 Denzel and Spike went to Nick Slakers instead of the Oscars. Priorities, baby. Run it back, starts now. Run it up, do run it back, yeah. Run it up, do run it back, run it back, run it up. Good Monday morning and welcome to Run It Back. I feel like every Monday we get together and so much has happened that I forgot that we haven't even addressed it yet. This is definitely one of those days. I want to introduce everyone before we get started. Of course, Stadium Insider, Shom Shirania. Shayler P coming to us live from his just big boy office is really the only way I can say it. It looks amazing, dude. It looks amazing. And then Eddie G there on the end. And look, we have not spoken since, well, the KD thing was kind of a big deal. So Shoms, right away, get started with you. What's the latest on Durant's ankle injury? Yeah, he's going to be out at least two weeks. It's a moderate sprain from what I'm told. And they're going to reevaluate him after those two weeks. It was just a nasty injury. There's actually a lot of good luck with this organization. The fact that this isn't more severe, but just unfortunate timing. This could have been way worse. When it happens, you think grade three, grade two. Could he be out for really an extended period of time this year? But right now they're looking at around two to three weeks for his potential return to the lineup. And so hopefully get Kevin Durant back of your Phoenix by the end of the month. Look, no horse in the race, right? But there were a lot of cuss words that flew out of my mouth when I saw that. And I could not believe what I was seeing and when it happened and how it happened. Eddie, you were out there. Give us your first-hand account. What was that like? Yeah, I was down there watching him warm up. You know me. I'm in my phone. So I thought his goofy ass just slipped. I didn't even know. He finished the workout. And I go to grab some food. And he texts me. He's like, yo, I'm out tonight. Like what? And I've finally seen the videos. It's a nasty turn. And getting back to the house that night. He's in a boot. He's got a crazy limp. We're all kind of shook up. But thankfully, he took the boot off, took the sleeve off. Swelling wasn't as bad as we thought. He said it wasn't as bad as when it happened. And then, yeah, initial prognosis was two, maybe three weeks. And the doctors went on to confirm that as well. And so he'll be back this season. Thank God. And he'll be back before the playoffs as well. But it's tough for them. This is an important stretch for the team. They had a chance to gain some ground on the Kings. They had an outside shot at the two seed, two games left against the Kings. Obviously lost on Saturday without Kevin. Now who knows? And you want to get some more continuity before the playoffs come. So tough for them for sure. Chandler, have you seen this before? I mean, this is just such a bizarre world incident. No. I mean, this is such a bummer. Just giving everything with the trade and getting a player like Kevin Durant to this being his home opener, all the excitement. This sucks. Like Eddie just said, this is a tough stretch for them where they're trying to make ground. They're trying to get the highest possible seed. And as good as Katie is, they do need time to kind of work him into this offense, work him into this defense, get him acquainted with everybody. It's a good problem to have to have him on the shelf going into the playoffs. And thank God it's not going to prolong anything longer than that. But no, I mean, this happens. Then Kaminga rolls his ankle on the guy working out with a pre-game. So two and two in the same week is weird. But this was a freak incident. One on O, just kind of rolling your ankle. I don't know that I've ever seen that right before a game. And for a massive superstar and a much anticipated home debut, that was a little bit shocking. Not the only injury of the weekend shams. You've been busy. We had Luca with a thigh injury against the Pelicans. This happened over the weekend. What's his status? Yeah, this is more short term. He's going to be day to day with this thigh injury. He's out again. So he's going to miss his second straight game tonight. But I'm told he could be back as soon as their next game against your spurs, Michelle. So right now the Mavericks are hopeful that this is more of a day to day injury for Luca Dutch is not as severe as Kevin Durant's. Yeah. I kept tuning in the Mavericks. I was at Kyrie's on the bench. This is not fun to watch. That was one of the worst star free games I've ever seen in my whole life. Yeah, this is a great start to a show, guys. This is the injury update brought to you by who knows what. But there were actual games that we can now get to. Nick's Lakers. How about the Nick's Eddie? They're on a little bit of a moment right now. 112 went away Randall with 33 and 8. Barrett had 30. That was a little bit surprising. Dilo got to see him with 33 points. Eight assists and AD saved him for last for a reason. 17 and 16. He said afterwards I played terrible. Couldn't find my shot free throws layups. Everything the guys did their job. But I didn't do my job tonight. They've won three of their last four, but they have dropped to the 11 spot now. So I ask you Chandler, confidence wise in AD and now Dilo to make this much needed playoff push. I mean, I'm as confident as it can be with the situation they're in with those other teams there. And listen, their room for error is now very, very small. And Anthony Davis, he's got to be the best player on the floor every single night for them to have a chance. And last night you can't have a night where you play, you know, almost 40 minutes and have 17 points and go one for five from the free-throw line. It's an issue to miss four free throws, but only him only getting five free throws is not enough. And he knows that and he addressed that and he's got to be better. But they also got to get something from Brown and Beasley. Brown was 0 for 8 from three and Beasley's 4 for 12. So, you know, when you're looking at this roster, how it is, there's, you don't know where it's going to come from every night, but you got to have some consistent shot making for those guys. That's what they're there to do. It's great to have Dilo back. He's now back in line-up. He had a big game and they did make a push last night to still try and find a way to win this game. And this on the flip side, this is a huge win for the Knicks with Al Jalen Brunson to be able to go on the road and get a win with arguably your best player is huge for them, but yeah, the margin of error is very, very small here for