 What's the word y'all welcome back to the call game recap today? I watched a ton of basketball and a lot of it and I mean a lot of it was ugly. But you know what? Sometimes I can I can enjoy the ugly games. We're at the part of the season where teams are playing back to backs very, very often three games and four nights, five games and seven nights. So yes, your favorite team is probably tired today and they didn't have the legs to hit that three pointer. But when you get two teams that are like on their last leg and the game is close, yes, it's ugly, but I like those games sometimes. And today had a ton of those games. Leave a like, subscribe if you're new. I think I want to open up today's show talking about these three teams that I believe are at a crossroads on what the heck do they do in this next week? As you know, the trade deadline is coming up, baby. It's the most important part of the season. We've already seen two relatively big trades. Teams that consider themselves contenders trying to stockpile. The Miami Heat got rid of Myers Leonard. And well, OK, he got rid of Myers Leonard, got back Trevor Reza. And then he's a Tucker got traded for the DJs who were in the layup line for the Milwaukee Bucks. So those are two teams that are playing good basketball right now. They just upgraded their depth a little bit, which is which is really cool. These three teams that I'm thinking about on the top of my head have to figure out what they're going to do. That's those teams are the Indiana Pacers, the Toronto Raptors and the Boston Celtics. All three have been the beacon of consistency over the last couple of seasons. Those are three teams that you might as well lock them into the playoffs last couple of years. Now, not really the case, which is really, really crazy. Let's start off with the Boston Celtics, because at this point in time, they have a 500 record. We are 40 games into the season. If you would have told me that we'd be 40 games to the season in the Boston Celtics. We 500, I would have called you crazy at the end of the season, especially without any of their All-Star players been injured. Yeah, Kimmel Walker has been in that line up. Mark is smart, miss significant time. But this is still super, super underwhelming. Now, my guy, J.E. Skeets, he's a he's a host of the the No Dunks podcast. He said this personally on his show today and I could not agree more. They have to figure out if they want to make those traits who can better now, which is, I mean, I ask it for much for Danny Ains, because he's always super, super close to doing the trade, but never really doing it. Do they want to do that or do they want to take their foot off the gas? Now, if you don't remember the Boston Celtics, I've made the Eastern Conference finals three out of the last four years. They've always been able to make the playoffs and make a run. But at this team, this team right here, I don't have any confidence at the way this team is built right now that they can make a large run. And when I say take their foot off the gas, I don't mean they go into tank mode. I don't mean sell the assets, but instead you play Robert Williams way more than what you have been. You play Peyton Pritchard a lot more minutes in the game. A Kimmel Walker didn't play today. Peyton Pritchard on play like 18 minutes. So it's either yes, we're going all in to continue to be contenders or contenders or we're like, let's let's build the core players that we have. Because we know Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. They are who they are. They're still growing as players as well. But but they're already all stars, but they got some people in the pipeline. Robert Williams has been incredible recently. But he needs to get more minutes. So they have to figure that out, man. They have to. They have to figure it out. Today was just bad, bro. That there's no fluidity in the offense. It's all isolation between the Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum and no off ball movement. It's just absolutely bad. They lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers. And that is inexcusable. If you ask me, shout out to the Cavalier Sexland that court because they play really, really well today. And then Isaac O'Crow had a big game to offensively and defensively. But the boss itself is have to have to figure it out. The second team we want to talk about is the Indiana Pacers. They lost to the Brooklyn Nets today without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irvin. James Harden has been incredible. We will talk about him and Nicholas Klaxon a little bit. But let's focus on the Indiana Pacers because they are five games under 500 right now. That is mind blowing. The Indiana Pacers always been a team that's going to be the four or five seed every single year. And they're going to compete in that first round series and maybe get out of it. Not this year. And I don't really know what the remedy of it is. When I watch this game, because I did watch this game, Malcolm Brogdon. And I think I've said this on the show before, definitely exceeds when the ball is not in his hands all the time. And right now he is their point guard. It is him and it's he's a McConnell's backup. He is their point guard. But his best years as far as like efficiency goes is when he's playing off guard with the Milwaukee Bucks, right? Malcolm Brogdon is a very, very, very good NBA player. But times in his game where he's late in the fourth quarter, it was more isolation for Malcolm Brogdon. He's never been a guy that's going to so shoot up and get to the basket. He knows how to get to a spot. He can get to a spot and pull up. Those are the things he's good at. But as the guy on the it just don't care. It's the first to begin some of those looks. And I know we're only what? Three games into his coming back from this season. But they have to figure it out. Now, I don't know if this is a team that should be should be trading. This is not a team that should be going for the tank at all. I just don't know what it really what it really is. And then it made me after this game, it made me think about their draft history. And well, they