 The NBA has gone full Oprah. You get a 50 piece. You get a 50 piece. Eddie might even get a 50 piece if we wait long enough. Run it back, it starts now. Run it up, then run it back, yeah. Run it up, then run it back, run it back, run it back, yeah. That's right, this is Run It Back. It is a beautiful Wednesday morning here in New York City. Joined as always, Bum of Us Friends, Stadium Insider, Sean Charania, Chandler P joining us from Mexico and Eddie from across the river. How y'all doing today? It's like it's our Friday. Staying blessed. It is, it is, this is Wednesday's our Friday. We love Wednesdays here at Run It Back. All right, it feels like deja vu all over again because here we go, points were scored so, so many points. Giannis, career high 55 and went over the Wizards. He also grabbed 10 boards, had seven assists in the process. I don't know what he needs to prove, if anything, but did he prove anything more to you last night, Chandler? I mean, I'm with you, he doesn't really have to prove much more. I just think it's exactly what I said yesterday, how, you know, a game like this is what he needs to kind of stay relevant and to stay in that MVP race. And Giannis is, he's about as guaranteed as a solid, you know, stat stuffing player you can get. There's nobody really like him. There's no one that size with that physicality. And these other guys that are ahead of him, I think it's just because, you know, their teams are possibly a little better than impact that they're having on their team. But it's hard to go and say that Giannis isn't as important to his team as any of these other guys that were putting ahead of him in this MVP race. But, you know, he's quiet, he goes about his business. And then he has a game like this and kind of opens up eyes like, wow, you know, he is the best player in the NBA still. And so these are more nights like this, I think we'll continue to talk more and more about him. But he's just an absolute star. He's humble, he's quiet, and he is just unbelievable for the league and for the Bugs. I think nights like last night is where we might view him and take him for granted at times. I mean, 55 points. And what he's doing this year, averaging almost 33 points a game, taking almost 22 shots per game. Those are by far his career highs. He's had to take on a lot this season, especially without Chris Middleton for the most of the year. Drew Hoddy has been in and out of lineups at different points as well. So when you think about all these other star players that Giannis looks around in season, Nikola Joke, Luca Dante, Joellen Bede, the Brooklyn guys, there's a lot of love going around the league. And I think what we've seen Giannis having three straight 40 plus point games is, you know, I think he wants to show people that I'm here too. And I think there is some level of disrespect that we do give at times. But I think overall the performances that we've seen over the last week, I mean, it's just unreal between Giannis, LeBron, KD, Kairi, Joekig, Luca, Donovan. So I think this is Giannis' stamp and really making his mark. I think Sam's is right. I think Sam's is right. There is some disrespect, but there's also a little bit true to the slander that they call it, you know. He does kind of just run and done. You watched the game last night. He is just kind of running into guys and swiping through them and just being overly physical and other teams can't handle that. And it's not the most aesthetically pleasing game. He's not Kobe out there. So I get why people go, oh, I don't like watching this shot. 16 free throws last night. But the point is he's just productive as any players we've ever seen in this league, quite literally. And you cannot hate on production at the end of the day. A lot of people compare him to Shaq. I think there's like some early LeBron to him too, where LeBron wasn't relying on the jumper either. He was doing a lot of this. He was barreling through people and getting to the rim. Some of these calls are insane. This carry right here was a little insane. But look, when you initiate and you force all this contact and you force teams to have to match that, you're gonna get the benefit of the doubt because you're the one initiating all that. So it's like, at this point I'm over it. Like, I get the honest thing. I get why people don't like it. I get why people do. And at the end of the day, you have to tip your hat to this production. I'm actually shocked he's never scored 55 points before. But I give him credit because he was really going for it at the end of that game. The game was pretty much decided and he was shooting and running to the rim every time he got the ball after that. I thought he was gonna stay and he gets 60 because the Wizards had nothing for him at all. I mean, how could he not go for it right here? This has been a week in which all the cool kids are just scoring a bazillion points and he's right there at the brink. I figured like, why not? I won't put my name in that conversation for the week. But he did have a quote, which speaks to my heart. Here we go. This is straight from Yanis' mouth. I wanna get in a position that my game is boring. I just do what I do and people don't talk about it because it becomes boring. I do it every single night, but I don't get bored. The greats, the best players never get bored. There's one name that should come to mind when I read those types of words about an NBA player and it should be Tim Duncan. And if it wasn't, shame on you. But what he just described is quite literally the greatness that is and was Tim Duncan in the day, Chandler. So if you had to say it, could you call Yanis a modern-day Duncan or at least a wannabe modern-day Duncan? I mean, yeah, he's like Duncan because he's a star and he's so low-key and you don't see him in the off-season. He's not getting TMZ and he just goes about his business and he wins and he dominates the game. I think Yolkitch is more like Duncan, just how he played the game so beautifully I've never seen Tim Duncan do a win though, like Yanis did last night. And so Yanis isn't boring. He's just, he's got his little silly quotes. He does and he's funny and he's silly. But he's high octane and he's explosive and he's fun to watch just from a physical standpoint. Besides the brawn, there's never been like another wing that literally dominates the game like a shack did like Yanis. So I can see it just how he handled. He doesn't train with other guys in the off-season. Like he's very, he kind of goes back to Greece and you don't see him. And like I