them. And you know, this is a game that they're going to want to get back, but they're still right in position to kind of make that play in. It's just Anthony Davis has to dominate like he's been. It's just he can't have many more games like last night. Only 14 games left. The good thing for them is two and a half games separate the two seed and the 12 seed and they're sitting there at 11 now. They just have to get the play in there. You know, you figure they're one of the favorites to get the play and Dilo looks great. AD has looked great. They won three straight. They weren't going to win 10 straight. They're just not that good to do that at this one in the season, but the play in is keeping a lot of teams alive. And look, we got to admit the season three of the play in. It's been a massive success. It's cutting down on tanking. It has it has 15 teams this season really trying to actually win games. And you know, look, we're going to get those stragglers at the bottom who are going to tank and quite as kept the playing games. I've admit all that great either, but it's made the into the regular season matter. These March games used to just be awful. Everybody was tanking. You never knew who was going to be playing. We might see Jim or for dead out there throwing up shots. We don't know. But the plan has worked and it's worked for the Lakers. They've been in this thing a few times already stuck into the playoffs because of it. They need this now. They're in a good spot. They just need to get healthy. Waiting on the brawn. A lot of people were kind of wowed that he wasn't wearing the boot yesterday. I don't know. It still seems like he's a ways away, but you can't afford to drop this one. Got a winnable game tomorrow against a team in front of them in the standings as well in the Pelicans. So they're still alive. They're fine, but they got to win these games. Yes. Still a weeks away for LeBron, but I do think this Lakers team has the chance with or without him to be somewhat of a problem, a threat in the Western Conference. I think the way D'Angelo Russell has played over the last two games. I mean, he's averaging 31 points a game. Nine assists ever since he's been back in line up the last couple of games. They've gone four and three without LeBron over the last seven games. But like Chandler said, when you have Malik Beasley, Troy Brown, Jerry Vanderbilt, they shot 5-23 from the field. They're not going to win many games when the supporting cast play like that, especially on top of AD shooting 8-18 from the field, only 17 points. The good thing that I saw from AD is that he took the onus right after the game. He said, I need to be better. It's my fault we lost. And the fact that he did that, I think shows that he really cares and he knows that it's on him to be dominant night in and night out. And when he is, I think this Lakers team does have a chance to be pretty dangerous in the Western Conference. Now if we could pay attention to somebody who's actually in the playoffs in this regard, it would be the Knicks. They were coming off of a back-to-back in L.A., which is a city that can sometimes, you know, get a guy. But Chandler, how impressed were you with them? Again, without Jalen Brunson yesterday. Yeah, I was super impressed. Like you said, it was a back-to-back, so they were probably, you know, in their hotel room at least somewhat early. But this is big. When you're getting 30 points from two or three of these guys, it's a tough team to beat because they play so hard. They play defense. They fly around. Emmanuel, quickly, he's really, really impressed me lately. It's how he gets to the basket, his speed. I've never really paid attention to him, and this kid is a bona fide NBA player, and I'm glad they didn't trade him because he's a huge piece of their future going forward. But yeah, without their playmaking point guard to do this with everything on the line for the Lakers to go in there on a back-to-back and get this done, this is a very important win for the Knicks. And again, like we always talk about, the seedings are so jumbled up and they're so close. Every game is huge for teams, whether you're kind of a lock for the playoffs, whether you're fighting for the play-in, this is kind of that crunch time where every single game matters. And again, when you're the Lakers, you're looking at this loss like, damn, we made this big run, a couple stops, we could have won this game. And on the Knicks, you look back and when you see who you're seeding and who you're playing against, you remember now this is a huge win without Jalen Brunson on the road against the team battling for their livelihood. So again, this is great for the Knicks and to any win without Jalen Brunson is a huge positive for them because I don't think they're a contender with Jalen Brunson. So when they're winning games like this without them, Bravo. MSG West. Stupid, Eddie. They're tied with the Knicks for the fifth six seed. They were on a great winning spree. They had the seven game winning spree. They didn't drop three straight, but they're right there. They're not quite contenders, but they absolutely need Jalen Brunson back. Stan Van Gunny made a great observation on the telecast Friday and they're really good kings game. Both teams have had incredible injury health and have had their starters pretty much the entire season. They blissed RJ for a little bit and now they're missing Brunson at the worst possible time, but they had the X-ray. They said it's not broken, which is a little scary. It's a little scary that they needed the X-ray. Tom Thibodeau, very mum about a timeline. Need him back, obviously, for the playoffs, but take it slow. They're not going to drop too far down the standings and they're not going to get all the way up to three. So get them right, get ready and get ready for your playoffs series. But they look good. I got to admit they're exciting. They're fun to watch. Josh Hart just brings a different energy to that team. He just seems like if Tom Thibodeau could make a backup guard, he would make Josh Hart in the 2K and create a player thing. Scrappy Dool could hit a three. He's strong. He can handle the ball a little bit and he's going to work hard all the game. He's been an absolute different maker for them and a huge pickup at the trade deadline. Yeah, he has embraced being a New York Knick. It has been quite fun to watch. I agree with you. By the way, there's a nine-game winning streak. I don't like you trying to throw shade at the Knicks. Every chance you get. Yeah. Yeah, remember that. They're moving on. My bad. Stick it in the Eastern Cup. It's okay. I