Game Night: GRIT! New York Knicks SHOCK Spurs as Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby DELIVER Epic NBA Cup Win

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Alienware's sale of the season lets you unleash peak performance at big holiday savings. Save on select Alienware PCs like the groundbreaking Alienware 16 Area 51 gaming laptop, taking performance to the next level with Intel Core Ultra processors, and even better, you can get it before the holidays. Plus, you can save on all the latest accessories and displays like the Alienware 32 4K QD OLED gaming monitor. Visit Alienware.com/deals before it's too late. The New York Knicks are NBA Cup champions after somehow finding a way to beat the San Antonio Spurs. We're going to tell you why that boat's really well for the rest of their season. In today's episode of Lockdown NBA Game Night, let's go! Welcome to another edition of Lockdown NBA Game Night, every game every night. We are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day, now the number one sports podcast network on Wednesdays. I'm back. Jake Madison, @nolajohnsweater, host of the Lockdown Pelicans Podcast, a bit of minute here. John Keralis, host of the Lockdown Celtics Podcasts on Twitter at John under the school Keralis. Jake is back, Jake. I don't know if I remember how to do this, John, but also, I get to come back, look, there's a title crown here in the NBA, and I'm going to come back in, and we are going to celebrate the New York Knicks beating the San Antonio Spurs. We're not going to celebrate. Oh, I didn't realize you had the second line. Yeah. We're not going to celebrate, Lauren and Jake. Congratulations to Jake for getting his ring. Someone got a ring. Someone got a ring. I didn't realize that was the second line, a handkerchief here. The second line, handkerchief from head wedding in Orleans, man. Come on. It's part of a second line after the celebration for a wedding, like marching through the streets with a band and everything. That was awesome. First time for everything. I'd never even know what that was until it was at your wedding. I've done so many years living here, but yeah, that was fun. Thank you. No, I'm happy to be back. Took some time off for the honeymoon. Hopefully, I look a little bit tan here on the show, but look, what better way to come back and then have an NBA cup final. You got Vegas here and everything. This was a whole lot of fun today's episode, by the way, of Lockdown and Be a Game Night brought to you by game time, down with the game time app, create an account, use code Lockdown and be a for $20 off your first purchase. Also, don't forget about the every day or club. You already live your team every day and have to take it up a level and go ad free. Join the every day or club and get locked on and be a game night with no interruptions. Members only discord access and more, all for just $5 a month or $50 a year. You can check the link in the show notes for more. I love the NBA cup, John. Yes, you do. We're going to talk more about this a little bit later, but I'm a huge fan of it. I'm not as huge a fan. But this was cool. Look, it's nice to see the Nick's win something. Is it? Well, maybe not. It depends. You know who's excited, though, is Gavin Shaw of Lockdown, Nick, so let's go for him for the take on the Nick's winning at all. It took 50 years, but once again, the New York Knicks are NBA champions, raise the banner time for a parade in New York, what an incredible win for the New York Knicks. It felt like the Spurs dominated long stretches of this game, crushing the Knicks on the offensive glass. The Nick struggled to contain dribble penetration, Victor Webb, Ben Yaman, limited minutes, had a just unholy stretch in the third quarter. We had two lob donks, two threes, Spurs were up by 11. It looked like they were going to run away with this game. And on a night where Jalen Brunson was maybe just a little bit up and down, where Michele Bridge has never really showed up to play, where Carl had three towns right as he got going hurt his calf. The Knicks also didn't have Landry Shamit and Deuce McBride, who were sorely missed, given their point of attack defense, and ability to hit threes at volume. It didn't matter because of the other role players. Mitchell Robinson had nine offensive revouts in his first 13 minutes of this game. The three biggest ones came right at the start of the fourth quarter, a put back dunk, and then two leading to Sprouts to guess who Jordan Clarkson, much maligned three agency signing. He was excellent. Two threes in a row to pull the Knicks back in, and then Tyler Cullick played the game of his life. A guy I wrote off at times as an NBA player, after a subpar summary. He was just exceptional, gritty, gritty effort defensively, racing back to get a foul when it otherwise would have been a dunk, taking a charge in the lane, laying his body on the line on both ends of the