SGA and Bam’s Record Breaking Nights!

Summary

THE ZACH LOWE SHOW
SGA and Bam’s Record-Breaking Nights!
March 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

Zach Lowe, now with The Ringer, is joined by Rob Mahoney (and later John Krasinski) for a comprehensive breakdown of a surreal week in the NBA. The episode centers on two historic feats: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) breaking Wilt Chamberlain's consecutive 20-point games record and Bam Adebayo's shocking, controversial 83-point explosion. They dissect not only the records but also their contexts, league-wide implications, and ripple effects across both conferences. The episode also covers contenders’ resilience amid injuries, the crowded Western and Eastern Conference races, and a deep dive into the Minnesota Timberwolves’ sudden collapse.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. SGA’s Historic Streak and Oklahoma City's Rise

SGA’s Game & All-Time Consistency (03:58–07:19)

• SGA broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record with 127 consecutive 20+ point games, described as translating “an untouchable record… until suddenly it wasn’t.”
  – Rob Mahoney [03:58]: “It’s a fucking privilege. Let’s just call it what it is.”
• SGA praised not just as a scorer, but as a uniquely creative, efficient, versatile player: best mid-range shooter, best driver, best crunch-time scorer, unbelievable body control.
• Comparison with Jokic for "Best Player in the NBA?" Zach signals he’s “a Jokic true believer” but admits, “has Shea passed him as just the best player… now?”
  – Zach Lowe [06:02]: “This is the first time... I’m starting to say, has Shea passed him as just the best player?”

Thunder Tactics & Chet Holmgren’s Development (07:19–09:43)

• Teams putting their centers on defensive non-threats (e.g., Lou Dort and Alex Caruso) to gum up OKC's offense—Thunder adjusting well.
• Holmgren’s ability to secure tough end-game rebounds with wings guarding him seen as season-defining progress.

Thunder’s Bench & Rotation Evolution (09:09–10:48)

• Praise for AJ Mitchell’s unexpected two-way impact and Big Jalen Williams’ breakout as a versatile, rock-solid bench piece, drawing Six Man buzz.

2. Denver Nuggets vs. San Antonio Spurs—Contenders & Young Talent

Nuggets’ Stability vs. Spurs’ Inexperience (14:14–17:01)

• Nuggets win both with and without Jokic; “every Nuggets possession was going exactly to Murray and Jokic in some combination…[the Spurs] felt like a team that knew what its shots were versus one that didn’t.”
  – Rob Mahoney [14:54]
• Spurs young core—Dylan Harper, “awesome,” Carter Bryant, “real interesting long term piece.”

Role Players & Spurs’ Young Depth (18:20–19:41)

• Bryant flashed athleticism ("big bodied wing") but hesitates as a shooter; defense ahead of offense.
• Spurs’ slow-building approach praised: “they have all of this slow-burner stuff going in the background.” [Rob Mahoney, 18:47]

3. Lakers’ Surge and Defensive Revamp

LeBron’s Absence & Unexpected Defense (21:05–25:02)

• Lakers’ success sans LeBron: “11 and 2 now without LeBron...” (combination of Luka Doncic and Reaves has been “clean and intense” on defense)
• Emerging zone defense praised for creativity: “they play this kind of zone… morphs into different forms mid-possession...”
  – Zach Lowe [23:02]
• Luke Kennard discussion: “legitimately, really, really good” acquisition.

Rotation Strength & Schematics (25:18–27:48)

• Shoutout to Marcus Smart and Rui Hachimura for stabilizing roles.
• Lakers’ balance of offense and ‘junking up’ defenses through switching and zone.

4. Bam Adebayo’s 83 Points: Feat or Farce?

Initial Shock & Context (32:58–37:54)

• Lowe: “I don’t think I’ve ever been more surprised by anything happening in an NBA game.”
• Shock at not just breaking Kobe’s mark of 81 but doing so as “not in the top 50” of likely 70+ scorers.
• Ethics debated—was it “gross, ethical, triumphant or some combo”?
  – Zach Lowe [35:14]: “That’s bad sportsmanship…the game was over…they’re just inflating his points.” – Rob Mahoney [35:05]: “Who would hate that is Kobe Bryant.”

All-time Ranking & End-of-Game Antics (36:23–38:12)

• Not considered second-best scoring game ever: “Rank it all behind 81 points for sure, probably behind… Embiid’s 70, Luka’s 73, Jordan’s 69.”
• “Aggressive chucking” and end-of-game fouling noted as turning event into a “farce.”
• Wizards’ defense/frustration major culprit; their tanking and lack of effort enabled the feat.

On Opponent’s Role (39:01–42:29)

• Lowe and Mahoney agree Wizards' “defensive incompetence and lack of effort was a bigger part of this game than it had any right to be.”
• Wizards’ tanking, lack of resistance, and “just not going to do anything” approach dissected.

Funny Aside (League Pass Rankings)

• Rob Mahoney [42:17]: “If that’s not league pass supremacy, I really don’t know what is.”

5. Eastern Conference Playoff Race—Who's for Real?

Orlando Magic Clarity, Banchero’s Rise (48:49–51:28)

• Orlando “playing defense again,” Banchero’s best stretch (“26/9/6 since All-Star break”)
• Good bench minutes (Tristan Da Silva, Wendell Carter, Jet Howard) helping amid Franz Wagner’s absence.

Flying Hawks—Wins from Schedule or Real Progress? (52:05–55:00)

• Hawks on 8-game win streak, but “even not the greatest feels generous” [Rob Mahoney, 51:28]—mostly against a soft schedule.
• New lineup with CJ McCollum works, but optimism is cautious; jury out on repeatability.

Heat, Sixers, Magic—Who’s the East’s Fifth Best Team? (60:33–62:58)

• Heat have “same net rating as Cavs,” on a 7-game streak, and their offense has “been, like, weirdly incendiary…” [Rob Mahoney, 60:33]
• Miami’s rotation versatility, multiple facilitators, and late-season stability highlighted.
• Philly is “hollow… just not a lot to make you feel anything… their animating forces are moments when Joel looks amazing.”
  – Rob Mahoney [57:51]
• Magic “feel just dramatically different” with Banchero leading.

6. Timberwolves: Panic or Perspective?

Wolves Sudden Slump (69:41–74:50)

• Three blowouts for a team once a top-seven unit on both sides of the ball.
• John Krasinski [69:41]: “It is an enigmatic, bipolar team… rides the waves both for good and bad.”

Disconnection & Role Analysis (72:13–74:50)

• Wolves look like “a collection of individuals, really talented individuals” instead of a connected team.
• Julius Randle singled out for recent struggles and disengagement; three-point shooting fallen off a cliff (December: 29%, February: 23%, March: 16% [81:23]).

Ant’s Development and Team Identity (90:41–94:07)

• Anthony Edwards brilliant, but his leadership and playmaking “the next, final step” for him as a true MVP candidate.
• Team lets its offensive woes erode their defensive effort—a cycle they must break to regain contender status.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On SGA's Consistency:
  “It’s the portrait of an all-time player being drawn in real time... It’s a fucking privilege.”
  — Rob Mahoney [03:58]

• On the Bam Debate and Kobe’s Legacy:
  “Who would hate that is Kobe Bryant.”
  — Rob Mahoney [35:05]
  “That’s bad sportsmanship… the game was over, they’re just inflating his points.”
  — Zach Lowe [35:14]

• On the Wizards Enabling Bam:
  “Their defensive incompetence and lack of effort was a bigger part of this game than it probably … had any right to be.”
  — Zach Lowe [41:24]

• On the Wolves’ Collapse:
  “No good team has ever looked bad the way the Minnesota Timberwolves... look bad when they look bad.”
  — Zach Lowe [74:23]

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Key Timestamps

• SGA’s Record Night & Player Debate: 03:58–08:24, 06:02–07:19
• Celtics/Thunder Adaptability: 07:19–09:43
• Nuggets/Spurs Breakdown: 14:14–18:20
• Lakers’ Defense & Rotation: 21:05–25:18
• Bam’s 83-Point Game Analysis: 32:58–42:29
• Timberwolves' Downswing and Future: 69:41–98:58

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Flow & Tone

The episode see-saws between awe at historic NBA achievement and the weary pragmatism of league-watchers who have seen both heroics and hollow stat-chasing. Zach’s tone remains conversational and open-minded, channeling both joy and skepticism about this wild NBA season. Guests Rob Mahoney and John Krasinski provide deep analysis balanced with humor, candor, and a shared sense of “what are we even watching?” when the NBA gets weird (like Bam’s 83, or the Wolves’ bipolar tendencies).

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Final Thoughts

This episode is essential for listeners seeking both an account of extraordinary single-game feats and an understanding of what actually matters down the NBA stretch run. SGA’s and Bam’s nights are celebrated, analyzed, and (sometimes) deconstructed without taking the eye off team context, playoff implications, and the big “what does it really mean?” questions.

Essential segments:

• SGA’s evolution and the OKC blueprint (03:58)
• Bam’s 83 (32:58)
• Timberwolves therapy (69:41)

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For anyone who missed it, this summary reflects the full sweep of the conversation and the shifting, unpredictable drama of March in the NBA. The Zach Lowe Show delivers both “big picture” thinking and detailed breakdowns — and this episode is rich with both.

Transcript

[Zach Lowe]

This episode of the Zach Lowe show is brought to you by State Farm. Life's better when you've got the right help. Think of that perfect pass that sets everything up. Smooth, effortless, just what your team needed. That's the kind of assist State Farm offers, whether it's online or in person. State Farm's your teammate when you need help making your next play. State Farm with the assist. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state.

[Rob Mahoney]

Foreign

[Zach Lowe]

up on the Zach Lowe show after this, we got Rob Mahoney to talk about all the big games that happened tonight. Spurs, Nuggets, Celtics, Thunder. No Tatum. But still, these are some heavyweight heavyweight matchups. What did we see? What did we learn? What's going on? Bam. Out of bio had 83 points. I haven't talked about it yet. Was it gross? Was it ethical? Was it triumphant? Was it some combination of all those things SPO said today? I apologize to absolutely no one. Did we expect Tarek Spoelscher to apologize to anyone? We'll talk. Bam. We'll talk. Lakers just kind of keep winning. So the Clippers, actually, but the Lakers, who, you know, Keep winning without LeBron, too, how are they doing it? What's happening? Is Luka Semi inserting himself into the MVP conversation. I think Shai probably has that almost locked up, but the Lakers are outperforming, I think, the expectations that a lot of us had for them midseason. And then speaking of the Western Conference, John Krasinski is here to talk about the Wolves. Oh, the Wolves. Just when you think you have the Wolves nailed as a contender, stealth contender, they're getting it together. They get walloped three games in a row. Look worse and worse and worse with each game. What's going on with the Minnesota Timberwolves? Where do they rank in the West? What's happening? We give a little love to the Clippers who thumped them the other night. So that's all things Wolves with John Krasinski, Rob Mahoney, all coming up on the Zach Lowe Show. The Zach Lowe show is brought to you by FanDuel. Things are really heating up on the court, and FanDuel is the best place to bet on all the epic matchups during the NBA season. Build a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout, or try live betting and jump into the action after tip off. And don't forget, with FanDuel you get paid instantly when you win. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app now and play your game 21 over in President of Select States 18 are over in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER, call 1-888-778-97777 or visit ccpg.org chatinceneticut. Welcome to the Zach Low Show. Rob Mahoney is here. We both just watched a simulcast of sorts. Denver, San Antonio. Victor Wembanyama out. Aaron Gordon out. Oklahoma City. Boston came down to the wire and came down to two. Chet Holmgren free throws after an offensive rebound. But Shay Gil Alexander 35 points on I think 18 shots. Another efficient game breaks Will Chamberlain's record for most consecutive games with 20 points or more. 127. It's a crazy record. The Thunder sneak it out. Boston had no Tatum, no Derrick White, the Thunder no Jalen Williams, no Isaiah Hartenstein. Really like both of these games and just a lot about the NBA lately. The adaptability of these teams to remain so competitive without key guys in. Like here's Ron Harper Jr. Is going to make some threes. Hugo Gonzalez is going to get every single offensive rebound from the corners. Guys are going to score a little bit out of their comfort zone. But let's start with Oklahoma City. Denver beats San Antonio. So the Thunder pick up a game in the race for the number one seed. Everyone around my poor Minnesota Timberwolves in the west won today, including Phoenix who got I think 79 combined points from Jalen Green and Devin Booker. They just keep winning and that race keeps heating up. But I don't know, reflections on, on the Thunder. I mean we, we can't take too much from any of these games because of all the guys that are out. But just reflections on Shade, the, the consistency required to do this and anything you saw in this game tonight that was interesting to you.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, let's start with the Shay part. I mean this, it's a, it's a history making week in the NBA in a lot of ways and this was an untouchable record until suddenly it wasn't. And I think I was left kind of thinking about what are the things that Shay does better at this point than anybody else in the world. I think we've gotten used to just saying oh he's the best one on one score but like within that obviously the best mid range shooter in the game right now, the best driver in the game right now, the best crunch time scorer increasingly is apparent but also has the best body control of anyone in the league. Also has like the best change of pace of anybody in the league. I think the ways in which he's becoming Unimpeachable in all of those different respects. Yeah, they feed off of each other, but just like it's the portrait of an all time player, like being drawn in real time and being able to see that in this kind of fashion with that sort of consistency. I mean, it's a fucking privilege. Let's just call it what it is.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah. Minimal foul grifting tonight, although Luca Garza, the mics caught him. Did you catch that? The mics under the basket? I did not. What did he say? That's not basketball. I'm pretty sure it was him. I heard it and I rewound it and I, and I. He can't lip read because his, his head was turned a little bit away from the camera, but he was yelling something and the mic was there. But anyway, this is a big week,

[Rob Mahoney]

Zach, for angry dudes yelling, that's not basketball. You know, really maybe the high water mark for that exact kind of dude.

