Tatum Return Make Boston Favorites? Wemby Passion Great For NBA + SGA’s Elite Scoring

When you want your family's staycation to feel like and you're confirmed connecting rooms to feel like and you're a hotel bed to feel like Oh and room service to feel like Choose Hilton because at Hilton, hospitality feels like Good morning. Enjoy your breakfast It matters where you stay. Booknowedhilton.com Hilton for the stay Hello and welcome to the Who Collective Podcast. We talk about the NBA which is during on Sunday evening. Joining us from San Jose, California, where he's out seeing some family, Tim Buntums. Hello everybody. Join us from Dallas, Texas, where he'll be for a few more minutes before he flies off to Oklahoma City tonight for a Monday's game against the Thunder and Nuggets, his band McMahon. Howdy, part of the day. 76 degrees in Omaha today, but the TK is could be pretty nice. Well, taking the last flight out tonight and I got get up on Tuesday morning. So, I'll have to talk to you know, tough to say. Okay, FYI, we did this podcast in two parts to accommodate various things. So the back half of it will be from later, but the reason we waited to do this is because we really wanted to watch the two afternoon games that were on ABC. Starting off with the Celtics and Jason Tatum going into Cleveland. It was not a the Mitchell return for the calves. Jared Allen was out with knee bruise. He banged knees the other night. I thought he might be back by today because he had four days off, but he wasn't ready, but that's not here nor there. Guys, I really didn't get to see Tatum play that much on Friday because I was traveling. Today was the first time I got to watch him live. And so I settled in for that first quarter and bought him. So he scored 12 points in the first quarter. And I was like, oh, okay. And I mean, maybe if you like used them, you know, a magnifying glass and knew some of the way the defense of assignments and stuff were maybe you could have argued that he was a little bit rusty. Maybe the Celtics would argue timing or whatever. And he didn't have a quote unquote, great overall game. He ended up just six of 16, but considering the guy is coming off of a Achilles. My gosh, did he look pretty good? And the Celtics with a easy win in Cleveland. Cleveland is one of the hottest teams in the league. They just smack the pistons at home a couple of days ago. Bontemps, I'm not over reacting here to one game because I would not over react if he looked terrible. But if you are a Celtics fan, frankly, if you're a contender in the Eastern Conference, Jason Tatum really returns. Man, looks pretty good on that leg. Yeah, I mean, look, in Friday's game, I absolutely didn't talk to anybody either one of these games. He was awfully rusty at the beginning of the game. This is first five or six shots. He was clearly trying not to force it through a bunch of passes early. Got some assists. Eventually hit, got a tip dunk late in the first half. And hit a three right after that, got himself going and it up. They get like 17, 10 and 7, but it was a reminder that yes, like today, he went six for 16 today. He didn't shoot the ball. Awesome on Friday. But the reason we have talked about the impact Tatum can have and why I've kept saying if he could come back at anything resembling remotely what he was before. I think they're the best team is because of all this other stuff. He is probably, if not their best rebounder, that name is Keta has emerged. He's their second best rebounder. He is a really good help defender. He's a good passer. He's a really good shooter. So teams are going to be focused on him. He can create offense. He can isolate and draw the defense and kick it around to guys. Like he, he just, his presence on the court alone is going to attract so much attention from the opposition and he's going to be able to do so many things to help out defensively. That he doesn't have to come back and immediately be first team on the day. Jason, to have the big impact. And you saw in these two games, he isn't first team on the day. He's going to be a Jason Tatum today. But he's immediately an effective NBA player. And remember, no offense to Baylor Shireman and Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walls. By the way, Baylor Shireman had a very nice game today. Very nice. Against the calves. Arguably one of the best game, probably the best game of his NBA career. We'll get to that shortly. But the reminder is like for all this talk, which I think has been silly from the beginning at all, Jason Tatum could mess up the Celtics. Like he's taking minutes away from hard playing role players. Like those guys have all had a nice impact. But he's stepping back in and it's only going to be an additive. And through these first two games, I think you can only call it an unqualified success to see him play the way he is, move in the way he is. Like, you know, I wouldn't say he's exactly a mid season form because he's a little rusty with the shot and stuff. But you couldn't ask for anything better for your Celtics fan. And I think it to me, this is reestablished Boston as the clear favorites in the east. If he's able to stay on the court because I mean, they've just leveled up dramatically, having him back out there. Yeah, I agree with that, especially as we speak, I look up and the pistons are down 20 plus to the Miami Heat late in the first half. The pistons have been, they've been struggling a bit lately. But I thought Tatum's return was awesome. And yeah, he missed the first six shots. You know, one of those was a great move, a uncontested dunk that he front rammed. But yeah, he probably a little bit of jittery, a little bit rusty, but 12 rebounds. Seven assists. He's moving well. That's the main, like 10 months off in the kill. He's moving well. He doesn't look, he doesn't look like a diminished athlete. Then today comes out and after the first court, like, is this kind of going to go for 30 something in the second game back? And so he's not, you know, just like the first game, you know, he had a burst, a big time scoring. And quite been able to put a whole game together, but you see that he did. He came through big time for him closing this one out after the cast made a run, had a nice drive for a layup. And then he had a wide open three on the backside. And you know, that wide open three on the backside, like he can do that. And that was because Peyton Pritchard was whooping the calves butt so much they threw two on Peyton Pritchard. Get off it to Kada. Kada swings it over to Jason Tatum wide open. There's not a need for Tatum to put a cape on. He doesn't have to come back and be a superhero. He can just fit in and enhance what they have going because they establish themselves as a great team this year without him. Right. And without all the guys that they lost. Look, and this is why I really have very small patience for the Tatum Brown discussion. Number one, there are championships. That's been proven. Secondly, the Celtics are a system team. Obviously, there are going to be sections of games where they may lean into a player or not. But the Celtics very much by design, very much by Joe Mizzoula's hand or a system team. And so, and the system is the system. And Jason Tatum, the system was built around him. He will just move in and the system will go on. You know, like, you know, there's certain things depending on their personnel. They may do a little differently in terms of game planning. But I system built on two way wing play, right? And they have a second. They're quite really skilled one. Right. Well, between Derek White, Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, there might not. There's, I mean, you could maybe argue a couple other teams, but from two to four, there's hardly if any teams in the league that can match the two way ability to dribble past you defend. That those three guys, that's why the Nick's invested crazy amounts of assets into getting an anobia and bridges because they were trying to deal with the ball with that two way wing. And those guys aren't nearly on the same level. And the tension versus Brown thing, it is a it's a tired discussion. It's a silly discussion. It's something to their credit. They did not let tear them apart. They want a championship together. They have the potential to win more championships together. Brown is, you know, they're both on super max contracts. Like, there's no, there's no reason. It's like, then happy one, his team or his team. That's okay. And, you know, Tatum comes back. I might as well say he has nothing to prove because obviously these guys are all super competitive. But if Jason Tatum is a shell of himself for the rest of his career, which clearly is not. But if he was, he'd still be a Hall