Speaker 1: You're you're listening to The Hottest, The Hottest. It be
Speaker 1: a podcast out here.
Speaker 2: I said what I.
Speaker 1: Said, it's the Heat Chick, Heat Check Check. It's just
Speaker 1: a crit on this episode of the Heat Check. What
Speaker 1: is happening, folks? My god, Draymond gets suspended indefinitely. Giannis
Speaker 1: goes off for sixty four points, a Milwaukee Bucks record,
Speaker 1: that loses his goddamn mind over his game ball. We're
Speaker 1: talking about the game though, and the Clippers quietly maybe
Speaker 1: the best team in the NBA that nobody is talking about.
Speaker 1: We also got your MVP MVP futures in the NBA covered,
Speaker 1: and some news from around the week. I said, it
Speaker 1: was crazy seasons. All these stars are losing their minds.
Speaker 1: So let's get into it, William and drop that motherfucker
Speaker 1: beating the should be Rihanna. Oh my goodness, there is
Speaker 1: just two much popping in the league right now. I
Speaker 1: tell you what. Draymond Green has been suspended indefinitely. Yannis
Speaker 1: goes off for sixty four points, which is a record,
Speaker 1: and loses his goddamn mind after the ball has to
Speaker 1: be restrained, has to be restrained. Yannis, the nicest guy
Speaker 1: in the league. The guy with the dad jokes. That
Speaker 1: guy was putting his face finger in the face of
Speaker 1: Lloyd Pierce's assistant coach of the Indiana Pacers, putting his
Speaker 1: finger in the face of Tyrese Haliburton. All the while,
Speaker 1: Dame Willard is just like, yo, dude, it's not that deep.
Speaker 1: You'll get the ball. Pat Beverly is the only one
Speaker 1: willing to talk about Josh Giddy on the broadcast with
Speaker 1: Kevin Hart, almost said Josh Hart, Kevin Hart, we'll get
Speaker 1: onto all of that in a bit, not all of it.
Speaker 1: We're not talking about Josh Giddy, obviously, but because so
Speaker 1: much is happening around the league, I think everybody is
Speaker 1: asleep on the LA Clippers. Last time that we checked
Speaker 1: in on the Clippers, everyone including me, was clowning them.
Speaker 1: The James Harden era got off to a very rocky start.
Speaker 1: He looked slightly washed. Russell Westbrook was discombobulated. You remember,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was all the rage. Everybody was having
Speaker 1: it on their little debate shows. We were making fun
Speaker 1: of the trade. We're mocking LA. Harden was the butt
Speaker 1: of every fat joke, except for the ones about Zion.
Speaker 1: They lost the first six games of the hardened area,
Speaker 1: and there was gully I mean, elation across the league
Speaker 1: and shock and awe in Clipperville. Guess what, Well the
Speaker 1: Clippers convinced Russell Westbrook to come off the bench or
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook decided on his own, but let's be honest,
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter. And since then, the team is ten
Speaker 1: and three and they are the hottest team in basketball.
Speaker 1: They're the only team in the league who hasn't lost
Speaker 1: in the month of December, and the much maligned Harden
Speaker 1: is actually averaging seventeen to five and eight. But get this,
Speaker 1: the turnstile is averaging two steals a game. Do not
Speaker 1: be sleeping on these Clipper folks. Do not be sleeping
Speaker 1: on them. If you break down their run of form,
Speaker 1: it is very impressive. First of all, Kawhi Leonard Paul
Speaker 1: George haven't missed the game all year. Paul George probably
Speaker 1: will end up missing some games because of a groin
Speaker 1: strain or whatever it is. Paul George before his injury
Speaker 1: was top ten minutes played until he left at halftime
Speaker 1: against the Kings. This team Clippers have been also super
Speaker 1: balanced in the last ten games or so, the Big
Speaker 1: four ish Big three and one, Big Three and Change
Speaker 1: have all found a way to get theirs, which is
Speaker 1: a very very difficult thing to do. Russ coming off
Speaker 1: the bench has given them eleven to seven and five
Speaker 1: and twenty five minutes. Kawhi Leonard is putting up MVP
Speaker 1: caliber numbers twenty three, six and fours with two and
Speaker 1: a half steals and blocks per game, stocks and the
Speaker 1: incredible thing, His thirty four point seven minutes per game
Speaker 1: is the highest in his entire career. Paul George twenty three,
Speaker 1: six and four with two stocks per game. His two
Speaker 1: point three turnovers per game is the lowest he's had
Speaker 1: since twenty fifteen. Nuts and as a team, they are gelling.
