YAMology: Hoops Insight, Stories, and More
Imagine a Canadian, a Scot, and a German walk into a bar and decide to start a basketball podcast to publically debate, share stories, and analyze the NBA as a whole... This is that show, welcome to YAMology. Join our hosts Yonny, Matt, and Alex in their journey of sharing their analysis of the NBA/Basketball on a deep level with our weekly shows!
YAMology: Hoops Insight, Stories, and More
Episode 78: Cavs Keep Winning, Mavs Falling Apart & The MVP Race Heats Up
The YAMology crew—Yonny, Alex, and Matt—are all back, just in time to break down one of the wildest stretches of the NBA season.
The episode kicks off with the Cleveland Cavaliers' insane 16-game winning streak—a run that had them demolishing opponents and making history. With elite three-point shooting and the impact of De’Andre Hunter, the crew debates whether the Cavs have officially become title favorites. But are they being overrated due to an easy schedule or underrated because of their depth and clutch play? As they go deep on Cleveland’s potential playoff path, the guys don’t realize that mid-podcast, the Cavs actually lose to the Magic, making for a hilarious turn of events.
Meanwhile, chaos is brewing in Dallas. With catastrophic injuries piling up, there’s talk that the Mavericks might have to forfeit games due to not having enough healthy players. But is there something bigger going on? The guys break down the theory that Dallas’ new ownership is tanking franchise value to justify moving the team to Las Vegas. Could this really happen, or is it just NBA paranoia?
Next up, the guys dive into the OKC Thunder vs. Boston Celtics game, where Boston launched a ridiculous 63 threes in an extreme strategy to outshoot OKC. They debate whether this is the future of basketball or a sign of a broken offensive approach. Meanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put up another efficient 34 points despite Boston throwing everything at him, and Cason Wallace locked up Jaylen Brown for the second straight time.
The MVP race also gets heated, with the crew debating whether Shai’s dominance over Jokić in their head-to-head matchups is enough to push him ahead. After Jokić’s monster 30-20-20 game and Shai’s ridiculous 48-point performance against Detroit, is the race back to even? The guys also react to JB Bickerstaff’s complaints about officiating, which they argue was completely misinterpreted by NBA Twitter.
To close, they discuss March Madness chaos, including North Carolina’s brutal game-losing lane violation and how NBA teams are now using analytics to scout referees before games.
With deep analysis, wild NBA theories, and classic YAMology banter, this episode is a must-listen!
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the canadian, the scott and the german are back yet again. Episode 78 of the amology podcast boys. What's up?
Speaker 2:oh, hello, skits. Uh, how are you? Um, currently still working on my master thesis. Haven't watched a lot of basketball, uh, but I'm up to date, uh, almost done with my programming. Um, only, I'll only take two or three more things to be completely certain and uh, then I'll write the rest of my thesis. What about you, matt?
Speaker 3:I'm literally the complete opposite of alex. I'm like the opposite of uni not doing a lot of uni, not doing a lot of uni work, not doing a lot of general work, just locked into basketball.
Speaker 2:One of the faces.
Speaker 3:It's good for being a podcaster now and again, but I've been locked in to the tournament games just because I love afternoon basketball. I love it being like alright, it's 4 o'clock, there's a game on, I can watch some Michigan State. I can watch some Michigan State. I can watch some Duke early basketball. Obviously we can get to that, but yeah, I'm kind of just locked into the basketball. More on the actual basketball that I don't watch, my season just finished in Scottish National League. Unfortunately, my team didn't win a game this year. We had our last chance to win a game so we didn't come out victorious. I'm a bit sad about that, but it was a really tough league and, um, I'll be right for next season very, very good boys.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, you know I'm doing good as well. My basketball league officially starts on march 20th. I'm going to update you guys how that goes. We had a practice yesterday. Things were good, other than that just vibing. You know it'd be like that sometimes. Moving on to the NBA, a team that's really vibing right now is the Cleveland Cavaliers. They're currently on a 16-game winning streak. I believe if they win one more, they're going to have the season record for longest win streak, which would be 17. 16 was previously by the thunder and the calves are. Have also had multiple like I think it's three or four uh win streaks of 10 plus, which just shows how dominant they've been as a team. Just like spanking the eastern conference. Um, they're 56 and 10 right now. They're currently up eight points on the Orlando Magic halfway through the third quarter. Absolute dominant team. Any takeaways there?
Speaker 2:Ever since that DeAndre Hunter trade, they've become unstoppable. Honestly, that was a steal of a trade for the Cleveland Cavaliers. This trade potentially made them the number one title contender. If we're being honest, like depth-wise, they are arguably the deepest team, but then again, the Thunder are deep as well. They're going to battle throughout the bench. So I'd really like to see both of them in the NBA Finals and have like 15-man rotations, you know, like the usual stuff similar to the regular season. Just because you know, and yeah, like ever since then Cleveland has been on the tear. It's not really that they've played like only bad opponents, like they've played against good opponents as well. So it's really interesting to see how dominant they've been, and I guess if they would have played OKC maybe one more time, they probably would have lost maybe one more game, but it definitely looks like they could potentially have like a 25-26 game winning streak or so.
Speaker 3:Yep, and just on the DeAndre Hartnett trade, I remember reacting to that and being like damn, that team got that guy like he was. Yep, and just on the DeAndre Hartnett trade, I remember reacting to that and being like damn, that team got that guy Like he was a really good production for the Atlanta Hawks. I think he was averaging like 18 points per game, great shooting, just really efficient. But he's one of those caliber guys that you know they were a high-larry pick. They've spent some time in the nba. He's got three, four years under his belt. He's ready to absolutely help that team and, I think, just consolidating your players like george niang um, I can't even think who else went along that trade.
Speaker 3:But just kind of, when you have guys in similar roles, when you can elevate and get a really good role player, when you know in the playoffs you aren't going to see 12 man deep rosters, you're going to see eight, nine, ten. He's just a great caliber shooter, great size, wing and which you just need in the playoffs. It sounds like so simplistic, but having someone that's like six, eight on the wing, uh, just in between you bigs and guards, you know if you're running a darius garland and Donovan Mitchell backcourt, just having someone with size that can hit the three just as well as a guy like George Niang and all the other guys I'm forgetting who went along in that trade. It's just good to have. And I'm not surprised the Cavs have been this good. They've just been taking care of business.
