 Run it up, do run it back. Run it up, do run it back, run it back. Run it up. Well, well. Happy Monday. We are still here in studio in Los Angeles, live and in living color. Michelle, Chandler, Lou, and joining us. First names only today. That's what we're doing. We're going to keep it cashed. The birthday boy! Happy birthday, Charles. OK, I expected like a hat or a balloon. Like, what do we, what does a sham's birthday look like? No hats, no balloons. It's a Monday. Like, it's a run it back day. We're all locked in to run it back. That's all we want to do. Nothing this weekend, nothing last night. No action. Just family time. Just family time. And I'm getting right. I'm getting 100% healthy. That's true. He was it. We got a stretcher. He was banging up last week. He was not feeling good. Do you get gifts from your family? I like gifts. I think I just allow them to just figure out what we're doing. And that's the only gift I need, you know? You guys handle the planning and preparation on what we're doing. Everything else, you know? I'll just show up. Speaking of gift shams, I wanted to give you a gift. It's your birthday. So I wanted you to be the first to know. So I got special news for you. I have a scoop for you. So last week, my phone started ringing a little bit. Playoffs are coming up. And I'm considering some opportunities. So I'm giving you the scoop that I'm officially coming out of retirement today. There you go. Make it happen. Happy birthday, Shams. Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Wait, what? Want to get some teams? Yeah, are any of them like teams we like? I know it's April Fool's Day. Are you pulling our leg, dude? It's April Fool's Day, Shams. I'm a little person now. Shams, he had this planned, and we didn't think he'd pull it off with the acting part. That was pretty good. Also, it is weird, your birthday and April Fool's long same day. You sold me. You sold me, Lou. I was hooked. I was there. You wouldn't believe that because I felt you had already known. You would know before Lou would know. That's a great point. Well, no, not necessarily. Lou just decided this morning. Nobody knows. All right, fine, let's move on. We do have a happy birthday. Yeah, happy birthday, Shams. We have a really good gift for you, but you're not here. Shams scoops is happening. This seems like a big one, this first one right out the gates here. Joellen Bede. What's going on there? Yeah, Joellen Bede is nearing a return to action. I'm told it's any day now. It could be as soon as Tuesday against Oklahoma City Thunder at home on TNT. He recently completed multiple five on five scrimmages. On Thursday, he played five on five at practice Saturday, as well, five on five full contact. So he's been fully cleared from what I'm told for really all basketball activities. At this point, it's just about conditioning, making sure he feels comfortable, confident, getting out there on the floor. So you think about the six or schedule this week. Tuesday against the Thunder, Thursday in Miami, Saturday in Memphis, and Sunday in San Antonio. But I'm told it's sooner rather than later, possibly as soon as Tuesday. I mean, this is massive, obviously, since he's been out since January 30th. The sixes are 11 and 18. They're 26 and eight with him in the lineup. It's a night and day approach for the sixers. But they're going to get Joellen Bede back very soon, possibly on Tuesday on national TV. I mean, I don't know if it does. I mean, look, they're in the plan, right? No matter what. But here's why I like it, because they are going to be the eight seed, probably like, you know, they're going to have that chance to play the Miami Heat. Or if something happens with the Pacers, they're going to have that chance to possibly get that seven seed to not play the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. That makes sense to me. And there are four games ahead of the Chicago Bulls and then the Atlanta Hawks. They're not going to fall all the way to nine. So they're going to have two games. So I think if they can use this time this next week, next two weeks to kind of build his conditioning, get his legs back, have him go and get fully 100% for this one play-in against either the Pacers or the Heat. I like it. You see, they're 26 and eight with him. They're a completely different team. MVP was his for the taking, how well he looked early on the year averaging, you know, 35 and just putting up crazy, gaudy numbers. So I like this, as long as he's fully healthy, he's clearly been doing workouts with the team. He's clearly been playing 5-on-5 with this. Wouldn't be news or he wouldn't be coming back with this soon. I love this. This team was on the rise. This team, it was them in Boston and all the struggles with Milwaukee that you could throw them in there. But I like this, as long as he knows his body, cause everything he's been through is still scary with him. All the injuries he's been with is with multiple different things. But I think if they can find a way to get that 17 and avoid the Boston Celtics in the first round, why not? What do we wait on? That's a daunting task. You know, dare I say it, I'm kind of interested in them still trying to get that six spot. You know, with these last seven, well the last seven games I'm looking, the schedule is favorable for them. You know, they still got matchups against Memphis, San Antonio, Detroit, Brooklyn, OKC, Miami, Orlando. This is, that's the stretch that they might can go out and get five or six of these out of these last seven and put them in position. Obviously that weighs on, you know, the way that Indiana plays and the things that they're going to be able to do. They're not in control of that destiny, but they put themselves in a pretty good position. They can go out and win five or six of these last seven. Because here's the thing, as long as he can get through this, they can just shut them down again, whatever they don't get the seed they want or whatever they don't get the matchup they want. So if he can get into game shape, and you know, being out missing this much time, it's hard to emulate that, whether it's with coaching staff or the G League, it's going to take time. So I think at least he has this kind of look at two more weeks till this play-in game, which is either looking like it's going to be against the Pacers or Heat to get the Milwaukee Bucks in the playoffs, then fully back-loaded with him 100%, then anything can happen. Because originally I said they should just sit them down for the rest of the season and allow them to heal up. But you know, that was before we realized he had two weeks before the season was going to be over and the playoffs are going to start. That's a lot of time for somebody to get their legs back under them, get their win