OG Anunoby's Consistent Performance

Hello and welcome to Group Chat. I am Justin Varrier and joining me, Rob Mahoney, J. Kyle manan. Wh Whats going on? What did we just witness I'm still not sure, but do we want to open with like twenty to thirty on your garden before we get to the garden O youzoo substituting for Citrus as you It's good talk, It's good chatter. We could, but my brain is just a replay of go New York, go New York, go on a complete loop because I can't actually put thoughts together because we first witnessed one of the historic shooting performances in the first half And then that gave way to one of the biggest finals comebacks we've ever seen Uh Holy shit, Rob, why don't we just go around the horn saying holy shit in different ways Holy shit Holy show Holy shit. Holy shit. I think this is genuinely the most insane playoff game of my lifetime. Certainly have my sentient basketball lifetime. for all the reasons you just described, like And the Kicks had every chance after embarrassing themselves in the first half in front of Adam Sandler and the Him Sisters and everybody to just like pack this thing in. Well yeah, I mean tos a crowd the majority, the quorum of Him Sisters. They could have just like packed it in and played for game five And instead, they took a stand and did something genuinely unthinkable All time resolve. It is it's always crazy watching basketball history happen right in front of you, But OG and Aobe Welcome to basketball history. Yeah. I mean, that's going to be a mural somewhere in one of the boroughs. I would assume just him like, you know, we can get into the details of the play. But I mean, like in this in this game within this game, we saw two of the most epic meltdown crashouts that I've seen in recent memory. I mean, should we just go half by half? like start because there was two crazy stories within. I know. I know. Well we start with the end and let's start with that final play because as I was going through it, I had two pretty bold reactions. One was like, what is Jalen Brunson doing because he took an IO ball play on the first possession before that and then he kind of pulls up from pretty deep. But then when I see OGi kind of have a free reign to the rim, I was like, was that planned in advance that he was putting it up there in order to get the put back? And having said that, where are the bodies on Oji? Pretty much the entire game, you're like, oh, Oji and Aobi, open again, wide open. And he's just drilling shot after shot after shot. And he's just wide open, free rein to the rim and nobody boxes him out. I'm just like How, How so many times did they blow that I'm not looking at the box score right now. I'm not convinced he has missed a three at any point in this series fromom the corners just feels as automatic as it has ever felt But yeah, the strategic decision to not have a defender on the endbounder You kind of understand it conceptually in a one point game, right? Like something that's this close. you want to have the extra body to kind of roam the paint. You want to maybe have some flexibility if you're going to be switching this much to opportunistically double. But good Lord, you got to put a body on that guy and in the Spurs defense, OG and Aobbe just like one hundredth percentile effort to sprint in and get a hand on that ball in the first place out tipping. I think it was Dyan Harper and Devin himself who were basically there to scoop it up If OGi had been like half a fraction of a second late on that play Yeah, you got to know that in that situation, granted they'd called it, you know, there had been some some loose ball fous on the offense of glass for, you know, Carter Bryant trucking cat throughout the, you know, this game in the past game. been a lot of trucking going on, but you had to kind of They were watching the ball fly through the air granted the play before the sequence before that Josh Hart, you know, speaks to the speed of the NBA game and Josh Hart just for a moment watched a shot in the air and and Castle swooped in and got an offensive rebound that was he almost converted, which would have been cataclysmic for New York considering all the effort they put in coming back but I thought Fox was just kind of they should have just sent an onslaught to the glass and just hit somebody because I don't think they were going to call something in that situation. Yeah. You've got to have the presence and maybe they were retired. I don't know.be There were a lot of mental lapses in that second half, but I thought that they would have gone to the glass harder as a unit. Yeah. Well and to wind it back a little bit, was it not OG who also got the stop on Deer and Fox on that leakout and transition as well Why did fucks Try that off all the people to try that against that I was like, dude, you got to like pull this out. like maybe he thought he was going to get fouled, but I didn't like it. anyone. Yeah. Like why didn't he just pull it out in way's clock or re lease force a fllow a couple seconds later?'s just like And then that gave way to the Alvarado just almost getting a back court violation and we all learned like that your body can go back there, but the ball does not was crazy. He clearly knew the rule. Yeah He was guy I gott to get pressure that hard. I assume he just has that like dictionary definition in his mind here. I think Darren Fox's decision making down the stretch of this game was absolutely maddening. You know, he is supposed to be the calming influence for the sppurs. He's supposed to be the steady hand in these situations. They give him the ball over Castle and Harper in some of these situations For one, it's just really clear that he's too much of a make or miss jumpps shooter to really occupy that role for this team. Like he doesn't have the stability to drive and finish or even really draw contact in a way that you want your lead guard to in that moment But in this spot specifically I mean, they get the tap out in transition. It is a crazy loose ball. I think the play ends up ending at like eleven seconds Easily could have dribbled it out and drained clock. Easily could have kind of taken the chance to like actually calm things down And instead, I would say he makes The Drew Holiday play from the Bucks Championship runound. Remember Drew thote through that crazy alube to Janis that if he misses is an infamous play They didn't miss Darren Fox does and like, Now I think this has to hang around him. likeike this game was in his hands maybe more than anybody else's And he blew it. He threw it away This episode is brought to by Netflix. The T mobile home runun derbies is right around the corner might be one of the best showcases of pure power and off sports baseballs Biggest sluggers. some legendary Announcers, Puhos, Rizzo, Bonds, Sabathia Al Duncin. Yeah Hunter Pence, Matt Fastkirzian, a whole bunch of people. And it's the one night where you don't swing to make contact to make history. I'm interested is who what Bon says about this actually. Anyway, it is all live from Citizens Bank Park In Philly, watch the T mobile Home rununs every be live on Netflix Monday, july thirteenth at eight PM Eastern five PM Pacific I think you saw the tide shift really. I mean, I tweeted this out. I mean The hot shooting of the first half, I think just gave them, you know The malaise and the fog that the Kicks were wandering around in where they were trying to find the find the ground, find their resolve, find their composure, their will to fight back During that time, the spurs were playing so loose that it just got a little too loose. That sequence at the start of the third quarter where Five. One of my friends that I you know, you have your people you kind of, I don't know if you all are this way or you all seem like you're really dialed in. I mean, I have my people I have ongoing dialogues with. uring the game and I texted back I texted you guys, you don't always answer. so I'm just like barking up the wrong text friend tree here.in, man. Sticks in the m at once. Yeah. Well, I'm just kind of but anyway, so I mean I was texting him and it was pretty hilarious because I was like, man, that was a terrible shot. The champannei one. And then and then I was like, ooh, that's two straight, bad, Threes in a row. Th