Will Hardy one to call, I'd say. Not easy. Not easy. I would also throw Markkinen in as a disappointing season after signing the big deal a day after the deadline for when he could be traded, locking himself in there. He was 25 a game his first season in Utah in 2023. Last year, 23 points per game. This year, only 19 points per game. His percentages have all fallen off. This guy is gone.

in the summer. Wow, he's under 20 points for you. And he's basically shut down for the season at this point. He hasn't made an impact at all. Will Hardy went and visited him in Finland in the summer. I can't believe that he's only averaging. Those percentages are extremely low. So you're surprised a coach traveled all that distance to watch him and he doesn't back it up is what you're saying.

Yeah, I wouldn't say he watched them. They were supposed to connect, man. They were supposed to Dalton connect out there. I can't stop the puns. But it wasn't so much about watching him play. They were supposed to be bros. Now, the thing is with Lowry, there's injuries, obviously, this season with him too.

but the team has just stunk around him. They don't know who they're playing at point guard. That being said, they played Talon Horton Tucker last year, and things started to go okay. Yeah, a very weird one that no one will ever remember outside of Utah fans that will just hate it, despise it, because they just stunk. Although, Isaiah Collier looks all right. He does. He does look good. All right, final one for all the consensus picks, and it's a good one, guys.

Oklahoma City Thunder. The line was 56 and a half in the preseason. They're currently 51 and 11. So they have 20 games left to win six. And we all hit the over. Trey, you locked it in. Tass, you locked it in. This was not a lock for me, but I went over. I was concerned that everybody was going over. And I was like, uh-oh, that's maybe trouble.

You know, it seems too easy, I said. A little too easy. But we all said, come on, look what they did last year. Now they add two pieces in Hartenstein and Caruso, like two sort of issues they had to this incredible lineup. Why wouldn't they win a whole bunch of games? And we thought they would be a team that wins over 60, maybe flirting with like, you know, mid 60s.

So good on us. Yeah. Didn't overthink it. That's the thing. Exactly. Didn't overthink it. They had a good season last year, and they've had a great season this year. They were the one seed last year, right? They just ran into a Mavericks team that was perfectly built to beat them. Yes. And Luka went crazy. P.J. Washington caught fire from the corners as well. So the Thunder realized, hey, this is what went wrong for us. We'll fix it, and we'll be better. Yep.

Alright, so those are the consensus ones. Not bad. I mean, I guess it looks like probably four, maybe five of those seven we might get right. But it could be four and three. The other locks, I'll just share those with you. Tass, you had the Nuggets, as did I, over 51.5. This one's going to be close. They're 40-22. Very close.

20 games left to win 12, I think is doable, but it could be a case where Trey is right because you had them just under. In fact, you had them marked for 51 wins. Absolutely. So I do have a feeling it's going to be 51 or 52 wins. So we'll see who's right on that one. They add one tonight. They're at home to Phoenix. Tass is calling it. Oh, boy. Okay. Whoa. Come on. All right.

Tass, you had the Grizzlies. Ooh, this was not good. No, no, no. Grizzlies under 47 and a half. It's going to come close. It's going to be very close. They're 38 and 24. 20 games left to win 10. Whoever said these guys in Vegas are good, they're right. Yeah, man. They're really good. Trey, you were just over. Yeah. And I was under, so I was with Tass on this side. So we'll see. This one's... Still a toss-up. It's a TBD on that one. And then the final lock was...

was mine and it was the Spurs. Spurs line was 36 and a half. They're 26 and 34 right now. They have 22 games left to win 11. So they got to go 500 to hit the over. I took the under as one of my locks. I said, they're going to win over 30 games, but they're not going to get to 37.

I'm feeling pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty good. Feeling good about that one. Tass, you had the over. You believed in Wemby now. And Trey, you just went under and your whole reasoning was, this is the Spurs. They're in no rush to hit the gas. Yeah.

So it looks like you're going to be with me on that one. Yeah. Did anybody mention Greg Popovich suffering a stroke and Victor Wemby getting a blood clot? Like these are two really strange issues that have derailed the Spurs season for sure. We also didn't factor in that they would make a major move for De'Aaron Fox, which they did. Uh, but still it's going to be right down to it on the actual over under. Yeah. So there you go. Uh,

Obviously some more teams where we disagreed, so some will be right, some will be wrong. And yeah, a lot of fun going back to listen to that. So if you enjoyed that, hit the like button, subscribe, and let us know in the comments if you want us to do the Eastern Conference.

Going back, listening to guys. We're all tanned looking a little bit coming off the summer. We had the Classic Factory sign lit up. We look good in October. Oh, yeah. We look really good. Tash, you had cool hair, man. I wanted to say that. Maybe it's because I haven't seen your hair all week because you've been wearing a toilet hat. Well... I mean, you generally have good hair, but it looked really good in the preseason. Well, that's very nice. I can't wait to...

I already have my Friday viewing. I'm going to go back and watch my hair. No, but I do want to say, you mentioned that we were tanned. I'm very thankful to be wearing a toilet hat because we did have a sunny day last week here in Georgia. Half of my face was tanned because I was getting hit from one side. No, I wasn't driving. It was just the sun was just in a particular side of where I was at a soccer field. And yeah, 50% of my forehead was super tanned.

So I'm glad I'm wearing this toilet hat this week. It looks good, man. Yeah, it looks great. This toilet hat looks great. All right. Well, yeah, that toilet hat's best of the week, but let's go to worst of the week. Ladies and gentlemen, the worst of the week.

Three great nominees. First nominee, you can't rub the basketball on your sweaty face. And that's exactly what Luka Doncic did. He's at the free throw line area. Free throws missed. He grabs the ball and just rubs it on his forehead over and over and over again. Pass it to the referee. She didn't want to touch it. I ain't touching that.

She let it bounce off her. She asked for a towel and assessed the Lakers a delay of game warning for the trouble. Now, Luka was confused. LeBron was also confused. But I agree with Sheree Mitchell, the referee.

