NBA Weekend Winners & Losers | Undefeated Teams & Turn Off Injuries

0:06 Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the No Dunks NBA podcast. It's Monday, October 26th, 2026. I'm J.E. Skeets, here in the Classic Factory and alongside me, as always, Tass Mellis.

0:19 Podcast listeners, this is for you.

0:21 Next to him, it's my top shot hot boy, Trey Kirby.

0:23 Ayo, ayo.

0:25 And over yonder, making the magic happen, super producer JD.

0:28 Hello.

0:29 There he is. Here we are. Hello to everybody joining us live on YouTube, including the one and only Steve Kirby. Yeah, Trey's dad in the chat. Drop your dubs for Steve Kirby. We love to see it.

0:41 Yeah, he's basically tuning in to hear Tass talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves, Io DeSumo and Terrence Shannon Jr., two University of Illinois alumni.

0:51 Anytime they play well. I'm going to hear about it.

0:53 All right. Well, we'll get to that.

0:55 We'll get to that. Before we get to NBA weekend winners and losers, I want to remind everyone this is your last week here to go get your No Dunks reversible basketball jersey at nodunks.com. Again, this is a limited time run for these jerseys. It ends this week at the end of the month. Got it in red. Got it in green. Go grab those for your rec league team.

1:16 We had another wedgie.

1:18 Hey.

1:18 And it came from Philly again. They have all the wedgies this season. This one, wedgie number two, Anfernee Simons on Sunday night. Took the contact there and the little sort of layup floater and it stuck oh so beautifully. I think Tyrese Maxey is the one that actually popped it down in the end, but there it is.

1:34 Yeah, because Duncan Robinson couldn't pop it down.

1:36 Yeah, you're right. He jumped. Ouch.

1:38 Nope, couldn't get there.

1:38 He's like, nope, can't get there, can't get there.

1:40 My name's Duncan, but I don't do Duncan, you know?

1:44 That is Anthony Simon's fifth career wedgie.

1:47 Oh.

1:48 And I bring that up because he's not that far behind the all-time leader, which is Russell Westbrook, with seven. Great. A couple more and he can have that title.

1:56 How many does LeBron have who was wedgie number one this season?

1:59 He's around there. I think he's got five, maybe two. There's a lot of guys with five. There's a lot of five. There's a handful maybe or one or two of six and then there's Westbrook with seven. So we'll keep our eye on that. Also, we did have a pigeon on Friday night. We want to show you this. Now, we don't usually show pigeons here on No Dunks, but it's early in the season, and we show this because we want to remind everyone this isn't a wedgie. It's not some other version of a wedgie. This is a pigeon when it gets sort of stuck above the backboard and all of those wires and bars and stuff like that. So, yeah.

2:31 Yeah.

2:32 That's the pigeon, everybody. We appreciate everybody letting us know. We don't keep track of them, but it goes wedgie. Leggie is on the back of the rim. And then pigeon's way up top because it's perched up there, Tess.

2:43 Yeah, people need to know.

2:45 Yeah, they do.

2:45 They need to know the words so you can look cool with your friends.

2:50 At a bar. That's a pigeon, my bro. Okay, we got so much to talk about after, what did I say? 27 NBA games over the weekend. A lot of games. Let's do a couple rounds of NBA weekend winners, and then we'll eventually make our way to the losers. But get us started here, TK. Where do you want to go?

3:07 I like the Houston Rockets as a winner of the weekend. A great weekend for Houston. They beat the Spurs on Friday night in a thriller. This was an Amazon Prime game. You've got to love it. 29-7-7 for Alper and Shanguni, shooting the three really well early in the season. Basing things out for the Rockets. I thought he was killer down the stretch for Houston. 14 points and two assists in the fourth quarter. They're playing through him the entire time.

3:29 Amin Thompson makes this sensational block on Wemby at the rim with two seconds left to save the win for Houston.

3:37 Wemby, you're 7'5.

3:37 Dunk it.

3:37 He was maybe in a bit of a hurry, I thought. Nonetheless, great game for Thompson.

3:42 Finished with 20 points, 10 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks. Feels to me like he has zero fear of Wemby playing against him. He had the block, obviously. Also had a dunk.

3:52 Not on him. Around him.

3:53 Close enough. Still, he's going up for it. Had a nice post move where he gets Vic in the air and finishes him around him. I was like, okay, this guy's really going at... the best defensive player in the league, and then making his own defensive plays.

4:03 That was really nice.

4:05 Houston followed the win on Friday up with a win on Saturday night here in Atlanta. Seven players in double digits for the Rockets. They were in control the entire night. KD led the way with 22. Shangoon had two monster dunks in this game. Through one week of basketball, they're one of the two most impressive teams in the league to me, the Rockets are. They've got so much depth.

4:24 They've got so much versatility. van vliet didn't play on saturday marcus smart didn't play on saturday so they said okay reed shepherd you're getting a start this guy hits five threes and he didn't play on friday night they said he had a bone bruise i don't know what that was all about but he was on fire i thought bogdan bogdanovich was washed but perhaps he soiled 11 points and three three-pointers in a revenge game against the hawks he was giving it to quinn snyder lee ellis was loving it all.

4:48 Bogey He's still got it, mate. He does still got it. They got a lot of good players. They got a lot of styles of play that they can play.

4:56 Shingun to me is the key, but Kevin Durant is the guy that's like taking the biggest shots in the fourth quarter. of that game against the Spurs on Friday night. So they got multiple initiators now with Marcus Smart coming around. Fred Van Vliet is back. They can use Reed Shepard if they want to. They're playing through Chengun. They're playing through KD. They got a lot of big guys. Basically, only their point guard is going to be small on the court. They seem humongous when they're out there. 3-0 so far. They beat the Mavs, the Spurs, and the Hawks.

5:22 Pretty decent competition. And they've worn their red jerseys every game.

5:25 Crazy. I don't know how they were allowed to do that.

5:27 Let's see what else you got in the back.

5:28 What else do they got there? Great first week for the Rockets. My winner of the weekend, for sure.

5:33 Yeah, yeah. It seems like everybody knows their roles really well, like Reed Shepard, as you mentioned, learning the PG role differently with Fred Van Vliet in there. Comes in, takes 13 shots, but 11 of them threes, and always looking for the pass. Always looking for the pass. It seems like he's learned how to pass just with Fred Van Vliet around, just because they know where everybody's going to be and that he doesn't need to take over offensively, just shoot threes and pass offensively. And that will benefit him later on, even though he's going to be off the bench when Fred is healthy, sitting up that back-to-back.

6:03 It should help him play off time.

6:04 Yeah, they look great. This is an obvious winner of the weekend. There's a few teams, of course, that are obvious winners of the weekend because they haven't lost a freaking game yet. But the Rockets, you know, I'm almost upset because my bold prediction last year was like with this plan that we thought maybe Van Vliet would come back.

6:19 And I'm like, oh, they're going to surprise people and maybe be a dark horse team that could go through to the Western Conference finals or represent the team. And that didn't happen. They lose in the first round. It was embarrassing. A couple of games I just completely gave away, but they were missing, especially a Fred Van Vliet. So now it's all clicking. They can't, they can't miss threes right now. They're shooting like 42% from three as a team.

6:38 So that's going to cool off. But I think I expect their defense to also get a little bit, a bit better. So great start here.

6:45 Absolutely. Yeah. And we all had that debate in the preseason with the most athletic player in the NBA is, and I couldn't help, but watch that slow Mo of men Thompson's block. against Victor Wemba Nyaba as they go up. It's kind of like the Spider-Man multiverse aiming at each other. They look exactly like each other, both of them going up.

7:07 Who's the most athletic guy? Who's the most athletic guy? Is it me? Is it you? Is it me? Is it you? Is it me? And then Matt Thompson easily saying, it's me, dude.

7:13 Amazing block.

7:14 That was great.

7:15 And he is, it's very early here to start talking about all-star selections, but he, Amin Thompson, is on his way, I would think, to making his first all-star game now there's gonna be a lot of good guys on his team like you said katie's always feels like a lock and then shengun's playing amazing he was bullying victor women that game down the stretch like using his size and his leverage and almost getting like wemby like under the net enough that like wemby couldn't block it so that was smart he'll be an all-star consideration but ahman thompson right now is 18 10 and 5 with incredible percentages so.

7:45 Yeah yeah that's One of the favorite guys for people to go up against is Victor Wambinyama, right? Oh, yeah.

7:51 We just got to go at him.

7:52 Yeah.

7:53 We made a short last year about Shang-Goon potentially owning Victor Wambinyama, and they just have— weird bodies to go against each other. Victor, obviously, is long and lean. I don't know if he's top-heavy or bottom-heavy.

8:06 He's like neither. He's not heavy anywhere, but Shang-Goon is heavy in the pants.

8:10 This guy has dumpy legs, but it means he has great leverage to be able to bump Victor out of the way, and he's crafty enough that he can finish left-hand or right-hand where Wemby isn't expecting it on either side, so he at least has the knack for figuring out how to score on Wemby.

8:25 Okay, the Rockets, our first big Winner of the weekend. Where are you going next?

