Speaker 1: So those two games Dame going Crazy, Lakers historic comeback.
Speaker 2: Still not the greatest thing I saw on the weekend,
Speaker 2: not even close. I don't even know how to describe
Speaker 2: what I watched.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. The Kings and the Clippers. The Clippers
Speaker 1: were down fourteen points with three minutes left to go,
Speaker 1: and the Clippers statistically had a ninety eight percent chance
Speaker 1: of winning according to ESPN stat Metrics narrator.
Speaker 2: They did not win that game, Clippers, they lost.
Speaker 1: And the Kings and the Clippers game ended with two
Speaker 1: overtimes three hundred and fifty one point scored.
Speaker 2: The live over.
Speaker 1: The total in the game for betters was two hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety point five, which is absurd number.
Speaker 2: In its own right.
Speaker 1: At the end of the third quarter, it hit the
Speaker 1: over with three minutes left to play in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter and it sailed almost sixty points over that stat
Speaker 1: line crazy. It was the second highest scoring game in
Speaker 1: NBA history. But it was to me that that actually
Speaker 1: cheapens it a little bit, because it was a lot
Speaker 1: more than just a barrage of points. Right, You had
Speaker 1: a drama, a storyline the entire way. First of all,
Speaker 1: you knew that the Clippers are trying to come back
Speaker 1: in the standings against their division rival, anyone who has
Speaker 1: the kings to win this division. This is a very
Speaker 1: important game as the Clippers try to claw in. It's
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook's first game as a Clipper. He had massive
Speaker 1: impact in that game as the Clippers' offense was running
Speaker 1: much faster, much smoother. Anytime he was on the wing
Speaker 1: and got the ball, he attacked, got demonas Sabonis in
Speaker 1: foul trouble. He had seventeen points Russell Westbrook seven for
Speaker 1: thirteen shooting plus three when he was on the court.
Speaker 1: That was an important showing for Russell Westbrook. And second,
Speaker 1: although you're gonna want to say, well, it was all offense,
Speaker 1: that's all it was. No defense was being played. That's
Speaker 1: why I hate the NBA. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: That's not true. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Speaker 2: Both teams.
Speaker 1: Yes, they shot sixty percent from the field overall and
Speaker 1: almost sixty percent from three, both of them. But you
Speaker 1: had some incredible Kobe Bryant like shot making going on.
Speaker 1: You had multiple defenders draped on players traps, and you
Speaker 1: had fucking Kawhi Leonards step back three with two guys
Speaker 1: in his grill and he's just hitting that. That was
Speaker 1: the kind of offense that we got to see. And
Speaker 1: in the final three minutes, the Kings caused turnovers on
Speaker 1: five consecutive possessions. Fox himself responsible for three three turnovers
Speaker 1: in a row. You had bench players scoring forty plus
Speaker 1: in Malik Monk going crazy with his best friend. There
Speaker 1: were multiple seemingly knockout punches thrown, mostly from the Clippers
Speaker 1: to the Kings, multiple comeback runs. Key players in foul
Speaker 1: trouble like Demanda Sabonis. Westbrook fouled out, so did Sabonis.
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard twelve for fourteen in that game at one point,
Speaker 1: pretty much unstoppable no matter what you threw at him.
Speaker 1: One shot looked like it was the first bad shot
Speaker 1: he had thrown up all game. Shooter's touch roll right
Speaker 1: in it was incredible. Paul George hit a half court
Speaker 1: shot at the end of regulation that would have robbed
Speaker 1: us of the two overtimes, but he was a millisecond
Speaker 1: too late. You had star players sitting out the second
Speaker 1: overtime because fuck it, dude, we can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1: We've got load management to deal with. Paul George sat
Speaker 1: out the second ot. It was one of the most
Speaker 1: entertaining games I've ever seen on a basketball court, and
Speaker 1: it came down to a miss three pointer at the
Speaker 1: end of the second overtime, which, by the way, was
Speaker 1: bunkers because why is Norm Powell.
