← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - Lakers-Nuggets Reaction: Luka Doncic game-winner, Austin Reaves insanity, Jokic vs. Ayton | NBA
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Host of Hoops Tonight
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Ryan Seacrest
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The Volume
- [02:19]
Host of Hoops Tonight
Foreign. Welcome to HOOPS tonight here at the Volume. Happy Sunday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having an incredible weekend. Have a bonus episode for you guys today. So my wife's out of town. She's back in our hometown in Tucson doing some stuff with her family and so I was just hanging out watching Lakers Nuggets. And I had to come on here during the playoffs two years ago after those Jamal Murray game winners. So I figured I should be able to do the same thing. I'm actually recording this on Saturday night as Luka Doncic wins the game at the buzzer, just before the buzzer against the Denver Nuggets in a absolutely wild, drunk game between the Lakers and the Nuggets. And I know it's not a playoff game. I'm just having some fun. You guys know the drill. But I'm going to. I'm going to dig into this game from a bunch of different angles because I thought it was super fascinating as we saw the teams guarding each other in different ways throughout. And I kind of want to dig into some of those details and talk about some of the specifics that I think we'll see if these two, if these two teams happen to face off in the postseason at some point down the line. You guys know the joke before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Make sure you like this video and sign up for post notifications. It helps us a lot. And last but not least, if you guys want to leave mailbag questions into our mailbag, drop them in our full episodes on YouTube and in the comments and we'll get to them in our mailbags throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the final sequence is crazy, right? So we get the Lakers end up going small down the stretch, and I want to come back to that in a minute because it's part of the way that these two teams were trying to guard each other. They go small down the stretch and they're getting cooked because they're having a double team. Jokic and guys are just hitting threes off of that, right? Aaron Gordon was phenomenal in the second half. Just absolutely nails on his catch and shoot threes. Tim Hardaway Jr. Hits an absolutely massive one there in the left corner, right? So J.J. redick makes an adjustment to start overtime and he goes back to deandre Ayton. And throughout most of the game, Ayton and Hayes both really struggled. And part of the reason why is that the Lakers do a lot of switching and they were having a hard time guarding three point shooters, right? So like it just, it seemed like whether it was on Yokich straight up or whether it was on like Aaron Gordon in a switch, were just pulling those guys out and able to just hit Little basic moves to hit threes over the top. Aaron Gordon hits another massive three over DeAndre Ayton in the right corner. That's basically the last we see of him down the stretch. That we get a little bit of Jackson Hayes and then it's a small ball group, right? So at JJ Redick after the double teams don't work, he makes the adjustment. We see deandre Ayton in overtime and to deandre Ayton's credit, like he starts getting stops one on one against Jokic, actually gets three of them, the third of which was a really impressive block on kind of a recover along the baseline. And Ayton inexplicably doesn't grab the basketball, even though it's right there for him to grab, right? So he doesn't grab it out of bounds back to the nuggets. And so Jokic has a chance to solve the puzzle, right? So like he's seen this eight and look three times already in overtime. He patiently takes his time, throws a little lefty jab, step right. And do you guys remember when Aaron Gordon hit the three against DeAndre in the right corner? Tim Legler very smartly on the call pointed out that all Aaron Gordon had to do is just kind of throw a little jab and it got a to kind of back up enough for him to get to a shot. Similar kind of thing happened on that Yokich jab, right? It's a sideways jab to his left. Ayton just shifts a little bit and that just gives Jokic just enough space to hit the gap and get to that little right hander off the glass, right? That ties the game. We go down, go down to the other end of the floor. Nicole Jokic ends up getting the inbounds pass from Spencer's Jones. Denver inexplicably doesn't take their foul to give to try to eat some more clock and force Luca into tougher spot. But Luca just drives away from the double team and gets to his little step back there along the baseline, hits it and effectively wins the game. We get a heave from Tim Hardaway Jr. That gets left short. But really, really impressive little bit of ISO shot making from Luca Doncic to win the game. And I want to stay on Luca for a second. There's a bunch of different stuff I want to get into here, but I didn't think Luca was very good in the second half. I thought he was