Not What We Thought Christmas Would Be

And that was only in two months time. So we're breaking down Christmas for you, So Brock, do me a favor and drop that.

because that's kind of boring. We're gonna evaluate how well Adam Silver and the league, how well they did at deciding what to schedule, how lit the games were, the state of the teams in that matchup, because this is supposed to be the best of the best. No scrubs. We don't want to know scrubs. A scrub is a team that can't get no love from me right sitting outside of the path, you know what I'm saying. Anyway,

probably people on TikTok don't. So we're gonna use Christmas NBA as a way to not just gauge the state of the league, but to also see what might come for these ten teams. So let's start with what I

call the disappointment bull Hawks Knicks. When when the NBA so Hawks lost a lot to the next one eight seven, who cares pillow fight in the garden When the NBA scheduled this game for Christmas Day, they imagined a rematch of Trey Young Blie cold shushing the garden, maybe some spit being thrown out of them expletives, racist words, who knows, maybe referees falling down on their ass like excitement. You've got a rematch, You've got new tension, a new I

would call it a new rivalry. And they imagine Kevin Hurder turning into Cavon Herder, Trey Trey to Collins, lob, Trey fake lob to Collins floater, three after three, after three, offense after offense, pick and roll, just nasty. You've got probably you're imagining Julius Randall, Derrick Rose. And then they got a Hawks team with no Trey Young, ravaged by COVID and injuries. Hawks offense scored what we were expecting

to score, what thirty five forty in a quarter? They scored fifteen in one quarter against the Knicks team without Derrick Rose, with Kemba Walker being forced into use after being benched by Tips. But we had no other options. Julius Randall, who's been largely terrible all year, just chucking and chucking and chucking some more, to the point where I'm getting texts from friends being like, Hey, do you think Julius Randall shoots too much? Just randomly Christmas Day texts,

That's what I'm getting. So what the NBA got were two below five hundred teams, two below five hundred teams instead of the two top seeds what we thought maybe were the four and the five seed. Again, I mean, these are gross teams. These are gross teams. This is probably the worst matchup in hindsight, Like if we were to reschedule, this would not be on the Christmas late. You're talking about a ten seed and twelve seed. No,

thank you, p U, p U yuck. Disappointing, underachieving, injury riddled, COVID ravage, terrible, And I guess I'm wondering after I watched that, Like Ken, these teams really turn it around. Knicks were a four seed last year and the Hawks were a couple of games and a referee conspiracy injury away from Trey going to the NBA Finals. And now we saw a battle between teams that like, I don't know what they are or when they're gonna get back,

and it's weird. It's like safe to say, that's not the way that the NBA envisioned it getting kicked off. And then Kith, this is how you know, it was a whole thing. Kith, the fashion brand had a whole nixt Kith collaboration rollout that came out an hour before tip, so you know it was supposed to be a thing. And it's like you've got Kith who normally sells out. They can't get rid of those fucking sweatshirts. They're still there on the website right now and they're usually selling fast.

They're on stock x before you know it. No, Like, I think a lot of people thought this game would be dope and it was not dope at all. Uh. And then remember that Christmas under theory, the NBA always goes under because people don't play as hard on Christmas Day because they miss their family and they'll be grudgingly there. This was the only game on the slate that went under. So going forward, I'm pretty optimistic about the Hawks compared to the next because I mean, they have everybody there,

the same guys. If they're capable of doing what they did last year, they're capable of doing it again. It's just a matter of chemistry. It's a matter of injuries, it's a matter of COVID. Hopefully they get COVID enough that they buy the playoffs are fine, Like, I just want him to get COVID two three times so that by April were good to go. Uh and then the Knicks,

I mean they're mostly healthy. They had almost everybody there except for e Manuel Quickly and maybe one other guy that I don't even remember, so he's not that significant. They have significantly regressed. RJ. Barrett is not He was supposed to take steps up past where he was last year, which was pretty good, and now he's taken another step back. Not great. His three pointers are down. You know, Julius

