Luka Magic Taking Hold For Lakers + SGA’s Historic Streak & Wemby’s Confidence

Hello, welcome to Who Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Sunday afternoon, and I have expelled him from Los Angeles. He's back in New York City where some say he belongs, Tim Bonteps. Hello, everybody. Joining us from Dallas, Texas, I've expelled him from Los Angeles and some say he's back where he belongs, Van McMahon. Howdy, partners. Never fear. Not going to be here long. I'm going to see some Los Angeles residents though heading down to Houston. The red hot lookout for those Los Angeles Lakers got a baseball series against the Rockets. Oh, you want to talk about Lakers Rockets? I thought you were going to have your backup and ready to go here about Shay chasing the 20-point streak at the end of this thunder. Oh, no, we can get to that. Listen, I didn't see any intentional fouling. Didn't see any purposely mis-free throws. Saw one from Austin Reeves, but that was to help win a game. He learned it from watching the heat. He said he learned how to mis-free show. Luke had a pretty famous one too during the 60-point triple double. Sure did. Exactly the dance. But no, Shay's not immune to the occasional stat-chasing. It's just a little bit more within the flow, I would say. Well, AJ Mitchell, I mean, first off, the thunder, we were behind by like double digits to the Timberwolves on Sunday afternoon, which we'll talk about in a minute. They came back in one easily. But Shay started the fourth quarter when he was sitting, he sat out. He was, he had 10 points when he came back in with about seven minutes left. And the game was double-digit lead. But I actually don't think there was anything unethical to use what the kids say, unethical about him getting to 20. It was actually kind of cool that he got it on a play where he got fouled and he fell down in front of the thunder bench. And the whole thunder bench came over to celebrate with him that he was going to get his 20. I thought it was endearing. But I know we're not allowed to have fun during games. No, we're not. It's okay. It's okay. There was also the fast break where it was a three on one, just four on case from Wallace's pushing it and Chet was out front. And Shay was kind of feeling the lane. And Shay pointed it to Chet saying, get it to him. That was ethical. Although I think by the time he pointed, the ball was already on its way to Chet. No, it was before. I was going to get his 20 though. And he did. Yeah. Absolutely secured. I mean, listen, it took him hitting a three at the top of the key and then making this crazy shot over Ant. And he was getting off the ball while the Wolves were doubling him. Like the Wolves were determined to not let him get that record if nothing or could extend that record if nothing else. And it took him getting six points and two possessions at the very end of the game to do it. Well, AJ Mitchell, he took several shots while Shay was over there waiting for the ball to get his points. AJ Mitchell, ethical basketball, he was not interested. He was like, when's my 20 point streak start? It's good to see AJ Mitchell back on the court after so many injuries this year. He and he's immediately come back and playing well again. We'll talk about the Wolves and the Thunder a little bit. We are compelled that game on Saturday night, Nugget sat Lakers, one of the best games we've seen all season. Overtime win for the Lakers. The Nuggets snatching defeat from the jaws of victory thanks to some terrific plays by the Lakers under pressure. Say what you want about the Lakers. Also thanks to a bad whistle by the refs last two minute report. I haven't seen this yet. Yeah, says they foul with 9.2 seconds left that sent Austin Rees to the free throw line. Spencer Jones had a clean strip. So, you know. The Nuggets have beef, eh? Not your conspiracy theories ready, but still, the Austin Rees play at the end was a little luck and you know, also awesome. Uh, Luca's first game winner for the Lakers, which honestly, that's like sounds weird. You know, they've got a clear peck in order now. Luca, Rees and LeBron, two games in since he's come back, but LeBron being that number three option dive on the floor dirty work guy, you know, it's interesting. Well, he's, I think he's trying to play more of a role. He's trying to be comfortable with the ball less. JJ Redick talked about meeting with him and discussing this. Um, I think it's way too early to form any opinions, but LeBron is trying to fit into a role. I will say that over the last couple of weeks, the plus minus, which you know, has been used as sort of a whip against them against those three guys. It has turned positive and is continuing to progress in the right way. And say what you want about the Lakers defense. It has been better over the last month, month to six weeks. And in the end of this game, the Nuggets had just multiple possessions where they could not get into their offense. And I think some of it was due to fatigue, yoghurt. I would say a lot of it was due to fatigue on both sides. Both teams were, I mean, both teams were at the overtime, both teams were gassed. Well, and some of it was due to Jamal Murray fouling out after a horrific game. Rough, rough day or rough weekend for the Canadian national team backcourt. Yes. I'm just going to say that there was multiple possessions where the Nuggets couldn't even get the ball to Yolkic because the Lakers were defending it. And DeAndre Aitin, however you want to malign him. Bax. A lot of it fair. DeAndre Aitin had several key defensive plays. I do not know what's going to happen to Lakers, but I will tell you this. They've won either last 10 and five in a row and that has put them in the three seed as they embark on this five game road trip or six game road trip with five brutal games to start. I'm not sure the first two are that brutal to be honest with you, even though they're with the team right behind them in the West Endings. Okay. Well, you want to, well, first off, I just want to talk about the Reeves missed free throw. How many times could he do that at a 10 and have it fall that way again? Obviously he could miss it on purpose, but. It's a one out of 25, one out of 50 type of play. I'd say maybe one out of 100. I mean, to have it ricochet off to the left, to the perfect spot on the court where he could catch it and have a clear lane to get an easy like little eight foot floater practice shot. Like you can't script the play better than that. Well, but he did, but it was scripted the way that the box outs worked, where he missed it, how he missed it. You know, a lot of guys, they put kind of normal arc on it to miss it. Right. He like his shot never got above the rim. So he missed it to where it bounced down. And it was clearly to the one side of the basket where they could seal the box out. The Cementia Jones would have to come over to the other side. Like it, they did it perfectly, but to do that perfectly is a ridiculous series of coincidences in a row. The under, I don't know if it was Gordon or Yocitch. But they brought Aitin into the game. And when Jones was on the other side, because they're like, you know, he was like, all box out Reeves from this side, it was only Aitin and Yocitch on that side. And they brought Aitin in and he knew the play. He knew the orders was to seal Yocitch to sort of a reverse box out, box him out, top box him out and came off perfect. I mean, if I was a nuggets, I would have been spitting mad about that game getting to overtime, much less. Yeah. And they missed some free throws. They didn't, they didn't execute well down the stretch. Well, when you've seen a couple of games recently, the Cavs fouled up three against the Pistons. Dennis Jenkins got a half court shot off, came back to bite him. This game. It was 70 feet. Whatever. The point is like they got a fluky three shots out of it. Like again, like the Lakers, not a great three point shooting team. Like, you