very good in the first half. Just super locked in, missed some shots that we know he's capable of making, but he was very focused, very intense, was generating a lot of really good shots. And then one of the things that I thought happened in the second half was Christian Brown got into his, like, got into his space in a way that made Luka uncomfortable attacking him one on one. And so Luka had to go to ball screens. And when Luca was going to ball screens, Denver was putting two on the ball. And he had a pretty extended stretch there where he was just struggling. He was just struggling to generate good shots against the two on the ball. Look. And in that third quarter, Nicole Jokic went like, he had this timeout. He got on his teammates and Jokic, like, looked laser focused in that second half, and Luka was fading a little bit. And I thought for the most part in that second half, Jokic actually outplayed him. But one of the things I talk about all the time is, like, the beautiful thing about the game of basketball is it's usually going to give you another opportunity to make a play right in. I'd even extend that outside of a game. Like, let's say that Austin doesn't get that little shot off the rim that sends the game to overtime. Like, if Austin doesn't make that play, they lose. Yokage outplays Luka, Denver wins. They could theoretically meet down the line and Luca could have another chance. Right. Like, even if you get eliminated in the playoffs, you have. You could do it next season. That's my favorite thing about the game of basketball. There's just always you. You live to fight another day. But I'd even take that within the singular game. Like, generally speaking, especially in a team sport like this, where your team can pick you up when you're. When you're not necessarily having your best game, you get another opportunity presents itself. And I thought there were two distinct sequences where Luca just made big plays that helped, or I should. I'm gonna actually expand that to three. There was three distinct sequences where I thought Luca just made the plays down the stretch of the game that wiped out everything else. Because here's the thing, you make a play, you win the game. Nobody cares what happened before that, right? So Luke has this rough second half, but he has a 6, 0 burst right towards the end of regulation when the Lakers look dead in the water, Hits a three, draws a foul on Jamal Murray, hits three more free throws. That ties the game. That was a huge sequence in that second half. 2. He had been struggling with the two on the ball sequences, but one of the. One of the ways that he finally Kind of figured it out in that second half was with the Marcus smart pick and pop, which I want to get back to in a minute. They put Jokic on Marcus, Marcus picks and pops. Finally, Luka had a couple of plays where he handled the two on the ball well, didn't turn the ball over, actually hit the ball on time. Our target to Marcus, Marcus hit some threes and then on that final possession against Spencer Jones hitting that little step back on the baseline. I say this, I always harp on this point because I think it's a really valuable point for young basketball players. You're not always going to play your best. Luka, we've talked about it on the show. He's been amazing for a couple of weeks now. Luka's been really, really good. And sometimes you just go out and the shots don't fall. Sometimes your body doesn't respond the way you want to. You don't have as much energy as you usually do. Like sometimes things just don't fire on all cylinders the way you want them to. But there's still a lot of basketball left. Sometimes you look up at the scoreboard and you're like, man, like I have six turnovers and I'm missing my threes and like the, the other team's got a five point lead and it's like, hang in there, keep your head in the game. Make a stop, make a play, do something. Hang in there. There's more basketball to be played and you can find yourself on top at the end and no one's going to care. Like, you know what I see? I see a Luka 30 point triple double. I see 30, 11 and 13 and a W. That's what I see. Just because he was able to make a few plays down the stretch that he raced an otherwise rough second half. So I just wanted to shout out Luka Doncic for that. Austin reeves, man, another 32 points to go with seven rebounds and six assists. Had two brutal mistakes down the stretch of this game. He gets this huge steal on a, he, he, he was doing a great job in the Lakers small ball looks of fronting the post on, on Nicola Jokic, right? So like I, I want to set that stuff to the side for a minute because I want to dig into the different ways that the teams guarded each other because I thought that was fascinating. But he gets a steal on Nikola Jokic. Has a brutal, a full court pass that was just a terrible idea. Gets stolen, goes down. Aaron Gordon hits a three. Just a, just an absolute sledgehammer to the Chest type of mistake. And then as another one a few minutes later or a few seconds later, where he exposes the basketball in front of Nicole Yokich and Nicole Yokich strips him. So he has two pretty bad turnovers