Mailbag Monday | Ben Bringing It, Bench Too

week right here on mail bag work. The seventy Sixers in the midst of a rare reprieve back to back days without playing games as they sojourn west for the start of a four game road trip. But knock on wood, the mailbag is still busy, which we totally appreciate, and we got some noteworthy storylines learn to reflect upon from the week that was. The seventy sixers had a two and one week, just a little bit of a hiccup against Portland without one of their all stars, Ben Simmons.

We can also look ahead to a four game swing through the West which I think you present some good tests for the old squad. I know we talk about all the time celts that this is a new team, but I think every time the team goes on the road, I do get just a little bit nervous. But then when I consider the way that this team has performed on the road thus far this season, I feel a little better. I'm looking forward to seeing how they embrace this challenge as opposed to being nervous about what could

go down. They have been a lot better on the road this year, and it's a refreshing way to go into a four game trip. You know the way I'm feeling about this upcoming four game trip, tell me, I'll be honest, I'm a little envious. There are a couple of cities on this trip that, if you look at the schedule, you might not think are the most appealing or attractive destinations on the NBA circuit. The Sixers are at Sacramento, Portland, Phoenix, and then Salt Lake City, home

of the Jazz. But there are a couple of those cities Sacramento might be surprising to some people. Sacramento and salt Lake concluded that are low key favorites of one Brian Seltzer. Salt Lake is a favorite of Lauren Rosen as well. I'm a big nature, clean air. There are some cities where the air just feels fresh. Salt Lake City is one of those. A ten minute drive and you're in the beautiful mountains. I'm a big Salt Lake

City gal, and I feel you. I would really be happy to go on a trip to anywhere right about now, but of course, safety first. Glad that the team has been able to be as safe as they have with a condensed travel party. And I'll be getting to other cities at some point in the next I don't know what, three years, four years, five years. Oh yeah, yeah, let's go a little bit more optimistic. Maybe within the next season. Fingers crossed, let's not jinx it. Yeah. Sacramento, I feel

gets a bad rapid times. They have a great brewery around the corner from the hotel. Hopefully I'm not divulging too much. Portland Hetty Crunchy, tremendous donuts, great grub. Phoenix is Phoenix in Salt Lake City. Like you said, the right time of year, get up in that mountain air, maybe have an off day, go to Park City, check it out. Those are different times, however, No, this is

a very Lauren Rosen trip. Actually, I love Portland. Portland might be of the NBA cities that I've seen, and now I've seen most of them all but a few. Portland is right at the very top for me. I love Portland, love salt Lake. Whenever there are West Coast trips, people get really excited about going to southern California, and for me, to be honest, I would take Portland and salt Lake ten times out of ten. Wow, I like that.

I'm not sure if I would go ten times out of ten, maybe like eight and a half times out of ten. I would mix in a few stops in Portland and Salt Lake in addition to Southern California fair enough and San Francisco fair enough. I have never been to the Staples Center, and I know that that's one of the one of the arenas with a lot of just sort of general vibes and ethos that you want to experience. So yes, maybe once I've done it, I'll feel differently. But I do love Portland and Salt Lake.

And now the people that listen to us know way too much about where I care to travel to, so apologies, I'm gonna ask one more non seventy six ers question before we open up the mailbag, just because I feel like everyone has to have a take, whoever you are, whatever it is you do, whether you even like sports or don't any Super Bowl takes anything at all, Do

I ask you what was your favorite commercial? I gotta be honest, I almost didn't watch it, and I think that that's something important for folks to know about my identity. I love sports. There's a reason I work in sports. But I have just been a little sports out lately and I almost didn't watch. I don't have much of an affinity for either team that was playing. And then I said, look like it's a cultural moment. You got to watch the Super Bowl. So I did turn it on.