of Famer. He's a five time all NBA selection. He's a champion. You know, he's a gold medalist. Two time gold medalist. Two time gold medalist. Well, yeah, let's to spin ahead to the game today a little bit. I wanted to ask you, Brian. That's the leader of Caffes Corner. The takeaway I had from this game watching it was the Caffes could do nothing to bother the Celtics, the entire game. Like, even some of these shots that look kind of difficult that like Peyton Pritchard would take in the fourth quarter. Like, Jalen Brown would take these guys could get to their spots wherever they wanted. And they weren't bothered. And they got seemingly a wide open three almost every trip. They worked the clock down like 16, 18, 20 seconds. Most trips got a wide open shot. Almost every trip. I was just really, I mean, I guess I wasn't stunned because we have had questions about the Caffes ability to guard on the perimeter at the whole time. But what was your takeaway on the Caffes today? I was more against these guys as I was watching the game. I was more affected by their struggles against the Celtics defense. And this is a Caffes team that has been the number one or number two offense efficient wise since mid-January. And they've been routinely putting up power numbers, particularly generating lots of open threes. And the Celtics were in their full switch operation. And the Caffes really struggled to get good looks in this game. They early in the game were attacking their game plan was clearly to attack Sam Hauser. Yeah, Evan Mowbli actually had a pretty good game offensively. And they were able to get switches and attack Hauser. And Hauser got shown up a couple of times. But Hauser hit five threes. And he certainly made up for it at the other end. And when they weren't attacking Hauser, they weren't able to dent anything. And the bench play, I mean, the Caffes invested a lot in the season to improve their bench. And Max Truce is now working out with their G-league team. And so there's a return. I don't know what you're going to expect from him, but that their lineup is going to potentially even improve a little bit. But the shooter and key analyst trades were meant to improve their bench. And also, you know, with Harden being in the starting lineup, replacing a guy who's missed a lot of the season. Darius Garland, that improves the bench and move Jayland Tyson the bench. The bench was, you know, you wouldn't necessarily see this repeatedly in a four game series or in a seven game series. But, you know, I think the bench score was 41 to 13. Baylor Schirman was 16 and 10 paid preacher day 18. 18 and seven. Yeah, two guys, single-handedly, two reserves single-handedly outscored the Caffes bench. And, you know, my takeaway from this game, one man for a guy, 10 months off in Achilles, Taden looks amazing. And can't wait to see how he looks when he's had a month plus to ramp up for the playoffs. You know, that Joe Mazzola said no man's restriction clearly. It's about 27. It's where he's played both games. So Taden looks awesome. And then I would imagine it's only going to get better. By the way, the hook aside, if there's a minute restriction, shouldn't you have to say that there's a minute restriction? Yeah. Like, I mean, well, I mean, I don't want to get in a mental session. But I was pretty confident, you know, again, when Joe Mazzola declared there was a minute restriction on Friday. It's a man's point. That's pretty confident. It was playing 45. I know. Yeah, anybody think he was coming back playing 35. I mean, I do what to say, but that's a transparency of one wagering like either you're going to do it or you're not. If anybody was betting that Jason Taden's going to have a full 35-year workload, I say. It has more to do with the fact that if you announce there's no minute restriction and certainly know that there is. I'm not going to go down that path. I'm not going to agree with you. I'm not sure the general NBA fan realizes just what a stud patent preacher has become. I know he won six man the year last year. Bond Tim, he made your all contract team and it's amazing. This guy's making, you know, about eight mils and two seasons. By the way, when they gave him that contract, we all thought we were like seriously that much for patent preacher. Like we. What did they want? I did not at the time. Well, come with me in that. What I would say that's more interesting than that is in the middle of his third season, which I believe is Joe Mizzou was first season. Bade Bridger was trying to leave. Like he wasn't playing. He was ready to be traded. He wasn't happy. Like he was not thrilled in Boston. And for things to go from where they were at that point when he was barely in the rotation to this guy that became a walk rotation. Player. Hitting all these half court shots when they were on the win the title. Now like you said, big man. Is that one of the best value contracts in the league? If he had played more games off the bench, he'd be a shoe into when six man again this year. Now he's back off the bench, destroying for them. And, you know, like I said earlier, at the end of the game, he comes in in the fourth quarter. And he's just getting to his spots in the mid range, Jaila Tyson, you know, solid defender. I couldn't do anything to stop him. He's just getting whatever lucky wants, you know, bangin' in huge threes late. Like his development into this critical piece for them. It's a testament to, it's like you said, Brian, the system for the Celtics. I think is even less about the way they play. And it's their player development system. They have an unbelievable player development system. When you look at their roster, Peyton Pritchard comes out of that. That's the late first round pick. Jordan Wall. It's not even. It's not even late first round pick. It's not even like. It's not even like skilled, I mean, skilled development, yes. But like part of the biggest thing, we talked to people in Boston when they talk about Pritchard. The guy, they didn't teach the guy to shoot. The guy's been an elite shooter since he was a kid. They gave him his confidence back. His confidence had gotten shaken. Jaila Zula came in and with him and his staff said, Peyton, we're going to get your confidence back. And you certainly look at him now. And you say, well, of course, this guy has confidence. Well, guess what? His confidence a couple years ago was vastly reduced. And that's what the some of the basis of his recovery is. But, um, and he's a guy who this is, you know, 26, 27. Now he's 28. This is a guy making major leaps at that point in his career. And, you know, I mentioned the two Tatum buckets. The two biggest buckets of the game, you know, Bontans alluded to. They're Peyton Pritchard, I paid and Pritchard Isle buckets after the calves trim the lead. Single digits with like four minutes left. Do you know who the most efficient volume ISO score is in the NBA? This season, I would guess it's Peyton Pritchard. It is Peyton Pritchard. One point going into today. 1.23 points per ISO possession. Shays 1.17 Lucas 1.11. Those are elite elite numbers. 1.23. That's crazy. Yeah. And by the way, they, they look like he should be playing in my pickup games. And Mazzula has zero obviously 0% qualms, calling his number when he needs a basket. By the way, in a game where he didn't shoot the, he was only two or seven from the field. Namestead had 11 rebounds and was plus 13 and was again a monster inside. And it's another guy that has been a huge feather in the cap of their development system, bringing him along the last couple of years. And he's just stepped in as a starting center and been really, really good all year. By the way, was this too a real drive by you mentioned that the pistons are down 20 at the half. The he, I have no idea what will happen the second half of that game. We're not going to wait for it, but I'm just telling you. If the he closed it out and they are at home and the heat have been very good at home this year. That'd be five straight wins for Miami and they went up to Charlotte. Yeah. And Thursday Friday ended the Hornets. Two of those wins are against Brooklyn, but nonetheless. If they, and Kate cutting him his back playing in this game, he missed the game the other night, but he. You know, cutting him and Duren are starting in this game between the second half of the net's pistons game on Saturday. When the nets outscored them 61 to 43 came from I think 24 down and one and the first half of this game against the pistons. They've now been outscored by I believe 40 points in 48 minutes, which is not great. I'm not going to I'm not going to I'm not going to I'm not going to play against and that's not going to over react too much for the definitely in a in a mini rut. And by the