still love you. Sixers, Wizards, 1296. How about the Sixers? That was their fifth straight win over the Wizards and Bede finished with 34. Harden finished with 18 and 14 assists. Shoms, I'm going to start with you. Sixers' biggest strength right now and if you had to put your finger on a concern, what would it be? So their biggest strength, I think we know night to night what Joellen Bede's going to bring to the table. But when you look at the way James Harden is playing right now, we talked early on in the year, just the juxtaposition from their playing styles. But now you're seeing a team that really is honed in on exactly how they're going to play. James Harden night to night, he can score in good amounts. I mean, those 15 to 22, 23 point per game night, those are good because you know with James Harden, you're also getting at this rate, he's obviously the league's leading assist player right now, but you're getting anywhere from 10, 12, 15, 18, sometimes even 20 assists on a nightly basis. Harden is back, the way that he worked on his body over the summer, you have to give him a lot of credit. He didn't look like he was messing around last summer. So to me, this team is dangerous. The one thing that I think I am a little worried about and this doesn't carry over to the postseason all the time is that they do play down to competition at different points. They blew out the Wizards last night, but I think at times this year, they have a tendency to play down. But when they play against the big teams, you know they're going to bring it. They had a big win against Milwaukee in a recent game. So I think this team has a real legit chance to be a threat in not only in the playoffs, but to potentially get out of the Eastern Conference this year. Yeah. I got to say just knowing James playing with James, the growth I've seen from him, because don't forget this dude is a score. He's one of the best ISO players of all time. He's always been the number one option. He's always been able to go get 30, 40 points a game. And now watching him play, he has completely matured. He's adjusted to not being the best player on the team, but being the second best player on the team. He's now transformed into this past first contributor, distributing point guard who I can just tell he's getting more stoked to make that extra pass to throw that alley you rather than getting a bucket. And that is a huge sign of improvement and maturity that I have never seen from James Harden until this season. And the best thing for the Sixers is, he's still super capable of going off and having those big eruption games. He's still going to go ISO. He still wouldn't need to go, we won Joel Embiid off the bench. He can go back into that mode where he can get a bucket. But to be able to see him distributing and playmaking and passing the ball the way he is, that's making the 76ers that much better. That's going to put them in that next caliber to actually contend. Because we all know how dominant Joel Embiid is. But seeing this growth that James Harden kind of accepting this role as not the best player anymore in this team, that makes his values so much better. It's like he's, he's over aware now the fact that people expect him to get a championship at some point. Sixers, look, their chance to do though, they've got Celtics and Bucks still ahead of them, Eddie. But they're only a game and a half behind the Celtics, three behind Milwaukee. Are you willing to put them on the same tier as those two teams? They are. They're one of the best teams in the league. They finally have figured out their pacing. They use Maxi as kind of a change of pace. And you can kind of see his frustration with how slow Joel and James move. But every once in a while he gets the ball, he gets to run with it, gets to do his thing. And so they have, they packed that punch of a little bit of both. And then with the big fella, and I know we're going to talk about this and I don't want to step on the following segment. But look, he's probably the MVP. Like he's probably in a regular season where you don't have Yolkets. He just lost and he threw up a 30-20-10. Like in a regular season, you don't have that guy doing that. This guy's the clear MVP. And he had an incredible weekend. Obviously on Friday night, he hit the game winner. And then we watched Yolkets. Again, not to step on later today in the show, but we watched Yolkets in crunch time. It looked a little bit different. That's why they're in that tier of team. Joel Embiid is the biggest mismatch in the NBA. Nobody can guard him when he's on. No team can guard him. Nobody has the answer for that. I know the Celtics, they like to play with two bigs. I know they have Robert Williams, who a lot of people thought was defensive player the year last year. I know the Bucks have Brooke Lopez, who a lot of people think is defensive player this year. We all know they cannot guard Joel Embiid one-on-one. It doesn't matter. So you have to completely over extend your defense to deal with him. We have yet to see him complete the run, but we've seen him dominate playoff series. He's the biggest mismatch in the league. He's the reason why they're elite, and he's the reason why they can go with any of those guys. Now for them, it would behoove them to get maybe up to the two seed, not have to deal with both. I don't know. Figure out the seeding, but they are definitely right there. And don't be surprised that they passed the Celtics. They're rolling right now. They've been rolling for quite some time, just quietly lurking. That's a great team they got in Philly. I mean, it's possible. They can still catch the Celtics. Man, Eddie, that's your MVP vote, just like that. All right. Well, we mentioned you'll get a little bit there, not in the most positive ways. He had a rough weekend. Nets beat the Nuggets. I mean, it was rough, but they lost to the Spurs. 