[Zach Lowe]

A lot of, a lot of anger percolating around the league. But I, you know, I, I, I said after he tied Wilt's record and again like another just three blocks tonight for Shea, just everywhere defensively, you know who was really everywhere defensively? Alex Caruso. Every time he plays. And I'm not sure exactly what his. I know he had a hip injury, but his general schedule with the Thunder has been sort of like 3/4 time employee. But whenever he plays it's like, oh my God, this guy is just a freaking menace to society. But I said after that last game, I'm a Jokic true believer. This is the first time where now I'm starting to say, has Shea passed him as just the best player? Forget mvp. Is he just the best player in basketball now? Where do you stand on this?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think I'm leaning like slightly towards Shea these days. And it's hard to say because like Jokic is clearly like laboring and working his way back from his own injury.

[Zach Lowe]

31, 20 and 13 tonight.

[Rob Mahoney]

I know San Antonio like the Jokic Murray. I mean their dynamic is just one of my favorite things in modern basketball. And so it's so hard to lean against that in any particular way. But Shay is like made a believer of me and, and I think you just have to acknowledge what he does to make the Thunder exactly what they are. What he does to enable putting so much defensive personnel on the floor around him by virtue of his one on one creation. What he does to make them one of the lowest turnover teams in the league. What he does just like stylistically that Feels so singular relative to anything we've ever seen before. And I think that's part of why, like, not just like, who does he compare to now? Who does he compare to in the past? I find myself thinking a lot about is what Shade does, even something you can emulate. Like if you're an 11 year old basketball player right now, who's training to be the best possible future pro you can be, can you even try to do this? Like, can you try to do the weird contortions that he does on every step back that seem to only work for him? And if so or if not, like, what does that even say about Shay? I'm not sure anymore.

[Zach Lowe]

Well, and we've seen the last two games, I mean all season, but in high profile moments in the last two games, particularly the Denver game from two or three nights ago, whenever that was, the pull up step back three is just now like, oh, just another 40% plus three point weapon for Shay. And it, it comes close to making him pretty unguardable because that's the shot teams are like, if you're going to do that before we can send our double, you're going to do that without a pick and roll. You're going to just do that. Then, you know, like we're, we're loading up for your drive, we got all the help ready and that's annoying to you, you're just going to take a step back. Three like, okay, yeah, impressive win for, you know, everyone was undermanned. Couple other Thunder notes. Celtics did it, Denver did it. More and more teams are going to do it. It's not new, it's not novel, but it seems like a lot of teams are just going full on. We're putting our centers on Lou Dort or our centers on Alex Caruso and we know the Thunder note, how to do, how to counter that and all of that. Do you have any. There are a lot of Lou threes tonight, A lot of losers. Do you have any thoughts on the Thunder's handling of that strategy?

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm almost like less concerned with the Lou part because that is just gonna like the shots are gonna hit or they're not and more concerned with the. What does that mean for Chet being guarded by a wing? And I thought this was actually a pretty great game for that kind of showcase for Chad where he plays like a physical big in some cases and in some aspects of the game and in others he just kind of is a body in the mix. And I thought like that game, securing rebound in which I think was Poor Sam Houser trying to fend him off the glass. Like, that's exactly the kind of thing Chet has to nail. And the fact that he can do it at a time where, yeah, Isaiah Hartenstein is out, like, that just gives the Thunder that much more comfort in terms of when push comes to shove, if they do need to play this way, they know that Chet can be counted on to get, like, that kind of opportunity.

[Zach Lowe]

In particular, AJ Mitchell looks like he hasn't missed a beat. Didn't shoot super efficiently tonight, but he's. He's just been awesome.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'll say this, I did think that with A.J. mitchell, like, when the thunders start A.J. mitchell, to me, that's like a sign of respect, basically.

[Zach Lowe]

Actually, he was 6 of 10, by the way. I misspoke. Sign of respect for the other team.

[John Krasinski]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah. Because like, if. If you let the Thunder, like, they will Dort and Wallace their way through every wing minute they possibly can, and Caruso their way through every wing minute they possibly can. And so if they feel like even when they're shorthanded that they need to start A.J. mitchell against you, I think it's a tip of the hat to your defense, to be honest with you.

[Zach Lowe]

Well, and they're loaded for bear when they get healthy. And, you know, we're all assuming wing Jalen Williams is going to get. Be healthy and get healthy. We have not really seen him healthy the entire season, and that's obviously a huge X factor. But those non shame minutes used to be a little bit of a puzzle for how are you going to get offense? And now you can throw. You know, they would always throw Jalen Williams and Chet out there at those minutes. And now you throw AJ Mitchell into the mix. Like, they should be pretty stable in those minutes. And big Jalen Williams, I used to. I used to call wing Jalen Williams the good Jalen Williams. And all these NBA players are good. Like being facetious. Big Jalen Williams, look, he doesn't play enough minutes. He's not a big enough part of the rotation when the Thunder are fully healthy to actually be in contention for this award. But he's like in the contention for six man of the last six weeks, that guy has been awesome. A machine. He's an awesome player. He's making every three. If he had played like 20 minutes a game like this the entire season, he would be at least in the conversation for like, do I got to put him on a ballot spot? Because he's. He's like rock solid defensively. He's he's just been an awesome story for them.

[Rob Mahoney]

Also like low key, a pretty good like high post passer hitting cutters like he did tonight. Like he just has a lot of cohesive skills that help you play good team basketball. And like, what more can you ask of your, you know, third center option off the bench effectively than that?

[Zach Lowe]

Also one of the more shocking nerd moments in the NBA when he does not get the benefit of the doubt on a block charge call which happened once tonight. Boston obviously missing two of its best players and did just keep on trucking like Peyton Pritchard. Make another buzzer shot, take a lot of shots, do your thing. Sam Houser, come on in. Ron Harper Jr. Stan Van Gundy just matter of factly at the beginning of the broadcast tonight said, these are the two teams to beat in their respective conferences. Are we three Tatum games in? Are we already there with Boston? Detroit's been a little rocky lately. You know, Cleveland got smoked by Orlando the other night. Someone always seems to be injured. Yeah, you know, New York is like, God help you if you could figure out the Knicks. I can't, I've given up. Are we already there with Boston?

[Rob Mahoney]

We're getting kind of close. I mean, I think we're going to need to see Tatum over like a sustained stretch. The opening, like the opening offerings have been just incredible in terms of what he's been able to do. But three games and 15 games or 20 games or more importantly like a seven game series at a time are very different like endeavors. So I want to see a little bit more. But if it continues in this way, I think they probably do have more going for them than basically any other contender at this point. I'm not quite ready to bail on Detroit just yet, but I think the Celtics are coming on incredibly strong.

[Zach Lowe]

You can't bail on the Pistons. I was never quite convinced of them as like a Finals team just because of their obvious offensive issues. But they have so much toughness, so much size. Cleveland and New York like both have the upsides to win any playoff series in these to make the final. So it's hard for me to just go that all in on Boston with the Tatum thing being this new. But one thing that they do feel like is the most complete team of the four and just having no weaknesses really that are easily exploitable. They're pretty complete on both sides of the ball. Nimi Keita, most improved player candidate Gotta be. Yeah. I don't know who I would pick in the east right now. I picked the Knicks at The start of the season. I just. Sure. I don't know.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, well, let me ask you this. Like these. So these four teams tonight, you know we have, you know, San Antonio and Denver going at it. We got Boston and OKC going at it. Those are the four lowest turnover teams in the league and they might be the four best teams in the league. Do you think there's anything to that idea? Is there something about the NBA right now that is a more of a possession game than it used to be?

[Zach Lowe]

It's funny because I noted that well, certain lot of coaches are emphasizing it's the same reason why a guy like Hugo Gonzalez has free reign to just crash the offensive glass from the corners every single time. Possessions, possessions, possessions. Missoula has been the most vocal I think about about this issue that it's interesting because I When Boston, Oklahoma City is like the Turnover bowl, right? It's. It's the team that forces the most turnovers against the team that commits the least. And also the thunder of the second least. I, Denver, San Antonio. I didn't think about it as hard yet. Maybe there, maybe there is something there of just not only turnovers but live ball turnovers specifically.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Zach Lowe]

San Antonio did not win tonight. The Nuggets after blowing out the Rockets last night. Nice. A nice couple of days for the Nuggets. Blew out the Rockets who you know, fine are good but I don't think are quite in the same stratosphere as some of these other teams.

[Rob Mahoney]

Sadly not.

[Zach Lowe]

And then beat the spurs on the road back to back. No Wemby Fair, no Aaron Gordon for the Nuggets. Not equivalent but the Nuggets.

[Rob Mahoney]

No Peyton Watson.

[Zach Lowe]

No Peyton Watson. Yeah. And they're so small when those guys don't play. Although Spencer Jones gave them huge minutes tonight and they actually won decisively. A non yokage stretch of minutes when they mothballed Valentunas who's sneakily like rough kind of month for the Jonas Valentunas minutes.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Zach Lowe]

And just went super small. But a win's a win. When you get into San Antonio at 4:30 in the morning and you win and all of these wins for Denver are important. What did you see from this game that was interesting to you?

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean I think a couple things. I think in terms of the late possessions and the way this thing unraveled for the spurs, it was remarkable how much San Antonio's possessions ended up going exactly where the Nuggets defense wanted them to go. Which is, you know, all of your Q dribble penetration is Going to end with a Keldon Johnson catch and shoot three, a Dylan Harper catch and shoot three, a Harrison Barnes catch and shoot three. And those are not bad shots. But I think part of the thing is every Nuggets possession was going exactly to Murray and Jokic in some combination over and over and over and they were kicking out and making plays. And you could say the same about, you know, finding Spencer Jones in the lane or Cam Johnson certainly had his moments down the stretch, but it just felt like a team that knew what its shots were versus one that didn't. And maybe that's somewhat having Wemby not in the mix and you can get to your stuff more accessibly and more easily when he's out there. But I'm not even sure that San Antonio, when Wemby plays, knows exactly where and how it wants to go in crunch time where Denver has done this over and over and over and just, it felt like old hat for them.

[Zach Lowe]

And the non Jokic minutes were big in the third quarter or I'm sorry, yeah, in the fourth quarter rather. Whenever. I can't. My brain is broken from the travel today, but I think early fourth quarter because even with Jokic looking not quite peak peak Jokic in the last month or so since he's come back from injury, they're like plus 8 per 100 possessions with Jokic on the floor in that stretch and minus like a lot. So to survive those minutes was big and Murray was unbelievable with the shot making. There was a possession, I think it would. I think they went up five with maybe like a minute 40 or two minutes to go where the spurs were putting Keldon Johnson on Jokic and God bless Keldon Johnson. That guy wants all, all the physicality. You want me to front them? You want me to just body check him? You want me to crawl underneath his jersey and give him a purple nurple? Like I'll do the whole thing.