know, it's, it's far from a Garrett. Well, we've talked a lot about foul up three, don't foul up three. Like what's pretty clear is there's not a foolproof way to do this. And we've seen a couple of recent pretty high profile examples of fouling not working. But let's zoom out some with the Lakers, right? Wendy, like you said, this is five straight wins. I think it's actually eight of nine. And when they, when they started off, you know, when they had three straight before a tough loss in Denver, it was three bad teams. And I basically said, look, their schedule is about to get a lot tougher. They've got a chance to prove something. The, the those three game win streak didn't prove anything. They've got a chance to prove something. Well, they played Denver tough. They beat the Knicks. They beat the Wolves. They beat the Nuggets. I mean, again, five games, two weeks, whatever it is, does not make a season. But there's no question that the Lakers have some serious momentum. They do with LeBron coming back. LeBron missed the Knicks game and the Wolves game, but with him coming back, he's been vocal and you've seen it on the floor about, hey, I'm the number three guy. I've got to get in where I fit in, as he said, sacrifice, accept the role. I think the bigger concern, I think the bigger concerns now are how does that group hold up defensively? Because offensively, they seem to have found something. Luca is cooking. Reeves is cooking. And, you know, I told you guys, I think we've gotten to a point where Luca might actually be underrated as weird as that sounds. And, and what got me really thinking about this is, Bontons, when you mentioned Kawhi Leonard as a first team all NBA selection, you know, I was like, hold on, hold on, I threw out a few names. I didn't even throw out Luca's name and it was inadvertent. But there is this idea that Luca might not be a first team all NBA selection. And I think that's pretty insane. It's easy to focus on his flaws. And I talk about the, you know, the, the petulance as much as anybody. It's, it's, and I, you know, which the petulance leads to, you know, big time defensive problems. And that's a fair subject. However, the guy is leading the league and scoring on very good efficiency while averaging eight and a half assists and eight rebounds per game for a team that's a third seed in the Western Conference. If that's not a first team all NBA player, I don't know what is. The thing about Luca, the reason, you know, the criticism of him is that he doesn't get as much out of his gifts as he should because of these flaws. But that does not take away from the gifts that he has. He's one of the most talented offensive players I've ever seen in my life. And that, when the game winner, he was, he was in a double team without anybody to screen. He was sort of, you know, he avoided the trap. He got out of the trap, totally got the corner turned and then went into his footwork where he creates space with his step back going left. The only thing I'll say about that is I think the nuggets completely, I don't think you're giving Denver way too much credit. Like they, they let him get to a practice shot like that. I mean, it was a great play by Luca, but like he had a wide open 15 footer for him. Like, yeah, but he had to earn that by getting out of a double team and doing a step back. I mean, it was a pretty bad double team. Bruce Brown comes over from the middle and he just had the whole left side of the court to get to. It was great play. He was incredible in the game. WB. He's back. He's back. Maybe he's back. Hey, I mean, for one thing, this guy's been crapping all over people all week. He should stop saying anything about me. And again, it's a credit to Luca, but the nuggets, I thought they just botched it. Like that was as easy a shot as Luca's ever going to get in that spot. Okay. And he's averaging 32 and a half points for the game on 62% true shooting. I mean, my last two games are his first game, 150 point triple double. I'd say he's playing out of his mic, which is great. He is. He is common that Lakers are underrated. So I can see why Luca is. And dude, I had one of my recent stops. I'm talking to an all star and this guy was making the case to me that Luca shouldn't be first team. You know, and I'm like, dude, I don't know, man. If the Lakers are going to have home court advantage in the first round, this guy to lead in the league and scoring efficiently, I don't see how he could not be. Well, some of this is also, there's a lot of competition for five spots. Like people are going to get really mad if you say Jalen Brown isn't a first team on BA guy. I don't think he is this year, but like I think you can make an argument. Kid Cunningham might not be a first team on BA guy this year. He's been unbelievable and Detroit's been unbelievable. Like the under Mitchell is deserving. Out of the Mitchell has been amazing. Like they're, we're talking like nine or 10 guys for five spots. Like that's, you know, somebody has to get left off Anthony Edwards. We haven't even talked about him. He's having a great year too. I can't say this for sure, but I suspect if Bontemps did a straw poll of the all NBA race that Luca would be a strong participant of first team. That's, I'm not sure that that, I understand what you're saying, McMahon, if you're saying that the criticism of Luca has potentially clouded a little bit what has been a spectacular season, that's a fair statement. I do not think he, I think he would be voted first team all NBA and I don't think it would be close. Well, I mean, to McMahon's point though, in the last straw poll, he was a distant fifth and barely had a Jalen Brown for sixth. I would say that sums up where he is, which is a borderline alt first. Yes, but I don't know how many of those guys are going to have 65 games. So, well, maybe all the guys ahead of them, you know, are certainly efforting to Joker's efforting to Wimby will get two ladders very clearly efforting to. But like, Ken Kenningham's having a great year. He's not having a better year than Luca and he's not a better player than Luca. So, here's the Lakers road trip. Actually, I want to get it in correct order. The first two are going to be, the Lakers are going to be in Houston. Is it Monday, Wednesday? It's Monday, Wednesday. I got it here if you want me to read it. I got it. Okay. So, the Lakers upcoming games, six game road trip at Houston Monday, at Houston Wednesday, Thursday back to back in Miami. Yikes. I mean, West to East, back to back in Miami. The Heat did have their winning streak snapped by the Magic. Speaking of the Magic, they've won what? Seven in a row, eight in a row. That's where the Lakers then go play Saturday. So, Rockets, Rockets. Well, in that Heat game, definitional schedule loss, 22 and a half hours later. It's a 930 central, actually 21 and a half hours, a 930 central time game. So, it's a 21 and a half hour turnaround, go on East to West. So, it's not a short flight. I would guess a zero chance LeBron plays in the Miami game, a second night of a back to back. It might be his last trip to Miami. I don't think it will be. Speaking of that, can I just preview something? Coming Thursday, my retrospective on the Heat's 27 game win streak from 2013. Retrospective. Well, I hope we see LeBron in that game because I always like to see him play. But, I mean, that's a, that's the definition of a schedule loss. If they win that one, that's a hell of a win. He just said retrospective, we've got to celebrate that. When he's got patches on that sport coat, on the elbows. I had so much fun, you know, I lived through it. I probably, out of the 27 games, I probably was at 18 of them or so. I was not at the, I was in, I was at the garden the night they actually lost it. But, there was some great stuff that happened during that, during that 27 game win streak that I, I've, you know, did research on and, and brought them all back to the surface. So, it was a lot of fun to report that story. And, I, I, you know, unless you are like a Pacers fan or a Celtics fan, you probably will have good memories of that. You know what's funny? When we were in Vegas, Bon Temps, you probably remember this, I was fearful that, I think that, I think it was like 16 at that point for O.K.C. and I was very fearful that they were going to get that thing into the 20s and threaten 27, but it may be even 33 and that I was not going to be home for large, large, large stretch there. The Spurs took care of it, but that was also when there was a whole lot of talk. 74? Can it be 75? 