122-120. Jokic did finish with 35, 20 rebounds and 11 assists, but he also missed a three at the buzzer, and they've lost, as I mentioned, the three straight. Look, they have a nice cushion. They're five games up in the West still. But at this point, Chandler, just watching this and the timing of when they seem to be struggling a bit, are you concerned at all about this team? I am, because you look at these Eastern Conference teams and those top three teams, Philly, Boston, Milwaukee, they do both. They have stars. They score points. They play defense. The Nuggets defense is very, very bad, and there's a lot of holes in the deep. And it's not just Jokic. A lot of these guys get beat on ISOs. They're never in health position. They don't really make that extra effort on the defense event, so it's not even just, you know, the roster they have. It doesn't even seem like they're putting the same amount of effort on the defense event as they do on the offense event. And they're so sublime, really offensively. That's going to win them some games, and it's going to win them a lot of games. And am I concerned that they lost three straight? No, they have a big cushion there in the first lead. This is not when you want to kind of fall off. This is where you want to be hitting your stride. And they're so good offensively. And Jokic, the way he passes the ball and everything he's done, they're going to be fine. But yeah, when you get into a playoff series and you got to beat a team four times, you have to play defense and you have to follow in the scouting report. And you're not just going to be able to out-shoot people because when it comes to a four-game, seven-game series, teams are going to take away what you do offensively. Like, Jokic is not going to be able to just do what he does. Or if he does do that, they're going to take away their second and third option. And it's going to be tough to do that to win a series. So when it comes down to it, defense is a huge part of the game still, as many people don't believe. And when you look at three teams, that's what separates them. That's why I think whoever wins this is going to win it all because they play defense and they play on both sides of the ball. So it is concerning, but this is who they are. So like, they just got to kind of figure it out. The defense said there's a reason why that word's being mentioned a bunch. Look, Jokic should get his league high 27th triple double. But Eduardo, you specifically asked for this piece of video to demonstrate. Jokic playing defense against the Spurs on Friday. How dare you? He plays defense like me, which is not a good thing for a contender in the NBA. This is exactly how I look. If you pulled up Sunday Wash Club, just a little bit of like, yo, waving the hand, just stepping back, looking for the rebound. Yeah, you got it, buddy. There he goes. Cool layup. Great video. Great find by the guy who tweeted this. I wish I had his name, but it is, it is, it's concerning. And like Chandler said, it's also spread about the team. And what happens with the Nuggets late in games? And you've seen that a lot last night. The net started to isolate him over and over and over. So the Nuggets adjusted by just swinging doubles his way. Hard doubles in the middle of the court, which as Chandler knows, if you double in the middle of the court, there's somebody open somewhere and led to a ton of open shots late for them. Spencer Denwood, he almost tricked off that game, something crazy. Otherwise, they shouldn't have been close. The Nuggets made a huge comeback late in that game. But the way they have to contort their defense, not only for Jocas, but for Jamal Murray, who also went out hurt yesterday. Obviously had to be concerned with that as well. Hurt the knee, stealing with some soreness. We all know about his knee issues coming before this as well. But he's getting attacked on defense almost just as much as Nicolio gets. So they have defensive issues they simply cannot fix. They don't have the person now to fix that. There's no way around it. But even with that, Jocas, 0-3 in the final 40 seconds of the game. And he went 1-2 from the free throw line. He did that free throw bad because he would have been tied when he's taking that final shot for the game. But look, if he's your MVP, he's your MVP. I get it. You're not losing it on one game. I'm just saying, I watched the OMB handle that situation the other night. Way different than Nicolio gets handled yesterday. And it matters to me. I don't have a vote, but it would have mattered to me if I had one. Yeah. And listen, it should matter. An MVP should be able to do everything and contribute on both sides of the floor. And when most people look at the stats, they're just seeing 35, 20, and 11. But it's funny when Eddie saw that, I watched that this morning, that clip. And not to sound like his old head, like, oh, when I used to play. But if I had one of those clips, defensively, when I played for Kevin McHale, when I played for these guys, the state in film, I was sweating, just waiting to see how much he was going to roast me if I didn't go lay deep in it. And I can't say the words that he would call me, but it wasn't good. And so I can obviously, he's probably going to be a three-time MVP and he can get away with a lot of this stuff. But it's just funny looking back that guys in the locker room would literally be shook if they knew, oh man, they're going to, they're going to show that clip tomorrow in film. Oh man, I wasn't there to take the charge. Oh man, I let this guy dunk and I could have wrapped him up. Any one of those clips would have been just an absolute Jeff Ross roast the next day. So I wonder how they were going to look today. Oh, it couldn't have been that the Spurs were just having a really, really lovely evening. Well, they are offensive in our house. So they are tough to guard. With that defense in front of you, you're going to have a great night. You're going to have a good one. That was a fun one to watch. I'm not going to lie. Look, that is probably the biggest knock, right? It's come playoff time. You can have as many MVPs as you want. But the thing with Jokic was what does this team do in the playoffs? Nothing is basically the answer to that. As far as liabilities go, I can't help but think this is a huge problem entering these playoffs MVP or not, which almost is embarrassing if he does get the MVP and then does that in the playoffs. I mean, would you even want the award, Chandler? If this is sort of how it's going to look in a month from now? Yes, I would still want the award. I still think he's going to win the MVP. He's putting up gaudy numbers. They're the best team in the West. They have been all year long. It's tough because there's so many great individual seasons this year. But Jokic is not just the defensive liability like we talked about. Their team is not good at defense. Jamal Murray doesn't play that great at defense. Michael Porter is not a great defender. Aaron Gord is not really a great defender. Cobble, Pope, Bruce Brown, these guys are capable wing defenders, but there's so many holes in their defense. And yes, there's glaring highlights, the one we just showed with Jokic last night. But everyone's a mismatch and everyone's going to get exposed based on the matchup that they have, especially in the playoffs. And if the Nuggets go