On this episode of the Eat check Man, Steph's injury is a bigger deal than we thought. Oh, Warriors without Steph certified buns like lottery cheeks. They lost a who without who and who. Also, Lakers have a huge weekend beat the Bucks going up and down with Dame Lillard in their face, blocked him at the end of the game, and then get into an ugly dogfight against the Timberwolves. Are the Lakers the most dangerous team from the six seed down? We also get into a bunch of news,
some heartbreaking injury news from around the league. Lot to get into Anthony big wins this weekend. Anthony drop that motherfucking beat that.
Should be rhon alert alert.
He starts to show with some injury news that came during the slate.
Of the afternoon on Sunday.
Alprin Shangoon Aka I was part of the goon squad. He was having an incredible season, maybe most improved player level season for the Houston Rockets, and he goes down after awkwardly after challenging Domas Sabonis at the rim and folks, we have as worst of an image as you can get. The send them out in the wheelchair hands in the head, towel over the face while he was wheeled off, just never a good sign.
The only like somewhat.
Strange thing that happened at the end was the towel guy clearly just missed the moment, just threw the towel right at Shangoon's lap. Just there you go. This fucking sucks, though in general, right knee seemed to buckle. Currently undergoing an MRI on his right.
Knee and ankle.
Maybe, just maybe it's nothing. I looked. It looked really bad, but we can always hope for the best.
More on this than the next episode.
I am sure big news though, because the Houston Rockets were breathing down the necks of the Warriors. So if Shangoon goes down, then so do the Rockets. I have been a Shangoon fan since well before the draft. He was the youngest player to ever win the Basketball Super League's Most Valuable Player award in twenty twenty one. He was only eighteen years old. Huge upside for Shangoon. Hope it's nothing serious. Hope he gets back to ballin' the fuck out soon. All right, let's get in to some
stuff about the games. The late night game on Sunday was the Timberwolves versus the Lakers. Timberwolves without Cat Kitty Cat visiting the Lakers out west, and it reminded us. It reminded me at least Anthony. Anthony, my producer, is also massive Laker fan, also hosts the Lakers Lounge. Give it a shout.
Don't give it too much.
Of a shout though, like cause like fuck the Lakers. Anyway, they molly wopped the Wolves, which, to be fair, they were missing like two fifths of their starting five.
Aunt Edwards was banged up.
No Shlomo, no go Bear, just kind of a banged up squad. It was a short handed team. But I don't care. This Lakers team is a problem. Is a problem also, So they were able to get go bumping uglies with the Minnesota Timberwolves on a Sunday night, get into a very low scoring game where Anthony Anthony Davis Data Davis had the very first twenty five to twenty five to five steals, five assists game.
In NBA history.
So congratulations for Anthony Davis waking the fuck up. Anyway, So they go and do that on a Sunday and what was it Friday? They beat the Bucks in an up and down game where they had to have d Lo hit a random step back shot in the paint and then they block the shit out of Dame to end the game. Like, this is a team that's finding its style. Styles make fights, and we had Darvin Ham try to do the like small ball thing. That shit
did not work. And now the bigger they go, the more jumble they go, the more of.
A problem they are.
I don't know who in the West the Lakers can't beat other than Denver, And I tell you what, the Minnesota Timberwolves and most likely the Lakers are both going to be fearing what happens with the top of the West and the bottom of the West. Because if the Minnesota Timberwolves somehow or two seed and the Lakers somehow or seventh seed, I tell you what, one team is happy about that, and the other team is the Minnesota Timberwolves.
So you have five teams that are pretty much locked into the top five, and then you've got three teams Sons, Kings, and Mavericks fighting for the six spot. I think that the Kings probably get the six, which leaves just a hellish just an absolute brutal play in tournament with the Suns, the MAVs, the Lakers, and the Warriors, which are four of the teams that, like listen, Adam Silver wants all four of those in. If you could take one team out, we know who it would be, wouldn't it.
It'd be ur Kangs, b r Kangs. They want them out.
They want to get the fuck out of here, you small market Kings. You snuck in one year, not this year. You know, They're like, let's get Kevin durant In, Let's get Luca In, Let's get step In, Let's get brawn In. Who cares about Deer and Fox and that European guy that's putting up double doubles forty five straight games. Who cares about him?