76? How many will they win? When in that many games is, is hard to do, maybe we should wait until like January or February to get that excited about such a milestone again. All right. So, tough back to back, Rockets Heat. And then day off then at Orlando, who's one of the hottest teams in the league, then day off and then they finish it a week from Monday. At the trip. At the trip. Actually, they don't finish it there. That's the tired part. They finish it there. They play the Pacers the last game. And they play the Pacers. That's a soft landing. So, they've got a half game lead on Houston for the three seed. Now, that victory over Denver was huge, obviously, for many reasons, but also in tie break because that won them the tie break. And I will say there's something interesting. We'll be talking about tie breaks more coming up. Minnesota is in really bad shape on tie breakers. They basically have lost to tie breakers pretty much to everybody or behind in the tie breakers. Everybody. Minnesota is in bad tie break position. The Lakers tie break position is pretty good. We'll see what happens with the Rockets games coming up. The tie breaker is still up in the air there. But one thing to point out and the sun, this is something for the sun's fans to keep an eye on. If you win your division and there are still divisions out there, ladies and gentlemen, in the sun's and the Lakers are fighting, quote unquote, for the Pacific Division title. That is a tie breaker in the case of multi-team ties. In other words, it was a three-team tie, which they're very easily could be. And so, the Lakers getting that victory over Denver wins that tie break and puts them in, you know, keeps them in position to lead the Pacific Division. I think you're being very charitable with that being a battle. Oh, really? You don't think there's a chance of a three-way tie? And you don't think there's a chance of a three-way tie? No, no, no, no. I think you're being charitable, saying the Lakers aren't going to win their division. That's what I'm saying. The sun's have a billion injuries. I don't think they're going to be able to keep up with the Lakers. That's what I was referring to. All right, well, okay. So, I would say it's a big factor the other way that the Lakers, like the Spurs are not being caught by Houston. The Thunder are not being caught by Minnesota and Denver. That is another huge feather in the Lakers cap that they're all, but certainly, I think, going to win the Pacific Division. And that will trump any of these tiebreakers, which all could very easily happen with all four of those teams. And this baseball series in Houston is big for a couple reasons. Number one, obviously, the Lakers have gotten themselves into the three-seat now and want to stay there. The difference between three and four, we can all figure out, it's pretty significant, assuming OKC hangs on, which looks like they very likely will up three and a half games. You'd much rather wait until potentially the West finals to see OKC and deal with an inexperienced San Antonio team in the second round. Also, if they can get the Rockets a couple times, you might be bumping the Rockets down to six. And I'm pretty sure of the possibilities here, the Rockets are the team that these other teams in this three to six mix would most like to see. I talked to an executive, a Western Conference executive this week, who's on one of these top teams. This could be used against people in the future, but they said they said the target is the target is Houston. That's the team that's won the free. Listen, one team has made the conference finals two years ago. The other team has Nicole Jokicin. Well, no, everybody looks at that. Look, Denver has Nicole Jokicin has won a title. The other team has Anthony Edwards has made the conference finals two years in a row. Say what you want about how they did against the Thunder. They still got there. Last year, they smoked the Lakers in the first round. And Houston hasn't won a playoff series since James Harden was there. Like, of course, they're the of course, they're the target. They just lost by 25 to San Antonio by more than I can do the math off top. I had 36 to Denver. They had to squeak out a win over the Pelicans at home. They lost at home to a Warriors team that can't beat anybody without Steph and Jimmy. I mean, the Rockets are really playing uninspired basketball right now. There has to be a pecking order to these things. And obviously, Houston, if if the Lakers right now could have the three seed and then get Houston, a team that hasn't won a playoff series as a group in San Antonio, a team that hasn't won a playoff series as a group for his or path to the conference finals, they would take that doesn't mean any criticism of anybody else. But that like if they're the four seed and they have to play Denver, Minnesota, and then the Thunder, that like it's just a much different path. You know, there's just no question about that. And look, again, the Lakers, that was an incredible win last night. Set aside, whatever you want to say about Denver, you know, not Jamal Murray having a terrible game, having the game one at the end anyway, any of that. It's a great win. They've been playing really well. I think this goes back to what you said at the beginning, McMahon. I'm still unconvinced about their ability to guard in a really high high level spot in the playoffs with the roster they have. They're going to have to prove they can do that. They also are a team that's going to struggle to shoot the ball, especially outside of Austin and Luca. Last night for as well as they played, they hit 14 for 42 from three. Like those are the two questions. Can the other guys hit shots and can they guard enough? If they can do that in the playoffs, they'll have a chance with their star power to win a series or two. But it's going to need an inside straight of things to come together. Coming into today, this will be different by the time the pod comes out slightly, but coming into today, let me go over the toughest remaining schedules or the remaining schedule strength and the tiebreakers just real quick. Of the teams fighting for three to seven because the suns are still sitting there. The suns have the hardest of those schedules. The timber wolves have the second hardest, although maybe it's a little easier after the Oklahoma City game is already up the books. The Lakers have the third hardest. The Nuggets have the fourth hardest and the Rockets have the easiest schedule. The Nuggets and Rockets have more friendly schedules coming in. When you look at the tiebreakers, this is a timber wolves tiebreaker situation. O and three versus Lakers. One and three, actually it might be O and four now because I think that was before yesterday. O and three versus Nuggets. O and one versus Rockets. O and two versus Suns. The Lakers, O and three versus Lakers. I'm sorry, take that back. Lakers, two and one versus Nuggets. O and one versus the Rockets. The tiebreaker will be determined in these two games. Three and O versus the timber wolves. The Lakers and timber wolves tie have that. Really, if the Lakers could sweep these two games, they would be in great position. But even if they split, it's not so bad. But if they do split, Houston gets the tiebreak. That's something. Well, in Houston, so has two games left against Memphis. They