[Rob Mahoney]

It just doesn't seem fun. Like, it seems fun being a big enough wing that you can bulldoze your way through other wings. But when then you're asked to guard Nikola Jokic, like, it's not ideal.

[Zach Lowe]

And then they threw Castle on him late in the game. Castle is not far from the all defense conversation. Oh yeah, that guy is just an absolute monster.

[Rob Mahoney]

But anyway, maybe the best rebounding guard in the league too, to be honest with you. Triple double for him tonight.

[Zach Lowe]

He's just going through these guys like, just literally like, oh, you, you're. You went under the screen and you're here. I Don't, I don't care. You're littler than me. I'm just going to shove you aside and go through you. But anyway, they get the ball to Jokic, they manage to enter the ball to him and he's immediately double teamed by two spurs and, and he kicks it out somewhere and they swing and swing and swing and the spurs rotate and the rotations spit out Luke Cornett onto Jokic. So they, they almost like rotate into normal matchups and Denver reads that and is like oh, Murray, Jokic, pick and roll. We got the matchups we want. And Murray snakes it and makes this ridiculous going the wrong against his body righty floater to put the Nuggets up five. Just an awesome game for those two. And the spurs look without Wemby. It's a pretty awesome effort. And these young guards like Dylan Harper's ability to create a good shot for himself from, from scratch is remarkable. Castle's awesome. Harrison Barnes came back Vassell. I don't think he ended up with the best shooting line. 5 of 14 so. But 4 of 10 on threes. I've just been impressed with his all around play the wild card. He only played nine minutes. They were a productive nine minutes. It's probably early for Carter Bryant to factor into the spurs postseason rotation, but he's become a real interesting long term piece for them.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh yeah, I mean just the reminder whenever he pops out there and hits a couple shots or I think in this one the play that made my eyes go wide was being chased off the three point line into a baseline drive, met at the rim. I mean near enough by Jokic, I think and just reminding you of like how much of a big bodied wing he is on top of, you know, the length and the potential shooting like he factors into their future in a pretty significant way. And I think the idea that the spurs, they're here now contending for the title in the present tense with Victor Wembanyama, they also just have all of this slow burner stuff going in the background. Like Carter Bryant who if you told me in two years he's just like a critical part of their team in every possible way. I couldn't talk you out of that.

[Zach Lowe]

No, no, he, I think he probably will be. I mean he's still very young defensively. He's there now like you can guard pretty much anybody. And that possession you mentioned, what's probably going to prevent him from being a postseason mainstay for them is he had an open three and he, he passed on it and there was this like blip of should I drive it? What should I do here? And that kind of feel in the flow, I think is going to be his primary obstacle. But he, he looks awesome. And the, the, the Spurs. How much pie, how much title pie did the Thunder have in your last group chat NBA piece?

[Rob Mahoney]

I want to say they had 35% down from 40, but now they might be back up to 38%. You know, the five. The pie is a fluid exercise. We can always bake more.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah, I mean, that's about right. I don't know where that nets out on Thunder versus the field. I guess it would net out on you taking the group chat pie taking field, which is 65%. I got to see Jalen Williams before I take him over the field because the spurs are here now and I think they can win the title. Yep, the Nuggets, I guess, I mean, Aaron Gordon had, I think no points or no field goals at least against the Rockets the other night, did not play tonight. So I got to see a little more from him. But I think they can win the title and the west will. We'll see. But yeah, let's go to. The Lakers are winning right now. That game is still going on. The Bulls have cut it to 11 in the fourth quarter. God, Bl. I hope this game ends while we're recording this. And if the Bulls come back and win, Doncic has 41 points, LeBron is back tonight, and the Lakers are just, just hanging around. Just, you know, they've been almost the least upside y team of these top six teams in the west, but they're. If they win this game, they will be third in the west for at least a hot second. And all these teams are very close to each other. I think they're 11 and 2 now without LeBron when. Or at least when Reaves and luka play without LeBron. What do you read into that and what have you seen from a pretty, like, pretty solid Lakers stretch right now?

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, I mean, I think the LeBron part of it, it's just pretty clear that he. Having him and Luka on the floor together makes it almost impossible to have a consistently solvent defense. Like, I just think it puts you in a, in a positional quagmire that they don't have the personnel really to get out of.

[Zach Lowe]

So Luke Kennard steps in and it's all. We're, we're, it's, it's all tightened up.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, honestly, Luke Kennard's been a much bigger factor here than I was anticipating him being, he's just like a real deal part of the rotation.

[Zach Lowe]

I, I, I ditto. And I, he's been on a lot of teams and every team he goes to, they're like, oh, he doesn't shoot enough threes, he's a defensive liability. And all of a sudden he just like goes from 18 minutes to 10 minutes to 8 minutes to 0 minutes. He's been awesome for them, like legitimately, really, really good. But anyway, continue on on LeBron. So it's the defense, it's obvious chemistry stuff. What else?

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, I mean, I think it is the defense. And so you see just some of the compatibility issues with him being out. Like, I, I don't know what to make of this stretch. Where they have gone from. I, I don't know. Just like playing fish in the barrel defense for 50 games until all of a sudden now they look weirdly competent. And they, they look weirdly competent even among the lesser defenders, even guys like Luca, like some of the exchanges and some of the switches they were doing against Minnesota the other day just look like clean and intense and like good focused basketball in ways that I'm just not used to seeing the Lakers play. And so is that a thing that is sustainable or not? Because it's the difference between the rise to just like, can you aspire to mediocrity versus, are you just going to be one of the worst defensive teams in the league?

[Zach Lowe]

Luka has been playing with noticeably more zip in the last week or two, and I wonder if some health ailment has just felt better for him. Because like, against the Knicks with Mitchell Robinson, against the Wolves with Gobert, when they would bring their screeners up to the level, I mean, he was putting his head down, splitting the screens and like, no, no, like I'm playing around, I want to look for pass. Like, I'm just going right to the rim with a kind of explosion that you don't see from him as often. And Reeves is playing that way too. I also wonder if it's like you take one of the three out of the equation and it just gets more, there's just more clarity for them. Like there's no one, like the arguably the greatest player of all time is over there and like, we got to get him the ball. I'm not saying LeBron's going to hurt the Lakers when he comes back. They're still winning tonight. I just think it gets less complicated. To your point about their defense, they played the third most zone in the NBA for the season and on. On those possessions. According to the, the tracking data, they're allowing 1.049 points per possession that would outrank the Thunder's overall defense. Like, obviously there's some fluky opponent shooting and some luck involved in there. But, but their zone, like they play this kind of zone when I'm watching, morphs into different forms mid possession where sometimes, wait, is that man to man? Are they, are they planning to go man to man? Are they starting a man to man and then going. And you can see some teams being like, I don't quite understand what I'm seeing here. Like they figured out something with the zone that is interesting.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think it's a huge part of what has made Luca and Austin and Luke Canard especially, like much difficult, more difficult to target lately because if it is shifting in shape in isolating in the way you want isn't always an option. And the exchanges, as I was saying, have been so clean, not just in a pick and roll kind of traditional man sense, but like the baton handoff within the zone also has just been like really well organized and really well communicated. And so then all of a sudden it's like, yeah, the rim protection is going to be a mess for this team, generally speaking, but if you're not getting blown by as much at the point of attack, like, you don't have to worry about it to the degree that deandre Ayden and Jackson Hayes have had to worry about it over the course of this season. And so I just think a lot of stuff has been cleaned up by junking up possessions in that way. Just like a little more switching, a little more zone here and there, a little more containment on the perimeter and perimeter in general. And then all of a sudden you look like a functional basketball team again. And it's amazing what the defense can do when you even get that far.

[Zach Lowe]

They also have won the tiebreaker over the Wolves. They've lost it already to Phoenix and they are up in the air against both the Rockets and the Nuggets. They somehow lucked into a schedule where they only played the Rockets three times, the Nuggets three times, and the Wolves three, and they're one and one.

[Rob Mahoney]

Crazy.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah, they, they got a good, they got a good little. They got a good little schedule. I, I forgot one spurs thing I did want to mention.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, sure.

[Zach Lowe]

I've quietly enjoyed the Dear and Fox Year one. Really? Year one for the Spurs. I, I know he got. I, I wasn't, I was a little surprised that he got named to the all star team because his numbers aren't eye popping and the young guards are doing what they do. I just love like the three headed monster they have and the power of having two of them on the floor at all times is just logarithmic for them. Like they just never are lacking for ball handlers. And even though people treat Harper and Castle like shaky to non shooters, it hasn't even really hurt them because if you rotate away from them and the ball gets to them and the spurs have the unselfishness and pace of a veteran team. The way they move the ball, when the ball gets to them, if there's a gap in front of them, they're going and they're so explosive you're not staying in front of them. But Foxes just felt like the glue holding a lot of their possessions together and like yeah, you know I can always run an empty side pick and roll with Wemby like if all or Luke Cornett if things go badly and I got a good mid Ranger. I just, I've really enjoyed de' Aaron Fox in San Antonio.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think increasingly so for me because earlier in the season I felt like especially in some of their bigger matchups, he felt like a little more of an ancillary part in some of those games and where I wanted to see him be the veteran, I wanted to see him be the calming presence and I feel like we're getting that more and more, including tonight where like it just feels like he is answering the call in a different kind of way lately. And if he can be that in addition to all of the pop you're getting from Castle and Harper in particular, you're right. Like you can always triangulate two good guards having a good night between the three of them and that's. It just opens up so many exciting possibilities for their lineups in general.

[Zach Lowe]

You know what else I like? I like having a good lefty involved. Same with Dylan Harper. It just empowers like the other side of the floor and so they can run those empty side pick and rolls with Fox like starting from the right corner going left. They're the kind of plays like I have John Krasinski coming on after you, but we recorded it already and we were talking about Minnesota's offense and how it just like kind of sinks into these periods of like we don't really have a second plan on any of these possessions if we even a first one. I would love to see them run like more Ant empty, empty side pick and roll or come off a pin down and catch it on the move and like some of the stuff that the spurs just do is pretty elementary parts of their offense could really like catapult Ant into advantageous positions. Marcus. Marcus Smart's been pretty good for the Lakers, by the way.

[Rob Mahoney]

He's also been, yeah, quite good. And I mean Rui's always been solid for them in the capacity that they ask him to play. Like just those two guys being stable and the other and everyone else showing up. And I also just hope at this point in the season can we just be normal about Luka having an amazing offensive season. Like he's just one of the best players in the world and I'm very confused about the conversation around him on a daily basis.

[Zach Lowe]

Are you that confused? Like, I'm a little confused. Are you just, are you just immune to being annoyed by whining? I think that's all it is and whining and like bad defense, which as you said has been much less of a problem in the last two to three weeks. He's been moving his feet and like actually engaged. Which makes the non engagement portions of the season all the more frustrating because you see proof of concept like dude, just just be average or like normal, below average and we're good.

[Rob Mahoney]

Everything you're saying is true. I think I just operate from a space of most superstars to the people around them are in some way annoying. Like, you know who is annoying to like coexist with in a workplace? Shaquille o'. Neal. You know who's annoying to coexist with in a workplace? Prime LeBron James. Like these guys do amazing things on the court, but they also take and have certain entitlements. They also, you know, take advantage of certain opportunities. They also choose not to play defense. They, you know, get surgery on company time, whatever it may be. Like this is kind of part of the game and everybody has their quirks and like the fact that Lucas quirks are I'm going to create in a way that maybe two other people in the entire world can. And the trade off for that is I'm not going to play great defense most of the time and I'm going to complain a lot. I'm just will I have an appetite for a lot of complaining if that's the trade off. I'm willing to put up with a lot for everything Luka Doncic gives you.