way, this he this heat winning streak is happening with Norman Pal out. So another one of the best ISO scores and we talk more about them later. I don't want to talk because I feel like Jackson's going to have to cut this out if they. Yeah, right. Some big second I've come back. So anyway, before we move to the what we recorded earlier, I do want to talk about the the Lakers. So that was a excellent win for the Celtics today. Real, you know, warning, I think to the league really strong performance by the Lakers, particularly defensively today against the Knicks at home. New York just scores 97 points. The Lakers led this from start to finish. I think their lead was a 26 at one point. LeBron was a late scratch or maybe not a late scratch. He was questionable coming in, but he was a scratch with a left foot thing that he sometimes misses games with. I don't need to give like tree top analysis here like, but you know, the data shows that when LeBron plays when one of the three is out, they tend to be a little bit better defensively. It's not and it's not have shot at anybody directly, but when Luca and Austin Reeves are together this year, their lineup data says that they're about seven points plus seven over 100 possessions. And when they all three play together, they're in the negative. So it's, you know, there could be a whole bunch of different reasons why let's let's just be honest. There, the reason those three guys don't fit together is none of them at this point play much defense. And you can sort of get away with having two guys who aren't going to guard. It's hard. It's hard with two. It's almost impossible with three. And that, I mean, that's the biggest problem they have. They're trying to fit all of those guys out there at the same time. And it's hard. Take any of them off the court. You're probably going to have more balance because you got to ball Dominic guys and then three guys around him who are going to more likely. So they can start Hachimura and smart who, you know, Marcus smart was one of 10 shooting today, but he was plus 27. So what does that tell you about what happened when out when he was out there. And you know, allows them to, you know, allows them to play Vanderbilt, who's a better defender in this particular game Luke canard hit three three. So you got a basket. You got a floor stretcher out there. I think when they divvy up those minutes. And again, it's not an analysis of LeBronzle player obviously or Austin Reves as a player. It's an analysis of the fit of the roster. And, you know, the, the data ball baller data here like the little lineup combinations. Reves and Luca without LeBronzle this year. I don't know if this includes today or not, but it's a plus 16.9 net rating in 329 minutes. With all three of them together, it's plus 1.5 and 293. And there's a plus by the way, it's been in the negative for a big point for. Yeah, and there's significantly worse on both ends of the floor wouldn't when they're all three together. And again, I think LeBronzle can go somewhere and give a team a boost. I just think the fit of the lake is in. And that's why I like I still think the Lakers can build a contender around Luke and Austin Reves. If they add, if they use the financial flexibility from the Braun leaving and add like a quality 3 and D wing in a real rim protector eight and played well the day. The guy you can count on on a night in night out basis. I think I don't think the Lakers are just you know miles and miles and miles away from being a real factor in terms of contention. The next thing that's happening with the Braun on roster. The next head of miserable shooting day today. They were eight of 34 on three. I mean, I have to say. L.A. afternoon games, especially today, savings time. It's like just like New York afternoon games. They are one of the best to spurs last week. This is the time. Yeah. So I mean, I don't want to over react, but it's a really nice winning the end of the Lakers are you know, they've been playing 500 or worse basketball for the last, you know, couple weeks and you're starting to look behind you at that play in situation. And so to get a win like this. Well, and again, it's worth pointing out the rockets and walls and and the nuggets continue to have brutal losses. The nuggets have all these injuries. We talked about that later on the pods will leave that. But as of right now, the Lakers are a game back of Minnesota where they host on Tuesday and there are game back of Houston. Like there like, do I think the Lakers are one of the three best teams in the Western Conference. No, I do not. I think they have real flaws. I think it probably lose to most of these teams in a plough series. However, they've won all these clutch games. They put themselves in a position now where they can make a push down stretch here. Like they could get to third very easily like the rest of the world. They're trying to play these games. And third place, third, the three C in the West is a remarkable place because you obviously are on the opposite side of the bracket as the thunder and you get home court in the first round. And then I don't know who's going to win, but you know, you get a young spurs team in the second round. I disperse would be favorite in that series, but you know, it's better than playing the thunder in the second round. So if you're looking, if you're going to create a scenario, which the Lakers are going to make a playoff run and get to the conference finals first, the first bullet point is you get the three C before we handed over to ourselves from earlier. Just a point out. Did you see that in the, I think it was in the third quarter of this game that Luca gave the money sign. Yeah, when they didn't call the charge. He had turned the ball over. It was, it could have been called it. I mean, I mean, I thought it was a charge. Yeah, but like, dude, you're up. I think they're up. Might even been double figures at the time. Like, come on, man. He's not fine for that before. So he gets knocked to the floor. He's laying on the ground out of the basket. Looks over at the official. Like, seriously, you're not going to call this. He gives the money. And I will say this. He's probably going to get fine for that. He's, as you mentioned, you've been fine before. You know, Rudy Gobera got fine. The second time Rudy got fine. He got fine to 100 G's. I don't know if it'll be that bad, but like, had the referee seen it. I would have been 16th T. He might have 16th technical. Not might have. He would have. And so, yes. And so what I would say is it could be worse. Whatever fine he might get, he could have gotten a text. So that would have been much more expensive. And also would have been missed the game. So. And would have missed this gaming against again. Would have missed this gaming against the walls on Tuesday, which is a massively important game for them. Yes, which I'm hoping to attend. Oh, I'm windy in the house. All right. We shall now pass it to ourselves earlier today when we are younger, more naive, and now we're older and wiser. So we go to our younger selves from earlier today. More hoop collective podcast after this. So we had what I thought was one of the more memorable parts of the regular season with a couple of Spurs games last week. And this, it happened at the end of the week. So I'm not sure how it hit the news cycle. But the Spurs had back to back victories. They had just come home from their rodeo trip. And they had a real quality win over the pistons. The pistons match up with the Spurs is not a convenient one for Detroit because the perimeter pressure they can put on Kate Kenney Ham and the rim defense with Victor is it. It's a tough one. If that ends up being the finals, which it's on the board, I would like to Spurs in that matchup, which we can talk about in a second. However, they finally have a little bit of a respite and they come back and they play the Clippers. And you could just tell in this game that there was a bit of an energy crash. Plus for Lopez had an awesome game for the Clippers. Clippers actually have a lot of low pests. It's raining on him. He was making Wimby Gordam out there. I'm not sure if it was his best game of the year, but it was certainly up there. By the way, as a quick aside, on Monday, Shay is going to, right, McMahon, he's going to potentially tie the record for Will Chambers. Yeah, he's tying him Monday, breaking it in the next game. I would say I would assume he's breaking it. We're going to see if he can do it. He's done it 125 or 104. What is it? 125 straight now. I'm pretty sure 126 and 127 are on the horizon. He did it against the match when he strained his ab in the first half. I know he's going to get that record. That's true. Anyway, so it's 125. Is it right