floor, tap out that led to no G and a no B wing three. Devices, a late drive in spray to OG and a no B who's also exceptional for a corner three. This was just a heck of a gritty effort against the New York Knicks and a prove it game for the next obviously highest stakes game. They played all season. The spurs easily the best opponent they played all season and the next one if they showed me something tonight. >> I think he kind of summed it up there. They showed something in this game, right? It was a gritty win. They just found a way to get it done. They looked, they looked done to me. They were down 11 late in the third quarter and they looked finished. The spurs had taken control. They were playing downhill, relentlessly attacking with their guard play and they were doing this with like limited victor Wembyn on the minutes. I thought the Knicks were finished then between the end of the third beginning of the fourth quarter. I think it was a 10-0 run that almost immediately just cut this and made it even and next thing you knew, there are like six points early on in the fourth. >> Yeah, it's like somebody reminded Jordan Clarkson how much money he was going to make if they won. And he just came in and was like, oh, okay, let me just start hitting some shots here. Yeah, Clarkson comes in, hits a few shots, Cullet comes in, just plays like crazy. I think the MVP of this game was OG and Anobi that when OG plays like this, the Knicks are going to be hard to beat. Honestly, yes, Clarkson hits his shots and Cullet and all that stuff. It is the Mitchell Robinson OG and Anobi. When OG comes in, now he scored 28 points, played 40 minutes, shot great. Mitchell Robinson, you have 10 offensive rebounds altogether. >> He has like one of the weirdest stat lines in this one of 15 boards for rebounds, 10 offensive rebounds and four points. >> Yeah, when he's in there impacting and that's what he does, he offensive rebounds. There's nobody better than him. That changes the game. It's almost as if Carl Towns having the calf issue and being out for a little longer helped the Knicks because they needed the second chances. They needed to have Robinson in there to extend possessions and give them more bites at the apple. And you're right. The stat line is weird. Robinson wasn't the one cashing in on the second chances, but it was other guys that were hitting the freeze and giving them a chance to come back and build the lead at no time during the first half of this game, did I feel like they could build the lead like this? So Mitchell Robinson is the difference maker, OG and Anobi is the other difference maker. Those two guys are why they won this game. >> Yeah, look, when you have, as Gavin said, an up and down game from Jaylen Brunson and it feels like they often just need a points explosion from him and he had 25 points on 27 shot attempts, it's not particularly good efficiency in this game. You know what's going to help you? Just getting second chances. Just getting second chance points, second chance opportunities. That can make a bad offense or offense that's not working in a game. Work really well here. The Knicks had 32 second chance points in this one, the Spurs by the way, 28. There were 60 second chance points in this game, which is kind of a crazy thing to say. That's going to help you. If you're missing shots and you just get the board, that's important to be able to score enough points to win very many basketball games. When you have that many offensive boards, it feels like you shouldn't necessarily have 124 points because you're missing things. But then you look at the volume of it purely and you're like, yeah, you're going to get a ton of other opportunities here. >> 105 shot attempts is a big number. Yes, even if you don't take that many shots, but the offense, they had 25 of those shot attempts were a second chance attempts and they cashed in, they get 32 points off of that. 56 points in the paint, that's like getting in there, getting some of those were put backs, getting in there attacking, getting to the rim, and then being able to turn that into spraying out, like Gavin said, getting out to the three point shooting. Neither team shot exceptionally well. The Knicks were 15 of 40 from three, that's right, about average, 37.5%, but it was timely. It was the timeliness of the threes because the Knicks got hot in that third, fourth quarter and the spurs just went ice cold, that and there it is, right? You look at the box score and you say 14 for 39, 15 for 40, basically even the Knicks took and made one more shot, but the spurs hit almost all of those early in the game. The Knicks hit almost all of theirs late in the game and that momentum was just the killer. And then you see the spurs, I know we're going to get to the spurs next, but I think the spurs got a little caught up in trying to match what the Knicks were doing. The Knicks, having that experience, having that playoff