Kay's have a chance to take the lead. Here Wings with five fouls. Mok drives on of my.
Tames scars you want a basket?
Mom gives the Kings the lead. Welcome into NBA Pulse, the production of iHeartRadio in the NBA. I'm Saraphostock, NBA analyst for the Yes Network, and today is Wednesday, November twenty ninth. From our extraordinary core group of NBA journalists. Were joined now by NBA dot Com Senior writer Steve Asperner and ask it is great to see you on this Wednesday morning because Tuesday night was a fun one, the final evening of group play, and it got a
little wild. I don't know if you were connecting the dots for all the numbers of teams, the wins, the point differentials, you name it. But eight teams have now advanced and I want to start with you with the There's a lot of games going on, as I mentioned, but one of the ones that was most exciting was
the Sacramento Kids Golden State Warriors. The Warriors seem to have commanded this one for a good portion of the game, knew that they needed to win by a certain amount in order for them to advance, and the Sacramento Kings end up pulling it out one twenty four to one twenty three. A thriller as Malik Monk hits a game winner. He finished with twenty one points. Steph Curry a chance that the buzzer didn't get it to go. Steph had
twenty nine, ten and six stars. What a basket. Malik Monk gives the Kings the lead, Clop ticks, Hurry with the ball. That's it. That's it. The Kings win. Andrew Wiggins twenty nine and ten, Clay twenty and nine. A big game for de Aaron Fox with twenty nine points, nine rebounds, seven assists. But take me in to those final minutes, those final moments, what you were thinking where it felt almost like a playoff game here at the end of November.
Yeah, I mean, you know, if you just go by sort of that particular point in that particular game, the nd season Tournament, you know, has accomplished what it set out to do. It heightened the intensity I think in the arena, on the floor, and even for those of us who were watching from afar. You know the fact that Golden State they were calculating how many points they needed to win by in order to get into the quarterfinals, and not only did they lose a twenty four point lead,
they lost the game outright. So you know, the whole point differential thing is controversial as it's been. You know, added an element to that. They knew because of Minnesota against Oklahoma City that they had to win by twelve or more. And you know, you know, I hesitate to say it's sort of like covering the spread, but this is sort of this is a non wagering, sort of
an honest spread. And yet they couldn't do it. I mean, Golden State had done welligan Sacramento in previous meetings of season, so you know, they added there was that element too that Sacramento wanted to get over the hump, you know, just for general eighty two game regular season purposes. But I think it added a lot. And and you know, if the quarterfinals now onward to the Vegas games, you know, can can also dial things up a little bit. You know, I think we have to give the NBA some credit.
I was a skeptic on the whole thing. I thought it would be confusing at best and sort of lay there and be kind of flat in general. But I do think that because of the competition. Never mind the uniforms of the floors, you know, those were just sort of markers to remind us that, oh, yeah, this is a different kind of game. He could have just had a big ass risk on the TV screen, you know,
with every telecast. But I think it did seep in and teams actively pursued a final round of eight berth in the n season tournament and that had never happened before in the NBA. And we'll see whether it builds as the years go on. I'm sure they're going to give it several years of trial run before they would ever consider pulling the plug and going back to just straight November and December games.
Look, you said it all, and I'll double down as well. I'll give it credit the fact that this was the first year, and I think that there was this much enthusiasm, interest, excitement, anticipation, and even the confusion. I think that's a part of it anytime there's something new. I think, you know, the interest that fully understanding adds an element of needing to learn and having interest in people talking about it and
questions about it. You mentioned, you know, the courts and the distinguishing factor that comes with that, given the fact that you're you're still looking at you know, a different lay and we're talking about competition all that there's prize money involved these teams. Now is you go further on, are eating for something? I don't care what you say. I know a lot of people say, oh, players make
so much money. Anyway, money is money, money matters. I've heard guys in our locker room and players talk about what would you buy if we had that that's that's enough for this type of car. And you know, for some of the players who are on minimum contracts or rookie deals, that type of stuff matters. But I think overall it was fun to watch and I think fun
to have that that type of intrigue. You know, as you had mentioned the end of November, what I do think is there was a lot of dialogue and discussion in terms of the understanding about the tiebreaker component and the point differential with that. Considering the fact that that all teams played four games, there was a lot of those three and one records, the wild card aspect of it, and who needed to be to and buy how much to advance. What did you think of ava part of
it and component of it with the tiebreakerarner. Is there anything you would look forward to? You know, now year one not yet thoroughly gone, we would not get gone through the whole actual n season tournament. But with the group play, is there any tweaks or changes at this point that you would suggest to the league about making.