straight in a row, four straight in a row, five in a row. And as that's going on, like the Kicks are slowly kind of like going from this like melted goo on the court at MSG and suddenly they took physical form again and they were like Wait a minute. we can, you know I thought that was the turning point. was That was when the down the shift happened in the game in my opinion. Yeah. I want to get into this more in detail, but we have a weirdly time break that we need to turn to right now. So why don't we You kid be. Just take breats ll be back. This episode of the Ringer NBA Show is presented by Ferrero. The world is watching. Go all in for your team this summer with Ferrero Enter for the chance to win a range of prizes just by purchasing your favorite treats like Kinder Bueno with an irresistible chocolate wafer and creamy hazelnut filling, or Kibler Chips deluxe cookies with indulgent and rich chocolatey chunks, or Ferrera Rochet squares, with crunchy hazelnuts and milk chocolate wrapped in iconic gold Go all in. Buy any two for raro brands and you could win one million dollars. Official rules apply. Learn more at goallinandwin. com All right, so as Kyle was kind of alluding to before the break there The sppurs despite the hot shooting in the first half, four for twenty in the third quarter just in totality in that third quarter. And then you had the late mistakes that we mentioned, even the final play where was Harper, I believe inbounding to Castle, the ball was just like like too low for him to even get a shot up from there. As much as this was a historic miraculous Nicks comeback and we got to give them all the credit. they deserve all the credit, it kind of was the spurs melting down in a way that I've never seen, but I guess we should expect to a certain degree for a team this young and that has proven in these sort of tight situations that like the Kicks really do have that edge there I mean, it takes two to make history. Like you need the historic implosion to make the historic comeback I thought the only moments where the spurs looked like they were in control in the second half were There were a couple of Dylan Harper drives that were very direct, like straight downhill. he felt in control I know we we I mean, just our parodies of ourselves when're talking about Dylan Harper a lot of the time, but bumping through OG and Aobbe for just like an easy turnaround, not a normal thing. And so I don't think we have to be normal about it Those possessions I thought were good And then there were like the Wemby literally batting the ball to himself off the rim possessions that felt like he had att tack like a tangible advantage that he was flexing to get some interior scoring Other than that, they really just were chucking threes out here. And it felt like as soon as the shot stopped falling Not only did they not have any other plan, They had kind of let go of the rope in terms of forcing any other issue that they just started settling for even more shots, even more shots. Not to point the finger at O Fox again, but I thought he was one of the worst culprits about settling for some of those where at least the other guys, it was the result of action, right? It's like you're kicking out to an open shooter, some of those looks for the champagne types. I thought were at least the kind of shots that were going for them in the first half that built the lead in the first place Instead they just kind of ended up bearing the spurs too U Yeahah, I need to go back and rewatch it, but it didn were those off paint touches because a few of them didn't feel like they were like on someome of them were When I was watching live where I felt like the spurs kind of forgot where the tension and release is within the way that they play. They weren't getting to the basket and and the Kicks did, I mean, they shut off the water and I just felt like there Their discipline to execute to get into the paint has been the thing that swung the momentum in their direction to begin with in game three and then in game four they come out and just stomp a mud hole in the in the first half and then I thought they just got away from and the Nicks that's a credit to the Kicks that they are such a good, you know sound defensive team schematically that they were doing a great job keeping out them out of the paint. And the Spurse found some ways to do that. There was one play that they kept running. I didn't know really what the name of it was, but it was like a delayed stagger where the second screen was Wimbonama and he would come up and instead of setting it immediately where Castle was running off of it, he would run off of the first one have ahe head of steam Windby would come up to set the second screen and then and just slip it or ghost it and he got in the paint. There was So there were a lot of little dials that they had turned And when they kind of just We' settling for the threes. I felt like that was them getting away from the thing that had kind of Giving them the upp hand on the Kicks, and the Kicks took advantage of it and roared back. Very much so So fourteen made threes in the first half. That is a record in the finals for a half. San Antonio also had seventy six points. First half. That's a record for Rad team in the first half in the finals, But you guys are right. It seemed like they were just too enamored with the perimeter shot. They kept just chucking it up there. And I also felt like that spurred some of the ball movement that we've seen the Kicks kind of thrive off of thus far. like broken plays giving way to like slow breaks the other way and then everyone was scrambling. It just seemed like the ball started to ping in the way that the Kicks have just thrived off of this entire postseason, thirteen z run and that third quarter. Castle has the fourth foul. I think that also opened the floodgates a little bit. But still in that fourth quarter, Rob, like it was still within reach. It was like fifteen points and it just didn't feel like the Kicks were getting over that hump I was waiting for them to go for with a little bit more offensive leaning lineup and I was ready to come on this podcast being like, oh man, like you can't just trade baskets when you're down this much. Like why aren't they just like trying to do more of that? I felt like Alvarado in those sort of like lineups where they were essentially five out cat started playing better, but like Alvarado and like being opportunistic, making shots when they were fortune when they blitz Brunson like I felt like that was the deciding factor of like taking the comeback to that next level. Yes. I think the bloodzing especially. like you just need one more ball handler on the floor in those situations And I thought this wasn't the best Josh Hart game as far as like being that kind of pressure release. Kat had such a weird night in the early foul trouble and then just like really tentative in some other spots as well. Like he wasn't exactly the answer as that goes I just can't, I can't wait for the continued hand wringing over the Jail and Brunson herero ball experience. The hero ball that spurred the Nicks in the third quarter that forced the traps that ultimately they were playing out of down the stretch I don't, it turns out this gu' pretty Well, those last two possessions though Pretty pretty dicey Look, you got to dance with the R who bg you, you know? likeike he got them there. I think he deserves those shots Josh Hart needs to buy OG a car. Oh my literally a car. likeike not dinner, not wine because those Nick moments live forever. You want ask Carl, you know, Patrick Ewing about missing that float that Finger roll in the lane, that sh lives forever. And if Josh Hart's blown transition lay upp that could have taken the lead, that would have been an all time Matza ball hanging out and OG saved his ass And losing Castle on top of it on that offensive rebound. like do, you're right, Yeahah.. If you just want to run down the last couple minutes in terms of some of the insane things that happened One of the reasons I think Bruntson deserves some of those final looks, the step up three he hit over Wby for me was the oh shit moment of the comeback. It's like, o, not only is this real, this is the exact kind of crazy shot you have to hit to