The Return of Loves and Loathes. Plus: A Historic Thursday Night.

[MUSIC] >> Welcome to the Miss Vatch. I'm Chris Varnin. And join them. We see us every week from the ringer.com as Dave Jacobi. Jacobi! >> We have NBA basketball, Bruno. The National Basketball Association are playing real games. God they've been great, they've been great. >> They have been great. It's been fun to see all these teams in action and games that count in the standings. We will have our first love and load episode of the week. But there were two games as we were recording this on Friday morning. Two games that went on last night. And we had history in both of them, Jacobi. >> This episode is presented by Sam's Club. During the holidays, everyone's in a club. The last minute gift givers club, the Cool Ons Club, the food coma club, whatever holiday club you're in, Sam's Club is the club that helps you pull it off. Need to get a meal on the table onto two hours? Done, shopping for the brands they want, like Dyson and Lego. Without blowing your budget, check and check. Sam's Club helps you make the most of the holidays. Come join us, Sam's Club. >> So just for point of reference, the Philadelphia 76ers were down by 29 points to the Cleveland Cavaliers last night. They ended up winning the game 114 to 106. The biggest comeback of LeBron James 24-year career. I could not believe that. I could not believe LeBron has not been on a team that came back from 30, yeah. >> Yeah, I mean, it's just been, it's so many games, right? All of the guys had, we talked a lot about whether the Sixers would be able to simultaneously be best versions of sales. And this was a perfect one where you had Maxi with 32 and 6, Mbeid with 24 and 7, Brown with 21 and 8. LeBron was 17, 9 and 5. And when I talked about the history of this, 466 consecutive wins for teams with that kind of lead in a regular season game, teams with a 20 plus point half time lead were 65 and 0 in season openers. And the Cavs with the 29 point lead were 155 and 0. The 76ers with a 29 point deficit were 0 and 156. So it's historic all across the board. I think we've gotten so used to deficits being erased in the NBA that you don't think that they will be, but evidently 29, when you get up that number, teams do not lose unless they're Cleveland, I guess. >> Well, this one was interesting because you talk about with no lead is safe in the NBA with the volume of three point shooting and the three point shot. But this wasn't really the three point shot that brought them back in the game. This was defense transition and they're just so talented. There was a run in the second half where Brown ripped off a few baskets in a row and beat had a few baskets in three straight possessions. And then in Maxi getting out in transition, he's just so fast. But a lot of this was turning the Cavs over and just getting out of going and you could feel it. They booed the sixers in the first half. They booed the halftime performer. >> Yeah, the halftime performer deserve better. >> Come on, he's just doing this job. >> He's just out there spinning around with a big old, he's just doing his thing, it's not his fault. What are we booing him for? Go get a beer, you know what I mean? Like go in the concourse and hang out. But this was just showing you the power of just this sheer talent that the sixers have. Like it really was LeBron James as the conductor of the orchestra, not necessarily getting buckets, but like everybody played their role in that second half. And you could feel it from the very beginning. Like the Cavs were still up by 12, but the crowd were on their feet. And I'm watching my TV like open up my fandal app like sixers money line because you could feel it happened. >> Well, there's, look, there's this old adage that coaches will always tell you that once your team like loses its edge or turns it off, it is hard to get it turned back on. And you saw, we were having a conversation on our group text last night. Like is this just gonna be like a crank it up team? That's a dangerous game to play. But at least for this small sample which we're watching last night, it did look like a team that was like, all right, let's go. Like no more like let's have good possessions on offense. Let's get back on defense so we can set up our half court defense. Get stops, get out and run. Let's get in transition like it did feel like. And this is one of the reasons that we talked about them being possibly much more dangerous during playoff basketball than regular season basketball. And we will see, they've had an opener against the Celtics where I'm next where you're not gonna, where you're gonna be focused. You're gonna have your home opener where you're getting booed. So all of a sudden you don't have to focus. But who knows how often they will have the focus but it just seems like when they do want to play with the requisite focus, they can be devastated. - It reminded me of those like the Dynastic Warriors team. So remember the third quarter warriors, they would go down 15 on the road and they would go into locker room and just kind of be like, come on guys. - I mean, it was just come out and bang a bunch of threes and all of a sudden that 15 point lead turns into a timeout for the other team. Like it was, it was fun to watch. - Your team did it a lot last year too. Your team did it a lot. There was a lot of mixed games you'd watch where you could very clearly watch them go, all right, let's go. - It was, it was a lot of, a lot of Huzonia. Big Huzonia game, a lot of Huzonia. - Yes, and I really, someone would say too much. - Some would, it really felt like at halftime, they were like, they focused on defense. Could not have been Mitchell had 22 in the first half and I think he only had two in the fourth quarter. Like, they just kind of turned the faucet off and you know, started with defense, they got out in transition and then M.B. was just hitting these jump shots, you know, and he got like an N1 on Moby, like it just sort of like, it looked like M.B. You could kind of do what he wanted with this front court, which is supposed to be one of the best defensive, you know, front court. - It had to make you concerned about you being so effusive with your praise about Cleveland in our last episode because, I mean, we saw them, the pistons game last year, you saw them against, you know, the Knicks when it mattered most last year. And there's certainly these games that we have watched over the course of the past six months where we're like, pro fight, fight back. You know what I mean? One team's just start waylaying them and you feel like they get up into them and start defending them and start getting out of break and you're like, why are you so like, how was this happening? I mean, I'll never get over the, you know, the blown lead, like the Detroit-- - The 22, that was crazy. Yeah, I mean, it is a little funny if you're the Cavs