and get a team with a good guard, they're going to go at Jamal Murray every single play. They're going to go out of the wing at Michael Porter and they're going to put Jokic in every single pick and roll and hopefully that wears him out to where maybe he doesn't have 40 and 20 on the other end. So it is definitely a concern, but also at the end of the day, it's worked because they have had a great season. Jokic is in position to win his third MVP and they basically have the number one seed in the Western Conference locked up. So as bad as their defenses, they're doing something, right? Because they're right at the top of the standings. We got to give a little love to the Nets. McKell Bridges did finish with 25. You know, statement win, Shoms, for this Brooklyn squad. Yeah, I mean, two in a row, really big wins. And I think you look at this team, five and one in the last six games. They've got seven wins since the Kyrie Irving trade. The Mavs have five. So the collection of guys that they've built, hard playing, scrappy, above average, you know, B type, you know, rotation players, starters at the NBA level. They don't have that one superstar, right? When you had KD, you had the one guy that, like Eddie tweeted the other day, makes $35 million. You can depend on him on a nightly basis and he plays at a really high level. Now they have really a collection of guys that just play their role, play it, play hard, play the right way. Spencer Dunwoody, 15 and 16, you know, this last game. So I think for them, they just have a good group of guys that they can compete, at least for a playoff berth in the East. Yeah, it's, George Neyang was right when he said that Ben Simmons hampered them. He held them back. And he didn't necessarily mean by playing bad. He meant because he's making $35 million. He wasn't playing at all. And the Nets are dealing with that exact same thing right now. That's a $35 million liability. If that was an asset they can trade, you'd be looking at their summer going, yo, could they get Trey Young? Could they get Carl Anthony Towns? Could they get this guy? Could they get Anthony Davis? Could they get that guy? Who knows? But as of now, we don't even know if Ben Simmons is going to play basketball in the following month. And he's the highest paid player on their roster. He's a max slot that they're getting nothing from. And that's what I mean by that. They are that player away. They are a $35 million max type player away because Mike Cal Bridges is the goods. He's probably a future All-Star in that conference. He's 26 points last night. He's a two-way guy. He defends every position on the floor. He can handle a little bit. I joked around that they traded old KD for young KD. Sometimes he looks like it. Sometimes he's dropping 30 and locking guys up all over the court. He's embracing the culture there. This is what they want. But believe you me, I had a lot of people saying, yo, they're going to pick their next star. That is not the plan. There is no way that's the plan. You're not picking 10 first-rounders in four years. You simply can't fill a roster that way. Mike Cal will be 27 this summer. He's actually a couple months older than Devin Booker. But we just think of him as a much younger player because he played college for four years. This is a win-now team. They're built as a win-now team. They're not going to have Mike Cal Bridges sitting around for four years and going, yo, in 2029, we draft such and such with the unprotected Sunspeak. And now we're here. No. You have all those picks. You have $35 million in salary with Ben Simmons. You have $18 million in salary with Joe Harris. They are equipped to make a huge, massive trade this summer. Whatever star becomes disgruntled, if he fits what they do, and into next season as well. So they are built to trade for somebody and make a splash now. And they're that close. They are that close. They just beat the number one scene in the Western Conference on the road, a place that's tough to win, the best home record in the league. And they did it running away. Despite the last minute and a half of that game, they ran them off the court. They looked like the much better team last night. And they don't have a $35 million max player on the court. So they're in a great spot. Yeah. Listen, unfortunately, I know a little bit about being a max player, taking up a lot of cap space and not playing. And the first quarter of business for the Nets, it's got to be to handle that contract, right? Like Memphis did with my contract, with Conley's contract, Gasol's contract. And the latter half of my career, when we weren't playing and producing but getting paid, that's a huge hole in that basically kind of damages your season and your future. Once they did that, they traded it, they went and got Jaren Jackson. They got John Morant and they figured it out. Brooklyn needs to do something similar. They have to issue, they have to, you know, get rid of Ben Simmons or do whatever they can for his contract because their other pieces they have are valuable and they do have depth and they do have young talent and they're in a situation this year where they're going to get in the playoffs. They're probably going to be a first round out. But listen, anything this year is extra for them because they are building for the future. They got Bridges, who's an absolute star. They now have the assets this summer to make a trade and go get, like Eddie said, I'd love to see Trey Young on the Nets. I'd love to see another star player come in there and play with these great role players like Dorian Finney-Smith, like Spencer Denwitte. Even Bridges, he's as good as he is. I don't know if he's the number one option on a championship team. So they're in a great position. They're not going to be great this year. They're going to win some games. They'll be in a fun playoff series. But the assets and the position they've put themselves in moving forward is good. The minute they handle the Ben Simmons situation, it's great. 