I did believe that the outcome was going to be the outcome. I had a feeling. I'm one of those people you never bet against one of the greatest of all time. It's why I never bet against Lebron in the finals. It's why I never bet against Tom Brady and the Super Bowl. So for someone who almost didn't watch the game, I was proud of myself for having the right, you know, take, at least to myself. I think that's fair. I think that's a reasonable way to

look at it. I was a fan of the door Dash neighborhood ad with Sesame Street, just because that's kind of the realm that I'm living in these days. UM. Also not too dissimilar along that same theme, the Huggies shot from Home mostly diaper's ad a lot of I think it looked like it was a mashup of homeshot phone videos um mixed in with some professional shots stuff. So I like that. Um what else? I feel like there was one more, Oh, general motors, Will Farrell. That

was a good one. I don't know if you caught that. Sometimes a little bit play down on Will Farrell and I think that he's, uh, it's slightly stale. But I thought this was fresh good Will Farrell. I found flat Matthew McConaughey amusing. I wasn't like I thought they could have done a little more with that, but but I was amused. I was intrigued by flat Matthew McConaughey at some point in the first quarter. So okay, hopefully there

aren't too many people. I feel like it might be just about everyone who hit the tap ahead by ten or fifteen or thirty second, wishing there was even more seconds. You could tap ahead with buttons on your pod apps. But at long last, it is time to open up this week's mailbag. You have one new message. How does mailbag Monday work? You have a couple of ways to reach us. You can call it. This is the preferred way our pod line two on five four zero three

seven six three seven. That's two on five four zero three pods. Leave us a voicemail any time of the week, day or night about anything related to the seventy six ers, and we'll be more than happy to play. Right now, there's just about a one thousand percent ratio that if you leave a voicemail, we are going to play it on the pod, dating back to as long as we've been doing this, and the dms are also open. Look for us on Instagram Seltzer six or snaps Lauren m Rosen.

Lauren's got the same handle on Twitter. I'm at Brian Seltzer on Twitter and the sixers main account on IGS opens up a weekly sticker for your submission in their story on Sundays, and that's how you can reach us as well. And if we read your prompt or submission, or play it on the show. You are then entered into a random name picker for a seventy Sixers swag bag. That's it. We'd love to hear from you. Love it every time we get questions. You guys are always engaged.

You guys are always keeping us on our toes. We appreciate them, so keep them coming. This past week saw wins for the seventy six Ers, wrapping up a three game road trip in perfect fashion with a dub at Charlotte lost the next night at home against the Portland Trailblazers without Ben Simmons, and then a big victory on Saturday versus the Brooklyn Nats one twenty four to one await. Not surprisingly, a lot of people weighing in on that win over the Nats. We will start there do a

couple quick hitters. First from Alex the King seven nine five on Instagram. He said the win was amazing. Big Ben is violent in a good way, and I am not one to promote violence in any way, shape or form, unless it is a Ben Simmons in your face dunk on Tyler Johnson. That was awesome. It really really was awesome, And I feel that in some cases I'm okay with technical fouls. Yeah, Like obviously you don't want too many

of them. It was a close game, but I was cool with it if it means that Ben's feeling himself and he's getting demonstrative out there. Ben Simmons is scary when he's calm, right, So a riled up Ben Simmons is honestly somewhat terrifying, and I was happy to see him get into that mode. Some underscore eighty five underscore. I am loving floor general Ben Simmons. His mindset is full on broad Street Bully when we win, I agree.

I thought that Ben came out with purpose. Honestly, in looking back a couple days later, I thought his contributions were more impactful than perhaps the final line reflected, at least on offense with the scoring fish with sixteen points, twelve rebounds, eight assists, three steals, helped change the game with his defense on James Hard midway through the third quarter.

All around, great game from Ben, but his demeanor in that game was also something that I took away from the wind Laarn and I don't know how we can do a better job of addressing this, So I'm open to thoughts from you or from anyone that submits to the Mailbag. But I feel that Ben's stat line almost never tells the full story. It always he's more impactful than even sixteen twelve and eight, which is an incredibly impactful stat line right the way that he impacts the

game on both ends of the floor. We've heard Doc Rivers talk about it all season since even before this team actually hit the floor for meaningful minutes. We've heard Joel and Bead talk about Joel and Bead talked about it on Twitter a couple nights ago to make sure people know how impactful Ben is beyond what the stats say. So I wish there was a way that we could just add like a little Ben bump to every stat line that he produces, because he is always making more

of an impact than that line suggests. And the same could go for a few other players on this team as well. When there are so many good players, the stats don't always tell the full story. Couldn't be in more alignment with you on that sentiment, Larne, and just very quickly as an aside, because we haven't done enough asides already on this edition of mail Bag Monday, you mentioned Twitter and some love shown by Joel embiad for

his fellow players on the Sixers roster. On Twitter, it is a fricking get you to the All Star Game LoveFest between Joe, Ben and Tobias. It's great, great support for each other and tremendous camaraderie on social media between three all Star hopefuls for the Sixers. Yeah, you love to see it sets. They have varying sizes of followings, notably Joel Ben they have millions and millions of followers.