now? Yes. Kauai is at 41. That's pretty good. More than anything, that means that Kauai is finished 41 consecutive games that he's played. So it hasn't been an early exit. Kauai had a good game that night and Jordan Miller, who's been there, sort of a G league discovery, had a good game that night. So anyway, the Clippers in San Antonio build a 25 point lead. The Spurs had been through a number of real tough games. Clippers actually have been playing relatively well, all things considered in the wake of the trades. They've been putting up some decent numbers. Anyway, so what did it get to make bandit? It gets to 25. It was 75 to 51 point. That's clean. And then the Spurs walk them down. And we routinely see big comebacks. So 25, that's pushing in a second half, 25 point comeback. That's 25 in the second half of the game. That's the second half of a back to back for a team that has its MVP candidate on a tight minutes restriction because they ramped his minutes up the night before. Victor played 39 the night before. So they weren't going to run his minutes high. That 39 is the second most of the season. And so they weren't playing them more than 20, 22 minutes. So yeah, it was pretty unlikely come back giving all those things. Even though they were at home. Right. So they walk them down. And then there's this play. I don't know if you want to describe this inbound play late in the game. You know, Tyler's unbelievable thing. Yeah, Tyler drew up an awesome play where they had Victor guarding Derek Jones Jr. in the second half. I think a lot of that's because Lopez was so effective in the first half. They wanted them. I got there a more comfortable sagging off of. Anyways, they set a back screen on Victor. This is out on the left wing. We pretty high up out on the left wing. I forgot who set screen, but a great screen. And the play is a back screen on Victor Jones blob over the top. And if you pause at the right time, Jones is in position to launch. And Wimby is up above the elbow. I mean, it's he's 15, maybe 20 feet away. And Batum looked at it. Yeah, Nico Batum is inbounding the ball from the side out of bounds. Yeah, Batum looked at it. Right next to the clipper of bench, right? Yeah, yeah. And the guy's very familiar with Victor and Miannis skills as fellow friends. Yes. And he didn't go to it. And after the game, Tyler said, you know, Nico thought Victor was playing in between. In other words, he thought Victor was going to be able to get to it. Well, not only that, he stepped over the line. Well, no, then he passes it in to Lopez. And Lopez is like this one to play. Lopez passed it right back to Batum. Batum hadn't gotten inbound yet. Yeah. So the point of critical turnover, the point of this is Ty Lue draws up a play that was probably going to work. And Victor Wembyn-Yama successfully defended. I want you to I want to be clear. Victor Wembyn-Yama successfully defended the rim from 20 feet away from the rim. What I would say is the threat of Victor Wembyn-Yama successfully intimidated Nico Batum and not trying to. How do you want to qualify it? That's defending the rim. Sure. Yeah. Just his presence on the floor. And as we were talking about this on our on our group chat, you even said he goes, not only did he defend the rim from 20 feet away, he was getting scraped. Yeah. And again, Batum, I'm sure when Batum watched that film, he was like, man, but but when the understandable reaction, yeah, Wendy is such a dominant presence that he forces guys into being so hesitant that a lot of times as hesitancy is the right decision. In this case, it wasn't. So the spurs, I can't remember now because it's been four days. I mean, did the deer and Fox, I think the ear and Fox, he was being fourth quarter deer and Fox. I can't remember who to credit some of their offensive plays. Victor had an incredible block at the where he blocked one end and then ran the court and finished with the dunk at the other end during the comeback. That is probably a top 10 highlight for him this year in terms of actual eye candy. I don't know man. I don't know. There's a lot of competition. I know with that. It's a lot less. That that was not. That was not. It was pretty special. Yeah. Okay, fine. I'll back that off. But whatever it was. So, but you play your, you know, McMahon, I didn't realize this. I'm just now looking at the box score. Dude. He only played 22 minutes. That's what I'm saying. He was on a tight minutes restriction. And because again, he played 39 the night before and let me just, let me just in 60 roughly 61 minutes over two nights. The man scored 65 points. Grab 26 rebounds. The lock nine shots. And hit eight threes. And was a plus 30 again, that 61 minutes over 30 hours. And he was tired and he was emotional when that when that final buzz was down. Okay. So this is the bucket to seal it was he ends up challenging a, a quiet three that's, that's very short. And he just leaked out after the challenge. Fox got the rebound just toss it up front and Victor had an emphatic dunk for the dagger. And that that was the play that sealed it. So, by the way, so you know what the Spurs fans call. The the the Stefan castle, Wemba, Yama, you know, defensive, you know, duo. They call it area 51 because castle number five, Victor number one. Great nickname. You know, it's kind of like the dorker chamber. You know, area 51. Kade was in area 51 on was a Wednesday night. Both times they played. Right. And the vehicles are the the nickname for the fan group at the Spurs arena Frost bank center. And obviously the alien or Wemba great, great nicknames associated all with all of them. So anyway, they get this victory. And this is, you know, this reaction. Victor is emotional to the point where he's in tears. Would you say they were there were I wouldn't say tears of water. There was water. There was water. There was water works for sure. And it was a it was emotional. He was exhausted. Right. You know, not full boo-hooing, but certainly some tears were shed. And after the game, he said that it was the most emotional 30 hours of basketball of his life. I think that's how he framed it. Yeah, that that honestly surprised me a little bit just because I would imagine some of the like, you know, playing for the French national team. Right. But that that surprised when the French national team won the quarter finals and semi finals in Paris when they were underdogs in both. That was that was pretty big, but it didn't have the component of this comeback. So it may not, you know, I'm sure it was very nationalistic, but whatever. I'm not going to hold them to that statement. But, you know, I think some people could use it as maybe a use it against him as kind of a sign of weakness. I mean, there will be there will be nerds on the internet who do and people trying to be cool on the internet for sure. But this is what I what I really like about it is that he values competition and winning so much. And this is one of the things that, you know, Bontempsen, I have talked about this for years about the need to have something to play for and enjoy as a team and a fan base beyond just a championship. Because if you just have the championship as your only goal, the percentage of fans that are not going to enjoy the percentage of players or I mean it's it's not it's not feasible. And, you know, what I would call low level ecstasy and Victor cares so much. And, you know, it's kind of like the whole concept of him with the drum, the whole concept and the whole jackals thing. Yes, it's to let's enjoy this regular season. You know, let's enjoy this regular season. Let's enjoy this process. And, you know, I just remember when I went to a spurs game during rook victors, I think his rookie year. And he had a 40 20 game and they beat the, they beat the, the, the nicks in overtime. That was a night that Jalen Brunson had 60 very memorable. They, you know, they give Victor the microphone after the game. And it's a March game. It's right about this time of year actually. Yeah, I'm just right right about March. They're not going anywhere. That's the right. And Victor like announces to the crowd. I love it here. You know, everything like that. I think he's number one. I think he's being genuine number two. I think that this is something that we, you know, like he's such a breath of fresh air for the league. And, you know, this is him saying, listen, we're going to, I'm going to play in the All Star game. Like whether you guys want to or not, I'm going to play in the All Star game. I'm going to introduce this fan section. I'm going to introduce this, this post game ritual of us, you know, pounding the drum. I know that that's not a unique idea because the light, the beam was sort of the beginning of that concept. But, and it's