WEBVTT - Pacers, Knicks have a ton to work through; Malone calls out Nuggs 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.360 On this episode of the Heat Check. The league is 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.439 humming along very nicely, thank you very much, despite the 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.160 doom and Gloomydia reports that the NBA ratings are tanking. 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.040 We will talk about that soon, but for now, what's 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.600 up with the Pacers? Man? They don't even look like themselves. 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.040 They're in trouble, and I think I know why the 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.680 New York Knicks are reimagining Tibb's ball. We're getting one 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.199 hundred and forty five points in a Tibbs game. That's crazy. 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:39.920 I get all the tea on Zion in New Orleans 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.879 and it's piping hot. Anthony, my man, drop that motherfucking 0:00:43.920 --> 0:01:00.760 beat that should be Rihanna. Okay, suppose they giving episode 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:05.360 as a check. We got to get into everything we can't, Dottle. 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:11.479 Let's start in the Midwest city that I just visited, Indianapolis. Man. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.800 The Pacers are a team, honestly, truthfully, very near and 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:18.080 dear to my heart. We haven't spent enough time talking 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.360 about them this season, and I think, full disclosure, it's 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.320 because I just didn't want to address it, you know, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.760 like I'm fully ready to disclose. As you guys have 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.319 known before, I am partial to the Pacers, not because 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:35.760 just because I'm tight with some of the folks in 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.320 the front office, but I like this team. I root 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.800 for this team. They have transformed the team over the 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.080 last few years in a way that I'm rooting for. 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.320 But this season just doesn't look the same. It is wonky, 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.520 and I hate having to say that it's wonky. They 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.400 are four and seven in their last eleven games, and 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:01.000 three of those wins are against the Blazers, the Pelicans, 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.480 and the Wizards. That's not exactly a murderers Rose, folks. 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.040 So let's get into what I think has gone wrong. 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:14.520 There are long stretches where I don't even recognize this 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.320 Pacers team on the court compared to last season. And 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.880 I'm not just talking about the fact that Tyrese Haliburton 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.560 clearly still isn't right, who, like everyone else in the 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.240 NBA media space, has mentioned he's in a slump. We 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.440 know that. I honestly think it's just an injury thing. 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.400 I think that hamstring is not fully healed. Either he 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:38.840 can't trust it or there's some sort of kickup that 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:40.960 he's dealing with that nobody knows about that he's not 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.200 talking about. But the entire team though as a whole 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:49.920 is functioning completely differently. A friend of show that we 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:52.400 had on last season, Samson Folk, he had a great 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.239 breakdown of the Pacers last week and he called the 0:02:55.720 --> 0:03:00.040 Indiana Pacers bizarro, which I think kind of hits the 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.960 nail on the head. They are biz They are bizarro. 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:08.040 I have another word that I want to use, schizophrenic. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.840 I'm not a doctor, okay, Like I can't not someone 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.239 who has the right to diagnose a team with a 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.600 mental ill like that their identity is a mental illness. 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:21.680 But it really all works out in the same In 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:27.680 the end, the team is acting strange, weird, erratic. Folk 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:33.880 wrote the following, The team is playing differently. Performances look different, worse, 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:36.880 they look worse, and even the things that have gone 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.160 well have gone well in such a way that it 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:43.320 still looks unfamiliar to me. As much as I don't 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.080 want to, we got to talk about Halle first, because 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.360 the Pacers kind of start and stop with him. Everything 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.720 about Halle since he came back from the injury has 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:56.760 been off. He's a step slower, his passes lagsing, his 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.880 shots seems short. Remember this man was was averaging like 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:03.840 twelve assists a game. There were times where he was 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:08.920 getting twenty assists the game against the Pelicans. Notwithstanding, he 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:15.520 just doesn't look that confident at times and important times. Remember, 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.320 at this point in time last year, the Pacers looked 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:21.760 like they were gonna win the NBA Cup. They beat 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.000 the Bucks multiple times. They were one of the fastest 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:26.960 