said, you don't see him in the news. I think Yolkitch is more like Tim Duncan, just the way they play the game and kind of boring and you look up at the Statue Street and he has 30, 15 and 10 and they're all going to go down as some of the greatest players of all time. But I wouldn't call Yanis boring quite yet. He just can't shoot. Yeah, Timmy would have never went on a marketing campaign like this. So it sounds like some Tim Duncan stuff, but he would have never sat on the podium and be like, hey guys, I'm working hard. Look, Timmy would have just worked in one title in the hand of his business. So like, I love Yanis. I love the kind of aloofness and the personality he brings and he's up there reading dad jokes and he's got the belt with his wife and all this stuff. And it's cool. But it's also like crazy artificial and much like LeBron or even Steph, he has this personality he wants us to have and he keeps telling us how great he is and he keeps telling us how he's not friends with anybody, but we've seen him at parties. We've seen him working out. We've seen it like it's cool, bro. We appreciate your game. Like we all took your side against James Harden. We all said, yo, James is tripping. It's great. You don't have to come out there every day and do this to us, just play. We enjoyed the windmill. We enjoyed the 55 points. You don't have to tell us, oh, I'm boring. You are kind of boring. You don't make jumpers. Like you don't really dribble that well. Like there is some stuff that we don't like and whereas we watch other players like Kyrie or Steph and they're way more aesthetically pleasing with their games, that's fine. Like you have a title, you keep winning awards. You might win a title this year. Just keep winning, bro. You'll be a legend. You're a legend now. It's great. You don't have to keep telling us. Did you just wrestle Wilson, Yanis? I feel like you just wrestled Wilson, Yanis. So we just haven't felt like it. I would never go that far with it. Yanis is way more cool than Russell Wilson. Let's not do that. That's slander. That's absolute slander. I know, it's become like an insult. He's not caught up in any towns, like come on. Wow. No, that's fair. But there is something to be said about the boring thing because when you think a Bucks final, it just doesn't get the heart pumping. But this week has been, it's been insane and the seal's been broken. So don't think we're going back to a more normal time. But the points scored this week have been absolutely insane. Of course, we had his 55. We had the Donovan Mitchell 71. Luca's had 50 a few times. More 40-point performances and a person can count. I don't even know, do you question the scoring surge? Do you like the scoring surge? Do you love the idea that there is no going back from this now, Chandler? Nothing, it's great. I think teams hate it because that means the defense is not what it should be or it should be at. When you watch an NBA game now is you're watching for the offense and teams that have good defense. It's usually teams that have very good records and are contending for a championship. But these guys now, they're so talented and they score in so many different ways. And that's why when you look at Giannis, he's not making threes. He's not scoring from outside the paint a lot of times. Like he went 15 to 16 last night from the free throw line. That's probably the most impressive stat that he did last night because with all his struggles and taking his time. But I think for ratings, the scoring is awesome. Like we're all talking about it. Social media is blowing up. Like those are crazy, crazy games. Like I think my career high was 34, 36 or something. And dudes are like, damn, you're averaging that now. Like it is just through the roof. And I love it for the game and I love it for the fans. But yeah, at some point, teams are going to have to start locking up and clamping down and playing some defense. So this is my theory. When you look at these games, games go on and Luca Donchich has this game, Don Mitchell has this game. You don't think Giannis and these other players are watching their peers? Like I think it's becoming a competition. Guys want to one up each other. We saw the other night Giannis shot 39 shots in Chicago. He had 40 some points. Like he was trying to go one up Luca Donchich in that game. I think he was clearly shooting for it. He came up a little bit short. But I think it is good for the game. It's good for competition that guys are seeing how other players are performing. They're seeing their peers. They're seeing their rivals and they want to one up each other. And I think they want to have their moment as well. And I think that's only good for the game. That's only good for competition. It's only good for the league. Yeah, I think this is a result of the style of basketball that has become uniform now. And they call it Helio Century. Can you look at the list of those names? I think only Jeremy Gran probably wouldn't qualify. But even then he has the ball a lot. But we're doing a lot of standing around and letting one guy dribble and create his own shots and work the pick and roll and figure out what works best for him. I think it's fun. I think it's amazing for the fans. It's amazing TV. Again, yesterday or the other day walking out the arena and going to go 71 on my screen. It didn't make no sense. So I think it's fun. And I just think it's a result of the way the league has went. It also kind of makes me appreciate Steph Curry a little more because he's somebody that does make it happen off the ball and could drop 60 on you. And just a little bit of different from the way the other guys are making it happen. But it's fun. How could you not enjoy a guy dropping 55 points and just going after it at the end of the game? Kind of like Donovan Mitchell did. Kind of like Luka Dončić does every night. And this is what we tune into the game for. I'll tell you why. Because like with anything else as fans and humans we're going to be bored with this in a second and then we're going to turn on it and then be like, wow, what happened to defense? It's coming. I know it's coming. There was another game last night, by the way. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I was drunk when I was reading this last night as I'm watching the ticker. But thunder with a franchise high, 150 points. That's without SGA, crushing the Celtics by 33. They had seven players in double figures, five that had over 20 points apiece. I don't know what this does to my parlay, by the way. We'll talk about that later. But Chandler, what does this mean for OKC? Also, aren't they supposed to be losing? I mean, yeah, this is weird. Like you said, I was drunk. So that's why I thought it was true. It shows the potential. It shows the talent. It shows that these guys have set up their future very, very well. And they have a lot of pieces to grow with. And this is without SGA is the most improved player who's no doubt in all of this year, who's 24 years old. This is without Jeff Holmgren, who hasn't played this year, who's not playing, who's 20. Josh Giddy is an absolute hooper. He's 20 years old and the guys last night, they're all five guys with 20 points. You know, Jalen Williams, big, strong guard. He's 21. Isaiah Joe, he's 23. You know, it is nuts how young and how these guys play the right way. And look, they're not going to win a lot of games. They're still way behind. But when you start growing with these guys and if you keep this court together, they got something going. And then you throw in a guy like Lou Dorr, who I would think he's 27, 28. That guy's 23 years old and he's the ultimate blue guy. When you get these young, scoring, facilitating guys around him. So I love what they're doing. A game like this is shocking to me for Boston because they have a really good defense and they're giving up, you know, 150 points to this AAU team. It was very, very shocking. But I love what they're doing. I love the youth and they have a lot of assets going forward. You throw a couple of bets in there and you throw in the number one pick. This guy's future is very, very bright. Yeah, the Thunder team, where if you watch them, they're really well coached. They don't always have ability. They make some young mistakes, but they're really well coached. And they compete every night. They're 11 and nine at home. You would think their record is way worse than it is at 16 and 21. You know, the offensive explosion like this is a little unexpected. But they're out there competing every night. And like Chandler said, they've built up their future really well. They have another great pick coming up this year. And who knows where they go from here? And as they continue their tank and they really get into it later this season, they mess around and get two to three. They get one of the Thompson twins. They get scooped. They have a lot of opportunities to really take off. And, you know, even with that great rookie class next year, they might have the rookie of the year already in Chet Holmstrom as they wait for him to he'll look. So they're set up well for the future, much like Orlando. And the league is in good hands, man. The league is a really good hands going forward. I feel like the thing that really strikes at home is there's just not there aren't teams used to be there a handful or more of teams that are just those are wins for a certain amount of teams, right? Like you just go in and you know that that's going to be a W. And it just doesn't feel like that this season more than ever. But Jalen Brown in the loss had 29 points, as you could imagine after the game, not very happy. Here he is. We got our ass kicked. That's what happened. You come out, you take it for granted. That's what happens. And we probably had it coming to us, you know, came out last couple of games. We pick and choose when we want to play. We wasn't connected. Didn't have each other's back out there. You know, no help side defense. We didn't guard our yard. And those young boys over there came out and they made us look bad. They embarrassed us. They kicked our ass and that's what happened. I just love when he talks. I listen to Shams as far as changes for the Boston Celtics. I guess over the last month, what have you seen? I mean, this is a team largest loss in the Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum era. So that's not a good look, 33 point loss, but they're five and seven in the last 12 games, they're nine and eight in the last 17. So I am I think I think you have to look at it. You have to look at Jalen Brown's comments and be a little worried kind of where this is going. But I think a game like last night is a good example. And I think the last month probably is a good example in terms of the Ema Udoka effect. And that was always the leadership that he brought. The way that they were able to battle through adversity in those moments, they clearly missed that to an extent. And I think you can see that in the game last night. You can see that over the last several weeks is the Ema Udoka factor, how we impacted their defense, their leadership on and off the floor. Jalen Brown just spoke there about having each other's backs. Ema Udoka was the guy that filled those gaps. So we'll see Joe Missoula's there. He's going to be there the rest of the season. How does he continue to get his imprint there as a leader around this roster? Yeah, I think Sam's a spot on. A lot of this is going to fall on Joe Missoula. This is a team that just went to the finals. One of your best players is up there basically saying, you guys don't give effort every night. That falls on the coach. And this is a team that we know is championship ready. They made some improvements on the fringes as well by how Malcolm Brogdon and now they've got Robert Williams back. They should be a better team than they were last year. Their defense should not have fallen off in the way it has. Their offense regressed to the mean in December and now it's in January. And they got to turn this around. Sam's mentioned it a week or so ago that, yes, they started out rough last year and then they turned it around. You don't want to make a habit of that. You don't want to make a habit of hitting a switch when the rest of the league is going. The East is strong this year. And if they keep it up like this, they won't be the favorites out there for too much longer. This is a terrible loss for them on the road. And I'm happy Jaylen said it because he has to know it. They know it in that locker room. There's no reason to lose to this team. They're healthy. They have all their guys. They went out there and lost to a team without their best player in embarrassing fashion and the worst loss that they've had in this era of that team. And they only scored 150, but they could have scored way more. I think they had 130 at the end of the third quarter. So that's embarrassing for a team that hung their hat on defense last year and apparently can't do it again this year. Yeah, and there's got to be accountability here and it's got to be on the defensive side. You have the best duo