Speaker 1:Yep, I'm not surprised that. Actually, I'm kind of surprised that you forgot your boy. Curious, he was a part of that trade. But looking at the cav schedule as well, um, they play. They have a west coast trip coming up assuming they win this game against orlando, of course that's still pending. But they have a west coast road trip coming up where they play looks like five or six straight games. Um, along the west coast they don't really play anyone tough. The best where they play looks like five or six straight games. Um, along the west coast. They don't really play anyone tough. The best team they play is the clippers. Um, so I I think that somewhere in that road trip their first loss in like almost two months is gonna happen, just by the nature of things in the nba. Um, but just looking at their schedule, the best team they play for the rest of the year is the New York Knicks, who they're playing twice, once in early April and once at the end of April. So that could be like a meaningless game. So I don't know.
Speaker 1:This has given me the same vibe as the Dallas Mavericks from last season. But the Cavs were good the whole year. That's the difference. But they from last season, but the Cavs were good the whole year. That's the difference. But they're just like really peaking right now. I remember the Mavs finished the season on like an 18 and two stretch, something like that, and the Cavs are on track to do something similar. It's very impressive to see and the way that it's just like everybody.
Speaker 1:Like Ty Jerome leading the bench unit, donovan Mitchell is like producing just enough. Like you can tell, he's not trying to go too crazy in these regular season games. He's just trying to go along with the vibe and just like help the team be more aggressive if they're struggling. Otherwise, just happily be a part of the offense. Like you, look at his stats.
Speaker 1:This is probably in terms of points per game. I think this is his second lowest points since his rookie year. Let me just fact check that real quick Over here. It looks like it's his third lowest scoring season and it's completely intentional. That's kind of the crazy part with all this. So he's really leaned into being a leader for this team the best plus finest of his career and he was on some good jazz teams as well, so he knows what it takes to win. And then you just have guys like darius garland who are just, you know, working off mitchell so well, and the way this team is built is just so nice and you can tell that they're poisoning themselves for a big playoff run, and we like to see that you've been looking at the schedule, they're basically they've got the second easiest schedule behind the Bucks, which is just crazy when this team is already absolutely dominating.
Speaker 3:Even looking back through their season schedule, I know obviously 10 losses is nothing when it comes to the NBA. But it's just like going through ESPN WWW. The page is just green, ladies and gentlemen, that's the best way to put it. But all their losses when we were speaking about the streaks as well were kind of strung together. Basically, they lost three or five games in November to Atlanta and Boston. Atlanta won two of those games and then they went on a three-game losing streak and were like, okay, is this really going to happen? Are we going to just doubt this team? No, they just came back. They've just broken their 16-game winning streak.
Speaker 3:It'd be really funny if they lose the Magic tonight after we talked about this. But they have been in a lot of close games. Don't get me wrong, these haven't been blowouts, which is kind of I'm kind of giving them more credit. You know, if they were winning by 20 every game, you'd be like, ah, they're just this good. But no, they've been fighting for their wins. Even against brooklyn a couple of days ago five point win there. They beat this hornets by one, miami by five. They go to overtime against the Portland Trailblazers. These are tough, hard four wins. They're not coming out of this unscathed. Sorry, alex, I think I cut you off.
Speaker 2:No, it's all good. Like you said, they definitely had a couple of tough wins, but during the beginning of the winning streak they also had a couple of blowouts, you know, like against the Knicks 37 points, against the Magic by 40, against the Timberwolves by 21, against the Raptors by 23. It's a mix through all of it. But yeah, I'd guess that Cleveland is probably going to lose at some point in the next couple of games just because it's getting closer and closer. Like teams figuring out Cleveland more and more currently and considering the schedule strength according to take it on, they have the 19th easiest schedule. So they basically played the Clippers twice, knicks, pacers, kings as well. Like there's a really like a top top contender in there, unless you consider the Knicks and Pacers maybe top contenders Otherwise, like after the trade deadline, they're not really playing anyone else that's near their level. So the question would be do you think Cleveland is currently being underrated because of their scheduled strength Overrated? No, it's underrated, right, underrated because of scheduled strength.
Speaker 2:You mean overrated, like they look too good or they don't look good enough no, that in the eyes of like uh casual nba analysts that they don't look good enough, like sheck, for example. I think he said that uh, cleveland is not good enough ah, that's a good question.
Speaker 1:I think it's valid question. But if you look at their record against the top teams in the NBA as a whole, it's. I don't have the number in front of me, but I'm pretty sure they're near the top of the NBA in terms of how they perform against playoff teams team. That's a little bit sus, where it's just like is ty jerome really going to be that guy in the playoffs? Is dean wade gonna hit his threes at that high of a clip?
Speaker 1:Isaac acoro um, you know evan mobley and jared allen. They they had issues last season and the year before, even though they won the series last year. But just in terms of physicality and stuff like that. So will these guys really grow? Darius garland being picked on in a playoff series for 40 minutes trying to lead the Cavs offense and then constantly being switched on to stars? There are questions, but I don't think it's. It's fair to say they're not contenders and I don't think people are. I think people are underrating them a bit because this team is on a much better pace than last year's Celtics in terms of regular season wins. I don't think their plus minus is as good, they're just a better clutch team, but that's still something to to keep in mind yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Um question is is clutch? Is that clutch rating overrated in the regular season of the nba? Is it more important in the playoffs or does it stay the same? That's actually something I'm quite interested in right now.
Speaker 1:That is a really good oh sorry. Yeah, that was a really good point. I just wanted to quickly touch on that because historically I've seen it at least, where a team is not good in the clutch in the regular season and then in the playoffs they're great. Two pretty big examples was the Boston Celtics. Last year they were terrible in the clutch in the regular season that's where basically all their losses came and then in the playoffs they didn't lose a single clutch game, um. And then the other one is the OKC Thunder, who won a bunch of clutch games, uh, last season and then this season they or sorry. They won a bunch of clutch games last season and then this season they or sorry. They won a bunch of clutch games last season, but then the playoffs they lost quite a few clutch games, not a bunch, but they lost quite a few. So I think there is some some grounds there where sometimes in the clutch it's just kind of dumb luck of the situation. I don't know?
