Speaker 1: Welcome into the NBA Pulsar production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in the NBA. I'm Sarracu Stock, NBA analysts for the
Speaker 1: S Network. Today is Friday, the thirteenth January, and from
Speaker 1: our terrific core group of NBA dot com writers, I'm
Speaker 1: joined by Michael c Right to talk about his KEYA
Speaker 1: race to the m v P Ladder. Michael, thanks for
Speaker 1: being here with us. Thanks for having good, good little
Speaker 1: list here as uh, we take a look at the
Speaker 1: top five. Nicola Yokich holding strong to that number one
Speaker 1: spot with his West leading Denver Nuggets. Luca don Chech
Speaker 1: jumps up to number two after a while double overtime
Speaker 1: win at the Lakers. He had thirty five points, fourteen rebounds,
Speaker 1: thirteen assists. Just a special special night from Luca that
Speaker 1: we continue to see. Uh. That bumps Jason Tatum to
Speaker 1: third though. The Eastern Conference leading Boston Celtics just keep rolling.
Speaker 1: Just beat the Brooklyn Nets last night. They've won nine
Speaker 1: of their last eleven. Janice is a four and Joel
Speaker 1: and Bead jumps up to number five. But before we
Speaker 1: get to Joel Embiad, I want to talk about Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant because he had debuted last week in your top three. Um,
Speaker 1: not not necessarily his own fault, but he drops down
Speaker 1: to number six. He sprained that right, uh mc l
Speaker 1: Sunday in a Brooklyn win at Miami. He'll be reevaluated
Speaker 1: in two weeks. Uh, something similar that we saw with
Speaker 1: his left mc L last season. Um in mid January.
Speaker 1: But well, what's kind of your take on that? How
Speaker 1: injuries impact players. We don't know when he'll come back,
Speaker 1: but just how he had been playing and now dealing
Speaker 1: with us. Oh, Sarah, maybe I'm just overreacting here, because
Speaker 1: as soon as I saw that freak injury Sunday against
Speaker 1: the Heat, I started thinking about last year and I
Speaker 1: just remember, just just from my vantage point, it seemed
Speaker 1: like the entire vibe of the brook and that's just
Speaker 1: went just down. Um, what they lost something like eleven
Speaker 1: in a row sixteen of twenty one, and then you
Speaker 1: know they when they finally went into the playoffs, you
Speaker 1: sort of knew that they weren't quite right, you know,
Speaker 1: and and you saw first round and get swept by
Speaker 1: the Celtics. And so maybe this is an overreaction. And
Speaker 1: from what I understand, Uh, he's supposed this is not
Speaker 1: as significant as the one last year, so you know
Speaker 1: there's a good chance that he's gonna be back sooner.
Speaker 1: And you know, I was sort of breaking it down
Speaker 1: by games thinking about it, like, Okay, say he misses
Speaker 1: like three weeks, you're talking about maybe ten games, and
Speaker 1: if he comes back and he's the Katie of old,
Speaker 1: then to me, he's almost immediately right back in the
Speaker 1: m v P conversation because that's not a lot of
Speaker 1: time missed. And you know, I was telling somebody that,
Speaker 1: like when you're doing these these m v P votes
Speaker 1: or or evaluating it, you know, like it's so close
Speaker 1: that you have to look at how many games these
Speaker 1: guys are playing. And before Kevin Durant went down, that
Speaker 1: dude was the model of durability. He played thirty nine
Speaker 1: out of the first forty games, and you know you
Speaker 1: don't typically see that with Katie, but he had played
Speaker 1: all those games. But he was playing well, I mean,
Speaker 1: shooting the lights out one for Kevin Durant, killer and
Speaker 1: playing well on defense. Like to me, he was putting
Speaker 1: together like a season where you should maybe consider him
Speaker 1: for the All defensive team. He was a Yeah, I
Speaker 1: couldn't agree anymore. And I do think you look back
Speaker 1: at last season when he was out, I think it
Speaker 1: wasn't just about the losses, but how they were losing.
Speaker 1: That's when at the time Kyrie Irving was still part time.
Speaker 1: Obviously things were not going well with James Harden. I
Speaker 1: mean that's really where everything started to unravel, uh last season.
Speaker 1: I think this team, in this group, um one, how
Speaker 1: Kyrie has been playing the depth of it at all,
Speaker 1: I think they're better equipped to handle uh an absence
Speaker 1: of what Kevin Durant is doing. But I do think
Speaker 1: for as much as you look at his sparkling offensive
Speaker 1: numbers and performances, the defensive side is where to me
Speaker 1: it's the biggest impact because he had been such an
Speaker 1: integral part of why the nets were better on that end.