Speaker 1: That's what they said. We have time. We need time
Speaker 1: to gel, we need time to click. All these other
Speaker 1: teams they've had time to figure each other out. We've
Speaker 1: had no time. This guy just got here midway through
Speaker 1: the season in December. Only three teams have a higher
Speaker 1: field goal percentage than the Clippers, and only four teams
Speaker 1: have allowed a lower field goal percentage. So the Clippers
Speaker 1: are top five in offense and top five in defense.
Speaker 1: If you take their last game when they played against
Speaker 1: the Kings, they used a suffocating defense to smother a
Speaker 1: very good Sacramento Kings team. By twenty six, Clippers were
Speaker 1: plus twelve or better and eight players had eight or
Speaker 1: more points. Balanced scoring, their team shooting splits fifty two
Speaker 1: from the field, thirty eight percent from three, ninety three
Speaker 1: percent at the charity stripe. At the same time, they
Speaker 1: held a very good shooting Kings team to forty two
Speaker 1: percent from the field, twenty seven percent from three, and
Speaker 1: just seventy one percent they adam shook from the charity
Speaker 1: towards stripe. All five Kings starters were negative eight or worse,
Speaker 1: and Darren Fox, which we know has MVP caliber talent,
Speaker 1: he was only held to fourteen points, which is less
Speaker 1: than half of what he's averaging in his All Star
Speaker 1: All NBA year. The Clipper team is just different. They're
Speaker 1: different than we thought that they were going to be.
Speaker 1: They're different than they were at the start of the
Speaker 1: season and the start of the hard and era, and nobody.
Speaker 1: Nobody is talking about it. Nuts. Do you want to
Speaker 1: hear something wild? Harden has played eight games with PG
Speaker 1: and Kawhi, so that's already more than he played with
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, which was sixteen. That is
Speaker 1: insane and we're only in December. The team is fun.
Speaker 1: They are deep, so deep they'll put your ass to sleep,
Speaker 1: So deep that Bones Highland has gotten ten straight dnps
Speaker 1: in the last fifteen games, so deep. The PJ. Tucker
Speaker 1: has gotten six straight DMPs and also went six straight
Speaker 1: games before that without scoring a point, nearly eighty minutes
Speaker 1: of basketball and this man, PJ. Tucker only shot the
Speaker 1: ball twice in total. No wonder. He was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I gotta figure out a place or a role for me,
Speaker 1: and there are not enough basketballs in the world for
Speaker 1: this team. That's right, That's true. Both Bones and Tucker
Speaker 1: probably getting shipped out. They'll probably be for their own
Speaker 1: good as well, probably be a market for both of them.
Speaker 1: What the Clippers need is another big because with Mason
Speaker 1: plumbleing out, they're relying on a lot of Daniel Heice
Speaker 1: minutes right now in the backup center spot, and as
Speaker 1: just not Daniel Tice is not a very good sign.
Speaker 1: We'll know a lot more about where this Clippers team
Speaker 1: stacks up against the league over the next two weeks
Speaker 1: or so. But not only has Paul George banged up,
Speaker 1: meaning they're gonna probably have to play without one of
Speaker 1: their stars for the first time this year. But they
Speaker 1: also play the Warriors, the Knicks, the Pacers, the MAVs,
Speaker 1: the Thunder and the Celtics in consecutive games. So if
Speaker 1: the Clippers were to come through this stretch at say
Speaker 1: four and two, I don't know, three and three, maybe
Speaker 1: watch out. This could be the team that we've been
Speaker 1: hoping that the Clippers could be. It would be are
Speaker 1: they a contender? So many stars all on expiring contracts, Maybe,
Speaker 1: just maybe we could have faith that they can compete
Speaker 1: with the Denver Nuggets again like they did in the bubble.
