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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What a matchup we got, y'. All. This is that classic HBCU vibe. Non stop action. The band is rockin and the crowd lit. Chance echo drum beatin Everybody showing that school pride. Game like this, yeah, it calls for an ice cold Coca Cola. Ah, crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Yeah, that taste always hits the right note. Just like the band at halftime. And just like that, we're back at it. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere and in ice cold Coca Cola. That's a winning combo. No matter the sport, no matter the yard. Everybody knows fan work is thirsty work. So grab a Coca Cola and keep that HBCU pride going. This is Julian Edelman from Games With Names. Fan fantasy football can be exhausting. I mean that literally. You're so anxious over your lineup, you can't fall asleep. Best way to deal with it is unisom. There's a reason it's the number one doctor recommended over the counter sleep aid brand. It helps you fall asleep faster, wake up less and feel refreshed in the morning. Plus unisom sleep tabs are clinically tested and proven effective and and completely non habit forming. So make the ultimate sleeper pick and put it to bed with unisom. Use as directed. So let me get this straight. Your company has data here, there and everywhere, but your AI can't use the data because it's here, there and everywhere? Seems like something's missing. Every business has unique data. IBM helps your AI access your data wherever it lives to change how you do business. Let's create Smile to business IBM. Good morning sweet world and welcome to the no Dunks podcast presented by FanDuel. It's Friday, December 26, 2025. Happy Boxing Day to all the boxes out there, the moving boxes, the shoe boxes, the whole lot of you. I'm J. Skeets here in the yard and in the background helping me out. Thanks to the power of technology, it is Eshua Kid. But this guy, he's got so many kids. It's a madhouse over there. As you can imagine, as I'm sure a lot of you with kids the day after Christmas, there's a whole lot of new toys being played with. So he's going to lay low and push the buttons and we'll make this work. Because I am here to recap all five of the Christmas Day games. Not bad. Some incredible games, some duds will actually rank all five games from most entertaining to least entertaining. But hey, because it's solo Skeets, Santa Skeets, whatever you want to call me today, hit the like button. Subscribe Comment away in the Stream team on YouTube podcast listeners, five star ratings and reviews do it for me. I will note too, before we get into the games, we did have a trio of wedgies on Tuesday night. We're gonna wait to show you those next week. We'll show you on Monday's show. As long as I don't forget to put them in the dock for Monday's podcast when TAS will be back and Ash will be there in the Classic factory with myself. But we have 13 hours plus of hoops on Christmas day to talk about. I had a blast. I watched a whole lot of it. I'll admit I fell asleep somewhere in the first second quarter of the last game. Watched that classic this morning and that'll be the one we start with because Jokic. Not bad. Not a bad Christmas day for this guy. Jokic recorded a 56 point triple double. He set an NBA record with 18 points in overtime. He led the Denver Nuggets to a wild 142, 138 win over the Timberwolves to cap that busy Christmas Day slate. When I was coming up with how I was going to tackle today's show, I was like, okay, I'll rank them in order most entertaining to least entertaining. An incredibly original idea. And I was like there's no way that Knicks Cavs is not going to be the number one game. That was awesome. What a way to start the day. Then obviously the spurs having the Thunders number once again. I was like oh, that might be. That might be one, at least two. And then here comes Jokic and the Nuggets down three starters doing this because of injury and take another victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves. So Jokic did a whole bunch of firsts last night. First 55, 1515 game in NBA history. We'll get to Whoa boy. We have a sponsor. That was a an obvious woe boy there. He broke his own record, Jokic did, for the highest scoring triple double in NBA Christmas history. Only two other players, Bernard King in 1984, Wilt Chamberlain in 1961 have ever scored more points on Christmas. You might remember last week I was hoping as we were getting ready. Wait, not last week. Earlier this week. Oh man, I'm all out of whack here. We were doing our Christmas wish list and I was like I want somebody to go for 50. I thought it might be Brunson. In the end it's Jokic and then Jokic, like I said there in the intro, he broke Steph Curry's record of 17 overtime points from 2016. This guy scored 18 points in overtime, making that the highest by any player in a regular season game. NBA playoff game, hell, NBA cup game if you want. So just incredible. Just like splashing those threes in the overtime period. Obviously got a lot of free throws. There was some intentional fouling at the end, so he was racking him up at the line, but next to unstoppable, especially when Rudy Gobert is not on the floor. Good luck. And I just love, and I think I saw CBS Sports sort of tackle it this way, or maybe it was the Athletics. So excuse me, but I love that the Christmas Day games, like they showcased sort of the past, present and future of NBA greats, right? The past. We had the old guard, we had Steph Curry playing, we had LeBron, we had Kevin