Randall act the big extension. His numbers are down. Quentin Grimes, he's a nice find like he's probably the bright spot. He's a wing that can defend, he can put up points, he can assist. He had I want to say, five steals, five rebounds, five assists off the bench up. But I don't know if he's gonna make this team significantly better. They signed Evan Fournier, I mean, what do you want. Can they find a way to make Kemba fit and play defense? Probably not. I mean without a major move

of the deadline. The Knicks are a flash in the pan. Nice little story that I had to say to my friend when they said, Hey, do you think Tibbs is gonna get fired after the season. I had to say please, don't say that. No, don't don't, cause it's a possibility, and that breaks my heart for Tips. This is supposed to be his last up. You know, he was supposed to get the Boston Celtics job because he largely built the house that was the dynasty of the Celtics that

got ravaged by Lebron. But like, that's him, you know, he was supposed to get that job and not Brad Stevens. Right, and no, like he doesn't get the job and so and maybe he would have gotten the job again if it wasn't for the success that he had on the Knicks when they hired emy Udoka. It just hasn't been great for Tibbs. The timing for him has been awful, and now it's unclear as to whether his longevity will

be there. I mean, but it's really not his fault, like because Leon Rose and Worldwide West are the ones that got rid of Reggie Block and broad In Evan Fournier. Evan Fournier is not very good. Evan four no is basically more of how I would describe him. At least we knew one thing was certain that disappointment Boll did deliver the only under and more disappointment, and you've got the Knicks winning one of their first games out of

the last ten. So congratulations to you. Nick's congratulations. As you can tell, I'm not excited about that matchup whatsoever. Celtics won thirteen to Bucks one seventeen. I mean, the Celtics are trash if they probably shouldn't have even been considered in this day. Like if out of the ten teams playing on Christmas Day, the only one not deserving to eat even be in the conversation is the Celtics.

It should have absolutely been and beat in the sixers versus the Bucks instead of a sub five hundred nine seed in Boston. I think Adam Silver was kidding himself to think that the Celtics would turn things around with an eme Udoka and Dennis Shrewder and who else did they Josh Richardson, I don't know, not anybody that I can think that was gonna move the needle. They got rid of their only fun piece in tackle fall like

he's gone. He was a nice little thing to look forward to seeing here and there and splashes and spurts like he's now in the starting rotation in Cleveland, And I tell you what props to tackle fall. You know, I don't know what he was thinking. Basically, Adam Silver could not have actually believe this is gonna be a three or four seed in the East, but I mean he had to have if that's why he put him there.

A lot of star power, Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Robert Williams, no one else, and like Boston fans are probably so delusional that they'll be the ones that will watch actively. It was in TD Garden as well, which made it even more sus to me, Like there's even more sus So, yeah, more of the same. As it turns out, typical Boston game. Like they got out early, You're thinking, oh my god, is this a good team? And then they just choked on their meat like late they did, that's what they did.

It's fifteen point first half lead, Bucks forty seven points and then they pissed away the entire lead, ending up scoring nineteen points only in the fourth quarter and they lose by four. And it was like sort of dramatic at the end, but not really. They had one hundred and thirteen one to eleven lead with a minute left and then they just didn't score again. They just didn't score again that said as them, it's the Bucks, though they should get credit for this gritty win. With the

possible exception of KD. I don't know that anyone plays in bigger games and gets up more for them than you're honest, Like what you saw from Gianness in the finals, and that tran it was nothing short of a transformation, Like that's what it was. He turned himself into a ninety percent free throw shooter with an with some knee injury that I don't know if it was real or not, but anyway, like he transformed him into a point guard free throw shooter overnight, and that's him. He's got ice

water in his veins. He put up thirty six, twelve and five. He had a huge block on Robert Williams with twelve seconds left on the clock, putting the entire team on his back, showing that, Okay, we are still very very good when we need to be, which is on nationally televised games that everyone is watching and in the playoffs outside of that. Not really sure what you're gonna get from them, but that's what the NBA wanted, so not like a horrible game to schedule when it