down the stretch, but same sort of thing. Just make a damn play. Make a damn play and nobody will care, right? Like. And Austin ends up making that brilliant play, throwing the ball off of the side of the rim in a way that went in a direction where there wasn't as much traffic, where he felt like he had a chance to get it, composed himself and hit a really nice floater. Kind of reminded me of that floater that Kobe Bryant hit back in 2006 in game five against the Suns after the. I think it was the Smush Parker steal, if I remember correctly. Runs along the sideline. It's like this hectic final sequence, and just somehow composes himself to knock down like a. Just an easy little floater. That was what that. That Austin floater reminded me of, but same sort of thing. Like, Austin just made a play and it alleviated some of the mistakes. LeBron had a. A bad turnover on a. On a pick and roll where he tried to force a pass to. I think it was to Jackson Hayes down the lane. He didn't. I thought LeBron in particular looked kind of tired in the second half of this game, but just made a couple of plays, like, you know, diving on a loose ball. That one closeout that he attacked off of the right wing when he dropped it off to DeAndre in an overtime for the little hook shot in the lane. Like, LeBron just found a little bit of opportunities to make little plays here or there to help the team win. Big rebound here, big defensive rotation there. Right? So, like, I just thought this game showed a lot of resilience from the Lakers stars. Even deandre Ayton, like, deandre Aiden was having a rough game and to come in and like, cold come in, like, like real time between in the middle of the fourth quarter when he left to when he came back in in overtime. We're probably talking about 15, 20, 30 minutes of real time. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but a large chunk of real time that he was out of the game and to just get dropped back into overtime and to lock in and make several plays that helped the team win. I just. I just thought the Lakers showed an impressive level of resilience, and I wanted to give them a lot of credit for that. Today's show is brought to you by presenting Sponsor Hard Rock BET Florida's sportsbook March is here, and that means college basketball takes center stage. The stakes are rising, the shots are falling, and now's the time to hit the hardwood with Hard Rock Bet. Sign up today and double your winnings on your first 10 bets. Max $50. That's right, your winnings are doubled on your first 10 bets. So if you would have won a hundred bucks on your bet, make that 200. That's how you start March hot. And the welcome offer is just the tip off all tournament long. 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- [14:20]
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- [14:45]
Host of Hoops Tonight
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- [15:47]
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It is stock up savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tax to earn on eligible items from Smart Water, Healthy Choice, Continental, arrowhead, Red Bull, St James, Tillamook and Special K. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy Dr. Up and go pick up or delivery restrictions apply. See website for full terms and conditions.
- [16:19]
Host of Hoops Tonight
So let's dig into some of the ways that the two teams regarding each other. And I want to start with the with the Nuggets on offense because these are the kinds of things when we actually talk about these two teams potentially meeting in a playoff series. Like let's say the Lakers get the three seed and the Nuggets get the six seed, which is certainly a possibility. I think it's I think the Nuggets are going to end up higher than 6 because they have a pretty easy schedule down the tail end of the season. So I think they'll rack up some wins and I wouldn't be surprised if the Nuggets ended up three or four. But even then, the Lakers are about to go on this like brutal road trip. They play Houston twice, they're about to play Orlando, they're about to play Miami, they're about to play in Detroit. Like the the Lakers are about to go on this tough road trip. So this thing could hold, this whole thing could flip and it could be 3, 6, Denver at the 3 and the Lakers at the 6, right? So there's a chance these two teams play each other. So I want to dig into some of the ways that the two teams regarding each other. So when Denver had the ball, when, when they were going with their centers through the majority part of the game, as they were switching in the first half in particular, the Lakers were doubling and rotating really well. But the Nuggets were missing some pretty good looks that shifted in the second half, if you guys remember. And in that second half, you know Aaron Gordon gets going, you know, Bruce Brown's hitting threes, Tim Hardaway Jr's hitting threes. I thought Cam Johnson was really good. For the most part tonight they're capitalizing on those double teams and hitting threes, right. So the trick is they go small. I actually like the Lakers going small if they're going to switch and allow