Durant. The present, your Shay Gilchis Alexander, your Anthony Edwards, your Jalen Brunson, maybe your Luca. And then the future is like your Cooper Flags, your Wembanyamas, Amin Thompson, maybe. But from all of those guys, the past, the present, the future, Jokic remains the best. Is the best. Period. Like, this is going to sound stupid, but it felt like he won MVP on Christmas yesterday. Like his fourth Shay. I voted for Shai in the first straw poll. This was before, obviously racking up some losses to the spurs, but come on, who am I kidding? Myself? I did that knowing full well. It's like, well, Jokic is going to win another one of these. Unbelievable game. Kudos to Antho for fighting through that early shoulder injury. He came alive in the fourth quarter. He scored 13 points, hit the ridiculous turnaround three pointer in the corner over Jamal Murray with like 1.1 seconds remaining in regulation. That forced overtime. Then he was on fire in overtime, got the wolves, the nine point lead. I mean, how many times do we see a team that's down nine in the extra frame come back to win? That can't have happened often. So Ant was awesome. I love that Ant called a shot too. Like I'm going to go for 30, maybe 40 here on Christmas Day. He backed that up. But then his night ended with that second technical foul in overtime. Prompted the ejection. Look what he did there to warrant it. Like obviously slapping or trying to slow down Jokic, who wisely knew, I think that Ant was going to try and do that after the dunk, trying to get the ball in quick. And then he really, you know, like, oh, Demonstrably showed that he got hit. It's the right call, but it's just a bummer that Scott Foster had to like decide, I'm the superstar here, everybody. But it all added up. It was a cumulative and he was gone. There was frustration from Ant, I think, especially in that overtime period. There was a couple plays. There was that one late call, like very late whistle where Scott Foster was on the other end of the floor. And it looked like they maybe had created a turnover from Jokic. The one I'm talking about was like around half court, he was sort of fumbling and stumbling. Maybe there was contact. But like again, the whistle came late and that like sort of led or was a part of Ant's frustration. But man, what a game. What a way. Again, Christmas Day slate. Started it with a banger, ended it with a classic. And the Nuggets again have the Wolves number like the spurs have the Thunders number. This year, at least the Nuggets have the wolves number going 3, 0. My only concern here with the Wolves, because that was a hell of a fight. They probably should have put the game away in regulation. They should have had this victory. But another one of these games where they got very little from the bench. Looking at the box score. Nasrid13, okay, that's usually you can put that in pen, but everybody else, he's just like. Finch is like. He's sort of given up on a lot of the young guys. Doesn't have a lot of faith in them. I mean, Bones Highland, okay, He needs to learn how to miss a free throw on purpose. Did you see that attempt, dude? You got to hit the rim, man. He wasn't even close. But you just like, you're not obviously, Rob Dillingham, he's buried. Taran Shannon Jr. 10 minutes, he did nothing. Jalen Clark, limited minutes. Conley, your OG guy, the young guy, but he barely plays. They need a bench. They need a bench, man. A little concern because you're losing to a team with the Nuggets, like I said, missing three starters and they seem to show more depth than you did. Don't love that. But holy crap. To have four guys go for 30 plus in ant going for 40 plus. Julius Randall going for 30 plus. Jamal Murray hitting that huge three in overtime and he finished with 35. And then Jokic with a 56 point triple double bang. What a game. What a game. Even if I had to watch it this morning, it was still good. Even if I knew the actual result, which I did. Still amazing. That one was weird. Knowing the result, knowing Jokic's stat line and like seeing how many points he had like in the fourth quarter. What the hell? How the hell does he get to 56? What's going on here? It didn't. It was like the math was not mapping for me. Like that seems impossible. Maybe it's an error by the Associated Press that he had 56 point triple, double. No, he got there. So great game. And the Jokic, excuse me, the Nuggets, you know, they're on the short list for championship contenders. We had one. Probably add their name to the list in the San Antonio spurs if they weren't already on your list. But the Nuggets remain there, especially with Jokic and Jamal Murray at the end of game situations. Still the most unstoppable duo in the clutch, in my opinion. I don't know what you do with those guys. All right, next game. The second most entertaining game of the day was what I thought was going to be the best. And that was Jalen Brunson scoring 34 points. The Knicks bench leading the way as New York came from 17 down in the fourth quarter to beat the Cavaliers. 126. 