pull this off You got the Josh Hart smoked play up in transition spurs up one Wy goes to the line bricks both free throws. I mean, just excruciating in retrospect. You got the Castle Josh Hart play and Fox blowing it in transition with OG saving it. and then the OG put back on top of it. I mean, it's just crazy I'm crazy, I'm crazy all the way down The Cat three two was crazy. Yeahah Could you talk about Bronsson though, just l toward the end there Bea I hear what you're saying where he kind of is the guy that they turned to in those moments, But it just felt like Kat getting past the foul trouble and really being engaged in that fourth quarter. unlike he had been before. I think like when he hit that three, those were his first fourth quarter points this entire series, which was I think It just felt like things were moving in a way that it's like their personality. This is how they've rattled off so many wins this postseason. You were fine with the two Bruunson late buck Its the one going at Wemby late and then the deeper three because he was out there. likeike, he wasn't quite down lillered logo style, but like he was he was there and it was quick U And so I don't know. I didn't love the two looks that they got ultimately there. They weren't the best that Brunston manufactured. I mean, you could even see on one of them like he had to pass out of it to even reset the play in the first place. He wasn't getting the same kind of separation he had been earlier in the game But even so much of that good stuff they were generating, driving kick or getting it too cat to maneuver out of, was coming off of a Brunson drive in the first place in a lot of those sequences. And so I still want the ball in his hands in those moments. And I think the way he played in this game, the way he scored, the way he balanced the attacking but also setting other guys up I'm good with the premise. I'm not saying the shots are completely perfect or exactly the look you want under those circumstances, but I mean, you just have to make some of those to pull off games like this. And sometimes when you're in the midst of an all time comeback, you just have to make some of these improbable shots. You just have to pull some of those rabbits out of your hat I liked enough of what Brunson was setting up The end result of those last two looks weren't the best. They weren't ideal They weren't the exact shots you want even under those circumstances. but he generated so much great action for them all throughout the second half and including some of the best stuff that Kat was facilitating or the best stuff that OG ended up converting Those plays usually started with Brunson either beating a guy one on one off the dribble or passing well out of the trap to get the other Kicks going in the first place I don't think they had any choice but to go that direction, you know, the time that it takes for Brunson to get in you're weighing the time that it takes Brunson to get to his spots or whether you're playing pitch and catch and then trying to get to your spot versus the fact that the Kicks have just been forced to. Now granted, they have the ability to play longer in the clock than any team that the Spurs have played in the playoffs this far versus, you know, how long it takes Brunson to do this. This is a stat I kind of pulled up. So of the of the spurs opponents in the playoffs Tams that have had possessions of five passers or more the Ns are by far producing the most and Let's see, the highest is at one point three five five points per possession. secondecond highest is the Thunder at one point zero three. So significantly better. So I'm just saying that they they weren't going to be able to play that game and play the Bleindnder game and chew up time because the math just didn't work. like so it was either they were going to have to get like fifty transition buckets which I' in checked it. they might. I don't think they got fifty but or anywhere close, but I think they had to kind of take a different route to kind of make that happen. So they had those little like clips in between like the coaches in the locker room and after I believe the spurs went up twelve two c gets the two fls. We could talk about the fls the Res and Wemby and all that stuff. it's going to be another hour of this podcast But there was like inside the lockerom before the game and Mike Brown's literally like, it's all about the start of the game. This is it all comes down to how you start. You got to start fast because that's going dictate how this goes. And obviously this purge just completely clobbered things going Did it just seem like to you guys it was just the shots just unbelieable like the falls on cat plus the the unbelievable shot making for the spurs or were they doing something in order to get out to that gigantically The shot making was clearly historic and unbelievable, but honestly, those looks have been there for the sppurs. They were there in game three. You could see in game three, I thought Castle and Fox came out looking for that exact same read and we're hitting it and hitting it and hitting it But the spurs just weren't converting those open threes. And so this time they were hitting those shots. Really what a lot of it is is the way the Kicks are trying to defend the pick and roll is this high tag and recover that requires them to ease in from the weak side to clog the lane so Wenby doesn't get a free run at the rim. And so then like Devon Visll, Julian Chhimpenny, Dylan Harper sometimes whoever's out there, someomebody's wide open on the weak side And the sppurs seam absolutely dialed in on that look over and over and over and over. and it was just pishing but it was punishing in a very like a predictable way given the way that the Kicks have been guarding in this series. Yeah, I mean, it's a combination of you could really see and I was ready to come on speaking of things we were ready to talk about. I was ready to talk about how the Spurs had figured out how to really stress the weeat Links in the chain for them whether it be shamot or Bruntson and they were putting Brunson in all kinds ofes honestly at times mean spirited offftball screens to get to get Dylan Harper on him. Dylan Harper had moments where I again was ready to come on here and talk about how Dwayne Wade two point zero is upon us a bigger version and he still is amazing. those things are still all valid, but Yeah, they They were doing a great job finding those. And in game three you were talking about how those shots were there. I think They that was the difference between the balloon lead and and the close game that we saw in game three and I just thought do we want to talk about the call because On one hand, I was relieved. I was dreading talking about the officials because it just seemed like it was going to be the thing that Wh sucked the life out of the fun of this basketball game, but I mean, it did affect the beginning of the game. att this point, like clear probably would have murdered somebody in the Oh yeah. the one possession game and we were to be Net Golton It's getting brutal out there. Just like leave Brian Winhorst alone this year, please O just like anybody in his f fam Yeah Did you think you were watching a sketch when I honestly thought it had to be a setup when like a doughy white guy in an Adidas era, Tim Duncan jersey with the wide shoulders and cargo khaki shorts was proudly walking down the street. I thought it looked like the Larry Birrd bit from I'm blanking the Joh Clo Esposito, Spike Lee, whatever. It just looked like a sketch. I was like the right thing. Yes.. I was like, that's the most stereotypical kick my ass dude. the way he might be this of this show. I'm sorry. I just thought it was like the most. I thought it was a setup at first. was. That's Js T watching group chat I was just shocked by that video. I hope that guy's okay, but I'm with you in the sense of like I just don't know what is real anymore. You know, like was like the fal Duncan Adida there. Wh I was like What are you doing? Look in a world where my Christians's Dior guy is a false flag, I'm just willing to believe anything What? We can't even get into it. It guy was a plant. Everything is a plant now. No I that guy. I'm sorry Christianer. Cal, again, we