have a game left against Chicago. They have a game left against New Orleans. They have a game left against Milwaukee. They have a game left against Utah. They have a game left against Golden State, which is in April, but Golden State is a shell of itself from an injury standpoint. We'll see where Steph is at. They have a game left in April with Phoenix. Phoenix is also a shell of itself from an injury standpoint. We'll see where Phoenix is at. And they have a game. The third, last game of the season is a home game against Philly, which maybe they'll have some guys back by then or maybe they won't. So like that's a lot of games. When you talk about the easy schedule down the stretch where there's several games in there, they should just, and again, they barely beat the wizards. It took a bit of a save at the end or the Pelicans the other day, but they should win a bunch of these games. They're the quote unquote mark, which I hate even saying because now that just like sort of guarantees they'll whip the Lakers in those two games. That's what happens in the NBA. But say whatever you want about how they're playing. They have the easiest schedule. They could easily get a higher C than six. So I mean, I was talking to another executive yesterday and I was how do you see these teams coming down? I was looking for a nuanced conversation about between Houston, Lakers, Nuggets. Who's playing the most tankers? Who's ever playing the most tankers is going to get the highest C. And that's not the Lakers. Hey, there could be some jockeying down the stretch. It might be teams might try to get to six instead of five. I'll put it like that. I think it's going to be hard without bunched up these teams. And look, these teams have also been all over the place. And when we've talked about Minnesota all season, they've obviously had a bad week, but they've had some really high highs. And like, yeah, I mean, man's doing the up and down roller coaster motion for people listening. Like they've had some horrendous losses. We've talked about them all season. Denver obviously is getting healthy. Thought Aaron Gordon playing well in this Laker game was a huge thing. I mean, his three point shooting turnaround, by the way, as a totally separate aside, is one of the crazier things that we've seen in recent years. Like him becoming this knockdown three point shooter, it's a huge thing for them. But they've had some weird performances lately too. Obviously getting smoked by the Knicks. They barely beat the Jazz in one game. Like they've had some weird games. Houston's had a lot of weird, like you said, McMahon, they've had a lot of weird games. I mean, these teams, everybody after the Spurs and Thunder has been very up and down at different points. And right now it's an up for the Lakers. And if they could get these two wins against Houston, that would be pretty huge for their chances of really trying to lock in a top four spot and especially getting to that third spot. If you're a Rockets fan, you're saying, how come you're not talking about how the fact that the Timberwolves are only a game ahead of the the Suns for the play it? You know, you're like, they've just, you know, dropped some, you know, they lost three or four on this road trip. I think all these teams. It was a really bad road trip. And I think all these teams are really lucky Phoenix is so banged up. Like if they had Dylan Brooks and Mark Williams and these guys available, like, yeah, I would say they'd be live in it to get into the top six. But I think it's just going to be hard for them to keep up. Well, and they have the toughest schedule. Yes. Well, that's the other part. But the fact that they have the toughest schedule and injuries, it's, you know, they've had a great year, but I think it's a lot more likely they're sitting in the seven spot probably playing the Clippers. We'll see how bad this Kawhi ankle spraying is, but Booker at a 40 point game. Yeah. The Clippers, right as we were thinking, like, oh, what could they do? Then they then they get steamrolled by the Kings of all teams and well, ankle sprays his ankle. We'll see what that it didn't look that bad. However, with Kawhi, I don't know. We'll see. Just got to say you don't know. Exactly. Okay. So earlier on Sunday today, the one we're recording this, the fun, we talked about the Thunder, but that victory over Minnesota. Minnesota was red hot in the second and third quarters of this game. Shay started the game off shooting two of 10. I think, you know, Minnesota has played. We had a stat before the game over the last five years. Now we're pushing it a little bit, but still it's kind of the Shay era. The Timberwolves were 13 and six in the regular season against the Thunder. No one has had as many wins over them in that stretch as Minnesota. They were two and one this year. You remember the last time they played, they played up in Minneapolis and Ant hit that step back three to clinch the game over AJ. It was over AJ, which I think or maybe it was Wallace. It was Wallace. It was Wallace. That wasn't the same game that Finch got tossed from, was it? I don't think so. That I don't remember. I don't remember. It might have been, but I don't remember for sure. Because, you know, Finch has absolutely been at the forefront of this critique, I'll call it lightly. Critiquing. Artful. Artful. Wining, griping, critiquing. The way that OKC is officiated on both ends. You know, he had the big thing last year where I'm paraphrasing what he basically said, you know, they're hacking away on defense. And if you blow on Shay, he goes to the line on the other end. And you've heard a lot of that. That's kind of been a theme. Early on in this game, it's as frustrated as I've seen Shay with the officiating in that first quarter. There's at least twice or he's like seriously? And including the shot at the end of the quarter, where like usually Shay's not a guy who usually says much at all to the rest. He's talked about this. He doesn't think it's productive. Yeah, he was he was pretty missed. I wonder if Finch and, you know, Finch, you know, we talked about when Finch got tossed in the first quarter. This was in December. It was the second, the third loss of the year for the Thunder, not the last game they played in January. Right. That's right. So Finch was that that felt very calculated and, you know, plotted out. And I thought that they were, you know, getting away with some pretty physical defense on Shay today, which you can say, hey, maybe maybe Finch's little lobbying efforts paying dividends. Perk. Kendrick Perkins mentioned this during the halftime is that when you're a star player like Ant, sometimes you can get away with now. Now the one play in particular where he's literally where Ant literally slapped him on the arm. Yeah, the play at the end of the first quarter, Shay was pretty heated and deservedly so he got hit twice on the jumper. So one thing I will say about this game from Minnesota, Julius Randall has been terrible by his standards since the All-Star break. There are people who believe that it's his reaction to being floated in trade discussions or rumors for Yanis. I don't know for sure, but I can tell you that before the All-Star break coming, coming, this is before today's game. Before the All-Star break, he would, he was averaging 22 points and shooting almost 50% from the field. In the 11 games since the All-Star break, he was averaging 13 points and shooting 39% from the field before today's game. And he has, he comes out with intent and has a 32 point game today. So maybe this is him breaking out of his shell a little bit. We'll see that could be a, could be a factor. That would help. But that's, you know, considering how tight this all is, that's important. The Thunder are getting healthier. Isaiah Hartenstein is back and AJ Mitchell, as we mentioned earlier, is back. Caruso, who had a hit. I meant to ask while watching the game, Tim, is there any updated