124. Such a great game. So much fun. That's how you start. Five days on Christmas is five games too many. Probably now that's coming from someone that's trying to watch them all. I'd love to poll the average person out there. How many minutes of NBA basketball are you actually watching on Christmas? You know, are you watching just one game? Maybe two. Can't imagine the percentage is high for sickos like us. A lot of you in the stream team trying to take down all of them. Most of them. It's a lot. Five, maybe three. Let's go to three. I wouldn't mind a. Here's the thing. I wouldn't mind a gap between the games. Give me a 12 o'. Clock, give me a 5 o'. Clock. Give me a 10 30. I don't even want a 10 30. But I understand for the west coast, right, that's not late for them. So I think we do that because that'd be good. That'd be good. Maybe I'm saying that because two of these were duds. But back to the Knicks. I wrote first thing in my notes from this game. Jalen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell are the definition of big game players. Both those guys feels like they show up in Big's games. You know, Christmas Day being a marquee game. And they both were fantastic. But the Reserves is what won the game for the Knicks. Got the comeback. Jordan Clarkson in the custom red shades there. He was great. He had that stretch where he just splashed a bunch of three pointers. He got the Knicks sort of going. Tyler Kolek, he had the garden fricking rocking. 16 points, nine assists. Maybe this guy is Steve Nash. Maybe I was wrong. He had the fans chanting his name. After that late block on Donovan Mitchell originally called a foul. They reviewed it and correctly overturned it. I think it was in part because maybe Mitchell was trying to put on a show in msg. There was going to get a little, a little windmill action going. Could have just probably laid it up with his left hand. And those are two points. But goes to put down the big dunk. And Kolik slapped it out perfectly. I think that was enough ball or all ball. And they got that one right on the overturn. But man, Clarkson and Kolik, I called them a law firm. They had MSG going nuts. But none of it happens without Mitchell Robinson, who did his thing again, hustling for offensive rebounds, keeping possessions alive. It felt like at times the Knicks offensive game plan is shoot the ball, miss the ball. Mitchell Robinson, offensive rebound, kick it out for a score. Because Mitchell Robinson's impact was unreal in this game. He entered with like 7:43 left in the fourth quarter. Knicks are down by 13 and by the 4:09 mark. So three and a half minutes, let's call it. New York is down by one and what happened? Basically what I just said, Shoot miss. Mitchell Robinson, offensive rebound leading to a Knicks basket. I think he had five offensive rebounds in that little three minute window stretch to get the Knicks right back in the game. And they're not even competing in this one without him. It's amazing. This guy has just one incredible skill and it's won New York so many games. It feels like this year. And the more I look at Mitchell Robinson, I'm like, is this guy can just remain healthy? Because always a question mark with them. They obviously use him in limited minutes now. It's working perfectly. Mike Brown pressing all the right buttons there. Like, can Mitchell Robinson decide whether or not the Knicks actually win a championship? I think they're that close, talent wise. And these other guys contributing that. He's like the thing that pushes them over the edge to maybe at least get there to the finals. So those guys were awesome. All three of those guys. Like I said, Clarkson, Kolek and Mitchell Robinson. And then Jalen Brunson was special too. It wasn't the 50 I wanted, but he gave me 34. I love when he just goes to his little baseline spot. That little pull up baseline jumper. That's his. His go to move. Try and take that away. He was hitting threes and really fun game. So fun. Evan Mobley back, that was out of nowhere for me. For the cavs, he had 14 and nine. After he missed just five games with that strained left calf. We thought it was going to be much longer. I think I said on the show, will we even see this guy until 2026? No, he's back for Christmas and look okay for a guy coming back from injury. More than anything, the Cavs have been playing better recently. The threes had been falling. They obviously had a solid lead in this one. They should have won this game just like the Wolves over Denver. And they're probably feeling not too bad. You know, they want this victory. But they showed they can hang. They showed they've maybe got things going. Garland looking better. I don't love Jared Allen getting absolutely bullied by Mitchell Robinson again. That's a recurring theme, remember obviously the postseason matchup between these two teams a couple years ago. He got cooked. The lights were too bright. The Christmas lights were too bright, I guess yesterday for him. He just gets thrown around by Mitchell Robinson. Not great. Not great. That's the one guy they should look to trade if they are making moves. But they're getting their guys and their squad back. So Cavs are looking a little bit more like the Cavs we anticipated coming into the season. Few other random notes from this game, and this is in general about the ESPN production yesterday. Give me some Christmas flair. Like, what the hell? Why is the score bug vanilla? Like, it is so boring. Yeah, it says NBA Christmas. I guess it changes to like seasons of giving or whatever. Like give me something, guys. A little snowflake, a little light Christmas lights. Like a wreath. Like colors. Like nothing. Like, the only thing you would have known that it was Christmas yesterday from the production and the teams and the jerseys. Like what? The snowflake on the back of the jersey. Okay, that's cool. Let's put those in Topps cards, you know, sell boxes for an insane price that even no kid could possibly buy. Okay, that's fine. I like the snowflake. And then there's like, I think on the stanchion, the NBA logo. There's like Christmas lights and maybe some like light snowflakes. Like, that's it. Ah, come