can't even go that far. Let's just design it. Okay. My bagel's Jewish, my May' Muslim My my Christianans Dior Nixon four. Oh the street poet who supposedly came up with that, I don't know. I'm under the impression based on The supplementary materials and evidence that maybe that guy is a plant I couldn't have been shocked One more time. I know I'm sorry. Damn U no, but I think the big issue just with the refs This entire series is just the consistency. If you're going to go overboard and not and call everything, that's that's one thing. or if you're not going to call anything, that's another thing. It's just the game to game fluctuations where it's like, yes, Carl Anthony Towns was hooking Wemby. He does it all the fucking time. They all do it all the time. They're all Jocelyn, they're all doing that. That's the final physical game and like I just don't know how You could pick and choose this one over some of the ones in the past, especially coming off of what we saw in the last game with Weemby throttling Jayalen Brunce. I have to wonder like maybe they were over correcting at the start because of that. I don't know, but just like It's been bad. The refere ring has been bad thus far in the finals. Yeah, they just missed a lot of stuff, especially in that first half. I wouldn't even go as far as to say it's like tilted in one direction or another because the Kicks were still getting a lot of calls too and had a dramatic free throw advantage. The Luke Cordnet non Golten. That was awful. Like that that was such a terrible decision of I was prepared to just punt all that stuff in the trash because at the point where you're allowing the sppurs to shoot sixty five percent from the field with like zero or maybe one turnover I just don't think the officiating is having that big of an impact on the game. Clearly it got much closer than that. Clearly the Kicks will themselves into it. and Mercifully, they are so good in the clutch. We don't even need to worry about it from the winning and losing perspective because I think the Kicks would probably be the team with the greater grievance as far as all of that stuff goes. If somebody were to make the complaint about it But New York has shown if the game is close They probably will just go out and grab it, and that's certainly what ended up happening Yeah, and I understand the from the perspective of if you're the Nicks and you're just thinking, you know, because they I mean, they obviously let it affect the way they were playing Cat lost their hands. They did. I mean, they melted down Kat at one point was like the the play where he was coming across the lane and just like You could see him just sort of you could tell how exasperated he was and he's just falling into people and just his arms are going everywhere and everything like that. was Evorado takedown where he didn't the first time. So he just tried like a Judo move to try to bring him down er if I was shock that wasn't. I mean, that was like intent Re. I was surprised by that. That was't that was not a basketball play. I was lifted his leg off the ground. I thought that was the benefit of being a small guy. It's true I'm glad that that didn't didn't my kind of thing was You're right. I mean, the only way for us to, you know approach this is to look at this of at Look at it like this where Yes, it was super inconsistent. And going back and watching the games peopleeople got mad at me early on for saying the car was hooking. a lot of hooking, a lot of grabbing, which is a common strategy As guys Hardstin like this is this is what they do. this is what you kind of have to do. You got to kind of play in the margins of in between. goo ahead, Rob. Not just a common strategy. I would go as far as to say as Car the Tomns has a most very good series. That clamp is basically his signature move. Like he does that specific thing all Okay Well what I was going to say about that is I think Wimby came into this game. he I think he knew Yeah, I'm going to get myself in the position to get this call. He knew it they was pre because people were like, why didn't he pull his arm out The initial pin was there. It was no different than like if somebody hit you and you just bl, it's like, why didn't you regain your balance after he put it's like the initial thing He clearly went in there with that mindset It was it was tough and then the play the first play of the game, they drove the ball right. And the other thing about this su is that like crew to crew, We've all seen this. It's not consistent. And and I when I was looking down the horizon, I was like, the Zarba crews coming in here And this is probably what's going to happen. I thought that it was going to favor the sppurs at the beginning. it did, but credits to the Knicks for getting their composure back after because I mean, for God's sake, Wu Tang played to silence at halfftime Somewhere out there is a Chevy truck person who dries it? 's a chehevy person. You' probably no one, your buddy, your sister, ones who always show up. 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If Rudy Gobert is his like mentor. Yeah. there's a lot of Rudy in like what Wemby does. You're saying there's the spirit of Nick Patoum hitting Juan Carlos Navarro in the nuts in Win. That's right I mean clelearly in the beginning where he's telling Mitchell Robinson that I'm in your head. it didn't seem like he was trying to bait him into that flagrant to start the game. Like I think he was going in there looking to exacerbate certain things. Maybe he wasn't in the park drawing pretty pictures. Maybe he was plotting out how to fuck with these guys the whole little Reggie Miller action going on here Machiavellian Wimby just like pulling puppet strings until guess what? he got all tangled up in them. He just lost track of it in the second half. He was Z head. What a poet, Rob Mahoney. No, this goes to something that Tyler and I made up on a playoff pod one time, which is called the this fucking guy provision, which is whenever they go back and review a flagrant, if a guy is being this fucking guy it gets revoked. So if they feel like a guy was kind of being, you know, and Wimby had a couple of those where it was like he kind of put his face in there a little bit. That's the thing about it's just like I can't tell because people are getting frustrated with him drawing in the park and things like that. I just I don't know that there's some I think that's just who he is. Like I think he's just kind of Karem weird. And I don't think that there's a person like you and I in there that that is just choosing to be sort of odd or choosing to do these things that seem controll like I think that's just I think that's who he is But it's hard to excuse. I mean, he clearly was going in there trying to game game the game a little. I feel like he's been poulled. I agree with you. I think he is Korean weird. I think that is his personality type. I think that's the sort of energy that he's bringing to most things. But people almost seem to respond to him as if he is like Cartigan wearing, reading Sylvia Plath at the cooffee shop performative Mail. And I think that's just like a totally different phenotype that is not the energy that he's bringing Big cardigan I'm not a hundred percent sure I agree with that part of it. It does feel like he does this in a very public showy way, but he's just like a giant person in the shock of the century you would think that. Justin. Well, no, I've been going back and forth in this in my brain because like I would typically be super annoyed by this behavior. in part like I think if anything, I've been dullled by it by the fact that everyone jumped to this conclusion already. Like J Kobe's out here going on full on dies. I'm basically like, I can't li up to this. I might well You got to go the other way. No that. Wimby gets foul more than anybody since Shq. I mean, I mean, Yokage too. That's the other thing. Do we agree or disagree with that? I think it's he he gets it's absurd what people get away with doing him likeike the shivers to the back like It's crazy He shouldn't fly off the handle and elbows might in the neck, but you know Yeah, I think it's, you know, maybe it's because like who am I to judge? Like I'm finding salvation in a couple cucumbers, like