all sort of stolen from Oak from European stuff. But, you know, this is him basically saying like, let's enjoy every sandwich. You know, like let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's pay attention to ordinary time. You guys know, I have every breakfast taco. Yes, I've, I've got this lame concept in my, you know, my philosophy of life, whatever, but, you know, I love ordinary time. This is one of my favorite times of the year in the NBA, ordinary time. And I know it's lame. You can make fun of me or whatever. This just hits me. Like this is the type, it's such a breath of fresh air. And so I'm all for this. I'm not arguing that winning a game in March is more important than winning a game in June. But I am arguing that you can say, listen, what do we have in our lives in San Antonio that's better on a Thursday night in March than watching Victor Wemba Nyama. And what isn't there a value that Victor Wemba Nyama uplifted an entire city who, who wasn't in, you know, in that game. And then anybody who was watching it out there was like, wow, what an amazing experience. Is there, is it not worth something that, that, you know, that you can, you know, this is, this is what I did years ago on Twitter where I was talking about how I was watching it. I was talking about how almost every night in the NBA something amazing happens. And this is what Bond has been doing. Did you stole that from Wendy? Not whatever. But this is what Bond has been doing to share. I don't know if he said that. He is basically saying like, can we not enjoy that on a random Tuesday in January that Jalen Brunson leads a 10 to run in the last two minutes to win in New York and, you know, Neckley Yokech has a triple double in the first half. Like, you know, just, sorry, I could go on and on about this. Well, this is, yeah, this is, this is another reminder that the league is an unbelievable shape going forward with probably the two leading people into the next generation being Victor Wemba Nyama and Cooper flag to insanely competitive young stars like that. That is a really important thing for the league. And it's the same reason why for the past few months now I keep banging the drum on the need to change these incentives at the end of the season to where all these games have meaning and to have wins count towards lottery positioning. It all goes back to the same thing where, you know, 0.2% of people at this point know what ordinary time is. I know. I know I can't even went to Catholic school. I know I'm not an American Catholic, but just a concept of it. Yes, but it is like, yeah, of course, again, doesn't know. But it is, I didn't think it was something like revolutionary concept. Listen, you know what? Let me take a, let me take a detour and I'll just tell you when you're a kid going to Catholic school, you have advent, which is around Christmas. We got to do a bunch of extra stuff. And you have lent around Easter, which is going on right now. We got to do a bunch of extra stuff. I didn't like doing the extra stuff. I think the ordinary time. There's all kinds of different rules. You had to give up stuff. No meat on certain days. What have you? Okay. The summertime was known in the liturgical calendar as quote ordinary time. A magical big word. That's what it was said. Like when my was dragged to church when I was, you know, and it would be like, you know, mid June. And I just really wanted to get outside and play. You would see on the, the thing I would say welcome to, to mass on June 17th, 1989, the 16th Sunday at an ordinary time. Ordinary time was great. No extra stuff. It was in those the best weather time of the year. I knew when we, like, when I saw the calendar go and it's now ordinary time. I was like, yes, ordinary time. I love ordinary time. So this is my, sorry, that's the detour. Go ahead. It's all good. But it is, you know, right now we're an ordinary time in the NBA. We are an ordinary time in the NBA. And it often leads to a lot of dud nights, especially in the last couple of months of the season. And before the playoffs start. And it's why every person I've talked to, general managers, scouts, coaches, players, anybody, all agrees that anything to make these last couple of months of the season not be this interminable slog where you have all these teams taking games off and trying to lose and, you know, manipulating lineups, whatever. You know, it'd be nice if we had a full slate of games every day where we could have things come out of it like this Clipper Spurs game. And like the Piston Spurs game where you have two teams competing all the way through. But it was awesome to see. It was awesome to see Victor get that into a game on a Friday night in March. And like I said, the fact that these young stars are so competitive and so into playing for everything every night. I think it's a great, I think it's a great thing for Lee going forward. And, you know, it's another sign of why the Spurs are a team to be reckoned with. Even though they have the lack of postseason experience that would typically mean it's probably going to take a year or two for them to get where they really hope to go. But they're they're going to try to talk about them and say, well, how are you going to manage the emotions of going through two months? Because that's one thing like the playoffs are the exact, you know, antithesis of ordinary time. There is nothing about playoff time that is ordinary. And the if you get emotional after, you know, two games and 30 hours, how are you going to be when you've gone through a, you know, 13 day, seven game second round war. And it's like, okay, you have 36 hours to prepare for game one of the Western conference finals. Like, let's go, Victor, like, you know, and my answer to that is he'll take that challenge like he takes every challenge. And first of all, there's no such thing as ordinary time with Victor women, Yama. There's no such thing as ordinary with Victor women, Yama. Well, it was extraordinary with every single step that he takes every single game that he plays every tier that he sheds. And I can tell you one place that Victor will not waste a single shred of energy will be on the reaction of people he doesn't know. This is a guy when he lays in bed at night at 930 or 915, he's got to get the bed by 930. He's a big proponent of sleep. Well, you know what he's not doing? He's not doing this. He's not scrolling on his phone, seeing what people he has no idea, look like, think about him at all. He's reading a book, right? And my point is like, hey, you know, if the people that are making fun of him, he doesn't care. He's not going to see that. He's not going to worry about what some pimple face, who has an anime avatar thinks about him. Who cares, right? And listen, they would say about, sorry, I'm sorry, good. No, like, okay, the guy, the guy, and like, you know, in B got made fun of him. And that was a completely different situation. But in B when he boohooed after the, after the co-action, I would cry too. Like, I don't know if I would cry. I would have endeavored not to cry on the, on the court, but, you know, he cares. Yeah, I would much rather have to say, man, that guy look kind of nerdy because he, or kind of, went because he was crying. I'm much rather that guy who cares enough to shed tears. Right. The other thing is some of that was a camera that was in the back hallway. Yeah. And whatever, who cares? Like the guy can cry. Yeah. That's not the point. So, you know, I was at the IT department lectures me about all the time, like toxic masculinity is making fun of a guy for shedding a couple tears. I bet I'll bet that has been like all about toxic masculinity. I've heard of the time, but again, Victor Wimbanyama cares about every game he plays, about every step he takes towards, not just towards a potentially championship, but, you know, he, he really, truly cares about achieving his potential. And understanding that his potential is perhaps unprecedented. I was told by, remember their coaching staff that he thought that the game against the pistons might have been the best defense performance he'd seen. Like, their, their guards apparently weren't, were awesome defensively in that game. And Wimbany just cleaned up so many things. And dude, that's one of the best all around games that we've seen this year. The guy has 38, 16 block five shots played 30, 39 minutes. You know, it was just all over the floor on both ends. The first play of the game, he, it's like a shot clock 27, 28 footer swish. That says at home poor Jalen Durham wasn't hell trying to guard him on the perimeter. Like two or three of his fouls were crap. I got to go contest out here. Oh, it's a pump. Fake. He's off the dribble. A big man's not used to guarding somebody