Speaker 2: Involved in the offense.
Speaker 1: In any way when Kawhi Leonard is right there underneath
Speaker 1: the basket and definitely will draw fout when you're down too.
Speaker 1: I don't unders down one. Actually I don't understand it.
Speaker 1: Why should have three in that scenario? But it was
Speaker 1: also something important there the real reason that I enjoyed
Speaker 1: this game so much. Man, The Kings are gritty. They
Speaker 1: are never stopping. They are hard rocks. You talk about
Speaker 1: guys who just when they get down, they just lay
Speaker 1: down and stay down.
Speaker 2: They are not gonna lay down.
Speaker 1: They are the product of Mike Brown and the symbol
Speaker 1: of a winning coach who has brought a culture that
Speaker 1: people thought would not be possible for this organization. A
Speaker 1: coach that said at this part of the season, right now,
Speaker 1: after the All Star break, with only twenty seven games,
Speaker 1: lovet He said, Yo, this is when the real season starts.
Speaker 2: This is it? Really?
Speaker 1: Like all the other bullshit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all
Speaker 1: fun and games. This right now, this is when teams say, oh, like,
Speaker 1: we gotta get ready for the playoffs. We gotta solidify
Speaker 1: our spot in the standings. This is where he said
Speaker 1: the Kings are gonna be hunted. We are now the hunted.
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard anyone say that about the Sacramento Kings,
Speaker 1: Like they are coming for us, and you know what,
Speaker 1: We're gonna hunt them right back.
Speaker 2: We're not gonna allow ourselves.
Speaker 1: To slide down the standings, to just be happy with
Speaker 1: being a fun little story for the first sixty games
Speaker 1: and then be a play team.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: No three seed, that's us when you've got the three
Speaker 1: seed Kings being hunted by rivals in the dev vision alone,
Speaker 1: like the Phoenix Suns with Kevin Durant coming back, the
Speaker 1: Clippers with the whole new roster.
Speaker 2: Our Dubs who look dead but are never dead.
Speaker 1: Mike Mike Brown has done something in one year that
Speaker 1: almost nobody. Has turned a team that many people thought
Speaker 1: wouldn't even win thirty games into a team who legitimately
Speaker 1: after that game one seventy six point seventy five and
Speaker 1: they were asked about, oh yeah, like, what's up with
Speaker 1: this Clipper team? Like, how do you feel about playing
Speaker 1: against him? Playing against them? You had Deer and Fox
Speaker 1: and lake Monk saying, we don't give a fuck who's
Speaker 1: over there.
Speaker 2: Literally, that's what they.
Speaker 1: Said when specifically referencing playing against a former MVP in
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, a two time finals MVP, and Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: and an all NBA player and Paul George And you
Speaker 1: know what they said, We do not give a fuck
Speaker 1: about who we play. They are not scared. Why are
Speaker 1: they not scared? Because somehow Mike Brown, with this collection
Speaker 1: of really interesting pieces, has turned the Sacramento Kings into
Speaker 1: a team who can just outgun you. They are averaging
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighteen points per one hundred possessions, which
Speaker 1: is not only number one in the West, that offense
Speaker 1: is not.
Speaker 2: Only number one in the NBA.
Speaker 1: That offense is the best offense in NBA history right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is what they did. They have turned themselves into
Speaker 1: a gunna. They can shoot the three with Kevin Herder,
Speaker 1: Keegan Murray and Harrison Barnes.
Speaker 2: We know that they do that really well.
Speaker 1: They have Sabonis, who's a walking double double Darren fox
Speaker 1: who is not getting nearly enough shine right now, averaging
Speaker 1: over the past month thirty two seven and four on
Speaker 1: fifty four percent shooting, and is legitimately the best clutch
Speaker 1: player in the NBA. First in clutch points, first in
Speaker 1: field goal percentage, first in paint points, first in points
Speaker 1: off of turnovers, and first in fast break points.
Speaker 2: All of those for our guy Foxy, which.