Tobiases a little bit behind in the follower count, but Ben and Joel know that, and they know that they can use their audiences to boost the rising tide can raise all ships in this social media of Sixers landscape, and I've loved watching the way that they've all been able to leverage their own voices to help one another. Tobias has done a little bit more media recently. He did the woj pod and he also has been super

super complimentary of Ben and Joel. So to just hear them all spreading the love towards one another, it's it's just been beautiful to see salts. It warms my heart, It warms my cold, cold heart. Amen which, Hey, everyone's heart has got to be cold these days. Right now as we're taping this, it's like twenty five degrees outside. Insanity. All right, back into the mail bag we go. You have one new message. Yeas me and Morgan on Ig said Brooklyn in that game that Simmons and Curry got

back into a groove. I am hype. I've got one of two. Hey, look at you. One two year old twins are in the house. My man Asher there he is. He's going to come and read one of our submissions. He wants to sleep on my side of the bed for naps. Should we let him? Before we address he has me and Morgan's comment, I think, so are we keeping this part in salters? Or is this we're keeping in? Yeah, this is still in. I thought this was like a US question for the mail bag is no, it is.

It's from Ashury. He wants to know can you sleep on my side of the bed for nap? I think we should let him? Should let me sleep on my side of the bed? Okay, all right? If he says yes, we should, then we shall goodbye, buddy, let's rerack it. Yes, me and Morgan on Ig this was a game talking about the Brooklyn game that Ben Simmons and Seth Curry needed to get back in the groove. I am hype.

I am as well loved seeing that fade away three from the corner go down for Seth Curry at the end of the first half that put the Sixers back in front by one. He only finished with eleven points, but I thought that you saw Seth established that rhythm once again, boosted by that late three in the second quarter, and then in the third quarter, he was really helpful as well, for sure, and that was yet another decisive

third quarter for this team. So to see Seth get some shots going in, like you said right before halftime, and then eight points in the second half really big for someone that's had a rough go of it the last few weeks. We know that he was sidelined due to COVID nineteen. Doc Rivers has been very understanding and has urged folks to give Seth a little slack because he's still coming back from something really difficult. Seth has

explained that he hasn't been feeling great. We saw him sit out the second half of the Portland game because he wasn't feeling great. So just from a human perspective, really really nice to see Seth succeed against the Brooklyn Nets, and hopefully he can put together a good road trip for himself. But I would echo what Doc said and just make sure you're being patient with this man, because

this has got to be really difficult for him. He obviously holds himself to a very high standard and it must be hard to not be able to reach that standard because of something that's totally out of your control. And I like to presume positive intent, Lauren, with everyone, but if you do, happen to be one of those people who is not being patient with Seth Curry right now, he was shooting sixty percent this time last week from three, so let's let's give it a rest. And I think

most people are. I think they realize that, yeah, there's ups and downs, especially when it comes with shooting throughout a season, and Seth is, in particular trying to navigate this just crazy period and trying to get himself right. But I was, and I'm glad to see that some fans were as well, really happy to see him do his thing at various points in that game against the Nets on Saturday. I want to take a quick second to remind you of our programming slate here on the

seventy Sixers podcast network main feed. Every Monday it's mail Bag Monday with myself and Lauren Rosen. Every other Tuesday it's co Check with Matt Murphy, the official podcast of the Delaware Bluecoats, the seventy six Ers G League affiliate. Every other Thursday it is Tom's Talks with the one and only radio voice of the seventy six Ers, the incomparable Tom McGuinness. And then on Fridays it's our weekly Deep Dive with the Man Devon Givens. We also have

a brand new show on a brand new feed. It's called The Scoop. It's essentially a daily five minute seventy Sixers update that comes to you first thing every morning. All you gotta do is search seventy six or Scoop wherever you get your pods to subscribe or follow along more mail Bag. You have one new message, Jay Harrap, eighty sixers are playing amazing. It's because we got shooters now, and I do not disagree with that. I feel that as well. The spacing of this team has looked really good.

