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Algemene voorwaarden zijn van toepassing. good morning everybody what's up xena and crazy monday night at one point xena i could not keep up with the amount of games 13 games on it once yeah are you man my brain is kind of fried um how about you yeah yeah well and you're watching a little bit so i don't know how you're keeping up unrivaled we got 13 games on monday night they were doing their one-on-one tournament how was that it's good it's been fun watching it so far last night was the first night of the 101 tournament and i like the fact that they've already split up the bigs and the smalls we don't have to see the inter positional bat matches until later on but yeah keep watching it doesn't end until this weekend so lots of fun competitions so far yeah and and check out no off season one of zina's other jobs around here um all right hey speaking of uh things check out clippers and rockets played a back-to-back in Houston. So it's a little bit rare, and we hit the Rockets' side of this yesterday with Kelly Eco. Well, the Clippers mounted a 15-point comeback in Game 2 of the back-to-back to win the game. Before we say anything, I know I've been hard on the Rockets. It's hard to beat a team two nights in a row, and the Clippers aren't that bad. They're only two games under .500 right now, and I know that they traded away two of their best players, and it makes no sense, because Kawhi Leonard is no doubt like a top 10 player this year. And we saw it last night, Zena. He put up 19 points in the fourth quarter, hit the game winning pull up in the lane and one with two seconds left. And he was guarding Durant down the stretch when, especially when he started to heat up, he slid over. Listen, this, the, the game is a little bit of a throwaway. I think from a result standpoint, you know, like I can't, There's no big takeaway when you have to play second night of a back-to-back against a team he played yesterday. But Kawhi stands out to me. Yeah, Kawhi stands out to you. His build stands out to you. His capacity for continuing to play the way that he has been playing for years now still stands out to you. I mean, the game-winning shot, he had teammates open. There was a crowd around him, and he just spun away, faded away from the crowd, hits the game-winner in a mid-range. So very Kawhi-like for him to be able to take that down. But I just love this about Kawhi. For what we have said about him his entire career, making sure he's capable of staying on the floor, that he's healthy. He's played in 40 games this season. He scored 20 or more points in 37 of them. This is a guy that is steady and consistent when he is healthy. And as much as we want to say, why would you trade away James Harden when this guy is playing this well? Why would you trade away Evita Zubac when he's playing this well? I'm going to just tell you right now, Benedict Matherin looked really good alongside Kawhi Leonard last night. And so did the rest of the supporting cast. But I don't want to say that things are over for the Clippers just because they've lost two of their big three. It won't be the same dominant Clippers, but they have a balanced attack right now. And I actually really like the pickups that they've had to add to their cast, particularly Matherin off the bench. OK, so Brooke Lopez slides into the starting lineup. And, you know, I totally understand there is a drop off there. But Brooke Lopez has been playing better basketball here lately. They've got, I guess, a conglomeration of guys who can score a little bit now. You mentioned Matherin goes to the free throw line 10 times. OK, the thing that's really helping them is that they're going to play a lot of teams that aren't really trying to win. And so this is still probably a play in team, but they're not as scary as they were when they had James Harden and Avisa Zubac. So it is just different. And especially look, Kawhi just he looks so good. It was another fourth quarter that was tough for the Rockets. That another thing I say They only scored 19 points in the fourth some of the same problems that we been hitting on I just don know what they do outside of sign a point guard who can help them out And that's the problem is that we've seen this consistently happen with Houston where they have lulls. And even Coach Imeyudoka talked about this postgame is that if they don't have the lulls in the middle of the game that they have that allowed the Clippers to come back. Because let's remind ourselves that the Clippers were down 15 at one point in this game. and it was not only the offensive lulls, the Clippers packed the paint, they blitzed the pick and rolls, which the Houston Rocks have seen all season. So they should be pretty skilled and adept at being able to pass out of it, to be able to not to see that third defender on the backside rotate over and know not to pass directly into that. It contributed to their 20 plus turnovers. This is why they're in the bottom 10th, third of the league in terms of turnovers. But they've seen this all season long and they still struggle to score when teams pack the paint. And so this is something that the Houston Rockets have to pay attention to. You do give them credit for, you know, getting back into the mix of things. Alperen