Anyway?
It's crazy, It's absolutely nuts. I think at this moment, the Lakers are the biggest problem in the play in. Teams like the OKAC thunder do not want to play a team like the Lakers. They and then the Lakers, for their part, they are hoping upon hope that they either sneak into a seven seed play in where they could be the seven, or that the Nuggets aren't the one seed. Because that's night Night's sleep mask for the Lakers.
But if they pull the Wolves, the Clippers, okay, see Minnesota, Like, it's just crazy, any of them.
LA could be all of them. It would not surprise me.
So yeah, I think the Lakers are invested into the one seed and who they are. So yeah, wins over the Bucks, wins over the Wolves, all that just prepares them for the plan. Their goal, of course, I think, is to be the seven seed, but that's not a given. So yeah, the play in is gonna be absolutely hellish. It's gonna be lit, it's gonna be exciting, and if the Lakers come out of it, I would not be surprised if they do something in this.
All right, let's move on.
Let's talk about our doves. Like long gups fan here just to quick our Dubs, Dubs Nation, we have a problem. I saw a tweet today from a friend of show and commander of Dubs Nation, Sam Sfandiari, in response to a tweet that read Steph going out like Dirk on a sad and mediocre tanking team, which is just kind of an unacceptable tweet, really disrespectful, will say Sam quote tweeted the following, I hate that it does feel like that Damn, damn Sam. Why'd you have to say the truth?
Why'd you have to put it on on Twitter? Whax? Well, it's time for some therapy for Warriors fans dub Nation because the numbers don't lie.
We know what it is.
When Steph's out there right, very healthy. He's been very healthy in his ankle braces until turning the ankle against the Bulls, an injury that's probably going to keep him out a week or two, right, But when he's in the game, the Warriors are as dangerous as anyone. This year, Stef's missed four games four the Warriors are zero to four without him, losses to Minnesota, OKC Milwaukee. And this is the one where we knew.
That things were in real trouble.
So the Spurs said before the game two days before Victor women Yama Wemby, Rookie of.
The Year, Defensive Player of the Year candidate.
He's not playing. He's ruled out. And then before the game, right before the game, shockingly, Devin Vessel, one of their best scorers, also out. So they're rolling out guys that casual Dubbs fans have never heard of. Jeremy Sohan and his one handed free throw shit that he does. Caldon Johnson, Zach Collins, like, come on, that our dub should buzzsaw through this middling not even middling would be an over exaggeration. This team is like the worst in the West, Okay,
And what happened? They fucking won lost to the San Antonio Spurs without Wemby and without the Cell. That might be the worst loss of the entire year, which has been sprinkled with very disappointing losses so far. And it's not like they're sitting at the sixth seed and they're like, ah, who cares bad loss? No, they are scraping and cwing for their lives right now. You simply cannot lose to a thirteen and Fiftiespurs team with forty percent of their
offense out starting Julian Champagne, Malachi Brannham. Not even the Good Jones, the Trade Jones. Where is the pride at Golden State, at the Chase Center? Where is it dub Nation? Where's the sense of urgency? The Warriors were down nineteen and a half. That's disgusting. The most impressive thing that happened at Chase Center was that we found our else a Steve kerdoppelganger. That's the only thing that I was like impressed by. Gross Steph, who was cooking for most
of the year. He started to slow down after the All Star break. Steve Kerr said exactly that, Listen, I'm not just talking about those woeful four points against the Bulls, zero for nine from.
Three in the first half.
In his last ten games before his ankle injury, he was averaging.
Twenty one, twenty one, four and.
Five on just thirty three percent from three and thirty seven percent from the field. People were trying to argue with me and saying he wasn't in a little mini swamp, And now they got the.
Stats for me.
Now they got the stats. Uugh. Even his free throw percentage has fallen to eighty six percent for the first time in a decade.
Steph has been carrying the.
Load for way too long. And now after you carry around these extra lard backpacks all day, to turn an ankle and all of this obscures a larger issue. I don't think this is true, but I have to pose it.
I have to pose it.