experience, having gone to the conference finals, whether we're going to make fun of the cup or not, this is a high, I'm the first part of that sentence, you're the second part of that sentence, but this is, you're the only game, you got the commissioner there, the feel, the way the NBA builds up this event, it feels like a major game because the cadence of the game is different. NBA PR is all over the place, they're handling things, not the team PR. It's like all of these little differences that are very reminiscent of late stage playoff runs. The Knicks have been through that. The spurs have not. And I think the Knicks just responded, they understand there's so much game left that they found a way to kind of, okay, this approach isn't working. Mitchell Robinson's getting in there, getting offence. Okay, now we're just going to play off of this. We're going to find our guys. That experience, I think, was helpful in how they closed this game out. They outscored the spurs 35 to 19 in the fourth quarter. I think it's when you're saying it's kind of like they know what to do. Part of this is, this is who this team is. They're one of the top five in terms of offensive rebounds this season. So it's like they're kind of just, they know what wins them games. They're the two seats, like stick to your identity and don't get rattled in the moment. And that experience really shown through, I think. And then getting those guys just stepping up, gutting out a gritty victory, you're going to need performances like that. You're going to have games like this, right? In the playoffs where you're down 11, it just, you somehow got to find a way. Teams that can do that really show something. I think we saw it from the New York Knicks in this one. So coming up next, look at the San Antonio spurs. Is this valuable experience, a stepping stone form? Well, good. Kind of on with Victor Wimbenyama at times. It's coming up here next in today's episode of Locked On NBA Game Night. Days episode of Locked On NBA Game Night is brought to you by skims. When skims announced they were making an underwear for men, the reaction made perfect sense because people have been talking about skims for years. Most guys, though, stick to whatever they've been buying since college, same fits, same waste bins that roll a whole lot of settling. Just nothing looks good. Skimsmen's change is that one upgrade and it's why everyone's been talking. I'm literally wearing a pair right now. I've been on like 48 hours of flights over the past couple of weeks and I was wearing skims. Men's on the flight feeling comfortable the whole time. I love the stretch five inch boxer brief. The fit, the fabric, it just feels soft, supportive, comfortable to wear all day long. They don't lose their shape. They don't ride up, which is always great. They're just fit and look good how they should. So shop skims. Men's now at skims.com and when you place your order, choose podcasts in the post purchased survey and select our show from the drop down menus. They know we sent you plus the skims holiday shop is open. So if you're looking for the perfect gift this season, skims has you covered over at skims.com. Locked on listeners asked for more and now you can get it with the every day or club for just five dollars a month. You'll get every episode ad free plus access to our members only discord, exclusive audio from locked on sports today and other perks you won't find anywhere else. If you never miss a show, this is the next step. Join the every day or club today at locked on podcast.com/everydayorclub or visit the link in the show notes. That's locked on podcast.com/everydayorclub. Part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. And thank you for making a locked on NBA game night your first listen today and every day we are here seven days a week covering every single game across the association this season with the deep dives that only you can get unlocked on. Make us your first listen today. For your second listen, it's going to be locked on next. I'm assuming they're going to be celebrating over at locked on next. They need something. It's been a minute since they've won any sort of hardware here. You're Gavin say it's been like 50 years. So congrats. I like the NBA cup. Happy for the next year. But the San Antonio Spurs. I really thought they were going to win it at one point in this one. Let's go over to Jeff Garcia for his take. This Jeff Garcia with locked on spurs. San Antonio welcome. They just could not pull it out at the end. Losing to the New York Knicks in the NBA Cup finals. 