in the NBA. They're going to score points, but you also have the roster and the talent to be a very good defensive team that we've seen from them before. But we saw lapses like this a couple of weeks ago where they lost to the magic twice in a row and I don't know if it's a, you know, kind of letting your guard down or a maturity thing, but like we just hit on the NBA is too talented. The guys are too deep right now. The teams are too deep. And like we said, there's no real easy game. You look at the Rockets, the Magic, the Thunder. They can beat anybody. And the Thunder showed us last night that there's no more cakewalks. There's no easy games. And Boston's got to look themselves in the mirror after this and grow from this, get better and really lock in defensively because they have the duo. They have brogged it as a great point guard, but they have the pieces to be a very, very, very good defensive team and they're just not showing it right now. Before we move on to the night cap last night, Eddie, I want to ask you very quickly. When you see Boston lose like this, knowing they're right around the corner for your Brooklyn Nets, are you excited or worried? Because I feel like this could be a catalyst. It's so embarrassing that they might go on a tear. I just want to ask. When I smoked with Jason and Tatum before the last Nets in something's game, he was like, yeah, we lost yesterday. So ain't no easy, ain't no easy go tonight. So yeah, I get a little worried. I mean, they're going to show up when they come to Brooklyn for sure. So, you know, whatever they're lacking right now, they'll be locked in that night. Yeah, that's just much more exciting. All right, the night cap. It was a wild, wild finish. Take a look. Here comes Fox has to switch market and guardian. Shot game clock down to four. Fox penetration. Fox layup. Yes. Deer with 0.4 on the clock. No timeouts for the Jazz. Marketing at the buzzer. And then it was called off after a review, Chandler. How bummed are you if you're marketing today? Come on. I mean, I had to watch this a couple of times to make sure they were right on the review. This looked like he got it off, but they played well enough to win this game. But this is frustrating just because this hot start that they got off to is colder and colder. And they're currently in the 10 seed and they're one game out of the play. And so this is a devastating loss. But also, if you look at the Deer and Fox ISO there at the end of the game, first of all, he's left handed and the double team is coming from the other side and Lori market and lets him go away from the double coming from the free throw line to a strong hand. That can't happen with the game on the line, especially with help coming. You've got to force them to the double team. But that was a hell of a play and I was a hell of a shot at the end. Unfortunately, I didn't count. But yeah, I'm pretty bummed today just because this is when that got away from us on our home court. Yeah, I'm old enough to remember and from I'm old enough to remember and from Sacramento. So I remember the old like Chris Weber, Carl Malone playoff series. They played it back to back years. And once upon a time was a rivalry for what story franchise. But yeah, you got to be bummed after that. You could kind of see it live that it was ladies are still a great shot. But I'm with Chandler. You got to look to the defense. They targeted Lori marketing on that play. They ran a switch and got him and he shaded him left the whole time for whatever reason. And you know, shout out to the jazz coach sending over the double because he knew it was coming. But Darren Fox made it look easy. He's been clutch all season. He's really been clutch his whole career but even more so this season. And that's a big win for the Kings. They had a real risk going on a slide, handled business there. And man, they're looking like a playoff team. It's jumbled as the standings are out there in the West. They're looking like a playoff team. They got their tandem back with DeMontes playing with the brace as Shams reported. And he looks like a monster. It's so weird to see two teams win a trade. But that trade for Tyrese Aliburton, you can kind of get them out of the air in Fox's way. The air in Fox probably gonna be all star this year and you get DeMontes Sabonis who's been your second best player and been your anchor in many ways on offense. The Kings look good. They're squeaking these out. And these are the wins that matter. These are the wins that franchise was losing for years and years and years on the road, losing the teams, losing games you had in your hand. And they're lighting a beam and they're getting excited out there in Sacramento. Eddie, if you're a Kings fan like yourself in your older days, like you've got to be proud of DeMontes Fox. Like the way he's playing right now and the way he's scoring in the fourth quarter, like to me it was masterful what he was doing last night. That mid-range shot, it looks like it was a couple of years ago where he was a fringe all-star. Last year you could tell he took a little bit of a step back. He's put in the work in the off-season, 22 points in the fourth quarter. He's been a guy that I think is like you said, an all-star type of player this year. There's no question. He was the best player on the floor last time. This Kings team, as long as they remain in the playoff range they might even get two all-stars with Sabonis in the way he's playing. But definitely at least one when it looks like it might be DeFox. Look, the Kings playoff drought, and you're right Eddie, I'm old enough shockingly as well to remember the good old days when it was nuts to go to Sacramento, but their drought is the longest playoff drought. It's 16 years. They have not been in the playoffs in 16 years. The next closest team is Charlotte, and that's only six. Chandler, it is time to do some predictions. Bold takes if you will. Are you going to guarantee right now today Kings playoff appearance this season? Yeah, I'll guarantee that. Is the play in counts as making the playoffs? I mean, yeah, I think it counts. Yeah. No, playing doesn't make the playoffs. Oh my God. You gotta make the playoffs. Okay, fine. We'll go with Sean. Yeah, I'll still guarantee it. You know why? Because they do have two really, really good players. They have a great rookie. They have an awesome coach who's kind of changed that culture around with them. And as jumbled up on the seedings are, they still have a good cushion to drop out. And they're like one or two games out of