teams in the league in terms of pace of play, 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:35.240 and this identity doesn't really look the same. Pacers fans 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.080 hoped that Hallie's performance against New Orleans was gonna be 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.119 the turnaround game, right. He had nine threes in that game, 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.119 But then in Sunday's game against Memphis, he had eight, 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:51.400 two and seven in thirty seven minutes, shooting thirty percent 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.920 from the field. That is just really bad. Guys, we 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:58.640 can't You can't have your star point guard, the guy 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.760 that's like an extension of the front office, the dude 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:08.599 that was averaging like twenty something points, twelve assists, six rebounds, 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:13.320 go eight too and seven against Memphis. I think the 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.800 issue too, is like on the road, we only have 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.480 like a eleven game sample, but the home and a 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:26.240 waste splits for Halle are bizarre. At at the field House, 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:30.320 he is averaging twenty three points a game, forty eight 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.640 percent from the field, sixty four percent true shooting. In 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:38.039 ten games. Away he is averaging twelve points a game, 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:42.520 thirty two percent shooting, forty three percent true shooting in 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.640 eleven games. What's going on there? What is happening? 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:48.600 Is there? 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.280 Home cooking Halle goes in the oven, comes out a 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.480 perfectly teeny mac and cheese at game Bridge and then 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:00.680 ends up on the road like those fake teeny TikTok 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.880 creators that can't put the ruin correctly. All of a sudden, 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:07.840 the mac and cheese is all gritty and fucked up. 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.200 Is that? What's happening? What is going on? I cannot 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.920 remember seeing another NBA player who literally has a fifty 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:21.200 percent lower output on the road, Like it's fifty percent lower. 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:29.279 The massive drop in production underscores a huge dark cloud 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:34.440 hanging over Indiana this season. To me, that offensive production 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.880 for Hallie is down twenty percent across the board, and 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:42.280 that GAP's not being filled anywhere else. And then you've 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:48.400 got Pascal Siakam, who again I love Pascal. He had 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:53.680 an incredible first year in India, which is why he 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:59.480 got the bag. And now this season, he's acting different. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.120 As Samson pointed out in the twenty twenty two playoffs, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:09.440 Siakam drove the ball nineteen times per game. This year, 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:13.960 he's driving eight times per game. Some of this is 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.680 natural progression and an evolution of his game, but some 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.080 of it is just because he seems less aggressive on 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.160 offense than he used to be. He's settling for threes 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:28.120 in a way that he hasn't since Toronto won the championship, 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.280 and to be fair, he is shooting really well. But 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:36.880 the problem is, just like Haliburton, his overall production is 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:41.080 down since last year, particularly rebounding the ball, where he's 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.880 down nearly twenty percent from his seven point eight rebounds 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.800 per game last year. He has been their best player, 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.000 but once again, those statistical dips, no one else is 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:55.000 picking up that. It's not like oh Obi Toppins rebounds 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.040 are up forty percent because he's grabbing the rebounds. The 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:04.520 pascal is not the five percent drop in scoring, the 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:09.480 twenty percent drop in rebounds, the seventy seventy five percent 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:15.120 drop in block shots. Those numbers add up for a 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:21.000 team struggling to reach five hundred in a week. East 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.400 The Pacers as a whole are averaging nine points less 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.600 per game over last year as a team, which is 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.120 even worse considering that they're still in the bottom ten 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.520 for defensive rating. They finished last year in six words 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.600 in the league, which was fine. It was fine because 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.240 it was like the Pacers will give up one thirty 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.000 and they'll put up one forty, you know, and almost 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.960 two thirds of those missing nine points come from Halle 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:51.640 and Siakam and their drop in production. I think also 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.480 the Pacers are playing down to their competition. They have 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:59.199 a forty percent winning percentage against teams under five hundred. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.040 That is gross. They play five hundred against teams above 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.000 that mark. I think we need to start thinking about 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:11.959 what's up. They better get it right fast because beginning 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:16.360 December nineteenth, they have a stretch of fourteen games, twelve 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:22.600 of which are teams in playoff positions. They play Boston Wolf, 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:28.040 Cleveland Wolf, Golden State, and Phoenix twice during that stretch. Wolf. 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.720 They are at nine and twelve right now, eighth place 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.960 in the East, and by the grace of the basketball 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:39.760 gods who smited the East this year, I don't know 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.360 what to say, because the East is very weak, and 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:49.560 if you're eighth right now in a conference where, oh boy, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:55.839 the Pacers basically with the same record as the Detroit 0:09:55.960 --> 0:10:03.320 Pistons and the Brookly Nets. We are having real problems 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.880 right now, Pacers nine and twelve, Piston's nine and thirteen. 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:12.320 There's a log jam sitting there right below the heat. Ugh. 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:18.560 Hopefully Halliburton is gonna get right healthy wise, Hopefully his 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.400 mentals are great. I see him watching a lot of 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:27.120 games with Caitlyn Clark, and so I think he's fine. 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.480 But I think that there's more to it than maybe 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.920 we know, considering that his explosiveness is not there, because 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:37.080 the Pacers are gonna need Halle to be himself from 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:41.720 last year, and they're gonna need that very fast moving on. 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:48.160 I've been skeptical about the New York Knicks since the 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:53.920 Karl Anthony Towns trade this season, and I I think 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:58.960 mckelbridge is notwithstanding, because he's a whole different ballgame and 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.400 he's horrible. He's still horrible. Checking in on the McHale 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:04.960 Bridge's stuff because we talked about it, like a couple 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.760 of weeks ago, Josh Hart came out and it's like, 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:09.600 I don't care if we gave up thirteen picks for 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:11.599 his first round, picks for him if we win a championship. 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.000 It's all good. But like all the numbers still for 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:18.520 Michel Bridges are awful, so mikel Bridge is notwithstanding. I 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.640 think that the Knicks have turned a corner. I am 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:29.839 readyish to say the Karl Anthony Towns trade again. Trading 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:34.040 Dante DiVincenzo was tough, but I think it fucking is working. 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.800 And I think appreciating the twenty four to twenty five 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:40.480 Knicks will require me to sort of and I still, 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.120 cause you can hear it, I'm hesitant. You know, this 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.319 is not the Knicks. You're just somebody that I used 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.480 to know kind of stuff. This is not the Knicks 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.839 that I used to know. They're They're not the defensive 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:56.440 monster that carried them all last year where it was 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:05.040 like ninety seven to nine. No. I think this next team, 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.240 I don't know Tibbs is changing, is going to be 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.840 defined by their offense, and I think that has to 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:17.760 do everything with Carl Anthony Towns. Karl Anthony Towns comes 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:22.960 in and just completely changes the dynamics of this team. 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.839 And not only is he averaging twenty five points per game, 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:32.720 he's pulling down thirteen boards. He's shooting this is disgusting. 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:38.520 He's shooting forty six percent from three and continues to 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.320 stretch the floor in ways that they will never and 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:48.040 never even dreamed of getting from Julius Randall. In fact, 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.400 right now, Minnesota is running into a lot of the 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:56.840 same problems that the Knicks did with Julius Randall on 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.280 the court, and it's kind of turning it to a 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.080 little bit of an issue there in terms of the 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.000 friction that Aunt Edwards talks about. So we'll get into 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.560 that later this week as we break down the Wolves. 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:13.480 And yes, we know this Karl Anthony Towns is a 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:18.360 below average defender, but so is Julius Randall. And the 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.120 way he opens up offensive games though of the other 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:27.280 four starters, has just changed everything with this next team. Ogananobi, 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:32.400 who I've been telling doubters not to sleep on. I've 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:37.320 said his role in Toronto was not indicative of him 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.800 as a player, and people said, I don't think that's true. 