You can't just take a ball and just rub your face on it. I think I agree. I guess. I was well done by the official there, I have to admit. She saw it, you know, and then he chucks it out. He gives it to her. I'm not touching that. It's disgusting. And I know what you're doing, and that's a delay game. Fair enough, I think. Yeah, it looked like she took a second to like,

did you just rub your face on the ball? That's not a technical, but yeah, maybe a half tech. Cause that was weird, man. I showed this to Nora Tass and she was like, she was livid. She like,

The way she was talking about it, she wanted Luka Doncic suspended 25 games. She's like, people do this? And I'm like, well, we've seen this before. Guys will grab the ball and maybe grab it and put it against their jersey to get it a little slick, get it a little sweaty. But I had to admit to Nora, I was like, I've never seen someone take it and rub it on their hairline.

Where you are generally the most sweaty if you're playing sports. So that was a first to me. Yeah, it was a smart move by Luka because it's a Clippers free throw shooter there. So yeah, give him the wet ball. I love the gamesmanship, buddy. You just got caught.

Yeah. Just a delay of game. Although Luka was very upset. LeBron, we cut it out of the clip so you didn't see it here on YouTube, but he was upset. At the official. Yeah. Not at Luka. Don't do that. I don't think LeBron even knew, did he? I bet he didn't see it. Yeah. He said he was kind of shrugging what just happened. So yeah, he may have not known. But he's got Luka's back. Maybe he's just showing I got Luka's back. Second nominee...

I would call this best of the week instead of worst of the week. It was fantastic. It's referee Bill Kennedy sat at the scorer's table explaining what happened to the coach's challenge. He's letting everybody know, bless you. That wasn't Bill Kennedy. That was Trey Kirby. I would love to see Bill Kennedy sneeze, though.

At the scorer's table? He's probably got a nice sneeze. Yeah, it'd be amazing. Well, it was hilarious because we got something that isn't usually what Bill Kennedy does. He was making a call to Josh Hart. He said, pushed the John Morant out of bounds. So he's describing it. And so he just starts laughing. He starts getting laughing. He just, he's so giddy after Jalen Brunson comes by. You can see it for everything it was worth right now. To us. After reviewing the play.

Jalen Brunson, get out of the way. Jalen Brunson made Bill Kennedy giggle. Yeah, he broke him. Whatever he was saying. I guess Jalen was saying, what's up?

Approximate foul because maybe they didn't know that term. It's the new thing that the NBA has instituted when someone is called or when a ball is being judged who it hit from, who it hit off of out of bounds. There is now approximate foul if the person was pushed. And so that can be called approximate.

I don't know what Jalen was saying. I can't wait to find out. We've got to ask Bill. It's a good guess. You think he said it? Yeah. No, there's got to be something funnier. That's not super funny, though. I mean, what's approximate foul, Bill? I mean, I don't know if he laughed that hard at that. I just didn't have a better line. That's just great referee humor right there. Yeah. I don't know. Who knows? Whatever he said, he broke. I would like to see more players messing with referees during reviews. Unfortunately, it usually comes in an important time of the game. You probably shouldn't be joking around, but like...

could do a Chappelle show robot behind him. Yeah. Just passing through. Yeah. A little armpit fart or something. There's opportunities. Yeah. A little credit card. Hey, yeah. A little swipe. I could attack for that. Bill is so good. Okay. Final nominee here. It's Pistons fans.

They released Killian Hayes last year. It's over a year now. Was there for four seasons with the Detroit Pistons. He just recently signed with the Brooklyn Nets. Finally got back to the NBA. A 10-day contract. He went back to Detroit to play a game. The Nets visiting the Pistons. And the Pistons fans booed him loudly. They just had a flashback of the four years that didn't go well with Killian Hayes at the realm for their team.

but I'm giving it to the Pistons fans. Things are going well for the Pistons. They got a Bua guy. I mean, it's heaven. It's heaven in Detroit right now. I just think it was a little low. That's it. I mean, it's... I didn't have great worst of the week nominees here at the end, but I did. I mean, nothing can top Bill Kennedy. The Luka sweat. I just wanted to find one actual one. And actually, thinking of that, I did want to find when a referee...

sort of stepped under Fred Van Vliet because Fred Van Vliet was out for a month. I should say step under. But anyways, Fred Van Vliet stepped on a referee after being out a month, came back, and then he hurt the same ankle after stepping on the referee. But there's problems getting NBA clips for us right now. That's the real worst of the week. Specifically, yeah, the last 24 hours. Bang, it stopped. We used to have such a great website to grab stuff. Anyways, we'll figure it out. But...

This Pistons one's not bad. It's not bad. Well, yeah, people were upset. Yeah, they should be. Because, like, I mean, you get what Pistons fans are doing. Like, Killian Hayes, unfortunately for him, is a representative of those really bad Pistons seasons. Thus, a boo-um. But, yeah, Tass makes a good point. Like, it's not really just Killian Hayes' fault, and you are doing well. You know, focus on the positives here. But, whatever. Yeah, they should almost applaud him, you know? Yeah. It's not...

I mean, it is a little bit his fault. A little bit. But it's also Monty Williams' fault for playing him so much. They should be like, it's all right, man. We're over. We're good now. You're out of here. You're on our side. For sure. Yeah. There are some other ones out there, but anyways, that wraps it up. I do have one that I'd like to get your ruling on. Okay, sure. I mean, this is fairly recent. Draymond Green said Thursday that he was just relaying what he had heard when he said on his podcast that

that Karl-Anthony Towns didn't play for the Knicks against the Warriors recently because Jimmy Butler was in the building. So Green was referencing tensions involving Butler and Catt when they were teammates way back in Minnesota. Butler was seeking a trade back then, and Green was straight up implying that Catt was ducking Jimmy.

Because he didn't want that smoke, I guess. Yeah, and then he was asked about it post-game yesterday. And he was like, oh, I hadn't heard that. Subscribe to the Draymond Green Show. Yeah, and heard that meaning Towns was out for personal reasons, which we later learned was because there was a death of a family friend. And yeah, that's so, what are you doing? I mean, and then wouldn't really apologize. Not at all. That's the like, okay, you heard this. You thought you needed to relay this.