goes down to the wire. But even Adam Silver had to have known that the Boston were gonna puke on their own shoes like they had to with giving it given enough like advanced notice, Hey, this is what you do, Boston, just like look great and then puke. Now they choked it away. If folks in that are fans of the Boston Celtics don't know this by now, well, this was an opportunity in front of millions upon millions upon millions

of fans nationally audienced, like everyone's watching. There's nothing else open. You can't even get coffee anywhere. It's just you and your family on a little like cold afternoon day watching the Celtics choke on their own meat. Like that's it. What am I gonna do to predict the Celtics? Nothing like I'm not going to It's gonna be the same unless they trade Jalen Brown. This team is garbage. I don't know, Like, you gotta trade Marcus Smart. Can't have

him be the point guard. This team is not good. They've never been good. That one little nice run in which other teams so this year is a wash. As for the Bucks, they're going to the finals is that's what I know. Dante DiVincenzo is coming back. Brook Lopez. The new news is that brook Lopez will be back well before the playoffs. So Brook Lopez coming back from already had back surgery, He's coming back well before the playoffs. You got Dante de Vincenzo back, he didn't even play

outside of the first round last year. You've got a dog and Grayson Allen he's there. You've got multiple new pieces. Wes Matthews contributing. This team is easily the best in the East. I don't think it's close. I don't care what you say about the nets. That's just what it is. And like they're gonna skate through, this is gonna go be a skate skate through. And with the Hawks being a disappointment, I think the only team that really will give him fits is the Caves. I think the team

that's gonna really give him fits is the Caves. No, I know this team is one hundred percent Finals bound, unless me saying it MUSHes them. Warriors one sixteen sons one of I mean, we got lucky. We got lucky.

I don't know that Adam Silver knew that this was gonna be as good as it was, because there's just no chance that he thought that the Warriors would be a one or a two seed in the West and that without Klay Thompson that they would be just just demolishing everyone just like a buzzaw through the rest of the league. Like this is the matchup everyone wants, wanted

and didn't even know that they wanted. Like we all now on Twitter, hey need seven to this seven and the seven of this, Like I needed this to be the Western Conference Finals. That's what it is. He pulled Adam Silver pulled this matchup out of his ass. Let's be honest, it's Steph and at that point, Plumbers right, at that point, it's Steph Draymond And like Otto, Porter, you think that's a good idea, You think that's a good move? Was our part? Porter fucking bald, Like this

isn't even wasn't even a rivalry game. These two teams didn't even play in at all in the playoffs last year. Like it would have made more sense if it was Laker Warriors, which is what they did in the opening game, or if it was Warriors Grizzlies. I mean, you'd have to put the Suns in there. Somewhere, but like maybe it's maybe it's Suns Bucks and then you've got Warriors Grizzlies instead, as like a little like up and comer thing.

But this made sense, even though at the time when the matchup was scheduled it didn't make no damn sense. And boy was it a home run, I tell you what. Like these teams have played three times in the span of a month, and none of them were disappointments. Like they're getting up for all of them. It has the intensity of a playoff game. The first game probably the best regular season game I've seen in a very long time. I literally brought bags and bags of popcorn to watch it.

Coaches making changes, alterations, chess match happening in game. You've got literally guys going to zone in the middle of the game, like you just don't see this. So and then also, by the way, probably the reason that the Warriors ended up destroying the Suns on Christmas Day was because they were low key, actually high key pissed that they didn't get to play at home. They're like, this is the second game in a row now that we've played Christmas Day on the road, and this is our

ninth Christmas Day game in a row. Can we get a home game or no? And they're like, yeah, you know, but the Suns were in the finals and you were not. You were not in the playoffs, so fuck off. Like the last two years, you guys have been blipped like you guys like in the Marvel Land you Thanos snapped his fingers, did the rock thing, and you guys were just nowhere, like you were not a team that existed in the standings. And so you come back, prove yourself.