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:46.280 Ogan Andobi averaging career high seventeen point four points per game. 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:49.960 He just put up forty, by the way, the other day, 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.920 forty five and four career high against the Nuggets. Josh 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.800 Hart scoring up sixty percent from last year to fourteen 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.640 points per game. Over fourteen points per game, this is 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.520 the most the Josh Hart has averaged since when he 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:08.200 played with my Portland Trailblazers and we had no one 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.200 in twenty one twenty two. And although Jalen Brunston's scoring 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:16.000 twenty five points per game, down from almost twenty nine 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.840 points a game last season, that's kind of a good thing. 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:22.040 Let's be honest, we don't need Jalen Brunson playing hero 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:27.000 ball every single night. He has another assassin with them 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.560 in Karl Anthony Towns, and that makes life a lot 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.000 easier for everybody, including Jalen Brunson short King. And that's 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.240 why despite the fact that his scoring is down about 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.120 twelve percent from last year, he is a sister of 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:45.000 sixteen percent. So I think all this is why the 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.800 next lead in the NBA the season in offensive rating 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.760 with an insane one twenty one point one, which is 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.280 kind of nuts because last year when Karl Anthony Towns 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.600 played for the Timberwolves, the Timberwolves were number one in defense, 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:00.360 kind of middle of the road in offense. Now he 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.480 comes to the Knicks and now they're the number one 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:06.560 offensive team. The most telling stat I think is their 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.280 assistant turnover ratio, which is two point two, tied for 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:11.880 Boston for best in the league. They just moved the 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.040 ball really well. This is just not what we're used 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.920 to seeing from the Knicks, which, let's be honest, watching 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.160 the Knicks crawl their way up to like fourth in 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.240 the East last year, a lot of those games were 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.960 really hard to watch. They were tough watches. This is 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:35.960 much more fun basketball. Their sixth and rebound percentage sixth, 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:40.040 then turnover percentage, second in effective field goal and troop 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.280 shooting percentage, all while playing at the second slowest pace 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:49.480 in the league. Slow move the ball, do do do 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.800 do do do? Ye still say things, some things stay 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:58.520 the same, but I think Tibbs ball has been redefined. 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.960 We are seeing the Knick score over one hundred and 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:07.040 forty points per game, causing the Nuggets to absolutely melt 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.320 down in a postgame presser. That is a tribute to 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:17.560 Cat and Thibodeaux, who have a history together in Minnesota, 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.400 who has very clearly adjusted his coaching philosophy to take 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:24.920 into account what Cat does now, who can shoot fifty 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:29.560 percent from deep the wild thing though they are winning 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:33.240 in a year where the defense has just been god awful, 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.480 so not TIBs Tips was just like fuck it, let's 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.920 go with Vibes. The Knixt defensive rating right now is 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:44.480 twenty second at one hundred and fourteen point six. Last 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:48.280 season it was ninth at one twelve point four. I 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:50.960 think some of that's probably due to the fact that 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.320 they just can't defend the paint at all. Some people 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.400 made hay out of the fact that at one point 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:04.880 opponents teams against Cat were shoot thirty two for thirty five. Wow, 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:09.080 like ninety percent against Cat in the paint. But I 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.719 think there's just Kat's not a legit center. He's a 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.240 He's a big right. Things are gonna change a lot 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.560 when Mitchell Robinson returns. The offense might dip a little bit. 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.439 Maybe they'll go and get somebody like Rob Williams. But 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:25.760 a lot of this also falls on mckill Bridges, who, 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.040 let's be real, is supposed to be the point of 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.960 attack defender on the wing and he went from being 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:37.040 an all defensive player to just I think a statue 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:41.520 in New York. His defensive rating is one eighteen point 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:45.639 two right now, which it was one oh nine point 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.359 six in Phoenix in twenty one twenty two. That is 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.800 a long way away from one oh nine point six. 