don't draft very well. And a lot of that is because they're at the end of the lottery or out right outside of the lottery. But they haven't hit any of those gyms. Miles Turner is like their best draft other than Paul George in recent history. It feels like they've missed on a lot of those other guys. They got Goga Bedazzi who hasn't done anything in his NBA career just yet. But I'm not counting them out by any means. But just like that, he was it seemed like he was a reach of a pick then. And now he's not contributing on the team that's trying to to do their thing. And now we go to the Toronto Raptors. First of all, Norman Powell, what a great performance by him. Him and him and Chris Boucher, the only two players that can hit a shot today. So that's why they lost. But they also have to figure out. Y'all have heard the rumors about Cal Lauri and they have to figure out if they want to actually make this trade next week to continue to go to the next era of Fred Vimvely, Norman Powell, O'Gianna, Nobby, Pascal Siakam and Chris Boucher. Because right now, Cal Lauri getting Cal Lauri, Fred Vimvely. You're not going to win games if if three and Pascal Siakam, three of your top scorers just don't score the ball 100 percent. But we can all agree. This has also been a very underwhelming season for them. Norman Powell has been on fire on fire. And I feel like they haven't been able to capitalize on. He had 43 on 18 shots, 43 or 18 shots today and they couldn't capitalize on that. Some of that is because he missed two. He missed a free throw again today, just like he did against Atlanta. But regardless, they have to figure out what the next step of their franchise is. Because I think if you trade Cal Lauri, you're still OK team and you're still probably good enough to make the playoffs. And you could continue to focus on Fred Vimvely potentially being the future point guard of your team after you just paid him. You know what I'm saying? He had played point guard his entire career until just like two years ago, and that's probably his position. While we're talking about this game, Detroit, Sadiq Baker, teach to play with this poise of a veteran. You know what I'm saying? I just love to see him be successful. My guy, Mike, has been a fan of him for a very long time. So Mike is keep hitting the group chat like, yeah, yeah, you see Sadiq. Yes, I've seen Sadiq. He's playing very, very well. And then the dagger from Jeremy Grant. This game don't mean a goddamn thing for the for the Detroit Pistons. But I bet it means something for Dwayne Casey, right? Dwayne Casey gets a win against his former team again. Josh Jackson hit some big time shots. I'm convinced Isaiah Stewart is the center of the future for them. They play they played a solid, a solid game. And those are the three teams that have to figure out what the heck they're going to do in this next week. Let's go on to the other games or other teams. Let's go back and talk about James Hardner because he had another 40 point triple double today. And if it wasn't for the whole Houston debacle of the way he got out and all of this, he would be in MVP conversations as he always is. And when he does stuff like this, of course, I'm impressed because it's like it's James Harden. It's fun to watch, but he's been doing this for his entire career. You know what I'm saying? Like, I feel like some people are like, man, have you seen James Harden? Yes, I've seen him for years and years and years. He's always been top five in MVP voting because he's just that nice. You don't need super good NBA players alongside James Harden. That is the like the biggest, the biggest plus about having James Harden in your team. Kairi can take a step back because he's he's managing an injury. Kevin Durant can sit out a couple of weeks because we know James Harden can single handedly get us a couple of wins. And he did that his entire career in Houston. And now he's doing it again in Brooklyn. If it wasn't for the first month of the season of all the press conferences showing up late, yada, yada, yada, 100 percent, the media will be all over James Harden back as one of the top three favorites to win MVP, because, of course, he is performing like that. But you know, they got to care about that first month. Do I care about that first month? No, not really. I don't. I think both teams walked away with what they wanted. The use of rockets got the draft picks and the Brooklyn. That's got an unstoppable force, bro. Nicholas Klaxon. Why are we here? And then we move on to the next game. Nicholas Klaxon was one of the guys that when I went to the draft combine in Chicago a few years ago, I had never heard of him before. I'm not a college basketball watcher, even though March Man starts tomorrow. I'm excited about that. I'm not a college basketball watch other than March Man. So I didn't know the name of Nicholas Klaxon until I got to the draft combine and they were doing those scrimmages and he played harder than anybody else. He was switching onto these guards and playing great defense. That's exactly what you got today. Layton is fourth quarter. He was switched on the guards and it didn't even matter. He held his own and those are the type of minutes you're going to need for me. He played 22 minutes. He played more minutes than De'Andre Jordan because De'Andre Jordan can't defend the pick and roll like Nicholas Klaxon can. At the end of the day, De'Andre Jordan is a little bit older. Back in the day, De'Andre Jordan did his thing on the pick and roll switch, but not anymore. Nicholas Klaxon has that foot speed and is working really well. It's a very dangerous, dangerous team. I don't know how I'm nine minutes into this and I haven't talked about this game, but here we go. Milwaukee Bucks versus the Philadelphia 76ers. A great game. I mean, one of those ugly games that I mentioned earlier, but of course the end of this game is what made it great. Where you have the Milwaukee Bucks going this late fourth quarter run. I think it was like a 8-2 run and you think it's put away. Drew Hale hits this corner, three pointer that rattles in. He's like, OK, that's the win for Milwaukee. No, still got