back together and make a good playoff run. But seeding is going to be important for them. Make no mistake about it. Seeding is going to be really important. So I feel like they put them out there to give themselves an opportunity to try to get the best seed they can. Selfishly, I'm excited for this. I like it. Just because I want everything to be as great as possible. Shoms will be back here in a second. Let's talk a little Sunday hoops that we got yesterday. This was a fun one. Thunder at Madison Square Garden, taking on the Knicks. SGA, of course it was SGA with the game winner with a second left on the clock. And one right there by the way. They clinched the playoff spot. He ended up with 19. Josh Giddy with 16, 13 rebounds, 12 assists and Jalen Freakin' Williams, 33 points. The game winner was with 2.6 left on the clock. It was such a high drama ending to this game. But if we didn't have Nikola Jokic, is he 100% the MVP? Or is he, I mean, look, Lou's sticking with he still is, so. Yeah, there's no Jokic for sure. Because now look at it. Now they're half the game up. They have the solely and the number one seed. I had that shot today. The thing this kid has done, look how he reacts to it. It's just chill. Just another shot that he even said after the game. He practiced this shot. He wanted to get to this. He's taken thousands and millions of these jumpers. Gets right to it. The guy is so calm, so collected. It's crazy because he's still so young too. So yeah, I think with Joelle going down, it kind of became this two-man race. And now it's hard. We said it, Lou's been on him since day one. And the fact that if they do continue to get this number one seed, it's hard not to go this way. But this was an unbelievable game, unbelievable shot. He struggled all night long too, and it didn't matter. Jalen Williams was great at 30 plus points, kind of his domino stretch. They still knew who to get the ball to. It's SGA, and he got it done. Why, what is the thing that will keep him from getting it? I know Yolkic is a big name, has been doing it, but... I got this stupid smile on my face because I think that shot does it. Really? Yeah, the number one seed, that shot. Listen, we love style. We like cool things. We like buzzer beaters. We like game winners. That did it. You know, Yolkic has, he has those games where he fills up stat sheets, but it's like it's so, it's just anti-climatic. You know what I mean? And this right here, and with voters, I think this does it. He's been doing it all year. He's been leading this basketball team. I feel more confident about my pick than any time before. So I have a question about this particular game just because it was such high drama and it was so much fun to watch. And the biggest knock against this Thunder team, no matter where they are in the Western Conference at any moment, is that they're too young to make a long run. Does a game and the way it ends, like yesterday, do anything to change that? I think they put that narrative to bed a while ago. You know, this team is dead serious. One thing, two things that the Oklahoma City Thunder have working for them that you can't buy. Chemistry and confidence. These young guys play with so much confidence. They play well together. You have those two things, they're the real deal. You know, early on, Chandler and I, we know how this game go. It's gonna be ups and downs. It's gonna be peaks and valleys for young teams. They hadn't went through a lot of adversity. They've been steady. They've been going straight ahead. And all of this is on the back of SGA and the Jalen Williams and the Chad Holmgrens. These guys are fully loaded. They're a really good young basketball team. So I don't think yesterday was the measuring stick. I don't think the Knicks were the measuring stick. But I think there was a big win for them going into the last two weeks of the season and they can carry it over into the playoffs. By the way, this is a team that's a young team. We always talk about their youth. We haven't seen them do it in the postseason. But when they continue to win this many games and they do have bright moments like this, they've beaten good teams. They've absolutely ran. Bad teams, they've shown us a little bit of everything. They've won them with their defense. They've won with their scoring. They've had close games where they've had closers. Jalen Williams is one of the leading scores in the NBA in fourth quarter points. So it's not just SGA either. We talk about Jett all the time, how he's had a hell of a year. Josh Skinny's had a great year. They have this Lou Dort who kind of is that fifth starter that literally plays defense and guards the best offensive player on the other team every single night. So they just fit. And early, I remember when I watched them, it just kind of looked like a fun young AU team just because of how they played, how young they were. This is a team that was also just in New York City on a Saturday night and still came out and handled their business on a Sunday Easter game. So that was a mature win for me. And I do think Jalen Brunson got fouled on the play before that could have been an M1. But it doesn't matter. SGA got to his spot. He rose over McRide and that's what big-time players do. And you know what else we're not talking about? If they get Gordon Hayward going again, that changes everything for them in their bench play. Yeah, he's been struggling a little bit trying to find his footing with this team. But if they can get him going, he gives them a great look, gives them a stretch for that they can rely on coming off that bench. And the size thing still, when you have Jett as really your only big and you've got Mascala and Viombo, are they your only bigs off the bench? They're a little thin there. But I think that's a problem for only a couple of teams. It's gonna be a problem with Denver and it'll be a problem if they get to the finals and play a Joel and B. Other than that, I think they're in good position. There are moments yesterday, like when he goes up against Hart and Shine, you're just like aware of how he's kind of, not frail, but he doesn't look like he can hold it down against some of the big dudes yet that might be coming. Josh Getty, by the way, there are some dudes that love playing at the Garden and I'm assuming we're gonna go ahead and throw him in that category because now he's played three games there and has a triple double in each of those. What is it about the Garden, y'all? Chandler, what is it? There's some guys that just... I love playing at the Garden. I mean, listen, that's the... Why are you laughing? Why are you laughing? I've been mature, go ahead. He... Wait a minute. Listen, this is the Mecca. This is the Mecca. As an athlete, as a competitor, you want to perform on