if Weenby finds that like his mind is cleared by just doing these like silly things like going and drawing or like reading a couple pages. likeike who am I to judge that? right? I think where I really get kind of like over where it goes a little bit overboard is just when I think sports wriders, frankly are probably the ones to blame with where they connect the cause and effect where it's whenby quieted his mind by like going and taking a bath and that's how he won game three. It's just like they have you had the anecdote floating around today where he just like walks around in barefoot in order to ground himself And then there's like the connection where it's like that's weird to begin with, but it's like I don't know, who cares I'm barefooted all the time. I grew up in Kentucky. That's a true story. So nothing weird about that Do you find your all more grounded than the rest of? Justin, do you want us to ask you about your cucumber? What was that little n drop there? No, I think we've done an upsideen talk for one week, but I think you are right though, JV. all there's a lot of baate there. And we as sports writers, as media types, are incredibly guilty of like you find an interesting detail and it must mean not just something, it must mean the thing Like the defining aspect of a player's personality or theirred competitive spirit or whatever it is. So yeah, the cult of Weemby is a little out of control. Some of that is frankly, he just puts himself out there in ways that other modern athletes, especially the NBA really don't. Most of these other guys are so guarded. And so yeah, there is something about him that maybe wants you to know about the monks a little bit. mayaybe wants you to see him barefoot, mayaybe wants you to see him in the park sketching, whatever that may be All of that being said The subplot as far as all this goes, this fucking guy provision now of the NBA Fals is we are one more flagrant away from Victor Webinama being suspended for one of these games And that is it That's an area where if I were a Nicks fan, I would feel pretty rightly miffed about the game three should have been flagrant shove on Jalen Brunson that was just hand waved away by the NBA today. I just do not see how that is an irrelevant non flagrant play Yeah, and this is where if I were the Kicks, I would just be an outrageed to the league office because yes, once he got this flaggrant in this game, I believe in the third quarter for was a nailing cat in the head in the jaw. Yeah, just like an el right up. I thought Kat was concussed. Did you see the way his jaw moved when That's like that's a tough hit. If you've ever been hit like on the bottom of the chin in basketball like it's a sharp, really painful hit That's why they wear the strap, right? Because of concussions in football, right? where So your head I thought that jaw down maybe I'm mistaken. No, I think you're I' talking to my helmet guy lately, but I'll double check on that. Well, that's the thing about Wimby is like now you're in this position where how do you control your his control is amazing. We're going We're going to have to see how amazing it is I don't think he meant anything by that play. I think his limbs are just so big. It's now it's like on a close out. Oops, my size fifty feet just kind of happen to swoop like this is going to be really precarious for him going forward So he has three now as a result of today's flaggrant, shouldh have four based on or the Brunson shove. And this is now the second time that the NBA goes to the review after the fact. Don't ding him after the fact or add anything to his his record here That's bullshit. Like on the one hand, I don't want him suspended for a high stakes game. and I ye I almost wonder if like this only compounds the advantage because the NBA probably knows that. And I think at the very least in the back of your mind, if you're a referee, don't want to throw Wemby out of one of these games in the future if it comes to it. and so It's getting really dicey really quickly. I just don't know what you'd do about it at this point, but it is just another thing for Nick psycho fans to be think I think kind of feeding into the idea of Weemby as the NBA is Golden Boy and that's going to make him a villain in the eyes of a lot of fans of other teams who feel wronged by these sorts of situations. It's you're right though, like we don't want Wimby to not play. this is a better series if Winby plays every every game But the points are the points. And if he's racking them up enough to get suspended, he deserves to sit out one of these games. You could understand where people would feel some conspiratorial spirit about this because not only is he the perceived face of the NBA, but there's there's a lot on the line with Wimby globally where I think he has the first chance among I mean, in a while, maybe s I mean, LeBron' on this level, but I just think that the international appeal with him where he could kind of dip into that level of. 'Cause it's funny what's going on in America right now if you have followed this where FIFA athletes are in America and Americans are like, who? You know That's the funny thing that's going on in America right now. I wish that were the only thing. but no, I just think that Wimby's going to have a chance to kind of level up in So you could you could understand where you could, you know, Tim Foy Sombrero be like, o, they're trying to they're trying to protect this guy. becausecause yeah, the shuff to I don't what's the argument? We don't have to litigate this, but what's the argument against the Jaalen Brunson Well, what's the argum against the elbow to Oz Reid? It's just It's not helping this kind of their protecting Wimby narrative because those are those are glaring Why don't we take one more break, come back, talk about what could happen in Game V. The Ringer MBA Show is brought to you by Fandel It all comes down to this. Who do you think will be wearing the ring at the end of the NBA finals? Make your call with Fanduul. Right now, new customers can hit the court with three hundred fifty dollars in bonus bets guaranteed after betting five dollars for seven straight days Fandel is the best place to bet all your favorite players during the finals, bet on their baskets and boards or build a same game parlay for a chance at a bigger payout We're looking ahead to game five back in San Antone San Antonio, as we're recording this is favored minus five and a half. get it. They're gonna come out with piss and vinegar after this one. but man, I don't know how they recover from such a traumatic defeat. Give me the Nix plus five and half to close it out in game five, so Ns plus five and a half in game five. And remember, just visit fandal dot com slash ring your NBA to get started. twenty one plus select states, eighteen plus DC, Kentucky or Wyoming, first online real money wager only. minimum five dollar wager required For seven consecutive days, bonus issued as non withrawable bonus bestest, which expires seven days after a receipt, gambling problem, callall one eight hundred gambler. callall one eight eight eight seven eight nine, seven seven, seven seven or visit ccPG dot orotash chat in Connecticut. So one thing we have to talk about just to kind of through the rest of his game here. Got some interesting Huck Pury minutes. didn't expect him to see him in a critical game four of the NBA finals. But that's how dire I think it got for a while there for the Kicks. Well, yeah, there's dominance and then there's a team willingly playing not only Hk Porty, but Jeremy Sohan as a part of their rotation. It is Baffling that the Knicks pulled this thing out considering where it all started I would say where it started truly is they came out They were clearly trying to establish Kat right from the jump as a hub for their offense, as a go to option in their offense picks up those two fouls, I believe in the span of like basically one minute of playing time And then from that point on, you can see the cascading effects that that has for the Ns Kat has to leave, in comes Mitchell Robinson. Mitchell Robinson plays, I believe five minutes and he looks like he's about to pass out. so they have to take him out and put Hug Porty in. But then even later in the game because