Maybe we'll give you a home game next year. And that's what happened. This is what Churs said. It's an honor to play on Christmas. It's a showcase and everybody's watching. But I do think there should be a rule that you can't be on the road two years in a row. Just making it clear. Last year we were in Milwaukee and this year we're in Phoenix. Doesn't seem right. I would imagine Draymond said, well, hey, I have a five year old and a seven year old and a one

year old. I'd like to spend some time at home with my kids too. We're not playing against the defending champion. Oh my god, Shade, they did go to the playoffs or they did go to the finals. If we're playing against the defending champion, you understand it, but we're not who It's a but bit frustrating. I have to go on the road a second year in a row. So now I miss my daughter's first Christmas and I miss her second one. It's kinda fucked up, but that's the reality.

That's what we're faced with. You have to do your job. But we're human beings. So like I said, I missed her first one, I'll miss her second one. I can't that explain that to her, So it sucks. We're not robots, we're not machines. We're actual human beings with actual feelings and with actual families. Draymon Green was hot, hot, and so with even without Jordan Poole, Andrew Wiggins, Damian Lee,

Andrea Gudala, Moses mood who cares? And of course Clay I wrote down on my notes Moses Moody parentheses who cares? I just wanted everyone to know for the record, who cares? Honestly that's he was out. But no, but that is not meaningful. And then they were six point dogs, six point dogs on the road and they blew the Suns out in Phoenix without anyone. Auto Porter, folks who I called a non factor lovingly, had nineteen point six rebounds,

three assists, and a steal Jesus Christ. Auto Porter on a minimum deal, playing like a fucking all star like he used to be before he got hurt when he was a Washington Wizard. I had people in my mentions, this is so funny, this is how well the Warriors played. I had people in my mentions that cover the Warriors that said, this isn't really much of a rivalry in the playoffs, it will be Golden State and four like that's how bad the Warriors destroyed the Suns on Christmas Day.

Is now they don't even think it's a real rivalry. They don't even think they should bless the Phoenix Suns with a seven game series like legendary. How could you even say this was legendary. We didn't have anyone and we fucking pounded them with all their stars playing. That's what they're your high at. Fuck Warriors fans, Like, if you don't think many Williams is gonna go in and

play chess. And also and also it begs like the it begs the question, like did the Suns just say we're only gonna put all of our vanilla stuff out we know we're gonna play them in the playoffs. Why would we blitz Steph? Why would we show what we want to do to Steph when we play them in the playoffs? Why would we want to give them anything other than just normal go out and play scrimmage regular season hoop. We've already beat him once and they beat

us without book. We beat him with without book in the first game. They beat us without books. I can get third game. That is where it is, like, why roll out all of the stops if you know you're gonna play this game? This team seven games otherwise none. Steve Curry just knows what you're up to. So that's so much fun. Two of the best three teams in the league outside of the box. And I think it showed that the Warriors are a fucking wagon truthfully without

all their guys. It doesn't matter what you showed, what you didn't show. You got your ass handed to you at home with a bunch of scrubs like Otto Porter, Like that's it is what it is, Like I can make excuses out for them but they just couldn't get it done. And something tells me that this is not the last time we're gonna see this game in primetime on Christmas Day. I think this is gonna be a year after year after year thing. Nets one twenty two

Lakers one fifteen. It seems close, doesn't it. But it wasn't. This Lakers team, as you know, as I've said, as I continue to say and will continue to say, is garbage. Like it's so garbage. Lebron is just out here lying at press conferences, which I'll get to the game that everybody was dead certain should be the last game of the night, Like this is the two teams that should go to the finals. YadA YadA. Lakers are so good, the Nets now have Kyrie Harden and KD. It's like

meant to be. This is what we would call the chalk matchup. Like I fucking hate chalk teams like Kansas. They always underperform. And that's what this was. It's like, oh my god, Brooklyn Nets pick three LA Lakers Lebron James, and then they like no no no no no no no no no no no, and then they're like Lebron KD matchup on Christmas ks like, this is garbage. KD didn't even play. It did not work out like they thought.