124 to 13 hours. So well and wrong. Basically they win cold in the second half for the entire second half. This first shot 35%. Yeah. In a cup final you go 35% in the second half. Another thing the reason why the Spurs lost. They didn't have that will to want to win. You saw in the second half, New York, diving for balls out rebounding San Antonio for the game. 67 to 56. Yeah. You don't shoot the ball. You don't get those opportunities. Those rebounding opportunities. You have turned the ball over in key moments. Castle and an in balance play after they won the challenge of a disputed out of bounce play. Right to the Knicks for an easy bucket. All in all. Yeah. The Spurs got to know what he wants to be blamed themselves. Ultimately. That's what it comes down to. Just how bad was it for the spurs in that second half. Yeah. Devin Vasell. He goes over five in the second half. Yeah. Harrison Barnes, one for four. Yeah. The list goes on and on here. Victory win by Emma. Five four and 11. By the way, he was rushing some shots in that second half as well. The Spurs actually only managed to score 19 points in the fourth period. Getting out score 35 and 19. You put it all together. What do you got? A cup finals loss. You don't rebound. You don't crash the offensive rebounding boards. The Knicks had 13 offensive rebounds in that second half to the Spurs nine. Look, it was a great run for the Spurs. There's no denying that. You know, there's a young team that's well ahead of their schedule right now for them to beat the likes of Denver, the Lakers and the Thunder to get to the Cup finals. That's a thumbs up in my book. But overall, they're just lessons learned from the Spurs. And I think it's going to be valuable for them. This team is going to be in the playoffs and that they got a little taste of what it is to play a complete four periods in a list somewhat of a kind of a pressure game, the NBA cup. So I think they're going to take this experience, let us soak in a bit. And if they were getting a situation where the stakes are high as a where they make up finals, I think it's going to pay off for them. But hey, these are just building blocks, little stepping stones for the Spurs as they claw their way out of the rebound, which they are, rebuild, I should say, and get back to the NBA mount top. But overall, look, it was a great run for the Spurs. But ultimately it came to an end in Las Vegas, losing to the Knicks. The Spurs will resume play this coming Thursday. It gets the Wizards back home in San Antonio. This is Jeff Garcia with Lockdown Spurs. Make sure to subscribe, remember to get your favorite podcast. Stepping stone for the Spurs basically, right? I like it. I like that. I mean, that's how you have to take it if you're the Spurs because like I was saying before that you haven't had this kind of experience. This is a different feel to the whole experience, the whole thing being in Vegas. So it's good to have that. It's good to fail. I'd rather have them fail here than in the first round of the playoffs. You know, you get a little sense of that. The fourth quarter numbers were not good. I mean, Victor Womanyama didn't score a point in that fourth quarter. So, you know, for a guy that's building this, this God-like legacy and had that amazing stretch in the third quarter, it was, he, I think, was one of the guys got caught up in the moment. He took some really bad shots, a three that was rushed, a mid-range shot that was rushed. They kind of got away from some of the things that worked, and then they paid for it. So, yeah, the building block for sure, like you go back and you kind of process this and you say, okay, now the good thing is this lesson came on December 16th. So, you get to kind of get right back at it, kind of learn from it, but move on from it pretty quickly. Yeah, you know, I think when you look at this, they were clearly a hungry team that wanted to win. There's some reasons why they lost this too, beyond just, you know, that the New York Knicks kind of having that experience then being young and, you know, inexperience here. Victor Womanyama played 25 minutes. You know, if you play him 30 plus, right, how does that potentially change this game? Yeah. I mean, if he was rushing some things, but that's stretching the third, the two put back down to the two threes, you're just like, oh, this guy is special, and he clearly wanted to win this game. But bringing him off the bench too, right? Like they, their starters looked a little bit out of sorts, and I wonder how that kind of impacted some of their overall rotations, even though this is what they did the previous game. It's, it's those kind of things, right? Like they are just a much different team. It feels like then the New York Knicks are where they're both at. Right. Well, you know, you've got, you know, rookies in their kind of really trying to make, you know, playing, playing a big role. You've got, and, or like a second year guy in Castle, right? Like he's still a second year. He's a second year guy, right? Yeah, you've got, when Benyama, who is, you know, in and out of the lineup, and they're still trying to build some, first of all, trying to get him back up to his normal minutes load. Second of all, still trying to build some, some chemistry there. Deer and Foxx