and you famously blow that 22 point lead and gain one against the Knicks. And now you're up, you're feeling good about yourself, you're up 29, you know, the Philly fans are booing and you're feeling good about yourself and they just couldn't call time out and stop bleeding and turn it around. And they just turn the ball over, Max is getting out and, you know, Jalen Brown is getting buckets like it was, I didn't walk away feeling less about the Cavs. It made me think more about the Sixers. - Yeah, Knicks is what I meant. The Detroit thing was against Orlando, which same thing though, where you're watching the game and going, "Fight back, do something." But how are you? This is going on, it's dirty. I mean, like, you have a long time to get this together. That takes-- - Really? - The other game we had last night, look, the Thunder have played against two of their top competitors in the Western Conference, they beat them both by 12. And two 12 point wins to start the season, the Beats in Antonio and Wembee had the stinker and then turned around and beat Denver last night. And you have both Yoke and Murray have stinkers, which you give them all the credit and work for, like the ability to defend what the other team wants to be able to do. And one of the big stories out of that, well, Yoke is just five for 19, 13 points, Murray, two for 11, 6.6 turn- - Ugh. - Yoke. Oh, I mean, that's interesting. And then SGA's 141 games streak of 20 points ended. He had 17 last night and was gonna go back in the game, but they had pulled their starters. And so his quote after the game was, "I feel like should always treat the game with respect, God willing, I'll have more games to start another streak." You think, I wondered on this, like not only did he break Wilts, right? It's Wilts record and that was forever ago. these 60 year record. And the record was 127. He's got 141 now. You do wonder if like the streak would have been it. I bet I mean, he holds the streak by a pretty good margin now. I don't know. Do you think he should have gone back in and kept the streak going? No, it felt like unnatural. He didn't have a great game, but if you watched, he hit some huge buckets in the second half. And this was like the nuggets had to lead, you know, throughout the first half, you know, probably into the third quarter. Like it felt like the nuggets, even with Murray and Yokeh, it's not performing well. We're kind of going to cruise, but they did not. And SJ hit some big ones down the stretch. And that that home green block on the Christian brown dunk. And then they go out and transition the Caruso Lobs to J. Dub. It was just like, man, sometimes this team looks so good. Plus, I also think it gives us a moment regarding his, the SGA streak to marvel at how ridiculous that true the is. It's not like LeBronze was 10 point. I asked double digits scoring 20 points for a hundred and 41 consecutive. So consistent. So unbelievable. I mean, just being able to depend in 20 points from a player before the tip, it's just crazy. It's crazy. The only person I could see breaking that streak is Ty Jerome. Like other than, I don't know why we're talking about Andy Edwards MVP candidacy and no one's talking about Ty Jerome. So leading score in the NBA. Yeah. It leads, it leads off my loves. We've got our loves and lows from the week so far. So we do have a very small sample size, which can lead us to grand overreactions. I was in attendance to watch Ty Jerome versus the Utah Jazz. And though, I want to give a couple of pieces of credit here. Ty Jerome was absolutely other worldly. He joined with 45, five and five games in a season, first game of a season. Jalen Brown, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Michael Jordan and World B free. And three of those games either went to overtime or double overtime. So he also scored the third most points in a Memphis, Grizzly's uniform. Only John Merrant and Desmond Bayne have ever had four points than him. It was and the heater shooting it from the logo, the whole thing. He is that shot. And he is also the beacon of confidence. So a year ago. So of course, he lost last season to a cap injury. But even when he did play, he was great. And before that, I remember asking you before the season, I was like, you know, you've been on these different teams. And then like last year had this, you know, your best season ever, getting your opportunity, break out season, including two years ago. He was, yeah, yeah. He was third in a six man of the year and was on a 64 win team and was a major piece to it. And I said, then was all from the playoffs. Did you feel like there's been a lot of players awful in the playoffs? And he was miscast in the playoffs because Garland got hurt, but I'm not going to make it. And he got defense lawyer. Here's the thing. You can go back by the way. I've always been on Ty Jerome. He was in in the ringer article. I wrote for that draft. Ty Jerome will not fail. And he was one of my guys. He's actually one of the ones I got right after his time at Virginia. But anyways, I said to him, did something click or did you feel like, hey, somebody finally gave me minutes? Because if you ever go back and look at his stats, his stats have always been very good. It's just low minutes. And so I said, do you feel like something clicked or do you feel like somebody finally, you know, gave you minutes? So he gave you the opportunity. And he said, yeah, more to the second one. And so now they're giving it to him. You got the opportunity. Also big shout out to every podcast in the world's favorite coach. If you listened to NBA podcast, you would think he's read our back. Shout out to Will Hardy because from play one and two and three of the game all the way to the very end of the game. He allowed history to take place with no adjustment. And so all I heard every analysis of the Utah Jazz this year, like basically began with Will Hardy. Well, they got Will Hardy. Will Hardy and Will Hardy. And all I hear about is how great Will Hardy is even though his team wins 16 games a year and loses on purpose. And then I'm there at the game. I'm like, all right, let's evaluate this. And I'm like, you might as well not even have a coach. This is crazy. And Ty Jerome just lit them on fire. There's a lot of some really tough buckets. Like when he when he split the defenders and hit that weird like scooping thing, I was like, what who is this is Michael Jordan. He was 15 of 16 from the paint. Oh, yeah. Against the team. Those are tough buckets. Yeah. Tell me, tell me about the being in the building when he hit the logo three, that was a mile. There's a video that the guy took City X to me. And as soon as he pulled it, you can hear me in the background going, Oh my God. It felt like the Larry Johnson four point player. Something else just wilds. And then the roof off. And then you guys know I texted you while I was at that