Speaker 3:um, I definitely do think they're being underrated, but I think the stuff that we're talking about in terms of like 3 point percentage and 3 point makes is a big factor when you swing into playoffs. You just don't know if it's there, okay, and it's in the NBA this season, if you win a 3 point battle, you make more threes. You're going to win 73% of the time. That's a pretty good winning percentage. I think any team would take that on a night-to-night basis. But the Cavs there's three-point shooting, as Scott mentioned. They're close to 40% as a team, which is just redonkulous. We probably haven't seen a team shoot this well with this volume ever, if I can be so brash but they're currently shooting 39% per season and they're only one three-point make behind the Celtics per game, and you understand how much the Celtics shoot the three-point basket.
Speaker 3:I was actually watching the Celtics-Thunder game and we might get onto this later. The first quarter, okc had 18 points in the paint. Ok, just a standard NBA team that likes to get onto this later. The first quarter, okc had 18 points in the paint. Okay, just a standard NBA team that gets around. Boston had zero points in the paint and they had all their threes Sorry, all their points were from threes. Okc had a 60% field goal percentage. Boston had a 37% field goal percentage. Boston had a 37% field goal percentage. Do you want to guess what the score was? It was basically a tie game. Like you could shoot 25% better from the field and you could still be down. It's just crazy.
Speaker 3:But yeah, back to the Celtics Sorry, back to the Cavs, even Just excited to see what they can do in the playoffs. Obviously, the East is going to have its moments where you might play. I don't know the Bulls if they win a play-in game or the Hawks if they manage to put it together, but I do trust this team. I actually would have them over Boston at the moment. That's me just because I don't think Boston's been as good and they've not been reliant as good with their role players this year, whereas Cavs they just kept that depth. But when you get into those situations, the Cavs do capitalize and obviously this is something we're going to see and we're going to find out. We can't predict the future. This is a podcast. This is a podcast. This is a commentary. It's not a predictor show. It's not telling you what to bet on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know about that. We could give plays on here. No, I'm joking. But yeah, your point about the Cavs is valid and I'm just looking at a potential projection of their playoffs. So in round one they're gonna play if, if things stay this the way they are, which it likely will with the, the play-in tournament specifically, they're gonna play either the heat, the bulls or the, or the hawks or the magic like, depending on who wins that, the loses that play-in game. And none of those teams really scare me like I think the calves would. If I'm the calves, they would run through those teams and it would be like a quick four game series, maybe five games if one role player or one star player just goes crazy.
Speaker 1:And then you move on to the second round where it gets a little bit interesting because they're going to play the winner of Bucks Pacers and that's. You know it's. Either you're going to go up against Damon Giannis and it's a, it's a real test and Bobby Portis, who's going to be 100% because he's currently serving a 25 game suspension for unknowingly taking a medication which was banned by the NBA, but anyways, they're going to play that team, or they're going to play the Pacers team that made the conference finals the year before and is going to be coming off a big series win over the Bucs, like if that does happen. So it's going to be interesting to see in that sense, and then, if you beat all those teams, you're more than likely going to be playing the Boston Celtics, which is the previous champion, the team that has basically owned the Eastern Conference in the 2020s. So it's going to be a real test for this Cavaliers team. I'm sure they'll be up for it, though. Anything else you want to mention with the Cavs, matt?
Speaker 3:I think we've done pretty well and kind of covered the key points, which sounds like we're doing like a PowerPoint presentation for our peers, but let's take it down a notch. So we've just talked about a team of success. I remember checking my phone and I got a notification saying the Dallas Mavericks might have to forfeit games and I was like what? This is the National Basketball Association and you're talking about forfeiting games. Basically, ladies and gentlemen, we'll dive into this, but due to their absolutely horrendous injury luck basically multiple, 5-6 season-ending injuries the Mavericks might be short of players, because you need at least 8 players to play in NBA games. I'm stunned. I've been an NBA fan for a long time. I've never seen a situation like this.
Speaker 1:It is a pretty wild situation, especially because every other game that the Mavs play it feels like you see a random injury. I saw Dante Exum head into the locker room like he's he's just injured. And then you see the play where dwight powell and uh what's? Kessler edwards bumped heads and they both had to go to the locker room. It's just like. It's just brutal what they're dealing with.
Speaker 1:Um, I mean, my take, or my opinion, is that the nba is probably gonna give them injury exceptions and they're gonna be able to just drag guys from their G League team. But what's really, really interesting here is the Phoenix Suns have the hardest schedule remaining in the NBA. There are two games back of the Dallas Mavericks, if I'm not mistaken here. Let's quickly check. Yep, they're a game and a half actually, so they could catch up, but the Phoenix Suns have the hardest remaining schedule in the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks are like this corpse of a team two and eight in their last 10 games. Is there a world where the Dallas Mavericks somehow survive and cling on to the 10 seed and might have to forfeit the game or might have to play the game straight up with a G League team?
Speaker 2:I got a question for that real quick. Though you mentioned that Phoenix could catch up to Dallas, does that mean in reverse, that the Dallas Mavericks are mayonnaiseing to the Suns?
Speaker 3:You say mayonnaiseing.
Speaker 1:I'm speechless. What?
Speaker 2:does that mean, I don't know what that means either what the? Heck, they mayonnaise, you know, because the Suns can catch up, so the Mavs gotta mayonnaise.
Speaker 3:Oh, catch up, catch up, has got a mayonnaise. Oh, ketchup, ketchup, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha how about. I just pour some mustard down, you that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1:That's what we should do, Matt Just get some mustard.
Speaker 2:Okay, just pour it all over, alex, as punishment you got to pour it hardy on me because I'm the goat.
