 What's the word, y'all? The Lucidontist and Karrie Irvin era is off to a rocky start. I think they're one and four when they play together and the one win that they got is against the San Antonio Spurs. And let's just be honest, man. The San Antonio Spurs, get they first win in a month and a half yesterday, so that win is not some triumph that we did it. It's like, alright, win is the next game. And it hasn't really been too pretty. The stats say that with Karrie Irvin and Lucidontist on the court together, this is an unstoppable force on the offensive side of the ball. And we see that. The eye test says it. The stats say it. But we're not really worried about the offense. We expected this. We knew that when these two dudes were on the court, it was going to be hard for any defense to really stop them. What we knew was going to be a struggle was that defense. And boy, it is bad. Now, a lot of things that I'm referencing today is going to be dealing with the game against the Indiana Pacers last night, because that was a game that they should have won. I'm not going to act like the Indiana Pacers are some weak team, because as long as Terries Halliburton has played for them this season, they've been at least decent. But they're on the outside of the playoffs looking in and you're a team that is trying to compete. So again, anybody can win on any given day of basketball, but this was just an ugly one from offense and defense. And we'll talk about both sides. This is the play in and talk where I just look at and be like, man, this is how bad the defense can really be. They got Josh Green up at the point of attack on Terries Halliburton, who at this point has like 26 points almost going into the fourth quarter. So it makes sense that they're trying to put their best perimeter defender on him. And you're going to see the type of covers that they run to kind of prevent Terries to get to the basket. We see the double screen and you see right here, they're running Christian Wood and Dwight Powell together. I don't know the stats say, but I would assume that this pairing together just doesn't look good in the advanced statistics. I could be wrong here. But like Terries gets through, thanks to it's easier McConnell screen and who is that Jalen Smith screen. And both of them commit to trying to stop the drive. And they left to Benedict Mather and Jordan Wara, shooters open and Terries being one of the best playmakers of basketball finds Jordan Wara, who hits the shot. And that was kind of the recipe all day long, where they've been Jordan Wara in this play or like a Miles Turner. Everything was open for them. But again, this is what we anticipated. You traded away during Finney Smith. Who's your best perimeter wing defender? I don't think any of us miraculously thought that the defense was going to start to look good, because even with DFS, it's been a weird season for the Dallas Mavericks. It's the team that even though they have this electric generational type town in Luka Dungeons, it's a team that last year hung their hat on the defensive side of the ball. I believe that they ended up top five at the end of the season. I'll double check that. But just take my word when I tell you that last year, they were an elite defensive team. And the recipe was, hey, we're going to slow down a pace. We're going to play great defense and we're going to allow Luka to cook. And that's what he does. And that's how they got to the point where they were in the conference finals. Last year, Dallas ended up seventh on the season. So they were still in the top third of the league when it came to defense. And in this season, the defense has fallen off quite dramatically. They're all the way down to the 23rd ranked defense in basketball. Maxi Kleber has missed a ton of time. He's finally back. And they incorporate it or try to incorporate a guy in Christian Wood, who was known around the league to be more of an offensive threat than the defensive rim protector type center. So the identity of this team was up in the air. They saw an opportunity to get a guy like Harry Irvin, who we know can be ridiculous. You know what I'm saying? We know that Harry Irvin is a baller, but they gave up on one of the things that was their identity last year in the defense. Again, this 23rd ranked defense was pretty much the case with Doreen Finney-Smith for sure. So they were like, hey, our defense is bad anyway. Why not just go all the way in on the offensive side of the ball? And all of the numbers say, hey, when Luca Doncic and Harry Irvin on the court together, they are practically unstoppable in the half court. But a lot of these games end in a very similar fashion. The Dallas Mavericks are in this game. They're in the games. And then the last possession comes around and we figure out, oh, we don't really know how to balance this. We got two of the best clothes in basketball on our team. Whose shot is it anyway? You have the one game against the Minnesota Timbers that are past the ball, back and forth, back and forth. It's Jada McDaniels and Anthony Edwards are playing great defense. And in this one, Jason Kikkall time out and he got the clipboard. He's drawing some things up. And I think he drew up with a step back three from Harry Irvin. And I can't even be extremely mad at the last play because he's Harry Irvin. We've seen him hit that shot for game. We see him hit that shot in the clutch a thousand times, it feels like. But what we could get mad at is the fact that in the last two minutes of this game, it was three point shot miss, three point shot miss, three point shot miss layup make three point shot miss, three point shot miss. They scored two points in two minutes. So the pastures weren't out there like playing amazing defense either. They were getting silent looks. They were just not falling. You live by the three, you die by the three. And in this case, they died by the three. Again, this was something that I didn't really think about making a video about just because when you're adding a guy like Harry Irvin to a team halfway through the season, you know it's going to take time to jail, right? These are two very good, offensively talented players. And they got to figure out exactly how to make this work. And again, on the offensive side, it has worked wonders until we get to those last couple of possessions. So I'm not writing it off that, oh man, now this parent is about to go in the tank because they wanted for they could definitely get it together. But you don't have a ton of time. I mean, it's the case around the league, right? Everybody that's trying to incorporate somebody new. I mean, Kevin DeRetz playing his first game tonight. And he's like the most plug-and-play player in the history of basketball. But like it might take them some time to get their chemistry right. And that's what you're seeing. Now, the luxury that the Phoenix Suns have is Kevin Irvin is in the contract for three seasons or whatever it is. And Kevin Irvin said he wanted to go here. So even if things don't jail perfectly this season, we feel pretty confident. I guess we don't really know. We feel pretty confident that Kevin is going to be here for next season. And we use the off season. We use whatever time it takes in the regular season. So next postseason is the one we really do the thing. The Dallas Mavericks do not have