on. I need a little bit more. A little bit more. I know you don't want to put lights on the stanchion or the backboard because you're worried they're going to break. That's fine. But something with the production. Espn, I guess ESPN hadn't done a game in like a month. Maybe they forgot. They're like, oh, crap, we're up on Christmas. We did have Ernie, Jack, Kenny, Chuck. Had them all day. I watched a little bit of it. I mean, I was slick with it yesterday. I was doing a lot of, like, banking time. I'm not sitting here for 3, 13 plus hours. I got a bank a game and then be able to fly through free throws, fly through commercial breaks, fly through half times. But Shaq did run through the big screen. That was their big bit of the day that they then replayed a million times. And okay, that was funny because they're usually doing Shaq gets body checked into the Christmas tree. And they set it up where you couldn't really tell it was that one part of the screen was fake. So well played is my point. But, yeah, back to the production. Come on. Just lame. Just lame. Now. It's unfortunate I can't talk to Esch here, but I watched a little bit of Dunk the Halls, the alternate cast with all the cartoon characters and the animations and all that. Apparently that had a rough go of it, too. There were some technical difficulties. I saw a clip where a gingerbread ref was suddenly playing. I saw, like, a Cavs guy score. And the Cavs guy. It was. It was off the rails at times, but the highlights are worth checking out just anytime. Like Mickey Mouse going down the lane throwing down a dunk. Or Minnie Mouse goofy as cat. It's pretty funny. But, yeah, I guess even they were struggling. And then those obnoxious Marty supreme digital ads on the court. Ooh, guys, change the color. Make it blend in more with the floor. I know they're digital ads. I know there are other ones. Booking.com. okay. Yeah, sure. You gotta do a better job. They look brutal. The Marty Supreme. Maybe it's the color or whatever. Although the orange should work well in Madison Square Garden. It was too bright. It was too obnoxious is what I wrote down. So those are my production notes. Moving on to our third most entertaining game of the day. That's saying something. That's how good Christmas was. You could suck it. NFL it is De' Aaron Fox scoring 29 points as the spurs defeated the Thunder 117, 102 for their third win over the defending NBA champs in the past two weeks. Less than two weeks. Incredible. The spurs defeated the Thunder in the NBA cup semifinal game on December 13th. I, I wondered on no dunks, did the spurs just save the regular season for everybody by beating them there, showing that the Thunder were vulnerable. Then they followed up on Tuesday this week. Yeah, that was this week where they beat them in San Antonio. Really solid win. Okay, back to back situation for okc, but great win. And then they did it again on Christmas and this was pretty damn impressive. And I tweeted last night, I am loving how the spurs are seemingly the Thunders kryptonite. People are wondering is Victor Wembanyama Lex Luthor? I'll let you decide that. I don't know Superman well enough to speak on that. Sure, sure, we'll ask JD when he's back from Mexico. But the spurs took a double digit lead with four and a half minutes left in the second quarter. The Thunder never got closer than seven points the rest of the way. A team that is notorious for their little avalanche runs right where they just the turnovers lead to easy fast break points. And before you know it, oh damn, that's an 8, 0 run because they added a 3 in there, maybe an and 1 and they turned you over and they're suddenly, you know, on that 8090100 run but never really happened. And that's impressive stuff from the spurs here man. So the Thunder after opening their season with 24 wins in their first 25 games have now lost 4, 6, including 3 defeats to the spurs. And oh my God, am I here for it. I really believe they've saved the regular season. I truly believe that because now there's like they saved the season period because now there is doubt of obviously OKC just storming through the league and repeating because they're maybe going to have to go through San Antonio who have their number and it just like gives it a little more intrigue. They'll play. They'll play twice more, right? Because they played in the NBA cup semifinals. I don't think they play again for a couple of weeks. January 13th, I think they meet in OKC, but they have two more on the docket and it's like what they just did playing in short amount of time. It sort of replicates a little bit of a playoff series with the know quicker turnaround or at least seeing each other again. So that's really fun. San Antonio shot really well on Christmas. 54% from the field. The Thunder did not. 39%. The game plan is pretty simple here against OKC, at least from the spurs side of things when Wemby is out there, let him roam. Let him hold down the paint. Let him get in everybody's heads. He can just cover so much court, and he can just leave Alex Caruso and see if Alex Caruso can beat you. And he couldn't on Christmas. They were generating their clean looks from the corners, and nobody could hit them, especially Caruso. I think he missed his first nine. In fact, he missed his first nine. It was eight or nine. And then there was a play where maybe Shea got fouled. And if you noticed it, Caruso grabbed the ball, like, right away and started, like, doing, like, super quick little layups to see the ball go through the rim to try and, like, sneak in a little layup practice to get going a little bit. And