who can go pump fake off the dribble like that. That was like all of Wimbee. And, you know, for him to come back the next night, if anything, my concern would be, how's he going to hold up to the playoff grind? Not, not a motion, but like physically, but we're seeing one of the most incredible talents and a guy who wants to squeeze every bit out of that talent. Just having an unbelievable run. And to me, the MVP, Shay versus Wimbee now, that's the conversation. I'll do respect to Joker who's not been the same since coming back from the knee. And then the two games against the spurs. I'm sorry, I can't put K above Wimbee on a ballot watching those two games. At a fair point, I had him ahead in the ballot. I think you think it being a little aggressive drop in Yoke a child completely. But I, I would agree also completely that Kade is not going to win. We're going to have another year without an American MVP barring, like, you know, catastrophic bad injury luck across the board for the other three guys. Because it is going to be one of those three guys. I don't know if I'd say Yoke itches out, but now he would continue to go to my ballot at this point. Yeah, that's fair. But Victor, Victor certainly continues to keep himself in the mix with games like this. And while keeping them keeping the spurs within, at least shouting distance of the thunder for that top seed in the Western conference. I got a, I got a stat that's going to really annoyed the USWB. The spurs. Nine and oh now when Wimbee hits at least four threes, including these last two games. Yeah, that, you know, I'm not surprised that they have a great record when he hits a lot of threes. Like that makes sense. It's, you know, if you told me before the game, he's going to make four or seven threes or four of eight threes. I would say, yeah, great. Do it. That's not, that's not the issue. Yeah. And yes, I, I'm on team Bonds. I'm on this one. And Victor would slap us both down in a tenth of a second. He doesn't want to hear it. But eight and two only attempts at least nine. That's fine. I'm prepared to admit I'm wrong when they're holding the trophy. And he's shot them with three pointers all the way through four rounds. I'm prepared to do that. I don't mind Victor again to reiterate. I don't mind Victor shooting threes. I just don't want Victor. I'm, I'm even less concerned about Victor shooting threes, especially if they're catching shoot threes. And if he's handling the ball on the perimeter, that's really the bigger thing for me. I just want Victor to be finished in place. If that's catching shoot threes, fine. That's catching shoot. Lobs for dunks at the rim. Fine. Like whatever the play, I just, I've said it a million times, but Victor is a play finisher on offense and a play record on defense. That is the, that is the optimal way for him to play at least today. Maybe at some point in the future, his handles will be tightened up to the point where he can really also run offense. But it's just not the case now. And I think if he focuses on being a scoring machine and catching the ball and finishing, especially with all these guys, all these talented guards who get him the ball and spurs, I just think that's a better way for them to go than him trying to be a guard. More hoop collective podcast after this. Speaking of Shay and the Thunder, where you're headed to later tonight, McMahon, to go see the nuggets play the Thunder on Monday in OK. See the Thunder of one five in a row. There are five in Austin, Shay came back. He's played in four of those games. I think they've won eight of nine overall, starting to hold teams to, you know, a hundred or less or in the less than one 10 again, more regularly. And they went through that rough stretch. They were, you know, they were giving up some, some higher point numbers. The Sunday Saturday game against the Warriors, missed opportunity for Golden State. I'm sure because they had well, three gold state gold state. I'm not sure I'd call it a miss opportunity. They were in a close game with half the team out. Well, yeah, I know. But that was not a premium performance by the Thunder. Sure. And now in the Thunder really banged up now, Heart and Stein are calling a half contusion, which is at least good news that it's not a strain. You know, Karusom is this game after taking a shot to his hip. Yeah, J. W. is still out. AJ Mitchell still out. Yeah, AJ Mitchell still out. The GJ Mitchell is pretty close from what I think AJ Mitchell is pretty close. I don't have a great feeling exactly when double be back, other than just that they're clearly going to air on the side of caution. Given that he's came back and then tweaked that hamster, strain that hamstring right away again. Well, they got to keep, they got to be cautious with Heart and Stein too. I mean, it's gone back and forth with the calf injuries. But I mean, this has been a going back the last season. He's had all sorts of different ailments with them. And that's, you know, obviously they're the most talented team and the deepest team. But especially if they're going up against, you know, if they got to go up against Yolk and Victor to get to the finals, say, they're going to need Isaiah Heart and Stein out there to play against these teams. So, you know, that's a, that's a pretty tricky injury to manage and, you know, hasn't really been an update on his status. So then he's just missed the next game after he came out of the update was they called it a contusion, which well, but I'm meant in third terms of like any sort of time line. Well, the sport, the, the Thunder only scored 37 points in the second half of this game and they won. Okay. So they, they, they limp sort of limp through it, but Shay hit a crucial three pointer with around a minute left. They're pretty much pretty. A little going right step back. Yeah. And I mentioned this last night, I think I took on temps. I love that the, the, the, the arena of the Pay Com Center, they played Queen and not we are the champions when there's their victory song. We just in general, as I, as I continue to grow gray hair and I develop my stick in the mud quality is I more queen and more James Brown and be a renaz. That's my James Brown. Yes, absolutely. Should be more James Brown. Tell me when James Brown is a bad decision. I just didn't, I didn't expect that to be coming from absolutely. That's all absolutely the truth at a renaz like for a rena rock. Like this is just perfect for you. Dance, you know, like I feel good. Dan and I'm not saying I'm dancing. I'm saying I'm enjoying the music. Cinder Black does that shimmy whenever music is on. All right. All right. Let's see. We'll swap to give him a international debut. Anyway, this was not one of Shay's best games to say to say he has had a couple of excellent performances since he's come back. Look like he came right back to the worry left couple of high mid to low 30 point games. But in this game, you know, just to get people in their feelings, he, he was six of 15 from the field, which is one of his worst shooting games of the year and 14 of 15 at the line. And oh no, Shay went to the line a lot. Yes, I know. It's an international controversy. I know. And so there's now like a whole library of opposing coaches. Like we could almost sort of just line them all up and opposing coaches have commentary. You know, because the media asks them after every game when she has a game like this. And Steve Kerr, I thought, you know, sometimes Steve Kerr can get a little over his skis with the media. Sometimes Steve Kerr can be pitch perfect with the media. He's very interesting all the time, which we appreciate. Anyway, what he said is I don't have a problem with Shay doing this. He's not breaking the rules. He's operating within the rules. It's the rules that are the problem. And I would like to say to Steve that that is the most mature thing that many, many people have been given chances. Now Mike Brown kind of said something somewhat similar when the nicks were when last weekend when the nicks were out when the Spur Thunder were in New York. But basically every coach is pulling their hair out over it. But Shay is just, he is operating within the ecosystem that exists. And this is the way it is. By the way, it's like how many different officials have called Shay goes to Salah's Enter games this year? 50, 60, how many different referees? I'm sure the NBA has a number in us database. How many different referees have called a shooting foul where Shay goes to Salah's Enter has gone to the line? Like it's not a bias. It's a, he is playing, you know, he is incentive. And it won the game. So again, I just pushed back on the thought that what we're seeing from Shay is some kind of anomaly in terms of how often he gets to the line as