[Zach Lowe]

He has given the Lakers through three and a half quarters, 41 points, 10 rebounds and six assists tonight. And yeah, I have written in my notes a couple of times from recent Lakers Games. Luka looks more like Dallas peak Dallas Luka lately. And just the passes are coming a little easier. The zip I talked about before and I think before Shai, I think Shea probably slammed the door on the MVP conversation with that win against Denver when he and Jokic went head to head and he made the two threes at the end. But, you know, it's never over till it's over. I think we were like a couple of Shay missed games or a blah Shay stretch away from a Wemby case getting more and like, more feasible and a Luka case getting more feasible because even right now, like going into Tonight, Lakers are plus 3 per 100 possessions with Luke on the floor. Not great, but not bad. And minus three with him on the bench. Luka and Reaves, no LeBron plus 12 per hundred possession. Some of that is that opponents can't make a shot. And the Wemby numbers the last time I checked were like Spurs +18 per 100 possessions with WEMBY on the floor and getting outscored with Wemby off the floor. And it's. It's the plus 18 of that equation that I've always valued the most. The same with Jokic. Like, it doesn't really sway me that, oh, his team falls apart without him. He's so valuable and like that. That factors in sometimes. But it's like when you elevate your team to these sort of net ratings that are, like, preposterous, that. That matters more to me. And that's where Wemby was but. And Luca was. Was coming along. All right, let's take a quick break and then we'll move east because we got to discuss. We got to discuss the East. Other than Boston, The Zach Lowe show is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is putting you in control right from the tip off. That's right. You get to choose your reward. Play it safe, go for it. Feeling bold, that's your move. Whatever your style, you're in control no matter how you play. FanDuel's giving you the power to choose your reward and own your game this NBA season. Head to FanDuel.com low to make your pick, get in the game and play it your way. 21 over select states or 18 and over in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Opting required rewards are not withdrawable. Restrictions apply, including bonus and token expiration, leg requirements and max wager amount. See [e-mail] gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincut. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. On the court, the best players know when to pass and off of it. You still need teammates who are there when it counts. That's where State Farm comes in. With agents and digital capabilities to help you find the coverage you need. You can focus on what really matters, whether that's scoring game winners or just getting through the day. State Farm with the assist. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state. Shifting East Rob it's been a little bit since Bam out of bio scored 83 points. I have not had a podcast about it. I, I was not watching the game when it was going on. I was alerted to it. I guess I think it was NBC like popped into the game and I don't think I've ever been more surprised by anything happening in an NBA game. Like not even the season being shut down because Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid. Yeah, Bam Adebayo not In the top 50 of players you would think would crack 70, let alone Best Kobe's 81 points. Not in the top two on his own team. I think for players you would pick to score 70 points, Norm Powell and Tyler Hero would probably be drafted above him in in that draft. Just a completely shocking outcome. And then of course I went back and I watched the game later that night and the next morning to see like how in the world did this happen. And then it became clear to me as I was watching it that this is going to cause some fiery debates in the talk radio space.

[Rob Mahoney]

What was the giveaway for you about that?

[Zach Lowe]

It's never comfortable when your own team starts committing fouls on purpose in a blowout to try to get the ball back. And now the Wizards. There's a lot to be said about the 2026 Washington Wizards, none of it good. They, they at least hung around for 3.7 quarters. Probably in like the no one takes their starters out yet score range like they're down. They're down 17 with five minutes to go. Like it was plausible that they could make some sort of comeback. But the fouling, the Kashad Johnson missed free throw really, really annoyed me. The intentional missed free throw. But I have what, what did you, what did you. So that all surprised me. The first, the first quarter when Bam just lost his mind and had 31 like completely legitimate points in one quarter also kind of surprised me. I'll tell you. I'll just tell you where I net out on this. I think if he had scored 80 points, the whole thing would have died down fairly quickly. Sure. Because he surpassed a legend who passed away tragically not long ago and one of the more iconic and beloved by his peers players in history. This is now taken on a life of its own. And it's why Sam Amick writes a column that's like, well, they just should have taken him out at 81 points to not pass Kobe. I don't particularly agree with that. I think you're in the game, chase as many points as you can get. I guess I would say, you know

[Rob Mahoney]

who would hate that is Kobe Bryant. I like if.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah, I'm just.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm.

[Zach Lowe]

I'm.

[Rob Mahoney]

I like. I love Sam. Have a lot of respect for Sam. I cannot fathom that. Take.

[Zach Lowe]

Well, I can fathom it. I can fathom it because the game was over and I did have a couple of coaches on other teams reach out. To me now, coaches are A, all hypocrites and B, you know, there's a certain the Heat have earned, I think a certain, like everyone likes to knock them down a peg because of their accomplishments and also their constant touting of Heat culture to the point that they put it on a goddamn basketball court with a bunch of words that you can't read underneath it. And there was a sort of like, well, that's bad sportsmanship. Take that I got from a couple of coaches. That's bad sportsmanship. The game was over. They're just inflating his points. And I don't think there's nothing to that. Like, I can fathom that. Take here's where I net out. It's not the second greatest scoring game of all time. Obviously. Like, that's obvious. I don't care that he has more raw points than Kobe Bryant. It's not. What was he. He was 20 of 43 or something and he made a million free throws. I can't remember exactly what it was. I would rank it behind 81 points for sure. Probably behind. Kobe has a couple really efficient 60 plus point games, including one against your Dallas Mavericks, I believe.

[Rob Mahoney]

Three quarters. Yeah, 62 or 63 and three quarters. It was unbelievable.

[Zach Lowe]

Embiid's 70 point game, I think is obviously a better scoring game. Luka's 73 point game. Luka was 25 of 33 in that game against Atlanta. He only made 15 free throws or for this kind of game is like very low. I think that's a better scoring game.

[Rob Mahoney]

And that was a close ish game. If I remember Correctly, I think, like they were in it and fighting for it. Yeah.

[Zach Lowe]

And I guess, I guess that that bumps it up. It was a real game. Jordan has like a 69 point game against Cleveland that I really like from back in the day. And I'm always partial to the. That was, that wasn't Michael Jordan. That was God disguised as Michael Jordan. Playoff game from 1986. I would rank it all, despite the raw point totals. I would rank it all behind that. There was. There was some aggressive chucking starting midway through the third quarter. Bam. So just fire everything up and then the fouling stuff at the end. But all of these games have nonsense in them for the most part. Once points are once a point record, like this is in play, nonsense ensues. So I'm not. I thought it was unseemly toward the end a little bit, and I think it's okay to feel that and. But yeah, I have been driving the Bam wagon for nigh 10 years at this point. So this is not about Bam. Who's one of the great guys in the league, the captain, the stalwart of Heat culture. Awesome backstory, like the guy. A little unseemly toward the end, but I just, I can't get that fired up on, you know, what my brain is capable of. My brain is capable of appreciating a great feat.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yep.

[Zach Lowe]

Also feeling that some of it is a little exaggerated by unseemly behavior at the end and slotting it in where I feel like it should be slotted in the all time great scoring feats, which is like below some of those games where I said it's still 83 points, it's still great. I'm not, you know, that's where I net out. It's not that crazy.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think it's a fair place to net out. I can't imagine frankly, either getting incredibly fired up unless you are bam at a bio, which by all means get fired up, or getting all that fussed about it like it's just a game. It is kind of a farce in the way that you explained. Basically all of these crazy scoring games all turn into farces over time.

[Zach Lowe]

This was high on the far scale, though. This was. This was maybe the highest.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think. I think once you're within range, once you cross 50, like, what else are you supposed to do? Like, yes, you could check yourself out of the game. Yeah, your team could just like completely pull the ripcord and get out of there against a tanking Wizards team. But like, why not? Like, why not? Go for it. If you're presented with the opportunity, it's no and.

[Zach Lowe]

And. Okay, so here's the real issue. The real issue is the Wizards presented him with an opportunity.

[Rob Mahoney]

They sure did.

[Zach Lowe]

That was such a trash fire performance by the Wizards. First of all, where was Troy Young? He played tonight. Where was he? Why'd you trade for him? I know, I mean, like, I get. I understand what's happening. We all understand what's happening. Anthony Davis, see, is he going to play ever? He would have been really helpful. And their effort level and execution on defense was pathetic. You can go back and I watched every Bam shot again. I watched every time he drew a foul again. There like any number of low lights by players who are better than this. Kashad Johnson took a three in the second quarter. Alex Sar was under the rim with like textbook inside position on Bam. Like, like everything unfolded perfectly for him to get the rebound. He was inside. He was inside position. There was no scrum happening. Bam wasn't even like trying so hard. And Alex Sar may honestly have. Well, may as well have just turned around and started a conversation with Bam about like the Miami Marlins season outlook this year. He just sort of like turned halfway and Bam was like, oh, you're just not even going to try? I'll. I guess I'll go get this rebound. And then he got fouled and he made two free throws. And guess go watch all the fouls. There might be 3, 50, 50 ish or 40, 60 ish calls that go Miami's way. I thought, in particular, I thought the last one could have been a no call with Anthony Gill backpedaling. The rest of them are just absolutely abysmally terrible defense. And guys who are out of position because they're just playing terrible defense and because they're out of position lunging, trying to get back into position. And that's when you foul. Like most of those fouls are fouls. The wizard there was another one who someone took a Bam contested a Trey Johnson 3, right? It was a switch. He contested a Trey Johnson 3.

[Rob Mahoney]

He did.

[Zach Lowe]

Guess what? Guess what he did. He leaked out. Guess what all five Wizards on the floor did. Nothing. Just like nothing. We're just not gonna do anything. Bob Carrington standing on the other side of the floor. It was his job to get back on defense. He's just stood around just checking out, maybe checking out some of the people in the front row, I don't know. And Bam got a run out dunk. They were so bad that they, like, I don't even want to hear from the Wizards about, oh, it was humiliating for us. It was bad sportsmanship. Just, just. And this. And it's obviously tanking. Like, they're tanking. They're playing the incentive game that Adam Silver is going to try to remove or chip away at by the 2027 draft.

[John Krasinski]

They.

[Zach Lowe]

They were as much of a story as much of a. They were a bigger part of this story. Their defensive incompetence and lack of effort was a bigger part of this game than it probably than it had any right to be.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes, I think. And I think it went beyond incompetence into desperation and frustration on the part of some of those fouls where it's just like, you really could just all get out of here in one piece and not do this, and it would be okay. But I don't know why the. The degree of fouling happened in the way it did all of the. Like. I agree with everything you're saying about the Wizards. I also want to make one very important point, maybe the most important point I've ever made on this podcast, which is I came on with you preseason and I put the Wizards in the top 10 in my league pass rankings. And I just want to say the Wizards played the most talked about game of the entire season.

[Zach Lowe]

Every other network spinning this into a W for you, every other network cut

[Rob Mahoney]

into it to show a Wizards game in real time. And if that is not league pass supremacy, I'm sorry, Zach, I really don't know what is.

[Zach Lowe]

So you're Galaxy branding. This. This is the greatest moment of the Wizards franchise since John Wall leapt onto the scoring table. This is. This is it for. This is the biggest moment that they've experienced since that time, since one of the funeral games against Boston. Remember the funeral games when people dressed in black and these. That was like. The funeral games were like, I guess. Look, man, the Eastern Conference is so bad that LeBron is openly disparaging every. Every other team and like sleepwalking through the regular season. We got to be entertaining somehow. It's like they were like a TV show throwing in a kid in the last season, just trying to do something to keep it entertaining. Bam followed up his 83 point outburst with a 6 of 20 game tonight for the Heat, who still won over. They got 28 points from Pella Larson

[Rob Mahoney]

and Pella Larson was from fucking Ballin tonight.

[Zach Lowe]

I like Pella and Kaziaka. They started Ware and Bam together. Bam had 21 points of the 6:20 shooting. I'm. I'm gonna I'm just taking a shot in the dark. I think I'm going to call by the end of next week. The Bucks have shot of shut Giannis down. I just, I don't see any point to this anymore. I said a couple weeks ago, they have so many big games, big ish games against teams that are ahead of them in the standings. If they don't do well, the writing's going to be on the wall. They're now five games behind Charlotte in the loss column and no right to expect Charlotte suddenly going to fall apart the way they're playing. Seven games behind Philly, who's dropped to ninth and seven games behind the Hawks. It's over. And Giannis hasn't looked. I didn't see their game tonight. He had 31 points. Maybe he looked like Giannis. He has not looked right to me in any of the games he's played. He was grimacing again several times in their game two games ago. I can't, it might have been Orlando. I can't remember who it was. I, I, I'm just calling him. It's Thursday, March 12th. By Thursday, March 19th. I'll give it a week. I think they're shutting them down.

[Rob Mahoney]

There's no point.

[Zach Lowe]

No, there's no info, no inside info, Just me, just, I'm just calling it.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, their games are a total disaster to watch, to experience as a basketball exercise. Like, I don't know who they're for at this point, especially if they're going to continue to be this bad. So please do shut him down. Like, I would like a healthy Giannis next season, if that's a good way to get it started. Let's go ahead and do that.