Let's just say that like Adam Silver when he booked this, he was like, yo, I killed this matchup and no Kyrie, no KD, fat James Harden, Lebron out here doing everything, dude, here was starting five of the nets Paoti Claxton, Bruce Brown, Patty Mills, James Harden, and DeAndre Brembrie. DeAndre fucking Bembrie starting on Christmas Day in primetime. Should not be? Should not be? And then on the other side of the court, it was Lebron, James Russell Westbrook, Dwight Howard, Wayne Ellington,

and Taylor Horton Tucker. Yeah. And then there's the same Lakers team that is sub five hundred playing in primetime against a fat James Harden with a few stray milkmen that decided to show up in nets uniforms, like what are we doing? And shockingly, shockingly, the Lakers got the doors blown off like nets work twenty going to the fourth this game sucked like I did not watch. I left. I left in the middle of it, and the Lakers rallied,

but like, I see that they lost what by seven? No, they didn't, Like that's just not the case, Like that's what it says. But you got your doors blown off and it was never close. Every net starter was plus five or better. The plus five was Harden, who had thirty six, ten and ten. The Lakers single handedly allowed a fat James Harden to come out of his season

long slump. They woke the Sleeping Bear into like triple double on Christmas Night where he's literally trolling the Lakers, being like safe to say today was a good day in La, literally dropping ice Cube references with photos of him bamming on the Lakers on Christmas Day just to

be like, hey, we owned you. Lebron. Epic Night thirty nine, nine and seven and Russ Russ had a perfect Russell Westbrook primetime Christmas game stat line four for twenty from the field, rim checking himself on a dunk and it

then goes massively viral. After the game, he then proceeded to shower and leave never did the postgame presser, shocking, and then Lebron had to fill in and basically play captain save Ah to Lebron to Russell Westbrook, making up excuses about how Russ continuously impacts the game outside of just scoring, like c the Ben Simmons notes, folks like, hey, you don't understand Russ a really special player, Like you don't know all the things that he does for our team,

Like that's what's going on. That's this is what Lebron had to say.

extra possessions. He just missed a lot of looks around the basket, which I know that you can't stand as well. But you know, as far as the effort piece on, a guy plays hard and the guy leads it on the floor, You're got no problem with that.

enough to know exactly what we're going to execute. But you know, tonight they just you know, they just play hard. DC came in, played at streamly hard obviously, you know, Stanley came in and then also League even though he's been a part of our systems been out for you know, two weeks. So it's just good to have that that, you know, that energy that we was able to to to give our fans and our fans to give it back to us.

normally in the starting rotation out. So that's where the Lakers are right now, Like they are to the point where not only is Lebron James caping for Russell Westbrook and lying about who has full rosters, he's also playing center on defense and point guard on offense. Like that's not a lie that I didn't make that up. That's

not for jokes, that's facts. That is absurd. Here's where I remind folks, he's thirty seven on Thursday, Happy Birthday, Lebron James, and he complained about like I just don't understand. And then David Fizdale had to come out interim coach right now because Frank Vogel has COVID, another person who has COVID. He said, hey, They were like, how do you think you can fix this? And his response was, we can clone Lebron James. Do you guys know any

scientists can we make a duplicate? I don't know. That's where we're at, that the only solution to the Lakers is something scientifically impossible. I don't know, and I'm not even I'm sure two Lebron's make this team a championship contender. I don't know, like two thirty seven year old Lebrons. I don't know. Let's just I need some shooters here.

Let's get back to Russ. If you ask someone if they wanted Russ, because there's a lot of people who are like, Tristy, you're mean to Russ, And I love Russ and I always preface everything that I say about Russ to say he's one of the hardest working guys

in the league. And that's something that you cannot you cannot discount because there are so many talented athletes that don't try nearly as much as Russ, and they're like, well, you don't understand all of his gifts, Like, you don't get it, You're just mean because he doesn't shoot the way you want him to. Blah blah blah. And GM say that too, and to that, I say, I agree.