the greatest stage. That's MSG, so this kid, maybe it's a fluke, maybe it's not, but he seems to continue to have great games in this building and it's cool to go there. You see everybody, you see all the stars, you see people that you've seen on TV your entire life watching you and most of the time talking trash to you, protecting their nicks. So listen, this guy, he likes the bright lights and it's a great, fun place to play. You got it, Lou. All right, Lou, why don't you not touch that and we'll just keep it moving. I won't touch it. Fair enough. I promise you. Shams, I know you're still there. I hope you're eating cake in between shots of you, but the nicks, no Julius Randall, no OG Annobe yet. What can you tell us about that? I'm nervous. Yeah, these are serious losses for the nicks. I mean, obviously, OG Annobe, he's been out since March 16th, Inflamed Elbow. The hope is that the information goes down. At some point, he's gonna be able to come back. The hope has been that it's gonna be when, more of like which day exactly, which game exactly, when is he gonna wake up feeling better than if, but with Julius Randall, it's a little bit more precarious. I mean, this is someone that's been out since January 27th, we're already into April and he still has not done anything more than controlled contact with that dislocated shoulder and Josh Hart, his comments I thought last night were very telling. He said, we have to operate as if neither of those two is gonna be back in the lineup. So for the nicks, it's really a wait and see approach. It seems OG Annobe is more likely than Julius Randall at this point, but we'll see. And Mitchell Robinson also missed the game last night with his, with the ankle injury as well. You know what's interesting to me about this shot is they, it is true when you have guys missing like they do and they've had Mitchell Robinson in and out, they've had Julius Randall out, they've had OG now for quite a time. You do see light at the end of the tunnel when you're playing and you're keeping your head above water. They're 15 and 13 without those guys and then OG came out for those back of those three games and they won all three of those games. So it is kind of annoying when you are one of the players that are playing and you keep hearing how good we're gonna be when everyone's back out. But, but tips is rotation to me are crazy. Last night, Josh Hart, 45 minutes. Miles McBride, 45 minutes. Dante D'Vincenzo, 39 minutes. Oh, a slow night. Meanwhile, Bogdanovic, who they literally, I thought was gonna be like this deal breaker is gonna really help their team place 10 minutes. Alec Berks plays 12 minutes. Have you seen them playing? I know, but it's like almost like Tibbs has his guys that defend and are tough and hard on. He like, he did the same thing with Fournier, but when you play these guys that many minutes and you're talking about all these injuries, you would think they would, he would kind of mix it up a little bit, especially with guys like Badamac, who they kind of made the move for to better their team. And Alec Berks the same way. So I don't understand necessarily the clip at the minutes that these guys are playing, especially when they have three or four rotation guys out. But they have a lot of talent on that bench. It's not really getting the minutes that they could be getting. I think, for my money, I think he has tried to put Bogdanovic and Berks in there. As a matter of fact, I would argue that he's put Berks in there longer than he probably should have played in some of those games. And I think he's trying to get them to be a part of it. Have you noticed I've been watching a lot of Nick's games? I think he wants them to be, but they're not producing. So what is he supposed to do? Leave him out there and flounder. There's also basketball is a rhythm game. You got to allow him opportunity to catch a rhythm as well. You know, playing. But you're battling for each game. You can't afford it. So what do you do? You can't get a rhythm. Yeah, you can't get a rhythm. I just don't know if a recipe playing two or three starters 45 out of the 48 minutes. Yeah, and he should have learned it. Is the key decision. He should have learned it from experience. Yeah. You know, we beat him in the playoffs 2012-13 because the guy's playing too many minutes. It's a lot of minutes. We're talking about this whole load management that doesn't exist in New York. That doesn't exist for TIBS. But I think he's, this is my argument. McBride, for example, was given an opportunity to come in. Injuries and all that stuff. And he has literally shown how valuable he is. So you can't take him out. Those guys have come in and not done that. So then they're out. How can you do it in eight to 10 minutes? I don't know, Lou. You got eight to 10 minutes to shine. Eight to 10 minutes. So eight to 10 minutes a game, that's a minute and a half, two minutes stretches, a half. You can do a lot in two minutes. You can shine. I agree. But on the basketball court, it's a little different. I hate both of you so much. It hurts me. Lordy, Lordy. April Fool's show has canceled. It's Maverick, by the way, Maverick's Rockets. This was a big one. Nobody can lose. Somebody had to lose the lead's team. 7th straight win, 125-107. Rockets with the game, the winning streak. So sad. Kyrie Irving, 24-7 assists. But Luca did finish with 47 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, 22 of those came in the first quarter. They are fifth in the West. There are two games behind the Clippers for fourth, which feels weird. Can they? Do they have enough time? Can they catch up? Let me look at my standings right now. I think it is what it is now. We think so, we're stuck. I mean, listen, there's only two more weeks left. So we're getting down here to where the schedule is. It's tough. And then when you look, they got the Warriors still three times. Is that right? Is that right? Yeah, the Warriors three times. They have the Hawks twice. They have the Hornets. They have a crazy, crazy, crazy light schedule coming up. So if any team can do it, it's the Dallas Maverick right now. And they are hot. Kyrie Irving has found something. Luca Donkic, some of those highlights last night. Yeah, I know. Just a joke. He's a silly person. They're insane. But yeah, I mean, this team is dangerous. This is the healthiest, most loaded team Luca Donkic has ever had. When you look at the landscape, they can defend. They have size. I love the PJ Washington edition. I love the Daniel Gafford. They have bigs now. They have rim runners. Derek Lively's been a pleasant surprise for them. So when you have these two guys and you have the Tim Hardaway's that can sprinkle and Dante Exum had a great game last night. They have now the capability and the talent to