[Zach Lowe]

Well, and it's a good way to have at least a chance of. I mean, there's not so many teams they can realistically quote catch in the lottery race. One of them would be Chicago. They're tied. They're now tied with the Bulls. That's a bad sign. Tied with the Bulls is a bad sign. Name, Name eight Bulls right now. Eight current Bulls. Let's see if we can do it together. Let's name some Bulls. Ready? Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

Let's go first.

[Zach Lowe]

We'll alternate until we'll alter until we're out.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, Josh Giddy is the easy one.

[Zach Lowe]

Jalen Smith, Nick Richards. Wow. Stealing Isaac Okoro, Manus, Bruisellas, Patrick Williams. It might still might happen for Patrick Williams. Rob, are you all. It's not going to happen.

[Rob Mahoney]

It will never happen. I don't believe it is It. Leonard Miller.

[Zach Lowe]

Leonard Miller is playing quite well for them. Okay, watch this. Lachlan Ulbrich.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay, I'm calling something on that one. We got to consult the Scrabble guy. I don't know is. Who else is still. Oh, Rob Dillingham's on their team.

[Zach Lowe]

Anthony Simons.

[Rob Mahoney]

Is Yuki Kawamura still there?

[Zach Lowe]

Oh, my God, he is. So is Mack McClung. I'll go. Mac McClung. Mack McClung.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think I have to tap out.

[Zach Lowe]

I don't think.

[Rob Mahoney]

I don't think I can beat McLauch.

[Zach Lowe]

Gershon, Yabuseli.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, Gershon is there. You're right.

[Zach Lowe]

Let's see who we're missing. This is thrilling. Podcasting names and Bulls. This. This is how far you've fallen. Bulls. Okay. This is how far you've fallen. We've done Zach Collins, Noah Senge, who they drafted in the first round. We forgot him.

[Rob Mahoney]

Sure.

[Zach Lowe]

Oh, we forgot. We forgot a player who maybe saddest in terms of a personal professional transformation at the trade deadline, maybe the saddest switch of teams. Of all people who. This would be interesting. Of all people who got traded, did anyone have a sadder transition than Colin Sexton? From the red hot Charlotte Hornets to the. What the fuck are we doing here? Can we ride out the season? Chicago Bulls.

[Rob Mahoney]

That's like the inverse Keon Ellis. You don't want to be on this side of that.

[Zach Lowe]

Well, Keon. Keon's playing well for the Cavs. It's a shame that there was no. There were no sign. Sacramento could not have seen.

[Rob Mahoney]

Who could have predicted it?

[Zach Lowe]

One of my favorite Sacramento subplots. It's late. I'm on east coast time. It's one in the morning. I'm a little. I'm a little loopy. One of my favorite Sacramento subplots is, other than Russ calling out the media, which I already addressed, is when they remember that Devin Carter was. Is on their team and was like a lottery pick not long ago. Like, oh, that guy. We kind of think he stinks, but let's play him and see what happens. Like, he's still on the team.

[Rob Mahoney]

Wasn't he once, like, not untradeable, but a sticking point in several different trade negotiations that they couldn't bear to give up. Devin Carter.

[Zach Lowe]

That's another good podcast for the off season. I pitched this. I pitched this last week of. With Matheran playing so well for the Clippers, playing his way into the sixth man of the year conversation, I think it's too late, given how Many games he's missed. But the sort of like the best like there, there's. There's some status like above throw in in these big name trades. Like marketing would fit this as the like one of the guys that was in the Donovan Mitchell trade, Chris Middleton would fit that. He was kind of a true throw in. But the guys who are not the headliners who in the initial euphoria of the trade analysis, they're sort of like almost just at the end of a sentence and not mentioned again. We need to have another deep dive episode. This is a bill topic of most untouchable and or like they're the key swing piece in a trade guys who end up not really amounting to anything. They would be the Roddy Boubois rock stars. Terrence Mann I think would come into this category now that would be a fun one. Speaking of the east and the Miami Heat, we now have a complete morass in the east from Orlando through Philly. Only three games separate the Magic, who are now fifth and on quite a run, beat the snuck out a game against the Cavs at home the other night. Blew out. The Timberwolves have been one of the best teams in the league. Six wins in a row. The Heat of won seven wins. Seven games in a row. The Hawks have won eight games in a row. I have no idea what's happening. How are these teams winning all these games? The Raptors are now in the play and the Sixers are now in the bottom half of the play in at ninth. Where do you want to start? Which of these teams. What's going on with Orlando? What happened?

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, it seems like they're actually playing defense again, which is nice. The post Franz is out indefinitely. Magic to me look and feel just dramatically different. That's no indictment of Franz. Obviously not his fault, but not dissimilar to the Lakers. I think there is a certain clarity to the Paolo Banchero led version of this team, which I also need to add. It's. It's weird that the constant existential crisis around Palo Banchero seems to have quieted as the team is now just like rattling off with win after win after win. And the guy who's six' ten and can theoretically get to any shot he wants looks awfully good in the process. Their team just feels like it makes a little more sense and some of that is honest. Like Tristan da Silva has played really well. Wendell Carter has played really well. Not for nothing, the swap of Tyus Jones for Javon Carter I think is like a Meaningful difference in, like, tenor for their bench. Like, giving them, like, a little bit of backbone in a way that they

[Zach Lowe]

kind of needed and someone who will shoot the basketball.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, it does help.

[Zach Lowe]

It is interesting because I thought Franz was. Had kind of surmounted Paolo as, like, this is the best player on the team. And I mentioned when Paolo was hurt often that they really found something playing Suggs, Black, Bane, Franz and a center. Three rangy, tough defensive guards and a center with Franz and no Paolo. A version of that, I guess, is happening now with Paolo, and it's not an indictment on either one of them, but it is just. It's a tricky fit and we have seen it work at a pretty high level. But something interesting is happening. He's averaging 26, nine rebounds, six assists since the All Star break. Definitely getting to the rim more. His post touches are a little bit up. He's playing with, like, the power game that we all wanted him to play. I think Bane has been pretty consistently very good for them the entire season and really awesome. And took over the offense late in that game against Cleveland. You just never know what they're getting out of the bench. Yeah, Jet Howard has looked a little bit more confident lately. That helps. Jonathan Isaac is out, not playing. Carter's helped. It's. It's just when they. They stagger Bain and Paolo, so one of them is on the floor all the time with Franz out and those lineups are. You're like, looking around, it's like, all right, Desmond Bain and Javon Carter and Noah Penda and Goga Patadze or Mo Vaga and missing a fifth. Jet Howard is like, let's. I don't know how they're surviving, but they're surviving. They're saving their season. And that's some power to them. The Hawks, it hasn't been the greatest of competition over the last eight games, and it was not again tonight with the Brooklyn Nets in town. So I'm not going to read anything too much into it.

[Rob Mahoney]

Even not the greatest feels generous for this stretch of schedule.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah, let's. Let's rattle it off. The Hawks, eight consecutive wins. This is not the first one against Brooklyn, I don't think. No, I think that Brooklyn, Washington, Washington, Portland, when they were totally undermanned, I think that's a non Denny game. Giannis, Milwaukee. I think that was a Giannis game. Philly, when they were beaten up. Dallas, Brooklyn. Okay. It's even worse than I thought. Four of the games are against Brooklyn and Washington, but still, I just didn't Think this group had a level of consistency to win eight games against in a row against any subset of NBA teams?

[Rob Mahoney]

That's true.

[Zach Lowe]

This new starting five with CJ McCollum is working out so far. Kaminga didn't have a good game tonight offensively anyway, but he's been pretty good after missing a few games. Is there anything to this other than yay, the Hawks are going to make the play in again?

[Rob Mahoney]

It's hard to know just because I didn't expect them to be as bad or inconsistent as they were. So how am I to make sense of them being good randomly other than a stretch of schedule? It just feels there is a, there's a fracture with reality. This is a very talented team that doesn't always translate, that hasn't quite found itself yet. There's so many elements that I like and I agree with you that CJ's inclusion, even though he individually has like not had his best stretch, I think he just helps their starting lineup and just really key lineups of a lot of their best players find a balance and make sense in a way that they were not before. And some of that is just like he is obviously less talented than Trae Young, but also much lower maintenance than Trae Young, also more available than Trae Young was for a majority of this season. It's like just having him out there I think has been genuinely helpful. But other than that I really have no way to explain a sudden turn in a team that has been among the most frustrating of all the teams in the NBA this year.

[Zach Lowe]

When you produce content, written or audio or video, as we do, and you do it two or three times a week, you are almost, your brain almost mandates that you react somehow to a streak, a three game streak, a four game streak. Now this is an eight game street, so it's a little longer. And it's always tough for me to do that because sometimes the actual explanation for a three or four game streak is the schedule. It's just a schedule and you want to read all these things into it about they're doing this and the tactics are this. It's really just that you either played a bunch of great teams and you lost or bunch of shit teams and you mostly won. The Hawks have played a bunch of shit teams and they mostly won. I will say I think Dyson Daniel has had. Dyson Daniels has had kind of a sneaky decent year. Offensively. The three has completely fallen off the map, but the other parts of his offensive game have really risen up a level. Passing, cutting two point shot creation. And teams are putting centers on him a lot and putting wings on Inyeka Akongu, who suddenly turned into like one of the best stretch shooting big men in the league.

[Rob Mahoney]

Awesome.

[Zach Lowe]

And the Hawks have kind of quickly figured out how to deal with that. By putting Dyson Daniel as a screener in a bunch of pick and rolls, by putting Dyson Daniels as the ball handler when you put him and Jalen Johnson in the pick and roll together, it's often putting the two worst shooters on the floor for the Hawks in the action, which, which sort of blows up their spacing in a good way. They're just a really creative. They have, they have sequences on offense where it's the perfect kind of randomness where I'm not even sure they know what they're about to do. But it ends up like looking good because they have a bunch of intuitive passers and cutters on the team and it just, it just kind of works out. I don't mind watching these Hawks.

[Rob Mahoney]

I don't mind watching them. It's also why if they just rolled into next season with basically this exact roster, I would fall for it again. Like I would still believe that they are in some way going to be good. I'm just, I'm just going to keep talking myself into it until they dissolve the franchise.

[Zach Lowe]

Trae Young plays for the Wizards.

[Rob Mahoney]

He does.

[Zach Lowe]

It's interesting that the Wizards in Anthony Davis and Trey Young almost kind of have accumulated like every product in a way of the draft day, Trey Young, Luka Doncic trade. Like they have Trey Young and they have the guy that was bizarrely acquired for Luka Doncic. And I was thinking about that trade the other day is like, that was, that was an underrated shock. Not shocking because there were rumblings of it like for weeks in advance, but that was like a fun little draft day swap. Big draft day swap.

[Rob Mahoney]

What is Cam Reddish up to? What's he doing?

[Zach Lowe]

It's a great question. I bet he's playing abroad somewhere. That would be my guess. I haven't, I have not googled him in a while.

[Rob Mahoney]

He's playing for the San Diego Clippers. Sorry all, you know, happy G League

[Zach Lowe]

salute to Cam Reddish, the San Diego Clippers. Hopefully no alleged cap circumvention in the G League. When cap circumvention gets to the G League, we'll really have reached, reached a fun point. Toronto. I did a whole deep dive on with the great Jack Armstrong last week. I don't need. They've now lost two games in a row since then. Including the Pelicans. I don't. I don't think I've ever seen a team quite like the Pelicans who have decided we're not starting any centers and four of our first five guys off the bench are going to be centers. Eve's, mece, Makovich, Queen, D.J. you get involved. It's like a parade of centers coming off the bench. I don't really understand it, but they're winning. And Philly. It's like the, the injury situation has just reached a critical point where what felt like a very successful season all things considered, like staying in the top six given that Embiid plays half the games and you know, they're relying on a rookie starting two guard who's been outstanding is now on the verge of and of feeling. I don't even really know how it feels because Paul George is suspended. They now have a negative point differential for the season. They're going to hang on to a play in spot but it really the top 10 in both conferences are completely decided. But I don't quite know how to feel about this Sixer season. And let's just say they finish 9th or 10th and they do not get out of the play in right. And maybe health is the reason why. Right. Maybe they just never get fully healthy. I just wonder how this ownership group is going to regard that as an outcome. Particularly that McCain trade obviously has been a flashpoint for Sixers fans, but it's just a weird how should we feel about the Sixers?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think hollow. Like there's just not a lot to make you feel anything. There's not a lot of spirit within the direction of the team. Like I think all of the animating forces for the Sixers are the moments where Joelle looks amazing and is healthy enough to be himself. VJ Edgecomb obviously has been a revelation when he's played Tyrese Maxi. You won't hear me say a bad word about him. All those things are great. What do they portend? What do they point to as far as where the Sixers can go from here? There's like there's really not a direction for them to move other than to try to be as competent as possible here right now and they're just not very good. Like even, even if they have everyone available. As you were saying. Like even if the is the best case scenario from here on out. I don't see them cracking into those top tiers of the east. And I say tiers multiple of the east at this point Like, I just think they have too much to climb. And so then what are they playing for? Are we talking about the next very good Sixers team? Being a team that's like six years in the future, five years in the future? Like, I just think it's going to take them a while.