8:30 Minnesota Timberwolves. The opening week of this season could not have gone better for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Three wins by 20 or more. Spectacular stuff. And we all came into this year thinking, how is the roster going to play out? And I think we should never question Anthony Edwards as a number one guy on a team because everything just falls into place so very well. You saw Friday against the Magic. They win all the key NBA basketball categories, your turnovers, your three-point shots. What impressed me most was they were just outworking the Magic. 22 offensive rebounds and the key one that stood out to me, LaMelo Ball, with three of them. You just can't give up when you're playing defense and you think, oh, we're going to

9:12 grab the rebound. You can't against this Magic team. They had eight guys grab offensive rebounds. It was so important. And then Sunday against the Toronto Raptors, even though LaMelo Ball was in foul trouble and had to go to the bench, the depth there has just fallen into place so perfectly. This one's for Steve Kirby. Io DeSumo was so great. He's such a great backup point guard. But a guy in Terrence Shannon, TJ Shannon, we didn't really mention in preseason. We've always wondered, okay, is this his year?

9:42 They allowed Nikhil Alexander-Walker to leave last year. We thought that was his year.

9:47 He's crazy.

9:47 Grown into it even more this year. He's one of those sort of young vets that can shoot the three. Is he going to shoot 50% from three going into the rest of the season?

9:55 Probably not.

9:56 He's shooting really well, but it's just the depth has fallen so perfectly for this team. and that was the big question jonathan cominga also not over dribbling doing what he's supposed to do so their lack of bigs isn't a problem everything just working out absolutely perfectly and then so when lamella comes back on the floor after the foul trouble he can just make colin marie boils dance that was ridiculous getting so close to the lane and then Getting back out to the three-point line. No travel on that one. Just a huge step back. Looking really, really good. Again, LaMelo taking the fewest shots per game of his career right now. Because he's just fallen perfectly into his spot, things are just going so well. Up

10:35 and down the roster, up and down the organization. Even heard the broadcasters say it on Sunday, their home opener against Toronto. Jim Peterson, who's the analyst on the call, saying... Alex Rodriguez, owner of the team, came up to us and acknowledged, can recognize, understand how important TV is. Now, was that a shot at Tom Dundon of the Portland Trailblazers in that he kind of underballed or lowballed Kevin Calabro, who is now sitting beside Gene Peterson as the play-by-play man of Minnesota?

11:05 Maybe.

11:05 But either way, the top of the organization to the bottom. Just excellent stuff. Excellent stuff for this team.

11:12 Great start. Number one defense in the league. Again, through three games. It's not a lot, but yeah. The vibes are off the charts with this team right now. And it feels like even if you're not watching Timberwolves games, I assume you're being fed the highlights of Ant, Lamello, Alley Oop, some of these other guys in what they're doing through the first three games.

11:30 Honestly, what's the difference?

11:31 Every play feels like a highlight with this team. They're in transition. It feels like almost all of the time. You mentioned, like, LaMelo's crossover. The guy crosses over at the free throw line and somehow steps back legally and hits a three, and then it's celebrating all the way up there. Then he throws a half-court alley-oop to Johan Berenger. Like, every play feels awesome for this team, and somehow they're also first in defense, you know? I mean, a big part of that is... the blowout on opening night, but still they're defending. They're forcing turnovers. Go bear is rebounding.

12:00 It feels like any time that the Timberwolves actually miss a shot, Rudy's there for a tip dunk. So they look great to start the season. The only concern I have is like Anthony Edwards doesn't totally look right to me. He had a weird landing on one of these wide open dunks against the Raptors. He's limping back down the court.

12:17 He's grabbing at his knee. We see aunt do this a lot where like, he looks like he's hurt during a game and then suddenly has 45 and However, John Krasinski at The Athletic is reporting that, like, he's not doing media after games because he has to go and immediately get treatment. He obviously missed time last year with runner's knee. It feels like it's something that's going to be probably a chronic condition for him that he's going to have to manage. But that's why it's good to have a guy like Lomelo who can handle a lot of the creation. Like, he is low on shot attempts right now. He's only playing 22 minutes a game. Part of that's the blowout as well. They're going to need more from him eventually, especially if there are real problems.

12:51 With Ant's knee, because he also looks a little heavy to me. Like, I don't know if he put on some muscle. He doesn't look as svelte as he has in the past. So I don't think he's 100% physically, but he's still like 30 points a game, right?

13:02 Yeah.

13:02 It's ridiculous.

13:03 Yeah. And what also helps LaMelo's shot number is the foul trouble yesterday against the Toronto Raptors. I just think he's just in the right headspace, period.

13:13 Sure.

13:14 He's just allowing Anthony Edwards to keep shooting threes.

13:17 And we'll slip it in here, and Jaden McDaniels deserves a lot of the credit because that's sort of the main guy trying to shut him down and all that, but it was a team effort. Scotty Barnes 0 for 12 in this game on Sunday. No, Kawhi didn't play, so here we go with this. I think it was, what did they say, swelling in his left knee.

13:32 Yeah, he went out for warm-ups, wasn't feeling right.

13:34 Right, so Scotty Barnes obviously is the main guy anyway on the Raptors, but 0 for 12 in 28 minutes. He became the 20th player in league history to score zero points having that many shot attempts. joined some nostalgic names, Dino Raja and Tom Gugliotta. Yeah, I definitely had those guys on a 90s fantasy basketball team back in the day, for sure. But, I mean, this was an abysmal performance here from the Raptors, but a lot of credit.

14:03 To the Wolves. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I didn't want to get into it too much.

14:07 I know, I know.

14:08 That's why when it's the Raptors smashing the Bulls, we can talk about it for.

14:11 10 minutes, huh?

14:12 Yeah, yeah. No, the T-Wolves took everything away from the Rebs. They did a great job. And, you know, guys were helping out. Jacoby Walter looks awesome. But they were doing a good job of taking away the number one in Scotty Barnes on that night.

14:24 All right, let's keep it moving here. My big winner of the weekend, Luka Doncic. Scored 52 points. We have our first 50-burger of the season. Nobody took Luka to do it.

14:35 I was dumb.

14:35 What were we thinking?

14:37 I took him for MVP, too. I should have taken Luka. I should have doubled down on it. But what a performance there. He recorded his 10th career 50-point game. So he had 52 points as the Lakers beat the Jazz in a high-scoring affair. 132-123 on Sunday. 17-30 from the field. He hit eight threes. He was 10 of 11 at the line. He added 10 assists, 8 rebounds, 2 steals.

14:58 I mean, this sounds like a woe boy, because it is. We'll get to that later. But this was fun as hell, actually, because it felt like every big basket from Luka, if you were watching this game, put the Lakers either up or tied the game because the Jazz were scoring a lot on the other end. So it was a very entertaining game. It wasn't like a wasted, like, oh, this wasn't really a needed 52. They needed all of these.

15:21 Austin Reeves was on fire, too. To get over the hump against this Jazz. This was like a shootout game here between these two teams.

15:26 That's why the Jazz are a great league pass team because they're going to have high scoring games.

15:31 We said this.

15:32 They're going to allow plenty of points. It was fun watching those two guys, Luka and Austin Reeves in Utah doing some talking trash with fans. I think Luka has this game only because he has 11 turnovers on Friday and he needed a great game on Sunday just to make up for it because he was so, so good.

15:53 Oh my god i felt bad for ace bailey he was trying he was trying hey that was decent defense you're contesting as much as you can but yeah it's luca getting to his classic like once he has one or two of those go in on that left side it's a wrap oh yeah like you're in such.

16:09 Trouble finished with eight threes he's hit seven or more threes 31 times in his career and in those 31 games he's going to for 40 or more 18 times. Like, if the shot is dropping like that, there's literally no way to guard him, especially because he looks like he's in great shape.

16:24 Yes, he does.

16:24 He's moving fast.

16:25 He's attacking the Jazz on, like, a one-on-four fast break, getting to the rim and finishing. He made so many baskets, he was, like, having to pull out celebrations you've never seen from him before. He had one where he thought he shot a gotten-and one and looked like the guy from the bing-bong video.

16:39 He just goes.

16:42 He clearly hadn't thought of all of this. If you make that many shots, what are you supposed to do? He went through every celebration in the book because he made every shot in the book. And to go back to you're saying they're doing it in Utah. I've got a bone to pick here because him and Reeves, you're right.

16:53 Like they're on the road.

16:54 I get it. And Lucas hitting crazy shots and he's turning to the crowd. He's doing the sort of like to keep quiet. But there's a problem with that. Half the building is Lakers fans. Have you heard the pop when he would score? I mean, they go nuts because Lakers fans travel. It's not all that far. It's like, hold on, you can't shush them because it's like over 50% it feels like are Lakers fans. You can't quiet your own crowd to me. Really?

17:17 Yeah.

17:17 That doesn't usually happen in Utah.

17:19 No, but they were. I mean, maybe it's just Luka fans, too, or the show of Luka. Like, oh, my God. Maybe Jazz fans are even cheering it, but... You can't shush them. There's too many people cheering for you.

17:29 They got a check ID coming in. You can't be a Lakers fan, man. Is that why you did the shaking the head side to side? Is that why Luka's hair looked like that? It looked like he just got out of the shower. His hair was very fluffy. I agree. And we'll see it in the woe boy image that you pick later on. It's fluffing. But he was cheering for so many things. He even took that charge late.

17:52 That's not a Luka move. But he was into it. And I think you have a bad game. against your rival Clippers. Call them a rival. With 11 turnovers, you make up for it. And he was so good to everybody. To Ace Bailey, Darren Peterson trying out. They had to try everybody against him.