35, that's a big hole to fill. Good Lord. All right, we're taking a quick break here. When we come back, Steph was amazing in crunch time against the Bucs. So you know the question, can we trust the Warriors now when Run-It-Back returns? Oh, some vintage stuff right here. 22 of his 36 points came in the fourth quarter and over time, lifting his team over a honest-less Bucs squad on Saturday night. Look, Warriors have won 7th straight at home. They've also lost 8th straight on the road, which is, by the way, the only defending champ with two 8-game road losing streaks. It's very weird to say all of those words out loud. Chandler, can we trust them? I mean, this has literally been the narrative this entire season with this Golden State. Here we are. It's March. Like, do we trust them? It's hard because I don't trust them on the road. I'm just looking at the numbers. They are a bad team on the road. And unfortunately for them, they're not getting home court advantage. So they are playing on the road once they get in the playoffs. And they're going to be playing against a team that's good at home and better than them. So as far as do I trust them? Yeah, I don't know. I weirdly do because they're that good. And when you watch Steph Curry have games like he did the other night and when you watch this team kind of form and play the way that they're capable of playing, they're the most dangerous team in the NBA. And when you got him doing that, when you got Clay making shots, you got Jordan Paul. You have this offensive just juggernaut of a team. It's hard not to. But on the road, it's different. They're defense lacks. They don't kind of have exploding games like this. It's tough. But for some whatever reason, with the history, with the dynasty, with all the, you know, the past, I'd love to see who they play. Before I say I can trust them, I got to see if they play soccer. No, sure. I'm taking Warriors in that series. So it depends on who they match up with. But yeah, numbers don't lie. They're an awful road team and they're a pretty good home team. So it's 50-50 on them. I'm wavering. Like I go back and forth. I was the guy all season saying, hey, completely the unconcerned. This is the champs. They look great. Blah, blah, blah. Don't forget, they lost their first three games with Steph. And he looked incredible. And they didn't just lose them. They were going to smack. They were going to beat up. They had beat up on the road, of course. So they have issues. When I watched that Dreymon Green clip over the weekend, and he's so upset that Jordan Poole was throwing the ball, even though he probably was a little covered. And he just gives up on the play. I'm like, yo, there's deeper issues here. And that's crazy to say because I know that he punched him in the preseason. So I'm like, there's deeper issues than that that I don't know about. It's insane. They have chemistry issues, which is wild. You think about a team with that much continuity with their three stars. How do they have chemistry issues? They have defensive issues. They have road issues. These are usually the type of issues that spell doom in the playoffs. So I am wavering a little bit, but Chandler's right. They're dangerous. They have one of the best players in the league. They have maybe the most explosive player in the league. And they can beat anybody. We've watched them beat anybody. But I'm concerned. And then you have Andrew Wiggins dealing with the things he has going on. And we don't know when he's coming back. If he's coming back, they absolutely need him. There's a lot to be concerned about most teams, 29 other teams. It'd be like, yo, I don't even care about that team. But they're the Warriors. So I'm like 50-50 now. Before I was near, I was 100% unconcerned. But now I'm 50-50. I'm a little worried. And the difference is, the difference is they don't care who they play, but those teams above them don't want to play them. So that kind of tells you everything, the respect they have and where they are in the league. Because if I'm SAC, if I'm Memphis, if I'm Phoenix, I don't want to play the Cold State Warriors in the first round. That would be brutal. And on the flip side, they don't care because they actually think that they can beat anybody. They think there's a switch and they can turn it on and they'll just turn it into this good playoff road team, which I also wouldn't be surprised if they did that because they have that potential. So they're in an interesting spot where they haven't really produced on the road, but I'm not really worried about them either on the road. Come play off time. Yeah. They need that Andrew Wiggins shot in the arm. They need him to be in the lineup. They need him to play. So there isn't certainly whether he's going to be in the lineup. If he's there, I do think, I look at things glass half full, right? So I think that they are a contender. I think they are going to give any team that they play a run. And I do think come play off time, they'll strap him. They'll be better. I do think they'll just, they'll play better on the road, but maybe that's just my hope, but they haven't shown that clearly in the regular season. I'm telling you, it's the equity they've earned, but they've shown none of that all season. If you're basing it on that, there was a moment though with Steph, you know, he does the out of the tunnel shots from God knows where. Well, he accidentally hit a fan in the head. The glasses went flying. I'm sorry. I shouldn't laugh so hard, but the tradeoff I feel was good because he got a game-worn jersey out of it, Eddie. Would you take this trade? No, that'd be contacting my lawyer. What are you talking about? I hit my basketball in the face 100 feet away. I got to say though, much like in football, when you hit the goal post, this is like more impressive to me than if he made the shot. Like this is, that was insane. Look, he couldn't do that again if he tried, but he nailed him. So yeah, but as far as the tradeoff, no, no, I'm going to need a little more than a jersey. That's concussing protocol right there. Court side seats. Dude, you're on the court. Heads up, son. No, it's his fault, man. You have to be paying attention. I'm going to victim shame right here. Like that's out of control. But Steph's still around. You know he's going to do that stuff. I don't know. It's pretty good. Can we please talk some Grizzlies? This has become one of my favorite parts of each week. Who will Dylan Brooks call out next? And it was Dreymon Green before the Warriors game. Yeah, they were chirping before the game, during the game. It was everything you could want afterwards. Brooks said, I know I'm a better player than him. I ain't out there getting into physical altercations with my teammates. Burn. Here's Dreymon, what he had to say about the Warriors Grizzlies' rivalry. Why don't you consider this a rivalry? Because you have to, like, one team has to win and then another team has to win. Then, like, that's what creates a rivalry. Not because one team gets up for you and talks like they can beat you and then that doesn't create a rivalry. Rivalries are created by you win, I win. And clearly, we won four times and I think their organization has zero championships. So I can't