getting home court in the Western Conference. So I love their team. I love Kevin Herder. He's been an absolute, you know, sniper for them. Harrison Barnes, he's been doing it for years. He's so solid. Davion Mitchell, they have a little bit of everything. They have multiple ways to hurt you. Like I said, they're well coached and they have two absolute stars that are going to carry the load. And they're young. So they're going to be around for a while. They're going to keep getting better and better. So yeah, I will, and I'm pretty good at my predictions and my picks. Obviously. Yeah, guys, speaking your convictions. Now I actually feel bad for Sacramento. We just jinxed the heck out of all of them. By the way, I don't know what their beam budget is Eddie, but if they do make the playoffs, do we add another beam or do we stay with the single beam? I think they got to up the beam budget. I don't know how you change that at that point. Would you add another color or whatever? But if and whenever they do make the playoffs, there's going to be a celebration out there. So long as you're out in the four major professional sports in America, thanks to the Mariners making it the playoffs this year. So yeah, it's a little embarrassing. I mean, they've been a bad franchise for the better part of two decades at now at this point. And you need these wins out there. They fought really hard to get that arena to keep that team and have done almost nothing since then. The air box is kind of their crown jewel. Like sounds mentioned, they drafted him number five overall. He there was rumors he wanted out a few years ago. Sounds are no better than me. I don't know. Even when he signed with Clutch earlier this year, people were like, yo, is he going to ask out? That's the clutch move. And he's making it a home out there. And if he takes them to the playoffs in Sacramento, they will put your number in the Raptors for something like this. He's going to be hero. He's going to be hero. Eddie G out in the streets partying soon. So yeah, let's get another beam out there for the playoffs. I think this is a good idea. Eddie, are you going to move back to Sacramento if they become the hot team? He's going to low sack. It's OK. It's OK. We all go home. I'm going to visit. I'm going to visit next week. And that's more than enough for me. I'll be right back, guys. That's your time limit. I totally get it. The window is small. My least favorite thing in the whole NBA, that's our next topic. It's the damn two minute report. What is it and why? But the one from Monday saying now that they did miss the Jared Allen travel, were 12.1 seconds to go. And then, of course, the big story was the Donovan Mitchell 71 points. But now they are saying, of course, he did commit the lane violation in that play that was ultimately what sent it into overtime in the first place. And then that's how he got the 71 points. The Bulls knew this, but then they have to sit through the added insult to injury of the actual report confirming it. I guess first on the 71 points, Chandler, do you think that these now missed calls take anything away from what Mitchell did that night? No, hell no. This guy was unbelievable. He put on one of the greatest performances of all time. And he had a historic night. That, you know, sure, take away two points from him for the lane violation, which we never do. But no, he was still unbelievable. That building was rocking. My whole thing with this is the NBA and the, first of all, I like the two minute warnings. It exposes the reps. And I feel like they should be held accountable and they're missed calls. And they should be fine just as the players are. And they're not perfect. And that's OK. Listen, they're going to miss calls. Being a ref is the worst job in the world. Because no matter when you blow that whistle, half of the court is pissed at you. So it's never going to be perfect. But review it. If there's a play where it's this magnitude and this coming down to the wire of the game, they review everything else. They review a block or charge. Why not just sit there and stop the game, review this, and make sure you get the call accurate. These are two huge blown calls. And if I'm Chicago, I'm pissed. Yeah. Yeah, the Bulls have had a few of these, though. Like, they've gotten holds on a few. I think there's been at least three or four this season. We're at the end of the game. The two minute report comes out. And they could have won the game if not for a missed or blown call. But I think that night, a couple of nights ago, that was obvious that was apparent. I said yesterday, I was looking on Twitter. You could see screenshots of people pointing at Diamond Mitchell coming across the line. As the ball is not even close to the rim, it's still halfway through. So listen, it's a lane violation, no question. And I think if the refs could review it, they probably should have. If you're able to challenge it, I don't even know if at the time the Bulls had a challenge. But that's a tough way to lose. It's unfortunate. I don't take anything away from Diamond Mitchell's game, though. I mean, he can't control the refs. The performance he put on, he's not to make those crazy shots. So that's on him, for sure. Yo, Shoms, what is the threshold for a do-over? I remember there was a heat hogs do-over. I want to say like, 0-8, 0-9. That's how I'd be feeling if I was the Bulls. It was like, we got to run these final eight seconds back. I need this win in the win column. The two minute report, it's frustrating because yo, there is a hint of accountability there for the refs. But there also isn't. Nothing changes. We know these calls are bad in real time. The refs don't answer for them in any way. They still get assignments. It's like it's just twisting the knife for the losing fans and the losing team. So I mean, I guess it's cool to know, but if they're not going to redo the final three seconds and just let the Bulls inbound and win the game, then who cares? As far as the first question, yo, the refs called it the way they called it live. He still scored 71. I saw the buckets. They still count. So it is what it is. But yeah, this sucks. This sucks for the Bulls and the team who is going to be fighting for playoffs all season long. But if they missed the playoffs by one game and they have to look back on this, they should look back on letting him score 71 more than letting him get that free throw. And I hate when coaches and guys say, oh, one player in the game doesn't impact the game. Because I understand the theory behind