The ball movement of this team has looked good, the shooting has looked good, and of course this week we saw a couple of cold streaks from the Sixers from deep but just knowing, and it's not coming to my head right now, but one of our players spoke about it, and it'll probably come to me as soon as we hang up from this call, Seltz, But about the idea that Danny and Seth are always threats, whether or not they're scoring high numbers in any given game, Leaving them

open is always a mistake and that stretches opponent defenses in a way that we haven't seen a ton in the last couple of years, especially when they're going to try to double Joel Embiid with If you double Joel embid and you're guarding Danny and you're guarding Seth, who's guarding Ben and Tobias, it really is an interesting thing to see the way that other defenses have to deal with this team and have to give respect to guys like Danny and Seth. And that's just in the starting lineup.

We know we have shooters on the bench as well. How awesome was that when Danny Green in the corner right in front of the Brooklyn bench got the no call, and it was probably a fair no call. But listen, if the worst thing that happened from that was that he got so fired up, he went on that run of scoring eight straight points to essentially put the game in the seventy sixers control for good, terrific moment. And it speaks to your point, Lauren, that regardless of what

these guys are shooting. To tie this back into the comment that we were talking about with Seth, it's that you have to honor these guys, particularly those two, given their body of work. And I think last year the Sixers had some players on their roster who are solid three point shooters who yes, can knock down big shots,

like a Josh Richardson. And this is no shade or any slight, but he's just he's not one of those dead eye marksmen like Danny Green and Seth Curry, and very few guys are in the NBA for that matter. But you have to honor players like that, and you just sort of know that when Danny or Seth is left open, they're gonna make you pay. I like what you said about Danny. I said that he returned to the scene of the crime for back to back threes

after that egregious no call. There aren't many people in the building these days, but when there's a big no call in the building, you can kind of hear a collective sigh or a collective like if there were fans there, they'd be booing and being loud and being crazy. But even without fans, when a no call is as bad as that one on Danny was, you really hear you

hear a collective sigh in the building. And then it was great to see him return to the scene get those back to back threes and really put the game away for the Sixers. I thought that was a great, great showing from Danny Green in a crucial part of the game for the first time. In this week's Mailbag Monday, we go to the podline. You have one new message. Seventy sixers have had some situations forward to had a big lead or going into the reporter or their down

a little bit. The best fourth quarter team so far in the season, do you think this helps them close out teams and put them away. They'd come back a little bit. We are talking about late game performance consistently learn by these seventy sixers. Do we think this helps close teams out and put them away because they've been so good in the fourth quarter. Absolutely, we've discussed this a couple of times. I honestly can't remember at this point where it was seven six Live Countdown Friday Deep

Dive with Divan or here on the mail bag. But I really am a big believer that this fourth quarter success, closing teams out in the fourth especially for new team with a new coach, really conform the foundation for trust and buying. No doubt about it, the Sixers continue to be the best fourth quarter team in the league. Of course, that means that they are finding themselves in a lot of close games scenarios in the fourth quarter, which I'm sure Doc Rivers would be relieved to not find himself

in as much as this team is. But there will be a lot of close games down the road for this team. There will be a lot of close games in the playoffs for this team. It is cool to see the way that they've figured out a way to navigate tough situations this early in their ten year as a group, not just early in the season, but early as a group, early as a group under a new coaching staff. They really have figured out what late in games is supposed to look like, and to me, it

starts on defense. I think this team's fourth quarter defense has been just based on the eye test, not even using any of the numbers. Pretty outstanding. I think that when we talk about stats, you know, there's I think more people these days obviously understand why it makes sense to look at things on a per one hundred possession

basis that normalizes things for all thirty teams. But let's say if you just took the per game stats traditional stats and you narrowed it down to the fourth quarter, Sixers outscored the opposition by around three and a half

points per game in the fourth quarter. But if you project that out and normalize it to per one hundre possessions, this is how good the Sixers are in the fourth quarter, outscoring the opponent by an average of thirteen points that would be if they played it that way over the

course of one hundred possession game. And the next closest team is Brook and they're doing quick math roughly five points behind the seventy Sixers in their scoring rate in the fourth quarter, which, again, if you go back to the per game stat analysis, they're just about a point and a half pind the Sixers, So that just speaks to the differential. Then when you look at it by a per one hundred possession basis, shows you how good the Sixers have been finding ways to close opponents out.