18:09 So 52 for Luka. And the Lakers are 3-0 here. Maybe it's not as impressive as the Rockets have looked and the Wolves, but they are 3-0. A couple fun stats about Luka's 52 here from Statitudes. He's the 12th player in NBA history to reach 10 50-point games. He's the 5th youngest player. player to achieve that feat. He also has recorded at least 50 points and 10 assists in a game four times, breaking a tie with Nate Archibald, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, and Jokic for the second most such games in NBA history. Do you know who has the most?

18:40 Most 50 and 10s?

18:42 He's still playing.

18:43 Giannis?

18:45 No.

18:45 Jokic. No, you just said Jokic.

18:47 This guy's got twice, I think, as many.

18:49 LeBron? No, it's not. Carl Anthony No?

18:53 Okay, this is interesting.

18:54 Kevin Durant.

18:55 I thought you guys would say it right away. No, 50 and 10. Funny we were just talking about the Rockets. Doesn't play for them anymore.

19:03 Former Rocket.

19:04 Yeah, MVP.

19:06 Former Rocket MVP?

19:08 One of your favorites.

19:10 Why don't you not.

19:11 Think of this, man?

19:11 James Harden.

19:13 Guys. Ten. Those tens. I'm just thinking.

19:15 That's so long ago that he played for the Rockets, man.

19:18 You're right. He did.

19:19 He put up big numbers.

19:20 He put up a lot of numbers. I think he has eight such games. He was Luka before Luka. That's right. And then Luka's just the second player in NBA history to record a 50-point 10-assist game for multiple franchises because he did it for the Dallas Mavericks. Now he's done it for the Lakers. Can you name that guy? It's not James Harden. It's a classic name that you should just always say.

19:37 Will.

19:37 There you go.

19:38 Nice, nice, nice.

19:39 For the San Francisco Warriors and the Philadelphia 76ers. So there it is. Some Lucas stats. Our first guy with the 50 point game because it's something we always track.

19:47 I want to track the shot attempts by the center of the guy who scores 50. Like Walker Kessel only took two shots. You don't need to score tonight, my man. I got it. I got this.

19:59 He's already had a game. What did he do?

20:01 12 for 12.

20:01 12 for 12, yeah. So there'll be nights like that and there'll be nights like this.

20:04 Will there be another player that scores 50 against the Jazz this year?

20:07 Oh, yeah. Giving up a 45 and a 52 in the first week of the season.

20:11 Yeah.

20:11 Yeah, it's rough.

20:12 There's a lot of scoring to be had.

20:13 There's a lot of points out there.

20:15 We need Nurkic's toe to get back for them to help out defensively. They do. They need him.

20:20 I think he could have locked down Luka last night.

20:22 Yeah. It would have taken away that step back three that Luka likes. Nurk would be all over it.

20:28 That's how bad they are. The pecking order gets very bad without Yusuf.

20:34 Let's do another round of NBA weekend winners. Back to you.

20:37 Got to be the rookies.

20:38 We had a rough debut for most of the rookies, but second time, third time around, much better for these guys. We'll start with my main man, Caleb Wilson. Game one versus Toronto. Seven for 21 from the field, nine turnovers.

20:50 It was ugly.

20:51 Game two on Friday against Milwaukee, two points, two rebounds in the first half.

20:55 Uh-oh.

20:55 Another Patrick Williams in town?

20:57 Don't say that.

20:57 I don't think so, Tim. Finished with 21 and six.

21:00 He was the best player on the court in the fourth quarter, making plays on both ends, led the Bulls to their first win of the season. Game three on Saturday. Lost to the Wizards, but 30 points, 14 boards, three assists, two steals, and a block for Caleb Wilson. Five dunks in that game. He's up to 11 all the season.

21:17 Third in the league behind Kessler and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Right now, feels like he's mostly just a run and jump guy. He was trying some self-creation stuff against the Raptors in game one, and they just took the ball from him every time. So he's like, I guess I'll just finish plays, shoot open threes, dunk everything. Also feels to me like he's locking himself in as a two-name guy. Rarely hearing a Wilson. It's always Caleb Wilson.

21:39 I think it has to be almost.

21:41 Kind of.

21:41 It doesn't really work.

21:42 At least in Chicago with Caleb Williams around as well.

21:45 That's the problem, yeah.

21:46 Caleb and Caleb high-fiving each other. Our other rookie of the year choice, Cam Boozer. Game one for him. Two for 15 from the field, though he did have 11 boards and five assists. I actually thought he played pretty well in that game. Just couldn't score, but things changed as well. for Cam Boozer, 25 in his second game, 13 boards, six assists, a couple of steals, and a win against the Warriors. He was instrumental in the Grizzlies coming back from down 12 with four minutes left. He hit a pseudo game winner, put the Grizzlies ahead with 20 seconds left after getting a mismatch, and then last night against the Kings, bad percentages, but 16, 11, and four.

22:19 Grizzlies win again. They're 3-0. Ken Booster is just a good decision maker and he makes his decisions like that. He doesn't wait at all.

22:26 Fast processing. He's one of the best outlet passers in the league immediately. And if the outlet passes in there, he's just bringing the ball up the court.

22:32 On his own.

22:33 He looks really awesome. And then the other guy that I cannot stop tracking right now. Hilarious Darius Acuff. Comical shot selection. It's amazing to watch this guy. He just keeps shooting. 12 points on 24 shots in game one. Funny first game.

22:47 33 points on 26 shots.

22:50 In game two, so I'm watching last night and I'm thinking, wow, he's not gonna shoot 20 times in the game again. Through three quarters against the Kings, seven for 13. Head into the fourth quarter, I'm like, this is.

23:01 Awesome, man. He's efficient. He's not gonna shoot 20 times. That would be embarrassing, wouldn't it? He went two for 10 in the fourth quarter. Went 9 for 23 on the night.

23:12 The Kings broadcasters are just saying, tough shot after every take he has because that's all you can say as company men.

23:19 Tough shot.

23:20 He's up to 24.3 field goal attempts per game so far. A rookie has an average 20 shots or more in a game since Bernard King in 1978.

23:28 He must have taken the most shots of anyone in NBA history through the first three games.

23:32 It's possible.

23:33 I would think so.

23:34 Yeah, and the most called out by people around the league.

23:37 It's insane.

23:38 It's literally crazy. Like, he will pass the ball.

23:41 Yeah.

23:41 Not twice in a row, though. If he gets off the ball early in a possession and it comes back to him, it's going up. And if he passes on two straight possessions, it's going up the next two possessions. I think he should pass more. If you're a point guard. I think DeMontis Sabonis agrees. He scored once in the first quarter and once in the fourth quarter.

24:00 But he's learning.

24:02 He's learning from Zach Levine, who also never wants to pass the ball. It's a perfect pairing, those two guys.

24:08 I love the rookies. Yeah, Sabonis called him out after the first game, and then... That second game was better, and if you want to be positive as a Kings fan, Sabonis looked good, and he looked good this weekend. It's a tradable contract. He would love that. Yes, he would like to move on. He looked decent there. I'm surprised he didn't throw out the stat of Caleb Wilson, 67 points through three games, the most for a Bulls rookie since Michael Jordan. 74 for him in his first three games.

24:38 And Darren Peterson, I know, not spectacular so far. but hit game-sealing free throws on Friday for their only win against the New Orleans Pelicans. Can you call game-winning free throws game winners? Probably not.

24:53 Watch at least.

24:54 He did it with 50 seconds left. Step to the line, down one, put them up. So, good for him.

24:59 The Grizzlies are the surprise 3-0 team. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of teams that are still undefeated, but then you have to remember who they've played. It's not a murderer's row here. They've played the Jazz, who they play again tonight, so they're playing twice already through the first week of the NBA season. And then they played the Warriors, who we'll get to later, and then they played the Kings. So, I mean, those are... I know the Jazz are expected to bounce up the standings a little bit here, but those could be three of the worst teams in the Western Conference. especially with the injuries to the Warriors.

25:27 You know, the Grizzlies were a team that, did we all go over on the Grizzlies?

25:31 I think we did.

25:31 Yeah, a team with a little bit of buzz coming into the season and even a little bit of like, ooh, could they make a surprise run at the play-in? You've got to beat teams like the Kings and the Warriors if you're going to get to 35 wins and sneak into the 10th seed. And it's definitely possible.

25:46 Yeah, yeah.

25:46 I didn't mean that as a diss. I'm just noting here. They'd almost caught me by surprise when I was like, the Grizzlies are 3-0. I was like, oh, yeah, I guess they've beaten all these sort of bad teams here. So good for them, yeah.

25:55 I didn't mean it as a diss. Speaking of disses, when Darren Peterson dunked on Derek Queen, my initial thought was, crown the queen. You know, is that a pejorative? Is that a negative thing? Because around NBA circles, it might be looked at as a negative. But that was a nice dunk. Big dunk. That's a great team. That's a great team to watch, man. Jazz Grizzlies tonight is going to be good, too.

26:17 Who do you have for your second winner of the weekend?

26:20 Jason Tatum. He looked like the MVP candidate that we all knew before his injury last season on Friday against the Knicks. Another Amazon game. Because there was some whispers after his first game, the opening game, opening game of the entire season against Detroit. He didn't look good. Maybe he's not the same guy that he was pre-injury, but in this game, he looks so good. Just the way he was doing it, the D cell being able to dunk.