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:58.160 He's shown some signs of coming alive. But listen, we 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.800 need Michale Bridges to be who we thought he would 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.000 be when we traded for him, or I don't know 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.960 what to say. You know what's funny is it's kind 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:13.600 of like the Knicks are the Pacers of last year, 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:16.640 winning games just because they just shoot the leather off 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.840 the ball. They shoot the sides off the barn, and 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:24.760 then they outlast teams just because they can hit these shots. Late, 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:27.920 New York has won eight of their last ten games. 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.520 They look like a team that's gonna be able to 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:36.080 go to the Eastern Conference Finals maybe in May. Are 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.359 they better than the Celtics and the Cavs. I don't 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:42.600 know actually about that, but with an offense like this, 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:47.160 they they can take any one of those teams far 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.080 into a series and give those teams all that they 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.520 can handle. If you look at their blowout win against 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.040 Denver a week ago, you will you will see what 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:02.040 scares other teams about New York. The Knicks scored seventy 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:06.920 six points. In the first half. Like we saw last year, 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.520 the Knicks score seventy six in a full game. In 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.960 a full game, keep in mind in their last game, 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.439 the Knicks held New Orleans to twenty eight points in 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:20.639 the first half and just eighty five total points. The 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.000 Knick shot sixty one percent against Denver from the floor 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:29.119 and fifty three percent from three. That's very Celtics like. 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:35.400 They dished out a franchise tying record of forty five assists. 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:40.960 Kat had thirty fifteen rebounds, four assists. Brunson had seventeen 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:43.280 assists to go along with his twenty three points, and 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:47.439 like I told you, Og forty points. Josh Hart was 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.679 the low man with the starters with twelve points, but 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:52.760 he was he shot one hundred percent from the field. 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:57.440 I literally saw like who is Cam? Because I was 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:03.240 looking on Twitter Cam eleven points? Who the fuck is Cam? Campaign? 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:08.400 Campaign had eleven points in eighteen minutes. Kind of cute 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:10.760 for Michael Bridges to play with this former teammate campaign 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.520 and a team high plus twenty one net rating against 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:20.560 a pretty solid Nuggets team. The Knicks are dangerous. They 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.719 even got Nuggets coach Michael Don't call me Mike Malone 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.119 freaking out on the microphone is what he said. 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.920 No, no, no, no, no, we're not flushing. You don't 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:35.919 flush when you get embarrassed. You don't flush when you 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.040 gave up one hundred and forty five points. You don't 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:40.240 flush when you didn't play hard, didn't play with it, 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:44.760 didn't play with Prisca Calada. I'm not flushing at you. 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.400 We're not flushing. You don't flush when you get embarrassed. Well, yeah, 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:50.760 I mean like Russell Westbrook. I mean, he's he's vocal. 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:53.600 I mean, but we need more than Russell Westblaper Now, 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.440 I need Nakole Jokic. I need Jamal Murray. 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.000 Whoa he said, I'm not flushing and no, no, no no, 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.800 And then I agree with Malone. That was a fucking 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.879 terrible loss. You can't just be like, ah, that's that, 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:11.760 We'll just forget about it. As aside, the nugget says 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.440 I noted a couple weeks ago, they're in trouble ten 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:18.879 and eight overall. Jamal Murray, who had the audacity, by 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.360 the way, to call out his teammates after the nixt 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:23.320 blowout in his post game pressure, A lot of that 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.120 has to do with him Anyway, Murray said, this, it's 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:30.919 a long season. Guys have lives outside of basketball. We 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.640 just beat La in LA. We've got some guys that 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:38.080 live in LA. And like I said, I don't think 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:41.399 the focus was there from anybody. And that's just what 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.280 happens when you don't have focus. Let's just be honest. 