Speaker 3:Imagine trying to make a pun on an NBA podcast. It could not be me. No, I don't think Phoenix. I think Phoenix are going to struggle, and just looking at the game that's on at the moment we're currently recording this during a Mavericks game. Guys, can you tell me who Brandon Williams is?
Speaker 1:next question no, I, I can't tell you that is the strong he's just played.
Speaker 3:He's played 31 minutes so far in this game and it's just finished. The it's just midway through the fourth quarter. I don't mean to be rude. Shout out, brandon williams, like I love the fact that nba players get to basically take a chance to say I deserve my spot in the league. That's what injuries create when you see anthony davis kairi go down like people get an opportunity to play. Uh, 6190 pounds, uh out of arizona went undrafted, 25 years old. He's making his uh, his, his time worth it. But like, is this really, this really the situation that Nico Harrison thought he was going to be in in a month and a half since the Luka trade? Obviously, we're not going to be a dead horse. Okay, lakers, lakers, luka Doncic trade, whatever We've been through that, but this is not ideal for Texas or basketball.
Speaker 1:It's such a mess. It's such a mess of a situation.
Speaker 2:I'm still saying, I'm calling it right now Dallas is going to get moved in the next three to four years to Las Vegas. It's quite certain, in my opinion, since the Mavs got the new Las Vegas owners. Yeah, that's what people are saying.
Speaker 1:They're saying it's some evil scheme that they're doing. They wanted to tank the value so they could justify moving. Which low-key were thunder fans? That is low-key. What happened with with the okc thunder and and how they came to be. Um, because you know that that story essentially like a long story short version, is the the guy who owned starbucks sold it to clay bennett. Clay bennett was like yo, I want the taxpayers to fund the new arena. Cl taxpayers were like no, we won't do that. And he's like bet, I'm going to oklahoma.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's that's that will take your taxes for the new arena. They just voted on that, like last year anyway. Anyway, let's get back on topic. Mavericks are bad. They have the worst injury luck of all time. I hope they don't make the playoffs. That would be the most depressing. Abc slash. Espn broadcast the Western 9th and 10th seed between the. I can't even think Would it be the Pelicans.
Speaker 2:No, the Pelicans are completely out the Kings would be the Kings, I think.
Speaker 3:The Sacramento Kings versus the injury-riddled Dallas Mavericks, who used to have Luka Doncic, who used to have Kyrie Irving and, for half a game, had Anthony Davis. Tune in to watch our live coverage and enjoy our halftime game analysis.
Speaker 2:Then again, if the Mavericks somehow survived the play-in, they'd have to play against OKC in the first round. I don't know. Seems kind of like a freebie for Thunder fans in my opinion. Especially after last year's series Could be fun for Thunder fans.
Speaker 3:As much as we didn't enjoy that series as basketball fans. I would never wish this much hurt and pain on any basketball fan and I am dead serious when I say that they have been brutalized by injuries historically bad to the general manager. No basketball fan deserves this.
Speaker 1:It is pretty good, so yeah.
Speaker 3:Anyway, we can move back to something more positive. I know you guys have been watching a lot of basketball in the college format, but the NCAA have been hosting the ACC, Big East, Big Ten tournaments and I just really love to give some shouts and fun bits in that. Have you guys been keeping up with it at all?
Speaker 2:I know that Cooper Flake got injured and I watched the second half of that game.
Speaker 1:I've been watching the crazy endings because I saw there was like there's been a bunch of games with just insane endings. There was this one game where the guy got the rebound and then he just had to hold the ball for two seconds for overtime and he decided to just pass it and the guy stole it, had an open midi and that's like the game winner. Um, there was another one, kentucky I think it was. They blew a 10 point lead in like a minute, but then they scored the game winner. So, like they lost the lead, they were down one with like five seconds left and then they scored the game winner. So I've been keeping up with the crazy endings. I haven't been keeping up with the games or the tournaments. Didn't oklahoma win that game though? No, they didn't. They, they got up like one or two and then the Kentucky guard, with like five seconds left, just scored a game winner.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, true.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, let me start with LaPista resistance of college basketball, and that is Duke versus North Carolina. Did you guys see what happened with that game? Okay, so let me walk it through it for those that didn't. I think Duke are up one. They commit a very poor foul I'll speak about this with the ref today, who's actually a kentucky fan but, um, basically they foul. You have two free throws, you're down one. This is the first free throw One of the UNC players in an effort to fake out the Duke basically the rebounders, because you can have like six rebounders on a free throw in college which I just found hilarious he steps his foot over the line and cancels the make. That would have sent it to overtime. With the stakes of this game and how much these teams are at each other's throats in terms of rivalries, it's one of the most heartbreaking finishes I've seen in a very long time heartbreaking um finishes.
Speaker 1:I've seen it in a very long time, so it was. It was it was the free throw shooter or one of the rebounders stepped on the line. Rebounder, the rebound yeah that's. That's such a big l. I remember I, I read that happen. I didn't watch the the full video. That's so embarrassing. Man's like what do you say after that, bro? And also, if you're the ref, would you?
Speaker 2:call that Matt.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like yo, I don't know man.
Speaker 3:In college they call it so much more than the NBA.
Speaker 1:They don't respect it in the NBA.
Speaker 3:I wish they did. Obviously, we talk about rule changes all the time, but I wish they did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're big rule change activists, I guess Damn.
Speaker 2:Anything else that's interesting from the tournament.
Speaker 1:That one's kind of depressing Might be more sad than the match yeah sorry, sorry.
Speaker 3:I was just like let's talk about college basketball and then just like prop someone's like's worst college career moment. Do you remember Murray that came on the pod with us? Alex, yeah, he's a big supporter of the team that just won the Big Ten. Do you know which team that is? Oh, sorry, the Big East, my bad.
Speaker 2:Big East. Wait, big Ten would have been Michigan, but Big East, oh sorry, the Big East, my bad, the Big East, wait, big Ten would have been Michigan, but Big East. Oh, wait, I think it was. I know which game you're talking about. It's Maryland against the opponent won the game it wasn't quite that.