have a more balanced attack. And right now they're rolling. And they're one of these teams where the Clippers are going the other way. The Suns are going the other way. The Timberwolves are kind of banged up right now. You know, they're going the other way. There's certain teams right now where they hit their stride and they play their best basketball at this point of the season. It's very, very good going into the playoffs. Okay, but then I don't want to hear every time when if Dallas falls short, it's like, well, you got to put some talent around Luca. No, this team, he's got enough right now. He's got enough right now. Now look, they're one of the better teams now. We're talking like the Nuggets or the Celtics. I don't think they're really a championship team. This year, but they have enough talent. And when these two guys, we haven't talked about Kyrie Irving enough this year either. We can. He has been unbelievable this year. And so when they have those two guys on the courts, arguably the best backcourt, they're going to win a lot of games. It's going to be hard to beat those guys in a series four times. Well, let's talk about Kyrie for a second here. There you go. Ema Odoka saying he's by far the best offensive player I've ever seen. We know, we coached him obviously. He's averaging 25 and five on the year. We just mentioned that this Mavs team looks as good as a Mavs team has in recent years. They made it to the conference finals in 2022. Lou, what's the ceiling this year for him with Kyrie playing the way he has been? You got to, you got to think postseason is half court basketball. You know, it's going to be a game of runs and who better to have than Kyrie Irving and Luca Dunch is in a half court. You know, when it comes down to it, you need guys that are going to be able to create off the dribble and they're going to be able to create for your teammates. And also you need shopmakers. These guys are both. The problem is they can't get stops. They can't get stops at a high clip. And that's what stops this team from being as dangerous as they should be and not reaching that full potential. But in the league where this thing is wide open in the West, you know, we have some teams that have more talent. We feel like their favorite. But again, if you look at it, the OKCs and the Minnesotos, we can't really crown those guys the favorites because we haven't seen them do it, right? So in my opinion, the West is wide open and who better to have than those two guys when the game is going to slow down and be a half-courtney. This team against the Thunder or the Timberwolves in the series is really, really hard. So when you have a conference as this deep, it's impossible and it just makes for a really, really good postseason. The Luka part is just fun. I don't know how far it gets or how great this ride will be for Dallas, but Luka himself shams. When you watch him play and we can include the silliness and warm-ups as well, and we'll show that video here in a second, but what are your takeaways from Luka? He looks so happy and I think having Kyrie Irving, that's a star player that he respects a lot. Those who have such a great relationship and it's developed, right? I think last year they went through a lot of lows on the court, but I think that time that they got with each other to be able to build up the chemistry to this point I think has only helped them. They've been able to spend time off the court as well. And when you see them, I mean, 11-1 in the last 12 games and seven of those games, Luka's been the leading scorer for them, Kyrie's been the leading scorer. So it's been balanced. It hasn't been just Luka every single night. We've seen the massive Kyrie Irving games as well. And PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford, you talked to people in Dallas. The additions of those two late at the trade deadline was big for them. PJ Washington, I've spoken about on it already. They view him as this Aaron Gordon type of player, versatile defender, is gonna know his role, won't command the ball, but he's gonna play efficiently exactly where you need him to. And Daniel Gafford, I mean, Derek Lively is great as a rookie, but they feel like they needed one more veteran big man and they got that with them. And I think Chandler said it recently, this might be the most deepest, most dynamic team Luka Dodgers has had in Dallas. You know what's crazy is obviously we always talk about the MVP and when that goes to usually the one of the better players on the best teams. Yeah. Which is Jason Tatum, Jokic and SGA. But Luka is averaging 34, 10 and nine on 49% from the field and 39 from three. Like that is an insane season. That is insane numbers. So obviously this can only go to one person. I think SGA and Jokic have the huge advantage being the number one team winning so many games. Who's your official MVP pick? It's Jokic. So it's Jokic. But I will say SGA is on that ass. It's real close, dude. But I'm just saying it's crazy that guys can now average 35, 10 and nine. Do you think Luka's... And not even really even have a chance. Like it's nuts. But do you think it's his usage year in and year out? He's always gonna have these gaudy numbers just because of who he is and how he plays. I think it's wins. I think if he was happening to be in the same position right now as the Thunder or the Timberwolves I think it's a more of a conversation. But when you're kind of dabbling with the play-in most of the season and now you're in the five seed maybe getting home quarter advantage that MVP has to impact winning. That's the most important thing at the end of the day is winning and being the top seed in the conference. So if Tatum was putting up crazier numbers than he is now I think he would have an advantage too. But these guys, the stats are getting just out of hand. What are you guys doing the first quarter? It's crazy. All right, roll the circus shot. Cause this, if you weren't on the internet yesterday good for you, A, B. That's a real shot. That's a real shot. That happened and it worked. I heard an analyst say, well you just gotta foul him. And I was like, if I'm a coach and I'll just foul him on his plate. Let him shoot that. I might not, I might not put you back in the game. Yeah. How would I foul that? That just looks like a throw away. You literally let him shoot that and make it. I don't even, are we calling it shooting? If he makes it, tap him on the butt, tell him good shot. You don't foul him on that. So by the way, he had the thing during the warmups to the, that was more impressive than this one. What was that? I don't want to play this guy on horse. I do. Look at this. This makes no sense to me. And if I was a cynical person I'd say it was edited to look as though it worked. Okay, watch. Here we go. All the way up to that. No chance. It's ridiculous. How? That's ridiculous. I've never seen that before. He's a ridiculous human being. Look at his teammates. They're just like, you don't even know what to do with it. I've never seen that. Yeah, that's absurd. Yeah. That is absolutely absurd. Yeah. Horse would be fun. Add it to the old star. Bing bong. All right, let's, let's move on. Cavs, Nuggets. Donovan Mitchell was back for this one. Didn't matter. Yokich had a triple double. Easy win for Denver. 