some fight for the 76ers. And again, I'm so impressed with the 76ers. They didn't win this game, but the fact that they are able to stick in this game where a Jolin beat is not there. There's their other score to bias hairs who have been carrying them offensively as far as scoring points over the past couple of weeks. He didn't have a good game. And they were still in this one with a pretty much fully healthy Milwaukee Bucks is impressive to me. They went on that huge run with Fort Conk, Korkmoss hit that corner three and whoever was on the call said it perfectly. Not to even send though reaches for some reason. And Fort Conk, Korkmoss hits is a thousand consecutive corner three. He don't miss from that. He just don't. If he got an open corner three, you might as well count it. Then we get to the overtime. And this is where Yanis puts on the crowd or whatever. I tweeted that he has some nerve. He went on this nice run by himself, which is beautiful because the narrative around around Yanis is that he can't close games. He's not a go to guy when it matters the most. Today, he was that guy. He scored like seven or eight straight points and then going into a timeout, he sat on the floor in the middle of the Philadelphia 76ers court. That is that is a ballsy play. Yanis, especially when there's still time on the clock in this game is not completely secured. If you would have blown that game, if they would have lost that game, just like they let up that other run, memed, memed. But he had a big time to report after not hitting any for this game, played great defense. It's a it's a very MVP type of forms for Yanis. I'm enjoying the season mostly because there's no run away for MVP. Joellen B was number one on my list, but with him being out for at least two weeks, it's up for the grabs. It could be Yokey's. It could be Yanis. It could be James Harden. It could be LeBron and there's so many different candidates. It could be Dame. There's so many different candidates and I love it. I feel like a couple of years, the last couple of seasons, when we were a couple of months into the season, we knew this is Yanis' award to lose. We don't have that right now. You know, we don't have that right now. So, you know, Milwaukee Bucks get a win. Was it impressive? It was fun. It was impressive to see Yanis take over in the overtime. But again, you are messing with a team that was missing their MVP candidate and then there are the other leading scorer to buy his hair and shot 30 percent from the field. You know what I'm saying? Ben Simmons hit a 3-2. You know, that was fun. How about we just kind of shoot those in rhythm a little bit more, Benjamin? Is that his name? We're just going to say it's Benjamin. Next game, we had Yara Fox calling game on the Washington Wizards. This is a game that nobody wanted to win. I feel like it was two tanking teams and I don't know if the Sacramento Kings are actively tanking. I couldn't tell you. It felt like they were in this game. Nobody wanted it. Russell Westbrook had a fourth quarter that was impressive, but then it ended in a turnover where they run this sideline out of bounds play and there's a miscommunication. He throws it out of bounds, yadda, yadda, yadda. I didn't really care about this game, even though I watched it completely. Another game I didn't care about. Oh, I did care about, but it hurt my heart. Was this Chicago Bulls game where they had the ugliest fourth quarter in recent history. Thank God this was not a nationally televised game because you know what I was saying about the Pelicans yesterday? About them just folding like a lawn chair. The Chicago Bulls in the fourth quarter to a Spurs team without DeMar DeRose, without Lamarcus Aldrich. And these should be wins. We're about to go to the toughest part of our schedule. And if we want to be a playoff team, we need to win games like this. We needed to win that game against the 76ers where Joel and Ben Simmons was gone. We needed to win that game against the Miami Heat who were hot at the time, but were missing bam on the bio. We needed to win this game. Now we got games against like the Nuggets, the Utah Jazz. The second half of this schedule is really tough. And if we can't close out against the Spurs who are missing DeMar DeRosen, then I don't know how we can look at ourselves and be like, we're potentially a playoff team. Next game is the Miami Heat versus the Grizzlies, another very, very ugly game and ended with Jon Moran hitting the game winner, whatever, set out to Jon Moran. The Heat are one of those teams that are five games and seven nights. So I don't look at this game and be like, oh, they fault. Nah, it was the ugly one, it was the ugly one. And the Gritten Grind, do we still call the Grizzlies Gritten Grind? I don't really know. They grinded this game out and got the victory. And then Luka put it away, put it on all on the Clippers. The Clippers are missing something. Kawhi said it. Everybody knows that the Clippers are missing something. When you look at the team, you watch them play. It doesn't feel like there's a team that should be an upper echelon of the NBA right now. I'll say it. They should be extreme buyers during this deadline. I don't know how. I don't know how you become extreme buyers. This man, Lucanar, got paid 18 million to get a DMP coach's decision. How? How? They need to be buyers. I don't know, they don't have many assets. They traded all the picks away to get Paul George. Nobody really wants Lou Williams right now, I don't think. They don't have assets, but they need something. Their point guard position is really lackluster. Reggie Jackson played 20 minutes, he scored five points. Lou Williams was playing in the back of point guard. He shot two for 10. They don't have that floor general facilitator. Paul George came in, he tried to keep them in this game, but it was Luca, Luca, Luca. 42, I didn't even realize he put up 42. I just knew he was hooping out there. 42, Luca, Luca, Luca, Luca magic, and just like that, those are all the games that I watched today. I saw that Steph Curry hurt his bum, so I hope he's doing all right. Thank y'all so much for watching, call game.