[Zach Lowe]

I mean, they have a starting backcourt that looks like a legitimate building block to a good team.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Zach Lowe]

I mean, they are still four games over.500. I just. It just feels like they're in complete jail. And it's not a bad jail. It's like a minimum security prison or something because they're four games over.500. But, I mean, Joel Blimbi has three years left on his contract after this.

[Rob Mahoney]

This is what I'm saying.

[Zach Lowe]

Paul George has two. And I think it just feels like they're in a holding pattern until they can get out of those contracts, and there's just no getting out of them. Like, no one is touching those. Like, Joel just doesn't play. And Paul George has been okay, but for 54 million and a $56 million player option, no, thank you. So, yeah, I don't know, you know, and we'll see, you know, if there's any changes around them, but it's been a rough few. By the way, I'm looking at the standings, like, I think the. The Heat are. The Heat have the same net rating now as the Cavs. The Heat are 38 and 29. They're now nine games over.500, despite the fact that a bunch of people have missed a bunch of games. They're plus four scoring margin overall, and they have the same point differential as Cleveland. Now, that puts them behind the Knicks, the Celtics, and the Pistons. But something is happening with the Heat. This. Other than bam. There's something here that's a little bit more interesting than, like, a typical late run by an ant team. What? We should probably deep, not go a little deeper. What. What else is of interest to you there? I've mentioned the. Where Bam. Numbers turning positive, like, wildly. So a bunch of times Heroes looked good, but, like, there's. There's something more happening.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, their offense has been, like, weirdly incendiary in a way that. Yeah, like, they. We. We talked a lot about them early in the season and the way they were playing, but I think this surpasses even that in terms of the actual output of this recent stretch for them. When I watch them play. Yeah. You see the size of the wear. Bam combination. Yeah. You see heroes. Heroes, better. Knights, for example, they just Feel like a team that has so many facilitators on the floor basically at all times. In a way that makes them, for me, a very pleasant watch and also makes them like hyper functional. And I think even just getting this kind of stretch from Yakachunas, who was a zero for them in the rotation

[Zach Lowe]

earlier in the year, they found another guy. He's pretty good.

[Rob Mahoney]

He is pretty good. And Pel Larsen, I'm. I'm a big time fan. Other than, you know, randomly going off for 28 tonight, that's even beside the point. I just think he just. Guys who facilitate good flow and they have so many of those players. Jaime Hawke is another one of those players. Like, they have so many of those guys in the mix that I feel like maybe they're finally tapping into the right balance of the size and the skill and the collective playmaking necessary to sustain something that's just like a little more stable than one on one. Pick and roll, less offense.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah, their pick and roll frequency has gone up. It's still last in the league, which is fine, but it's gone. It's probably doubled since Hero came back. And all the injuries. Off and on injuries, they've. They've kind of been able to. And I think this has actually helped them forestalled the difficult decision of like, how much can we play Hero and Powell together? Yeah, Norm Powell made the all star team this year. Tyler Hero made the all star team last year. Was it last year or the year before? It's hard to tell someone of that status. You're actually going to come off the bench. And Wiggins has also been hurt. I just wonder what their best five is to start games and to finish games and how often it includes both of those guys. And they haven't really had to face that crossroads yet because they've been. Both of them have been injured off and on. Norm Powell will come back soon. Yeah, I don't know if they have a high enough ceiling to beat the top four teams in a playoff series. I actually, I don't think they do. But the fifth best team in the East. Question is, they're now in. They should probably be considered in pole position for that. Them or Charlotte? I think given the way Charlotte has been playing. But they're just in such an uphill battle. Something is going on with the Heat, though. Other than Bam scoring 83 points, they

[Rob Mahoney]

do feel like the definitive favorite and the safest of all these options. Yeah, like the Sixers just aren't healthy enough. The Magic, even though I think Their defense has been much improved. They still have to like work overtime to beat the Wizards. Like they have that in them on occasion. The Heat feel really stable and I don't know that I was expecting that given the way that their season has taken some pretty strange turns due to those injuries over the course of it, but they feel like a team that has just kind of found themselves.

[Zach Lowe]

If I had a ballot, I haven't researched it super deeply in a bit. I think Hawkes is sixth man of the year. It's him, it's Keldon Johnson, it's Naz Reed, it's Mather with the late push.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's.

[Zach Lowe]

There's a bunch of other candidates, but I think it's Hawkes. I think it might be, it might have been. It's like wire to wire Hawkeye for me.

[Rob Mahoney]

He's definitely been the favorite or at least among the favorites. Why is it not Isaiah Stewart?

[Zach Lowe]

He's going to end up with a lot of, a lot fewer minutes played, if that matters to you, than a lot of the key candidates. Like, like, I mean, Hawke has, has played. Let me check it out now. I mean, and some of that is the suspension obviously played 17:50 minutes and Stuart has played 33. Yeah. At some point it becomes a pretty, a pretty meaningful gap. But I, I like the, I mean the case is what's just make the case. Outstanding defense and semi reliable shooting. And Jack of all trades, one of

[Rob Mahoney]

the best defensive players in the league, like full stop. The kind of center who you can plug and play with a lot of different lineups because of his like a skill set that's more multifaceted that I think he gets credit for, including with Duran. Yeah, but I mean, I think if you're in contention for all defense and you're coming off the bench, like you at least deserve a place in the sixth man conversation.

[Zach Lowe]

I don't, I don't disagree with that. He's on my like list of eight guys that I would consider for a ballot spot. Probably I would just give it to Hawkes as of now, but I need to look, I need to look. Anything. We didn't hit anything you're dying to talk about?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think we hit a lot of it. I mean this, this whole east situation is, is really interesting. I'm not sure any of it is all that good, but I'm glad that we have it. I'm glad that the east race feels open and alive, even if I don't know that it ultimately means much of anything.

[Zach Lowe]

You know what would be a Feather. I would like to. We should. I mean I should have looked this up before. Right now the top 10 teams in the east are over 500. And I'm wondering. I'm just going to really go quickly through the standings. I don't think we've had a play in era occurrence. 2023 was close but the Bulls were 40 and 42 when all. No, it happened. It happened in. Well, so much for that. It happened in 2122. The Nets, Hawks, Cavs and Hornets were all over 500 in the play.

[Rob Mahoney]

Look at that.

[Zach Lowe]

So we can't. We can't give the east any trophies for that. Rob Mahoney, we got. We got group chat. What else we got?

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean group chat's most of it like prestige TV continues on.

[Zach Lowe]

You know what's bouncing around. You got. The pit is still going. What's new?

[Rob Mahoney]

The Pit's going on. Euphoria is about to come back.

[Zach Lowe]

Tell me about Euphoria. I know nothing about it except Diaz and it. I think.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, actually mostly as do I other than it is the crop of basically an actor, an actress production factory for the entire Hollywood industrial complex right now. But I'm in the process of getting caught up myself so I can watch this new season in real time.

[Zach Lowe]

Do you like the morning show?

[Rob Mahoney]

It's a little too much for me. I've only like everyone involved but I simply can't.

[Zach Lowe]

Billy. Billy Crud up was on my flight today and had a lot of. It was. It was a star studded flight. Billy Crud Up. A couple people approached him. Greg Odin was. Was on the flight. It was. It was an eclectic, eclectic mix. But Billy, Billy Crudup looking very handsome.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean he always does.

[Zach Lowe]

What did.

[Rob Mahoney]

What did Billy think of Bam's 83?

[Zach Lowe]

He. I didn't. I didn't get to ask him about it. That would have been a very fun. You're Billy Crudup, right? Yeah, that's me. What is that Bam out of Bio Game, man. What do you think about that? Did that bastardize basketball? Did it set the sport back? All right, Rob Mahoney, thanks for staying up late, bud. I'll talk to you soon.

[Rob Mahoney]

Thanks, Zach. Appreciate it.

[Zach Lowe]

This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases wherever they shop. This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from the corner coffee shop. Apply for Apple Card in the wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes subject to credit approval Apple card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and [e-mail] this episode is brought to you by Claude from Anthropic. Picture this. You're hours into trying to make the perfect trade for your fantasy team, and somehow you're still narrowing down your list. Claude gets that, and while it won't just hand you a neat answer, it will work through it with you until you land on one that holds up. And now you can ask Claude for live scores, standings, box scores, player stats in the conversation. So you're analyzing with real numbers, not yesterday's headlines. Try Claude for free at Claude AI Low and see why problem solvers choose Claude as their thinking partner. All right, John Krasinski, I don't know if it was your fault when you wrote a column about how everything was coming together for the Minnesota Timberwolves like it does every year at this time of year. I don't know if it was my fault for declaring the Wolves all season my sneaky title contender. I don't know if it was my fault again for declaring that the Wolves had won the cat trade about six weeks ago, making my semifinal verdict barring a Knicks championship because the Wolves, after looking so wonderful, looking like they were rolling, have just crapped the bed for three consecutive games. Orlando blowout and then just like the other side of the cat trade, the knicks and an LaLa road sweep. Lakers, Clippers, neither game. Super competitive Clippers game especially depressing. They gave up 150something points and got into a shoving match after the game. John I don't know. I don't know what to do here emotionally. Should I. Should I just get out now? Should I just give up now? The Wolves are now down to 12th in offense, 11th in defense. It wasn't long ago, John, the halcyon days of like December where they were top seven on both sides of the ball and then they fell a little bit but they're still top 10. Ninth and 10th. That still counts as top 10. That's a marker for title contention. Now they're top 12. We're getting to a point of pseudo averageness that bothers me. And now they are a game ahead in the lost column of the number seven Phoenix Suns. Every there are three teams above them are 40 and 25. This is an absolute dogfight just to sell the play in. John, just, just talk to me, man. What do I need to do here? Should I just quit now?

[John Krasinski]

I would say this, Zach. I mean knowing this team, especially this iteration of the last year. Plus now every time that you think they've put it together and you're ready, okay, here we go. Watch out for these guys. Then they fall apart. And every time you think they are beyond being redeemed, that they have lost the plot and that it's over for them, they will go and win, beat okc, they'll beat the San Antonio spurs, they'll. They'll have great games and reel you back in. It is an enigmatic, bipolar team that is very emotional and rides the waves both for good and bad. And so right now, though, I think it is fair to say that this is the nadir of their season so far. I mean, they have gotten absolutely crushed in three straight games. They have not really competed. And so things got to turn around and they've got to kind of come together and, and wake up a little bit because this is a confidence shaking slump here over these last three. It's been pretty glaring.

[Zach Lowe]

Well, so. And we have to, like, let's dispense with all the excuses which don't apply anymore. We're not in the dog days anymore. We're past All Star break. We're right, we're in fact, we're zooming in on seeding possibilities and play in danger. So, like, this is urgency time. There's 15, 17 games left in the season, so let's dispense with that. They're relatively healthy, so they don't really have.

[John Krasinski]

They've been healthy all year, Zach. Like that's, it's been great for them that way.

[Zach Lowe]

Like, the games have been important. Like these, the LA games in particular were important and they just didn't show up. Yes, they shot poorly from three, but they did everything poorly. So I don't really particularly care. The coach isn't going anywhere, at least not during the season. So you can dispense with that potential excuse. So, like, what you were with the team in la, both sides of the ball. This was an equal opportunity collapse. They were awful on offense, they were awful on defense, they were dysfunctional on offense. Everything about how their offense works basically stopped happening other than Anthony Edwards bailing them out of a bunch of possessions defensively, sloppy across the board, blame all around, blame in every facet of the game. And so when you go through a stretch like this at this point in the season where we're not in the dog days anymore, you're healthy and all that, you should be gearing up. People start to ask, like, what's wrong in the team, like, what's going on within the team, is there a player player rivalry? Is there a player coach rivalry? Is there a health situation we don't know about? So, like you're around the team, what's going on with the team?