130-101, he finished with 26-18-16. First player to reach those numbers in a game since Oscar Robertson in 1965. All right, when he has a triple double his team is 17 and five. I don't know defensively what you're supposed to do with that. Is there any way to stop it, to squash it? Can guard him. You can. You can guard him because he's just, he's a willing passer. Anytime you get a guy that's willing to pass the ball you can't double, you can't send looks at him. He can score 101, can shoot a three ball. It's unguardable. So then what do you just let him go and everything else? It's a minimise. You can't, you can't cut everything off with this guy. Like Lou said, you can't, you double team. He's still big enough. He's still smart enough. He's gonna pass it. He's gonna have 20 assists if you maybe take away his points. He's still gonna be able to rebound the ball. He's still gonna get defensive rebounds. He's gonna bring the ball up the floor as if he's the point guard. So there's no, there's no way to stop him in a half court. Sure, you could double team him. You could make these other guys, make the Porter Jr, make KCP, make them beat you with outside shots, but there's no method to contain this guy. No matter what you do, he's got a counter. No matter what, how you guard them alone has a different offensive system or something else to go to where they can get him more involved. And they've done a really good job with guys like Aaron Gordon who's a perfect fit playing off him. Jamal Murray is a perfect fit playing off him. And now he spaces the floor with shooters. They have athletic wings that come in off the bench that cut and move without the basketball that play beautifully off him. So there's not really a game plan. You just have to hope that these other guys don't contribute and don't have the 15 to 25 point games on top of his 26, 18, and 16. So hope is done. And it's just, he does it so efficiently. He does it, he's 11 of eight. He does it so efficiently. He slows the game down. You can't speed him up. He's so strong. He just, it's crazy. He'll miss a shot. He's tipped the ball around. He's playing with like his son and he's playing against his NBA players. Do you remember when Tony Cuckooch was like, he ate that great? That was funny. What is that guy smoking? Yeah, that was insane. I just remember in the playoffs, we tried to turn him into a scorer. Like, listen, just let him score. All right. Take away his passing ability, take away his playmaking ability. And he ate us up then. You know, he was running off, he was running off eight to 10 in a row and stretches. And then at that point, you forget your game plan and your coach is like, well, we gotta go double. Now he's back in his passing bag. And it's just difficult to guard him. He has everything. You gotta get a guy some credit, man. Yeah, it's frustrating when you play. It's frustrating to see how slow he's moving. I know. You're like, how's that not cool? Well, that's what's crazy about him and Luca. They're these both, these slow, kind of like unathletic dudes that you can't speed up and they're so big that you can't put a bigger guy on them because they still have the quickness. You can't put a smaller guy on them because there's bullion. So there's not, there's not one person that can just guard either of these kids. It's perfect. It's kind of a perfect situation. All right, we'll take a quick look around the league. Starting with Lakers and LeBron. He drops 40. Lakers win. It was a season high, by the way. Career high, tying nine three-pointers. A 116-104 win over Brooklyn. They've won five of six. They're a season-best nine games over 500. Afterwards, he said he won't play very much longer. He doesn't know when he will retire. I don't know. I mean, are you buying that he doesn't know when? I'm buying. I'm buying. Father time is undefeated. I think- You'll just know. Yeah, this thing is a day-by-day thing. He's 40 years old and he still, and he has 40 points last night. But when you wake up that next morning, your body tells you a different story, right? So years ago, and even up to recently, he said he's still saying that he wants to play with his son. He wants to play with Brony. But now I think he's starting to make business decisions for LeBron James based on how his body feels. To me, he looked like he's still playing at a high clip, still playing at a high level and can contribute at a high clip for years to come. But who knows what he's going through in between those games. When I was with Kobe Bryant at the end of his career, I'd seen his man with- That's crazy. At least six to seven ice bags on every game and the preparation that it takes to get ready to go out there and play a game when you're at that age, it got to be taxing and it's a lot of preparation. So I think that's starting to creep into the back of his mind. As this season goes on in month four or five that we're in, his body's probably starting to wear. So I'm buying it. I think he literally doesn't know when he's going to call it quits. Yeah, and how could he? I mean, he's never really had that crazy career defining injury either. He's been very, very fortunate in that category. So at this age, at this clip, the minutes he's playing, he's still enjoying it. He's still dominating, he's still being effective and he's still being very productive, but he's also still having fun. You see him in layup drills, you know, rapping the songs. He's still talking to fans. He still has that fire and that passion in him. So yeah, I think we should just, you know, continue to watch it. He has no clue when he's going to wake up, when that injury is going to come, when he doesn't, you know- You are going to get a year's head up. And trust me, you're going to get a toy. He's 59 assists away from being 40,000 points, 11,000 assists, 11,000 rebounds. He's 59 assists away from that. Trust me, he's mindful of that. He wants all of those records. Yeah, he knows, he knows something. All right, quick break here when we come back. More sham scoops and a 40-20 game for your almost rookie of the year soon to be. Mwah! Run it back, yeah, yeah. Run it up, run it back, run it up, run it back, run it up. Well, we got some sham scoops from the birthday boy himself. It's all Kings related. And unfortunately for them, none of it is good. So we obviously know Kevin Herter. Malik Monk is now her. This could not be worse timing, Shams. What's the latest? Kevin Herter out for the season. Surgery on a torn labrum in his shoulder. But this next one's even more devastating. Malik Monk, six man of the year leader. He will miss at least four weeks with an MCL sprain. 