Did any of that make sense? I felt myself speaking in circles. Okay, it made sense to me, and I would just add the last stat I wanted to throw out there. The Sixers have found themselves in I believe eleven, yes, eleven clutch time situations where the game is within five I believe, isn't it within five points in the last five minutes of the game. Cells isn't thought how clutch time is defined. And they've won ten of those eleven opportunities.

That's big time. That is a huge stat and if they can continue winning close games at this rate, I think it'll be absolutely massive for the team going forward. Opponents shooting just forty one and a half percent on the seventy Sixers in fourth quarter that is just a tenth of a percentage point behind Houston for the best stat in the league. Opponent shooting just thirty one point six percent from three in the fourth quarter. That is the lowest in the league seventy Sixers defense getting it

done when it matters the most. Andy Slichter on IG saying the Sixers can finish a game even when the game isn't going to plan, learning to finish speaking to the point we just discussed, Yes, Andy Well said, you have one new message. More on Igs, Jonathan underscore Young O three playing Shake Milton more is great for the Sixers, with him getting more than twenty minutes per game e

Z win in Caps. I can't say if it's necessarily always going to be easy or simple or direct path, but I do agree that the more Shake Milton plays, it seems like the more good things happen. Well. Shake is just so determined and so confident no matter the scenario. He's always ready to embrace a challenge. He's never afraid.

The way that he's able to drive through traffic late in games, even if he's not having a great night, to just really attack an opponent defense and have no fear has really impressed me over and over again from Shake, and it's cool to see him continuing to feel out his role as really a leader of that second unit, even though he's still young in his career, he's sort of emerged as a as a calm, cool, collected presence for a second unit that is, overall, outside of Dwight Howard,

pretty young. Shake Milton in the win over the NAT's fifteen points off the bench, six of three from the field, four rebounds and three assists, got a few opportunities when he was matched up on James Harden, and Yeah, I think that he is certainly larned taking on a leadership role with the bench. He's a great score, still an evolving score very much this year from what we've seen his ability to finish at the rim, but also his defense.

I think people should be talking more about that. I know that some people on six or Twitter have brought that up, but Shake's been able to hold it down pretty decently on defense, which can only help his cause towards make a complete player. Yeah, and another player that comes to mind is Tobias Harris there because both of them have shown a ton of improvement this season, but they've also both emphasized the fact that they want to

improve on defense, and they've definitely done it. I don't see Shake Milton or Tobias Harris as a defensive liability I see them as guys that can stick with their man. They can even hang around in a little zone if they need to, and it's been cool to see them sort of put their money where their mouth is when it comes to improving defensively. Because both of them have back to the podline, which once again so you can enter it in your phone and save it. Two and

five four zero three seven six three seven. You have one new message him a tease. This is Grace from Las Vegas. I just wanted to give you a shout out on how you stayed so determined in the end of the Pacers game. So proud of you. Keep up that strong defense and keep making those steals. Thank you for making it such an exciting game. Bye. So the story behind this voicemail, Lauren is that Gloria actually called us right after we were done taping last week's mail

bag Monday. So her voice mail reference Matisse Thible's defensive

performance against the Indiana Pacers. But because she sent in a great call, one that appreciates Matisse Thible, you have to get those calls in and again, I think this underscores the point that you were talking about with the bench and how we're seeing some depth, And I gotta be honest with you, like looking at some of the fellow top contenders if we put the Sixers in that category in the Eastern Conference, I'm thinking of teams like Brooklyn and Boston and Toronto who the Sixers have played

as well. Miami, I don't think we could get a fair gage on because they were so decimated in terms of roster availability when the Sixers had that two game series. But I like the Sixers depth compared to their fellow top of the Eastern Conference brethren. We haven't seen Milwaukee yet, but I really like the Sixers depth. And a couple of these guys who we've talked about over the last few minutes our big reason why the Sixers have shown

to have good depth. Yeah, I'm with you. It's a guy like Matisse Thybill coming off the bench is such a luxury to have. He's one of the best defenders certainly on this team, if not in the league. And to have someone like Shake come off the bench with his offense, Matisse come off the bench with his defense. Those are weapons that other second units around the league

are going to have problems responding to. And it's been cool to see both of them grow again from sort of youngsters on the team into guys that really know their role and can step into their role with confidence and with conviction. A guy like Matisse, we talk about his defense all the time, but I think it's worth noting that his stats on defense in steals and particularly deflections always among the top guys in the league, but his minutes are not among his contemporaries in those situations.