Yokich to pick on matchups, right? So like in theory, if DeAndre Ayton can guard Nicola Jokic one on one, which I want to set that aside because I don't necessarily think that's true, I think Jokic could solve that problem. But if Aiden could guard him one on one and you could avoid switches, then it makes some sense. Right? But it doesn't matter if the big is guarding Jokic to start the possession, if all it takes is a simple guard, guard, screen. And now you've got Austin on the ball anyway. Right? And so when that, when that happens, when you're switch, when you're switching and allowing a small to get on Jokic, it creates the exact same problem. You're two on the ball now, you're in rotation, except for now you're slower, Right? So my whole thing is, especially in this particular matchup, it works when deandre Ayton is able to stay on Nicole Jokic. So like when they're throwing the ball to Jokic against Ayton one on one without even trying to get a KN off of him, it works to their advantage, which was, which is what we saw in overtime. But in my opinion, if the Lakers are going to switch, they actually would be. It would behoove them to be faster. And so with that being the case, like the, like you're going to be in rotation, foot speed actually benefits you there. I'd even take it a step further to say, like again, what happened on that last possession, the last defensive possession, Ayton, who defended Jokic well for most of overtime, Jokic solves it right, jab step, gets to his right hand, goes to that little soft floater off the glass. And so I don't necessarily think that Ayton would be able to guard Jokic one on one a ton in general. But I think the Lakers should try if they're going to guard Yic with the center, to not switch and allow Ayton to at least try to compete there one on one. If you're going to switch, you're better off being faster. Go with Jackson if you're going to go with the center or go centerless like they did down the stretch, the Lakers had a centerless look. It was the exact starting lineup. So Ayton, smart, Donage, Reeves, LeBron. But instead of Ayton, they had Rui in there. And I think they went with it for just a few minutes in the fourth quarter. And I think they were plus four in that game. If I remember correctly, what that ends up doing when they go small is on the other end. It causes Jokic to guard Marcus Smarts. Kind of file that away for later. But I do think that the Lakers are going to have to to play small against Denver a little bit more than we think, simply because they're going to be in rotation. So how do you guard Jokic on the double teams? He's going to eventually see where the reads are right. The final pass to Tim Hardaway Jr. Is a classic example. They press way up on Jokic. Jokic just whips a beautiful cross court pass to Tim Hardaway Jr. In the left corner. He knocks it down right, like over time, as Jokic sees those double teams over and over and over again, he's going to get better at it. The Lakers were doubling Jokic a ton in Denver a couple weeks ago, right? If you guys remember in that game, Jokic had nine turnovers. Tonight he only had four. Right? Because he's going to make the adjustment. He's going to see it. He's going to, he's going to be able to make those reads quicker on time and the, the Nuggets are going to be prepared to knock down shots off of that. So going smaller just gives you a little bit more speed in rotation. So again, I think as I look at the Lakers guarding Denver, if I've eaten on Jokic, I would explore not switching to see if we could get more of those one on ones where you don't necessarily have to double Jokic at least unless he gets it going right. And then if you're going to go to double team, I prefer to be faster. Jackson or going small on the other end of the floor. One of the things that gets really fascinating is when the Lakers do go small, Denver puts Jokic on Marcus Smart. That leads to this dynamic where the Lakers are going to get a lot of pick and pop threes for Marcus Smart. Now here's the thing. This is two games now dating back to the game in Denver and this game where Marcus Smart has hit eight threes. Between the two games Marcus Smart has been hitting. I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but Marcus has been hitting about 40% for a few months now, Marcus has become a much better shooter than he was in the early portion of the season. And so that gets a little tricky for Denver if Denver's going to guard Marcus Smart. And the Lakers are essentially guaranteed to get a wide open three for Marcus Smart whenever they want. When the centers are on the floor. This is where it gets really fascinating because when the centers on are on the floor, Luka is going to be able to get the ball to the weak side. And how many times tonight did we see a skip to Austin rip a closeout driving layup, skip to rui ball fake one, dribble mid range, pull up, knock it down. He's three for three on those today. He came into the game 58% on the season, which is number one in the entire NBA among players who have taken at least 100 off the dribble twos like that. LeBron, late in the game in overtime attacks that