15 points, five assists a game this season. We know how electric dynamic he's been for the Kings ever since he signed there a couple of years ago. And this is a team that's fighting in a playing position right now and having to deal with two major injuries to starter in a backup guy, Malik Monk, who essentially plays starter minutes. He's arguably the third best player on any given night. Just a brutal injury, couple back-to-back injuries for the Kings. Shams, does he qualify for six man of the year? I think he still wins. Will he still be able to get there? I believe he still is, yeah. This is tough. And looking ahead at the Kings schedule, I mean, we're talking Nick, Celtics, Thunder, Pelican, Sons, like, and this deep play-in. That's a tough end. And this deep play-in when you look at the Sons, the Mavs, the Pelicans, the Lakers, this is just the worst possible timing. They still have the Murray, they still have Harrison Barnes, they still have guys, Davey and Mitchell's now beginning more playing time, but when you take these two guys off, how important they are to this team, the scoring, Malik Monk's gonna be six man of the year, Kevin Herter with his outside shooting, this is just a tough blow of a team that, you know, they needed to be fully healthy to have any chance to even kind of advance out of this play-in. Now you look at all those teams, the depth there. I don't see them getting out of play-in without those two guys. Ditto. Do they drop though? I mean, we're looking, okay, here you go. They're at the standings right there. Is it, you see a world in which they drop? I don't know if they'll drop. But are they gonna beat, you know, the Suns? And I mean, the good thing is, it's one game. They could stay in that seven, eight seed right there and they win one game. And yeah, then all of a sudden, congrats. That one game is a monster though. You get the nuggets in the first round. That one game is a monster. That's just a crappy. It's not good. This is a team that needs to be all hands on deck and now they're not, with those two guys out, it's a huge, huge blow. Yeah, the timing is absolutely awful. Shams, the Timberwolves ownership situation has read like a soap opera over the weekend starting on Friday, I guess, but what's the latest there? This has turned into a war for the Timberwolves between Glenn Taylor and the potential owners in waiting in Mark Glory and Alex Rodriguez. Right now they currently have 40% of the team they were expected to get the remaining controlling interests of the Timberwolves. They submitted financial documents a couple of weeks ago to the NBA and Glenn Taylor that essentially was the final piece before their March 27 deadline. But now Glenn Taylor is saying that he will not sell to them the majority interest and that the team is not for sale. It was a $1.5 billion sale price. Right now the team is worth two times that Taylor claims that both of them were late on payments and they obviously deny it and they say that Glenn Taylor has sellers remorse. Alex Rodriguez told me on Friday, it's now personal, we can be in this fight for five years, 10 years, whatever. We're not going to let go. Mark Glory told me as well, we will use every ounce of effort here to enforce the contract that Glenn broke. So that means time, capital, whatever means necessary. And so you think about it, this is a Timberwolves team that's in one of the best seasons in franchise history and this is what's clouding all of it. This is gonna go into mediation and arbitration. Oh my gosh, what a legal nightmare. It does sound like sellers remorse though. One and a half when you see the Hornets go for three, I feel like you might want to re... But you know what? Oh, he's like, oh shit, we're good and we're young and we have something to look forward to here. Oops. Maybe I pulled the trigger a little too soon. Lawyers are gonna be making a killing on this one. Shoms, happy birthday sir. Will you better give us some scoop as to what you do with the rest of the day? Go get just obliterated thumbs, please. Just get dumb. Okay, that's it. We'll keep things going here with some headlines. This was fun. This was a fun game on Friday. Wemby, big win over the Knicks, but he had 40 points, 20 rebounds, seven assists. It did take overtime to get their first 40-20 game for a rookie since Shaq in 1993. He was moved to center on December 8th. He's averaging 22 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. So riddle me this. I don't need to know about your rookie of the year picks, no one cares anymore. He's the best rookie since whom? Shaq's rookie year was crazy. LeBron's was crazy, but Tim Duncan, how you don't even gotta look further than the San Antonio Spur, I think. He was the first overall pick. He kind of changed that whole dynamic of that franchise. They won, I think, 35 or 40 more games than they did the year before and leading them to their second, or their championship in his second year. So there's been some crazy rookie seasons, but this guy, the things he's, it's not even that it's his rookie. It's the things he shows us that just makes us excited for like the future. It's not even just what he's doing now as a rookie, it's just he shouldn't, no 30-year-old player should be doing the things he's doing, putting up the stats he's doing. He has the whole world on notice. He is one of the more exciting players we've ever seen come into the league. So he's got a super bright future and it really is ridiculous watching him. That was a fun game on Friday, like an immediate. What are you smiling about over there, Lou? I was just trying to do some research really quick and I was gonna try to stick it to you and say, well LeBron made the playoffs his rookie year, but he did not. Yeah. And he wasn't, yeah. But he did not, but I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say since LeBron. Okay. No other player since then has had the hype surrounding them like Wimby has had. And it's been LeBron-esque and he's been able to, he's been able to eclipse some of these things. LeBron was 25 and five as a rookie. He's at 27 and what else? What is he averaging? Whatever, it's close to that. 22, 11 and four. Yeah, you gotta say since LeBron James as far as the hype goes and living up to the hype, LeBron won a few more games. 