a 30 plus point per game score who does the vast majority of his damage off the dribble. And you know, it's funny because Shay doesn't lead the league in free throws. And it is a guard who leads league in free throws is Luca Dongech. But then the conversation about Luca is never like, oh, he gets too many whistles. It's Luca, Luca, why not have the whistles that he doesn't get where Shay, I have to, I'd have to, I'd be curious to look this up. I would bet that Shay has fewer technical fows in his career than Luca does averages per season. I would bet that. Well, Luca has 15. Aren't you glad you're not in Mactene shoes like back in the old days, you don't have ever been in those shoes? No, I'm saying aren't you glad you're not anymore? Because when Luca would get to 50, has he actually been suspended for texts or is he, he's had, he's had a 16th rescinded. Basically, he had a one time, he had the 16th rescinded. And so he was able to play the final game of the season when they had some seeding stuff on the line. And that's when he strained his calf for the first time in this first three games of the playoffs. So, okay, when they played the jazz, I'm not expecting you to know the subtop of your head. So he got his 15th last week with roughly five, six weeks left in the season. Do you think he can go? No, yeah. And I wondered if that one was going to be rescinded simply because, like, if you just watched though, as the team's being called, like, he didn't say anything. Well, no, what happened was he said what he had to say. He said what the ref deemed worthy of a tee as the nuggets were getting out and transition, which honestly more than a tee. Jackson has the number. Jackson has the number. Jackson has the number. It's actually have. I have the number from ESPN.com, which is different than the one Jackson has. Oh, okay. What do we got? Yeah. It's the number on ESPN.com is nine, which is still far lower than Nikolai. Look at Donchens this year. That shows career. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. Shade doesn't. How many drops of sweat has he had? And one of them was the other day for throwing the ball off the same. One of them was one of them was the other day in that nuggets game when he threw the ball off Nikolai Oakage after he got fouled after the whistle. And I don't know what gets you a better whistle. I don't know if the constant complaining because there are times where I think like, hey, Luca earned that call with the complaining two to three possessions earlier, or does just the like calm cool. I'm going to give that guy the benefit of the doubt because he's not wearing me out all the time. I don't know what's more effective in terms of actually getting calls. Well, Luca, I don't want to say this. I don't. Luca doesn't bait. Yes, he does. Well, yeah, it's not predominant. Listen, Luca is one of the best offensive towns of all time. Luca falls down. I'll give him that. Luca falls down. And Luca is very good. Luca is as good as there is and Lee and as good as one of the best ever at being able to create contact to wear basically. If you're not fouling, he can't defend him. He's he's he bullies guys. That's a really good point. Yeah, he bullies guys physically when he gets down low off the drain. It gets down low off the dribble. It's crazy to see how slow it appears Luca moves. And yet how often he's able to get open. Yeah, and he's it's really a fascinating to watch. He's his both of these guys, but actually both Luke and Shay are similar in a sense of their footwork when they pick the dribble up is as good as there is. Like, um, Lee Brunson's up there. And Edward's is up there with unbelievable footwork, but the combination like footwork balance using the pump fake. And then Luca is just so big and so strong. Like when he puts that shoulder into you off the dribble and it's not it's not an offensive foul. When he puts that shoulder into you off the dribble, the only way you can respond is with all out physicality. And it's hard to respond with all out physicality. Also not foul. Luca's ability to like shoot from all different angles. Yeah. Like on the clock. He, I feel like he can, he can score from like 10 o'clock to like four o'clock. Like, however, he releases. And he's 68 and he's built like a brick wall. I mean, it's, you know, it's, I mean, it's why he's to big bands point. He's such a unique, he's such a neat talent. But those guys both know all the rules. They know how to manipulate the rules to their advantage. It's a big part of why they're successful. And by the way, speaking of that, I think since we talked about this a lot the other day, I do think it's worth pointing out. Since we last did the pod that Lou Dork talked to Joel Lorenzi of the athletic friend of the pod. And he admitted. I'll say he's friend of the pod. And he, and he admitted that he went over the line on that play with Nicole Yokech last week, which I thought was the right thing for Lou to do and to say since he did. And you know, we're obviously getting it. McMahon's obviously going to be at that game tonight. And these teams could easily play seven games in the playoffs. I hope they do because I think it'll be an awesome series. And I thought that was a responsible way to handle that. Yeah, I think I think organizationally after the thunder got back in and kind of evaluated the film and took a look at the whole thing. They were like, you know what? We're all for defending our guy. But yeah, this one looks sometimes you make a mistake. Yeah, we made a mistake. So Mark Dagonal, Mark Dagonal sort of towing back their rhetoric. Lou Dork proactively went out and raised his hand. So, and Dagonal just stopped commenting and just, well, we have so much respect for him. That's what he pulled the back. He pulled the back for sure. So, you know, but yeah, the thing about this game will be who's on the act of list for the nuggets. Well, they have an announcing thing yet on as we speak here on Murray. Yeah, I'm told they don't think that's a major ankle sprain, but he clearly twisted that ankle. Well, look, I mean, the guy who's going to help back to the locker room, you're probably going to miss some time. The Knicks, you know, throttled them and they played really well. And, you know, OG had a great game that night, et cetera. But, you know, that was a relic of the nuggets by that game. So, I'm, you know, I'm not sure what we're going to see in Oklahoma City. Although, look, Denver has repeatedly been able to overpatch themselves up and overcome this year. But, yeah, they've get airing back for the first time in six weeks though. That was big. Yes, obviously about, you know, he's going to be on minute restriction. Well, I think still back on, I think still back on these, I'm sure he'll be on a minute restriction, but he's still back on the court. That's a huge thing for them overall going forward. Yes. By the way, I just want to, on the free throw thing, I just want to put this in perspective. Just did a basketball reference search. Guards who have scored 30 plus points per game in a season. Shay ranked by free throws attempted. There's been 49 guards, including the guys this season, average 30 points per game. Shay's free throws this season when ranked 30 second most on that list. So, again, it's not even even Luca, Luca, who's leading league in free throw percent or free throw attempts. Luca will rank 21st at 49. Like when you create that much off the dribble and you have the style of play they have, it's not like these are crazy. Here's my hypothesis. My hypothesis is that when you can't stop something, right, and he's not stoppable scoring wise, that you start appealing, you look for the way that you can stop it. I think it's just human nature, right? And so, when you get beat by this guy who's just an absolute expert at it, you, you know, you appeal to the, you know, you can't beat him straight up. So, you just, you know, you appeal to the, to the arbiter. Sure. You're just trying to change the rules. And the heart is held guard without failing. And Shay, as much as I talk about, like how strong Luca is and how physically he plays, that shoulder Shay gives, he looks, why are you trust me? Right. You feel it when you, when he, and it's not an offense of foul, now sometimes like the key shot he hit, what was that game three, I believe against the Pacers, he actually extended that usually doesn't extend the chicken wing. Usually just gives that shoulder and create space. That thing is you have to, well, he's such a dominant mid-range. He uses the arm, though, he may not extend it, but he certainly uses the arm. And that's, that's fine. And if they started calling that, he would probably just have to adjust. And I would like to see them start calling that