Alright, everybody sort of rolls their eyes at it to begin with because Cat has played Jimmy Butler before. Lit him up. Yeah. 44. So it's like, okay, and this is so long ago. That part's strange. But then when you're told... Actually, he didn't play because there was a death in Family Friend. Maybe just say...

Oh, sorry. Okay. Yes. Okay. I shouldn't have said that. That information was wrong. I apologize. But no, he's not doing that. Oh, worst of the week winner. Okay. There you go. Yeah. I didn't realize that the backstory there. I knew he was out for personal reasons because I follow the NBA every day and I podcast every day. What about you, Draymond? Do you podcast?

You should know that. It's just personal reasons. He's missed multiple games until coming back. Yeah, that's unfortunate. To echo what a lot of people have said, I do think Draymond Green's pretty solid when he just analyzes basketball and just critiques the game. But man, when he lets his biases show, be it Cat, be it Rudy Gobert, it's pretty awful then. And...

It's like, I guess this is the fine line with a podcast, right? It's like, is he the media? I think so. And when you're the media, or at least when he's on TNT, that's sort of unprofessional to go that hard and have your information that wrong. And really, you're just trying to clown the guy.

and sort of like diminish him. I will say, though, it's a little like the Killian Hayes scenario. Yeah, you can blame him, but there's somebody else to blame, too. Lots of other people in Detroit. You should be blaming the producer of that podcast as well. Oh, wow, wow. Because it's not a live podcast. Oh, cut it out. You can edit it out. Damn. The producer should know what's going on.

Yeah. To do a little research. I mean, we're talking about it because he said it, though, so it is good for the clicks, unfortunately. All the negative stuff is good for the people talking about it. Absolutely. And I want to make this clear. I have no issue if Draymond Green actually dislikes Cad or Rudy or any basketball player, for that matter. If that's part of the game and you're a hooper, that's fine. But like...

But it does get a little clouded to me when you are a part of the media and then you're sort of spewing stuff like that. Like, that's just bad, I think. Unprofessional. Yeah. And honestly, like, he messed up. Okay? Right. He blew it with the Kat and Jimmy thing and give it a chance to make it right. He didn't take that chance. Sure. Which I think is kind of even worse. Yeah. Yep. Right. All right. Good stuff. Let's hear your worst of the week winner out there in the stream team and in the YouTube comments and tweet at us at NoDunksInc.

My name is J.E. Skeets and I live in a Wayfair home. Rugs in three or four of our rooms? Wayfair. Outdoor patio furniture? Wayfair. Office bookshelf? Wayfair.

I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you that I picked them. No, no, no, no. That's all Nora. But I do love them. They look sharp. They look expensive, despite being very affordable. And they're durable. We've had a lot of these items for years now, and they still look like we just got them. Just took them out of the box.

Wayfair has everything your home needs for any occasion, project, or change of style. Their huge selection makes it easy to find exactly what's right for you. They got cozy couches, side tables, artwork, sheds! Oh, I got my eye on a few of those sheds, let me tell you. Fire pits. They have gnomes! They sell gnomes for your lawn.

And if you need to ramp up your storage and organization, Wayfair is the spot. I'm a tidy guy, so I can spend hours looking at the closet organization and the clear storage bins and so on. I know, I'm a bit of a weirdo that way. That stuff is my jam. The point is, there's something for every style and every home, no matter your space or budget.

And my favorite part is Wayfair's free and easy delivery. Plus, they'll even help you set it up. So once I get that shed, you know I'm getting them to help me set it up. Head over to Wayfair.com and find something that's just your style today. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.

As we progress through the season, every fan knows that big wins are hard to come by and tough losses are even harder to accept. But you know what isn't hard to accept? Discover. Believe it or not, Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. You heard that right, 99%. So make a good call for your wallet and get Discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card.

This show is sponsored by Liquid IV and I couldn't be happier about the timing. The calendar year turning to 2025 means your boy has officially started Boston Marathon training again. Yep, here we go. Looking at speed runs on the treadmill, tempo runs here in hilly Atlanta, and long runs over the weekend. And my go-to hydration before, during, and after each training session is Liquid IV. The reason is simple. Just go to liquidiv.com

Just one stick plus 16 ounces of water hydrates better than water alone. Powered by Live Hydra Science, Liquid IV is an optimized ratio of electrolytes, essential vitamins, and clinically tested nutrients to turn ordinary water into extraordinary hydration. It delivers three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink.

And can we just keep it real here for a second? Liquid IV is leading the way in flavor innovation.

I legit like them all. I've tried them all. But my favorites right now are the six delicious sugar-free flavors. Raspberry lemonade, that's the best. White peach, shockingly tasty. Green grape, let's go. And there's lemon lime, raspberry melon, and rainbow sherbet. Bangers after bangers. Embrace your ritual with extraordinary hydration from Liquid IV.

Get 20% off your first order of Liquid IV when you go to liquidiv.com and use the code NODUNKS at checkout. One more time for the people in the back, that's 20% off your first order when you shop better hydration today using promo code NODUNKS at liquidiv.com.

Let's get in a little five-star Friday review. Yeah! Hey, let's do it. First Friday of every month, we'll read five of your five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts because we love the compliments and we love flying up the rankings. Our first five-star review. It's titled Backstab.

These guys got me into podcasts back in the starters days and to see them go from strength to strength has been a privilege. Their analysis breakdowns and bits are top tier and already will have a smile on your face.

But the way the lads in the factory have me laughing after they get on a roll, either riffing and slamming something funny, like Paul George pausing podcasting or going on a tangent, anything Tass does, makes me feel like I'm watching the perfect combination of journalism and comedy, seriously funny, and forever a classic. Thank you for that one. Journalism and comedy. Do a lot of journalism here. Yeah. Absolutely working the phones every night. A lot of sources. Yep.

Burning the midnight oil. Checking in with my sources. Tass, you got a favorite tangent? Well, I've got to tip my toilet hat to that review. That was very solid. No favorite tangent. We went over so many great moments yesterday. Trey, you're ripping off so many flashback moments of our show.