26:45 And then two huge makes that last minute where he was in the corner and he had to jab, jab, ball fake and hit over Josh Hart. And then the three over Carl Anthony Towns, another one right late where he had to do a ball fake and hit that shot. So he scored on 26 shots. So the onus is on him, and that's what the Celtics wanted. He scored 36 points, so he was dancing. He looks so, so good.

27:10 To beat the Knicks like that, that's exactly what they wanted to be when they moved on from Jalen Brown. They also, you know, a little bonus for them, they got Mitchell Robinson from the Knicks, and, you know, he had some revenge scores in this game. And a tiny shout-out, and it's just as this Celtics package we look at with Mitchell Robinson and Namesh Keita were both on the bench with foul trouble. Luca Garza stepped up with eight straight buckets between the, or eight straight points, I should say, between the first and the second quarter.

27:39 He's important.

27:40 He has a couple of threes, got a steal there. So most importantly, Tatum is back. And then the whole beef with Jason Tate or with Jalen Brown, I should say, it ain't beef at all. He, you know, he called it out and basically saying we are not Kobe and Shaq tried to, To squash it as much as possible. I know that what he said here is I know that, you know, views and the likes and all that. This isn't made for that. I'm not made for that, I should say, is what he said. But I just can't do it, man. I can't do it. And he kind of, you know, put that away for him. Anyways, Jalen Brown's going to continue to talk about it.

28:13 Yeah, it's lamb chops and gravy. I think it's beef or lamb chops.

28:16 Yeah, lamb chops.

28:17 What would you get more excited if Dani's like, I got dinner tonight, making dinner? Or she asked you, would you rather have beef or would you like lamb chops and gravy?

28:25 Who's ever had gravy on lamb chops?

28:27 It's pretty rare. Yeah.

28:29 They don't go together. Maybe if they're rare, you'd do that. You'd smother them in gravy. No, you don't do that. Nice try, Jalen Brown. The two don't match.

28:41 They don't match for you.

28:42 No. Who's ever had that? I don't think you do.

28:45 I don't know. I'm sure people put gravy on lamb chops. I can't say I do.

28:49 I don't eat lamb chops hardly ever. How many times have you eaten lamb chops in your life?

28:54 Plenty. The man's Greek.

28:57 He is Greek.

28:59 Fair enough.

29:01 I would say I'm less than five times in my life a lamb chop.

29:03 Five times?

29:04 A lamb chop?

29:05 They're good, man.

29:06 Really?

29:07 Really?

29:08 Everybody's fascinated. Come on. You're not having them a lot.

29:12 A lamb chop?

29:13 In Trey's defense, you're not having them all that often.

29:15 Twice a year, maybe.

29:17 You can go. First, the thing that they have over just a lamb shoulder, whatever, less gamey. They don't have to be that gamey at all. So they're less lamby. And Costco sells them. Bang, bang, done.

29:32 Bang.

29:33 It's a quick purchase Less gave you that.

29:36 You have to buy a thousand of them, I'm sure it was. No, I don't think so.

29:39 We saw the traders have lamb shanks this week.

29:42 Yeah, they had lamb shanks on the traders.

29:43 Smothered in gravy.

29:44 Oh. That is true.

29:46 And then one guy named Wyatt ate it like a turkey leg. Like at a rent fair, I said. Yeah, for sure.

29:52 Lamb shanks. I've had way more lamb shanks than lamb chops.

29:55 Yes, I would agree with that.

29:56 That's the... The go-to cut, I think, if you ask me.

30:00 It's not, because you've got to smother in gravy, apparently. You know? For company? You're taking a risk, because it could be gamey and non-gamey likers at your table.

30:10 Do you think the Tatum Jalen Brown beef slash lamb chops and gravy is done for now?

30:16 Jalen Brown.

30:17 Until they play?

30:17 Yeah, Jalen Brown ain't.

30:18 Going to let.

30:19 It'll never be dead for Jalen Brown. It feels like he's one of those guys. He's not going to let it go. But yeah, for now.

30:27 I think for, yeah, for now, but it'll be reignited when we get this game in a couple weeks.

30:31 In a couple weeks, exactly, yeah.

30:32 All right, my final NBA weekend winner. It's a little different. I'm giving it to Afternoon Hoops because on Friday, the Bulls Bucks played four hours earlier than originally scheduled because of the Milwaukee Brewers who were hosting game one of the World Series on Friday night in Milwaukee. So they moved that game up. We got a basketball game on Friday afternoon, tipping at 4 p.m. Eastern. I thought it was glorious. I loved it. Because all focus was just on that one game. And I wasn't alone loving it.

31:01 Nick Friedel, he tweeted, the NBA should consider having one game each week on a Friday afternoon. Make it a big event in the city that is hosting that week's game. They would have a window all to themselves each week, especially for teams that don't get much exposure. Prime time in Europe too, says Nick. What are your thoughts on this?

31:20 Is Nick cooking here? Is there something here? Maybe this idea? of like an early Friday afternoon game?

31:26 Nick's cooking a little bit. I didn't like starting the season with a 3 p.m.

31:29 Tip.

31:30 Okay.

31:30 That seems like such a non-event to me, but this is different.

31:33 Okay.

31:34 However, Nick is a basketball media person. You're a basketball media person. All of us are. We have the.

31:40 Opportunity to watch this during the game. many other people work and go to school. So that would be an issue to me. But baseball doesn't. Baseball plays matinee games, and it is fun to have on a game in the afternoon if you have the opportunity to watch.

31:53 And it is fun for the exposure for teams that aren't on national televised games a lot. This year, of course. Bulls and Bucks, for that matter. So that I liked. Because if you're a sicko, maybe you are watching teams that maybe you wouldn't watch all the time.

32:07 I don't know.

32:08 Or at least they're getting the attention.

32:10 If you have League Pass.

32:12 If you have League Pass, yeah. Yeah. I guess they, I mean, if we flesh this out, you could have these as games that are on Amazon Prime or eventually Netflix or something like that.

32:22 Yeah.

32:23 Yeah, it is nice for people who have the luxury of not having to work Friday afternoon specifically, but I think Friday is the best day to pick games because if there's any day that you're done early, it's Friday. You know, baseball does it on Thursdays because it's a travel day. And so less people see it. Do people know that there's a 1230 baseball game on Thursday? I don't know. Friday, I think Friday makes a little more sense.

32:47 But are they throwing the C team out there to broadcast, as we talked about with no disrespect to Terry Gannon and Brian Scalabrini and Robbie Hummel? That's a good job. Do they throw the A team out there? They give it all?

33:02 Oh, no.

33:03 You throw the B or C team. Give them some reps.

33:05 Give them some good reps.

33:06 Yeah. Throw Jeremy Lin on these games. Let's go.

33:10 And I do want to credit the Detroit Pistons getting back to the afternoon game. They played that first one there. They're the only undefeated team left in the Eastern Conference, and I know we're going to kind of skip through them, but they beat the Heat and Knicks this weekend. Good for them. And Jalen Dern is out for a little bit with a hamstring injury, but then Paul Reed comes in against the Miami Heat and was the best center out there. Bam Adebayo has to foul out of that game.

33:33 John Collins splashes five threes. I don't consider John Collins a three-point shooter. cause he never had to do a lot of them, but he is taking the most that he's ever taken in his career. So great start for them. Really good start. All right.

33:47 NBA weekend winners done. Those obviously still lots more. You could pick from sound off in the stream team, sound off in the comments, but let's get to NBA weekend losers. And I'll get us started here. Cause it's an unfortunate one. Uh, Thunderstar Jalen Williams suffered a pretty gruesome looking leg injury last night against the Clippers bad enough to need a stretcher. Um, bad enough to move some of his teammates to the brink of tears. We're not going to roll the video because it is pretty gross here. J-Dub's ankle just goes in a direction you don't like to see. With over a minute to play, he went up for a dunk in traffic. He sort of almost got like pancaked between Chris Dunn behind, who I believe was called for a

34:26 flagrant foul on the play. And then Derek Jones Jr. is coming from the front. And like, because of this, he loses his balance in the air. He lands really with all his weight behind. On his left leg, on that ankle. And we had the Thunder's training staff come out, immediately put the towel over it. And again, everybody that's out there and you see it and you're like, oh God, he's in shock, obviously. It looks bad. I don't think we have a diagnosis yet of like how long he's going to miss, but everybody's like, that could be a season ender. If that's like a fracture and he's got to have pins and needles. It would be a shocker if he plays this year. It would be amazing.

34:59 Amazing.

34:59 So this is just a huge blow to the Thunder's, I mean, title chances, if we're being honest. He missed a lot of time last year. He fought through injuries in the postseason, in and out, but didn't play in that game seven versus the Spurs to move on to the finals. And you wonder now, can they do it without him here?

35:19 Yeah, the initial reaction for everybody watching is it's the old hands on your head. Oh my God. To watch it and to watch Shea do his postgame interview, which wasn't long after with Nick Gallo. got the first question. Nick's still holding the mic under his mouth and, and shake goes, okay, next one. Let's go. I, I've got nothing else to add to that because they're all just going through it right now. Simple as that. Just feel for Jalen Williams.

35:45 Oh, he, you know, he gave two thumbs up being carted off the floor, but yeah, like I'm with you, TK. I will be shocked if they don't come out and say that he's done for the season. Cause it's like you immediately, your mind goes to Paul George, obviously what he did under the basket for team USA. And, and, gordon hayward comes to mind in the season opener and it's like we've seen these before and it's not great.