I, I, I made note of it. Cause I was like, hmm, could be a short there if he hits his next one and suddenly, like, breaks free in this game. But he missed. He missed. So he must have been like 0708 at that point. He missed again. He hit a couple as the game went on, but they just. Caruso could not make the spurs pay for leaving Wembanyama. Awesome. And just roaming. It's sort of like. It's really what the game came down to. And it's. It's awesome because the spurs like their wing guys. They're not. They're not afraid of the bully Thunder. In fact, they're bigger and maybe stronger, and they're sort of. They're younger in. In Harper and Castle's sake. Fox was awesome. As I said, as I led this, I thought he was so good. Those 21 points in the first half, I love. He's talking a little shit to the OKC crowd. And the intensity in this game, very high. It is amazing. I have this third on the list from Christmas Day because you had Wemby clapping enthusiastically when Chet was missing free throws. Like I said, Fox was talking junk to the crowd. He had 21 in the first half, yet two thunderous dunks, both Keldon Johnson on the putback. He was going crazy. Dylan Harper, he keeps it a lot cooler. But he had that one where he cut baseline. Wemby found him. Great catch. And then the finish. It's so much fun how much these teams hate each other. I love it. We need a playoff series. It has to happen. You know, perfect world. It's conference finals or. But whatever, we'll take second round. However it shakes out. They got to see each other. We got to get this real rivalry going. The regular season is one Thing. The playoffs is a whole different beast. And when they meet again in the regular season or the playoffs, Chet Holmgren has to play better. He's been bad in all three losses to the Spurs. He shot 3 of 8 in the NBA cup semifinal loss. He. I think he did hit a lot of free throws that game, but that's not good. 3 of 8. That's quiet Tuesday. Earlier this week, he shot 3 of 10 from the floor. He only had seven points. And then on Christmas, 5 and 9, only 10 points. Whereas Wemby's, like, putting up those numbers and better in, like, 10 minutes less because they got him coming off the bench still. And that's the other scary part. It's like, holy crap. Spurs beat the Thunder three times. And Wemby's like, he's playing two thirds of what he's eventually going to play, maybe a half of what he's eventually going to play in, you know, in a. In a do or die big playoff game. But the Chet part of it all. Trey's brought it up. Should they just put Chad on Wemby? I heard the hoop collective wonder the same thing. I will say TK was first to this point, but they added to it wondering, put Chad on. Put Chad homegrid on Wembanyama, because maybe Wemby, he's so invested in that rivalry with him that. That distaste for Chet and the team that he might, like, try and do too much. He might take the spurs out of their rhythm because he wants to expose Chet Holmgren. I think it's worth a try. I think they should at least do it in one of these fourth or fifth games in the regular season. And then the other thing is, just like Harrison Barnes and Keldon Johnson, they are not afraid of Chad Holmgren at all. They defend them very physically despite the size difference, and they're both comfortable attacking him off the dribble. So that's a great matchup. Jalen Williams, bad game. You know, Shea didn't have a great game either. And that's got to go to spurs defensive game plan. It's awesome. These guys, like I said the first time they beat him in the NBA cup semifinal, they're like the. Like, they. They're the people that step back to the bullies, right? The thunder of the bullies. And they don't put up with it because they're just as big and just as strong and just as athletic. The spurs are especially on the wing. And then you got Wemby just roaming back there for the 25 minutes that he's out there. So definitely watching Chet in the next game, what they do with him and, and J Dub too. I mean, and he's got an excuse because the injury, but like, you know, he'd like to see a little bit more. I didn't think he, he played all that well, but I am just falling in love with Steph Castle and, and Dylan Harper. Both those guys, they're so good. They're just such in control and I, I just love their, like, I don't know, the way they hold themselves out there. There's no, no, not never too high, never too low. They let Wemby, like Wemby's sort of the crazy one, you know, in a good way, the emotional leader and then they're just steady as a rock. And that's pretty impressive for their age. So those are the three best games. We're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, we'll get to the other two. I, I promise I won't do as long on the other two. But a word from our sponsor here. Friday night, the lights are bright, the court's buzzing, the weekend's calling. And FanDuel, they're turning it up with NBA Happy Hour. Cheers to that. I got my snowman mug here for the holidays. I got nothing in it except coffee, no, no brandy, no eggnog or anything like that. I'm gonna go play basketball after this. That's why. But every Friday from 6 to 7:30, 30pm Eastern, FanDuel is dropping limited time specials to get you in the zone. We're talking boosts, we're talking bonuses, surprises, all designed to bring that Friday energy. It's fast, it's fun, and it's here for one reason, to kick start your weekend before the first tip. So don't just scroll. We all get caught scrolling away. Check the FanDuel app, grab the week special and make your move before the shot clock runs out at 7:30. There are lots of NBA