[John Krasinski]

Yeah, I'll tell you my observation and it's been this way for most of the season, but I think it's especially acute right now is the team is not connected together. And that's going to sound wishy washy and touchy feely, but when you look at the way the Clippers are playing right now and how locked in they are and how much they sacrifice for each other and how much they pass up good shots to get great shots, things of that nature, the Wolves are not doing that. It is a collection of individuals, really talented individuals. And so when they are winning games right now, it's generally speaking because they are so freaking talented. And Ant might take over, you know, Rui might have a great defensive game or something like that, but they are rarely playing connected basketball on both ends right now. The defense I think in the last three halves has given up over 70 points in each half. Like, it's terrible. And you're seeing Julius Randle not, you know, just being Julius Randle in terms of having the down slight slope of effort. You're seeing Anthony Edwards lose guys back door. You're seeing Rudy Gobert not, not protecting the rim and maybe that's because he's not getting the ball. Offensively you are seeing the offense be very ISO heavy and stick and make slow passes that are easy to intercept. I actually thought, Zach, in the Clipper game they played really well offensively in terms of body movement, ball movement and shooting. But then they just turned it over a bunch of times. And so it's a group that has not at all all season long ever seemed like they were fully on the same page. And that's been really surprising to me because it's a group that's been together for two years now. They know each other. Everyone's contracts are fairly locked in. Like there's none of that kind of lingering in the background. But they just do not play like a connected together group. And that allows that their opponents to just take advantage of that and really kind of reduce the advantages that the Wolves have from an individual talent standpoint on a night in and night out basis.

[Zach Lowe]

Okay, so normally when they crap the bed, I mean, you and I have joked about this before. No good team has ever looked bad the way the Minnesota Timberwolves of the last three years look bad when they look Bad. They look so bad. It's incomprehensible. And that's what the last week has been. And normally when they go through that rut, it's turnovers. They just start throwing the ball all over the place. That was not the case in the Orlando game and it was not the case in the Lakers game against the Clippers. I think they had nine turnovers in the first quarter. Before you blink, they were all 15

[John Krasinski]

in the first half.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah, they were all insane. They were all ridiculous. They were all sloppy. It was just a. Just the greatest hits reel of Minnesota Timberwolves. Bad basketball. I thought their transition defense, which has been a bugaboo for them in the past, has, has leaked oil a little bit in the last couple of games. You know, Ant's been bad defensively. Like this is. These are the last three games are the ones you point at when you say why. Why is he not an all defense candidate every year? Well, it's games like this where he's just standing around getting back cut Randle. And we do need to zero in on Randle in a bit because to me you don't know. One person is to blame. But Gobert's offense is going to be inconsistent. Nature of the beast. DiVincenzo's offense is going to be a little. Just in terms of raw production, it's going to be a little inconsistent. Nature of a three point shooter. Some days he's four of nine, some days he's five of ten, some days he's one of nine. McDaniels is sort of a bellwether for the team. Sometimes he'll get you 20, sometimes he'll get you eight. Randle is the second guy who just has to be around 20 every single game. The efficiency is going to wax and wane 20 to 25 every game for this team to hit its ceiling. He's just had like a bad. It's a month and a half now of mostly just bad. Julius Randle basketball by his standards. There's been a couple of games where I wrote in my notes, he just looks slow. Like slow. Not even disengaged. Kind of slow. Just like moving slow on both ends of the floor to the point where I'm like, is something. Is he pouting? Is something health wise wrong? And then he'll have a little stretch where he'll. There was. I can't remember which game it was, but he was. It was. All my notes were like, slow, slow, slow. Then he blocked a shot and got a fast break basket out of it. All of a sudden he looked like Julius Randle. So we have to get to the bottom of what's going on with Randle. But to me, you know, I was talking to some scouts and coaches about the Wolves in the last two days as we planned this and as they had one bad loss after another. And I keep hearing back, well, they're the kind of team that lets their offense dictate their defense. So when guys aren't getting enough touches, when the ball's not moving around and it hasn't been moving as it needs to move in these last few games, their effort wanes on defense. And when I started asking how should they solve this? I think it's just got to be an all out commitment to defense, resetting the defense and an understanding that when they get stops and they run the offense comes for everybody. And you gotta stop pouting about I don't have enough touches or the ball's not moving. And now that's gonna affect your defensive effort. You've gotta make the offense happen with your defense. And it feels like they need a kick in the ass like this five times a season. And this is the most urgent, urgent time because the ball's been sticky and it's. So what's frustrating about them, Jon, is like they know how to play together. Like, it's not complicated. So Ant's gonna have the ball a lot, but he's not a traditional point guard. But what he's going to do is draw two all the time because teams blitz him all the time. And all he's got to do is make the first simple pass available to him and then the next guy has to either the point five basketball, you either catch it and drive into the gap that's open or you make the next pass available or both. And when they play like that, it's all smooth and it all goes well. These last few games have been like, all right, Julius Randall is going to walk into an off the dribble three with 20 on the shot clock. Nas Reed's going to dribble over to the corner and take an off the dribble 20 footer from the corner. Like, there's no thought, there's no process other than an ant do stuff. But to me, if you're asking like how to solve it, how to snap out of it, the players may want to talk about the offense and the sharing of the ball. I think it has to start for them on like, we should be a better defensive team than this. And when we get stops and we run the Other stuff takes care of itself.

[John Krasinski]

Yeah, I think that one thing that has been apparent all season long and I've said this is it's the most emotional team that I've ever covered in terms of the way they ride the wave of high spirits when things are going well and then low spirits spirits when they are not going well. It's a moody group. And so I do think the way to sort of manufacture the higher spirits is to be overpowering defensively. To have Rudy Gobert blocking shots, to have Ant and DiVincenzo, McDaniels and DeSumu and all those guys moving around the perimeter and rotating and covering for each other, getting stops and then getting out and running. And because that does breed more movement, that breeds more unselfishness. And I think that that would be get cleaner, more high impactful offense. The problem is, and I think the scouts that you talk to are right on, too many of these guys right now have their identities rooted in offensive production or at least offensive involvement. When they are not getting shots or when it is ISO and slowdown, everyone's shoulders slump and then that translates to not getting back defensively. That translates to when I do pass it, it's a.

[Zach Lowe]

Some of their passes against the Clippers were like, I don't even know. Are you guys not looking where the defense is? The ant threw one 10ft out of bounds. Just a simple, a simple, the exact pass I'm talking about draw two on the left wing on a pick and roll cross court pass to the next guy. Except the next guy was 10ft to the left of where he threw the ball. I just like what's going on.

[John Krasinski]

Yeah, 100%. And I do think like the defense is also, I think, where they can reclaim some of their competitive spirit. Because if anything, coming off of that absolutely terrible performance against the Lakers on Tuesday, they should have been ready to go against the Clippers right from the start. Like, hey, let's go out and send a message that that was ridiculous. We just lost to Orlando by 27. We just got smoked by Luca and Austin Reeves in the second half. Our pride is hurt. It's time to start playing. And instead it was the Clippers who were just swarming and the Wolves were not ready for that. That's a poor reflection on them as individuals and being ready for the fight, but also in the coaching staff getting them ready and preparing them. Like, everyone's wearing this right now and they have to get back to just bringing that energy because it's not there right now and it's that makes it not just hard to watch, but actually kind of embarrassing for them right now.

[Zach Lowe]

What's going on with Randle? What do you think? I mean, you look at his numbers, he's still averaging 21 a game. I'll bet that's like 18 for the past six weeks or something. He's down to 31% from 3, which means he's in the 20s for quite a while now because he was a little hotter before that. So some of it is just like the jumper isn't going in, but he just does not look right to me in an engagement. Speed kind of level, what's going on?

[John Krasinski]

Yeah, I think there's a few things that have happened. First of all, prior to the trade deadline, when the Wolves were very much in the Giannis hunt, certainly his name was coming up in rumors throughout that and I do think that bothered him. I don't think he liked it at all. I think he took that a little bit personally and. And so there was some sort of feelings going on involved with that. But we are far away from that now. We, you know, he did not get traded. He is there. I do think he's dealing with some health issues. I think he's had some plantar fasciitis stuff that he's just playing through. Nothing major, but stuff is worn out. The other part, Zach, is he has played in every single game this year. He takes great pride in that. But last year, if you remember, he missed 15 games or so with a groin right around January and into February. He came back from that refreshed, his body was ready and they were 17 and four down the stretch and he looked physically great. So I think that physically he is a little bit worn down right now because he's played in every game. But one of the big things to your point is his three point shot has not just like leveled off. It's fallen off of a cliff. And no one expects him to be cat from, you know, 40% from 3, but you expect him 34, 35% if you can get him up to 36, great. And that makes him a threat. Right now he is in December, 29%, February, 23%, March 16% from three. And that means that when you don't have any threat from that from out there, it allows the defense to completely sag off to get into the gaps against Anthony Edwards. And so now they don't have to guard Rudy because no one passes to him and they don't have to guard Julius on the perimeter. And man, that just Makes the offense a heck of a lot harder for everyone else involved. And so Julius is in a funk right now, I think physically, I think a little bit mentally. And the only way for the Wolves to shake out of this, this whole team wide thing is to get Julius Randle back to where he was at the start of the season when he was great and in the first two rounds of the playoffs last year when he was excellent and they got a

[Zach Lowe]

reason to do it. The high stakes basketball he's played ever,

[John Krasinski]

no question, he was amazing. He was amazing. And they have to find, they have to find that kind of feelings for him and get him back locked in because that's, that's the difference right now.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah, I never really understood how the Wolves. I agree with you that the Wolves were working on Giannis. Like that was a real thing. I don't know how real the Bucs intentions of actually trading him were. I never understood how the Wolves were mechanically going to make it happen, but it just had to have been like five guys flying around the league in different trades with draft picks coming back and stuff that the Bucks would want. And obviously Randle with his salary was a natural element of that. Yeah, I mean, look again, the other excuse we're out of is. I forgot to mention this before of like, well, you know, conference finals, we've been there before. Like wake us up at the playoffs. The only team in the west with wake us up for the playoffs margin for error is Oklahoma City and now San Antonio has joined them. But Oklahoma City started the season with that kind of margin and they've kept it. They can say wake us up for the play. They don't play like that, but they could. The Wolves are in the territory of around and find out what the play in tournament is like. And then you from the play in tournament, even if you get out of it, you're facing the second seed or whatever on the road. You're on the road the whole playoffs. It's not easy, Randall. It's. Sometimes it's simple. Like I just don't think the Wolves can beat the best teams in the west four times in seven games unless Randle is a 20 point plus scorer. Like there's just been too many games in the last month where it's like 13 points, 15 points, 11 points. They just can't win that way because there are other guys other than Anthony who I think has been largely outstanding the entire season. Fringe MVP candidate that's fallen off a little bit lately. There are other guys are just going to wax and wane a bit. What else do I say about Randall?

[John Krasinski]

Well, I would say the other thing about that Zach, with Randall is with. Because they do not have a traditional point guard out there. He is relied upon to be their facilitator.

[Zach Lowe]

And that's great. That's his best. That's his best skill is just play bully ball in the post. And that's the other thing I was going to say. They just don't have any. Like when. When the first half last night I thought the ball was pretty sticky. The Lakers game, I thought the ball was pretty sticky and the bodies were just not moving. Like everyone just watching. They just need someone in those funks to just be like, you know what? I'm going off script. I'm gonna just run over here and set a screen. I'm gonna run up and set a screen for you. Divincenzo would be like the classic guy to do that as the shooter who can ghost screen and flare out and all that stuff. Randall can do it too. Just go set a pick. Like just get things moving. They get stuck in their own. Just in their own way almost. But you mentioned the traditional point guard. There's a lot of interesting things happening rotation wise now. Desumnu missed last night's game against the Clippers and as you noted, it should be at least said out loud that they faced an all world version of Kawhi. Went bananas last night for 45 points. Reaves and Doncic were unbelievable for the Lakers in the previous game. So you know, sometimes you run into star players and they play great for the Clippers. Can't say enough about how good Derrick Jones Jr. Has been this season when he's been available. Killed Minnesota last night. Garland. They're plus 60 already with Garland on the floor. And like not that much minutes, like not that many minutes. He's been great. So they played two good teams who played well. They got great games from their star players. But there's a lot of just like. So Conley just never plays anymore? No, there's an alarming amount of slow mo going on. Like I just did not see this much slow mo coming. And sometimes he's playing the four. And when they got IO and before they got slow mo, one of my curiosities was are we going to see a little bit more of Jaden McDaniels at the four? Because now they have an extra guard who can really play. And I kind of like when they play that card and just go go off script for them a little bit. We have not Seen that. But we've seen a hell of a lot of slo mo at the four. We've also seen Slo Mo with two of the three core bigs in like these gigantic lineups like Ant McDaniels, Slow Mo, Randall Gobert or Randall. It's like giant Terrence Shannon Jr. Got thrown in last night. I'm like, it just seems like there's a. There's a little bit. There's just a lot of slow mo I didn't see. I know Chris Finch loves him. He's a connector, he's this, he's that. I just didn't expect this much Kyle Anderson in my life.