Changun is probably going to want that free throw back. For sure. That he missed him in the game. Going to want that one back. But overall, this is a good win by the Clippers. It felt playoff-like for them. Yeah. And Kawhi was awesome, which is fun. Okay. The Bucs beat the Magic. I repeat the Bucks beat the magic all that day in Orlando Xena they beat them 116 108 no Giannis of course for the Bucks and the magic are finally healthy this is not supposed to happen Xena the magic is supposed to be better than this and frankly I got one question to ask after watching this game how come the Orlando magic didn't sign Cam Thomas was this a Cam Thomas revenge game like did he maybe meet with the magic and he was like oh these guys don't want me 34 points off the bench 12 20 doc rivers is ecstatic right now right right right listen right now there's a lot of teams that could be asking themselves that question when i saw cam thomas was available say what you want there of course has been a little bit questionable news about what kind of teammate cam thomas is or what kind of uh you know culture that cam thomas provides being that he is a walking bucket himself, not necessarily a floor setter for everyone else around him to eat, but that's okay. He can get you buckets. And how many teams in the league right now need a certified bucket? And the Bucs were absolutely one of them. I think Orlando probably was one of those teams that said, Hey, if we get healthy, we're good. We got a ton of buckets. We got a ton of height and buckets. And Cam Thomas provides only one of those things. And so I get why Orlando may not have said we need him, but man, did it look like they needed him against the Bucs. And I just, I love this for, for Cam Thomas first games, you know, with the Bucs, he was still getting his, his, I don't know, maybe his snow gear on. Like, I don't know what's going on in Milwaukee, but he was just getting accustomed to that, the Bucs in general. And then his welcome party off the bench, being able to just tear up whatever Orlando wanted to do defensively. That to me was actually more of the concern. The fact that the Orlando Magic defense, which is supposed to be prized, was not capable of containing him. You gave up 116 to a Bucs team that doesn't really have a notable player that creates shots or that scares you. I think that's a real problem for Orlando. This has not been a good year for them. Obviously, the health stuff has been an issue, but the results have been poor even when they've been healthy. So hopefully they figure things out. Otherwise, I mean, like you're a play in team and likely out in the first round. Okay. We've been talking a lot about tanking because to repeat, a third of the league is actively trying to lose. So we're going to check in on this. We had some tank teams playing each other last night, Zena, the Pacers and the nets. Okay. The Pacers to this point have, they've essentially been making lemonade out of lemons. Okay. You come into the year, you lose miles Turner coming out of the finals. I mean, that hurts you. And obviously the Tyrese Halliburton injury, he's out for the season. Okay. They happen to also have some, some bad injury luck to start the year. You lean in. Okay. The game against the nets last night was the first night I can think of off the top of my head where the Pacers, they pulled everyone. That was it. They did no see outcome. Zubac not going to play for a while. If at all this season, the ethical tank is over for the Pacers. And yet they were playing the Brooklyn Nets and someone because of the rules of the NBA had to win the games. You know, so the Pacers win there. They're now tied with the Nets in the win column. They have a two loss lead in the loss column. They have more losses than the Nets. So listen, if there's anyone you're more impressed with with the tank, it's actually Brooklyn. Because if you look at who was in that starting lineup, these are draft picks. These are guys they've traded for. These are guys that are, you know, legitimate like names in comparison to a lot of more G League guys are coming up into spaces and with the Indiana Pacers. So shout out to the Indiana Pacers guys proving themselves being able to get the win. Not necessarily what you want. They pulled it out. Nobody wants to win. Speaking of the Utah Jazz, they play the Kings who just they weren't taking. They're just bad. and it was a blowout, not in the way you might think. The Utah Jazz win 121-93. They built a lead so big at halftime Jaron Jackson and Lowry Markin I feel like there a conspiracy working here They are going to try to build leads that they can possibly tank out of And it helps that they're playing the Kings who lost their 14th straight. Again, Kings just bad. Kings, this Kings is Kings in right now, but it's true. We have seen this consistently. Jaron Jackson, Jr. Larry Mark. And use of Nerkic not playing more than 27 minutes a night, typically around that 25 minute mark and down. The thing is you cannot help all stars be all stars, you know, like they can't help me, but have the 20 point games that they're having in the small amount of times that they're out on the floor. I feel like this, there could be a conspiracy. I mean, we'll look around, look around. He's still coaching hard too. This is the