games on tonight. The most competitive one in regards to team records is here in Atlanta. Thinking about going Heat vs Hawks, both teams desperate for a win. So I would like to imagine that both teams might actually try to compete on the defensive end. I'm imagining that. So I'm going to keep my eye here on some of the team and player unders because maybe these teams are desperate, they're a little well rested that they bring it. Then again, they could just give up a ton of points because they don't play defense. But this isn't just Another promo. It's your Weekly pre game NBA Happy Hour every Friday, 6 to 7:30 Eastern only on FanDuel, the official sportsbook partner of the NBA. Okay, let me grab this snowman mug and take a sip because I have just talked about for 30 minutes straight. So chat amongst yourself in the stream team did that for the audio listeners. That's how good that coffee hit. Christmas coffee does hit better in general than other coffees from the year. It's because you're not really having to work usually and you're just sitting there. I love that meme. I don't know if it's a meme but like yeah, I guess it's a meme of like moms, moms sitting there watching their Christmas kid, their kids open Christmas gifts. Makes me laugh every time. Like just like a smug little smile on their face sipping their coffee. Okay, let's go to the other games here. We'll move with some pace. Our fourth best game of the day. I debated between the Rockets win and the warriors win, but I'm gonna put this one here. Amen Thompson scoring 26 points to lead six players in double figures as the Rockets never trailed beat the Lakers 117.96. I would say Amin Thompson, if we were doing winners and losers of Christmas day, I think Amin Thompson would be a big winner for me. He has had somewhat of an up and down little sophomore season. His usage has risen in large part because of the absence of Fred Van Vliet, but his efficiency has dipped. I think his defense maybe has dipped a little bit too just because of this new role, more difficult role. He's trying to adjust, but he was awesome on Christmas Day. He got to the rim at will as we know he can and he had 26 points, 1219 shooting, seven boards, five assists filled up the box scorer. And I saw Sam Quinn at CBS Sports note how last night perfect example of what Houston's offense is meant to look like at its best. Amin Thompson athleticism blended with Kevin Durant's shooting and then a gazillion offensive rebounds from Sengun, from Steven Adams, from Capella and co because they dominated the glass. That's what they do. But that is, that is the balance right there. That athleticism from some of the younger guys led by Amin Thompson that lights out shooting from KD and then just work on the glass. So really just professional win. Rockets had been reeling a little bit. I thought they needed this one sort of just to remind everybody, hey, we're here still. Yeah. Thunder are the defending Champs. Yeah, the spurs are the next best thing. Yeah, nobody can stop Jokic. But what about us? Right? Because they're either in that tier or they're the top of the next tier in the Western Conference. And they're showing to me. I do have more faith in them than this Lakers team and potentially the Wolves. That one's tough between the Rockets and the Wolves, but those are the squads that are in that mix right there. As for the Lakers, this is the sort of loss we've seen a couple times this season. It's. They are just outclassed against athletic groups like Houston. Time and time again, we've seen it. When they can sort of slow the game down a little bit, let their ball handlers control everything, then they're not bad. Now they're only going to win with offense, too. But when they get against a team that actually is more athletic, get stops and run, man, it is tough. And this loss was so bad, it had JJ Redick calling into question for, like, the second time in a week his team's professionalism. He said, quote, we don't care enough right now. And that's the part that bothers you a lot. We don't care enough to do the things that are necessary. We don't care enough to be a professional. And he went on to say a whole lot more. And the part that, like, really got people going, Whoa, J.J. he said, I'm not doing another 53 games like this. J.J. redick was over this shit. And this isn't just him reacting to one game. This is like a week, or if not two week trend here from how the Lakers have played. All of the Lakers losses, they get spanked. I think all 10 have been by 10 or more. So, like, there's no real, like, close losses. It's like, oh, we could have had that one. Like, when they lose, they lose. And when they lost to the Suns on Tuesday, Redick was doing the same thing. He was questioning the team's commitment to playing the right way. He was calling out players without using their names. He sort of did that again yesterday. And it has a lot of people going like, J.J. redick, man, you got to slow your roll. Like, you're doing too much. It is December, man. But he obviously sees something. And he's been in this league long enough to know that, like, you got to write the ship or you're going to be left behind. And like, I think they are starting to get left behind here against these other elite teams. They feel like a team that's almost Gonna have to make a move at the deadline. He's calling out, without calling out particularly their names on the back of their jerseys, like a lot of guys on this roster. So there's frustration with effort, really, and maybe how they're approaching the game. And who is he talking about? That's what