Speaker 1: One thing is for sure, as long as the Clippers
Speaker 1: stay healthy, this is a dangerous ass team they're gonna
Speaker 1: very much have to worry about when they're in this playoff.
Speaker 1: Moving on, by now, everyone who's talking about what I
Speaker 1: call game Ballgate? What Tom Ziller, who I absolutely love,
Speaker 1: I wish I thought of this name ball gaizy aka
Speaker 1: ben Ghazi no ball Ghazi ballghazi gate. If you're not
Speaker 1: one hundred percent up on it, let's set the stage.
Speaker 1: It is kind of fool gayzy, It is kind of
Speaker 1: ball gayzy. It is The Bucks played the Pacers last
Speaker 1: night and what has become a tiny, tiny bit of
Speaker 1: a rivalry. The Pacers beat Milwaukee in the semifinals in
Speaker 1: season tournament. In the game where remember Tyrese Halliburton arrived,
Speaker 1: He's tapping on his wrist where his watch should be,
Speaker 1: looking at Damian Lillard saying, dame time, Nah, it's my time.
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard after that game was like, oh boy, you
Speaker 1: might God get humble. Your time's coming as well. And
Speaker 1: the Bucks they might have felt some kind of way
Speaker 1: about it. Damian Lillard must have fallen some kind of
Speaker 1: way about it. Giannis must have felt some kind of
Speaker 1: way about it. Because Wednesday's game intents from the jump,
Speaker 1: hard fouls, closeouts on defense, bodies, let the bodies hit
Speaker 1: the flow, let the bodies hit the flow. Teams coming
Speaker 1: close to brawling on multiple occasions. Bobby Portis flashing those
Speaker 1: murder eyes, charging at everybody getting ejected. I think I watched.
Speaker 1: I thought it was the same highlight, but it was
Speaker 1: multiple scuffle highlights before the main event occurred, which happened postgame.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Bucks, because they were feeling some kind
Speaker 1: of way and they were at the crib oh too
Speaker 1: much for the Pacers. In the second half, it looked
Speaker 1: like they were putting the game away for good. Giannis
Speaker 1: had just beaten Michael Red's scoring record in Milwaukee. He's
Speaker 1: going to the bench. Everything looks like it's normal, and
Speaker 1: then fifty eight points is what he scored. Five minutes left.
Speaker 1: The whole Indiana Pacer bench was in all the scrubs
Speaker 1: and for development time, and they decided to bomb away,
Speaker 1: start making shots, and with like two minutes left, they
Speaker 1: gotta bring back in Dame. They got to bring back
Speaker 1: in Giannis. Adrian Grippin was like, we can't be losing
Speaker 1: to the Indiana Pacers at the crib. So Yannis proceeded
Speaker 1: to be dominant, scoring another six more points sixty four
Speaker 1: on twenty for twenty eight from the field, with fourteen boards,
Speaker 1: four steals, and a block. What a monster game for Yiannis.
Speaker 1: By the way, woo. The kind of game that I
Speaker 1: don't know, you'd like to commemorate, right, like maybe pick
Speaker 1: the ball home, maybe, like I don't know, have the
Speaker 1: game ball given to you? Yeah, I don't know. The
Speaker 1: Pacers were like in Milwaukee, no, fuck your game ball.
Speaker 1: As assistant coach Lloyd Pierce, you remember him from Atlanta,
Speaker 1: wasn't particularly well liked, apparently snatched one of the game
Speaker 1: balls and proceeded to spirit it away, to secrete it
Speaker 1: away to the Pacers locker room, and Giannis found out,
Speaker 1: and he lost his mind. He was so furious. He
Speaker 1: didn't know that. I guess a Milwaukee Bucks security guard
Speaker 1: grabbed the first game ball and he had it, but
Speaker 1: he lost it. He went ape shit, started yelling at everyone,
Speaker 1: took a small army into the Pacers tunnel, where a
Speaker 1: scuffle ensued that ended with my guy Pacers GM Chad
Speaker 1: Buchanan taking an elbow to the ribs and maybe more.