of Kat's foul trouble, the sppurs start while they're up twenty five intentionally fouling Mitchell Robinson, so that the Kicks have to take him out and put H Porty back in because they can't put Kat back in. It's like all of these trade offffs were just like happening. and then we're sitting there wondering why the Spurs are up twenty five, twenty seven, twenty nine points A lot of it just starts with they were cut off at the knees in terms of cat's foul trouble from the very beginning, and I don't know in the first half that they ever really recovered from it until they got the hard reset at halftime. Yeah, I understand coming out and trying to say like, all right, we're going to try to establish, I don't know, if you're approaching it like a boxer almost like I'm trying to establish this finishing move, which I think for the Kicks is throughout the course of the game, you kind of the bodywork, I think is the movement that comes through playing through cat, which gets everybody involved. I think it's way more of a like we're finding close outs. We're getting, you know, that's what gets them into that blender, I think is starting through him because you have a little bit more point five stuff with him I kind of wondered if they had moved one of the ailments that could lure the Kicks into the troubles of the past and the stagnation for them offensively is This is a conspiracy theory that I have about the Nicks. I almost wonder if it's like when Jonis makes a three in the first quarter and you're and on the one hand, you'd be like, damn it, o man, it's not our night. But if I'm the opposing coach, I'm thinking he's going to drink more of this He's going to take to rebor these. Yeah. So this's going oh no, you know, it's the you know fake it He hit a tough shot in the first quarter of last game where it was sort of like a reverse pivot hot crazy shot, high glass overcastle that went in. And I made a mental note of it. I was like, I wonder if Brunson tasted the shop making honey a little early because he over pursued it the rest of the game. So you come into it, you're trying to set up this flow of the game and it just got thrown wildly off by the way the game started with Is it crazy? Do you think that's possible? I think it's definitely possible. And also within this whole like foul trouble subplot I think one of the better uses of a challenge we've seen at any point in the playoffs as far as clamp the clamping play that we addressed earlier My normal policy is If you're not resulting in like the actual exchange of points and this one would have because Kow was going to be going to the free throw line regardless. you shouldn't challenge. If it's this early, you should be very careful about it. And really the only alternative is very, very late in the game If there is a change of possession that could swing the result, then yes, you should absolutely investigate it. But That was a play that Clearly there was the proximal clamping foul that ended up getting reversed and getting Cat' second foul and out of the game But if it had gone slightly differently, then the spurs are just without a challenge for forty seven minutes of this game That was at one hundred five into the game was when they challenged that. I had the same thought. I was like, it happened. I was like, what? likeike what are we doing this so quickly for A hugely high stakes play a minute in Becauseuse if you get cat out of there, that's what I'm saying. If you lose if you lose the ability to have that counter punch throughout the game, you know I just feel like a big takeaway from this game is the fact that we always talk about the teams at the Spurs or just young teams. We always measure teams competence and stability based on how they respond to adversity. And I think it's just as important measure how a team responds to success because I think in the sppurs success tonight, they lost focus and it ended up really, really burning them Well, I think that's the big question going into this next game is can a team overcome such like a colossal? fure like this and this one just I mean, considering all the stakes, all the emotional tensions that are already rising going into this game, clearly we talked about whenB kind of feeding into those and to come out on the other side and to do it in such kind of an embarrassing fashion just really probably hurts. I don't know. like is it possible to even come through this and like find any sort of silver lining to take with you? Or is this the type of game you just flosh and just decide like, well, we'll just start fresh from the next one? I don't know how much silver lining there is about a thirty point second half in which all of your limitations are laid bare and everything that was working for you has suddenly been turned against you. That's the part that really would stick with me if I were a member of the SpurRs or their coaching staff. It's just how easily the team was kind of duped into chasing the three after three after three fallacy that we mentioned earlier. This is this isn't a team that really plays that way. Like they are not a volume no shooting team by type. They have all sorts of other avenues into their offense. We've seen it all throughout the playoffs And here they were just like chasing after One home run shot over and over and over and over just because they had the success that they had in the first half. K, I think you're spot on about that about The way that we evaluate young teams and what we put value in as far as their ability to respond to challenges But it is a challenge in its own way to be up this much. It's a challenge to like think about twenty four minutes against a really skilled, capable, adaptive opponent And you have to maintain the focus or else they're going to cut it. They're going to cut the lead to seventeen and then to thirteen and then to nine. and then you're back footed, you're on the ropes. And what are you doing? We just have seen enough of the Spurs offense in this series to know that They don't have the precision bail themselves out when they're against like the full brunt of a comeback like what New York did tonight Yeah, you said insult to injury, and I think that's a really good kind of microcosm of what went on here where the sppurs just need to realize that the injury is them getting in the goddamn paint and scoring at the rim. The insult is the extra stuff is them shooting the threes. That's That's like if we're making them where we get up huge on you, but otherwise we got to stick with our bread and butter I just feel like Overall Um Burrs just We've kind of laudted I've gone back and forth. I've gone back and forth with them where I'm like, man, it seems like they don't they've got a lot of different guys who are auditioning or maybe someday they're going to be the primary option for this team And and and then we'll have these moments where where they go up thirty where I'll be like, well, maybe that's their maybe that's their superlative is that it's not just one guy. It's it's they're cobbling it together like a unit and it's coming from everywhere And then when the when the feet start getting to the fire, you see like no, they don't have a Dalen Brunson guy who like time and time again can steady the ship and go get his own. So Um that's that's kind of where I laid it because there were moments in this game where I was just like, man, Dylan Harper is this is he claiming that belt right now? but he's clearly just not ready to do that. That's where I wonder where the environment shift probably couldn't have happened at a better time. On the one hand, I think it's easy to just read into the fact that MSG is rocking and just ascribe a lot of what happened tonight to that. On the other hand, when you hear Mike Breen being like, it's never been this loud or it's never been this crazy and like the screen is literally shaking, I do have to wonder. There's like a pretty nice anecdote, I believe from game three whereere Dylan Harper, I think he was talking to ESPN, Scott Npeel afterward. and he was like, oh, I was walking through the tunnel and I saw J Z and I was like, oh, shit, that's JZ. And he's like, did you say anything? And he's like, No, I didn' I didn't want to like embarrass myself. It's like that sort of thing