Speaker 1: Now has turned in to a slight conflict for me
Speaker 1: national media hype.
Speaker 2: The Kings are now getting national media hype.
Speaker 1: On one hand, I was pissed that nobody wanted to
Speaker 1: give Sacramento any even hope that they would do anything,
Speaker 1: if even mediocrity before this, Like I said, Oh, maybe
Speaker 1: I'm crazy for thinking there'll be a playing team. I
Speaker 1: remember sitting right here in this spot being like, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Like I actually thought they'd be better than that.
Speaker 1: But I was so afraid of people calling me an idiot.
Speaker 1: This is not your father's Kings team before the season started.
Speaker 1: And the other conflict is that the more people who
Speaker 1: stops slandering the Kings, the better. Right, That's good, but
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like, you're a little late. You're a
Speaker 1: little late. It's awesome to see this franchise do well.
Speaker 1: It's a great fan base. I'd love to see them
Speaker 1: get a little bit of national love, but we don't.
Speaker 1: We don't need full scale conversion. We don't need them
Speaker 1: losing the chip on their shoulder. They are the three
Speaker 1: seed right now with twenty games left to go. So
Speaker 1: part of it is like, were you just waiting for
Speaker 1: the Kings to just fall off the map just never
Speaker 1: ever report what was going on and just pretend like
Speaker 1: it was a little blip on the radar. And now
Speaker 1: that there's twenty games to go and they've been sitting
Speaker 1: at the three spot for like two months, you're like, well,
Speaker 1: he should probably afflex him to a national televised game
Speaker 1: or two. But it's a credit to Mike Brown man
Speaker 1: his winning mentality, because all he does really is win.
Speaker 2: He got fired for winning. Mike Brown forty one and twenty.
Speaker 1: Five as the coach of the Lakers, and he got
Speaker 1: fired five games into the next season after he took
Speaker 1: over for Phil Jackson. That's how much Mike Brown wins.
Speaker 1: Is like, even that level of success wasn't good enough
Speaker 1: for the Lakers, and the Lakers sent him outside of
Speaker 1: the bubble. Have had eight of ten losing seasons since
Speaker 1: he's coached them.
Speaker 2: So there's that.
Speaker 1: He spent seven years in Golden State, as we know,
Speaker 1: which you already know what time it is. There lots
Speaker 1: of winning. He spent time in Cleveland, which you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of winning with Lebron James, and very typically
Speaker 1: the media was very late on Mike Brown as well.
Speaker 1: Mike Brown, I decided I would head over as I
Speaker 1: was doing this piece, maybe I'll head over to the
Speaker 1: little sports book, sprinkle a little money on Mike Brown
Speaker 1: coach of the year. Who knows maybe five to one, six,
Speaker 1: one seven to win something. You know, nobody's thinking about
Speaker 1: Mike Brown, right, nobody's thinking about him. Nobody's thinking about
Speaker 1: the Kings.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Well, that one seventy six one seventy five sort of
Speaker 1: changed the odds a little because as of today, Mike
Speaker 1: Brown is currently leader in the clubhouse for Coach of
Speaker 1: the Year plus one ten, which is basically barely even money,
Speaker 1: barely there's no value there. You heard that, right, A
Speaker 1: Sacramento King's head coach is the odds on favorite to
Speaker 1: win Coach of the Year. If you had to guess
Speaker 1: where Mike Brown was at the opening as of October
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Do you think he was like, what
Speaker 1: top fifteen, top twenty, top twenty five, None of those.
Speaker 2: So it was Chris Finch at ten.
Speaker 1: To one was number one leader in the clubhouse. Tylo
Speaker 1: twelve to one, makes sense that Clipper team had a
Speaker 1: lot of steam. Joe Mizzoula didn't make any sense. Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics had just come from the finals. You have to
Speaker 1: improve a lot in order to get Coach of the year.