other thing. And he was coaching hard. I mean, in the fourth quarter of a blowout that his team was winning, he was coaching hard. there is a lot of stuff happening and i do think that not playing your best players in a fourth quarter that's close and not calling a timeout you do mess with the integrity of the sport yeah i do think that that's an issue um but this jazz team what i'm trying to focus on is the positive they are going to be real fun next season and they may have a high draft pick to add to this so um if we're looking at the silver lining everybody look i keep getting ganged up on by Andrew and S I'm glad I think Zena's on my side, but I keep, keep getting ganged up on about the tanking. I understand it's a smart strategy. It's just, I don't, I agree. I'm with you. Yeah. The funny thing is we keep having this conversation again. I know. And we're on the same page, but yeah, I guess we need us and Andrew to explain this to us because I agree with you. It doesn't, it's too obvious. It's too blatant that you're not trying to win. Yeah. Is it sports? All right. For more on that question, Actually, we're not going to hit it. We got James Edwards after the break, guys. We're going to talk Knicks and what they need coming out of the break. The Knicks bounced back on the second night of a back-to-back after a bad loss that might have broken their back, Zena. But instead, they busted the 76ers open. Won by 49 points. Our guy James Edwards was there. Now he's in the parking lot. He's about to commute home. James, heck of a game. That's how you respond to a loss to a team as bad as the Pacers this season. And man, Jose Alvarado looks like a huge pickup for the Knicks. that was uh one first off good to see you guys secondly good to see you that was maybe the most sexually innuendo filled intro of all time i don't know about that break your back this is oh yes this is it oh i'm sorry we can cut that so good um yeah no i mean jose uh listen i i wrote today. He played all the hits plus some B-sides. He came in, got steals, got deflections, brought energy, hit eight threes, tied his career high. The Knicks would have won comfortably without his 26 points. They came to handle business. And that's kind of the give and take with this Knicks team this year. They look great at times. They look very bad at times. They have the highest of highs, the lowest of lows. And like you said, they lost to the Pacers last night, come back and smash Philly a few weeks ago, they lost to Dallas at home, got the, got the brakes beat off them and then turned around and beat the Brooklyn Nets by 54 or something like that. So this next team, as I've written, like they have the, they have the pieces to be an NBA title contender. They just have to find consistency. And no team's going to be perfect. You're not going to win every single game, but the levels in which that their play dips is concerning at times. and they need to spend the second half of the season, not see song as much and finding a little bit more balanced ground to walk on. That was going to be my question to you, James is, you know, looking into the second half of the year, what should the Knicks look to or focus on? You think about the fact that going into this year, they went on that two of nine skid and now they've won 10 of their last 12. They're starting to put some things together. Of course, we've saw, we saw Jose Alvarado last night, pick up the slack after Jalen Brunson drops 40. in a loss against the Pacers. He didn't have to do so much with Jose Alvarado being able to come off the bench. If you're looking for consistency, what do you need to look to within your offense, your defense, your roster? What's the key to the consistency for the Knicks? For me, it's all defensive. I don't really worry about this team offensively. They're going to live and die by the three-point shot more than they did in previous years. That's fine. A lot of teams do that. I still worry about Carl Anthony Towns The shooting going forward He has to find that we have enough games now Where it's worth wondering and worrying about But they are a good offensive team They have enough guys that can make shots Defensively is it They're never going to be a great defensive team But they have the tools to be good And we just don't see it enough And when we do see it it's like holy crap This team really can get to that level defensively And if they're able to score They're a really tough team to beat But being able to be physical at the point of attack Being able to not be a step slow in rotations Like those are the things we need to see a bit more consistently Like yeah we did see it a lot during the eight game winning streak uh but we also didn see it when they won two a two and eleven games right like yeah then we didn see it last night in indiana we saw it tonight against philly like they just need to find a little bit more balance there on the defensive end i think mitchell robinson being able to play um way more minutes will be helpful for this group he's just been very good and he's just such an impactful player uh they don't have og yet uh who knows when he'll be back. He has a toe avulsion, which I've been told if you've lost your toenail or it's very painful. I've experienced it. I've been fortunate in my, in my playing