Maybe this will be one, Tass. 20 years from now, we'll be talking about the time you hosted a podcast all week. Toilet Man. Yeah, Toilet Man. I would say best tangent so far today has been people you see on the Beltline. Good call. Now, anytime somebody visits Atlanta, they'll be like, ooh, am I going to see Flute Lady? That's right. We shall see our next Fox star.

The Flute Lady writes in. Do you got game? This one's from Telepod Junior Skeets. I know you're hating this because the first one didn't have the name alongside it. Oh, I didn't even notice. Sorry. It's just weird. I don't know. I understand why sometimes they do. Anyways. Do you got game? You guys sometimes talk about how y'all play basketball together, and although the show's fantastic, I'm very curious about all your different basketball styles. Who do you think is the No Dunks Goat?

A question we've been asked about 100,000 times. Yeah, but you got to update it every year. You got any new guys? I hate saying I play like Nikola Jokic. The guy's the best player in the world. It was cool when he was not even an all-star to say that. Now I just play like Karl-Anthony Towns, an all-NBA player.

You didn't last night. We were garbage last night, let's be honest. The last two games were bad. I lost my legs. That was Carl Anthony Towns disappearing. Look, I'll get into foul trouble. I'll do it. Dumb fouls for sure. Big moments, that's my specialty. Yeah, we play basketball. I play with Trey once a week. You play a couple other times. Sometimes twice a week, I guess we play. But we had a rough night last night. When we're on the same team, I'm thinking we're never going to lose.

We got killed last night. We lost two. We lost two at the end. Sort of embarrassingly, though. We just couldn't hit a shot. It was brutal. It was brutal. Got to get my condition back. Tass, are you out there on the courts recently? Yeah, I played for the first time in a while a couple weeks ago, and somebody actually asked me, who do you think you play like? And I didn't.

Didn't stop yapping. I went into a very deep explanation of why I think I'm like Sean Marion and I just had to shut myself up. Why am I comparing myself to Sean Marion? Well, he didn't really have a dribble game. Same as me. Right. I mean, he can put it on the floor a little bit and I think I can out hustle guys like Sean Marion did. I think it's a decent comp. Yeah. Well, it's like what Trey just said about Jokic. I mean, Sean Marion. It's freaking Sean Marion. It's freaking Jokic.

I'm here in a freaking toilet hat. You know, it's just an odd comp. But yeah, going back. I want to have a good night. I think I'm Sean Mary. You should poop in that hat. I thought you didn't like people who pooped in hats, who hooped in hats. I don't. I can't take you seriously if you're wearing a hat and you're playing basketball. Just a normal ball cap, not a toilet hat. Not a toilet hat. At least I'd be like, damn, I'd like to get a photo with this guy. But yeah, this baseball hat? No way. I know people do, but...

I don't think you're good when you do. It's unusual. I play with a couple of guys who play in hats nowadays. Guy's hat fell off. Indoor. Indoor. I want to make that clear. Indoor backwards hat, I would say 90% of the time. More for hair management than anything else. Okay. Well, there are other things you can do. Shortcut. Who's your player? I don't know. Who would you think? I heard you say TJ McConnell once. Oh, yeah.

Don't be so hard on yourself. I said that because I was getting told of that from the Paris game highlights. Oh, you were also dressed like T.J. McConnell. I was dressed in a Pacers uniform. Yeah. I mean, it's going to be hard for me to avoid the T.J. McConnell comparison when I'm dressed in full Pacers uniform. You did look like you were doing a T.J. McConnell bit, I guess.

Stealing inbounds passes. Yeah, yeah. Jan Mahimi calling fouls on me left and right. I don't know. You got a better one then? I've always thought you play like De'Aaron Fox. Speed game. Yeah, yeah. For sure. For sure. Streaky shooter. More of a mid-range player than a three-point player. Yeah, that's fair. Though my New Year's resolution was to shoot more threes at our pickup run. And I have been.

Didn't go well last night. Should have been using the mid-range last night. Sometimes you miss. Sometimes you miss. It's the game. You got some Monte Ellis in you, sir. I'm flashing back. Monte Ellis? Wow. Monte Ellis. Got it all. I got it all? You got it all? All right. Our next Five Star Friday review. The Basketball Podcast almost gave him four stars because of a recurring dream in which I run into Skeets, Tess, Trey, JD, and Lee sitting outside Satriali's Deli from The Sopranos.

I walk up to say hi and tell them how I've loved their show for years. They respond with some of the meanest, most hurtful things anyone's ever said to me, and I walk away completely defeated. Oh, my God.

But because this show has been there every step of my journey towards becoming a sicko, I have to give him five stars. I'd recommend this show to anyone, regardless of their level of interest in basketball. It's pure fun, and it's top-tier hoops talk. Wow. He almost gave us a four-star review because of dreams we were assholes to him. I dreamt you guys were into Sopranos and mean. You ever get mad at somebody for a dream?

No. Yeah, same. No, but you have feelings. You got feelings. Do you ever get mad during a dream? Is that the question? No, like mad at some, like would I ever get mad at you, Tass, because I had a dream that you maybe like angered me or something like that? Oh, afterwards. Yeah, I don't go that far. No, definitely mad during a dream, but not afterwards because of the dream myself.

I did dream the other night that I took my beard off and I was fresh shaven again. You took it off as just like detachable or shaved? I shaved it. I shaved it. And it was like, I can't remember if it was well received or not. You got to go back to sleep to figure it out. Yeah, I know. Man, that's a scary proposition, isn't it? What's your face look like under there now? Very scary. Oh, yeah. Actually, I forgot that.

my mother-in-law printed a blanket with me shaving on it as one of a sort of a bunch of photos printed i should have worn that i look ridiculous well you without a beard i never want to be that's rare me at least most of our longtime fans oh yeah i know what that looks like but i've had a beard for almost six years it's been a long time it's very long like that's pretty long jd you ever think about shaving your beard never

Literally never? Literally never. I mean, it's been a... I don't know if I've ever seen you clean, Shaman. No. You had more like a Tass short beard years ago. Yeah. You've shown us photos before when you were super young when you don't have a beard. Yeah, that's like under 25. Yeah. So you've had a beard for half your life. Yeah, half my life.