Speaker 1: That's what Rick Carly'll say, and not allegedly that really happened, folks.
Speaker 1: The Pacers were apparently saving the game ball. They took
Speaker 1: the game ball for Oscar to Shebays first NBA point commemoration.
Speaker 1: And I say apparently because this all seems petty and
Speaker 1: quite shady as hell, considering that I think Oscar to
Speaker 1: Sway has already scored a point in an NBA game
Speaker 1: in the nd season tournament. After the game, the tea
Speaker 1: continued to spill everywhere. Both Giannis and Dame claimed that
Speaker 1: the ball had been switched. They think that that was
Speaker 1: never been used in a game, that it seemed like
Speaker 1: a brand new ball, and that the Pacers were still
Speaker 1: holding on to it. Where is the ball from the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Buck security guard that he grabbed, probably already on eBay.
Speaker 1: There is so much about this that is just hilarious.
Speaker 1: Let's start with Rick Carlile's postgame presser. It's oh, it's tremendous.
Speaker 2: I don't think any punches were landed, but my general
Speaker 2: manager got elbowed in the ribs one of their players,
Speaker 2: and so he certainly has a bruised rib, and who knows,
Speaker 2: you know, if it's anything more than that, but unfortunate situation.
Speaker 2: We don't need the official game ball. There's two game
Speaker 2: balls there, you know, we could have taken the other one,
Speaker 2: but it didn't need to escalate to that.
Speaker 1: Wait, so he admitted it take the official game ball.
Speaker 1: The conspiracies are afoot. I don't think anyone really knows
Speaker 1: what is going on. This is also really funny, Like,
Speaker 1: is anybody in the NBA more low key anonymous than
Speaker 1: Chad Buchan the Pacers GM. A lot of people think
Speaker 1: Kevin Pritchard, President, of basketball operations is actually the GM
Speaker 1: of the Indiana Pacers. My guy Chad Buchanon aka Buck
Speaker 1: just getting no key respect at all, to the point
Speaker 1: where you've got head coach Rick Carlisle just not even
Speaker 1: saying his name, just the our GM Pacers GM just
Speaker 1: got elbowed in the ribs. We gotta put a little
Speaker 1: bit of respect on Bucks name. Second, as someone said
Speaker 1: on Twitter, the whole like give the game ball in
Speaker 1: a loss to the rookie scoring his first and only
Speaker 1: point of a game on a second free throw that
Speaker 1: Carlisle tried to pull. It was said with the straight
Speaker 1: face like that is not a thing, and he knows.
Speaker 1: This is not like a real tradition, This is not
Speaker 1: something that normally happens like Shenanigan's are afoot. This is
Speaker 1: now an ongoing situation, and it appears in a video
Speaker 1: that a Buck's official secured the game ball from the
Speaker 1: rep at the end of the game, and that Lloyd
Speaker 1: Pierce might have gotten the second golf ball which Giannis
Speaker 1: flipped the fuck out over, And we don't really know,
Speaker 1: We have absolutely no clue. What we do know, though,
Speaker 1: is that the Indiana Pacers just signed James Johnson, the
Speaker 1: scariest man in the league a day after this kerfuffle,
Speaker 1: this fracas, this scuffle. Why because they don't want to
Speaker 1: be bullied like this again. They don't want to be
Speaker 1: made out like they can just get elbowed in the
Speaker 1: ribs or GM isn't protected, like we need somebody like
Speaker 1: James Johnson to make sure this shit doesn't happen again,
Speaker 1: unlike the Draymond drama. This is what I live for.
Speaker 1: This is the stuff that the NBA on social media
Speaker 1: is all about. And guess what, and guess what, and
Speaker 1: guess what. New Year's Day Baby pacers bucks in Indiana.
Speaker 1: Adam Silver cannot stop grinning from ear to ear. Maybe
Speaker 1: your girl will be there.