36:05 Well yeah exactly his bones are gonna have to heal first and then he's gonna have to get his leg strength back and then he's gonna have to get back into basketball shape and we're talking about the end of the season uh at that point which is why sga is like in tears as it's happening aj mitchell is stunned to see the way it went down the reactions told you how bad it was and it's just another unfortunate thing for Jalen Williams it's like they won the title and immediately he had surgery on his wrist right so he was out right away he comes back he was battling through hamstring problems last year finally gets healthy was playing pretty well I thought through the first three games for the Thunder they were looking like a dangerous

36:41 team once again and then to see him go down with something that it doesn't feel like he's going to be able to recover quickly from And who knows what it's going to look like whenever he does come back. I guess the good part is like Paul George regained his form.

36:53 Gordon Hayward, for the most part, regained his form.

36:56 We'll see.

36:57 You also throw in the fact that Cason Wallace got hurt on the same night, like the Thunder took two really bad injuries in the same game.

37:05 Williams wasn't the only Jalen Williams that got injured last night. The other Jalen Williams also got injured in addition to Cason Wallace. Cason Wallace was the shoulder off a Isaiah Jackson screen, I think, but. Yeah, this J-Dub one is the real blow. And it is the type of injury that could completely change or recalibrate like an NBA title chase because he's that important, it feels like, to this team to try and do it again. Could they do it without him?

37:28 Maybe.

37:30 I'm not convinced.

37:32 Right.

37:32 They were, they were, he's a big, awesome wing.

37:35 Yes.

37:35 So, you know, and they, they all unfortunately got rid of some of those other guys that maybe slot into that spot, be it Lou Dort. Uh, even Wiggins got a lot of opportunity when he was out. Now there are other guys that are going to try and plug and play.

37:47 But size wise, I hear what you're saying.

37:49 Yeah.

37:50 Yeah. There's no positives to take from this at this point right away. I wonder when Jalen Williams looks back on this, when he is healthy and looks back at the footage, uh, maybe he'll say it was great for the staff to be able to jump on it really quick and throw that towel over top, unlike the Gordon Hayward one where that one was long, where we sat there and watched that.

38:15 That was opening night, right?

38:16 It was opening night. It was the first game, but the amount of time it took to get to him and to get him on the stretcher while Jalen Williams was shorter. In comparison, they threw that towel on it really, really quickly. Well, yeah, Gordon Hayward, the fracture, tibia and a dislocated ankle. It seems like it would be really, really similar with Jalen Williams. We're not diagnosing anything, but it seems like that's, yeah, it's a long road. And I'm sure he'll talk to Gordon Hayward at some point for their former teammates to discuss it a little bit.

38:54 But yeah, just terrible stuff.

38:55 But then you have to wonder, and I know I'm like looking way too far ahead, but like, what will, if anything, Sam Presti and the Thunder do here to, or, or if anything, and what I mean by that is like, you do have Shea in his prime. Like these are championship window, you know, years here for this guy. And you fortunately have obviously a ton of draft picks, players that other teams would love. Like you, you could be aggressive.

39:21 You could make moves to try and so to speak, replace J-Dub and, to keep your chances to win a title without him high. But I just wonder if they will and how aggressive they are doing that.

39:34 Yeah, that's a great question because like, I don't know, call the Pelicans. There's two wings that could possibly slot in, whether it be Trey Murphy or Herb Jones. But also then you're talking about what contracts are we putting into it? Is it going to be Jalen Williams's contract that goes into it? Like that's got to be a possibility. Is it Isaiah Hartenstein? Like to get to the numbers of a player that's going to actually be able to help the Thunder. Unfortunately, they would probably have to say goodbye to a player who is currently helping them or has helped them in the past. They definitely got the draft picks and like ancillary stuff to make it happen if they want to, but we'll figure out and see what

40:05 they do.

40:06 Well, since Adai Mara's debut and how he's looked, the talk has been that eventually, especially with their luxury tax formation, they have to get rid of Isaiah Hartenstein or that sort of thinking. We've got to get rid of our high paid guys. And with Adai Mara looking like the next Isaiah Hartenstein, it could be there at some point.

40:27 But do they think internally, do they look at the roster and they say, we were so close last year while Jalen Williams did get hurt. Um, and AJ Mitchell also got hurt. Do they think we can still do that? Still do it. Um, or do they maybe pull the plug at this point on their roster, who they love? They love all these dudes. Yeah.

40:45 All right. Who else do you have for a loser of the weekend?

40:47 Orlando magic also get a loser at the weekend.

40:50 They actually got their first win of the season last night, huge fourth quarter against the Knicks.

40:53 Franz was playing great 23, 13 and nine. They were begging him to get that 10th assist in the fourth quarter. Couldn't happen.

41:00 But the Magic get a loser because they also had two significant injuries over the weekend. Paolo Boncaro on Friday night against the Timberwolves sprained his right ankle, landed on a foot.

41:09 He's out four to six weeks. Seemed bad to begin with.

41:12 And then last night, Sunday against the Knicks, Jalen Suggs hurt his right knee just driving to the hoop.

41:18 Wide open layup. Nobody basically near him.

41:22 Right knee just buckles, non-contact injury.

41:24 There's no update yet.

41:25 It looked bad to the point where the best case scenario is like a hyperextension and he's still going to miss quite a bit of time. Just bad news for the Magic. Depth has already been a concern with them. They lost Noah Penda in the preseason. do a torn hamstring. They haven't been able to keep Suggs, Franz, and Paolo on the court together at all for basically this season and the.

41:45 Previous two seasons.

41:46 Only silver lining, I would say, is like Tristan De Silva is playing pretty well so far to start the season. Anthony Black is playing well in a contract year, so surely he'll step in to the Jalen Suggs role, but then that means you're backfilling with your Jace Richardsons and whoever else is deep in the depth chart for the Magic.

42:03 So the question for this team has been, Do Franz and Paolo fit together?

42:08 I don't know.

42:08 We never see them play together, and now we're not going to see them play together. Jalen Suggs has always felt like an X factor for this team. If he's shooting 40% from three, it raises their ceiling. They don't have that, at least for now. We'll still wait for the update. It could be better.

42:23 Than expected, but as of Monday morning, disgusting for the Mavs.

42:27 I don't feel that bad about it. I know it sounds a little crazy, but the way they fought against this New York Knicks team, who was playing really, really physical against them, And you had Franz not playing all that well. He started the first three quarters. He shot one for 10. It was in the fourth quarter. That guy came alive. So there's that. And to get them there or to get him there and the magic there collectively, they had to have some great performances. You mentioned a couple of them with Tristan De Silva, even Jamal Kane off the bench to play really, really well. And here you get an Anthony Black filling in. in his first game.

43:02 That was his first game against the Knicks this season. So I don't feel that bad about it considering last year when Ben Carroll was out for 10 games, there were seven and three. And so they all sort of collectively have to step up. Jalen sucks. It's an interesting one because it was a hyper, it looks like a hyperextension.

43:19 I shouldn't say it was hyperextension. It was non-contact. According to our friend, Brian Suter, MD, doesn't think it's going to be too extreme because it is a hyperextension game. seemingly it looks like it will be and Jalen Suggs always gets injured unfortunately um and hopefully it just won't be a long one for him and then I look at the schedule with Bankero supposed to be out you know four to six weeks plus Jalen Suggs it's not that ridiculously hard and this team again I think they have enough guys to step in collectively to do it together with a guy in Anthony Black yeah the contract year a lot on his shoulders but I all decent in that particular game to fight back when they could have easily crumpled, I think, against the New York Knicks,

44:07 who are now with us.

44:08 The Knicks are 0-3. Yeah, I mean, we obviously could have, or maybe are under consideration here for a loser of the weekend. But yeah, third defending champ in NBA history to open a season with three straight losses. The 69-70 Boston Celtics and the 11-12 Dallas Mavericks to start 0-3. But yeah, not great. one of those teams was going to be oh and three there between the magic and and the knicks and uh they came back like you said the magic at the end i also told nora this morning i was like well she saw the clip obviously on social of uh jalen williams and his ankle go in a direction you don't want to see so he's out looks like it's going to be for a long time told her about the other jalen williams okay

44:46 yeah he also got injured jalen duran's out two weeks jalen sucks is now out with an injury she was like oh who's Jalen Brown on? I'm like, oh, the Sixers. And she's like, what about Jalen Brunson? Oh, yeah, still with the Knicks. She's like, they need to get an Etsy witch doctor to like protect them because all these Jalen's are getting injured. I was like, whoa, this is too early for this. I haven't even had breakfast yet.

45:09 And you're talking about Etsy witch doctors at 8.30 in the morning. But maybe there's something there. Maybe there's something there. Jalen Johnson included. I mean, some big Jalen's still around. That was a lot of Jalen's that got dinged this weekend.

45:20 Totally.

45:20 Jalen Hurts dealing with blood clots.

45:22 Jesus, man. Yeah.

45:24 All right.

45:24 So if you're a fan of the Hawks, the Knicks, or the Sixers, maybe look into it.

45:29 Health recovery spell.

45:30 250.

45:31 That's what I'm saying, man.

45:32 Same day ritual. I mean, is that easy?

45:35 I guess so.

45:36 Wow, okay.

45:38 Good deal.

45:38 She knew about it. I had never heard of it.

45:40 What?