everybody's like trying to figure out. I think Rui Rui, who was stinker from Rui yesterday in 28 minutes, guy had zero points. Not loving that he should be calling out LeBron because LeBron is. If you watch the defensive, like, intensity from him. This guy didn't. He's basically told we should have known this because he said, I don't want to be playing on Christmas. He's like, I'm done. 20 is too many. And in his defense, it probably is. Go back to three games. Like I said, we can get rid of the like and then maybe some of these guys off the bench. There's got to be a shake up to some extent. Austin Reaves did get hurt in this game. That's not good. He left with a brace on his left leg. He's scheduled for an MRI today. Is that a guy they trade though, to get in some other pieces? Because he would obviously get you a decent return. Is he too important? Is he redundant? I mean, with Luca and LeBron, the Lakers are going to do something. I don't know what, but I got to do something if they're going to try and stay in this tier. One tierish, two mix. Because you could fall in a hurry in the Western Conference in terms of seating. Luke and LeBron, nine of the Lakers, 16 turnovers. It's just a brutal game. Like, I get Reddick's frustration. Like there's just no fight right now. And again, maybe is this like you're following your leader in LeBron who's like coming in with a sour attitude because he's playing on Christmas to begin with. I don't know. I don't know. But they, they. The whole team had the vibe of him not giving effort. At least LeBron is a minus 33. That's the worst plus minus he's ever had as a Lakers player. That's his third worst of all time. Guys played in 10, so that says it all right there against a Rockets team that brought effort monsters on the glass and got the victory. So good stuff there. Final game. We're almost there. Steph Curry scored 23 points. Jimmy Butler flirted with a triple double. 14. 9. 9. That's definitely flirting as the warriors beat the Mavericks 126, 116. As I said, could have put this one fourth, maybe elected to put it fifth. Just from, like, a narrative standpoint. There wasn't a whole lot, I guess. Here's the narrative. For the second straight year, the Mavericks had a star player forced to leave the Christmas Day game with a lower body injury. Last season, Luka had the left calf strain against the Wolves. That ended up being his last game played with Dallas before he was traded. Um, yesterday it's Anthony Davis. He exits the game early in the second quarter. The team described it as Roy. Right groin spasms. Right groin spasms. That sounds like something that should be fun, but it's not. So now you gotta wonder, like, is he ever gonna play again for the Mavericks? They say they don't want to trade him. None of us believe that, so we'll see. But he came up limping when he's trying to run, like, down the floor in a fast break and something. He's had this injury before. I mean, he's had a lot of injuries before, so that can't be a surprise, but we'll see. Same thing, though, last year with Luca. Then they trade Luke for AD and that guy, Mr. Glass. Half half man, half a season. Whatever we're calling him, he comes up limp on Christmas. Luckily for Mavs fans, at least had Cooper flag balling out 27 points, 13 to 21 shooting, six boards, five assists in his debut. He's going to play a lot of Christmas Day games, I would imagine, if the team is competitive here moving forward. He. If. If Jokic won MVP on Christmas Day, maybe Cooper won Rookie of the Year on Christmas Day. Over his last 12 games, the guy's averaging 25 plus on 54% shooting. It's him and Khan canippel. And that's very entertaining. Flag's going to win it, guaranteed. But he was good. That was the one good takeaway. What else was fun? Klay Thompson got a nice little ovation when he checked in halfway through the first quarter, but he didn't really do much. As for the warriors, yeah, their star guys led the way. Draymond Green and Steve Kerr have put to bed that little tiff they had. Everybody's happy again. Those guys are just competitive freaks. Came to blow. Steve Kerr did take a lot of responsibility for that. And again, when it happened, we did say Draymond did the right thing. Like, he. He walked away, cooled down in the locker room, didn't make things worse, and then, you know, didn't have to check back in the game or didn't Curt didn't put him back in. That's fine. And they seem okay now. It's not like Draymond played well yesterday. In fact, I think he was, like, bad again, was he? Not when he was out there, or the team struggled when he was out there. I think after AD left, it was like he was trying to guard P.J. washington. And P.J. washington scored every time on him from what I can remember. I have to actually do a deep dive into the numbers. But what was Draymond Green? Yeah, he was a minus nine yesterday again. Two turnovers, seven points. So I guess you'll live with that. Seven shots, seven points. Anyway, they've put that to bed, at least for now. And the other big takeaway, I got sidetracked there with the Steve Kerr, Draymond Green of it all. Al Horford and those sexy eyes playing well on Christmas Day. This was his second game in a month. I think, you know, he's had the sciatica issues in his one leg. That sucks. I've had that. And he came off the bench in the first quarter on Christmas, knocked down four threes, sparked the warriors, and he finished the game with 14 points. 