game, I mean, what kind of odds could I have gotten unfaithful for there will be Ty Jerome MPP chance like a billion to one. It was unbelievable. What a moment. What a moment. So my my first love is it's another unknown that we just we're just like, what is this going to look like when it happens because we haven't seen it before. And that was the brilliance that was Walker Kessler shot chart. It is exactly what I want to see from Walker Kessler. Roll hard catch dunk like 12 for 12 from the field. Just roll catch dunk. Like if you watch like a Wimbledon Yama game, he's like he's like should step back stuff. You're just like dude, like you're big. You've got playmaker. You've got Luca. You've got Austin Reeves. Set the screen roll hard. And you'll get the ball. You won't. But God, it was beautiful to watch. It's just it's just what you want from your big, especially you have guys in the perimeter, like Luca and Austin Reeves. I thought that was my love. I love I just love the shot chart. And and led some warriors fans to be like, so why did we get rid of quick and post? I mean, the Warriors have nothing up front. If somebody tall, yeah, it's like Al Horford is your center. Like what am I doing? They're like, what is this trade, Christophe or Zingers? What team is in the Christophe or Zingers business? Look, they're like exploring trains for Christophe or Zingers. It's like, what about who's trading? Who's giving up anything for Christophe or Zingers? Also, how about the second part of the report, which was looking for trades for Christophe or Zingers? Who might retire? Who might retire? Who's in the market for that? I mean, well, the player that you just signed an extension for, you just signed him and he might retire. Sure. What do you want some draft picks? Like what? What? Well, that would that would be the only the only way that it would be a possibility is if somebody wants to just acquire him, probably wave him or whatever. And you get the picks. I guess. I guess. But yeah, I agree with you. That was it was a bizarre story to say the least. Yeah, the words, I mean, it was great, but the words of the words, there is bad as I thought they were going to be. I don't want to say anything yet because that's too much place tonight. Yeah, you got to follow up is 45 loads. My first one is the heat back court. So we just did our preview show right before the season earlier this week. And one of the things that I said to you was, you know what? I was feeling some kind of way. I had this conviction like, Hey, if you put anything around, you're going to be able to have a good team. He's that level of player, whatever. And like that debut, I mean, whoa, whoa. And then you see it. I was like, and you know what ran through my head, Jacobi? Damn you Stan Van Gundie. Stan Van. Because you watch it. You're like, I mean, I like maybe a Mitchell too as a like a, you know, a guy that could be a doggy defender. But like, when you're talking about like creating shots for people, like you see it. It's like Mitchell and Clay. And then you see like the guys coming off the bench and you're like, Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. These are the, I got like the, you got a bunch a front court, guys, but good grief. That back court looked brutal. to me. Every book that they scored. Hey, I know, Davey, I'm into I had 11 assists or whatever, but I mean, that was a mess. Every bucket they scored, which is the honest doing it himself. That's what it felt like. It felt like if Yannis isn't going to create a basket and they're not going to score a basket. The other thing is when the other team has love mellow and Anthony Edwards, it was actually maybe, and that maybe it was the worst of it, right? Because they're not going to be playing those guys every night, but I mean, I mean, Davey, I'm Mitchell looks like me out there. You know, these guys are huge. Yeah, they're both nice. They're both mega tall. And these are the guys with the ball. And it's like, you got Davey, I'm Mitchell who's five foot tall and 48-year-old Clay Thompson. This is, you're bringing a spoon to a night fight. What? Anthony Edwards was just getting whatever he wanted, whatever he wanted. He was giving it to everybody. You know, God. And look, so far, so good on the whole being able to be best version of self next to LeMelo. He was humble. So my first love is including LeMelo, any single person that's trying to rationalize his 17 step. I didn't gather yet. And then once I gathered, I took two steps. Like, he, I get it. When you're LeMelo himself, I get it. You can say that, but this whole like, he was still dribbling, so he can move his feet as much as he wants until he gathers. Like, what are we even talking about? And it's like, I always say this like a pickup, you know, you call your own travels or whatever. It's like, you just know it when you see it. Don't count the steps. You just know it. It looks awkward. We've all watched a million hours of basketball. You're not allowed to do that, LeMelo. Don't try to rationalize this to me. You're not allowed to do that. Here's a thing. Let's just say like somebody with, gigantic hand. Okay, like a little wimpy, right? Wimpy. Oh, I think you honest did this last year. Didn't you? Wimpy. Yeah. All right. Let's just say Wimpy wanted to like grab the ball and just have it like hover and just like run with it, like a running back. I guess it's a little time and just say he didn't gather yet. Yeah. Yeah. Just say I'm gathered around. He's just running with it. But he's, he's got the ball. And you're not dribbling. You're running with the ball in your hand. You're not dribbling it. You're not right. It frustrates me. It frustrates me. If you're LeMelo fine, you did it yourself, whatever. Okay. I know it's frustrating, but I gotta be honest with you. There's one of the one of my favorite things about social media and the collective of everybody watching the games is the moment where something like that is so egregious. Everybody watching it is like, what the hell? And then I just wait. Okay. The sack. The sack is doing it. Who's doing it? It doesn't matter how gross it is. Right? It doesn't make any difference. It can be. I even look for it like so, uh, Monday night football, there was a trailer in Berks at the very end of the game. Scores such and then like, and I wait for the guy that's going to be like, the pilot knocked it out. Like they called it a non catch. And it wasn't a catch. But there's going to be the guy that watches it be like, according to the rules, or you know, the pilot knocked it out. Like, what are they going to do about this? And I love the everybody watches it. But you know, there's going to be somebody that's out there. I love those people. That was a travel. Washington is a travel. There's three rest there. Oh no. Those people exist for everything. For everything. They just want to be counter