was out for a while at the beginning of the season. And he's like, so there's, there's a lot here that there's, you know, they're, they're, they're building something. Yeah. I, I don't see this as like last, the, was it last year when the thunder lost. We were sitting there saying, huh, you know, they playoff struggles. You know, they're like, are they, are they ready for this moment? Are they ready for big moments? There were like little questions. You don't have that question with the spurs. This is very much a, ah, okay. Welcome to, welcome to the spotlight. Like, welcome to, like, they weren't supposed to be this good. They were supposed to be here. And now everybody's looking at them and gassing them up. And you've had time to kind of process all of the praise, which can be damaging to because you don't need to get big heads. You go out there and now you've failed in front of everybody on Amazon Prime in front of the commissioner and you've failed in the fourth quarter. Like, all right, take that sting. Go home, live in that for a little while, process it and then say, okay, how do we not do that again? This is a dry run. This is almost like falling on your face in a rehearsal. So if there, NBA cup is good for anything. It's a hell of a rehearsal for a team like this burrs. I, I think you also saw a lot of really good, particularly from the guard play from them, right? Like, Dearing Fox and Cifan Castle looked incredible in the back court together for stretches of time, where at one point they had like three turnovers combined between both of them and they were both playing 20 plus minutes in this one, you know, 12 assists for castle nine for Fox when they start moving the ball like that. This is a very spurs like team from what we're used to seeing from them. Then you add in someone like Dylan Harper, who looks fearless out there on a court as a rookie to playing downhill, trying to put pressure on the rim. Like, you see just a lot to like from the San Antonio Spurs, even in a loss here, right? I know we're saying like, take this and you'll be fine. Like, they very clearly will be because while they lost and probably shouldn't have blown an 11 point lead, there, there's so much to take away that you feel so good about it. Yeah. Absolutely. Then, you know, I'll throw in Luke Cornett into that discussion too because it's like the perfect like backup slash starting big man for what this team does. You don't got to tell me, man, I've seen it in Boston. Like, he's, his, the loss of Luke's current Luke Cornett is like felt in Boston this year. Uh, he's, he's exactly what they need. Every time I looked up, he was, he was getting a put back. He had five offensive rebounds and they were all just, he's just there cleaning up messes and it's from the good guard play with those guys to attack down hill. You've got to have a help defender rotate over to take away the rim and they, hey, Luke Cornett is right there in the dunker spot or underneath the basket or cutting baseline. And we didn't get to see them play Cornett and Wemmiyama together the way they normally would like to for some stretches. And, and I think in the, in that stretch where Mitchell Robinson was, was just dominating the offensive boards, they had one, they had Cornett, but they didn't have Wemmiy. And I just wonder if Wemmiy was in a normal minutes kind of load. If they, if those two guys, that would have been a great time to play them both together because who would have defended Wemmiyama? And it just would, it would have changed a lot, I think, about how that fourth quarter went. So on the one hand, yeah, we're talking about the lessons on the second, on the other hand, to your point from before, this also wasn't the spurs, like the fully realized spurs that, that kind of got them, got them all the notoriety at the beginning of the season. Yeah, I agree. So we'll see, we'll see how they kind of respond to this. These games start back up and basically immediately. So I'm excited to see how the spurs respond to this. Make lockdown spurs. You're second listening today. So coming up next, we're playing real or fake. I love the NBA cup. I'm a convinced John that the NBA cups awesome. Let's come up here next to today's episode of Locked On NBA Game Night. Today's episode of Locked On NBA Game Night is brought to you by Game Time. The World Cup is back in North America for the first time since 1994. 