all on Jane Williams? I don't, I still don't have a feel. I made a point on, I think it was Monday, to watch his pregame. I did not see him doing anything explosive in his pregame work out. I didn't see a whole lot of like, you know, accelerating off the dribble or the kind of things. I was, I was basically, you know, I was watching his pregame, trying to get a feel like is he on the verge and he didn't look like he was on the verge, you know. So I, I, there's not been like any kind of official update. You know, his reevaluation came and went and they've just kind of kept it at radio silence. He'll be back at some point. I could not tell you when that's going to be. Yeah. I mean, if there's any team that has the ability to be patient, it's them. Now that AJ Mitchell is back, you know, they've got chair McCain playing, they've got Caruso, they've got Kasein Wallace. They have all these guys that can play, but every game I watch the Thunder, I just see him sitting over there in some very expensive outfit. I keep wondering when he's going to play. I think maybe unnecessary glasses on. How about the, the gold grill? He hid 40 in a finals game. He could do whatever he wants. I'm just curious to see when he's back on the court. No. And so it's obviously, look, clearly they brought him back too early the last time, right? And his hammy was aggravated in a second game back, which the shame was he said that his wrist was feeling much better. And he was in the midst of an unbelievable game when he, when he got hurt again, he was 11 of 12 from the floor and 20 minutes in Phoenix. But at this point, like they're 34 and eight without him. And that's not to say they don't need him, but they can clearly manage without him during the regular season. They have a three and a half game cushion over the, over the spurs. So, you know, that it's not too tight there. I think really what you're hoping if you're okay, see with, with, with Janet Williams is that he has enough time to feel like he's in some kind of rhythm going into playoffs. That to me is the bigger kind of, obviously his health first, foremost is the biggest concern, but other than that, like you just want to make sure that he's got a chance to kind of get a little bit of a, of a groove going, um, you know, before April 19th or 20th or whenever they open the playoffs. Well, let's be honest, they're, even if they're playing the Clippers in the first round, prove probably on a better streak lately than Phoenix, it's still really about for them getting to the second round anyway. So he's even got a couple more weeks to get going from there. Um, but yeah, like if it could end up being a positive for them, if the guy ends up getting obviously right like them out there, but if he comes in having had 35 or 40 games this season, total played, you'd think he'll be pretty fresh and ready to go for a long playoff run, which, you know, I had somebody early in the year, I don't remember who it was, say, look, you look at Indiana last year, they had all these injuries throughout the year, they got healthy late in the regular season and it set them up to take off for this playoff run. Obviously the thunder at the top of the conference, but with all the injuries they've had, maybe they'll end up having some fresher legs down the stretch than he would have otherwise. I will say that Shay, I don't know how big of a feather it is for him, for his, um, MVP case, but the fact that he has still put up incredibly efficient numbers yet again without having, um, you know, the balancing aspect of J. Dubb, you know, I think that's, it's, it furthers his MVP case, so I would say. Jay Williams has missed, uh, so far this season, 42 games. Uh, A.J. Mitchell's missed 23 games. Hartenstein's missed 22 games. Uh, Caruso's missed 24 games. Like, I mean, those are all real players missing a lot of games and they're still chugging along. Yeah, they're not on pace to win 75 games, but like they've continued to be awesome with all these guys out. And like you said, Shay's a guard shooting 55% from the field. Like, you know, he's having an incredible season. Forget 55%, his true shooting percentage. And obviously it dipped with the 7-22 day against the Wolves. Going into today, his true shooting percentage was 66.9. That matches Steph Curry from his unanimous MVP season as the best ever for a guy scoring 30 plus per game. And that guy had 400 threes that season. Like this is, just to be clear, Shay Gilders Alexander is about to become the fourth guy. I'm sorry, the first guy since Michael Jordan have four straight 30 point per game seasons. Yeah. By the way, 30, 30 points per game, he's going to shoot over 50 in all four of those. Yes. He is a historically efficient scoring machine. Like he, uh, you know, obviously when you break one of Wilts records, you're getting an all time great category. When you do, you know, he joined an exclusive club last year, scoring champ MVP, finals MVP. I mean, this guy is early in his prime, has already established himself as an all time great. And by the way, it's just real quick, because I just looked this up to double check it. So Michael Jordan led the league in scoring seven consecutive seasons from 87 to 93, the middle five of those seasons, he shot over 50% every time. Like, yes, it's a different era. There were less threes shot then. Obviously, Jordan was not a great through point shooter, but like that, that's the kind of people we're talking about. Like scoring over 30, that many years as a guard, shooting it efficiently, that many years as a guard. Like again, just like any time you could say, Wilton, you was pretty good. Anytime you could say Michael Jordan and you is pretty good. And Jay has a couple of those things. Well, and honestly, that's why the free throw merchant stuff, it's stupid. And like, I get it, you know, fans are going to fan and taunt and whatever. Like, it's not the worst thing in the world. But the idea that like, Shay is a great score because he gets some kind of friendly whistle. Dude, that's very silly. Shay is shooting better than 60% on twos. And a ton of those are created off the dribble mid range shots. I mean, like, it's like the shot he hit today to get to the 20 points. I mean, the Wolves, everything they could to keep them from getting to 20, they were bracket on them, they're double teaming them, they're trying to get them off the ball. He hits that three to get to 17. And then the next time, a couple of times later, he comes down and Edwards, who's a terrific on ball defender who desperately clearly didn't want him to get to the 20 knew what was going on, was all over him. And he hit an impossible setback fade away jump. 19 feet in the air, that shot. Yeah, crazy. I will say two things. Number one, if you think you're going to bother Shay by calling him free throw merchant, I give you credit. So chant to your little hearts content. The second thing is, if you're going to complain about something with Shay, it's not the fouls that he gets to go into the line. It's the arm bar. If you're going to petition for a change, stop letting him use the arm bar. And by the way, that's something we've talked about this a bunch. I went to the referee's thing in September. I asked about it then. All the great players are doing that. Yadis, Tatum, Shay, they've all perfected this. Lucas, great at it. Lucas, great at it. These guys are all big and strong and super smart and they've all figured out, hey, if I do this, get a little space, get room to go up and shoot. I agree. I think that's the next thing that they need to change. Again, not just a Shay thing. It's just to give the defender some level of chance to guard these guys because otherwise it's impossible to guard any of them. Well, they don't have to change. I mean, Luca used it on Spencer Jones last night on the last shot. I mean, not like dramatically, like shot them off. More Spencer Jones. He got a game-winner splash in his face by Shay on Monday than Luca got him last night. Poor guy. I did look back and look since you mentioned that. The play that Spencer, they said he didn't foul on was the play where it was controversial that it wasn't a three-point shot. The nuggets are up by three. He inbound and he fouls Reeves real quick and they were, the Lakers and their fans thought that it should have been a three-point for three shots. In fact, what the league said was not only should it not have been for three shots, it should have been for no shots. Sure. I thought it was pretty clearly not a shot. It could have gone either way. I understand. Anyway. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. Speaking of the MVP, the Shay, how about this quote from Victor Wembenyama? Now, Bon Temps identified this while Wembenyama was still playing in France, finding these quotes that are low-key arrogant or conflict. Not low-key. Not low-key. Just said in a polite way, but not low-key arrogant. How are we going to play here again? Right now, my mind is on taking care of my body because I also want to win MVP and defensive player of the year. I'm trying to press the gas from now until the end of the season. Really take care of my treatment, take care of my sleep, take care of my routine and show up for my team. Look, Victor Wembenyama from the beginning, has, since he was 12 years old, has wanted to be the best player of all time and has said that repeatedly and to this point has largely followed through on the things that he's said. As we've talked about, as you said many times, my favorite thing about him, beyond watching him play, which is always awesome, is this guy says outlandishly arrogant things, but says it in a very polite, friendly demeanor, though it just doesn't come off that way. They're not outlandishly arrogant, though, because they're factual. Well, yes, and they're also factual. But yes, he just says- It ain't bragging if it's true. Well, yes. But again, he says things that people don't typically say, and to your point, McMahon, it's because he can do things that not only can't people typically do, people can't dream of doing for the most part. And it's one of the many things that makes him so awesome. And it's one of the many things that potentially has a setup for a pretty incredible era of basketball ahead, because this guy desperately wants to be the best and is not afraid to say it and is going out there and doing it. And it's awesome. And this is a week where we still got almost a month left for the regular season, but Shae's going to be tough to catch for MVP. And this week, we brace Will's record where he hits the game, the dagger against the Warriors, the game winner against the Nuggets, out of 35.15 assists, no turnover, crazy efficient performance, crazy efficient breaking the record against the Celtics, hit some big shots. There's going to be tough to catch him. I, again, I do think the only threat is the Spurs storming to the finish line and taking the top seed and Wimby doing what he's been doing. Let me just read to you his numbers from this home game or home stand. It's a six game home stand. He's only played in five, you know, sorry, sorry about the one game against the Nuggets, because there is, as he pointed out, it is press conference after the game against the Hornets. There is one body part of his that has swelling right now. That's not what he said. He said, I have one body, he says one body part that's inflamed. It's his ankle. Just to be clear. Well, he had to clarify that. There was a good follow up question from you. You know, we, we, it's his ankle. Anyways, the guy's averaging during this home stand, 33 points per game, shooting 55 from the floor, 47 from three point range, hitting 4.63s per game, and then doing his normal, you know, 11.4 rebounds, 3.8 blocks, 1.2 steals, 3.2 assists. The guy's against the Hornets. He's throwing multiple lobs to Luke Cornette. I mean, you know, he's all over the place, but dude, Wimby, I know, bond temps, you get mad every time you see him shoot those three. That's not true. Not true. USWB. Don't say things about me that aren't true. It's true, buddy. You cannot put Victor Wimby down in a box. You can't put him in a box. He's been telling us all along, and he is, I'm telling you, I think what we're watching is this guy just starting to grow into his offensive powers. He's already the most dominant defensive player maybe I've ever seen. And I'm not saying he's going to have 33 moving forward, but I'm saying that we are watching the revolution right now. Well, listen, if Victor is going to shoot 47% from three and make four and a half threes a game, then they're going to be able to do whatever they want. Like, honestly, that like if he's shooting at that level, like, then it's not some like give back to the defense then, right? Like, if he becomes a consistent 40% three-point shooter, like, yeah, then it's just over. Like, then just give up at that point. I think, you know, and if he is going to shoot 47% over a five game stretch, his numbers are going to be cartoonish like that, like even more than normal, because that is that does make him utterly unstoppable. I do think as we've talked about a lot, you can have a direct quote of giving up a jumper is a win. It's because if he does the go-go gadget dunk arm thing, it's like that's 100% shot. And like, you know, if he's if he gets in a stretch where he is, you know, if he's shooting 27% instead of 47%, he's making two threes a game, then you at least have a chance. That's all. But like, if he's going to shoot like this, good luck. Did you see the dunk he had over Grant Williams and Grant Williams for some strange reason jumped with him and Wimby looks over his shoulders, he's jarred down the court, the court and chuckled at him. It's like watching a guy in a video game a lot of the time. It's just like, you create this player in the video game and he just can do whatever he wants. I mean, that's what it looks like. I truly believe that he and the Spurs have figured out something in terms of like getting him good looks at threes and getting him volumes because they're like the threes he's throwing up now, he's he's chalking up 10 per game on this home set. I think they're 10 and two now when he takes nine threes. They're like, they're still undefeated when he ends at least four anyways. But they're like a bunch of trailer threes, they're a bunch of pick and pops and he mixes in just enough roles to where you know, you gotta be careful with that. I will say he's averaging seven free throws on these five games too. So he's not just only hoisting. He is. But that's the other thing, especially when he's got a big on him and we saw this with Jaylen Durand, we saw Musa Diabate and the threes that much of a threat and then he's pump faking and attacking closeouts because they're so scared of him getting a decent look at a three. Those guys are in hell and they're getting an early foul trouble. Like how many guys do you think Jaylen Durand's had to guard in his life that could pump faking and go off the three point line? So Diabate, like these guys are big. Now we'll see come playoff time. There's definitely going to be teams that just try to put a wing on him and get under him and all that. We'll see how the Spurs deal with that. But people in San Antonio will tell you this guy's the best player in the league and they don't want to hear any argument. I'll argue SGA right now, but Wimby is, if he's going to be doing what he's doing offensively, I don't, there's not going to be an argument too much longer. Well, and over these last over these last handful of games, he's the last five games. He's, he's 19 for 39 from three. And so 39 total shots and 29 of them have been catching shoe shots, which again, that is what we have been talking about. The more times he is a play finisher, not trying to be a play creator, that is the ultimate end game, I think, at least right now, maybe in the future, he'll