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:49.080 We went to Delilah. We went back to our Delilah's 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:51.920 a club and bar loungey thing in LA where all 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.320 the fucking athletes and paparazzi's out and you just kind 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:58.199 of parlay. So they went there wherever at the like 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.560 cute spots they went at after the game, They got dinner, 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:05.159 they got bottle service, they were feeling themselves, other people 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.240 were feeling on them. They went back to their pads 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.960 and they were hungover. They went back to Denver, got 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:15.760 back to the altitude, and they got fucked up. Basically, 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:18.080 that's what happened. And that's pretty much what he said. 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:21.399 As one Nuggets writer said, it was a tone deaf 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.320 comment as you can find anywhere in the league. Yes, 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:29.200 remember Jamal Murray, same guy partying at UFC three to 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:33.520 nine in New York City until the wee hours flew 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:36.359 back in the morning to Memphis to play the grizz 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:39.800 had was six for fifteen shooting in a game he 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:43.080 had six turnovers, twice as many as anyone else in 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:46.439 a team that they probably should have been beating. You 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:48.600 can't fly back to Memphis at nine in the morning 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:51.760 on game day, shit the bed against a worse team, 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:56.120 then call out your teammates and probably yourself for partying 0:22:56.200 --> 0:23:01.520 in la ah the Nuggets anyway, as I said earlier 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.240 on the season, the team is just cooked if your 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:06.400 role players aren't gonna do anything for Yokich, and Yokic 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:08.720 is just gonna have to be an MVP All World 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.119 player in order for you to even be possibly in games. 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:15.880 That's crazy. Also, Michael Porter Jr. Who I call mediocre 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:19.320 Porter Junr. His offense has actually been pretty good. He's 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:22.080 averaging the most points per game for him since twenty 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:26.040 twenty one. But listen, like Jamal Murray has to be better. 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:29.960 The burden is on Jamal Murray. You cannot rely on 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:34.359 Peyton Watson giving you buckets off the bench. You need 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:38.000 Jamal Murray to be scoring thirty Since that game Denver 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:41.160 be a tanking Jazz team, as you'd expect, but dropped 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:44.480 another winnable game against the Clippers. They are currently tied 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:48.439 for ninth in a loaded West. I said it, I 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:50.919 told you, I said this team is gonna be a 0:23:50.960 --> 0:23:55.440 play in team. I said it. Remember just Trista Criek 0:23:55.880 --> 0:24:01.879 before the season like even started. This is loaded and 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:04.600 the Nuggets are fucked. Anyway, Rubber meets the road for 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:06.480 Denver soon. They're gonna need to figure it out. They're 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:08.479 gonna need to make some moves before the deadline. Guys, 0:24:08.720 --> 0:24:11.480 the clock is ticking. They should go get Jeremy Grant 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:15.040 from the Blazers. Give us somebody young, get somebody young. 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:18.080 We'll get some picks, maybe one pick, and then, like you, 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:21.280 guys can reunite him because he's he would really help them. Anyway, 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:24.919 let's move on some quick news from around the league. 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:28.520 I mentioned last episode that there is trouble brewing in 0:24:28.520 --> 0:24:32.960 the Zion camp. When is there not? Right? Like they're 0:24:33.000 --> 0:24:36.959 not Zion man. We will begin with as we usually do, 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:42.760 a health update, and according to Sean Shranya, Zion is 0:24:43.600 --> 0:24:48.719 quote not close to a return to the court. I 0:24:48.840 --> 0:24:53.640 really hoped that I was wrong about Zion. I really 0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:56.880 hoped after last year where he played seventy games. That 0:24:56.960 --> 0:25:00.360 the he's in the best shape of his life. He's 0:25:00.440 --> 0:25:03.040 not gonna have the injury bug anymore, and that would 0:25:03.040 --> 0:25:05.720 be kind of behind him. That is not the case. 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:09.200 We are seeing that that is definitely not the case. 0:25:09.400 --> 0:25:12.560 He's now gone through multiple treatments for his left handy, 0:25:13.040 --> 0:25:18.200 none of which are proving successful. That's bad. Hamstring's very 0:25:18.200 --> 0:25:21.640 important for explosion. That's kind of Zion's thing. He's now 0:25:21.680 --> 0:25:26.679 had two PRP injections. Let me tell you about PRP. Okay, 0:25:27.680 --> 0:25:29.280 I know you don't want this, but I'm giving it 0:25:29.280 --> 0:25:33.439 to you anyway. It's a thick fucking needle pause, like 0:25:33.640 --> 0:25:39.719 really thick, and it takes the blood from your knee 0:25:39.800 --> 0:25:41.919 or your ankle. I don't know where the PRP sh injection. 0:25:42.119 --> 0:25:45.359 I'm assuming his knee PRP injections. They put it in 0:25:45.400 --> 0:25:49.800 your knee, they take a shitload of blood out. Then 0:25:49.840 --> 0:25:53.440 they put it into what's called a centerfuge, which spins 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:56.399 your blood around, supposed to get the white blood cells 0:25:56.440 --> 0:26:00.439 fucking active like they've been on patron sipping on trome 0:26:00.480 --> 0:26:03.640 bomb bomb bomb, you know, so you're white blood cells active. 0:26:03.960 --> 0:26:06.280 They then they inject it back into the spot where 0:26:06.320 --> 0:26:09.280 your injury is and it's supposed to create like a 0:26:09.280 --> 0:26:13.680 better healing environment. Kobe Bryant did this in Germany back 0:26:13.680 --> 0:26:16.080 in the day because it because the United States didn't 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:19.879 do it. Rehab usually starts four weeks after the shock. 0:26:20.520 --> 0:26:24.200