Nice. What's living in that beard? I have no idea what's under there. Yeah. I like to tell people I look like Ebert after his surgery. So it's like no chin, like literally nothing.

No offense to Roger Ebert. I'd love to tell people this. I'd love to tell them. What do you look like without your beard? Thanks for asking. Have you ever seen Roger Ebert after he had his beard? Yes. That's what I look like. Then people say keep the beard. Exactly right. How fast can you grow that thing back out?

That's an easy one. All right, next five seconds. Hold on, circling back to the review there. Did you take that name off so we didn't go at that person? Because there was no... No, he's saying sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not. Yeah, so sometimes if you write like a short review that's only a couple of sentences long, it stays like you don't have to click read more. That's the case. It keeps the,

information about who posted it. Oh. But if it's longer, like our first and our third one, you gotta click read more and then for whatever reason it doesn't keep that stuff up. Weird. And we don't know... Could I write it down? Yes. But did I? No. That's extra work. Yeah. Do we... So we don't know what Telepod Senior thinks of our show. We don't know. Okay. We don't know. I do want to know what that guy ordered at Satriel's Deli. I'm very interested because that will make me either like him or hate him depending on what he ordered. What would you... What would be a...

Quality order. Oh, just order a nice pastrami with a nice mustard. Just a simple one. Just a simple deli sandwich. The mustard doesn't have to be too grainy. It's up to you. Any mustard will do. Great stuff. Five-star Friday. There's another one. Great tangent.

Here for a good time and a long time. I've been listening to these guys drop classics for their whole career. I remember when Trey and Lee eventually joined, and now Lee's gone, and I've been inceptioned to have a son named Ellis. I was so pumped when they went and got on NBA TV as the starters, but will forever mourn the loss of the Basketball Jones name. R.I.P. Listening to this group is like talking shop with my buddies, only my buddies aren't so committed to putting...

a quality daily podcast. Their takes are good. They remember that the game is supposed to be fun and keep it lighthearted. No Dunks transcends generation. Hashtag pun gun forever. Hashtag shout out to Justin. I didn't know you could do hashtags.

I don't either. I don't think you can click into them to find all the other reviews that say shout out to DraftKings. I will say, in you doing all these reviews, I assume a majority of them, if not all of them, coming from Apple Podcasts, right? These are all Apple Podcasts, but I am going to other nations. Okay, that's nice to know. Some of these are from Canada. There's maybe an Australian one in there. Okay, I like that. I did see on Spotify now, for everybody that listens there, you can comment on episodes and

And people are starting to do that. Like within each episode, as if it was its own YouTube comment section. So that's sort of cool. I see people now commenting on things said within that particular episode. Hey, in April, I'll take a look and see if we got any sweet comments. I'm just saying. No stars though? Well, you do stars on Spotify, but no review for the show from what I can tell you. So stars on the show, specific comments to episodes.

Right? Okay. How about this then? Five Star Friday will still be the five star reviews from Apple Podcasts, but we'll have a special dispensation, the star Spotify comment of the month. My God. Love it. Love it. Let's make a long segment even longer. That's exactly right. That's exactly right because we've still got two more segments after this one. We sure do. And I think another review. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. This is number five. Old and good.

While I've been listening to these loquacious lads since their last lingering days in the great white north, it did not dawn on me how much time has actually passed with such consistent basketball insight analysis and larps until my 19-year-old son reminded me that the resurgent Detroit Pistons had not won six games in a row, now in seven, since 2015 when he was nine years old and we started listening together to the best basketball podcast to ever grace iPods, cell phones, and phones.

and daily father and son drives to swim practice ever. Taco, the real Greek freak. Steve Nash, the man who makes the magic happen. You brought a father and son closer together. Five stars indeed. That's from Jason.

In Detroit, Michigan. Nice. Good stuff. That's a great review. That is a great review. Bringing a father and son closer together. That's a long time. Well written. And a long sentence. Yeah. That was a six-line sentence. But it was well written. Yep. You know I had to read more on that one, baby. Way to go, John. Awesome. Thank you to everybody for all of these reviews and for all the five-star ratings and for the YouTube comments and for the subscriptions. We do truly appreciate it.

Awesome stuff. All right, pick them. Tass, where are we going? Friday night. You just got the victory last night, right? It was four and a half. You had the Knicks to cover and they lost by four. So you won there just by the skin of your teeth. But where are we going tonight? It's weird when lines go into overtime. It's always strange to me. Either way, we're going to OKC. Should be simple, right? Just pick OKC. They're only favored by a point and a half.

to the visiting Portland Trailblazers. But no shade. He's out. Bracket rest. Seriously, I'm not saying that just to say that. He's out because rest. Jalen Williams, out. Rest. Isaiah Hartenstein, out. Nasal. Kaysen Wallace, out. Knee. Lou Gansdort is out because of a patellofemoral. Now, what is that? Patella beside your femur? I don't know. I didn't look it up. But everybody out for OKC. Yeah. So I took Portland.

I was comfortable doing that because I do think that they put it up. They're very, very, very close to the 10th spot of the Dallas Mavericks. Somebody actually commented and said, hey, don't you think that Dallas is going to essentially lose every game because we talked about Portland potentially making up?

Hey.

Just so you know. And Phoenix is in between Dallas and Portland. And they're losing tonight, as I said. They're going into Denver. So it is a race for the 10th spot. It really is a race. Yeah, it sucks for Portland that they have no games left against the Dallas Mavericks. That would be nice because then you could win that and you get in a game like that. But yeah, they've already played their series and they lost it 3-1. So like Tess said, the tiebreaker goes to Dallas. That's why it's unlikely that they catch them, but...

I'm going OKC still. I mean, I know they're missing all their main guys, but guess what? They have a lot of really talented guys in the bench. They have a lot of good guys. Yeah, they're going to get an opportunity. So, with a line that small, I think... A lot of depth. AJ Mitchell. It's been playing great, though. Yeah, they have been. They have been, yeah. Chet, questionable, so... Yeah. Yeah.