culture. You guys love this. One day, when years ago, I had a bunch of young people that were working with me and they were getting a bit despondent about negative comments on the internet about them because they had achieved a level of fame to where people would respond to them at that point. And I said, look, here's what you have to remember. I said, this is why this is back in the day when YouTube had like, likes and dislikes. I said, I want you to look up John Cena and make a wish kids. And there's going to be a compilation. And I want you to look and how many dislikes are on that video. Yeah. Anybody use that five thousand. It was way more. It was way more. It was way more. Dislikes. It's like a puppy running in a field like, I hate that. Yes. I said, just remember every time I want you to go back to this video and I want you to look at how many people, dislikes, John Cena, meeting with make a wish. Or like a double rainbow, guys. Those are real real rainbows. Right. All right. Next love of the Damien Liddler glove. This was awesome. The ovation, the talking before the game. And then him coming back from the Achilles injury in his old uniform in the town that loves him the absolute most. And he has 17 of his 25 in the first half. He could have gone. He could have named his number. He was seven of 12 from the field, six of 12 or six of 10 from three. I didn't even need to score anymore. Do I could just go to the bench? He could have 40. He could have 50. He could have had 60. Like, what do we move on? One of my loves is John, you know, like just like right off the tip, he gets the ball. You know, and he gives it to Denny. They get a bucket and just like it's long hair and he's driving. They went up 21, nothing. 21 and nothing to start the season. It was awesome. He was what he finished 14.6 for eight from the field. Two of three from three eight assists. I think he only played like 22 minutes. Yeah, 23 minutes. He didn't even have to play the four quarter. No. And he hit the head. Do you see that lefty hook that he hit? He hit like a magic Johnson running lefty hook shot in the middle of the lead. I was like, Oh, John, I've never seen it from a before. It's awesome. This is perfect because it leads into my next love. The disgusting sun's debut. So you mentioned the 21 to nothing start to the game. Do you? Now that seems crazy and we're all making three touchdown jokes. Did you see that that is the worst start to a game in the last 25 years? No one has started 21 to nothing. And to do it the first game, you know what I mean? It's just crazy. It's professional basketball. Yeah. 21 to 21 another 124 to 83. They were down 43 to 12 to end the first quarter. And this is a team that had a identity was one of, I mean, they were the little engine that could last year, right? That was like the tri-hard team and it was like Goodwin and Gillespie and Dylan broke to whatever. And I mean, it just looked nothing, nothing like what you became to know of the Phoenix Suns last year because you're watching it. It's like, I mean, it feels like you're watching it now. And it's like bridges and green and booker and like that identity that they had last year where it was a lot of tri-hards and it was a lot of guys sharing the fall, moving up and down and like hung their hands on the defensive end and all that stuff. Like that just feels like it felt like a distant memory. Good grief. They got destroyed. He's awful. Off. All right. Well, this is one we'll go quickly through because it's a couple days old. Yaxal. What are you talking about in the post game? He's jarring with Luca the whole game going back and forth. And he says, first of all, before he even talked about Luca, he's like, I don't watch games. I just watch highlights. What? What? This is your job. This is your job. He's like, he's like, I'm an NBA casual fan. When the algorithm spits me a highlight or a nice dunk, I check it out, but other than that, I don't really watch the games. Like, okay. And then he says he lost all respect for Luca because there's so much complaining and whining. He looks at this box score. He's like, how many did he have? Oh, 28. He scored 28 on us. The only bucket he got on me was a prayer from half court. What are you talking about? Like, what are you talking about? He sucks. What are you telling him? I'll tell him he sucks. He can't score on me. Look at that. My annoyance of I get to come by this honest because he was playing for a UAB in college and had a big war of words with the guy who was the power forward at Memphis at the time, Dane Danger. Like, they went back and forth on Twitter and he at one point, he posted congrats on your best game of the year. I'll see you whatever. So then they play to get like, I'm telling you, I've hated this guy for a year. And Dane Danger annihilated him had 22 and 12 and everybody was like, yeah, what about that tweet? Oh, you were going to see him, right? And so he bust him up in that. Then this I can't get away from this guy. They played the Grizzlies in the summer league championship game this year. He's got this big thing with Cam Booser. So last year, they asked him about guarding Cam Boos. Booser during the regular season and he started laughing in the press conference. He was like, you know, like being like real dismissive. I'm like, you're 30 years old. Roll up. So then they win the championship game and he starts going off again. You can go back and find it. He says they just puckered up some, some, some people are built for the moment. Some people aren't built for the moment. So I'm like, it's the same guy, how easy it is to rebound in the NBA, huh? He was talking about how easy it is to rebound in the NBA. He was surprised. There's the worst going to win 12 games and he's still going to be talking. My next love, Osar Thompson and the pistons. So this is the identity check. This was perfect. It wasn't this perfect on opening day against the Detroit or against the boss of Celtics because it was like pistons fears realized, oh, Celtics are going to be fine. For like a large portion of that game, the confirmation bias was at an all time high. And then it was like, oh wait, they're still the pistons because they just locked down. And then they're, and then it java I think they're getting all these like run outs. They're knocking down threes in transition. Their crowds getting behind it. And like they just, they can go these like long spurts where they just stop you from scoring. And that's that going around that Osar Thompson played 33 minutes guarded 11 different players one on one and none of them scored. Jesus. And after the game, J.B. Vickerstale was asked about the job they did on Jason Tatum. And like what did you do against Jason Tatum to make it difficult on him tonight? He said, what did we do on Jason Tatum? We guarded him with a Sir Thompson. Thompson. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we did. I mean, it's a guy. I got it. I got rewarded with a contract in the offseason. And he is a devastating defensive player. Like it very rarely do you find defenders, especially non post defenders that can truly like wreck a game, he can wreck a game unbelievable, especially when your offense is so predicated on a wing player getting his own buckets. Like their plan is to have sort of like Tatum run the show and Osar Thompson just says you're not running the show. I am sorry. Well, and just getting stops at being able to get in transition like you watch them and you're like, okay, is there still going to be the identity now that the beef stews of the world and the Tobias Harris is like, you know, they've lost some bets and some other guys that have been there. And it's like, no, that's still who they are. That's still who they are. I didn't, you know what I didn't mind, like he didn't like have a great game just watching it. I liked Isaiah Joe on that team. I think that's going to work, you know, because he wasn't just catching shooting threes. He was kind of like trying to beat his man up the dribble again. He didn't like go off for 25 points, but it's just like, I can see that working. Like that's a nice little addition. Heard her hitting some threes. Yeah, just anybody because Dennis Jenkins does it to anybody that could create a shot for others. Yeah. And I think Joe, I think Joe will be a good fit there. And when talking about opposite hit threes and heard her hitting threes and Joey hit a couple is like, all right, this shooting on this, this shooting on the floor here and that the, you know, the cave durned thing, you know, we ask for like, oh, how much of this contract negotiation and him being disrespected, they're just basketball players playing basketball. And when you just roll into the rim getting easy dunks, like it works for me, man. Next love. All right. My next love. We talked about the Rockets, right? And we talked about Fred Bambley and Stephen Adams and how impactful they're going to be. And we talked about Kevin Durant always being able to get his own basket yada, yada, yada. My next love of Forgotten Rocket doesn't get discussed too much. Jabari Smith Jr. He hit everything. He hit everything like he was 11 for 17 from the field. Of course he hit four threes, like, you know, he's a good shooter, but like he had a nice little turn around, you know, like he's been watching Kevin Durant practice or something, like, he had 30 points. And if they can, I mean, I listen to one game, I'm not going to sit here and be like, he's going to be an all star. But there is an opportunity for him because of the gravity and the attention the defense pays to Shengoon and Durant that there is an opportunity for him to sort of like take a mini leap here and help the Rockets out. I really, I thought that was really, really just an impressive debut, scoring from three levels, you know, mid range at the basket and from three. And I also want to give a shout out to Tariyus and if I'm going to kick down after like three minutes. I will say this on Jabari's thing too. He also is that archetype to where he can be, he can be your unbelievable help side defender. I mean, it's a terror to have it. The Jeren Jackson Jr. Evan Bobley, Janus, when he was next to Brook Lopez, because they've got the big guys next to him, right? The front of the rim guy. But I mean, if that guy can just be a condor and like help on drives and whatever, he can be a devastating defensive presence as well. If you are covering the guy standing in the corner, there's a lot of opportunity for you to leave him and help, especially on drives. Yeah. Anytime you can make guys like that, like your free safety, your defense can just be incredible. Yeah. Incredible. And that's why you need someone who can hit from the corner because if you're leaving him, you know, that's for sure. All right, next, uh, loads, oh, the a cuff debut, just a, just a, just a clipper's Kings game. Just a late night. Here's a big go. Somebody other games are like, I literally went out of my way and in an ordinary amount of times, last winter, to watch areas a cuff for Arkansas. I love watching him. And the whole I think was like, all right, they're going to stink. But at least that'll be fun. That was like for sure, not fun, five for 24, just like over seven from three, three assists, four turnovers, demonets of bonus, who's like the nicest guy of the world is doing his best in that interview. I mean, he's throwing them under the bus, but like, you know, like, hey, we need to move the ball. We need to, you know, you can, it was like, it was the worst of it. It was like, why are you taking 25s? Oh, two, your first game of the season. It's like, what is going on? This is the dream on green and preseason, pulled them aside and was like, my guy passed the ball. So this other team, well, the other thing is like, you got demonets of bonus, who is a very accomplished NBA player, like setting all these screens and then you never give them the ball. Yeah. And also, everything can function out of some bonus, like he is an outstanding passer. And a guy that you played in the midfoss, it was like the polar opposite of fun or winning basketball. Like, do one or the other. Be fun. It's good point. Play winning basketball, but like, you can't, you can't play terrible basketball and not make it. You shot. And I've got a similar second load here. Caleb Wilson didn't exactly shine very bright. Wow. That teams think I know, but Fernando, nine turnovers, not all of them were his fault, right? So he was probably counted for like six of them, but nine turnovers, seven for 21 from the field. That's one thing to be seven for 21 from the field. But if you look at it, the next most shots on the team was 10. He's one for eight from three. It's almost like, no, it's brutal. It's tough, man, you know, it's a brutal debut and it's tough. We do have to give some credit like we have said, the best version of that Toronto thing is going to be an absolute bitch for play against you want to be, you want to be Lucy Goosey with the ball. That is not the team. We'll take it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They are man. They are long, and they are active. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't really do the coolest thing, but that's. That's. That's. That's it. Just to get it that out. Yeah. In retro talk. That was like. Yeah. Oh. Got it. That was brutal. That was brutal. That was brutal. Oh. Oh. It was the Raptor. It still had 10. Damn it, man. Damn. I got him coming up in my next love. Oh, you do? Not that I love dick. Some good first impressions. We're chill, too. Bye. Good first impressions by new additions. All right. So I'm going to show you some of these guys. So you got a guy in the off season that is part of your team now, and this is your first impression of them is their first game. And they showed out Aaron Wiggins 16 points off the bench in 31 minutes. Five of nine for the field three of five from three for the Atlanta Hawks also subject of. Quick 22nd time out. The greatest. I mean, there's there's been a lot over the years of great inside the NBA segments, but the who he played for last night might be at the very, very, very top of the list. Did you see this? Yeah, I did. And Barclay's just the goat because he, it's like, oh my, he is so good that they're putting on front street. How little he knows about role players in the league he covers and somehow he comes out on top. Okay, so for those that did not see it, I will encourage you to go find it. They played who he played for, which is everybody's favorite game they play. And inevitably, you know, Charles Barclay is going to get things wrong. But then Shaq in his infinite wisdom said, play the game again. And at that point, at that point, you think they're going to give him different players. They give him the same players that they just give it and then, and again, I'm not going to root for everybody. Go find the video. And even more spoilt than they played it again. They played the same game with the same players three times, two times as funny three times. It's just, it's like what's going on, unbelievable. It's a level of attention deficit that not even I can relate to. Back to my, back to my love and good first impressions by new additions, Aaron Wiggins, Grady Dick with the 12 points off the bench for the Clippers, Walker Kessler, who you mentioned earlier, Grimes also had double digits off the bench for the Lakers in his debut, Lamello Ball. If we wondered if, well, how would this affect Ant? Can you be best version of and you got not only a good Lamello game and unbelievable Ant Game, Anthony Davis with 34 and 12 and then ripping the crowd, Jeremy Grant had 15 off the bench. Just like a seat day, it's so funny that that must be must not be his. I know. He did not. Of course it's not his. Yeah. That can't be his. It's just too funny. Dressing a seat, they had me rolling. Jeremy Grant 15 off the bench, John Morant, 14, 8 and 5 in limited minutes, Marcus Smart, who's actually going to be, that is not the kind of guy you want to see coming off a bench for somebody. He had 10 points off the bench for them and then Zubat. And Bogey got some run too. I was surprised. And then Zubat had 16 and 15. Oh, another one that I wanted to mention and this goes back to the whole Phoenix thing. You know, we watch these teams and a lot of times we go like, it's a puzzle, you know, how it all fits together. And then you watch some of these teams and like, that doesn't really fit. You know what I mean, I can make it work, but it doesn't really fit. And I couldn't have a think about that when I was watching a big performance in his debut for the Hornets by Grayson Allen. I want to say this. That whole game, I rewatched that game, I was like, wait, Dennis Schroeder's here. Yeah. I was like, Keon Ellis is on the net, both Wagner's on the net. Like, this is a lot of like, like, oh, those guys ended up in this game. Well, that's what everyone's been hiding. And then Grayson Allen had 21 in the game. You think the sun's going to use Grayson Allen? Will you go back and look? You know, he averaged 16 and a half points of game for the sun's last year. Yeah. And they were down 21 and nothing, they couldn't use the little Grayson Allen. And just nobody will pay attention to it, but it's like he was also part of that, like, DNA that they had last year. More guys that like are the try hard, diving for loose balls and pushing people out of the way for rebounds, setting hard screens. Being aggressive. All that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, good, good for good first impressions by some of these new issues. Keon Ellis. I've always liked Keon Ellis. I was watching that game. It's just like Keon Ellis is on the net. It's like, huh. I'm going to get. I thought he was going to be something for the. You remember when people were willing to give up first rounders for him? No. No, no, you're not getting rid of it. You're not. You're going to trade for Keon Ellis from our cold dead hands, like Mo Vogner is out there. Yeah. They're wearing the new Jersey nets. They had like the whole like red, red and blue and white. My daughter's 10 years old. She's like, those are the nets. Why the hell are you wearing those colors? All right. Will you making her watch for punishment? No, no. I was watching. I was watching during the day. She gave. Oh, I don't watch that one live. Yeah. You should got an F or something. No. And that's, net's hornets is a, is watch the condensed game the next day game, not, not watch the full game. Well, it's live. They show it, they show it to terrorists to get them to talk, no, turn it off. They pay you to go to net games now as well. They say this is kind of hurt as a, as a, as a next fan. It's just, I love the Pacers are the Pacers again, Haliburton looked good. It was just like, he had this one, there's a close game with the Pelican's Pacers. I was, I was tuned into that one in the fourth quarter, was going back and forth. It was pretty good. And Siacham just looked amazing. He had some tough buckets and there's this one play, which is just so Pacers, because I was wearing house going to work with Zubach because he's so different than Miles Turner when they made their finals run. And it worked. And there's this one play where Siacham sets a screen for Haliburton, Haliburton throws it up top. Siacham jumps up grabs it, Zubach's man helps on Siacham, Siacham throws it up, Zubach dunks it. And it was just like a perfectly executed pick and roll, get blitz, hit the roll guy. He gets help defended. He throws up a lot. It was just like textbook Pacers, Rick Carlyle, and Haliburton looked springy. And this kind of like a dunk and one thing, they looked good. And Haliburton looked like himself. And I think that when you don't play for 16 months, he didn't look like someone coming off an injury or coming off of whatever he had and the medication and getting fat and being sad. He just looked awesome. It looked fun. Good for the Pacers. We'll still beat him in the playoffs. Great night for the Achilles return guys between him and Lillard. So a guy that two things on that's ever taken him don't don't take it. No, he came back last year, that didn't look good either. Oh, by the way, all right, let me do the Haliburton thing first. So I don't know. It was my trade of thought. He tearing up at the post game that he did on the sideline with their sideline reporter was awesome. Also made me resent massively all over again. We actually did this on the schedule show months ago when it first came out. The fact that his return was in new way and he said it. He said, he was like, what am I doing? What am I doing here? Why would you do