45:40 You can get this on Etsy? I didn't get everything on Etsy. Not an ad, but I guess so. Okay.

45:45 All right.

45:46 So, yeah, unfortunate for the magic and obviously the thunder there with J-Dub.

45:49 Maybe Franz Wagner had a witch doctor between third and fourth quarter. He was one for 10 going into the fourth quarter. He was eight of 13 in the fourth quarter. Just like that.

45:57 Who do you have for a loser of the weekend?

45:59 Well, the Golden State Warriors. against Memphis Grizzlies on Friday. It's hard to lose the way the Warriors lost. They collapsed. They're up double digits with a few minutes left. It's very difficult. Things just fell apart. It had to go perfectly in the wrong way for the Warriors to do that. It started with Curry fouling Jalen Wells on a three, made it a four-point play. You don't see Steph do that very often. Then here comes the misses from the Warriors. Curry, Draymond Green, Yaxa Lindenberg, Brandon Pajamski. Miss, miss, miss, miss.

46:32 And Cam Boozer on the other side, powered through both Lindenberg and Melton on two possessions. Free throws on either one. So four points there. Ty Jerome hit a three. And Jalen Wells hit a free throw to tie it. And then the Warriors missed two shots. Boozer, a beautiful turnaround jumper. And Draymond Green got called for a moving screen. As Steve Kerr said after the game, he was mad. We probably had six illegal screens tonight. The flopping that was happening on every single one. It looked like the guys were going down like they had been hit by a car.

47:03 And Kerr got a tech for that. Although we did say coming into the season, that was one thing the referees were trying to watch for. The moving screens.

47:12 The pushing and all that.

47:13 The hands flailing from the screener.

47:15 Point of emphasis.

47:16 And then to make it worse, I think it was even worse. They lose in overtime once. on Saturday against the Suns. And it's worse because they weren't playing anybody in that game. Curry sent out for a back-to-back. No Draymond sitting out. Obviously, Jimmy Butler out. Obviously, Porzingis out. Obviously, Moses Moody out. Al Horford was out. Brandon Pajamski out.

47:34 That's their half. They're a half their team.

47:36 Their starting lineup, the Warriors' starting lineup on Saturday versus the Suns, Brandon Williams, Will Richard, Guy Santos, a rookie, Yaxel Lindenburg, and Graham Eich.

47:46 E-K-E.

47:47 Thank you.

47:47 I didn't know that until I heard it on the podcast.

47:49 I was like, who is that? That was the starting lineup of game what? Three?

47:55 Three.

47:55 Of the season. I mean, you're feeling good if you took the Warriors under. Let's just say that.

48:01 It's true.

48:02 Unfortunately true.

48:03 Yes, it is true. But I think it was worse. Because you went to OT. I'd rather lose by 15 or 20. Yeah, they put up a fight.

48:12 I mean, yeah.

48:13 OT?

48:13 That's impressive. Warriors, yeah, that's any comments on that?

48:17 They're worse than I thought they were going to be.

48:19 And I was under and pretty pessimistic about them going into the season. But they've got $ 100 million in salary that's not going to be playing for basically the entire season. Like, how in the world could they possibly have thought signing Chris Tapp's Porzingis was a smart move? They want to keep the salary slot for trades, but you have to be able to trade him. And who's going to trade for a guy that literally can't play? Butler's out, we know.

48:37 Moody's out, we know. They knew that coming into the season, and they still decided to roll with all these old guys like Al Horford. D'Anthony Melton, Gary Payton, who like still have their moments, but they play better when like Pajemski's in and Guy Santos. Guy Santos is maybe their second best player right now. It's also like you look at the team, Yaxel Lindenborg is their second best creator and their perimeter stopper.

48:57 And he's a rookie.

48:59 He's getting a technical every single game, basically from trash talking, saying the most insane quotes afterwards.

49:05 I don't know.

49:05 This team seems.

49:06 Buried to me, but Steph Curry decided to sign the contract this summer. So apparently he's okay with it. I see George Neang out there. He looks like the clay thompson impersonator.

49:16 Yeah i saw people say that wait.

49:17 A second his haircut looks similar their body shapes are similar but uh george ain't as cut as clay was.

49:23 Back in the day no i saw that going around too people are like whoa i thought it was super washed clay here on the warriors okay it's george neang that's.

49:30 A bad team yeah it's a bad team i i don't want to defend their moves but you also get a like a young guy and brandon pajamski's only played one game so far They didn't expect that, number one. Number two, when they signed Porzingis months ago, I suppose it was a one-year plus a non-guaranteed most of it in that second year, and they didn't expect him to have pots the entire season where he can't play, I suppose.

49:58 So they're here with, yeah, a lot of old guys, but ready to make that change as soon as they can, which is probably going to be the next offseason. A lot of those contracts, including Porzingis, not fully guaranteed next year. They can move on. So this season is complete right now? Well, so far. Again, on Friday, that's hard to do. You're up double digits with a few minutes left. You make one play. One play, they win, and they're 1-2 and not 0-3.

50:33 One more round of weekend losers. Back to you.

50:35 Miami Heat, got to get a loser of the weekend. They lost on Friday to the Pistons, lost on Saturday to the Hornets. They're 0-3 for the first time in Eric Spolstra's head coaching career. And pretty much everything is bad for the Heat right now. I thought they would be good on defense.

50:49 Nope. 24th in the league. They gave up 131 to Minnesota, 128 to Detroit, only 115 to Charlotte.

50:52 Great game.

50:52 Improvement.

50:53 Trailed by 20 to end the third quarter. Davion Mitchell, Pella Larson brought him back in it in the loss to the Hornets. It was definitely the best the Heat have looked, but they could not stop fouling down the stretch. Giannis eventually fouls out with about two minutes left. It was just a free throw festival for the Hornets. So that's bad defense to me. You thought the offense would be clunky?

51:15 Oh yeah, quite clunky.

51:17 27th overall feels very vanilla to me. Everybody's in each other's way. They're not like running through their actions. They look very much like a new team who's like trying not to step on each other's toes and figure out how they're going to play.

51:30 I thought they would be good when Giannis is on the court and not yet. Minus 23 against Detroit, minus 11 versus Charlotte, minus 20 against Minnesota. That adds up to a minus 54 in the first three games.

51:41 He's putting up good counting stats, but they don't really mean anything for the heat right now. Percentages are a little bit down. The BAM and Giannis pairing doesn't look like it works. There was a lot of concerns about how are you going to have two guys who operate best in the interior? You don't have to respect their outside jumpers all that much. And you don't have to expect their outside jumpers basically at all right now.

52:04 They look brutal together. They're still figuring out how to play.

52:07 I don't think they want to play this way, but they should probably be like 30th in pace. I think this should be a team that like runs the ball every time three yards in a cloud of dust. See if Giannis can battery Ram stuff. Now they want to play with some fast break basketball because it's easier to score in a fast break than it is when you're letting the team set up.

52:27 So I don't know, but, uh, Right now they're 10th in pace. They're giving up a ton of threes.

52:31 I think opponents are shooting 42% against them from three. They got lit up by the Timberwolves, obviously. The Hornets were shooting it pretty well. They got destroyed by Grayson Allen, of all people. That's got to be infuriating.

52:43 Things will turn for the Heat.

52:45 They will put together a decent stretch at some point, I think, but it definitely feels like an old, slow team to me.

52:52 Totally. Yeah, they need to go younger, I think, to watch them against Charlotte to have four guys score 20 points against you. That's hard to do, too, when Nas Reed, ballin', 23 for him, Brandon Miller, 34, Grayson Allen, 20, and 25 from Dennis Schroeder. Dennis Schroeder is the first player in NBA history to score 25 or more in a game for nine different teams. Whoa!

53:16 Nine different times?

53:18 Yeah, he did it for the Hawks, the Thunder, the Lakers, the Celtics, the Raptors, the Nets, the Kings, the Cavs, the Hornets.

53:24 That's amazing.

53:26 Ish Smith didn't do that.

53:27 No.

53:28 Jim Jackson didn't do that.

53:30 Tony Massenburg did not do that.

53:32 Anthony Tolliver couldn't do it. Trevor Ariza couldn't do it. Even Kenny Anderson couldn't do it. Caron Butler couldn't do it.

53:39 This guy. Maybe Dennis Schroeder, greatest journeyman ever.

53:42 I mean, I think you're making the case.

53:44 25 in a game for nine different teams. Never done.

53:50 Wow.

53:50 Yeah.

53:51 It's a good one.

53:52 Back to Miami, though. I think we all expected, okay, the offense is going to take some time here. This could be a little clunky, to use your words, Trey. It was the defense that we were like, that'll be okay. You got Johnson, bam, and then some scrappy guys on the perimeter. I think they'll be great with a Spolster-led defense.

54:07 And it's like, yeah, in the lower third of the league here, through three games, and then just getting lit up from three. Maybe that'll come just back to the mean a little bit. But that's the shocking part, is how many points they're giving up.

54:19 Yeah, and I thought with him and Bam, Giannis and Bam, and then Davion Mitchell and Wiggins on the perimeter, it'd be all right. And so I think we're waiting here how many games that Klay is plugged into the starting lineup. Even though he's hitting shots, yeah, I think teams are just too good at using all of the floor, and Klay, you kind of have to account for him. So at some point, it's got to be a more athletic guy.

54:46 It's got to be a younger guy. It's Pella time, and Pella Larson has to be in there because he's good on both ends.