closeout off of the right wing, drops it off to Ayton for the little bucket in the lane. And so I kept coming back to this when I was watching that game. Neither of these two teams can really guard each other. The only way that they can guard each other is by putting two on the ball. Even when Denver had an extended stretch of success against the Lakers, against the Lakers offense in that third quarter, it was putting two on the ball. Luka just wasn't handling it very well. So if they have to put two on the ball and Luka when the Lakers are small and they have to put two on the ball on Luca when the Lakers are big and then on the other end of the floor, like unless Ayton miraculously just becomes a Yokage stopper, which I do not think he is, they're going to constantly have to put two on the ball on Jokic, right? And so, so many of these games are going to come down to just like how well do you shoot the ball from 3? How well for a Lakers team, they're going to attack it more from two point land. But how well are they converting those closeouts for pull up twos and for driving layups and things along those lines, right? It bodes for a really entertaining series. It would always be super entertaining to see two teams that can't guard each other. But like I think that was a big part of why these games, this game had so many kind of like bizarre back and forth runs. It's because at any given moment they're, they're getting so many good looks that you just hit two or three threes in a row. You get two or three easy buckets in a row and suddenly you have a 70 run, an 80 run. And like, that's really the, the, the dynamic between these two teams that's very different from when Anthony Davis was here versus when Luka Doncic was here. Right? When Anthony Davis was here, it was like, oh, man, they can't guard the LeBron AD pick and roll with Jokic, but we'll just put AD on. Go on. I will put Aaron Gordon on you, on Anthony Davis, and we'll switch that pick and roll. Now all of a sudden we're running pick and rolls with Rui Hachimura because that's who Yokage is guarding. And they could successfully guard that. Two on two. Everything falls apart. The Lakers have to put two on the ball on the other end. The Nuggets don't. It's a huge mismatch. That's why the Nuggets kick their ass year in, year out. Right? This dynamic is very different because of Luca and because of what he can do in ball screens. The Nuggets have to put two on the ball on Luka. The Lakers have to put two on the ball on Nicole Jokic. And it just makes it so that they can't guard each other overall with the Lakers, because I think they've won eight out of nine now. This is their third straight win against a team that is a, like what we consider to be a contender, so to speak. A really, really good team in the upper echelon in the league. They've got more chances in the coming weeks on their road trip. I thought tonight was a really good step forward for them, even if they would have lost in the sense that there were these extended stretches where they looked like a dead serious team. Like, I texted a couple of buddies while I was watching that game. Can you imagine if somebody would have taken footage of that Lakers defense in that first half in particular and showed it to you back in like December? You'd be like, this is AI generated. Like, what, what are you. What, what, what is this basketball team? It doesn't look anything like the Lakers we saw in the early port part portion of the year. They are capable now of bursts of really good defense, but as we saw in that third quarter, they let go of the rope for a few minutes, particularly in transition defense. But also their defensive rotations got a little sloppier in the second half as they gave up more openings from the three point line. It's harder to hang onto the rope for 48 minutes than it is to hang on the rope for 12 minutes or for 24 minutes. And so the next step. So like, what's the next step for the Lakers? Right? Cause like, you know, we have our. We are. I don't think anybody listening to this show thinks that the Lakers are going to go hoist the trophy. I don't either. But like there's somewhere between a team that's going to get blown out in the first round to a team that could compete in the first round to a team that could win a first round series, to, hey, maybe a team that can win two series. Bear with me. This cold is still kicking my ass. But like that, that pathway, there are steps along that way that the Lakers have to clear to get from a team that'll get beaten the first round to a team that'll compete in the first round to a team that can win in the first round, so on and so forth. I think the Lakers have made that first leap. Good God, the Lakers have made that first leap. I don't think they're going to get embarrassed in the first round anymore. They look like a team that's going to compete in the first round. The next leap is going from a team that can compete in a first round series to win a first round series. And it's that kind of shit in the, in the third quarter that they have to clean up. They've got to avoid the easy transition kick ahead baskets, the botched rotations, the