that? That should have been at home with the heroes welcome and the crowd going, no, exactly like the Lillard one was. Yeah. It should have been like that. It should have been. I don't know. I don't know. It's inexcusable. It's, yeah. It's indefensible. And the Tatum thing, tell me you saw the thing going around virally this morning after last night's Philadelphia 76ers win the biggest comeback in LeBron James whole career. And like that they were great. There's this video from Bleacher Report of Jason Tatum saying I was just as caught off guard as anyone and he's telling this story and he's like, you know, and just looking to my laugh. I was prepping for the show. Hey, looking, looking to my left and not seeing, you know, him there anymore and whatever is like it. But the basically like the headline is I was as caught off guard as anyone. I was out in Vegas. They called me. They told me that he was getting traded. And I said, they're trading them down the street. And you know, does this whole bit, bro, go look underneath it. So the first comment is from Jalen Brown with the cat. I was about to say I was like, the idea of these are secrets, the idea is like, oh, we didn't run it by Jason Tatum. We were going to trade, you know, Jalen Brown, like it is just, I was just caught off guard as anybody. I learned just like you did on Twitter. They didn't unbelieve just like, just like LeBron and Anthony Davis were like, wow, I can't wait. That's my brother, they traded, huh, they didn't even know. The Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum thing, this is great. I love this. I do. I love it. I love it. Now they can finally like truly act like they don't like each other except Tatum's always trying to be the nice guy. He is. And it was like, they traded, you know, this guy was my running buddy for so many years and I was just as caught off guard as anyone. And imagine your Jalen Brown and you, you cannot comment on that. You can just watch it and move on with your life. But when you put that comments on there, basically, you know, people are going to see it. Yes. You're lying. You're lying. Oh, I love it. I love it. All right. My last low. You already mentioned it. I'm passing. Yeah. All right. Everything about the nets. I mean, I'm sorry. What is the point? Seriously, what is the point like you're not good, but you're not mediocre, but you don't have like young. players. But they do developing in a good way. No developing in a good way. Seraph and Wolf got DMPs. It's like, well, what's the point of drafting these guys? That's what I'm saying. They got Randall. They're trying to win Randall and Michael Porter, Jr. Okay. I guess are we? And then what? Like you're building them up so you can just see you can trade them for what? Yeah. Even off their bench, they bring both Wagner and Noah Cloudy. It's just like, you're trying to win. Do you have anybody I want to watch? I like if I'm trying to watch. Show me. Show me. But even that it's not like he's getting we're going to get to get to do any shots. Yeah. Because you've got Michael Porter, Jr. Julius Randall. I don't understand it. It's like 18 shots. It is it's like it developed your young players. You're not going to the championship Brooklyn Nets. Develop your young players. See that they're trying to win games with bets. Also, they took Michele Brown. So it's like, you don't you even have your young players overlap. I mean, right? I mean, theoretically, he's going to need the ball and Joman's going to need the ball. Well, you don't even practice five players. I know. I know. Trio Ray, right? Wolf and Sarah Wolf. Yeah. Joman. Crazy. I just, honestly, you tune them in. They are the only like, at least like you could tune in and be like, I'm going to check out. There is a cup like some of these rat teams. You at least got something to check out. What? There ain't even nothing to check out. It just made me angry. Like what's a point? What is the point of view? Like, where are you? Are you rebuilding? There's a guy on my wreck league team because we're all old. So we had this one young kid, Luke Lucas. He hits three drives. He's good. And he's like, he does like nets coverage. So he like watches every game and like goes and like, it's just got to be so depressing. It must be like working for the Grizzlies then the last year. But you're, here's the difference. Like that's a rebuild. What are the next doing with Randall Porter, Jr. Derrand. Derrand Sharpe and Keanu Ellis. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What are you doing? What are you doing? What are the goals? What are your goals? It seems like they're like, we're going to make the play. No, no, you're not. So what are your goals? What are you trying to accomplish with the 26, 27 season? What are your goals? They should be to develop young players. I guess it's to build up the theoretical trade stock for these two guys and then get assets so that you can build more. I don't get any of it. If they trade both those players and get draft compensation, I can understand. And then you start playing young guys. That makes some sense. You, you think people are giving up their own compensation for real? I'm not, I'm not talking about the, the, the, the architecture of the nets franchise anymore on this podcast. Okay. Okay. I agree with you. I got one more. I'm, I'm sorry. I shouldn't. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I started talking about like the strategy of the rebuilding. What am I doing? This is a, this is a mistake. Okay. I got a last one. This is the fact that they bring off. They bring in average veterans. What have you got? A boyfriend, Sarah, like, play those guys. Give me a look. Like, what is the point of bringing out everything DMPs? Right. This is more Wagner. Just wants to play with this brother anyway. I know. I liked it when they had both. I did too. When I was watching them, I just, I put this in the group chat. I wish Franz Wagner could shoot, man. At the end of that game, he got a couple, he got a couple open threes. It's just like, Franz, just wide open to like knock it down. Those are big, big shots. What but naked. I wish he could shoot. He's so dynamic going to the basket. He's so strong. Good at finishing. I just wish he could shoot. God. All right. Here's my last low that's going to be tough. Quick story. Lessington Avenue last weekend. They had this like, they shut down certain streets in New York on the weekends and they bring all these like food vendors and whatever. They could sell jewelry and it's all the same crap. None of it's worth anything. Clothes and whatever. And they set up like those boots, you know what I mean? Those like little boots, whatever. And they, and they shut down Lexington Avenue and I'm walking down and I see this guy with his girlfriend, young guy, probably like 26 years old, his girlfriend's looking at some jewelry or something. And