Speaker 3:It was St John's Red Storm versus the Crescent Blue Jays at MSG Basically close game in the first half and St John's have basically just been insane this entire season. They've been the number one team in the Big East. They basically sell through the tournament. What they do is like every game has been the exact same, because I've been watching the highlights and watching some of it live when I can. Basically the game will start together and everyone's really close. It's a tight game and then all of a sudden it's like 10 minutes to go. It's like okay, we'll start playing real hard basketball dunk, offensive, rebound, free throw line. And they've just turned up.
Speaker 3:They're one of the best defenses in college, just so you know, and they've had some really good show-up games. I really love De'Veon Smith. He doesn't play a lot off the bench but he's one of my favorite kind of guys to watch in college. Ed Gefford had a massive game in the semifinal to send them through to pass Marquette, and then RJ Lewis Jr has been a bucket the whole time. But I just want to shout out them because basically this school wasn't ranked this year. I think it's Rick Pettino is the coach. I know we don't follow college basketball very well, but basically this is the first guy to win five conference championships with five different programs. That's insane. I don't know. I can't even think of an NBA equivalent. It's like going to the semis with five different teams, maybe.
Speaker 1:I mean Doc Rivers did that. Ah, okay, I take it back no, it's definitely interesting, especially for you, matt. I'm excited to see what you think of March Madness, because I think this is going to be the first year that you you're like extra locked in, I guess. Yeah, I'll see.
Speaker 3:I'll be away for the kind of first like the round of 64, um. But yeah, I'm trying. I was trying to lock in a bit more because it's a big way for me to kind of catch up on nba prospects, because you guys are already way ahead of me all the time no, I'm not.
Speaker 2:I'm absolutely not. Um too focused on my master thesis, so I don't know almost nothing about the nba drafts ever since december true, it'd be like that sometimes, mr alex.
Speaker 1:Um, I'm probably gonna watch a couple games, to be to be honest. But I don't know, man, I think once the season is is less intense in the nba like less every single day there's games I'll be more locked into prospects. I've been focused on like my batch of guys and then not watching anyone else, so that's my problem. You know, like, I'll know, I'll know this guy's good. But then this one top five pick that everyone's talking about, like, like, let's say, vj edgecombe, I know nothing about. I just know he's an athletic like six five guy. So that's where my draft knowledge is. But I can tell you about this random guy who's going to be a second round pick, um, it's wild yeah, who's, who's in your batch right now, just out of curiosity.
Speaker 3:Who's the guys you've kind of been keeping up with tabs on it's.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of the international guys and then a couple college guys like, let's say, like ryan nemhard, brother of andrew nemhard. Uh, nolan trory, it's got latchland old bridge, it's not that good. Malik lewis, he's kind of interesting. It's guys, guys of that nature. They're mostly it's mostly like second round guys, though, to be honest. So it's no one I would make a big note of, except for nolan trowery. He's kind of nice. I like his game, um, really really good. Uh, kind of combo guard.
Speaker 3:I think we could move on yeah, uh, sorry, I just had a quick button. Remember Seb who was with us at the Raptors game.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:He was actually on Andrew Nembhard's basketball team.
Speaker 1:He was playing with Andrew Nembhard.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think he was like under 10 or under 12. That's hilarious.
Speaker 1:Was he friends with him or not? They're just on the same team.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I, his dad was their coach, um, which is pretty cool, and I know he's a big, uh, canada guy, but yeah, canada's just so small in terms of like north american hoops, like that's all canada basketball is tiny, like if you're good, you're gonna know everyone and everyone's gonna know you, it's.
Speaker 1:It's that kind of vibe. But, um, in terms of, let's see, oh, we got to talk about this, you mentioned it earlier, but okc boston shay gold, just alexander canadian basketball player. He's very good and we all know who he is. Would you like to talk a little bit about his performance against the Celtics? No, jalen Williams, him and Chet Holmgren walked into TD Garden and walked away with the win, and the Celtics were shooting threes the entire time. Were they making them? That's a different question.
Speaker 3:Hi Jenny. I think this is one of the most impressive OKC wins of the season. Obviously we've kind of gone through and talked about the Cavs and how impressive those games have been, but like what was really nice also about this game, am I right in thinking this was an early tip or am I being silly?
Speaker 1:it was early for OKC standards because it was a 7.30 tip, but it's like the standard time for Eastern Conference games.
Speaker 3:I mean to walk into TD Garden against the defending champs without. Usman Jagan played six minutes, ken Rich Williams is playing 20 plus minutes to just come away with a heart. Not even like a gut-wrenching win with basically one of the best schemes an NBA team has thrown against Shea and him to come off with less than 20 field goal attempts and a fishing very nice and smooth 34 piece with 7 assists. It's just big man. This was literally I don't want to say it was like water versus fire almost is the way I'd put it when it came to the three-point attempts from Boston versus OKC's relentless driving and cutting.
Speaker 3:But Chet finally kind of had a big game on a big stage. He was a plus nine 23-15-4. Sorry, my bad, the four was offensive rebounds, but just to come away with a win there, just it's really exciting, see, and there's some real cool moments. They said they're growing up now and which is kind of crazy in the postgame, but like it's more because bosses really good team and their coach really well and they did all sorts of shit and it didn't matter, they still won yeah, that was the part for me it's like they played great defense on shea and he had 34 efficiently.
Speaker 1:It's just like he. He was just a lot more selective with with the shots he was taking because they were everything was guarded. He's dealing with jalen brown who's big drew holidays big. They're quite savvy and smart, um, so it was pretty challenging but he somehow made it work to kind of help the team and then Chet in the no shame minutes was absolutely huge in that win as well the thing I wanted to highlight, though, was the three-point stat you alluded to earlier.
Speaker 1:So the Celtics their first 18 points all came from threes. It was six three-pointers, all threes, the majority of which were from derrick white. And then, I don't know if was, was it the entire first quarter? It was either three-pointers or free throws, and that was literally it.