57 from the field in very limited time, as you're going to get from Al Horford at this point. But that guy's a. That's what we hoped and thought maybe when the warriors added him. That's exactly what he can do. We saw it in Boston and give you a little defense and spurts and you can hit threes. And he has not done any of that, really, this season. And a big part of it's because he's gotten old and he's had the sciatica. And I'm sure that flares up from day to day. Felt good on Christmas, gave it a go and looked good. So good win from the Warriors. 16 and 15. Now 10 and 4 at home as they try and right the ship a little bit after they had dipped below.500. So that's the five Christmas Day games. Whoops. Agree or disagree with me. Yeah, my name's J. Skeats, in case you forgot. Before we go, though, we might as well hit you with a Lovely of the night. And we do have a sponsor. No music here today. Don't worry about the music because we're in the yard. But you might remember Chris Ho and Andrew Ho, pair of brothers, both sponsored Whoa, Boy before, I believe Chris Ho started this whole sponsoring Whoa Boy after I was saying it was unsullied by sponsorship and he started giving money there in the in the stream team. Well, this is crazy. This is fun. We have a third ho. Oh, actually, I take that back. After I'm going to tell you who the hoe is. Chris's wife, Serena has paid for a third Whoa Boy sponsorship. She's doing it for the both of them. For Chris and Andrew. This is a Christmas gift. So this is amazing. We literally, on Christmas week, guys have a ho ho ho sponsorship for Whoa Boy. So Whoa Boy, once again, Hoboy of the night. And we can throw it up Ash if you want. There it is. Yeah, never in doubt. Look at that guy in the sexy rainbow jersey. It's Nikola Jokic. 56 points, 16 rebounds, 15 assists, 2 blocks, and a partridge in a pear tree. My God. God. It looks fake. It's video game numbers from this guy. So Jokic gets your Hoe Boy of the night. Chris. Andrew. Serena. Serena. Are you Serena Ho. You keep your name? I bet you kept your name, didn't you? That's a smart move. Thank you, guys. Appreciate that. And we've got more sponsorships coming from for Whoa Boy. Okay, pick them. Let's do it. I need this one because I'm running out of the month of December. I'm in last place. I'm 6 and 11. Trey is 8 and 9, so I'm two games behind them. We got tonight's game and a few games early next week as we close out December. Tass is fine. He's 13 and a 4. But our game tonight, I went with that Heat Hawks game. Like I said in the live ad read, Hawks are favored by four and a half at home. Why? The Hawks should not be favored by that amount of points against anybody right now. But I know the Heat are bad right now, too. So anyway, I'm taking the Hawks. Come on, Hawks. I need it. I need you to win by five or more to make things interesting. Otherwise, I'm not even sure I can come back. So big game. Big, big game. I need the Hawks to win. Trey and Tas obviously taking the heat. They got some points to play with, but come on. Come on, Atlanta. I don't know. Is it worse or better if I go down to the Fortress tonight to cheer him on? I have no idea. I think it's. I'm gonna. I think I'm gonna avoid it. I've been to a lot of Hawks game recently and I've seen a lot of losses recently, so I'm not bringing them any luck. So I might have to avoid it. But go ATL okay, we'll call it there. Dear Lord, I talked for a lot of. I talk very fast. So I forced you to not listen to this one on 1.5 speed or 1.25 speed? Because if you're listening to me on that speed, that's. I mean, you're not even hearing me at that point. But even if you listen to that speed, thank you so much. Hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube. Five star ratings and reviews for your boys here on the audio podcast platform of your choice, be it Apple or Spotify. We have 24 games on over the next three days. So we'll be back on Monday, myself, Tass and Ash to discuss as many of those games as possible. Give you our winners and losers of the NBA weekend. If you see one you think of note, then let me know. Then let me know on YouTube, let me know on Twitter and we'll figure it out from there. Till then, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. Thank you so much for joining me. Happy holidays. Happy Boxing Day and we'll see you guys on Monday. Embrace the weekend people. The holidays are already in full swing. The lights are up, you got good people, good food and good vibes. And there to help keep that energy going is Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry with that crisp cranberry flavor with a smooth winter spice twist. It's the drink that livens up game nights, gift exchanges, or just catching up in the kitchen with a burst of holiday flavor. It's a seasonal favorite, but it's only here for a limited time, so grab it while you can. Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry Sprite. Obey your thirst at cvs. It matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night. And we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and yeah, healthy snack. At cvs, we're proud to serve your community because we believe when where you get your medicine matters. So Visit us@cvs.com or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. The holiday season can be exhausting with all the parties and the end of year celebrations, but don't forget to take care of yourself by stocking up on your favorite nutritional products. Now through December 30th. Shop in store and online and save on items like Cliff Snack Bars, Luna Bars, Boost Nutritional Energy Drinks, Premier Protein Shakes, Z Bar Variety Packs, Open Nature Powder and Body Fortress Protein powder offers end December 30th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.