mistakes, the bad fouls, the bigs. The bigs all season long have been bad on ISO threes, but they have to do a much better job defending those ISO threes. Those are the kinds of things they have to clean up in order to get to the point where they can win a first round series or like legitimately advance to the second round to go from a team that can advance the second round to a team that can advance to the third round. I think they need more out of LeBron. That's the last piece here. Like if LeBron can get to a point where he has like he got stonewalled on a couple post ups tonight. Overall, I thought LeBron was great. He defended really well. He made a lot of really good connective plays on, on both ends of the floor. But you got stonewalled on a couple post ups, couple sloppy turnovers. If LeBron could bump his on ball stuff up to a guy that in a night like Tonight goes for 25 instead of 17 and gets rid of a couple of those turnovers. I suddenly look at this as a team that could potentially win two series and, you know, eventually lose to a real championship contender in that, in that third round. And so good step in the right direction a lot to still work on. A lot of really tough games in the future. Again, coming up on, on Monday against Houston, they got a tough one. So a lot of progress still to be made. But this is the first time, I tweeted this earlier this morning, this is the first time in months, many months, that I actually feel like this Lakers team can win a playoff series. And I think that is a testament to these guys in the level of focus that they've had after the All Star break. And they just seem hell bent on squeezing as much as they can out of the sponge and maximizing this thing, which I respect about that, which I respect about the guys in that locker room. All right, guys, that's all I have for tonight. Again, I just wanted to give you guys my kind of instant reaction to this game. Tomorrow we have Thunder Wolves. I'm going to record a reaction to that that's going to run on Monday. We are not going to have a usual show on Monday. The reason why is, I don't know if you guys heard, but there is a massive heat wave coming in that is like historic in western in the western United States. And it's going to be so crazy that I think all the ski resorts are going to close for the season. So I'm going to go skiing on Monday and that's going to be my last ski day of the season. So we have obviously this reaction. We'll have a Thunder Wolves reaction that'll run on Monday that I'm recording tomorrow, and then we'll get back to our usual schedule on Tuesday. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys for rocking with us and rocking with the show. Now, see you guys on Monday. Foreign
- [29:46]
Julian Edelman
this is Julian Edelman from Games With Names. I want to take a second to talk about something that's personal to me. I've had the privilege of working closely with Robert Kraft for a long time, and one thing I've always respected is how seriously he takes up standing up to hate. As a Jewish athlete, my identity is something I am proud of. But I also know what it feels like to be singled out for it. That's why this new commercial for the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate that aired during the big game really hit home. It's about showing up for someone when they're targeted, even if you don't have the perfect words and sometimes standing next to someone is enough and you can show support by sharing the blue square.
- [30:30]
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It is Stock up Savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for store wide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tax to earn on eligible items from Smart Water, Healthy Choice, Continental, arrowhead, Red Bull, St James, Tillamook and Special K. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pickup or delivery restrictions apply. See website for full terms and conditions.
- [31:02]
Levar Arrington
Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch the T Mobile T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now T Mobile is in US cellular stores.
- [31:22]
Host of Hoops Tonight
Savings versus Comparable Verizon plan plus the cost of optional benefits, plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credit stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required.
- [31:32]
Verizon Advertiser
Think Verizon is expensive? Think again. Anyone can bring their AT and T or T Mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal. So bring us your bill. Walk in running pogo sticking teleport if you can ride on the back of a rollerblading yak or fly in on the wings of a majestic falcon. Any way you can bring your AT and T or T Mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal on the best network based on RouteMetric's best overall mobile network performance. US 2nd half 2025 all rights preserved. Must provide a very recent postpaid consumer mobile bill in the name of the person redeeming the deal. Additional terms, conditions and restrictions apply.
- [32:02]
Host of Hoops Tonight
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.