Speaker 1:Um, and then, I guess, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter, they shot a total of 63 threes, which is the second or third most all-time in attempts, which is just kind of crazy. And the real difference was, in the first half they made like 15 of their three point attempts, and in the second half they made like four or five or something like that, which just goes to show, like you live by three, you die by the three. But the scary thing was it was a really weird strategy, but it almost worked, because they lost by six points. Obviously, there's a little bit of the like fouling. At the end, peyton Pritchard hit a three to like make the lead look, uh, smaller than what it really was, but they were in that ball game and that was the strategy they used. So I don't know, do you guys have any takes on that?
Speaker 2:Sorry.
Speaker 3:I just came back Boston, OKC.
Speaker 1:Yeah, boston OKC. Boston took a million threes and almost won. Do you think there's some strategy behind that? It might make more sense to just keep chucking those threes and and hope the variance goes your way, uh, I I think.
Speaker 2:Uh, that game kind of reminded me of the okc dallas series last year where the thunder were practically forced to shoot threes that were technically open but they couldn't make those threes. I think part of that is like a psychological component why they didn't make those threes, because you got to imagine like this is the only way you're allowed to score and if you don't make these then yeah, good night. Basically, I think something similar happened to Boston in that OKC game. Like they took way more threes than they usually take, basically only went inside the arc 15 times in the first half of when it was taken. Wow, a bit more in the second half, but overall it's been gruesome for them in that game.
Speaker 2:Like they mostly like shot up the threes because, like they always had chad homegrown down the paint and if it's not chad, then it was a smaller big or was art and stein, uh, or anyone else. Basically, like they, they always had elite room protection protection inside. So personally just thought about the game Okay, you know what? Let's try our usual game plan check up lots of threes, but take it one step further than usual. And yeah, that probably broke the jaw at the end of the day. If you're forced to take broke the jaw at the end of the day, like if you're forced to, if you're being forced to take a different shot diet than you're used to, then that's definitely an advantage that you'd love to see.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this game did go down the wire. It kept me kind of on my seat on the edge of my seat even, because usually I sit down when I watch basketball games. Al Horford just like he's like I sometimes wish like the Thunder never traded him away, not like really strongly, but he's just good, like he's just always going to be good. He shot a ridiculous percentage from three. He got a lot of attempts Twelve attempts, 50%. Three makes Al Horford is what? Like 6'10". He's been playing for like 15 years. Do you know how many two-pointers Al Horford shot in that game? Sorry, how many two-pointers Al Horford made in that game?
Speaker 3:It felt like zero, zero, yeah, it was zero. All of his shots were from the three-point line as kind of a kick option. It's just incredible. Although I really actually want to touch on Jason Thiem, because we do actually give him a little bit of teasing every now and again, he was incredible in this game. I genuinely watched him and I was like he's not doing it, he's not making any mistakes. Oh, they're throwing two at me. Okay, let me just really smoothly fire this into the corner. Okay. Oh, they're doing this and this. Oh, it's a skip. He knows what to do when a team comes at him.
Speaker 3:I think it helps, obviously, being 610, if not 6-9, like to pass over those doubles, have really strong shoulders and you can score like strong skip passes, dives. But honestly, he was perfect in this game and there's times the Thunder just couldn't do anything against him. He went 4 of 13 from 3. That's one of the factors, but I still had 33 points in this game. I would argue that him and Shea, in terms of this game, they were equal in terms of who was the better player. That's genuinely how good I thought Shea matched up with Tatum and obviously Tatum gets a lot of things now again being like the anomaly, and we haven't even spoken about the massive nickname thing that's been going on, but I was really impressed by Shea.
Speaker 1:That's basically what I'm trying to say, yep, totally valid point. I'm trying to think what, what other angles there were. You know, jason tatum, he, he looked like a star in that game, like just quite frankly, and it was. It was weird as, as jason tatum skeptics, anomaly skeptics he proved us wrong. This game, um, and I do enjoy jason tatum's game. I don't like that people hate on him, um, but sometimes just it's just a rough watch.
Speaker 1:Today it wasn't um, his drives impressed me. It seemed like every time he went downhill he would make it and then he would take a step back three and miss it. And I'm just like, why? Why can't you just drive to the paint every time? You'd score every time, because he's not like Giannis built, but he's pretty up there compared to other NBA guys. He's just so big, has fluidity, has touch. He. If he got to the rim with focus and intention, I think he could score um like more consistently.
Speaker 1:Instead, he had 29 points, pretty good efficiency, but the earth, sorry. I think he had 31 actually, but with good efficiency. But the problem was he took 13 threes and made four. And it's just like can't you trade some of those sidestep three point attempts for a middie bucket or a layup attempt and, you know, have a higher probability of making those shots. That's what I would say to Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum, the person who struggled was the other Jay Jalen Brown. He was absolutely clamped by Cason Wallace, couldn't do anything on the court, it was. It was pretty rough. It was pretty rough and I guess I'll pass it over to Alex Maybe do you want to talk about how Jalen Brown got clamped for the second straight game against OKC.
Speaker 2:I mean, for me personally, there's not really much to talk about. It really just comes down to OKC's incredible decision-making. Like, who do you want to go up against? I think, personally, jalen Brown is better to shut down than Jason Tatum. At the end of the day, he's the second star and, yes, you let Tatum do a bit more, but as a trade-off. When it comes to impactfulness, I guess Jalen Brown is a little bit more impactful, though Tatum is the more productive player. So therefore, I understand the decision making by OKC to just really shut down Jaden Brown yep, and even like obviously, case and wallace has been a generational defender.
Speaker 3:Uh, he's been so good, especially in the recent stretch, but like he's hit. He also hit a three against the pistons kind of, when they were kind of shading over to shea, and he hit another big one in this game. One other point I wanted to mention was I don't know if you guys watched a guy called Daniel Lee, massive shout out. I watch all his videos. It's really kind of easily quick, put together just things that he sees in the game, a bit lip reading, a bit of basketball context and just some really good basketball IQ to learn from. So big shout out because I love his stuff.