Russ has a lot of special gifts. But do you want to take on Russell Westbrook as your marquee point guard for forty six million dollars each year for the next two years, where he is your primary ball handler, scorer, facilitator. Do you want that? Because I'm all here for the Russell Westbrook party. I love Russ, but I, for no seconds want him on my team like none. I like watching Russ like a Tasmanian devil through glass in the Sahara, right. I don't want him in my house. He's going to

break shit. I only want to see him in the wild, Like that's where Russ belongs, Rucker Park, that's where he belongs. He does not belong as a marquee point guard. If you want to pay Russell Westbrook seven million dollars to come off the bench and provide a spark at this stage, totally fine on any roster. I think everybody would agree. But he's making forty six million dollars a year, impacting

the team's flexibility to do anything about winning. And then when he fails, he does not end up hanging around the team whatsoever. He he just hits the showers and fucking leaves. That's broun Is defending him like he's in a slump. But that is who Russ is. We love Russ because he's the most prolific trick chucker in fifteen years. He will not stop shooting no matter what I mean. And here's not what's being Here's what's not being discussed nearly enough. This is not a Russ problem. This is

a Rob Polinka problem. Rob Polinka is what's a synonym to trash. He is so inept, he is he is so significantly over his head at his job that he

allows his marquee stars to make decisions for him. Like the greatest mistake a GM can make is that thinking just because they have a player who's a Hall of Famer, has an incredible mind for basketball and understands the game in a way that someone who's never played it at that level never can, doesn't mean that they know shit about constructing a roster of people who fit together with chemistry and all the things that you must do in order to win basketball games. That's not what they do.

They play their individual role and they help make their teammates better. They don't know how to draft, they don't know how to scout, they don't know how to fucking recoup the right players to create a roster that makes sense. And that's what happened. Like Rob Polenka listened to Lebron when Lebron James said I need Russ and he did it like a fucking lemming. That's what he did, and he deserves to be held accountable for that, not Lebron.

That's not Lebron's fault. Lebron can say his piece, and then a GM with a spine can say, no, that's not what we're doing here, love you, we're creating friction like this. We're gonna get through this, but we're not bringing this chucker who makes forty six million dollars who doesn't shoot at all, onto a team with you to create space or no space for you. No, like they needed Demart Rosen. They needed a playmaker. Yes, to give Lebron on a break, but they also need a play

maker that can shoot. And Russell Westbrook can not shoot. Lebron was recruiting everyone like he was trying to tell Damian Lillard, I want you. You know, Bradley Beal, I want you. It was like The Bachelor. He was giving everybody roses in the early stages. And we don't even know who Lebron wants to be his wife, obviously Russell Westbrook, who it's not working out, and what he needs is

different than what he wants. I'm sure he wanted Russ to come home and to be a nice story and the Brody to be there and them to just be rocking out, drinking wine and eating tacos. But this is bad, and this is all Plank's fault, and he's a former agent who his entire reason for existence as a Laker GM is just because Kobe put him there, and nobody talks about that nearly enough. Is it's nepotism. It was a relationship with a snake who does a terrible job.

I know, I'm just like laying into Rob plinkt, but he really is not good. If you dissect, which we have in the past, all of the decisions that Rob

Plinka has made. He took and dismantled a team that won a title, all the things that they did well in twenty nineteen, twenty twenty when they won in the Bubble, a Mickey Mouse ring as people call it, all of those things they just worked for the last two years to dismantle, like all of the good things are now gone, and what you have left is a forty six million dollar Russ and a million quajillion contract with Lebron James. And now you it's so bad that people are saying

he should force his way back to Cleveland. So and they're not joking at all whatsoever. MAVs Jazz I think this is a strange fit. I think when Adam Silver scheduled the MAVs and Jazz on Christmas, people thought Luca would emerge as an MVP candidate coming off of the Olympics with Slovena runaway. But you know, when we saw what Luca did in the playoffs was tremendous against the Clippers.