become somebody else. Do you include attack and closeouts as play finishing? Yeah, that's fine. Yes, like to some, to some extent, yeah, like obviously, you know, it's not like he's not allowed to dribble, but it's when he's like trying to become a point guard is I think when the defense is really winning. But if it's like, hey, like I've said before, to me, at least today, he is Rudy on defense, but like obviously multiplied like best offensive player in the sport. And like to me, the goal right now should be Dirk on offense, who's one of the best offensive players of all time. And as he's in his third year in the league, he's going to get better handle on the ball. He's going to do more than Dirk could at any point, handle on the ball. I do, I do thoroughly enjoy when he basically catches a block shot. So it's a block and rebound all at once swoop in motion. And then decides he's going to get out and start to break himself. Well, yes, that is unbelievable. And that's different too. I'm talking about in the half court when you could get loaded up on and he can have little guys come in and steal the ball from him. Like him in transition, like Yannis is insane. It's like two steps and he's at the other three point line. But, but yeah, like look, if he's, if he's making catch and shoot threes at that kind of rate, and three quarters of his shots, at least according to synergy, or catching shoot threes, like that's a good shot diet. And you know, it's, it's why the Spurs have a chance to buck the trend of all NBA history this year. Cause like history would tell you they're not going to win and they're probably going to lose earlier than later. But this guy is already an anomaly from all of NBA history and he may be able to have him break past it. The Dirk offensive cop is interesting. I think Wimby might be a little bit more of a lob threat than Dirk was. Well, slightly, but I'm just talking about as a shooter. But yes, I mean, look, he's again, the comparison there is two hall of famers, one of the best offensive players ever and one of the best offensive players ever. And that's what we're talking about the guy's third season. It's completely insane all the way around. Monday night, March 16th has been on the books as a very high attention game in Atlanta for weeks now. Everybody's been very, very focused on this night. You know, it's been, it's been promotions. It's been commented on the, by the league office. It's one of the most impactful games on the schedule for the Hawks. Sure has been. Because it's the nine win Hawks, Hawks winners of nine in a row versus the magic winners of seven in a row. It's one of the games of the month in the league. They're going to have wings. I mean, what an incredible foresight to have so much attention on this game. So the Hawks have won nine straight games. I will say. Can we just pause right there? So the Hawks have won nine straight games. But hold on. Oh, USWB alert. I'll let you say what you're going to say. I just want to point something out. Sure. I don't have ever seen a bit of schedule like the Hawks have had here. And I'm not even talking about who they're playing. I'll let you have that. Just hang on. Yep. This is their 11th out of 12 home games. So okay, teams have stretches and schedules where they're home heavy. That happens. Not only have there been no back to backs in this stretch, in this stretch of home games, they've had 13 days off. Yep. 13. Like not only have they had all of these friendly home games, but they've had a chance to rest. It's been amazing. So it's not surprising that they're playing quite well. Okay. Now you can say who they've been playing. So since the All-Star break, they're 10 and 1. All right. This is their schedule of games. Start out the All-Star break. They're in Philly. No Joellen B. Paul George. They win by 10. They then go home to play at Lent and play Miami. They lose by 31. That's their only loss since the All-Star break. Here's where they played since then. That was a back to back. Then back to back. It wasn't back to back the next night. Yes. But they win that game in Philly. They lose second night of a back to back by a million at home to Miami. All right. That's fine. Then they have the Nets at home. They win that one by 11. They have consecutive games at home against the Wizards. They win them by a combined. With the day off in between, we have to relax. Right. But then they won by a billion points. They then play, they play Portland at home. Portland with no Denny Obvia. They win that game by 34. They then play the Bucks, have a couple days off in between. Yanis does come back as that's Yanis is back. They played one game in six days and it was their one road game, but they got six days for one game. They go to Milwaukee. Yanis is back. They win that game going away by 18. They then come home and play Philadelphia. A pretty competitive game. That's the game. Tyrese Maxey got hurt at the end of the game. They're one relatively competitive game. However, in the one relatively competitive game, no Vigil Gajgum, no Joe Alamed, suspended Paul George. They're all missing for that game. Maxey's hurt by the end of it. Then they play Dallas at home, the Nets at home, and the Bucks at home again. Like talk about the definition of the current NBA. This team has played for a month is 10 and one. And they've played basically no game against a competitive team the entire time. They're about to, they're about to. Right. And it's what makes this Orlando game so fascinating. Orlando is playing well. They've ripped off a bunch of wins. I think they're now into, I was going to double check. I think they're up to, they're up to fifth now because Toronto's falling off the map. And if Atlanta wins this game, they're now a game and a half out of fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Like fifth to ninth because Charlotte's fallen off is within two and a half games. And Philadelphia with all their injuries is probably going to be at best ninth. So you're talking about Orlando, Toronto, Miami, and Atlanta, all fighting for five days in the East. And for an Atlanta team that was floundering for a while, obviously dealt with all the trade drama, everything else. This stretch of schedule by taking advantage of it and not losing any of these games has put them in a position to get up into the top six in the East, which we weren't talking about for months, which they don't control their draft picks. So why would they even think about doing nothing? Right. Neither does Orlando, by the way. Orlando though, one-seventh straight, you know, there's some tankers in there, but there's also like they just beat Miami, in Miami, I believe. And ever since, Paolo and Jamal Moseley had that little, you know, back and forth via their individual press conference thing, basically confirmed everything we talked about of the word is there'd been the headbutton between them. Paolo's been playing great. In the seven game win streak, I've been 26, nine rebounds, over five assists, you know, a massively positive plus minus. I think he's playing as well as this is as good a stretch as he's had. And, you know, he had a, Mark Spears did a story on hand where Paolo basically said, Hey, I looked in the mirror that, you know, when the All Stars came out and he was upset about it, but he's like, I hadn't done enough to be an All Star. So, you know, since from, from Joe Glass, PR guy for the, for the magic, two guys have averaged 25, nine and five since the All Star break Paolo and Nicola Yolkich. It's pretty good. And Paolo is also, has also taken the third most shots within five feet of the basket and he's made 73% of them. There you go. Not settling, not settling for jumpers to your point, big man, right? Thing we've always criticized about him. You've led the way on that is being a really inefficient scorer. Well, he's an absolute load. Always a tank. And if he's getting to the basket and scoring in the paint, that's a path to him getting to the kind of efficiency he needs to have to take a real step forward. Whose stats are these for the season? 