at MSG must be pretty jarring. You're not only in this giant moment, but then like you look across the stet. It's like it's so replete with like everyone from your childhood and all the biggest celebrities that you know. You have fucking Taylor Swift with the Heim Sisters and Mariskca Hargetay all wearing stupid punch shirts. It's just like that really does have to compound what is already happening there. I'm not gonna say like that that led to what happened in the actual game, but like if you're already rattled and young and not like ready for the moment, that has to like really kind of add to everything going on through your head There's a lot happening there. I mean, there are two trying to process the puns. that's How many how many copy editors in New York were going to blame the game on on the puns? I don't know. O with the copy editors been I don't know, I guess it depends, but yeah Someh The finger was gonna to be pointed at somebody and it was probably gonna to be Taylor Swift. that's just how the universe seems to work with this stuff. But was she a Nicks fan? was I unaware No. I think she lives in the general Well, plus she's getting married, it has been announced at Madison Square Gardener, reported. So I assume this is just like preamble to the ceremony Oh, the vibes were horrible too because the whole Dolan Trump thing and then the Dolan like Dolan was I textough this for the game that yeah, Dolan was doing everything that he could to to ruin the the ever increasing positive vibes at New York tryrying to try to snatch Sal, you know, damnation from the from the jaws of salvation. Yeah. I know yeah. No, it's the Dollan Trump thing, but also the Dolan Mumani thing, whereereas like the whole watch party situation, they were canceled because they weren't getting the app like the approvals that they wanted. like What as you're saying that Taylor Swift cleansed the aura of what could have been a curse inflicted by Dolan size Trump? I think she might have. It's just like there were enough puns that the wordplay just washed out whatever funk was in the building Hunun swwish and swit. bit. yeah This might just get me just completely like doxed o in this. Taylor Swift Terrible hang How do I know Theys like just seems like a lot like, I don't know, just didn't seem like a lot of performative like celebrating there Yeah. I mean, given how anti performative you are, like Taylor Swift is about as performative as it gets like that that's a couple of brand A couple celebrity things that I noticed that I enjoyed a lot was when they went to Larry David during the break and he was like, and he was like, go away, shoot him away. like you could tell it was really Larry David. He gets to be himself in a really awesome way. And then when everybody was celebrating and like hugging and grabbing, Jerry Seinfeld was like telling people not to touch him. He's like, I don't I'm not doing that. L It was a pretty funny almost like, I don't know if he's a germophobe or something And Chalam wore a normal outfit. Maybe that was good for. Sometimes you got to do it was it was like a Chrome Hearts, like million dollar Well, for him, that's normal es byy Chalomet standards This whole conversation is like living in LA. where it's like you're supposed to acknowledge the celebrities, but what you do is as soon as you see someone, you're just texting like your best friend. like, oh my God, I saw Jared Lo walking to the air on the other day. Castle, Gracekull. See, I was thinking as we were seeing Celebrity Row and all the different pockets of it, What would be the spots that you guys would want to sit in? a la, the cafeteria table mee, you know, And when I saw the like Sandler Calipari corner, I'm like, that feels like Kyom Man territory to me. That feels like I don't know. No I don't know. took me took me a minute. I see Samon, yes. I don't think Cal be a great hang. I don't know. It be fun to watch a basketball game with Yeah, possibly. He's charmed many a Southern man in his life. I'm sure that's true. Who do you think for you, Javie? are you posting up with Fallon? What are you doing No, it's just me and Kylie Jenner all the time, you know. common. We live the same sort of lifestyle. I feel like I feel like that would be a robust conversation. You two have more in common than anybody knows You could drop pints, try to get her to ask about's your cucumber. There's a lot of stuff you could do there. Oh All right, so game five What do you guys see in the future? An Anything you picked up from this one, any sort of like tactical things, any Dylan Harper, he's great. Do we just wna like give him a little tug real quick? or I think we are Oh boy thatad. Oh boy. I think the time for a little tactical things is kind of over. The dispiriting nature of a loss like this, I find it hard to believe it would not have some hangover effect. Not saying necessarily that the spurs are going to lose it all in game five and that's just what's gonna to happen. but How do you pick yourself up off the mat after this to then pull off of three one comeback? That is I think too long a road. It feels much more likely to me and maybe this is me with spports writ or Brain yet again that we're thinking about the images in the moments of this game as like the preseason feature fodder for next year sppurs of like, oh Every spur has a moment that haunted them. It's Wendy stepping to the line and going over two. It's Champannei stepping up with, you know, two and a half minutes left or whatever it was and missing that three. It's Dylan Harper throwing that ball away at half court when he got like the slightest pressure. It's Darren Fox smoking the layp. It's I mean, Stean Castan might be the Rocon one. I mean I not pitch. I'm not pitching it, but everything is there for her Cate work for yourself forob I simply can't anymore I mean, the OKC thing was They rally back, but it wasn't like this. I mean, three in a row this is this is pretty for for to for me, I mean, I wanted this to go to seven just because I just want to watch these games.. I guess it still could but man, this is going to be This is going to be such an uphill, uphill thing. I mean I think if they can manage to God if they could win a game six at the garden, obviously that would like even the series out in a literal way, but that's the only thing that I think would like cleanse it and they're got to be so tired at this point, man. I mean, they U that's another thing too is theseot these rotations that we were talking about, I was wondering if the fatigue was going to start adding up for the spurs and just the amount of just rote like discipline that it was taking, the communication, the physical toll that it was taking. It's you keep wondering where it's going to hit a wall with the spurs. See, I was going to say it on the flip side because if this was like a one day between games, at the very least, maybe the Surs youth and athleticism could get on top of the older team. Jalen Brunson played into the forties. OGan Nanobbe played into the forties. like maybe they could do it by like sheer energy and erve or something. But man, g two days in between next game because the next game is going to be on Saturday, which is kind of a weird split I guess they just wanted the Saturday Primeime for this game five, but like Even that is tough. so I don't know. We didn't really talk much about Weemby. How did you guys feel about him just overall? in this game. He finished nine for twenty five, twenty four points. Yeah It did feel like it really like he sunseted in the first half along with the perimeter shooters. Yeah, it didn't really feel like he gave them much stability at all in the second half. otherther than yeah, those moments where he was aggressive on the offensive glass. You could see him kind of hunting for some of those shots and he ft he hit some jump shots during the third especially in the fourth quarter when they really, really needed some kind of answer Those are big moments But I don't think you could really compare What he did versus what OJ and Oie did or Jalen Brunson did. like the biggest nicks in terms of the stability they provided were just so much more secure than what OB was giving this person Yeah, I mean, you want to keep he, you know, took eight