more, like Jason Tatum, you know, obviously talked about him earlier. He is the king of the, you know, use the, use the arm to create space. Yannis is a big time. Yannis uses arm and shoulder, like good luck. Well, right. I would, it's so hard to guard these guys. I would like the NBA to take that tool away, because it does make it virtually impossible to guard these guys. But again, Che and Luca both, they know every ounce of every inch of the rule book, and they maximize their ability to get to the line and score and dominate games. Like I look at Luca knows when to base it in real time. Well, yes, he definitely will say that. We'll say this. Over the last couple of years, we've seen the officials change their level of allowed physicality. It's sort of gone up. Well, it ebbs and flows for sure. Well, and shea has not, the streak has barreled right through that. That's right. Okay. So you know the guard on this list who has the most free throws per game, number one, and number two on the list. Bob Pettit was a forward. By the way, Bob Pettit has showed up in our hold on. Keep going and they'll tell you Bob Pettit is the arrow right. Coozy complexion as well. That's another hand. Coozy Jerry West. Jerry West is at the line getting free throw merchant chance at him. Good luck. I'll tell you something. If you if you ran across Jerry West and you called him, I find the way, I don't understand why that's an insult, but obviously it is. But if you call Jerry, especially when Jerry West was like, had the adrenaline flowing, I mean, I've told you the story that he told me. Jerry West, another guy who was not a small guy. Oh my God. No. In any sense, anyone would have been able to slot right into today's NBA play. Jerry West once told me that after one of the years, the year in 69, I think when he won the MVP of the finals, I think it was 69 and he won the MVP of the finals and they lost in seven. He didn't leave his house for three weeks, three, four weeks. He couldn't leave his house. And he finally was like, I guess I better start. He thought he was getting out of shape. And so he like for the first time, like other than like, you know, going to the grocery store like I had in glasses or whatever, he finally like went out for a jog and was jogging, you know, and a guy like a few blocks from his house. A neighbor said some some some bleep to him about losing in the finals and he stopped and cocked his fit. And then and then dropped thankfully for all parties dropped it and kept going. But but again, a month later. Yeah. So imagine if you call Jerry West of free throw merchant and you know, as he was walking off the court, we're not evented well. So the on Saturday night, I'm not sure if they're playing today Sunday. The hawk speed to 76 is which by the way, I don't know if by the time this pod comes out there, maybe an announcement on Tyrese Maxi. It sure looked like he may have seriously injured his hand or finger in the. I was hoping the way it sounded like he was eating the locker room without anything on it after the game. I was hoping there was this real freak play. There's a loose ball. I think of a free throw and he ran into a dem bona. The center for the sixers who's built like a brick wall. And he really hurt bona, which was like almost the bona was like injured. So yeah, so I'm hoping he just kind of got a stinger the way it went and he didn't have like feeling in his hand. Because it helped you. But I don't I haven't heard anything yet today. It did look good in real time. Yeah. Well, yeah, he did the thing where he put his uniform over and like walked immediately the back. Yes. Sixers sixers by the way, it fell to eight with that loss because VJ Edge come is now dealing again with the back issue. And and beat is out with an oblique injuries. So anyway, the Hawks won the six games ahead of one and a half games out of Atlanta and ninth and one and a half games behind Toronto and fifth. That is a okay. See my still get a lottery pick. Right. Now it's top four protected. I sure might still get two lottery picks. One from the. The. Jarls. It was clippers clippers clippers. Yeah. Anyway, the Hawks won their six straight game on Saturday night and Jalen Johnson had 35 10 and seven. Most of those games not exactly against elite competition. I would agree and I think the Hawks would agree with you too. However, there are six wins in a row. Hey. As we build towards magic city night. Oh, look, look. It. Look or net does not like that and blogged about that eloquently. Yes. Look or net is still working on the Tertical Calendar. Um, so that was that's that's the that's the fourth time this season that that. The Jalen Johnson has had 35 10 and five. Fourth time. That's, uh, the second most all time for the Hawks franchise. Bob Pettit had more twice. had it had more twice. Oh, that's why you're going there. In 50 a 59 and 61 62. He did it five and six times. So, you know, whatever, listen, whenever Bob Pettit comes across our little stats, we got to get him in the final. We are, we are getting him in the pod. All right, everybody has. Get back to where we were earlier. Wimby has now had 16 career four plus block four plus three performances. That's the most to in be a history. Yeah, let me see how many Bob Pettit had. Don't ask me things. I can use three pointers. He's a high bar. Oh, yeah. For a high bar guy. For guys from Bob. I don't know. I'm going to try to do a quick satin search for we go and check that because I can't imagine there's been many, there's been many of those. It's a pretty, it's a pretty impressive little barry incident guys game. That's for sure. Yeah. How many times how many times a Bob Pettit defend the the rim from the elbow or from the you know, the elbow extended. I know if that's the Bob, I'm sure Bob probably did it in his own way, just with intimidating stairs and I don't I don't think back in the day, there are a whole lot of all you've been thrown either. You don't think back door alley you've soft of who's our guy's reaction? Who is our guy who we had this pod reference and the guy who the alley you kind of started with. I don't remember. I think Don Don something. Anyways, I don't know. All right, um, fun times are still looking it up. I'm doing a quick scan here. James Harden's done it four times. Jaron Jackson's done it five times. Rafe LaFrance did it five times. Maverick's great. Current MBA center has done it 12 times. Embed. Nope. Don't know just by the way. I don't know. We didn't talk about poor thing is on the pod. He's done it 11 times. There you go. Poor thing is. Another guy has done it. Another guy has done it 12 times. Poor thing is played on Saturday and said that he thinks he's passed his illness issues. I hope that that's true. I hope so too. Ramona Shelburn and Anthony Slater had a story on Porzinga Sirana, I think on Friday talking about the issues with this. And, you know, unfortunately in that story, there was three or four instances where he has set exactly the same thing or essentially the same thing. So, yeah, you know, I hope it's I hope it's true. I will say also in that story Mike Dunlavy, the warrior general manager, was quoted as saying when he made the trade with Atlanta, Caminga for Porzinga, whoever else was in that deal, the warrior's medical staff cleared it. They took whatever information they were given. They did their background research. They did it and they cleared it. And then they did the deal. And Dunlavy said, I have complete trust and belief in our staff. And so, he's on the record is saying that. So, that's what it is. So, the four three four block double figure club is Wimby Brook Lopez with 12, which we should have. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's the love. That's right. This happened a hundred and ninety eight times in NBA history. And Wimby Yamiston at 16 times in two and a half years. And you know what? Wimby might do it a hundred and ninety eight times in his cool. I mean, I mean, considering what he's missed already, he'd probably have done it 25 already or 30. So, if he has his brothers, that's what he that's the way he wants to play. So, I just looked it up to see because Brook had four threes against the spurs the other night. He also had four steals but no blocks. So, he gets credit for a four steal four three point. Oh, that's probably not as rare. Probably not as rare, but no, because all these guards would have done it. However, for a center, that's pretty pretty good. All right, everybody travel safe. Thank you for listening to who collective. Thank you to Jackson, all of our producers for putting this together. Another week of spectacular podcast content starts off as we are in week whatever a ordinary time. And we'll talk to you later this week. Adios Migos.