consider that a rivalry. Rivalry is a funny word after you say it 37 times in a row. Chandler, look, maybe it's not a rivalry by that definition, but it's certainly getting our attention. Can we call that a rivalry? I mean, when you look across the NBA, this is probably the biggest rivalry when you talk about the trash talking, the physicality. But Dreymon, he has a point. Like, this is not a rivalry. For the last decade, the Warriors have been the superior team. There hasn't really been a back and forth. It's not like the Grizzlies have got them in a series or what a championship. If it's a rivalry, sure. But the Warriors have dominated this rivalry. So I understand what he's saying. Dylan Brooks saying he's a better player than Dreymon Green. There's discussions all the time, right? Like one of my closest friends says Dreymon Green is the most overrated player in the NBA. If he was drafted by the Pistons, you would never hear of him. And I don't know if that's necessarily fair. Did he get drafted to a great situation where he's been able to be with the two best shooters of all time? Yes. But he has perfected that role and that role he plays with this team, playing defense, kind of bringing the ball up as a push for off an offensive rebound, finding these guys. He's a very smart player and he's not one of these guys that left for a bigger deal, went to Charlotte and then kind of fell off. He has stuck with this team. He's stuck with this role. And he's become a first ballot hall of famer by being a role player on this team. And he's the catalyst on the defensive end. He rebounds the ball. He does a little bit of everything. So Dylan Brooks is saying I'm a better player. He's talking about offensively. Sure, he can shoot. He can score better than Dreymon Green. But when you look at the whole aspect and the value of a team, it's tough for Dylan Brooks to say he's better than a first ballot hall of famer because of the career and the resume Dreymon has. Obviously Trump's the career that Dylan Brooks has had thus far. So it's interesting. I love it. I think it's great for the game. It's great. I hope to get matched up in the first round of the playoffs. Is it a rivalry? Yeah, for sure. Because they're going to put this game this matchup every night on prime time. There's going to be technical fouls. It's going to get chippy. So it is a rivalry. And maybe this is the year. Maybe this is the year that the Grizzlies do get them in the playoffs. And they can beat them in a series. So who knows? But I think it's definitely growing. These teams aren't going anywhere. And it's definitely good and fun for the week. I'm here for all of it. By the way, we had to say goodbye to Shams, which can, I mean, that can't be good, right? There's the tease. We don't know what he's coming back. But let me ask you this. Fine. If we're not going to do team rivalries, we can do player rivalries because I'm here for pettiness all day, every day. How about this? Brooks and Dreymond or Donchich Booker. And I know you guys tell me Donchich Booker is not a thing. I think you're both wrong. But Eddie, talk to me. I'm going to go Brooks and Dreymond because of the podcast. Yeah. And he can just add to it. But maybe I don't have the dog in me or whatever. Chandler, explain to me the dude puts his armpit on my nose and I don't move because I'm tough. I'm taking a step back. Like, yo, you got it, bro. Take the ball out. I'm over it. We're up 20. You know, when we both have the ball tied up and you just won't let go because you're just being that guy. Maybe I just don't care enough. But Chandler, Dreymond puts his armpit on your nose. You're moving, right? Like you're taking a step back and kind of going on with your life or? I'm either stepping back or I'm pushing him or I'm doing something. And the reason. The reason I'm taking Dreymond and Dylan Brooks is because this is probably going to result in a fight or a physical confrontation and the media is going to keep doing it. The Luca and Devin Booker are two much better players and it's better basketball. So it's fun to kind of see these guys go at it. But this one here, this one here, Dylan Brooks has now created this identity right here. This is who he is. That's my favorite. That's my favorite. Yeah. This is his value. So I like this one better because I do think this is going to end in something bigger. That's not the last scuffle we're getting between those two. We're going to get the sequel in the playoffs. It's going to be worse. It's going to be closer. We're going to one up that. I will say the weirdest thing Dreymond said is none of his teammates like him talk about continuing that no one liked it. When he punched his teammate in the face. If you're going to get in a verbal dispute, you can't say that because you literally punch your teammate in the face. So that was. No, that was weak. As soon as he said that he lost it because then Dylan's like, I literally have never gotten in a physical altercation with a teammate. And he wins. I'm no fan of like either guy, but I really hate that Dylan Brooks just outright won this round of the battle. He was right about the quotes. He was right about the game. He was right about the little stair down thing. He won each round of this. And it pains me because I don't want Dylan Brooks winning things. Dylan Brooks. Yes, you do. He's about to pass Rudy Gobert for me. It's about to get worse. I can feel it. Eduardo, say it ain't so. We love Dylan Brooks here at Run It Back. He gives us life. Okay, fine. We'll take a break. You and I will talk off the air. Marcus Mark Tray Young with a dustup and Fred Van Vleet with a love letter to his favorite ref. Boys, boys, boys. Come on now. Marcus Mark was ejected after that. I feel like Tray's head hit the ground a little bit hard there. Chandler, your reaction to the tussle. Yeah, I feel like you're starting to see a lot more of this. And again, I think it's entertaining. I think it's fun. He definitely, this was an accident, right? Like Tray Young did not try and kick him and the ball is there. Like it's kind of natural reaction. Baby. But yeah, I mean, he definitely slammed him here. It's interesting because they were up eight games pretty much on ice. Again, I don't know if there's a personal thing here, but he definitely got kicked in the junk. And I don't know if he thought he did it on purpose or something, but who knows? Maybe this, maybe this sparks another little rivalry here between these two. It all depends on player. This could be fun. I'm in. I had to watch it again to kind of further understand what it is. It's blown up because Tray is like a