threes tonight. We were talking about when he gets up in that eight nine territory I'm feeling pretty good if I'm the opposing team because it's like we're talking about like he some of those like Joeel andbed like short pick and pop kind of things in the in the ball screen that he was doing. They mentioned it on the broadcast. I don't mind those shots. You keep you kind of wonder if they might go to that. I think you just got to reset and go back to the game plan because I think I think that the Spurs We saw, found something, got away from it, lost it. I think they're going to just kind of reset and see if if the Nicks can answer that again because I think those things were working. All right, anythingthing else Any good tidings I have one more good tiding just because I feel like somehow even in lavishing praise on OG for hitting the game winning tip in We've somehow just kind of glossed over the fact that he had thirty three points on fifteen shots. The fact that he has become this rock solid metronomic part of what the Kicks do. You know, Mikaelle Bridges is a little up and down Kat has had amazing moments, but also really quiet fourth quarters. OG might be like front to back the most consistent player on the floor for a New York team that is one w away from the NBA title That's not the kind of thing I feel like we should just end up glossing over. Well, I mean, this might be overly symbolic. Maybe I'm also doing the sports Raly thing there, but like it does feel like the OG trade as we look back on it really did kind of form this team in a way that like they needed to. It's just so crazy how he was always so good, clearly because we went through several deadlines mocking him to thirty different teams because every team could use a player like him It's just crazy how he went from a guy who' so talented and had so much potential, but wanted to be more, but maybe didn't really necessarily profile as that sort of player, but' so off injured that like he couldn't get there. to now he's just like this paragon of stability and health. Like I don't know what happened because it's not like he went from a coach that ran him into the ground to a coach that was going to preserve him because he went straight from Nick Nurse Tw Tom Timido Uh and so like it isn't that like maybe the Kicks just had a plan in order to pace him out or use him properly, but like, He's going to go down as like one of the most important players for one of the most important teams of this recent era. and like It's a credit to him. Like these types of players that get tossed around a lot is like, oh Role player on this team or that team like tend to get like forgotten or at the very least don't live up to this sort of hype. and like, yeah, he really was worth all of the podcast we did about. Oh my gos. is. I still kind of firmly believe that he might have saved the Grizzlies. Like if they had just traded for him during the John Morand , like the peak of it, the height of it, where they really needed a quality three That team might still exist and be really good. There are probably a couple other teams that could have traded for OG and saved themselves in the process The Nicks ended up with him and Not only has he just covered himself in glory in so many of these massive moments, He has Clearly just the production of getting the Kicks here in the first place. He's going to live forever in the reels of this game in particular That's where for as charmed as this Nix run has been. This was a truly magical game. Like this is an all time mint it, make the DVDs, send it out into the world, put it as a hardwood classic right now This Willis reed level shit. I'm completely We are going to be remembering this game, whether you're a X fan or not, like on our deathbed someday. Like that is this is basketball history and OG and N Oi is I think the defining reason why we're going to remember it as such. Yeah. you'll be thinking about my tomato stories, all of the many dick pungs that we've made on this podcast friendship joke. but what are the Nicks, if not the power of friendship, and what is this podcast, if not the power of friendship And they had some big old grape tomatoes in that second half and OJ OG is one of the best two way players in the world. I mean that's just kind of u And obvious win at this point, but I mean he can shuttle with the ball. He can stop the run. He's just built like a truck, his tra he's head four five of the like most impressive transition like defensive plays that I've seen in all of these playoffs. just blocking Dylan Harper at the rim inexplicably just doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And like you said, metetronomic is the way, you know, he's a culture guy. Yeah. I mean, what did he make seeven of nine threes tonight, you know, Ganted three ten to fifteen from the field. Iome on One bd orver also peeling off of him inexplicably at the dumbest possible time. So they got to shore that up. So yeah, I mean, and that was something that was building throughout the game. They kept leaving him And then it just culminated in leaving him at the worst possible time. Well and not to tip our hands too much, but we're about to file some ballots pretty soon for the last top one hundred iteration of this NBA season I'm just ready to be fully irresponsible about OGan and Noi's ranking on this list. Oh about the be high high, frankly When you can do this on that stage I'm willing to consider anything. Third overall two Yeah. Yeah, why not OG, as it stands right now, number forty on our list. Yes, he' right between, oh, this is funny Deer and foxes at thirty eight Aaron Gordon n Gordon kind of Oky doky spiritual predecessor, I would say. Fair. And forty one, Conconnipple My God had a good red season. Yeah have a conversation Kow, you had a stab One last st. I feel like we need like a drop for you, which is like, music like Goan Let's fkingoo This is something it hasn't updated for the data for this game, but coming into this game. I wonder if this is something that they could mess with a little bit. I'd had the growing suspicion and I think we talked about it on this show that Harper was like acutely set up to bother Jayalen Brunson. and I went and looked at the numbers And they were staggering. So sixty one touches coming into like through game three, where Harper was on Brunson. U o point five eight five points per chance on sixty one possessions.. So that's the Kicks. that that's an interesting thing. I just wonder if they have a way to maybe tilt around their matchups or lean more into that one. And you said that was just the first three games though, that number Yes, the Ionight. I mean He got him a' going up unfortunately. Yeah likeike he spent a lot of time guarding Jayen Brunson in the second half I think he did a good responsible job But good responsible defense wasn't really enough in this one Well, the breaking around the ball screen thing, Brunson hadn't been getting that call and he got Harper on it. It's critical one tonight. That was a backbreaker. Yeah Cool st! Let's go! I meant to say a huge wd for the digs.. All right, let's go out on there. I think we'll be back on Monday. That's the schedule that's got laid out for us, I believe. I think so. I think that's the plan So we'll be talking about game five, maybe previewing to game six or forward to what's next, justust in life with Taylor Swift and all the other stuff Um Thank you Ben Cru. Thank you to Victoria Valencia, back from Sweden. Welcome back Like I never left U We'll talk to you on Monday. See you later. twenty one plus imp presresent in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or eighteen plus imp present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem callall one eight hundred Gambler or one eight hundred My reset. Call one eight eight eight seven eighty nine seven seven seven seven or visit ccpg dot org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MG gambling helpel dot com in Maryland. Hope is here, visit gambling Helppline mAot org or call eight hundred three two seven fivezero five zero for twenty four seven support in Massachusetts. Reall one eight seven seven eight Hope N Y or teax hope NY in New York, Louisiana callall. one eight seven seven seven seven zero seven eight six seven