I guess we get the big Jalen Williams starting. Yeah, he was on fire last game. See if he can keep it going. All right, so Tass, the only one taking Portland. Everybody else taking OKC. All right, let's end this drop podcast with some rapid fire fun. Toilet Man Tass has the questions. We got the answers. Seth Curry had a dunk this week. He said it's his last one. He's done. When was a time that you knew it would be your last time doing something? Skeets. Circa 2005, I think.

I, for the final time, myself, with the help of some friends, moved myself into an apartment. And I said, "No more. That's done. I'm gonna make enough money to pay someone to do it." And, true to my word, I haven't done it since. So around 2005, it was the first time I moved in with Nora to an apartment together, and then obviously we moved to other apartments, both in Toronto and here in Atlanta, and eventually our house.

And I didn't pick up a single box. That's nice, man. That's actually a lie. I did pick up a lot of boxes and did like, I did like the pre-move before the real move. Exactly. But, you know, not moving couches and beds and stuff. That's smart. Yeah. One of my worst moves ever was moving from one apartment in the same complex to one like four doors down. I'm like, this will be simple. Those are the worst. So bad. Because you're hiring somebody for that one. No. Two men in a truck, stay home. Yeah.

For me, last time I knew I was doing something that was going to be my last time was the 2024 All-Star Game. Because I went to the 2023 All-Star Game and I was like, this sucks. I am not coming back to Indianapolis. Then they went back to basketball. I was like, I got to see. I got to see. One last chance. One last chance. And one team scored 211 points. And I was like, never again. And then you saw what happened with the All-Star Game this year. Will I open my heart to another production crew next year?

No. So you're saying you are flying home on Sunday. Always. You're not going to stay for the game. Yeah. This year we didn't even fly out. Okay, can I ask you something? What if they say, all-star game, get out of here. We're done with it. We're doing a one-on-one tournament on Sunday night. Will Trey Kirby stay for that? Okay, okay. There you go, Silver. I'll say I will gladly miss a classic all-star game or one-on-one.

and then go to the next year. But you gotta prove it to me first. You gotta prove it. You gotta win me back. You gotta win me back. Okay. Honestly, I'm probably with you. They've been so bad. We're getting closer. Honestly, I remember when we were grinding our way up, it was so cool to get to go to the All-Star game. I couldn't believe that older people would leave on Sunday. I'm like, are you a real fan? You sellout! And now I get it. Now I totally get it. It's the worst part of the weekend.

Yeah, and you're tired by then. You want to get home to some extent. Yeah, look, no, I get you. I can't believe I'm with you. I'm even considering it. You're going to do it. I'm considering it. Now, this year we didn't even go, so it was like not even a part of the equation. Simple decision. JD, you called it years ago, right? You stopped going on Sunday night. I mean, the last time I was at the game was when we were doing a show from...

the, the baseline or what we were on the floor for the show. It was Bradley. Bradley. Fergie performed. Yep. Yep. That was the last time. And I was in the bowels in the media room. Anyway, I didn't see a single moment of the game. Right. So I was just trying to organize our crew. Yeah.

Okay. What's your answer, JD? A time you just knew. That was your last time. Rachel was giving birth to our youngest son, Jackson, and it was a C-section, and she had a C-section before with Lincoln. And I never dared to peek over the curtain with Lincoln because, you know...

Like her guts hanging out all over the place. I don't need to see that. I was actually actively encouraged not to look over the curtain. But with this time, I knew this was probably it for us. And if I want to see my baby come out of his mother, I would have to peek over the curtain. And the anesthesiologist was like, eh? Because she's standing next to me and is like, this is it. Here it comes. And so I peeked over that curtain.

You knew that would be the last time ever. It was the last time ever, and it was awesome. Somehow, you're a human. I don't know if it's your psyche, but all I saw was the baby. You know what I mean? It was laser focused, and it was like one of those Zoom meetings where everything is just sort of blurred out. The background's all blurred, yeah. Very emotional, and I'm glad I did it.

And that's it. I thought you were going to say, I peeked over. It was disgusting. But I said, eh, not as bad as me without a beard. That's right. Yeah. I really, I didn't know which direction you were going. Yeah. No, it was great. But yeah, weird how your brain just sort of blocks out what you don't want to see. But there was a, I could tell there was gore happening behind, though.

It's pretty extreme. Yes, we should stop here. It is very extreme. Next question here. Sandro Mamou-Keleshvili is the only NBA player that you can spell slam dunk from the letters in his name. That's a fact from Jay Kuda on X. Shout out to you, Jay. Mamou-Keleshvili is also a hard name to spell.

What's a word you find hard to spell? Skeets. Uh, mischievous. Ooh, yeah. What's going on with this word? You could tell me there's three eyes in it. One in the beginning, one in the middle, one in the end, but that'd be wrong. Uh, you could tell me that there's just one eye off the top, like near the top. Okay. M-I-S, you know, and then the rest without an eye, but that'd be wrong. How about two eyes? But not one in the middle. No, I mean, it's insane.

It's insane. It's M-I-S-C-H-I-E-V-O-U-S. But again, I throw three eyes in it. I sometimes get rid of one of them.

Trey's like perplexed. I'm watching Trey trying to figure it out. I'm like, you're sure there's not two I's? No, there are two I's. But... I would have thought one beginning, one at the end as well. No, no. I would say it's more one at the beginning, one in the middle of the word and not one at the end. Where you think it's I-O-U-S, but it's not. It's a V-O-U-S. Wow. Because you think it's like envious or something. This is the problem with this word. The English language, man, it's insane.

But I think that isn't like the mess up here that it's pronounced mischievous, not mischievous. Hey, that's a problem as well. Yeah. Yeah. So you're adding an I pronunciation wise. Yeah. That is a tough one. That's tough. That's why I just say you're being bad.