35 and 47 as a rookie, but he has the stat. So I go with LeBron. Spurs do it right. Him, David Robinson's was crazy and Tim Duncan's was nuts. It's almost like they know something. Yeah, like they're good at stuff. Bravo. All right, but in the same game, this was a heart, it tore at your heart strings. Let's talk about it. Because it's Nix and Spurs and it's Jalen Brunson who is my second favorite non-Spurr player in the league. And he had 61 on this evening and of course it just wasn't quite enough to get it done. He was one shy of the franchise record of Carmell Anthony. We were rooting for that. Seventh player to score 16 a game this season. That's insane to me by the way. So Lou, when you look at the landscape of the league, the guards that are currently active and crushing, where would you put Jalen Brunson in that? He's right in the middle of the pack with everybody else. I think there's close to eight to nine guys who have played tremendous at that point guard spot this year. And you gotta put him in the middle of that pack. I don't think he's the best. I don't think he's the worst. I think he's right there with the rest of these guys. I think Luca and Shay are gonna be the two guys that lead the pack on that. But then you got Steph Curry, you got Donovan Mitchell, you got the Kyrie's. And you got Holla Burton, all of these guys. And Jalen Brunson has been right there in the mix of those guys. I think Luca and Shay have separated themselves from the pack other than that. I think Jalen Brunson is right there in the mix with the rest of this special talent. Maybe three. I want a number, Lou. It's hypothetical. It's hypothetical. Well, if you're asking me, I'm gonna go Luca, Shay. I'm always gonna put Steph there for the body of work that Steph has put into his career. Kyrie for the body of work. And that puts him in the middle of the pack. So it's at least five, six. Yeah, it's crazy because the league isn't such good hands with the guards, but Luca, SGA and Steph, they're in a league of their own. And then you look at a guy like Jalen Brunson, the things he does, it's just crazy because he wasn't this highly tatted high school recruiter. He wasn't this highly, the crazy draft pick. So the expectations were so low for him that every night he does something like this. It just shocks the hell out of me. Like I'm used to seeing Luca do this. SGA has high expectations. Anthony Edwards was the number one picks. I expect this from him. Nobody expects this from Jalen Brunson. So it is just mesmerizing when you continue to see it. And as a New York Nick fan, oh my gosh, it's perfect. This guy is the best star you could ask for. He's humble. He's zero distractions. He has all business. And you start bringing other guys with more personality around him? Fine. But he is the perfect guy going forward for this franchise as a point guard. And guys want to play with him too. I'll play with dad. I think I'm getting old. That's crazy. You are getting old. That's so weird to say out loud. But yeah, no, I think he's, I never wanted him to leave New York. Like I don't even see him on another team. I don't think he will. He can't. He cannot. He's making them cool again. He's making them great again. Look at that. Oh, look at that. You guys are connecting. I love it. Love to see it. Love to see y'all on the same page. Final. Quick break. Just took five months. Yeah, I mean, we're not there yet. But that man has a family when we come back. We'll be returning. We'll be running back, running back, running back, running back, running back, running back, running back, running back, running back. Well, let's take a look around what's happening here. Warriors in San Antonio yesterday. Dremont had a day. 21.6 rebounds, 11-6, six steals. It was a 1-17, 1-13 win. Ah, squeaked by over the spurs there. Key offensive rebound and a kick out to Clay basically is how this thing ends. I mean, look, I would be fine if we never talked about Dremont again. However, this was a positive for Dremont. So are these the moments that keep them hanging on to Dremont? Like they can't quit him? You can't quit Dremont. He's a former defensive player of the year for this basketball team. In a lot of ways, he's the heartbeat. He's the motor. He's the quarterback. He keeps the offense in check. He's the guy that's gonna be vocal on defense. He's very valuable to this team. I know this has been a rocky year, but we can't ignore the body of work that he's been able to put together for the Golden State Warriors and the things that they've been able to accomplish. I think that's what keeps everything at Bay with just doing away with Dremont Green. He's a valuable piece to this organization. And they've run into some hard times this year and some turbulence and a lot of distractions and things of that nature on the strength of some of the decisions that he's made. But be clear, he's just as important as a Clay Thompson and a Steph Curry when it comes to the Golden State Warriors. You can't just do off with them. Yeah, I think this is why Steph gets so frustrated, right? Because he knows the importance of Dremont Green. He knows little plays like that offensive rebound to having the heads up thinking to kick out to Clay Thompson, those are game defining moments that ultimately result in wins. And say what you want about Dremont Green, he is a winner. He knows how to play with these guys. He does all the little things. Six steals, you're not gonna usually see the points, which non basketball people that they know, they don't know about the impact a guy can have with taking a charge or the way he moves and the way he rotates on defense. He does do a lot of things that don't show up in the stat sheet, but usually he has like five or six or seven points that people think he sucks at basketball. That's not the case. He is very important and their team is a much better team with him on the floor, which is why you see Steve Kerr and Steph Curry so pissed off with him because they realize that this is the best version of this team with him and he has to be more mature and not do things to take himself off the floor. I played pickup with Dremont Green a few summers ago and it was by far the easiest the game was for me in a pickup game. Like he's so valuable in the things that he's able to do on the floor that makes it easy for guys to score the basketball. Like he was directing, he looking at me big eyes, I'm back door cutting it. I was playing like out of body because and but he was leading me into these things and I was like, damn, that's what it feels like to be Steph Curry, you know? So this is the value that he brings to this team. If we can cut down the antics, we won't even be having this conversation. We'll be celebrating Dremont Green. It is what it is with that type of stuff. But last night it shows you this is, this is who he's been for this organization for years and years. And a lot