It's a possibility. I'm not saying it's what's happening, Okay, I don't want to get mis quoted. Are we seeing the decline of one Stephan wardel Curry? Is the baby face assassin turning into a baby face with an AARP card?
Is he headed for a Dirk Novisky like slot. Dirk Novitski ever is twenty two, six and six and two, twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, and then just five years later, slid all the way down to seven three and three, unable to keep the sinking MAVs Titanic afloat Dallas went from forty nine.
Wins to thirty three wins during that time.
Good thing though, because they did get Luca, So maybe that's what the Golden State's hoping for. Last season they were thirteen and twelve without Steph eight and ten. The season be four, two and six, the pandemic year. That is not true. Not to mention the not to be confused with the pandemic year, even though it's very confusing. The bubble year where we got COVID, where Steph was out most of the year with the hand injury, and they didn't even make the fucking bubble and then they
ended up getting Jamess wise man. Is the statement of fact. This is not a very good team without Steph oh and four this year without him, twenty three and thirty two the last three years, four years without them, and just twenty seven and twenty four with Steph in their last fifty one games. Fam, it's not good for our dubs. Steph has two years left on his contract. Steve Kerr has two years left on his contract. You guys better get it together. Next year is where the rubber meets
the road. While I love cumbuckets and air pods, I do love both those things independently of those being basketball. Know, we got a glimpse of what this team looks like without Steph opening up the offense, and it's average with him. I'm sorry that was nasty. As one Warriors fans tweeted, the Warriors always seem to remind you that, no matter how many good players they have, those players are good largely because they share the floor with Steph Curry. So
what do you even have? What you have is a bunch of like asparagus and mac and cheese and I don't know, Brussels sprouts without the steak. You ain't got shit right. The Doves are staring at not one, but two road games in the play in just to make the playoffs, and.
The road goes through.
It's not good Dallas, Phoenix and the Lakers as a team a half a billion dollars into the luxury tax and who make huge bank on home games. It's getting scary hours in the Bay, tough sledding for a team that's now going to try and bring Steph back from injury and back into the flow by game time.
Time to play in begins.
Don't remember, though, those folks, That's what happened last year. Remember Steph came back from ankle injury last year and guess what happens?
They did win the first round. They lost the Lakers.
Anyway, more information to come on that.
I am sure he will take the next up.
Sad news out of Indiana, unless you're a Toronto Raptors fan. Benedict Mathren two ends, some people call him Maturin, is gonna be maturing in street clothes. He is out for the season with a torn labram and his undergoing shoulder surgery.
Torn labrams are so.
Fucked up to come back from that is a huge loss for an Indiana Pacers team who is a shocking thirty five and twenty nine there are teams that are your favorite teams that don't have a record as good as that, and they have pushed their sis into the middle with a huge Pascal Siakam trade at the deadline, Mathurin Mathrin started to play a lot better. Hit his stride as of late eighteen five and three on forty three percent from deep, nearly two steals and blocks per game.
In the last two weeks, he had a game like thirty five the other day. His defense is what found him on the bench earlier this year, but it has definitely come around.
When he was at Arizona, he was an absolute monster on ball defense.
His defensive rating on a team that actually has really really bad defensive rating by the way, like Pacers are one of the worst defensive rating one twenty one point seven per game, the worst on the Pacers and one of the worst of the league. Say it ain't so, Ben, Say it ain't so. I know you're better than this. You're not Trey Young. His minutes will probably now go to Aaron Nesmith, who has been actually pretty good too.
Thirty five plus minutes pre Ben Sheppard, the guy who runs like he's swimming in water, standing up like doing water aerobics. He should see a huge uptick in playing time as well. News could not come at a time that's worse for the Pacers as they sit a half game out of the sixth spot, behind both the Sixers and the surging Heat. Mattherin was a key coog in this offense. He has led the team in scoring nine times this year despite being a third option.
So he will be missed.
We will see how the Pacers respond and we will see what pick goes to.
The Toronto Raptors. All right, moving on.
Lost in the flurry of mid trades at the trade deadline was a silent swap a team that people are very focused on trading with a team that no one is focused on, the Boston Celtics and my Portland Trailblazers. It was so under the radar.
I didn't even know how the man got on the.