He can ball, and then, you know, let's be real, probably the Clippers would have been playing the Jazz if it wasn't for Kawhi getting injured, or if the Nuggets had a healthy Jamal, we might see Jazz play La, or we might see the Jazz play Denver, but alas Luca, who draws a shitload of eyeballs, was their Constellation Prize. Whoops. Uh because no Luca on Christmas Day. He's been out pretty much all season with either an ankle injury, COVID, or OBCD, like pretty much all three of those are

comorbidities for one another. Uh. So that's how it's been, and what we ended up though, was getting probably maybe one of the best games of the day. Surprisingly, I don't know how. I didn't know that I needed a steady dose of Jalen Brunson, but I did. He had twenty seven two and six, had prozingis continuing his I Hate Rick Carlisle tour. He had twenty seven nine and three and fucking Frank Melakina legend no legend had seventeen points discarded Nick and Frank Nilikina the Jazz. They won.

Donovan Mitchell is playing out of his mind right now. He's out for two games now with a backstrain. But I think the thing that's the most interesting to me about this game moving forward is that the MAVs without Luca competed with the Jazz all the way to the end. And the Jazz have tons of talent, they have sharpshooters, they're getting healthy. They got Bojon. Bojon had twenty five points, four rebounds in a steal, four for eight from three my man, Bojon back. I mean that should not be.

The Jazz are a three seed, and the MAVs are all over the place, like on any given day, they're somewhere new on the standings. And this is why I continue to question the Jazz. Frankly they have do they have what it takes to make a real deep run. Because if your team can allow Jalen Brunson to give you the business, to Frank Nola Kina to give you the business, Dorian Finney Smith to give you the business, Rudy Gobert had only ten eleven and one that's unacceptable.

That is on it. You are seven feet tall and it's supposed to be a defensive player of the Year. And Porzingis gave you all the buckets, all of them. Rudy plays well against traditional centers and against guys that he needs to switch on and off of. He struggles like flex lineups, like the Clippers, like the MAVs like when they run at him. He's a liability. So while it was a fun game to me, it showed me. Probably this game showed me the most about a team

and where they are headed. I think the Jazz are headed for a first or second round exit. Like they need the one seed as bad as I need some free bet credits, So I bet MGM account like they need that because otherwise they're getting bounced. Like if they are a three seed and they play a six seed in the MAVs with the healthy Luca, healthy Luca on the MAVs on Christmas Day would have beat him. They literally had to fight and claw to beat a fucking

trash mass team with Dorian Phinney Smith. Like, okay, so they are in trouble and Luca and the MAVs are in a lot better spot than even I think they knew, considering where the West is right now, which is probably the softest that it's been in five years. So when do we make these Christmas Days fun day? We didn't

have Omicron completely destroy Christmas, which was nice. It shows you, and I think the thing too is it shows you how fast and and like how immediate you can see teams rise and fall, like we saw the Hawks and the Knicks looks so good, and we imagined that it would continue, especially the Knicks, who really didn't make a

ton of changes, especially the Hawks. The didn't make a ton of changes, right, and in the age of COVID, you've got injuries, you got COVID, and things just flip on their head faster than you can even look up. Like I thought that the Warriors weren't gonna be good

until they got Clay back. The Warriors with like milkmen are really really good because of the coaching that they got, because of how healthy they've been, because of the Traymond Green being the leader, and bringing back Andre Goodala, all these things. That shows you how the league can be so interesting. And again, like the Orlando Magic, you have hope. Like teams, you can go up and you can go

down in a matter of two months, you know. The I honestly thought the Knicks would be great, thought that they could probably take another step up from four seed to three seeds, and now that I might miss the playoffs all together. And that's what makes this league so interesting. I think you can find new teams on Christmas Day, and I hope that we find I hope we see the Calves on Christmas Day again without Lebron James to rub it in his face. That's all the time that

we had for the Heat Check. We'll be back Wednesday morning early with a new episode. We'll be talking more about the Kings and Alvin Gentry just completely not giving a fuck anymore. He's just railing on him, completely embarrassed by their lack of effort. So don't forget to download, subscribe to all your friends, follow us on the Heat Check, this Heat Check and Trista Criek on TikTok. We will see you folks Wednesday.