he's just sitting there practicing his golf swing. You know, you're a golfer, right? And there's just something so douchey about the guy out and about in an inappropriate time like working on his swing. Like he's like moving his hips and just like, you know, and his girlfriends looking at some necklace or whatever. He's just there like looking at his hips swing and you know, using his hands to fall through or whatever. It's just I was looking at him and I was just like, dude, like just do that on your own time. But you know, go go to the golf see-later or something like, right now just hang out with your girlfriend and have a coffee. It's so annoying. And then we saw LeBron James during the anthem in the garden, working on his golf swing. And I was like, God, I love LeBron James so much and some of the things he does is just so indefensible. And I was just like, oh my God, I can't believe LeBron James is that guy right now. You're in that you're on the basketball floor of the Mass square garden where everyone paid $2,000 to get in. There's 57 cameras following you and you only at all times. You know that people are watching why in the world would you ever practice your golf swing in that kind of environment? LeBron. And I was mad about that. And then it turned political as if it couldn't get worse. Now it turns political. Now we got the press hit weighing in on the ground shapes doing golf swing during warm-ups and it's just that it gets asked about it after the game. Like, I hated the golf swing thing enough on its own that bothered me. But then we're going to start, we're going to get the president of the United States involved. Like, he's got a chime in and we're going to ask LeBron about it. The whole thing, like, I'm never going to get political in this podcast. But the whole thing sucks. It went from sucking to sucking so hard. I was just like, what is happening? You shouldn't be practicing your golf swing during the anthem on in Masses Square Garden, not because we respect the flag or whatever, because it's just douchey. And you shouldn't be chiming in about it. And you shouldn't be asking about it after the game. It just kept getting worse. It may be so angry. This is not political. And I just say, like, you know, if you're standing out there, like, if that was my son, I would slap him in the back of the head and tell him to knock it off. Yeah, I mean, like, knock it off, man. Like, yeah, practice your job. Or while we're doing the, and, you know, look, everything LeBron wanted the attention. That's it. And the WNBA's been getting all this attention for walking off the court during that anthem. And so, and it's like, okay, bro, it's all just so goofy. I hate it. I hate it. I did just when I did it alone. I hated the golf swing thing alone. Nothing to do with respecting the anthem, just doing it. Whether it was the anthem or the starting lineups or anything, just practicing your golf swing on a basketball floor when everyone is watching. It's just a douchey move. And then it just got worse and worse in the presence of all. And then there's like a headline at ESPN.com. Like, LeBron James says, this is about the anthem. And it's like, oh, my God, what is happening? God, sometimes I just get so frustrated. Can you just talk about basketball? All right. God, that made me sad. We can't talk about basketball. What's going on with the nets? What's the strategy here? What do you think Michael Porter Jr. can get on the market? What teams? Let's do some fake trades. You know, Michael Porter Jr. trades, trade it back to the net nuggets. They could use them. They could use Yokech and Murray. What the hell was that? Aaron Gordon's just carrying them by himself. They were winning, too. They were winning. I'm scared. Do you what's going to happen? I got a prediction for the season. Do you remember what was it last year or two years ago? It might have been two seasons ago when the thunder were so good. And it was just like, then the conversation became like, how many championships in a row are they going to win? I think they're like 20 and four or something. And it's like, we're going to do that again. That's happening. It's guaranteed to happen again this year. It's going to be Thanksgiving. And they're going to be like 17 and all or whatever. And we're just going to be like, do we have to bring up the thunder or Sam Preston? I mean, in fairness, if they wouldn't have lost Jalen Williams and AJ Mitchell and the content, they probably wouldn't. And Chet lost his mind. All right, clear. Obviously, look, the sample size is going to get bigger for all of these teams over the weekend. All nets next week. We're going to two shows next week. We're back to two shows. We'll do all nets front to back, both shows in the next podcast now. This is a tight Jerome podcast. And the matchup that the entire NBA eco sphere Jerome V Curry is tonight. So, oh, and the, is it still a Spencer bull? Uh-huh. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, with the suit. No, I won't know. It's it's it's it's it's in San Francisco. But it might be the debut of beef stew and it grows these uniform. So that could get fun. Oh, yeah, still beef stew. That could get really fun. Oh God. I might watch the stupid game. Oh my God. You just ruined my Friday night. It's sorry. It's like I can't put the kids to bed. They'll watch Yaxl first beef and it came done till like 10 30 year time. My kids stay late on Fridays. Movie night. Yeah, movie night. Friday night's movie night. Yeah, they don't get to watch movies during the week. But Friday we go out to dinner and we go home and they take a shower. You put the pajamas on watch your movie. I argue about what movie to watch for about 20 minutes. Yeah. And then and then watch the Elizabeth Holmes doc. I got I got I'm watching that this weekend. I got to find three hours. You can go so long. It's long. I'm a you don't know. I'm a morning movie guy. Look at 11 a.m. You know something like that because if I sit down at seven o'clock, I'm asleep by nine. You know, I mean a slow doc like that. Like just people talking. No action. Obviously by nine o'clock. But these chairs that got these movie theaters now. I'm out. We are back to two times a week starting next week. Thanks to Jesse and Steph and let's now Liz joining the pod with us. So thanks everybody for making it happen today in Jacobi. I'll talk to you next week. Remember, you must be 21 and over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas. You know, or 18 and over and present in DC or why only got a gambling problem call 1800 gambler or one eight hundred my reset call one eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit md gambling help dot org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelp ma.org or call 800 three two seven five zero five zero four 24 seven support in Massachusetts or call one eight seven seven eight hope and why.