that where we could have done other things leading up to that to not be in this position. But no, we are in this position. And now outside people like the referees are blowing the call that directly impact the outcome of the game. So I understand that these guys could have done something different and not been in that predicament in the first place. But a call like this, let alone two calls to lose on the road. Like, no, that's not fair. That's kind of bullshit. Like, I'm pissed from Chicago. I hate the two minute report because you already know you were wronged. Now you're confirming that I was wronged and not a damn thing happens. Like, to me, it's worse. I hate this system. And I hope they figure out a better way to do it because it would just piss me off even more than I already was. And that's my rant for today. Okay, that's all I got. We're gonna take a quick break right now. We're gonna get the latest on Kelly Ubrey, Junior and Zion. Man, do we wanna know more about Zion? Shaum's with all of that when Run It Back returns. Run it over, run it back, yeah, yeah. Run it over, run it back, run it over, run it back. Welcome back to Run It Back. This is the part of the show where we get the Shaum scoop and I hate it because the first, I mean, it's not a great start to the scoop today, Shaum. You got some news on Kelly Ubrey? Kelly Ubrey will be undergoing surgery on his left hand. He has a torn ligament and he's gonna be out four to six weeks. The hope is that he's gonna be back at some point after the All-Star break in mid-February. He's been the most consistent hornet all season, career high, 20 points per game. He is on an expiring deal and that made him a valuable player across the league. The guy that other teams were looking into to potentially trade for, but this is a hornet's team that's near the bottom of the East. They're one game out for the worst record in the Eastern Conference and I think a lot of teams are gonna be looking into them and seeing over the next couple of weeks, which direction do they go? Do they start selling off expiring players like Mason Plumlee, Ubrey, Terry Rozier? So this is definitely a team to monitor a tough blow for this hornet's roster. Yeah, that was a tough four to six weeks is a bit of time. This next one is the one that I think we were getting too excited. We were loving watching the Pelicans, Zion especially, but all right, talk to us about him. Three weeks, this pretty much takes you right up until February and at that point, just knowing the way the Pelicans have operated, how cautious they've been with Zion Williamson last season, this year. We'll see exactly when he's gonna be back just cause he's gonna be reevaluated at the end of the month. Doesn't mean he's gonna be back, but I think there is hope that this is not something that's more serious. Obviously the worst case in the hamstring is that you ruptured fully, it wasn't that, but with Zion Williamson, he's the prize possession of this Pelicans organization. They're gonna be very careful with them and I expect them to take a very cautious approach to this. That one bummed me out, Shoms. I'm not gonna lie to you. All right, Wednesday's our Friday, which means we're saying goodbye to you until Monday, my friend. Enjoy the rest of the week, enjoy your weekend, stay safe. I know we're gonna stick with Pelicans here, Chandler and Eddie, because it's panic button. That's obviously bad news about the Zion injury. Of course, Brandon Ingram, we haven't seen in forever. It literally seems like the entire season been out since November 25th. And there's no timetable, which is the bizarre thing on that. After tonight, they have five of six on the road and they're gonna face some good teams. Nets, Mavs, Celtics, those are just a few in that stretch, Chandler. Panic button time on this New Orleans team. Yeah, I'm hitting the panic button just because this team is this deep. They are young and they have a lot of talent, but they're only gonna go as far as Zion and BI go. And if they're out, who knows? And like we always talk about the Western Conference, there's, you know, there's six solid teams that are right there. And I can definitely see the Pelicans kind of sliding right out of there. And they do have vet guys like CJ and Balanchunas, Larry Nance mixed in with those young guys that kind of carry the load. But this is a whole different dynamic. This is a whole different team. And we always talk about the health of Zion and how it's physically possible. And one of the smartest guys I know in the medical field told me when he was in college, there's no way that this dude can sustain that. It's physically impossible and something's gonna give. And I hated that because he's so good and he's so talented and he's so fun to watch that the NBA is better with Zion playing. And this is just one of those things where again, a hamstring is nothing to dilly-dally with. And when you have that size and that explosiveness, it can tear or get worse or just kind of, you know, re-agitate it at any given minute. So I'm panicking just because our team and our future are these two guys and they're gonna miss a lot of time. Yeah, if there's a smaller concern button, I'm probably hitting that, maybe not panic just yet. I think this team can tread water for a few weeks. Hopefully they get BI back. I know the toe is tough to rehab from and you just need that for everything you do on the court. But I'm with Chandler on Zion. It's really tough to watch this because with that body type and the way he plays and his explosive as he is, look legs aren't meant to do what he does with his body. He's not meant to jump as high as he does and land from that high as often as he does. And his entire game is exposing his strength. So he needs that. He needs to be 100%. I only say concern because if they get these guys back in time for the playoffs, that's really what their aim is here. And if they can maintain some seating, they'd want to have home court going against the West and the juggernauts they have out there. But if they can get in, they're gonna be a tough out for everybody. And so you wanna think big picture in long term. It's gonna be big for CJ McCullum in the next weeks, months, whatever it is until these guys are full to carry that offense and to really keep them going. But like you said, tough schedule coming up and we're gonna find out about the role players on that team over the next few weeks. I think, you know what this means, right? It's time for my MVP Jose Alvarado to really step up and show the world what