And I liked dear tweets ELTs the other day when you talked about Matisse leading the league in deflections per thirty six, because Matise this season is averaging, I believe, just over seventeen minutes a game and still hanging with other defenders stats wise per game. But when you narrow it down per thirty six, Matis is far in a way being more productive defensive end when it comes to deflections and steals and loose balls. And I think that's just a phenomenal thing to keep an eye on to

that point, and we must be particularly in sync. On this edition of Mailbag Monday, Matise played twenty two minutes against the Nets on Saturday. He had a team high twelve contested shots. According to NBA dot Com. And now it's also important to note that the way that individual teams measure these stats differ from the league website. So it kind of to me, I kind of take with a grain of salt and numbers like that serve to

better inform what you're seeing. But yeah, in twenty two minutes twelve contested shots, that's tremendous five deflections, second on the team to Ben Simmons, who at eight deflections, and

Simmons played thirty four minutes. So whether it's stagnated where you might have Ben Simmons on the court at one time, then bring on Matisse to take on the opposing team's top perimeter score, or you put them in a lineup together like what we saw at times with Ben Mati plus another All League defender in Danny Green, seventy sixers showing some really great options defensively that they can use

scattered throughout a game. Yeah, no doubt about it. We talked about it obviously with last week's mailbag, and I assume that this voicemail is addressing the zone that the two of them, Ben and Matisse that is put up at the top of that two three zone. They were just incredible, really cool thing to maybe look out for on a future I don't know, Australian national team, but

also on sixers lineups to come as well. Really cool to see the two of them developing a chemistry on the defensive end, trusting one another and leading the rest of the group on defense. And I would also add there was a play that I wanted to reference when you said we were going to talk about Matisse from the Brooklyn Nets game. He blocked Landry Shammitt from behind.

His sort of come from behind block has become one of his i'd say, signature defensive plays, grabbed the block himself, took it back down to the other end for Shake Milton to hit an immediate three. In the way that Landry Shammont, who's another calm, cool and collected great guy former sixer. We love Landry Shammitt. You could see in his body language that he was just deflated by what Matisse did to him in that one play and it took him a minute to get back into the game.

So the mental side of the defense that some of these guys can play, I think down the stretch is going to be really huge for this team. Amen to that, Vic volcom on igs saying depth is more important than a couple of superstars, perhaps in reference to the fact that Brooklyn has it's three stars and its lineup with Durant, Irving and harden Listen. Well, I would I agree with

that sentiment. I would also say that it's great to have superstars and depth, which the seventy sixers, by the way, have as well, because they've got their own core of superstars. And then you've thrown this depth and I think, like we've all seen, it's a reason why the team is at the top of the East and some house ELTs.

I think we've gotten through whatever it's been thirty minutes of the mail bag before even mentioning for Concork Moss, who has also looked really good lately thirteen points against Brooklyn with a couple other strong performances after a little bit of a lull there for Furkon, but another guy to have on your bench that can come off with the offensive production that he can give you, especially shooting,

is just phenomenal. In the fact that we've talked about depth now for twenty minutes and haven't mentioned Furcon yet speaks to just how deep this team is. Yep, Dwight, Howard Tyres, Maxie throw them in the mix. Too good looking bench for Doc Rivers and the seventy sixers. You have one new message, shifting our focus to what lies ahead for the Sixers. Lauren and I gave you the itinerary Sacramento, Portland, Phoenix, Utah over the next eight days

for the Sixers. Talicia Martineau on IG, saying, proud of us. I can see the progress. Great win over Brooklyn. We should be fine this week on the road trip. Blue Hearts emoji. I think there's gonna be some challenging games. I do. I think Sacramento is going to be really interesting. The Kings have been playing well and solidly as of late. Phoenix made a huge offseason edition headlined by Chris Paul, and then Utah has lost I think just once in its last sixteen games, if I have that number up

to date. And then there's Portland, which knocked off the Sixers without its dynamic backcourt duo. So I think there's going to be challenges. Yeah. I mean it's four tough games, it's four winnable games, but it's also four losable games, and it's going to be cool to see the way that the Sixers are able to cope with being on the road as a group for so long. Luckily, the chemistry is really good on this team, and I think they'll be able to at least enjoy some time together.