Roster, Honestly, I had to do so some like forensic accounting to find out at what point did he get here? Like it was a trade that just no one. I don't even think Sean's reported it, honestly, if I had to guess, that's how like little anyone thought about it. And it is now giving us some impact. I thought that this trade was tied into the Drew Holiday trade for Malcolm Brogden and Rob Williams. No, no, this was at the deadline.
Baby.
The Celtics traded Delano'banton, half Jamaican half Canadian player to the Blazers at the deadline for a very heavily second protected second round pick. Like how heavily like probably never gonna convey heavily. Now, most people don't really understand how the pick protections work because in some case cases the pick never even conveys. In this case, the pick is a twenty twenty seven top fifty five protected pick. Do you know how many okay, top fifty five protected second
round pick? That would mean the Blazers would have to be like the fifth best team in the league by twenty twenty seven. God help us. I would love it if this pick conveys. I'll just say that if this pick conveys, things are all right on track, which means that the Blazers got Delan o'banton, probably a man you've never heard of, for free for free. In fact, actually they got paid to take a more to that. In
a second, Banton came up with Toronto. I watched that boy play a few times, showed a ton of flashes. Nick Nurse wasn't given that man any playing time. Remember he plays like five and a half.
Players in forty minutes.
Like his rotations are basically doc rivers. Right, young players, you ain't getting any time. He was the first Canadian player drafted by the franchise who can never crack the lineup. So the Celtics landed him on a two year, four point two million deal this summer before the jew Holiday trade. Kind of made him my guess Perflus, he's a lot bigger than Drews and he plays a different position. Once again, though, Banton had the bad luck of playing on a team
where he could not crack the rotation. The Celtics they don't have four point two million dollars to spend, they don't have two dollars to spend. They gotta pay Drew Holiday and they said, you know what, Banton dipset to you, And just like that, the Blazers got a six to nine point guard guard combo guard will call him, who can hit the three pretty seamlessly off the dra like off the dribble, pull ups and play defense.
He is six nine. Nice.
That's the kind of six nine we're talking about. A guard with handles can shoot forty percent from three seven foot wing span. We know it's like Joe Cronin got a tight like he likes those long winged boys. He likes wingspan.
Me too, yoh, me too. I can't get enough.
What a theft? So if you're wondering, like Trista, why you bringing this shit up? Like none of this matters, He doesn't matter, Your team doesn't matter, Like do you have nothing else to talk about? I just have to say he's bawling. Since he got to Portland, he's put up fourteen to five and three on thirty seven percent
from three. But recently, because Jeremy Grant has been dealing with some injuries, they played him together in the game against Okce that Portland was competing in pretty much the entire game. Anyway, he's been balling out. In his last four games. He's averaging twenty two point seven rebounds, five assists, forty percent from three nearly two offensive boards per game.
Brad Stevens must feel indebted to Joe Cronin for choosing him in the jew Holiday sweepstakes instead of Miami or Los Angeles, because there's no other reason that makes sense for them to just hand over to Lato Banta for nothing. Well, actually, like I said, not even for nothing. The Blazers also got three million dollars in cash, Like, hey, let me sign this over to you from the Celtics in the trade.
I'll take that. Like, you're just gonna give me a player, six nine guards shooting forty percent from three and three million dollars and a pit that, let's be honest, will never convey to you. Wow. Well, the cat pit if they would have kept them, would have been as high as four to one on Banton's two point two million dollar contracts.
So they're like, we're not paying them eight million, you can have them. We'll give you three.
And Portland also inherited that two point two million dollar team option on Bannon next year, so fam, we're keeping him. He's ours now, he's only twenty four. This is a young, rebuilding team. Don't let us fuck around and get good. Don't let us fuck around and get good. You can have that.
Twenty twenty seven.
Top fifty five protected pick. Joe Cronin quietly having himself quite an interesting career.
There in Portland.
That's all the time that we have this episode of the Heat Check. Come back Tuesday for the Rookie Report, and check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which drop unexpectedly like a tech from someone you have no interest in communicating with ever again, say sorry, buddy, Uh, go follow the Heat Check if you want to hear Trista's voice. Don't forget to follow the Heat Check as we head down the stretch of the season into the
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