that luxury because Cary Irvin is a free agent. And we don't know exactly. We never know exactly what Cary Irvin is thinking, unless he literally tells you. And sometimes he'll tell you what he's thinking. And you're like, I actually never mind. So there is a world where this team that you put together, where you gave up Doran Finney-Smith for Smith and Denwood, who are under really good contracts for Cary Irvin, and he walks free agency. And it just feels like Christian Wood won't be back this season. I mean, he's getting 15 minutes here, 30 minutes here. It feels like he won't be back this season. And we might be looking at the off season and saying, Luka Dantzic, it's you and Maxi Kleba on the roster right now. You and Josh Green on the roster right now. So things could get scary this off season. I guess the plus side to that is that with Cary Irvin gone, if he decides to walk or Christian Wood decides to walk, it opens up a little bit of money for you to spend. But how do we figure out exactly who we spend it on? And will those people be willing to come to Dallas? Now, Dallas has a somewhat decent track record to get in those mid-tier caliber players. It almost getting an all NBA caliber center. Almost, you know how that situation went. So maybe it could be a blessing in disguise, hypothetically, if things go south and Cary goes to his next team and Christian Wood is gone and now we could use this cap space to go get the people that we want. I don't really know. But it could just as good as it could be, decent hypothetical, it could be really bad as well. And then we get to this morning, right? Again, I wasn't expecting to make this video. And then Wind Horse went onto TV and said that Jason Kidd called out Luka for his immature actions. Let's be real. You know, Luka is definitely a chatter to the referees. And a lot of the time is warranted, right? These are players that are getting beat up night in and night out. But Luka is one of the top players when it comes to trying to get into the ear of the refs. And sometimes it's for the better, because he ends up getting the calls later in the game. Or in today's case or last night's case, it could be detrimental to the run. It could be detrimental to the game. And I'll show you the play that is in question. So here's the play. Luka Dodge has been guard. He gets to the basket. Myles gets credited for a block. And once he fouled there, probably, but instead of Luka getting back on defense, he sits there. He stands up. He's talking to the referee. He never gets back. And it leads to a very open Aaron E. Smith, who has three seconds to get his shot up. And again, this is in the game where there's been a lot of runs going in the Indiana Pacers favor. And Luka Dodge ends up getting the technical foul on that. So now instead of it just being a three-point play, it turns to a four-point play. And Jason Kidd has said that is part of his immaturity. And I completely, completely understand it. Does Luka have a case? Hell, yeah. It looked like he might have got fouled. But even in situations like this, you can't let it get to the point where it's preventing you from getting back on defense and ultimately leading to a three, right? So I understand it. But Jason Kidd in general has been very vocal over the last couple of weeks. He said something a couple of days ago, saying that he's just like us. He's not the one playing. He's out there watching. And in my personal opinion, that is a wild ass statement for a coach to say. It is wild. I mean, again, I could kind of understand what he's saying. He can't actually control Luka Dodge and say step back three. He can't control the white power to prevent him from getting hit in the face. He can't do those things. But he still is the head coach. And I keep I think about that quote last night when he calls timeout to draw up a plate and the play ended up being a step back carry urban jumper instead of getting to the basket, which is somewhat worked all game long or get into the free throw line because this game was long as hell because like 70 free throws were shot. You know what I'm saying? Like the thing as a coach is to figure out exactly what to do in these situations. And if we look at the last four games where you have the Minnesota, when you have this, when you have the one before that, it's like, OK, we got these out of timeout plays and we are not capitalizing on them at all, Jason. So what now? Jason Kidd was brought in as a defensive minded coach and in the last stop he had, he did a damn good job and at first he has a defensive minded coach and the year number two things fell off. He did a damn good job his first year in Dallas and now things have fallen off. So it seems like there's this recipe here where whether the opposing coaches understand what Jason Kidd is trying to do and because of that, the defense is not as effective or lose the locker room. I can't say that much. I haven't seen a single thing from the players, but there has to be something more than, now Christian Wood on the team. So the team goes from number six or number seven offensively to number 23rd. You know, it has to be more than that. And then the 27 point loss or 27 point blown lead to the Lakers a couple nights ago as well. Kind of forgot about that. Let's pass that. Not a pretty sight. Jason Kidd has also said in press conferences that he doesn't speak to the media with 100% truths. So him saying, I'm not the savior here. I'm not playing. I'm watching like you guys. Could just be him trolling the media because he's a former player and players don't really like the media. I don't know the team. We got to mature. We've got to grow up. If we want to win a championship, there's no young team that ever won a championship mentally or physically. That's a that's a good quote. I mean, that's a big part of it. I mean, you usually see these teams that end up having a star player. In this case, Luca Doncic, it usually takes them to their 27 years old. Everybody talked about the 27 year old club in the NBA since saying that, hey, this is the year that the superstar players typically get to the point where they're actually competing and winning championships. Saad and Luca, Saad Braun, Saad, the list goes on and on and on where you're 27 or older. And obviously, Luca Donc is not near that. So maybe we're just premature, but Luca Donc is a talent. It's talented at this young age as some of those other people were at 27. So you know what I'm saying? The timetable shouldn't just be on the 27 club because Luca is that nice now. And you have him now. So you have to do what you got to do now because it ain't promised that he'll be around at the age of 27 in your organization. Just focus on the play. You can't get distracted with the whistle and just keep playing. It happens that way. We're seeing a lot of basketball games. We've had big leagues. We've blown it. Okay, whatever. So let me know what you think about the Dallas Mavericks and their somewhat struggles or whatever to close these games out. Do you think it's going to stand? Pat, do you think this is going to be a team that can climb? Because right now, the way the things are standing, you probably want to climb and not fall because there are some teams in the outside looking in. But then again, Anthony Davis is not playing tonight. So I don't know what's going on.