Or nutty. N-O-T-T-Y. Nutty. This is great. Geeking it up is great. Trey, what's a hard word you find? For me, it's the word I went out on in a third grade spelling bee, monstrosity. Ooh, that tough one, man. I typed it into my Word document and it auto-corrected. Still not a C-I-T-Y at the end. It's an S. It's an S, yeah. I'm trying.

Curveball. You were in grade three? Yeah, I think so. That's a tough word for grade three. Yeah, sure. But I mean, not that hard.

No, no. Monstro, easy. City? I want to know so badly. Did a young Trey Kirby say it with such bravado like you thought you were nailing it? I didn't. I didn't think I was nailing it. But I do remember my friend Tim went out for whatever reason on his word. He just goes, rats. Which I thought was hilarious. Misspelled mischievous. Ah, rats. Were you doing the whole...

Can you use it in a sentence? Are there any other pronunciations for the word? No, I just like to catch a vibe spelling-wise. I don't need that information. How's that going to help? That'll just confuse me. It just seems like they're delaying the...

They're delaying up there, but they're so smart, these kids, too. They have all the tricks and everything, but they can't actually get to the word. JD, what's a word you find hard to spell? Well, Tass, maybe it's because you've been sitting on a toilet all week, but diarrhea. Really have a hard time spelling it. I know there's an H in there. Yeah. How many R's? Two R's. D-I-A-R-R-H-E-A. No I, like...

I expect there to be like an I-A, you know? Like diarrhea. But it's actually E-I. Anyways, diarrhea, man. Hard to spell. Hard to get through. It's hard to spell. Yeah. I think of the name Rhea.

R-H-E-A? That's a great tip. Great tip, man. Unfortunately, if your name is Rhea, that's not something you want to hear. Yeah, that's a face palmer. All right, Skeets. Yeah. I got a question for you. I've been sitting on a toilet talking about basketball for a week. When's the time you had a unique or embarrassing experience on the toilet? I believe I've shared this story before, but I started the Teardrop Half Marathon in Chatsworth, Georgia last

The race started and I was on the port-a-potty. I was in there. It was a real, like, miscommunication with the race director of when the hell this thing was starting. They said they were waiting on another bus because this is a race that, like, starts at the top of a hill and is...

predominantly downhill, and it's like, okay, I'm like, well, I got tons of time. The bus isn't here yet. Then they got to unload the bus. So I'm like, okay, this is perfect. Usually at the start of a race, the lineups for port-a-potties are crazy. It's always early in the morning. People got to get out their morning poops, race nerves. You're trying to drink a lot of water. You got to pee a lot. Everybody, they're always insane. But because we were getting very close to the start, everybody was like now ready to start. So I was like to my buddy Jared, I was like, well, I'm just going to go use it now. Like we're not starting for another like,

couple minutes and I'm in and out man it's no problem yeah but I went in there doing my business and I hear bang they go holy crap so I gotta finish up and then it was so funny Jared said like he can look back cause the race starts and he starts running and you can just see me like burst out of the port-a-potty and like I just sprinted to the front

I checked my time. I did really well, despite starting behind a couple seconds. Maybe that's the secret. Yeah, it was super light, I guess. Yep. Flying out the door. Toilet paper. Look at him go. Streamers. So yeah, that's my story with the toilet test. People definitely have stains on their pants when they run, right? Or shorts. They just go. People crap themselves, yeah. Yeah. I've seen it. Yeah. You ever done it? No. Too bad. I wouldn't.

I don't think I could do that. I could pee my pants in a marathon if I was really, like, committed to a time, but I don't think I could crap myself. In fact, I know I couldn't. There's no way. You couldn't do it. I mean, could I do it? Yeah, but I would not want to do it. Ugh.

We got to follow you at the Boston Marathon next month, right? You're going to Boston. Yeah, I am running Boston. You're right. Thanks for reminding me. I'm not excited about it. Oh, that's okay. I'm not at all. I've had a horrible training session. I'm like, whatever. I've paid money to go do this thing now. I'm doing it with my buddy Jared and Kyle with the Hawks. So that'll be fun. I'm sure we'll have a fun weekend. I've enjoyed Boston when I've been there. This will be my third time. I'm just praying it doesn't rain. The two times I've run it, it's rained heavily.

It sucks. It's cold. It's not fun. So hopefully it doesn't rain and then maybe I'll have a blast. Yeah. Or a blast out. Something exciting to look forward to. Try something new this year. I'll try. Try something new. We talked about Draymond Green in his podcast. What he needs to do a segment on is get Jimmy Butler on and ask him about that yellow stain he had. Yeah, yeah. Since he joined the Golden Stain Warriors, he had a yellow stain on during a game. What happened? We never got to the...

Excuse the pun. Bottom of that, did we? No. No. Interesting. Yeah, very interesting. So let's get on it. All right, Trey. Joel Embiid once had a real Perlman incident before a Sixers game. Before a Sixers playoff game, we had a show on the starters the next day. I had bubble guts immediately before the show. As if it were a marathon starting, I had to go do the show.

And I remember I lined my pants with paper towels from the bathroom because I was like, I don't know what's going on. I was like, yeah, I got some thoughts on Joel Embiid. Let me tell you, it's hard to play through this. Okay, JD, live television. This man shits himself. Yeah. What are you doing as a producer? What am I doing? Director.

Go to break! No. No. I haven't yet, well, you know. ISO trigger on camera four. Exactly. He just shit himself. Zoom in. No, the crew had very specific instructions to shoot everything.

No matter what happened. If somebody falls down, I want to see them fall down. So they would absolutely stay on. Carlos would run over to that stationary camera and whip it around to see... Just to see Trey Kirby run out of the, you know, limbo. Turn your mic off! Yeah, exactly. Luckily, I think I got everything out pregame. Because I don't know what I would have done. Like...

Probably would have left the set, right? Sorry, sorry, you guys got B block. Yeah, you must have. You would have to have. I'm doing the D block myself. Yeah, you just left.