he's made of. And I'm very excited about that for him. It is time. Moving on to the Hawks. I don't know what the preseason expectations necessarily were for this Atlanta team. And we've talked at length about what is going on seemingly internally between Nate McMillan, Trey Young, some days they look like they know what they're doing out there, some days they don't. But Eddie, I'll start with you. Are you hitting the panic button on the Hawks? Yeah, when the coach is debating if he should retire mid-season, we're hitting the panic button. When the star player is saying, yo, I'm not playing the day coach, I don't care. I'm hitting the panic button. When both of those things are happening and you're losing games, yeah, there's a ton of panic about, I mean, there are only one game up in the playing. So they could quickly fall out of that. It's the pools and the Raptors behind them. And those are two teams that want to win games. They want to go to the playoffs. Yes, you definitely need to panic. They sprung big for the Chante Murray this summer and it gave up a ton of draft capital. They've been trying to shop John Collins for years it feels like to fix whatever they have going on over there. They just don't look like they like each other. That loss of the Warriors was terrible in a hundred different ways, but they're just not. When we talk about the Nets having fun and they're on a 12 game win streak, you look at the Hawks on the other end of the spectrum and those guys look like they're actually going to a day job and they hate it. So yeah, I'm probably hitting the panic button a few weeks ago, it's even worse now that this lost seven of their last 10. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And besides all the drama with, you know, you never really see a coach contemplating, resigning in the middle of the season and the star player sitting out and always having issues and second best players been on the trading block for three years now with John Collins. But the teams behind them, the Wizards, the Bulls and the Raptors, they all want to win and they're all just as or better than the Atlanta Hawks. And the Hawks have had two kind of fluke game winners by AJ Griffin. So they haven't played well. They made the big move for D'Aunty and Murray and it just hasn't panned out. Trey's kind of taken a step back this year. And so I'm hitting the panic button just because they're not a contender. They're not going to compete for a championship this year. And they might go on a skid here, not even make the play in. So they're on a slippery slope here and I'm definitely hitting the panic button. Yeah, it seems like the panic button might have been hit a bit ago. This next one is weird to me. DeAndre Aitin, all right? Not really shutting it down. It's the last two games, averaging eight points, two and a half rebounds. And as many blocks as Eddie, which is great for Eddie, except for that it's zero in two straight losses. But here's the thing about it. That's not even what we want to focus because there's like this video of him before, I believe a Nick's game. And he's practicing these underhanded half court shots, like things that you would just do when you're messing around. And he does that a lot, actually. So are you hitting the panic button, Chandler, on DeAndre Aitin? What is he doing? Yeah, this is confusing. I don't know if he's just like kind of an immature kid or what he's doing, but there's a lot of issues surrounding this guy. And I don't personally know him, but everything I've heard is if there's one issue on the Phoenix Sun, it's DeAndre Aitin. And I don't know if that's the most fair thing to say because we don't know everything, but the moral of the story is he can play it. And he is arguably their second best player with Devin and him. And he's a cornerstone to their future. But all of these other stuff, all these other antics, the beef with the coach, the beef with bridges, it's not good. It's not healthy. And the Suns, I feel like they've been fighting all these distractions all year long. And this goes way back to the off season with DeAndre Aitin and he was number one pick. He should be dominating. He should be an all star at this point. And he's not. And the Phoenix Suns kind of missed their window and they're sliding and they're unhealthy. So everything's just exposed right now because they're losing. And it's kind of falling on DeAndre Aitin as that guy because a lot of the drama negative news is kind of centered around him. So I'm not panicking in a weird way because he is so talented and so good in a critical piece but just enough with the outside noise and the distractions and the antics. Like just play basketball. Yeah, I'm not panicking either but that's just because he's very tradable. I think it's January 15th. He's eligible to be traded after signing that contract or a signature for agency this summer. And he actually has to agree to it. He has to, you know, it has to come be into his terms. But that's fine. You want it out. You wanted him out. You re-signed him for whatever reason. Workout trade. You clearly don't want him there. It has got to be frustrating for that team. They drafted him number one overall. Two picks ahead of Luca Donchis. So as much as we ragged, it's the Kings for picking Marvin Bagley over Luca. The Suns pick DeAndre Aitin. And it wasn't that controversial pick at the time but man, you know, five years later it's looking a little crazy. So yeah, only no panic because you clearly want him out. You have a route to get him out. It's time to get him out. And yeah, it's tough watching him out there. And they miss Devin Booker. And ever since Chris Paul's come back, they've been on a bit of a slide. We were talking about this team a month ago like a title contender. And things happened fast in this league. That's it. The thing about perspective, when they came into San Antonio, they were on that tear and DeAndre Aitin was doing those same pre-game practice shots and the rest of the team was dancing and they had all the, and it was fun looking. But then it's all about reading the room and having a little perspective. And that's interesting that Chris Paul came back and they went on a slide, Eddie. We should talk about that more next time. Next up, the consensus number two overall, just threw a dunk down that might make you go, Victor who, when run it back returns. So this is Scoot Henderson who is by all accounts going to be the number two pick after Victor Vinyama, easy for me to say. That's a grown man dunk right there guys. And