Speaker 1: Um when you look at you're talking about the durability
Speaker 1: of Durant. Then on the other side of things, look
Speaker 1: at Joel embiid um you as you mentioned, he jumps
Speaker 1: up to the fifth spot. He had thirty points in
Speaker 1: that loss, uh two. Okay, see it in really Philly,
Speaker 1: I mean they're in fifth place, but they're just a
Speaker 1: game back of fourth place Cleveland. We've been talking about
Speaker 1: Brooklyn just two games back of the net short of Boston,
Speaker 1: that's got a little bit of space. Those teams, those
Speaker 1: two through five are kind of bunched up. Um, why
Speaker 1: did Joel jump up? And why do you think he
Speaker 1: has an opportunity to keep climbing if he does put
Speaker 1: himself on the floor with more regularity and consistency. Well,
Speaker 1: right now, I think I'm just looking at momentum, and
Speaker 1: if I'm being honest here, it's sort of overdue. But
Speaker 1: the thing was in the past. It's like, how can
Speaker 1: you put him in the top five? Who do you
Speaker 1: put him over? Because everybody else was you know that
Speaker 1: not only were they playing just as well as Joel Embi,
Speaker 1: they were actually playing games. And so you know, with
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's injury, to be honest, that is the opportunity. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's get him in there and see what happens. But
Speaker 1: you know when you look like, say you were just
Speaker 1: messing around on the internet and you got on like
Speaker 1: Basketball Reference and you clicked on Joel MBS twenty three season,
Speaker 1: and what what you're gonna see is four or five
Speaker 1: games and he's you know, going for thirty forty Sometimes
Speaker 1: fifty and be from outside great games and then you
Speaker 1: see three or four games inactive, did not dress, did
Speaker 1: not play, and it's like that throughout that whole you know,
Speaker 1: on line statistically and you're just you're just like, well,
Speaker 1: I need him to play more games. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: he had missed three games with that foot injury, and
Speaker 1: then I think he had played sixteen in a row,
Speaker 1: which was good, but right before that he had missed
Speaker 1: four games. You know, he's had that playing a fasciitis,
Speaker 1: you know, that kind of slowed him down coming into
Speaker 1: the season, and then he suffered supposedly a different foot
Speaker 1: injury that's really bothering him now. And he said that
Speaker 1: this is all about pain management, pain management for him
Speaker 1: going forward. So I I'm anxious to see if Joel
Speaker 1: can can stay on the floor because you know, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, if he can't stay on
Speaker 1: the floor, then he's not going to be a big
Speaker 1: part of this m VP conversation. You gotta play games,
Speaker 1: that's the bottom line to me. Yeah, when you look
Speaker 1: to at Um at your top five and you got
Speaker 1: Luca and Yoka Chuppa, top Um obviously doing amazing things offensively,
Speaker 1: got Tatum, Johannest, Joel the offensive side, but also they
Speaker 1: bring it on the defensive side too, And I think
Speaker 1: when there's been there's been conversation discussion with embiid it's
Speaker 1: so much comes down to and I think same with you, honest,
Speaker 1: but also the impact they make defensively. When you look
Speaker 1: at Joel other than just being on the floor, what
Speaker 1: what would he need to do this season for Philadelphia
Speaker 1: or what would the Sixers need to accomplish for him
Speaker 1: to win m v P. Finally, well, he's gonna need
Speaker 1: a lot of help from James Harden, who is actually
Speaker 1: playing very well. I mean he's not putting up the
Speaker 1: point totals that he normally does, but you know he's
Speaker 1: facilitating um like you mentioned his his defense. I mean,
Speaker 1: the dude is you know, he's a wall down there,
Speaker 1: you know, in the paint seven plots tonight, and so
Speaker 1: you know, if he can just continue to play the
Speaker 1: way Joel Embi plays, he's got a good shot. But again,
Speaker 1: it's all it's all about just the availability and being
Speaker 1: out there on the floor for him. Alright, speaking of
Speaker 1: out on the floor, you're gonna be at a special
Speaker 1: floor court tonight. The Golden State Warriors. In San Antonio.
Speaker 1: Spurs are playing in a big, big game at the
Speaker 1: Alamo Dome, trying to break the NBA's old time attendance record.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that right after the break. Welcome
Speaker 1: back Saracousta joined by Michael c Right. All right, Uh,
Speaker 1: you got a fun one. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a fun one for you tonight. Uh. San Antonio Spurs
Speaker 1: celebrating their fiftieth anniversary in San Antonio. They host the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors this evening at the Alamo Dome. Back
Speaker 1: Home at the Dome is what they're calling it. They're
Speaker 1: trying to break the NBA's old time single game attendance record,
Speaker 1: which was at six uh in forty six, and that
Speaker 1: was part of the Michael Jordan's lead Bulls and Atlanta
Speaker 1: Hawks playing at the Georgia Dome back in nineteen. Uh.