Speaker 1: How's he gonna do that? Fourteen to one? Willie Green
Speaker 1: fifteen to one. A lot of steam on the Pelicans
Speaker 1: and them being great in the West. Michael Malone, I
Speaker 1: guess you thought already everybody was gonna be healthy for
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 2: JB. Bickerstaff at six at sixteen to one makes sense.
Speaker 2: You got Donovan Mitchell and My Brown sitting at fourth
Speaker 2: from the bottom. At eighty to one.
Speaker 1: God, somebody I need to know who plays that bet
Speaker 1: eighty to one. Mike Brown was to currently plus one ten.
Speaker 2: Should anyone have been surprised?
Speaker 1: Mean, he's not looking at a team for the Kings
Speaker 1: that's trying to lose, not wanting them to just keep
Speaker 1: their head above water. He wants them to continue to
Speaker 1: put their boot on the next and the schedule lines
Speaker 1: up for the Kings to do that, put their boots
Speaker 1: on the next. Their next five games Thunder, Clippers, Wolves, Pelicans, Knicks,
Speaker 1: all winnable, four, the last four at home besides the Knicks.
Speaker 1: And so to me, the way that I know that
Speaker 1: the Knicks mania is reel. For the first time I
Speaker 1: can remember, TNT flexed a King's Knicks game into prime
Speaker 1: time on the national feed at the expense of y
Speaker 1: honest and the Bucks versus the Nets.
Speaker 2: Better late than never. But while you're at it, folks,
Speaker 2: wore me up on that purple bean. Baby, Let's move on.
Speaker 1: We talked about the dysfunction in uh Atlanta multiple times now,
Speaker 1: I don't need to say how I feel about it.
Speaker 1: That franchise is a mess, and Nate McMillan, of course,
Speaker 1: became the next one to bite the dust, as they say,
Speaker 1: after Travis Schlank.
Speaker 2: And I'm I'm.
Speaker 1: Pretty sure this organization is like nuclearly toxic. But the
Speaker 1: way that I know for sure is that when asked
Speaker 1: about Nate's firing, Trey Young said he was quote honestly.
Speaker 2: Surprised by it.
Speaker 1: The most amazing thing I think about that statement is
Speaker 1: that it's only two words, and both words are lies,
Speaker 1: like both the both words are lies, like honestly surprised
Speaker 1: you neither of those things.
Speaker 2: Trey is not being honest. That negates the first word.
Speaker 1: And he was definitely not surprised because he definitely made
Speaker 1: that firing happen either sublimely or very overtly, given the
Speaker 1: fact that Sean said that the Hawks were trying to
Speaker 1: get him to resign for multiple weeks before actually firing him.
Speaker 1: So definitely not surprised and definitely not honestly surprised. So
Speaker 1: the Hawks, apparently we're just interested in one candidate, Quinn Snyder,
Speaker 1: who's a really, really good coach, but not a great fit.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, I like him a lot, But this
Speaker 1: guy's gotta have PTSD for Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: like has two.
Speaker 2: He probably aged him. Did you see what he looks like?
Speaker 1: Quinn Snyder at the end of that thing, looked like
Speaker 1: he needed cocaine just to stay awake.
Speaker 2: He looked like he needed all nighters.
Speaker 1: Rails on top of rails, bitches, money parties, disco balls
Speaker 1: to continue doing his job. How is he going to
Speaker 1: do in Atlanta? How is he going to deal with
Speaker 1: a reboot with Trey Young more cocaine? I don't know
Speaker 1: how that's gonna work, dude, I do not know. He's
Speaker 1: got a five year deal now, with one of those
Speaker 1: years being now, which I think is funny.
Speaker 2: Like the first year is twenty games.
Speaker 1: Get your money. I guess money has not been disclosed yet.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to find out what that number is.
Speaker 1: I cannot imagine he wouldn't have benefited from waiting until
Speaker 1: the offseason. Better jobs would have come open. But they
Speaker 1: must have given him the bag. But now he's in
Speaker 1: Atlanta for the foreseeable future. And now he's also.
Speaker 2: Lying trying to be optimistic because he's got his money too.