54:54 Your final losers of the weekend.

54:55 Oh, yeah. I'm sticking the Indiana Pacers in the losing category.

54:58 Oh, why?

54:59 Even though they're 1-1 this weekend. They had a home opener for Tyrese Halbern in his first game since getting injured in the NBA Finals, and they got destroyed by the Dallas Mavericks. They were down 37 for their first home game. That was disappointing. And I noted... this one part of it, because what the Indiana Pacers are good at, what they thrive in, their pride is all about, and why they just thrive at offense is their depth. And looking up and down that roster, it was just a struggle busting. Kelly Oubre sort of out of sorts playing off the bench. Obi Toppin couldn't defend anybody. Jairus Walker was in the starting lineup, looked invisible. He was in the starting lineup because Aaron Neesmith is dealing with the

55:42 hamstring and coming off the bench. So there's that worry about the injuries here with the depth because Ben Shepard is out with the meniscus injury. And then Ivica Zubats gets hurt on Sunday as well against the Brooklyn Nets to go along with TJ McConnell's injury. So I just add up all those things and it just looks like their strength that we all thought they'd have is questionable.

56:03 And so the Mavs outplayed them, I think, The Pacers only got into it because Cooper Flagg went out with an injury in that one, so they kind of closed the gap a little bit, but it was disappointing to see Tyrese Halliburton and how glorious his young career has been to come out in the first game at home bad.

56:21 I'm looking around here. I'm pretending to look around at the fans.

56:24 Do you see a fly?

56:25 Yeah, I'm like a cat. I'm like, You know, you just see a cat just stare at stuff. Yeah. That's what I'm doing right now.

56:31 They're aliens, that's why.

56:32 What's that?

56:32 They're aliens.

56:33 Yeah, right.

56:35 They're talking to the mother ship when that's happening.

56:37 Just to see the Indiana arena, just like, what are we doing here? That was just disappointing.

56:44 They bounced back on Sunday.

56:46 They beat the Nets.

56:46 They scored a whole lot of points in Brooklyn.

56:48 Won the ABA championship.

56:49 They did win the ABA championship. And Halliburton's bouncing it off the ground for his own value dunk.

56:54 That was cool.

56:55 It was crazy.

56:56 My legs work.

56:58 But 136 they put on.

56:59 Yeah, I'm just questionable about their depth. Because there's questions there, up and down. And Zubat's shouldn't be a long-term injury, but to add that to TJ McConnell, Aaron Neesmith's hamstring is not younger. You know, a guy is not getting any younger. He's a guy who's, uh, relies on physicality.

57:18 I'm worried about them just overall. Ben Shepard, I'm overall, I'm worried.

57:22 My final loser of the NBA weekend is going to go to the New Orleans Pelicans because they dropped two games over the weekend. They fell to 0-3 on the season. Saturday night was the backbreaker. They scored 73 points in the first half in Denver. Things were looking great. They're clicking. And then they relinquished a 23 point lead and lost to the Nuggets in overtime. It gets even worse than that.

57:45 They were up seven with like 75 seconds left in regulation. They didn't get a shot up. It's one thing to miss shots, like you're the Warriors, like you're saying, you just go ice cold. They weren't even taking shots. Zion Williamson, back-to-back, boneheaded turnovers. Threw one away. Luckily for them, it went out of bounds, so they could at least set up their defense. The second one, he just threw, like, there was no window. I don't know what, who he thought was open. Easily picked off, sort of going cross-court with it.

58:12 And then they're like, okay, enough going through Zion. They gave the ball to Trey Murphy, the third. He got completely, like, swallowed up, trapped on the baseline, and then it went out on him. So, like, down the stretch... They couldn't even get a shot and they go into overtime and then they lose. So they have now dropped, like I said, all three games here under first year coach Jamal Mosley.

58:30 The streets are calling him a bald Willie Green. You don't love to see that because there's a lot of question marks about what he's doing here with like who he has in there at the end of games and not like, you know, maybe when you need scores, maybe a Benedict Matherin should be in there. Or if you need a stop, maybe Herb Jones should be in there, especially in that Nuggets one. It was a little perplexing.

58:50 He's way down in the rotation. Like, yeah, the Thunder should be trying to call up and get Herb Jones, I guess, because he played 16 minutes in that Nuggets game that went to overtime. So not good here for the Pels. You know, they're in these games. I'll give them that. They've been competitive, but they're all three. 0-3 at the end of the day.

59:11 It feels like last year with Pelicans, they had close games at the beginning of last year, and then they let go of the rope, unfortunately. I don't know if bald Willie Green can keep them from letting go of the rope. Bald Willie. Bald Willie. Or it's the fact that DeJounte Murray being there could maybe hold it together for them. But yes, that was just a bad game against the Nuggets, who easily could have lost that game. Oh, they should have.

59:36 I love a game where both teams are upset. At the end, Jokic is like, how dare you boo us?

59:41 That's interesting.

59:42 And DeMar DeRozan is posting the saddest message you've ever seen. He's like, darkness is my only friend. He's been in Denver for like a week.

59:49 And they won. And then they were literally the team that won. But yeah, that was.

59:55 I don't know what's going on with the Pelicans. The team feels the exact same as last year because it's the exact same as last year. DeAndre Jordan started and played 20 minutes against the Nuggets.

1:00:05 Yeah.

1:00:05 How is that possible?

1:00:07 Yeah, the Eve Meecy injury is a little bit worrisome for them, but. There hasn't been a diagnosis for that one, but he got hit.

1:00:14 Yeah, I know.

1:00:15 Meecy is out with injury, but that doesn't mean you have to start DeAndre Jordan and play him 20 minutes. I guess the other option is Matkovich. Or you could start the big guy that you drafted last year. He's going to get lit up by Jokic, but guess what? You gave up 140 points. What's the difference? Also, Zion Williamson has six defensive rebounds in three games. The guy's supposed to be athletic. He plays to not get hurt anymore because he was hurt for the first five years of his career. He played a lot last year, but it means he doesn't play as physically as he used to.

1:00:47 They need somebody that can do the dirty work. There ain't no dirty work, guys, in New Orleans. You would say Herb is, but whatever. You don't play enough to matter, really. Right.

1:00:57 I will say the one silver lining from these games over the weekend with the Pelicans is I was really like, what's going on against the Jazz when Trey Murphy III, who is their best player offensively, he had 11 shots. um that was opening night um sorry yeah 11 shots opening night then nine versus the jazz so that's why i was like oh my god it's going down what's going on here at least in that game against the nuggets the the balance was better he had he got to 26 points he had 10 to 17 from the field those are the stats you'd like to see and the shot attempts you'd like to see a little bit more but those first two games i was like what's going on here but anyway yeah pels A classic early season loser of the weekend. They always have those locked up.

1:01:36 Yeah, when is it time to pull the plug for Joe Dumars and their front office to say... Hold on, what's a front office? Oh, Joey D.

1:01:46 It's not at the front of the building. The office is maybe in the middle of the building, if not the back.

1:01:50 Yeah, that was weird. I'm still trying to make sense of why he didn't get that question.

1:01:55 I did see a tweet that.

1:01:57 the Joe Dumars-Troy Weaver pairing together.

1:02:01 They've, like, in their last 10 seasons together. These guys have had 10 seasons together, haven't gotten to 30 wins.

1:02:10 What nude photos do they have of... The owners.

1:02:14 Great question.

1:02:15 Great question.

1:02:17 Wow. Gale? It's tough to do.

1:02:19 I realized after I said it. I realized after I said it who was the owner of the Pelicans.

1:02:27 Yes.

1:02:28 But they saved the Nuggets because the Nuggets could have easily been the loser of the week.

1:02:33 Do you have an opinion on Jokic? you know, calling out his own fans. Hey, you're booing us? Don't come back, I believe is what he said. I'm paraphrasing. You're going to boo us? Don't come back. And then he was like, we do this all the time. We're down 20 all the time and come back. Why are you booing us?

1:02:48 But he did seem a little contentious for Jokic.

1:02:53 Yeah, it feels like Giannis of last year when the Bucs fans were booing him and he turned around and did the thumbs down to the Bucs fans. Can't help but connect it. Does that mean Jokic wants to leave. Jokic hasn't been, he's been really good stats-wise, but it doesn't feel like you're going to him the same way.

1:03:15 It doesn't feel like Jokic has started this season like the MVP.

1:03:18 They definitely didn't, but in that game, they finally were like, spam the Murray-Jokic pick and roll, and they were both on fire.

1:03:25 Oh, Jamal Murray was awesome.

1:03:26 As the game went on.

1:03:27 Yeah, 42 for Jamal Murray.

1:03:29 Okay. So all you're saying is you're taking notice of these comments. You're writing it down in the ledger.

1:03:33 Is there anything? Is there anything? Do you think there's anything? Does he want to leave Denver?

1:03:38 No, I don't think he wants to leave Denver. But the one thing he's right about is like they do do this all the time. They are one of the first teams I think of for a first half leads aren't real. They are always going to come back. Jamal Murray has basically been like, who cares if we're down by 20 in the first half? So from that standpoint, I understand it. But I like the way the opinion of Aaron Gordon more.

1:03:59 He was like.

1:04:00 I'd rather them boo than them be quiet.

1:04:02 Yeah.

1:04:02 They care.

1:04:03 Yeah. That's a better response to me than being mad that you got booed for giving a poor effort in the first half.