Speaker 1: What's your expectations for tonight? Are you? Are you ready
Speaker 1: for this? Oh? I think it's gonna be wild. And
Speaker 1: you know, the game doesn't start until six thirty. I
Speaker 1: live about fifteen minutes away. I'm leaving it too, because
Speaker 1: it's going to be a madhouse like this morning. They
Speaker 1: opened up some of the free garagers downtown at three o'clock.
Speaker 1: All the all the garages are free, and so you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's just gonna be this just just blood of
Speaker 1: traffic downtown. And you know, my expectation is, I guess
Speaker 1: some nostalgia because you know, a lot of fans, like
Speaker 1: I haven't been here that long, but when you talk
Speaker 1: to a lot of Spurs fans, they talk about that,
Speaker 1: like what it was like for those games to be
Speaker 1: in the Animo Dome. And you know, I attended my
Speaker 1: kids high school graduation at the Alamo Dome. I've been
Speaker 1: to U t s A football games, but I've never
Speaker 1: been to a Spurs game. And so it's gonna be
Speaker 1: interesting because you know, in the past, they only used
Speaker 1: half the arena. They had this big old blue curtain.
Speaker 1: It's sort of cordoned off the court, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was only half of the arena. But this time
Speaker 1: they're using all of it, and they've expanded capacity to
Speaker 1: sixty eight thousand. They've already sold the sixty five thousand tickets,
Speaker 1: but they released some extra tickets and these are gonna
Speaker 1: be standing room only tickets, So you know, if they're
Speaker 1: selling these tickets. Then you know, people just want to
Speaker 1: be in the building for this. It's sort of a
Speaker 1: historic event. Coach Pop said it was a wasson a
Speaker 1: lifetime opportunity for Spurs fans. Yeah, I'm excited to see,
Speaker 1: excited to see how it goes. I was at the
Speaker 1: Alamo Dome once. My my brother played in the Alamo
Speaker 1: Bowl uh a while back, a while while back. But
Speaker 1: but Steff talked, I'm curious your perspective on how you
Speaker 1: think the players uh feel or what it's like playing
Speaker 1: in that stuff. Had mentioned that when they went on
Speaker 1: that turner and run back in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: he had played to Ford Field uh in Detroit. But
Speaker 1: do you think for players that the spacing of it,
Speaker 1: I mean, you just think about death, perception, shooting, all
Speaker 1: the stuff. Like, what's it like would you imagine for
Speaker 1: a player being in an environment like that. Well, a
Speaker 1: lot of the guys from the Warriors actually practiced at
Speaker 1: the Dome yesterday and you know, so they could sort
Speaker 1: of get get a feel for the site lines and
Speaker 1: like you said, the depth perception and you know, I know,
Speaker 1: back in the day, like because Steve Kerr actually played
Speaker 1: in that Georgia Dove game that broke the He's the
Speaker 1: Coast tonight. He's a former spir He's a former Spur
Speaker 1: who played a bunch of games in the Alimo Dome,
Speaker 1: and he said that, like, you know, when the opponents
Speaker 1: would come in, he said, you know, like anytime you
Speaker 1: played in San Antonio, you always sort of had a
Speaker 1: built in excuse. You know, you could blame the dome because,
Speaker 1: like you said, the depth perception it's a problem, and
Speaker 1: the site lines. But I think the way they've got
Speaker 1: it set up now, I think Steph was saying yesterday
Speaker 1: that this is a little bit different. He said, it's
Speaker 1: actually better because they're sort of elevated on the floor.
Speaker 1: And so I'm interested to see how the shooting was,
Speaker 1: especially with a team like Golden State. I mean, they
Speaker 1: live a dime by the three, So yeah, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be fun to watch. And then like these young Spurs,
Speaker 1: you know, they don't shoot it all that well, but
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna just really dig the atmosphere. And
Speaker 1: not only that, you know, they've been playing all their
Speaker 1: games at the A T and T Center, so they've
Speaker 1: never played a game at the Animal Dome in front
Speaker 1: of this many fans. And so when you get that
Speaker 1: that floor and you're about to play that game and
Speaker 1: you see that this you've got sixty eight thousand, almost
Speaker 1: all Spurs fans rooting for you. I think that that
Speaker 1: sort of do us up until you as far as
Speaker 1: like you know, you could feel the love from the
Speaker 1: home fans, and I think that's gonna make them play harder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's tough. That's tough. I can't wait to see how
Speaker 1: it goes. And we know you got to get there.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure you beat all the traffic.
Speaker 1: So Michael, thank you so much for joining us, and
Speaker 1: uh make sure to check out your m v P
Speaker 1: Ladder and all the rest of your work on NBA
Speaker 1: dot com. We got John Schumann coming back with us
Speaker 1: on Monday with a brand new power rankings. Don't forget
Speaker 1: to check in next week NBA Pulse with Syracustack as
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