Speaker 3:Basically, one of his videos was kind of talking about what they used. Peyton Pritchard love his stuff. Basically, one of his videos was kind of talking about what they used Peyton Pritchard as. So Peyton Pritchard, like he's the smallest guy on the Celtics. He's great at 94 feet, but if you have him next to the rim, okay, it's basically a basket, what they did against the Lakers, and there's a video talking about this and it will get explained better than I can on this podcast. But he basically Joe Mazzulla put Peyton Pritchard on LeBron so that basically you keep, because the NBA, like you, put your smalls in the dunker spot now so they have like a small as the helper.
Speaker 3:What he wanted to do was bring him out so that if LeBron drives, there was always someone there. They did the exact same thing with Shea, especially in the fourth quarter. Shea plays a lot of minutes. You can tell he's visibly tired in these away games. He has a massive burden on his shoulders, especially offensively. They staked Peyton Pritchard on him, full court, hard press, finally get him into the low elbow spot and then straight up, just shot over that man. I know it's Payton Pritchard, but when the whole defense has been designed so you can't get downhill and still be able to hit those shots in the clutch, it's just phenomenal. He's very clutch and we could maybe move on to the mbp discussion. Uh update, if anyone else doesn't have anything to add about that game uh, real quick.
Speaker 2:Which channel did you give a shout out to? I didn't catch that daniel lee.
Speaker 1:I can share it. I've seen some of his videos. He doesn't upload all the time but when he does it's a banger. Because he does like these, like super niche, deep dives and and stuff like that. I'll share a link. But shout out to him daniel lee 7 on youtube, or just daniel lee. He has really good videos and it's lee as l I good videos and it's lee is li.
Speaker 3:Oh okay, we're all about shining out little contact careers. I think it's about 100k subs he's not really little yeah I know I don't know. Anyway, can I ask that question that I asked you before the pod?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Okay. So for the first time in a long time, me, alex and Skit are in a position that many NBA fans should feel very lucky to even be asked. And basically, it might come through I try not to let it come through that we are Oklahoma State Thunder fans. Okay, boo, how dare they. This is a neutral podcast. Be objective, guys through. I try not to like come through that. We are oklahoma state thunder fans. Okay, boo, how dare they. This is a neutral podcast. Be objective, guys. I asked them when you have a player like she goes, alexander, would you rather that individual won an mvp or your team won a championship and this? This could be the same for Jokic. You could literally say the same thing for Tatum. Giannis Antetokounmpo. I think the contexts are a bit different, but what was your thought process when I asked you that initially?
Speaker 2:I mean, for me, basically, it was okay. If you're a fan of basketball, you obviously want your team to win. You always want to put the team over the individual. So for me personally, I would have said come on, give the team the title and the best player the finals MVP. Come on, give the team the title and the best player the finals MVP.
Speaker 2:So in OKC's case, that definitely would be Shea. He's the most impactful player. He has the biggest offensive burden on the team, still plays on the defensive end, like with that alone. He probably should win the finals MVP if the Oklahoma City Thunder would win the title, which in that scenario they would and then from there on out, you have multiple things to consider as well. If Shea wins finals MVP and the title, he automatically becomes MVP for next season, in my opinion, because we're talking about a player that's not on some like Tony Parker or Andre Iguodala run. We are talking about an actual like a very good player, like all-time good player right here that's having a phenomenal individual season that's already up there in mvp talks. Um. So yeah, uh, I'd probably go with okc winning a title and shay finals mvp then, rather than shay winning mvp this year yep, and it's.
Speaker 1:It's what you play for as well, right, like you play for championships. I think jason tatum, for example, like, if you asked him, you'll trade in the championship, not even finals mvp, just the championship, and then you're guaranteed to win mvp next season. He's probably gonna say no, because it's like you play for the championship. You get put in a different tier if you have that ring, like quiet leonard is basically looked at as like an all-time great mvp level player, even though he's never won an mvp because of what he's done in the playoffs twice, um, whereas if you look at someone like carl malone, who's like a dominant regular season player, um, but never won a ring and is not really respected by fans at all a lot to do with the off thethe-court stuff, but still, anyways, that's not a great example, but you guys get what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah definitely.
Speaker 3:I think I just get so caught up in the regular season and, basically, this being the closest MVP race I think it's maybe since Howard and Giannis it's probably my comp. I think that was one of the closest ones. I don't know, man, this is neck and neck. I know you guys feel that it's one or the other, but if I listen to a thing, I literally just want someone to pass me a note and say Shay's going to win MVP this year, don't worry. And then it would just be fine.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I just have that as a fan, just following someone in their career and watching a lot of these games. I just really want it to happen. And I remember just being like god, god damn it when jokic has his like 30, 20, 20 game and that's not really the best thing to say as, like a basketball fan and but when you are rooting for someone, you have to root against the other person, which sounds so bad because we should just appreciate these people. But yeah, what? What changed since last week? Because we did have a successful podcast, we got a few extra listeners than usual when we did talk about MVP. What's changed?
Speaker 1:What has changed since then? I guess in the MVP race, let's see. We said me and Alex were in agreement that if the Thunder won that game against Denver, the second game and Shea had a similar performance the last time, the race would be over over. What happened was Jokic had a had a really good game. The Nuggets players were role players, were unconscious, basically making every single three there. It was like a stupid number, like they were 11 for 15, for three, like a little bit into the fourth quarter. It's like how are you supposed to win if that's the case? Um, so then in my eyes it went back to where it originally was, before the big showdown between Shea and Jokic, which is kind of annoying, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1:And then later in the week Jokic had a game against the Lakers. Austin Reeves was a monster. Jokic's defense has been really bad the last couple weeks. I'm not even saying this is like a Shea advocate, but like it's low-key embarrassing, because what Austin Reeves did to the Nuggets was crazy. I was watching that game live and he was just cooking, driving to the paint every single time and um. And then the Nuggets played against the Wizards, where Alex Saar had 34 points and Jordan Poole hit a three from way downtown and he did the little pool party celebration, which was hilarious because he did it before with like two seconds left and the Nuggets didn't have a timeout.