1:04:08 And they did. Yeah.

1:04:08 And then this, here we are, this is year four post NBA championship. And maybe it's just time that they've kind of run their course while the New York Knicks, I think are another team that I think about that get down big and can overcome it. And we're only three games post Knicks championship. Yeah. That's a little bit more worrisome to me in that that shouldn't happen.

1:04:33 A part of the reason they're always down 15 or 20 is the Ole defense that they play, especially Jokic, who's done this for years. And look, he's an MVP guy, but I don't know if it's a part of his equation. I don't want to pick up these early fouls or whatever, but it's remarkable it is it is there there is just no defensive like challenge at anyone if you're around the rim at least early in games versus them and this has.

1:04:57 Been going on for years here the one block he had i think it was late in the fourth was when there was a one of his teammates was in the way yeah and he blocked it through them sort of thing like those are his blocks um that was just He was saved by Trevin Brazil. Yeah, he was great. He was awesome. Yeah, and we talked about him last week.

1:05:16 I mean, the height that he gets on his jumps, blocking shots in the corner, they've got the needed athleticism. It feels like he's kind of replacing Peyton Watson as the athletic guy out there. He's a different player than Peyton Watson, but it's nice to have. But it is worrisome. It is worrisome. The whole thing is worrisome. Maybe they just need. A new roster at some point. If they're going to continue to do this with one of the best players in the game at some point, yeah, they're going to have to.

1:05:46 What?

1:05:46 They're better than this. But we'll see what the roster can do.

1:05:51 Did you think the Aaron Gordon dunk was an alley-oop or a short floater?

1:05:55 Oh, good question.

1:05:56 Right? I mean, he releases it like a floater.

1:05:59 I know. I thought it was a floater.

1:06:00 I thought the guy's a genius passer.

1:06:03 It's more likely he meant to do it. Yes.

1:06:05 He follows it like he missed it. He charges after it as if it's going to come off.

1:06:10 The front rim.

1:06:11 Just incredible awareness from AG then to go and reverse it.

1:06:15 They've done it so many times. At first I'm like, whoa, air ball, but this is what they do.

1:06:20 Yeah, exactly. All right, those are our winners and losers of the NBA weekend. It's a Monday staple here on No Dunks. If you're new and appreciate you joining us, hit the like button, subscribe, all that good stuff, five-star ratings and reviews. But let us know who we missed. There's always a ton more winners and losers coming. that you can let us know in the stream team or in the comments. Well, let's go to Lovebite. Lovebite of the night. We're only looking at Sunday, though I have been sharing Friday nights and Saturdays on our Instagram page.

1:06:46 If you want to go check those out, who got those? But Luka gets Sunday. That's a no-brainer. 52 points, not bad. 8 of 18 from deep. 10 assists. eight boards, and yeah, look at that little photo there, Tass. Look at the wispy hair on this guy. He was making a lot of funny faces in this game. So, Luka gets his first Woeboy.

1:07:06 Yeah. Is that going to be a stat on the Woeboy card? funny faces throughout the game.

1:07:14 You track everything.

1:07:15 No, you don't have to. You don't have to, man. You're good. You're good. Luca Lee's a league. That's why you're good. He's got the.

1:07:20 Most funny faces.

1:07:21 Just put funny faces. Infinite symbol. He's just got who's.

1:07:25 Challenging him in the funny faces department earlier in the year. I mean, Carl Anthony Towns is always a funny face guy in general. So he's got to be in the mix.

1:07:34 Dylan Harper, uh, underrated funny face guy.

1:07:37 Okay.

1:07:39 I do like Towns. Towns is funny.

1:07:41 He's good. Towns just makes you laugh. It's also how he plays and his body parts going everywhere when he's selling stuff. He's just a goofy guy. He literally has been goofy before in the Christmas Disney game.

1:07:55 And it's perfect. They're too good.

1:07:57 All right. Let's make our way into the Pick'Em here, TK.

1:07:59 Yeah, this episode is brought to you by Calshi.

1:08:01 It's an exchange where you can trade on what you actually think is going to happen in sports or whatever is on your mind. You're going up against other traders directly with no house setting the odds. It's just people putting their own opinions on the line. Trade $ 25 with code NODUNKS and they'll throw in another $ 55 instantly.

1:08:17 Trade responsibly.

1:08:18 The market we're looking at tonight, Jazz at Grizzlies.

1:08:21 Already?

1:08:22 Again?

1:08:22 Yeah, running back, baby.

1:08:23 Jeez!

1:08:25 Utah favored by a point and a half. 51% of Cal State traders favor the Grizzlies.

1:08:29 Getting a little bit of action.

1:08:30 Yeah. This was a tough one. You're ultimately going to Jazz.

1:08:34 I'm going Jazz just because the Grizz took him out the first time. We can't beat him twice in a week.

1:08:40 Grizzlies is going to go to 4-0. The talk of the town if they do.

1:08:44 Yeah, they're damn good. Even when Zachy didn't play in their last game, Isaiah Stewart comes on in. They're deep.

1:08:52 That's true. Tied your own for MVP?

1:08:55 What's he averaging? 34.5 or something?

1:08:58 Is he leading the league?

1:08:59 No, it's got to be Lucas.

1:09:00 Lucas stole it from him.

1:09:01 Well, I actually don't know.

1:09:01 Ty Jerome was.

1:09:03 Ty Jerome was, yeah, because he had it.

1:09:05 Ty Jerome is currently leading at 34.7 points per game.

1:09:08 He is also number one on basketball references. MVP trackers. early in the season. It goes Ty Jerome, Luca, Austin Reeves, Amin Thompson, Anthony Edwards. Pretty weird list.

1:09:18 Whoa, what a fascinating list. Walker Kessler, number 10.

1:09:21 Wow.

1:09:22 Amin Thompson, you said is third right now? I mean, fourth. Oh, fourth. Okay. I like this. This is fun.

1:09:27 That's the problem with the Lakers. They got three top 10 MVP candidates. But what about their depth?

1:09:34 Okay, so Trey and I have the Grizzlies. So we got a point to play with, basically. They could lose by one, and we would still cover. But Jazz got a win by two or more, and Tass has them. In our short month of October, loser at the end of the month has to do something weird or embarrassing or something. Right now, it's eating bad candy.

1:09:56 Oh, man. Oh, man.

1:09:58 But we're still open to suggestions. Dope. We can't do the diaper one. We can't do the diaper one. We'll get banned on YouTube.

1:10:09 That's a good point.

1:10:10 They said no diapers?

1:10:11 No diapers. No grown man babies?

1:10:14 Fine. No dunks, no dipes. Yeah. How would they know, man? YouTube wouldn't know.

1:10:22 They watch this. They watch this, man.

1:10:24 How could they possibly find out?

1:10:26 All right, we'll call it there. Nice long Monday edition here of No Dunks for you. Again, thank you to everybody joining us live. Love to see that. Do your part. Please help us. out by hitting the like button and subscribing. And Spotify, Apple people, leave us those reviews, baby. Help us out with the five-star ratings. We bring them back five-star Friday when it comes to the drop? I haven't done that.

1:10:46 We haven't done it in a long time.

1:10:47 We started doing founding Fridays with our founding members, but we should definitely check in on the.

1:10:53 Reviews at some point.

1:10:54 Yeah. Okay.

1:10:55 So get your reviews. It might be a great time to hear your review and name on the podcast when we get to the end of the week and all that. Back tomorrow. Lots of games on here on a Monday night. Well, hey, happy.

1:11:05 What is it?

1:11:06 Sports Equinox. What day?

1:11:09 We got all sports.

1:11:10 All sports are on today. Oh, yeah.

1:11:12 Monday Night Football.

1:11:13 Yeah.

1:11:13 World Series.

1:11:14 Yep. WNBA game.

1:11:16 Yeah. And then NBA.

1:11:17 Yeah.

1:11:18 Great.

1:11:18 So all five of the majors can even include WNBA there with the game five, big game five. Did you go down to game four? No, I didn't go to game four.

1:11:28 Disappointing performance.

1:11:30 Yeah from our dreamers i mean they fought back you knew you knew that was gonna happen because they have a good defense you knew they were gonna claw back get in the game they just couldn't hit a shot down the stretch.

1:11:38 Two great looks at three down five with like a minute left uh gray missed one from the right wing and then that one borlays had she was having a great night too yeah the left wing wide open couldn't make it kia stokes though i thought was the key to the game really shut down angel reese pivotal game five Okay, Pivotal Game 5, 100% agree.

1:11:57 They were calling it.

1:11:57 A Pivotal Game 4 all the time on the broadcast.

1:12:01 Maybe it's different in the WMJ. Game 4s are pivotal over there. I don't know, but it was throwing me for a loop.

1:12:06 It's pivotal for the games here in Atlanta because they don't know where they're ever playing them. God almighty, we're doing it again with Game 6. What the hell is going on here? All right, so enjoy all the sports. Watch all the sports. We'll talk about every single sport on tomorrow's No Ducks. Maybe that'll be our challenge here.

1:12:23 Until then, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first.

1:12:25 Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys.

1:12:28 Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, the WNBA Finals is seven games. Maybe that's why they were calling it Pivotal because it used to be five games. So they forgot. They were saying, no, it was just Pivotal. This is an important one. It could end. It could end today.

1:12:42 Like game four. When it was five, yeah.

1:12:45 In the old days, you're right. Brace the day, people.