23 points a game, 10.4 rebounds a game, eight assists a game. Jaylen Johnson, you always do this and think you can fool us. I mean, Jaylen Johnson. 1.3 steals a game, 50% shooting. Yeah, Jaylen Johnson. The assists are what give it away. I mean, Jaylen Johnson is what, fourth in the league, I think, at assists per game. I don't know that, but sounds good. The guys he's behind are Yolkich, Cade, Luca and James Harden. By the way, speaking of Atlanta, Atlanta should be as annoyed with the, the tank of Palooza as anybody, because the Pelicans keep on thinking and the tank of thongs. They're the only ones out of that group that are trying to win games. The Mavericks and Zoom, Biome, the Jazz, everybody's Zoom, Biome. First of all, they're like, I think a half game right now ahead of Dallas and sixth, they've got Memphis doing an unbelievable tank job, the Grizzlies. They're flying into the race. I think they're going to wind up in sixth, ahead of Dallas, ahead of New Orleans, the way they're going. And Milwaukee has that like eight and one stretch where they win all those games without Yanis. Yanis comes back. They're playing right now against Indiana, obviously, firmly in the tank race. I don't know if Milwaukee has won since Yanis came back and they've now come back down to like ninth. They could end up with the eighth and ninth picks in this, in the lottery. Just imagine if they had lost all those games on Yanis. That's what I mean. They would be like, they'd be behind New Orleans right now, but they had this one stretch. It's crazy. I got some cheeseheads sizzling when I, when I declared the day Yanis was coming back to the Bucks would not win a single playoff game. I'll tell you a little secret. That's because I knew they weren't going to make the damn playoffs. They stink. Well, actually, I'm going to check that while we're sitting here. They're down three right now at halftime to, to the Pacers. I suspect the Pacers will probably steal the loss from the Johnson-Bitter. We have no idea the Pacers are going to play in the second half. The Pacers, so the Pacers that played Zubat 60 minutes in the first half. We'll see if he plays any more today. He will not play 16 minutes in the second half. I'll tell you that. That's my assumption. So since let me just look at our quick game log here. Silver's next press conference. I think the fines will come three days before it. So Yanis has played the five games since he's come back, 27 point loss to, uh, to Boston, an 18 point loss to Atlanta, a win against Utah, shock of all shocks, a 15 point loss to Miami or to Phoenix and a loss to Miami on Thursday. So one in four in the five games that he's been back and maybe two in four with two wins against tankers. So it's where we're at in NBA right now. Just who's playing a tanker on the day? And then how hard are they tanking? Who's checking the Tim Thomas' stats? That's why honestly, like when you get to like the Nuggets Lakers game, it's like, oh yes, two good teams trying to win. There's, it's just pure. It's manna from heaven. Basketball. I had to, like I got to go see, okay. See, played both Nuggets and the Celtics. Jaylen Brown's foul-baiting commentary post game was pretty fun. And again, he shot 14 free throws and chase shot none in the fourth quarter. Yeah. So are you ready for the anti, I don't know what's going to happen in this game. Okay. The folks who listen and watch, you're going to know, they can check this. It's halftime right now as we're doing this. We're about to wrap up here. Um, Aaron Nees, this is going to be called the anti-bam. Ready? Aaron Neesmith has 24 points in 20 minutes in the first half of this game. How many points and how many minutes where Neesmith end up with? What's his year off? He's coming off an injury, got to rest him, got to make sure he's feeling good. Oh, I gotta look up his career. I want to do his career. Let's just make a little, we'll have like a live prediction. He's got, he's scored some in the past. Oh, is that 31s his career? At least look at him and get his career. Okay. Will he score more than 32 points in this game? No, no, I'm going hard no on that one. Will he play in the fourth quarter of this game? I'm saying he does not play in the fourth quarter of this game and Zubac played 16 minutes. I say he plays, he might not play in the second half. We don't know, but, and it's all okay. And again, people who are tanking are not bad people. They're good people. They're following the incentives. Yes. They're good people making, making, you know, strategic decision. They're not. Chains the incentives. That's the problem. It's not the people doing it. All right. That was fun. Look forward to hope you're, you're back to your Houston roots there. Absolutely. It's going to be great. All right. We look forward to another fantastic week of basketball. There's nothing going on in other basketball this week. We're going to stay focused on the NBA. All BonTips covers colleges now. He was hanging out in Kansas City in Bad Barn with you. I know. BonTips, BonTips, you were at, I can't believe, thank you for mentioning this. Yeah. We haven't, BonTips went to the big 12 tournament for three days. I did. Where everybody else in the NBA was there. I saw, I think I saw 20 lead executives in person at the games. Might have been more. It was, everybody was there. What about the, the LED court that was abandoned midway through? I mean, it was a disaster. I mean, I've known Brett Yormark for a long time. Brett Yormark was the CEO of the Nets for, I think, over a decade. He's now the commissioner of the big 12. He's the guy who 20 years ago and like the, like, I think it might have been the year they won 12 games at Isaac Center at the Meadowlands when he did the reversible Jersey promotion where it was all these jerseys of the star players on the other teams coming to play the Nets. They were handing out for all these games. He has never been shy about promotional things and they did this promotional thing. The crazy thing about it is big 12 tournament had as much NBA talent as there's been in a tournament, a conference tournament in probably since there were like eight teams playing the league because I mean, there in the semifinals on Friday, there might have been 20 guys who were playing the league playing across the four teams. And it's by far the best conference of basketball this year. And then they do this LED screen court where guys are slipping and sliding all over the place. This poor kid Christian Anderson is going to probably be a top 20 pick in the draft this year. Heard just groin in the game. Hopefully he's not out for the tournament. So then they changed back for the semifinals and the finals. Craziest part about it was I didn't even realize it because we were sitting court side, but the court was like a foot higher when it was the LED courts. They had all this cushioning and stuff in. So it became way easier to see because the court literally was down to foot. So like the people in front were just way lower. But yeah, made for a, made for a wild couple of days viewing wise, but the games were, games were great and it was good to see a lot of people from the league, many of whom commented on the podcast. Got many listeners in the league. So shout out to them. Shout out to Doris Burke, by the way, who gave the podcast a shout out and specifically mentioned me and only me by name. Shout out Doris. Any other shout out Jackson, do you have any shout outs you want? Mark any shout outs? Anybody praise you? Anybody say anything nice? You at the grocery store? All right. Thank you very much to Mark and Jackson and for putting this sucker together. Thank you so much to McMahon and Bontoms. Another great week of tremendous content coming your way. And thank you for listening and watching the good worship. Adios amigos.