Speaker 1: He said this, I think players want to get better.
Speaker 1: I think they want to be coached. The relationships are
Speaker 1: what allows you to coach them effectively. How did it
Speaker 1: work when Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert didn't like each other?
Speaker 2: How did that work?
Speaker 1: How is it gonna work when John Collins is still
Speaker 1: on this dogshit team and Trey Young won't pass him
Speaker 1: the ball? Do you not understand what Trey Young does
Speaker 1: Trey Young just dribbled, dribble, dribble, dribble, shoots from thirty
Speaker 1: floater floater lob maybe driving kick. He does not have
Speaker 1: a reputation for being like a coachable player. He does
Speaker 1: not have a reputation of like Trey Young has constantly
Speaker 1: unproved throughout the course of his NBA career. Trey Young
Speaker 1: is averaging the worst percentage from three in his life
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: He's actually regressing.
Speaker 1: So for Quinn to be like, I think players want
Speaker 1: to get better inherently is a lie. In fact, only
Speaker 1: about five percent of players in the NBA want to
Speaker 1: actively get better and actively coach. The other ones want
Speaker 1: a coast.
Speaker 2: That's what they do.
Speaker 1: They want to enjoy their money, enjoy their life, be
Speaker 1: a human being, and hoop.
Speaker 2: That's what they want to do. What do you think
Speaker 2: Trey Young's gonna do?
Speaker 1: And you're like, hey, we're actually running running things through
Speaker 1: de Jonte Murray, Now, no, I don't.
Speaker 2: Think it's gonna be good.
Speaker 1: When you ask Trey like, hey, how do you feel
Speaker 1: we need to know if you're playing tonight and he
Speaker 1: tells you fuck off. I'm gonna decide last minute How
Speaker 1: are you gonna deal with that? Say, I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: you know at game time? How will I know I'll
Speaker 1: be there in my uniform? How will you not know
Speaker 1: I won't be there on the bench at all? Like
Speaker 1: he did to Nate McMillan. There is a decent chance
Speaker 1: this goes sideways like this. I'm saying it now February
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, twenty twenty three. This thing could go off
Speaker 1: the rails in twelve months. If there is any hope
Speaker 1: for a rapport between Quinn Snyder and Trey Young, you
Speaker 1: can thank Donovan Mitchell for that. According to reports, Snyder
Speaker 1: and Trey Young are both expressing an.
Speaker 2: Enthusiasm to begin working together.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell profusely praised Snyder in a private conversation with
Speaker 1: Trey Young and told him how instrumental the coach had
Speaker 1: been in his own development into an star. Also, quick
Speaker 1: little note, nobody asked Rudy Gobert his opinion. Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: was not stumping for Quinn Snyder. But if Trey is
Speaker 1: looking at Quinn as someone to help him get in
Speaker 1: a new stratus here, maybe maybe that will work. But
Speaker 1: that will actually require some level of self awareness, some
Speaker 1: level of intrigue and coachability, court awareness.
Speaker 2: Just all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: Better shot selection, which is pretty much a tall task
Speaker 1: which we've seen.
Speaker 2: Very little from Trey Young.
Speaker 1: All of us begs the question which I'm sure will
Speaker 1: someone will ask Quinn Snyder sooner than later, Quinn Snyder
Speaker 1: who is harder to coach Rudy Gobert or Trey Young.
Speaker 1: And I bet it's gonna be Trey Young, because this
Speaker 1: Hawks team has a lot of talent but is a
Speaker 1: long long way from being a contender, even with a
Speaker 1: good coach, elite coach like Quinn Snyder at the helm.
Speaker 1: That's all the time that we have for this episode
Speaker 1: of The Heat Check. Check Bear Friday morning for an
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Speaker 1: drop unexpectedly throughout the week, And please follow the heat
Speaker 1: Check as the season heads towards the playoffs. Download subscribe,
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Speaker 1: especially during a record blanking weekend.
Speaker 2: Like this past one. We will see you next time, folks.