look, this kid went to the G-League at 17 years old playing against grown ass dudes in America. And I'm sure he's kind of loving the Victor stuff because it puts him a little bit, I don't know, less pressure. Am I wrong in thinking that? Does he have a case to be number one, Chandler? No chance and this kid kept playing and he is a Hooper and he's gonna really, really help a team. And I think as much as Victor is number one, Scoot is number two. And I think it's land sizes. I think Victor can tear his ACL tonight and he'll still get drafted number one. This kid's a freak. He's a unicorn. We've never seen a prospect like this good. But on the flip side, Scoot Henderson can play. He can score the basketball. He's got a great build. He's athletic. He plays smart. He can play point. And that dunk last night was extremely impressive. But it's just, no, this Victor is too big. He's too long. He's too skilled. I do love the fact that they're both playing against pros and grownups and they're not in the college ranks or high school. They're competing at a very high level and they are dominating at a high level. So whoever gets the one or two pick, I'm honestly kind of stoked. It might turn out to be the number three pick. Ends up happier than the number one pick because this kid could end up being that good. And you never know with a big guy like Victor with his body and his health. So I think this kid's in a great situation where there's not a lot of pressure. Everyone's talking about Victor and this kid could easily come in and be better than Victor early on in his career. Yeah, I think we might see that. We might see him win rookie of the year. We might see him be the better player for a few years as Victor kind of assimilates to this style of play and the physicality and on and on and on. I think if you're picking Scoot first, if you're even thinking about it, you're basically banking on the potential over the help. And it kind of reminds me of Kevin Durant versus Greg Odin in that season where, yeah, if you didn't want Odin, it was because of the health. And we saw how that played out. It's played out that way a few times in draft history and you just never know. So you're gonna wanna do your due diligence. I think Scoot is gonna be great. I think it's an archetype that we already have in this league and that makes sense. But the potential of seven, six, wing, who can dribble, who can do all this stuff? It's just too much to overlook. I just cannot see Greg Popovich probably deciding to not take all of that and see what that does for the next 10 years. But Scoot is that good. He won't be 19 until next month. He's that great. And whoever gets him at two, they won't be disappointed either. And you can do a lot of things with a dynamic point guard who can play make the way he can. And it was that athletic. But I just cannot see a team going against the grain here. You gotta see what you get with Victor Limbiava. I mean, look, I think the Scoot's in the best case scenario because the pressure is so much less. But then you get to have the added motivation of always being referred to as the number two. To me, whoever gets Scoot, I'm with you guys. Like they might actually win that. And it's crazy to say now. But I also believe in this pressure situation being a little bit too much for kids. Yeah, it's almost easier to get the decision taken out of your hands, right? You're at two and he falls to you and you go, cool. I remember with the Celtics, they wanted Jason Tatum, they were gonna take him one overall. They ended up trading back with Philly. And they said then, we wanted to take him one. We were just a little worried. Mark Alphonse was the clear consensus, number one overall pick. We saw how that went. Sometimes you just gotta pick the guy you think is better and go with that. But man, you'd be hard-pressed to take anybody over Victor. If you don't have to, if you pass on Victor number one, that's how you get fired. If he turns out to be anything what they expect him to be. So if you get the normal pick, you have to, but there's no pressure on the number two pick because this kid's just falling right in your lap. Yeah. It's a good spot to be in. Taking a quick break when we come back, we won our parlay, kind of. I'm gonna try to explain that in my best possibility when we run it back, returns. Run it back, yeah. Run it over, run it back, yeah. Oh yeah, we're back baby, the parlay. This is last night. You're still winning guys. You guys got yours both right. My dude, SGA, I had under 29 and a half points, didn't play technically zero, yep, won that. But the parlay, it just dropped in value a little bit, but a W to W and that just means that we're on a hot streak once again. So let's just go into the weekend feeling really good about ourselves and our self-esteem. Eddie, what do you have for us for the first leg today? Hold on, Michelle. Let me tell you, five of those kids had over 20 last night. You don't think SGA would have had 70 last night I don't, I don't. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm still hot, still hot. Zero is less than 29. I think we won. We got to complain to somebody. We did, by all betting rules, we won. I'm going with Stephen Adams, under 14 and a half rebounds. This is an astronomical number. I actually went to go pick the over because I thought it was gonna be like 10 and they're playing the hornets and the hornets just don't care about basketball. But 14.5, that's insane, I have to go under. Okay, he sounds good, all right. All right, Chandler, he sounds sure. Yeah, I like the Pacers plus seven and a half. I mean, that is a lot of points. Philly has been so up and down. And I like the way the Pacers play. I got to take the points here and go Pacers plus seven and a half. Ooh, I have big feelings about that one, Chandler. I'm not gonna lie, my vision came out. I'm just going like straight money line today. Now that I've mastered what that means, we're the kings. So there it is, we're back up. 20 bucks, we'll win you $134. Frankie Coffee Cakes, that's our own Chandler from Bronx Tale, thank you so much. And that's gonna do it for us on this beautiful and wonderful Wednesday. So guys, enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend. I'm assuming, I don't wanna know what Chandler's plans are but they're better than ours Eddie and we know that to be true. That's gonna do it for us. We'll be back bright and early Monday morning. We're on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 10 Eastern in the morning. Don't forget, run it back.