[John Krasinski]

Yeah, I think it is coming a little bit out of desperation for sure. Like, I mean, there is no coach in the NBA who has ever loved slow mo more than Finch loves slow mo. Part of that is because this team has a basketball IQ issue. And especially if Conley is not going to be a viable option. I think Chris Finch wants a smart guy out there to have the ball in his hands, to facilitate and to be able to be a defensively versatile guy. The question becomes is like, at this stage of Kyle Anderson's career, is he capable of doing that for, you know, in the high 20s and minutes? That's going to be answered here down the stretch. But I think that the reason that he is out there is because a lot of their other guys have trouble dissecting the defense in the middle of a game and on the fly. And so that's why a lot of the turnovers happen, is because either they have ball handling issues or decision making issues. And Chris Finch believes that Kyle Anderson does not have those issues. And so you lean on him as much as you can right now.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah, they made a big bet in general that Ant and Randle was enough of a point guard combined, enough of a traditional, enough of a decision making apparatus combined. And the numbers say they're pretty much right. Like, that lineup has been really good the entire season. And interestingly, when they sit both of them at the same time, which is one of the more interesting game by game decisions that Finch has to make, sometimes he staggers them, sometimes he doesn't. Their numbers are pretty good or have been pretty good with the both of them on the bench. But then when they go back bad, when it gets sticky, it doesn't seem like they know a way out of it. And to me, the way out has to just be defense and effort and randomness on offense. But look, I mean, they have a pretty hard schedule the rest of the way. I think they have the third hardest remaining schedule in the Western Conference. They are in the whole two home games. I think. So they have two home games coming to them. No, it's the other way around. I think a lot of road games down the street, a lot of, A lot of. I think they have more road games than home games. So like, look, play Houston a couple of times, Detroit a couple of times. They got a big game against Phoenix coming up. Like they gotta, they gotta actually take care of their shit because Phoenix to their credit just keeps on winning without Dillon Brooks. So they just keep on staying afloat. And the Lakers, I think like the Lakers deserve a lot of credit for. They've been much better without LeBron. It's just a fact at this point. I don't know how much causality there is, but I do think there's some. Luka and Reaves just play with more clarity and certainty and like, as a result, just like zip when they, when they don't have to look over their shoulders a little bit. I think none of these teams are going away. Minnesota is going to have to take a top four or even top five seed. It's not just going to be given to them. And no one cares that they made the conference finals twice in a row these last three games. You don't want to overreact to a three game stretch. Any three game stretch. For any team, particularly a team that can be as schizophrenic as the Wolves. This is a troubling three games to me. I don't think I'm overreacting. I think I'm. It's the kind of stretch where if they don't come out and answer it in their next two or three games, questions about the fabric of the team are going to be fairly asked, I think.

[John Krasinski]

Yeah, I think that's fair. And I want to shout out Jace Frederick from the Pioneer Press. He has a great stat for Ant because Ant has been largely amazing this year. He's made huge strides in clutch performance decision making there. You know, just really. He continues to improve and get to the, the tertiary MVP conversation for him to kind of go into full on. No, I'm in this with Shay and Luka and, and Wemby and all these guys in the real MVP conversation. The next, the final step I think is how he kind of masters the puppet master game in terms of getting others involved. Because when he is in the first quarter of games this season, per Jace, and his usage is over 23%, the Wolves are 20 and 19. So ordinary games, if he is below 23% in the first quarter, getting other people involved. The ball is moving. Getting DemonCenzo and McDaniels looks, they are 12 and two and they beat no Oklahoma City, Denver, San Antonio. And that's when they play their best, is when Ant gets other people involved early and then shifts into, okay, now it's time for me to take over as the scorer and bring us home. And that is a for. It's a delicate balance for a 24 year old to figure out. But. And he's shown in the playoffs especially that he can do that and that he can make those decisions and flick into that and get this team going in the right direction. And, and that's where he said last night to me in the, in the locker room is just like, I got to do more. Like, it's got to be on me. And you know, it's got to be on everyone for sure. But if you want to be a true mvp, there are just a few things. It's, it's picking up your defensive intensity and it's kind of making sure that you're getting other people involved as well as getting all, all of the touches yourself that kind of helps you graduate from superstar to MVP level. And so that's what I'm kind of watching for down the stretch here.

[Zach Lowe]

Yeah, his defense hasn't been good enough the last few games. There was a sideline out of bounds play last night that the Clippers ran where it was. Matheran scored and Ant was on Matheran and whoever Gobert was guarding set a back screen for Mathurin. And if you and I held a clinic about how to defend that as badly and as lazily as possible, not just Gobert and Ant, but the five, the three guys around them. But particular Ant had no interest in chasing Matheran. Gobert had limited interest in doing much of anything. It's like that was a play where I looked at that and I was like, this team is ready to just get out of Los Angeles. This team is out on this game. But you mentioned Ant and the passing. It's so interesting to me because I mentioned this on my pod Tuesday where I like to zero in on certain areas of the game when I watch a particular team. And one I do with Minnesota is what does Ant do against drop coverage and what does he do against sort of basically anything but blitzes? Because I think anything softer than a straight blitz, I think the straight blitz. He's been pretty diligent, really good. I'M just getting the ball out of my hands, and I'm going to let everybody else play four on three. He almost looks. I don't want to say less comfortable or less certain about what to do, but less. Something against more conservative coverages, which is weird because he's so explosive. He should just see that kind of coverage and be like, you're giving me a Runway. I'm going to dunk all over your face. And sometimes he does. Who did he. What Raptor? Did he dunk on the other day? He got Barrett.

[John Krasinski]

R.J. barrett. Yes, yes.

[Zach Lowe]

Jim Peterson. I knew he was going to bring it up on the broadcast. Brought up poor. You don't want to know. He was like, why are you.

[Rob Mahoney]

Why.

[Zach Lowe]

Why am I.

[Rob Mahoney]

Just.

[Zach Lowe]

Because it's the Raptors. I'm gonna be.

[John Krasinski]

Let the man live in peace.

[Zach Lowe]

But he almost the. The playmaking out of, like, you're talking puppet master stuff, like the. The Chris Paul, like. Like all Luca, like, get into that, like, dead zone, 12, 14, 8ft from the rim and manipulate the defense with a live dribble. He doesn't quite have that down yet. And particularly like the lobs to go bear. That's when they would come, and they don't come as often. And look, he's. What is he at 24? He's very young. He's not a point guard, but it's been interesting to me just to watch, like, the blitz. He's just like, yeah, I trust everybody. I'm getting rid of the ball. It's the other stuff where he's fine. Like, he produces out of it. He's one of the eight best players in the league. At worst, it just isn't as. It doesn't feel as, like, easy for him. The decision tree doesn't feel as easy for him, if that makes any sense.

[John Krasinski]

It makes a lot of sense. And I'll tell you, one of the roots of that issue is that when it's not a blitz, when they blitz and he has to just pass it to Rudy quickly at the top and then just start a DHO or something like that, that's easy, and Rudy can handle that. When the defense is sagged off and you're trying to get Rudy the ball in any kind of traffic, whether it's with a lob or a little pocket pass, pass, just to kind of get the action started and get him on that Runway going down, I think he has some trouble trusting Rudy in catching that, and I understand why. There are times in these games where he's trying to slip A pass to Rudy and he doesn't quite catch it cleanly and it's a turnover and then it's slump shoulders. I think Julius Randall has the same

[Zach Lowe]

issues I've mentioned before with you the first year. Julius, last year you could have run such a great reel from the first 25 games of Rudy with his hands up.

[John Krasinski]

Yeah. Like a multi second call in Toronto

[Zach Lowe]

specifically Julius just not passing him the ball.

[John Krasinski]

Yeah, yeah. I mean so that, that isn't, that's an issue. And you saw in the second half against the Clippers they got Rudy a little bit more involved and they were a little more diligent about it. But it is a very much a. You have. Chris Finch has to tell them do this rather than it just being a natural thing. And when you have any seeds of doubt in your mind against the defense like the Clippers, against, you know, anybody that's heavy in the gaps like that, like the opponents just feast on that doubt. And I think that's a big issue right now that the Wolves are trying to figure out.

[Zach Lowe]

Well, John, they're also fouling the crap out of her by the way. Everyone, they're back to 20. They're down to 26th in foul rate which is again one of those habits that I thought they had kind of kicked in the last couple years of really becoming a mature pseudo contender kind of team. Well, John, I think we're in too deep, the two of us thing out. You have no choice. You're not going to pull the Nick Friedel and bail out and start covering a new team once the one you're on struggles and that's right, I don't

[John Krasinski]

leave like Friedel does. So I could take the easy way

[Zach Lowe]

out and I'm, I'm not, I'm going down with the ship one way or another. I'm staying on the ship. The violin defied. The string quartet is playing over here. I'm staying hanging with them. We're going to have some drinks, we're going to watch the ship go down or, or we're going to stay on the ship while it's repaired and we get to our destination. So I'm in, I'm not going off. I'm still calling them a stealthy contender, but I am worried to the core. And by the way, if they're not, let's say worst case scenario happens, they fall into the play in, they lose in the first round, they get walloped by San Antonio or something like that. A team that's younger than they are but appears to have surpassed them with a star who appears to have surpassed their star. They don't have a ton of outs right now. It's the same issue they face trading for Giannis. They don't have a ton of picks. They don't have like, other than Ant, really. I mean, Jada McDaniels is a very attractive young player, but the exactly the kind of player you want if you're trying to be a good team. It's why every team asks for him. It's not like there are not a lot of easy pivots they can really make.

[John Krasinski]

No, it would take quite a bit of creativity on Tim Connolly's part to kind of shuffle things up. He has shown an ability to do that. So I wouldn't put it past him this summer to make major changes if that were to happen. But I also will reiterate, Zach, like, this is a team that every time they are on the brink of complete collapse, they figure out a way to pull themselves out of it. And all of a sudden they're playing well and all of a sudden they're sweeping some team in the first round and I'll and then playing really well in the second round and they're in the conference finals. Like I have, you know, been ready to jump off of the ship several times over the past couple of years and they always do figure it out. So until they are dead and buried, I'm not going to believe it. But I also, until they are in the conference finals or, God forbid, in the NBA finals, I won't believe that either. It's just a wild, crazy, unreal team to cover and it's really fun to do. You never know what's going to happen every day.

[Zach Lowe]

I got bad news for you. I had the captain detach the life rafts from the ship. So we have, we have no outs. John Krasinski of the Athletic and the John Krasinski show, the best in the business. Thank you, sir. Enjoy the rest of your day.

[John Krasinski]

Thanks, Zach. Appreciate it.

[Zach Lowe]

All right, that's it for today's edition of the Zach Lowe Show. Thank you to Oscar, Tony, Nick and Mike on production. Thanks to Rob Mahoney as always and the great John Krasinski as well. Thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zach Lowe Show. We will be back on Tuesday with a new episode as usual. Have a good weekend. 21 are over and President select states for Kansas in affiliation with with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over in President D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-My Reset, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincenetic or is it MDG and Maryland Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050. For 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text Hopeny in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867. Monster Energy Everybody knows White Monster Zero Ultra. That's the OG. It kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing, but Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava, and they all bring the Monster Energy punch. So if you've been living in the White can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe, and every single one is zero Sugar. Tap the banner to learn more Shot clocks, big shots, upsets, aces TGL Playoffs are here. First Atlanta Drive starts their repeat run against Los Angeles Golf Club. Then Rory's Boston Common Golf and Tigers Jupiter Links face off in their playoff debuts. Who will advance? Keep up its playoffs tune in Tuesday, March 17th at 6:30pm and 9:00pm only on ESPN and the ESPN applied.