48 teams for the first time ever, this is going to be massive. But let's be honest, getting tickets is usually the hardest part. That's why Game Time is the clutch app you need. Finally, giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. With Game Time, you can track price drops in real time. Get alerts when great seats open up and buy tickets the moment they hit the app and puts the power back in your hands and makes going to the World Cup realistic instead of improbable. It's real simple. You pull up the app. The layout's going to make it so simple to scroll through matchups, compare seat views. You just pick a game, tap a section and you have your tickets loaded in minutes. No confusion, no hunting for fine print. And if you're going to a venue you've never been before, the seat you feature is a game changer. You literally will see what the pitch looks like from your exact seat before you buy. So take the guesswork out of buying World Cup tickets in every match, concert or event with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use code Locked On NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, download the app, make an account, use code Locked On NBA for $20 off with Game Time. Today's episode of Locked On NBA Game Night is brought to you by Robin Hood. Nobody knows your money goals better than you. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money with tools that work as hard as you do. You look for every opening. You beat your personal records, you beat them again. Channel that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money. Trade stocks and EFT's options features in crypto all on one platform. And you can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robin Hood Legends advanced tools or take advantage of the new Robin Hood strategies with a tailored portfolio managed by a team of experts. You expect more from yourself, expect more from your money. It started today at Robin Hood.com/yourmoney. Again, that is Robin Hood.com/yourmoney your money your move. And thank you for making Locked On NBA Game Night your first listen today and every day we are part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Now the number one sports podcast network. Make Locked On Spurs your second listen today. How are they going to respond? The NBA Cup defeat. It's time, John. We got to talk about this. I say the NBA Cup absolutely rocks. And we're going to play again. I haven't done this in a minute. I want to hear the music. Let's play real or fake. Hey, I wanted to hear it again. Real or fake. The NBA Cup rocks. Not, not is good. Not is fun. The NBA Cup is awesome. It's fantastic. Put that kind of superlative on the statement that we're debating if it's real or fake. It's real. That's the answer. No, it's fake. No, this was, this was, this was nice. This is what until you get to the knockout rounds, the NBA Cup is I think completely meaningless. I don't think that it's widely like revered. I don't think it's anything like that. I don't think people go like, Oh, God, NBA Cup game. You know why? I don't see any social media anywhere. No retweets, no, no nothing that says, hey, awesome. Cup game night. I don't see any merch. I don't see any podcasts popping up specifically about this. I don't see any outside media, outside influencer, outside anything about the NBA Cup. That makes me think like, wow, people are really responding to this. Diehards. There are people in our little sphere that have differing opinions and we definitely do. But and I do think the knockout rounds when there is the pageantry type of thing that, you know, the national media, the, you know, the crew on the floor, the big introductions and all of that. So commissioners there feels big and that's nice. But it doesn't mean much. The next just, Oh, we're so ready. They're going to get a game of two days. Like they're going to hang a banner. Yeah, they get to hang a banner. They get to hang like a cocktail napkin. And it's like, oh, yeah, by the way, we won this little cup thing. Because if they hang a banner, they will become the absolute laughing stock of the NBA. That's how I know. The cylinders, huh, a banner. They hung up the first of all, the league makes you. So this is my like enemy, and my enemy is my friend type of thing. And the sun sky with the Lakers, they did not hang a banner, like a championship banner. Now it's different looking than the other big yellow thing that says NBA Emirates covering me cup. That's like, okay, champions in this year, champs, which if the NBA is going to make you hang something, you got to find I get it. But it's if you hang an actual banner with your other championship banners that says, Hey, NBA cup champions. Everybody that walks into that arena is going to take a picture of it is going to meme it is going to be on social media as a joke. So that's why I don't think this rocks. So I want to just one of your points. The main point was you were saying no influencers, no fans, particularly care. I don't think that matters here, right? Adam Silver talking to media before this game was saying the number one problem is like player availability and guys not playing. And the NBA cups designed to just get guys to play more, right? On the on the reign of cup nights during the week, yeah, there might not be a lot of fanfare about it. But guys are playing. And I think that's an important thing so that when those fans go to a game, they're still going to get a quality