of teams guard him wrong. They guard him like, remember Rondo back in the day, you think, oh, he can't shoot, he can't score. So then they play off him, but then that gives him too many options and he's too big. He can see over defenses. He's six, seven, six, eight, six, nine. He's got great vision, he's got a great feel. And like I said, he knows how to play with these guys off dribble handoffs, off back doors, off cuts. So he is extremely valuable to this team and he's on a big contract. So they can't, they're not gonna just cut them or wave them or buy them out. So they picked him. They got rid of Jordan, well, they picked him. So as long as he can, you know, stay on the floor and not give us any info or am gonna talk about this dumb shit. I agree. That'll be fine. I agree. Paul George, by the way, had a season high 41, this time 14 of 21 shooting. Clippers beat the Hornets, 131-18. Afterwards he swapped jerseys with Rookie Brandon Miller, who of course earlier in the season had called him his personal goat. Now, in that moment, Miller took heat for this, but as we've learned over the course of the last couple of seasons, a lot of these young guys look up to PG over MJ or LeBron. Well, I don't, what's your problem? I ask your personal goat, it's who you model your game at, who you admire. It has nothing to do with how you feel about it. You know what, my personal goat is Alan Iverson. My personal goat is Dirk. I know he's not the best player of all time. I loved him growing up. But think about the positions that we play. That's Charles position. This is my position. That's Brandon Miller's position. Look at that, they're basically identical. I was gonna say. They're basically identical. So he found somebody that he can model his game after to give him a blueprint of how he would like to play in how he carries his career. And be clear, Paul George at one point was one of the top three players in the league before that horrific injury that he had that kinda slowed him down a little bit. A lot of players really feel like this about Paul George and is deserved and it's earned. And again, it's not like he said Paul George is the best player ever said his personal goat. He likes him more. I like Dirk more than LeBron. He likes Alan Iverson more than like, you know what I mean? That's your opinion as a player to patent your game to have someone like that to look after. And you watched him play last night. I loved that Paul George kind of cooked him. And I loved it. But then there was also some highlights of Brandon Miller. He got him too a couple of times. So like this is fun. That's fun. As a normal kid from Orlando, Florida, I used to look at NBA players like they were aliens. I remember I saw like Turquilu in the mall. I freaked out like, and so the fact that this guy, they'll get to play against his idol and score on him and talk trash to him. And then just Jersey swap and all be loved and respect afterwards. It's what it's all about. Yeah, these are moments forever. These are moments forever man. This next little bit though, not a dream for half of the dudes you're about to see. That man has a family. We start with Jaylen Brown. Nice setup there. Nice little seggy. Segui. Hey man. Oh dear. See that? That's the way Bruno. Bruno. A little cross too. Bruno better than that. This is nasty. It's not great. It's not. It's not a highlight for Mr. Fernando is it? Jaylen Duran. It seems like everyone just stopped. This is six. Did you say it's a six? Dunk contest worthy. That was. Next. Next, we're over this one. The defense is crazy. Zupac. Zuchi man. Zupac. I'm not even looking at the rim when you jump. It's kind of crazy. It's Zuchi. There you go. Zupac is fun. But it's only going to last for so long. Because same game. Oh no. The get back. Oh this is. Oh not the get back. You know it was coming. Yeah this is very Zupac like. You know I love you Zupac. Live a moment. Die the next moment. Love that one. This is what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to get dunked on. It would piss me off more as a coach or teammate if he didn't try and go block that shot. This is a battle of the bigs right here. Chris Dobbs, Zion, double block. No. No. No. That's something. I don't know. That's fun. He just ripped that thing out of his hand though. Yeah right. She's Louise. Possession. White's sitting in there as well. Yannis. I feel like I barely see bucks anymore. What's up with that? It's crazy because he did so many of these. It doesn't even do it for me when it's him. Someone else did this. Is it on that little boy in the middle? That seems unfair isn't it? That small man right there, the small child. He's probably like 6'5". He looks tiny. I feel bad for him. Oh. Now this was insane. Push, dunk you and you're on the floor. Damn it. He is. Just an offensive power there. Little push off. Little man. See what? If McBride didn't play 62 minutes this game he'd be able to take that contact. Any on the floor. Dude he's young, he can do this. By the way, you remember what he did to him a couple of weeks ago. Yeah and I like this. I don't think Wimby forgot. Never forget Wimby, hold the dredge forever. This again, this looks like I would do this on like a seven foot. Yeah I like it. This yeah, Fisher Price, nerf friend, look at this. I'd do that to my son. Playing around in the living room. I don't even think I can do that to my, I can't. Not yet. No. But you will. This is ridiculous. It's coming. That's funny, you know he doesn't forget. This is rookie year. No, no. Watch him afterwards. Ah. Yeah, like remember that kid. All right, we'll take a quick break. Wrap things up when we come back. He's pretty good. He's all right. Yeah, I kind of love him. All right, we got time Chandler for a little prep party. All right, I like the Phoenix Suns tonight. I think they are playing for something big. I think New Orleans is banged up. No Brandon Ingram. I like Phoenix Suns minus one. And I like, Not bad. But I do like Zion to go a little bananas and go over 26 and a half. Okay, that's a lot. That's a lot. Yeah, not too bad. I like Pelicans Moneyline tonight. And I got CJ McCullum having a big night with Brandon Ingram being out. He'll pick up the slack over on 23 and a half. Is that right? Yeah. All right, that's some inside scoop there. I'm gonna go with the Suns gonna have a big night. And I think both these guys are gonna score. We got a lot of points. I got a lot. By the way, between the three of us we have too many points on the board. Over. Over. Over. Shoot out. It's gonna be a shoot out tonight. Dear goodness. All right, Davis Bertons tomorrow and Will Zalatoris. Real stick. I got some questions. Easy, cowboy. Easy. Enjoy the game tonight. Go. Run it up, run it back, run it back, run it up, run it back, run it back.