Of course distanced and with a little bit less freedom than they're used to, but it'll be interesting to see if this could be a nice bonding experience for the team. Hopefully fight through and get some gritty wins knocked out against some quality teams. They could come back to Philadelphia in whatever it is ten days a much stronger unit together if they if they spend the next ten days strategically where the larn's between postgame work after Sixers games,

or just being tired. As an aging person in my mid thirties, I definitely at this stage of the year don't stay up to watch all the West Coast games when they're on national TV. So personally, there's the flip side, which is that back on the East Coast you have

to stay out for these later start times. But I also really look forward to seeing some of these teams, especially Phoenix, and how they were looking to build on the success they had in the bubble when they went on that undefeated run, didn't make it to the postseason. Now they add Chris Paul, what do they look like? The Utah Jazz Mike Connolly might be banged up, but what's triggered their recent success to shoot up to the

top of a really good Western conference. So while my body and mind might be somewhat terrified of the demands of the schedule being three time zones away in the days ahead, the basketball fan in me is really looking forward to seeing some of these teams. Well, you know, we love a day game here on the broadcast itself, and at least we are going to get one of those on Saturday in Phoenix. It could be worse. We could get more than two ten am starts with this group.

And luckily, in this group of games, the first two are going to be the latest, So six Ers fans, drink your coffee, and the second two more manageable. Especially, we love a Saturday day game, indeed, indeed, and I ironically ended up taking that day off my first game off this season. But everyone else back East, no, I'm happy for the three pm Eastern start. All right. That's our male bag covering Sixers, Super Bowl, and underrated road

trip destinations everything in between. That road trip conversation at the beginning Salts has me very nostalgic. The Salt Lake Salt Lake City in Portland, I think two of the most well Portland maybe not underrated, but Salt Lake City underrated. For the coffee game, I'm a big coffee gal, especially on the road. I like to try different highly rated coffee places. Maybe that makes me a coffee snob. It is what it is. But Blue Copper Coffee in Salt Lake City and Barista in Poor two of the best

cups of coffee you can get in the country. Unfortunately, the Sixers travel party not allowed to venture out to either establishment. But hopefully next time, when we're all there together, we could maybe do a broadcast from a good coffee shop or at least with a good cup of coffee. A yes, B. I mean my one dream back in the day was right if we go on the road, take or act on the road and have a gathering

of displaced out of market Sixers fans. I'm just disappointed that you did not cite Milk Creek as your coffee spot in Salt Lake. And I'm not a coffee drinker. But I love Milk Creek coffee roasters. I don't know Milk Creek. I might have to try that next time I'm in Salt Lake. My best friend happens one of my best friends, if not my best friend, happens to live in Salt Lake City. But she's not a coffee drinker. So when I'm out there visiting, I have to go

find stuff myself. And mill Creek I'll have to do that next time. These street blocks in Salt Lake City are outrageously long, but that being said, it's only two blocks down the street from the hotel. So the next time, yeah, noted, I will have to try it. Okay, so we Yeah, clearly a lot of ground covered on the mailbag. Hopefully none of you taft ahead, and our retention percentage on this episode is very high. All in compassing content here on the mailbag. You never know. Hey, We're just happy

to be able to talk to one another. I hope some of you are as bored as I am these days and managed to listen to that whole thing. If you have any coffee takes, then you want to submit those to next week's mailbag. I am all ears, and as always, thank you everybody who's still listening, for continuing to listen, and for submitting all your questions. This has been really fun for us. Be on the lookout this

week for more installments in our Black History Month Inspirations miniseries. Also, Tom's Talks will drop on Thursday, a new episode with t Mac and We're back with Divine Givensar and I will on Friday for the latest edition of the Friday Deep Dive. Talk to you then,