experience because guys aren't load managing anecdotally, I think it'd be interesting to see someone do a study and see if guys are actually sitting out or not more. But it doesn't feel like they are NBA cup games. And I think that's important. So that just means everyone who's going is going to see the stars play, which is the ultimate goal here. And then the players do seem to care. They might not like some of the courts, like the Lakers players don't. But I think overall like you saw Victor Wimbledon Yama want to win this. You saw a lot of these guys want to win this and that financial incentive of half a million dollars to every player certainly seems to get these guys sufficiently motivated to go out and play hard. Look, this is an extra game. It doesn't count towards the stage. You could easily just have guys be like, I'm not doing this, right? I don't want to deal with this. But they play and they try and win. And I think that's ultimately the end goal here is get guys on the court playing, not sitting out. And it's accomplishing that. And then you end up with these like really fun competitive games that I think are pretty great. Sure. Like they're it's not like all negative to me. But also the first couple months of the schedule incredibly condensed guys playing. Sure. Five games in eight nights or so like that. The back to backs. They've added back to backs to the schedule. Not worth it to me. Like, yeah, are they playing in the cup games? Sure. That just means they're sitting out different games. So I don't know that like, yeah, you can say, hey, I know for a fact they're going to be playing on these games. But also I know for a fact that day before that cup game, these stars are going to sit out. If there's if there's any sort of fatigue and you're making it that there is fatigue. And again, anecdotally, a lot of soft tissue issues. And there's a lot of condensed games. Are we are we putting guys at risk of these soft tissue issues? Look, they come out of the summer. The towns with a calf injury in this game. Like I picked it up. Like that's scary. You come out of the summer. You go to a preseason. That's the most meaningless preseason now ever. Because guys don't play in the preseason. And then you jump into a regular season schedule that's suddenly condensed. And you're playing two games and three nights, three and four, all of that stuff. And then all of a sudden, then you have this weird now you have, oh, we went from playing 25 games in, you know, a short amount of time to, oh, we're off. We played one game in a week. The schedule is so it's so weird. I'm open to the cup. I'm open to it. But it's what they're doing to the schedule makes me dislike the actual cup. Because like it's not worth it. Don't do it on December 16th. Push it down. Do at the end of December, push it into January. Do something to like lessen the burden if you want to do this thing. Okay. That's a very valid point. I think, right? Yeah, they're they're likely just sitting out other games, but playing in these games. So it's it's kind of netting out the same. But I don't care. We gave out a championship. It's a lot of fun. If the pelicans ever to win it, I would be going nuts. Don't get me wrong. I would be thrilled to have any sort of banner here in New Orleans. I just start with that. So, you know, for some of these teams, it matters. John, don't take this away from me. We're ending the show there. I'm not going to let you respond. And that's going to do it for this episode of Lockdown NBA game night. On Wednesdays, I'm going to host Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter, host of the Lockdown Pelicans podcast. In another segment. No, wait, I'm John Corralis. Host of the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Find me on Twitter at John underscore Corralis. Oh, it's good to be back. Enjoy the games, the rest of the week. We get back to it after kind of a quiet night here for the cup night. It's going to be back, John. This is one. Let's do it again next week. See you all next time. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes a live betting with Fandool so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting to it in real time with Fandool. You can place bets as the action unfolds every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. Live betting is best when the game starts to shift. A receiver gets hot. A defense tightens up or the momentum flips after a turnover. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fandool.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. Fandool, the game moves fast and so can you. Thank you for making Lockdown your first listen every day. For your second listen, find the all night Lockdown NBA Game Night. Every game every night until an NBA champion is crowned. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find NBA Game Night on Lockdown NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day.