See yourself. Where's Trey? Oh, no. He's just gone. No reason. That's Matt's whole thing at any party that you don't want to go to or any event. Just say you have diarrhea. Everyone's like, yeah, don't worry about it. You got to go or don't come. Nobody's going to follow up with that. All right. So it looks like this happened for Joel Embiid May 7th, 2019. So probably like May 8th show. Oh. Yeah. You might be able to hear some crinkling from the background. Yeah.

Were you wearing your white pants? It's a possibility, JD. I got to look into it. We've definitely had crew members on the starters leave like,

I have to shit. And then they leave their camera. Wow. I'll tell you who after. I can't wait. BTS behind the shits. Behind the shits. Yes, exactly. JD, when's a time you had a unique or embarrassing experience on a toilet? I once had to hold a guy who just got out of jail.

up and he was in a wheelchair and he asked me he was this sort of drunk biker guy and he asked me I was working at the Hard Rock Cafe and he asked me to help him into the restroom no there were no handicapped stalls or anything and then he asked me to hold him up while he peed at the urinal

Oh. You know what I mean? Oh, he went to the urinal. He went to the urinal, yeah. So you're holding him from behind. I was holding him from behind, yeah. Why didn't he sit down? Oh, because he couldn't even get in. Yeah, it was easier for me to hold him up. So that was like... You went waist, you picked him up. Under his shoulders. Oh, under his shoulders, yeah. He was probably in his 50s. He literally got out of jail that day. Like, he's a biker guy. And it was just like, hold me, man. You didn't know him, though.

Never met him. Never met him. I was just like, what type of tip do you get for that? Nothing. It wasn't even my customer. It was like, I was just walking by it anyway. I was happy to help, but also it was one of the more awkward experiences I've had. So yeah. Very unique. And I helped him back into the wheelchair. And then we had to cut him off and he was very belligerent. Hey, he just got out of jail. What did he do? I have no idea.

Public urination. We got that a lot. We got that a lot. Probably. You got that a lot? A lot of people that just got out of jail are going to the Hard Rock? Yeah, well, because in the early days... That's all they're talking about in the pen? Can't wait to get out of here and go to the Hard Rock. 100%. This guy there will help me piss. Well, it was kind of like a biker bar in the early days. Then these guys would get locked up. They're bikers, right? Yeah.

Then they get locked up, do a couple of years. They get out. Got to go find the crew. And that was sort of like it got bought by the Hard Rock International, so it was not kind of a family spot. But these bikers would roll up. It's like, I'm going straight to the Hard Rock. I got to know my seat at the bar, blah, blah, blah. Right. And then they'd be like, whoa, what's happening here? They're like, whoa. All right, well.

Anyway, that's it. Great stuff. I had a long discussion with Danielle as to whether I should ask you guys this question. Oh, it's a great question. Yeah, it worked out well. I added a toilet or a bathroom to give you guys an out, you know, you'd make a random bathroom story, but I'm glad we just went with toilet. Pure toilet. Do you have one, Tess? Yeah. Besides this? Here it is.

I'll save it. Okay. I'll save it for another. It's not a good tangent. It's not a good toilet tangent. It's not a good tangent. We're just talking for 20 minutes about toilets and you're sitting on a toilet with a toilet hat. Well, now's the time, man. The question is for you three. He'll save

You know when we're talking about the Blazer Suns game and Tassel suddenly starts telling us the story. Blazer Suns. Save it, save it. You should save it. Save it. You're right. We're running long here. Yeah, we are. Let's get off the can. You have a Pope-like look today. Yeah, like...

He's got the blanket. Yeah, right? He's got the blanket. It looks like it would be long robes and a tall hat. Can you be honest with me, Tass? I just watched that Pope movie on Peacock. Conclave. Yeah, yeah, it's good. Yeah, because Peacock, you had to get Peacock to watch SNL. So now I'm watching things to get my month...

uh, or subscription and you gotta, gotta do it. Yeah, it was, it was all right. I was going to ask you as you wrap up your pick them last year, the reason you are wearing the blanket is because you're cold and not because you accidentally put on a thong underwear. Well, for a couple of reasons, I'm actually very hot right now. Uh, I did it. I did it for effect.

More so than anything, I also got to take something out of my frunk, which I have in my frunk that I never use. I'm one of those stubborn people that has something there just in case of an emergency, and I just was so happy to use it for something. What's a frunk? Is that a front trunk? Front trunk? Is that what you have? Yeah. Courtesy Elon Musk. Electric car, no engine in the front. It's a frunk. And now I'm sweating. I'm sweating under here.

I kind of wish I had what Trey had, just wrapped myself with toilet paper underneath here. Just in case. But all good. All good. And those would be extremely sweaty right now. Now, did you commit to the bit, like, I imagine, are your pants still around your ankles? Yeah, of course. Can you get a shot? You can zoom. I thought you could zoom down. I can zoom in.

I thought you could zoom down. This is committed. Yeah, that is fascinating. This is committed. That's what I'm talking about. You tilted. That tilted down, of course. That's great remote. All right. Well, great job all week long. KTZ, baby. Paying off the pick-em loss. That's one for the ages. Toilet tasks and the toilet hat on the toilet all week long. Giving him basketball takes and all his tangents as he always does. If you enjoyed it, hit the like button, subscribe.

podcast listeners five star ratings and reviews we're back on Monday everyone back here in the classic factory sitting at the desk talking about the winners and losers of the NBA weekend tons of games on so we'll be breaking that down 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 I got nothing right now oh I actually I checked I've we've got a few more reviews I want to go through first one it's a long one so hang on

This guy mentions... I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I had nothing. Embrace the weekend, people.

Support for this podcast comes from Intuit Enterprise Suite. Need a software solution to simplify the complexities of your growing business? Intuit Enterprise Suite's powerful automation and core suite of tools for financial management, payroll, HR, bill pay, marketing, and third-party integrations across multiple entities can transform how you manage your business for faster decision-making. Visit intuit.com forward slash enterprise to learn more.

As we progress through the season, every fan knows that big wins are hard to come by and tough losses are even harder to accept. But you know what isn't hard to accept? Discover. Believe it or not, Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. You heard that right, 99%. So make a good call for your wallet and get Discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card.