days to never have done that. So that sounds terrible, but so we don't know when he's coming back, but they still have the pieces to be okay. Defensively, as we saw tonight. Yes. Philly's different when it beads not playing. And they also didn't have grimes, but the Knicks handled business and they have a level of intensity that they can get too defensively that they need to show more. I'm glad you brought up Mitchell Robinson and he only played 15 minutes last night. All right. How do they get his minute load up? Because that's, that's really the trick when OG comes back. And when you've got Mitchell Robinson out there, you have two guys that can help make up for some of the mistakes at the point of attack. And, and obviously the, the rim protection and rebound rebounding that they both bring. So how do they get his minutes? You know, he needs to play like 25 minutes for him. And it seems like he can just never get there. So they have actually in the month of January, if you go and look, I think he played six or seven games at 24 minutes or more, which was like double what he had done from the start of the season to December. So they have been able to kind of ramp that up a little bit more. I think the game against Philly, that's more so that was just such a butt whooping that they might not have needed him as much, but he's still not able to play on back-to-backs. You don't have to worry about back-to-backs in the playoffs, But they have ramped up his minutes a bit more here. I know we're in February now, but January is really when it started. Just being able to intulate Jalen with four good defenders is going to be huge for this team. And the more Mitch can play, the more minutes he can go, the longer stretches he has, that's good for everybody. So I'm very curious to see if they can continue to kind of build on that. Again, they've shown flashes. They just need to do it again. You're not going to win every game. But there's a level of consistency that they're just not showing that they need to show. This was also their last matchup against Philly. And, you know, you see teams starting to close out these series against teams. Any lessons learned from this matchup against the 76ers over the course of the year? Yeah, I think there's a few. If I'm not mistaken, I think they, I don't know if they split or New York won two. Yeah, they actually split. They did split. So the first two, Philly one, New York really struggled with their ball handling, Tyrese Maxey. And that's going to be with Paul George, too. That's going to be something if both these teams are healthy in the playoffs that the Knicks are going to have to, again, goes back to defense, be able to be disciplined. And they are a team that can struggle when teams have multiple ball handlers. The Knicks do have that or the Sixers do have that. But I have learned in just watching this team that, again, there is a level that they can get to defensively. They were very, Maxie was good, but they took away everybody else. And they were able to really stymie them. So if they can do that consistently, I think it bodes well for a lot of the teams they face. But yeah, going against teams that have that level of ball handling has been a struggle for them at times. But again, they've dug down deep before. James, all right, before we let you get out of here, it's All-Star Weekend coming up. Anything you're looking forward to? I feel like it's been a lot of negativity, including for me, about just like the weirdness of the format. Nobody's doing a dunk contest. Give me one good thing that you're looking forward to about the weekend. I kind of got like a wrestling slash like Royal Rumble pop. Like I got excited when I saw Dame was doing the three-point contest. Yes. Like I'm really like looking forward to that. As a basketball fan, I love watching Dame. It makes sense that he's able to do this. It's stationary shooting. It's been a bit since his injury. But it's just good to see Dame. Like Dame is one of the good dudes in the NBA. He's one of the fun guys to watch. I don't know. It's hard. He's one of those guys that you just kind of root for. Like he plays the right way. He's fun. His relationship with Portland is very cool. So it's just good to see Dame. I'm excited to see Dame. And shout out to, let's, I need my guy Jace Richardson. Shout out to Michigan State. You see the hat. I need him to do what his daddy did all those dunk contests years ago and bring it home for the fourth guy Dave we were trying to figure out Jace Richardson we couldn't remember on the shoot around this morning was that terrible I know disrespect well it's not really it's not really that it's more just for marketing it's Jace Richardson respectfully uh who I hope does well I'm assuming we're gonna see Jason Richardson do something out there so always that's the funnest part about the all-star game and this why the Damian Lillard thing is cool is because it is when everybody comes back. So I don't know. I, there's been a lot of hand wringing about an injured guy being in it, but I'm with you, James. I think it's awesome. I think James is awesome guys. Go and read him over at the athletic James Edwards. Thank you so much. Thanks to Zena Kata. I'm Dave before this has been the NBA daily. Thanks for hanging out with us. Bye.