Speaker 1:But he was just doing the celebration, he didn't care to play defense. Jokic got the ball and threw it from like three quarters of the court. He looked a little nervous but he was still doing the pose and then Jokic officially missed and then he started going crazy. So that was really funny by Jordan Poole, but anyways, that's what happened from Jokic's end, from Shea's end. We talked about the Boston game. Shea had 34 and a win and then he had 48 points against the Piston in arguably the best game of his career. Like the buckets from that game was absolutely crazy.
Speaker 2:I I don't know if you have anything you want to touch on with that one, alex my god, oh, there were so many incredible baskets, especially in that game alone, like oh my god, I don't know, especially like the second second half he went absolutely nuclear, especially in the clutch, but also like at the end of the third quarter. That's the basket that stuck with me the most, the one where he basically gets the screen, the bone of the screen, from I think it was Queso, and then he's in a 1-1 and basically all he does is spin around defender, defender got hand in his face, uh, and he just shoots the three ball over him like absolutely tough shots that he made. Um, honestly, uh, that was probably one of the most impressive shots I've seen all year. Um of the most impressive shots I've seen all year. Um by a player like single-handedly, like taking such such a tough shot.
Speaker 3:Um, it's just astonishing man and you see, like highlights, and obviously this this fourth, like he played the whole four score, like mark does not do this, um, like Mark does not do this. Do you know how hard that guy had to work against Asar Thompson just to get a catch? Like, and I mean, two hands on the basketball? It was either Kaysen bringing the ball up, what they sometimes will do, thunder will do when they're trying to keep the ball out of Shea's hands. Surprise, when he's this good and he already has 42 points, they basically deny him and they'll try and post him up. They'll try and give him a deep catch. They'll use him as a screener to try and get a switch.
Speaker 3:Literally they were talking about on the Young man of Three with Cam Johnson. What do you try and do when you play a Thunder? Just try and limit how much he touches the ball. That's how good this guy is. Don't let him touch the ball. You mean I should stop him going left, stop him going right. No, no, no, don't let him touch the ball. This is the level of score we were talking about and, yeah, two points If this is 50, you know it's slightly different just in terms of, like, how you view this game. But the Pistons they wanted this game badly and shout out Pistons, we love the Pistons around here. They got four guys with techs. Cade Cunningham was ejected, but it ended up spurring their roster on. But yeah, I mean, jb Beckerstaff came out with some interesting comments after the game, but we don't need to talk about it. It's just aggressive coaches.
Speaker 2:I feel like we have to talk about it because it's been misinterpreted, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 2:Jamie Bickerstaff was talking about was the officiating overall. He wasn't talking about the Thunder Whistle or the Shea Whistle overall. All he did was complain about the ref calls overall and definitely there have been a couple of calls where I agree with them, like the hostile act on Isaiah Stewart is kind of weird to me. Basically, the Lou injury where Lou got on Shea's foot, which got ruled, done away. It's definitely like usually like come on, refs, what are you doing? I totally agree with that on jb bicker staff's behalf.
Speaker 2:But then again, uh, when you look at it from mark dagnall's perspective, he talked about the reffing crew as well and what he said was basically well, we got an our analytics guys on the refs and basically these refs, or this ref staff has the losers whistle in the entire nba. So we notified our plays to uh play through it and not get distracted by it. And that basically was the difference today, because, when you look at it, shea shot five technical free throws, five in that game alone. So when it comes to being a free throw merchant, by the way, half of his shots, half of his free throws, which were 10, were basically technicals in that game. So he didn't even get as many free throws, as he's usually used to. But thanks to the Pistons complaining a lot, he got five more points and in the six-game win that's kind of essential.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, alex, you absolutely cooked there. I would not add a single thing to what you said. You said basically everything I was thinking. The only point I'll add is the fouls total was like 20 to 21, something like that. It wasn't even crazy.
Speaker 1:And the way that people on twitter and it's twitter so like I shouldn't be surprised but grossly misrepresented what jb bickerstaff was saying who who, by the way, was bickering about the staff? That's kind of funny. That's his last name. But he was complaining about the referees. Like, specifically, they're like yo, you ejected my guy, kate, because he was mad that you guys messed up. You're reviewing something where, like, no one on my team did anything, um, and he's just like saying like all all that kind of kind of stuff. Basically, it's just I totally get why he'd be upset from from his perspective. And the point mark dagnon made was really interesting because they asked him they're like yo. Jb Bickerstaff said this do you have any thoughts? And Mark was like we run analytics on every referee. We know what this officiating crew is going to be like before the game and that's kind of insane how NBA teams are so on top of all this stuff. But it makes sense because they have to be, but I just wonder who are the wackest officials in the NBA?
Speaker 3:JTR is king. Man, this is like anything past 2015. Jtr is king. Let's wrap up. The Cleveland Cavaliers just lost to the Orlando Magic after we went on a 17-minute section about their win streak. Shout-out to the Orlando Magic. After we went on a 17-minute section about their win streak. Shout out to the Orlando Magic. Shout out to Mo Wagner for hitting the clutch free throws in the end.
Speaker 1:Paulo had a clutch mid-year as well. That was really funny, because we were talking like, oh, they're going to win this game, it's going to be 17 wins in a row, and when's?
Speaker 3:the next time they're going to lose.
Speaker 1:And it's like 30 minutes later.
Speaker 2:Actually funny, not gonna lie like especially after I said maybe they go on like 20, 25 game win streak. And then after that I also said like, but yeah, probably like Tiffany's going to lose sooner rather than later. And then, yeah, they just got beat.
Speaker 3:Alex was like, yeah, yeah, they're gonna lose soon. I'm like, no, I'm in my head. I'm like Alex, don't be stupid. And then this obviously happens.
Speaker 2:Okay, fair.
Speaker 3:Okay, but this was a Yamology podcast. So if you enjoyed this Yamology podcast, make sure to check out Yamology podcast at Yamology underscore MBA podcast on Twitter. Find OTC Skills. Find Alex, alex, dr, prof. Find me at SGA4MVP and that is all. Ladies and gentlemen, have a good evening. When you wake up, have a good morning and when you have lunch, have a good afternoon.
Speaker 2:See, you SGA4MVP. Sga4mvp is still the most unbiased.