hundred, thirty pounds. So he was blue, but dead. I mean, I like this type of stuff. They shouldn't like each other. They should be. They should be upset with each other. And then yeah, when you throw me on the ground on accident or on purpose. Yeah, I'm going to fill the way. But I like when we see these enforcer types because market smart flops a lot. But he's known as a physical player and Forcer type. So I like what he actually does something like this. Like go actually be the physical guy and don't flop and do the thing. But yeah, if I can kick like that, I'm probably going to fill the way too. And it helps that we're up 15 points and I get to just win anyway and shower a little earlier. So I'm all for it. Good stuff, market smart. Good stuff, Tray. Good control from Tray to not kick him or something. But good stuff. I like when basketball is like this. Yeah, he didn't back down. I'm here for it. Tray was asked about the officiating after that when he said, quote, I'm not going to Fred van bleat the officials. And for those who are not familiar with what Mr. van bleat said, here he is. I mean, I don't mind. I'll take a fine. I don't really care. I thought, you know, Ben Taylor was terrible tonight. I thought that most nights, you know, a couple of other, you know, out of the three, there's one or two that just game up, you know, and it's been like that a couple, couple games in a row. Denver was tough. Obviously you come out tonight. You're competing pretty hard at third quarter. I get a bull. Tech changed the whole dynamic of the game, changed the whole flow of the game. And you know, most of the reps are trying hard. I like a lot of the rest are trying hard. They're pretty fair. They communicate well. And then you got the other ones who just want to be just kind of the game up. Nobody's coming to see that. They come to see the players. Just leaned in once he was in. He was in. That was after last Wednesday's game against the Clippers. It did. The soliloquy cost him 30 grand. You know, Chandler worth it. Was he right? Yeah. He's on a big contract. 30 grand is not that much. I just, I love how calm he is while he's being so angry the way he's just saying this. Listen, it's frustrating as a player. You want to get the whistle when you're found, especially you got like probably a fleet drives to the paint a lot. He's in the paint a lot. He creates a lot of contact. You want the whistle. But being a referee, it's honestly, it's the worst job in the world. No matter what, every time you blow that whistle, there's five people happy. There's five people pissed. So like you can't put everybody. And you're never right in half of the, you know, court's eyes. So it's tough. But as a player, it is, man, especially when you don't have it going, when you're struggling, when your team's losing and then icing on the cake, you go and get, you know, clocked on the hand alters your shot. It is frustrating. But now something like this, it's hilarious. I love it. It's something I would definitely do. It's not going to help. Now Ben Taylor, you think he's going to like him more? You think he's going to give him more calls the next game? He's a human being. If I'm Ben Taylor, I'm saying, you know what? Okay. Well, let's dance. And so now I don't think it's going to help, but maybe it puts the refs on more alert. Maybe the, you know, maybe they have to watch more film. Maybe who knows? Maybe now Ben Taylor feels like he's under the microscope a little bit with this. They just did. So it works both ways. I'm sure it felt good to say, but it definitely didn't help him getting any more calls. He's not going to get more calls, but I got a hell of a minute, 30 seconds on Twitter out of this, more of this from the players, more of just letting the rest know that they sneak at their job. I have sympathy for the refs. It's really hard to do what they do, but I like when the players do this too. Sorry. It's part of the job occupational hazard. And let's be honest. It was pretty bad that game. These calls were pretty bad. So it helps when you're right too. And 30 K for Fred Van Vleet. Just let it go. Yeah. I mean, he's probably spent more on dumber things if that's possible. We're going to take a quick break here. When we come back, we're going to try to win you some money. And I hesitate because when I'm a part of it, you will not win. Run it back. Shot on college hoops with an assist from Fandle, America's number one sports, but new customers bet the bracket and get 10 times your first bed and bonus bets. That's up to $200 in bonus bets, win or lose with Fandle. You can bet on everything from the money line to point spreads to which team will score first. So join today and get up to $200 in bonus bets. When you place your first bet guaranteed, make every moment more with Fandle. I feel so fraudulent. Even reading that promo when you see how bad I am at parlays. But here we are, guys. Okay, Eddie, you technically were excused because of Durant's injury. This is how we ended things on Wednesday. Chandler once again with the big green W and I once again with a stupid red L. So let's try again. Shall we? You're like the Utah Jazz this year. You started out so hot. Now you are in bank mode. I know. I literally cannot get one right. And I'm picking ones that feel easy, but that's all right. You know what? Fresh start Monday or Eddie go Monday, whatever. I'm doing, I'm doing the insane. I'm betting on Rudy Gobert. I'm really betting on Anthony Edwards. I think the Timberwolves are just better than the Hawks. I don't know why they have five points. So I'm going the wolves plus five. Please, do your ant Edwards stuff. I'm shocked. I got the bucks minus two. I'm pretty sure it was one and a half when I picked it. And I just saw, honestly, meantime, this is a decision. So hopefully honest plays. If not, hopefully they have enough to get it done. Plus you've disrespected Sacramento multiple times in every show. So good luck. I'm going Grizzlies. I hope it's still. Oh, it's minus two at the matter. You know what? I'm saying these words. None of it matters. I will miss it. But if you want, just pick the opposite. Of what I just told you to do and then do the other two. And you should win about $121. If things go your way. All right, guys. Anybody want to share anything from the weekend before I let us all go? Chandler. I had a three shot lead in my member member golf tournament. Smoked it on 18 and got third place. So that's what happened to me Sunday. The rich get richer Chandler. Well done. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Happy Monday and enjoy. Happy Monday and enjoy.