Well In terms of suggestions, I mean, you know, you're stuck with a very limited run up to the quarterfinals, the knockout round, I mean four games, so you're going and you need a vast network of tiebreakers in essence, because once you get past head to head who won within the group, you know, it could be a three way tie where that cancels itself out within the group,
it could be across the groups in the conference. I mean, I saw something on before the TNT games last night that said, if certain seven outcomes happened or something like that yesterday or certain now, you would have had a seven way tie or something, you know, for you know that we would have had to go to a point differential point differential. Yeah, you know, it's controversial because that's not how NBA teams and professional athletes are expected to play.
Generally speaking, there's a professional respect where you don't run up a score when a game is already in hand. But everybody had the same situation to deal with, same rules. They knew why it was happening. It wasn't some out of control rookie, you know, looking to get an extra couple of points on the stats line. It wasn't somebody trying to you know, do something in someone else's face for a personal grudge. It was, hey, we're going to need this. I mean, you know, Phoenix needed a certain
number of points. Uh, they won by by point differential over Minnesota. There were there were five teams that went three and one in the Eastern Conference. Two of them got in, three of them did not. You have to take care of business. So the whole point differential thing, you know, I get it. If it's January, February, March, when the in season tournament is over, we can go back to the professional decorum. But if point differential is going to be there, then teams are obliged, frankly and
certainly motivated to you know, to go after that. And I don't blame anybody. I think people that got upset about that. I mean you could say, well, I'm a traditionalist and I don't like that. That's fine, But if anybody thought that was disrespectful, I mean let it go. An in season tournament in a sense is disrespectful to traditionalists.
But times change, things change. I think the league going in had earned benefit of the doubt by how well the playing tournament seems to have gone over and has gained popularity and works well. And you know, we'll see in time. It's still early with this. This is the first run. We're not even through it, but you know that's one. Now. You talked about the money. The winners of this whole thing make a half a million dollars apiece. Tremendous incentive, obviously certain for guys down the bench and
on two way deals and everything like that. Should there be something else? Should there be a guaranteed playoff berth? Should there be you know, the MVP of the nd season tournament, should he automatically be assured of an All Star selection? You know, there's things like that that they can probably consider. I'm not sure how it would work out.
Most likely, anybody who's the MVP of this tournament is going to be a pretty good shape to be an All Star anyway, you'll have this as a credit along with whatever he's done through through you know, the end of January, so you know that, Yeah, you change things up. I happen to think that they could benefit from changing the floors and taking some of the paint off, but nobody listens to me, even at home, so I'm not going to expect much there.
I don't know ask. I think those are all tremendous ideas. I really appreciate the thought going into that, and I do I'm with you. I think in terms of the point differential we even saw. There was a funny I found entertaining moment between Joe Missoula and Billy Donovan explaining to Billy why when the Celtics were up thirty two on the Bulls last night in the fourth quarter they were going to a hacka druma to try and extend
that lead. I think, to me, it's less about the professional decorum and just the respect for the game, and especially on the last night and the final games, because I think there's a level of understanding. But I feel like it's tough throughout the course of those first three games, the early part of the season, when you don't know where things are shaking out, if you're leaving in your decisions for a coach to make, Hey, am I leaving in my starters in the beginning of November in a
game where already up by fifteen? You know, I think there's some give and take to that of how that actually affects the approach and the longevity of a season, and how you're playing players, and how you're playing a lot of your key players. So that's the only aspect I.
Would say, Yeah, that's a good point.
I think eventually guys will will understand that, figure that out and have a better feel for that. But that's my one one thought in terms of the point differential. Also, the final day there were eight games, so sixteen the
teams were playing. But we saw that, you know, whether it was the Kings and Warriors game, whether it was the Boston game, these teams that played last night had a little bit of advantage of those that had played on Monday nights because they knew exactly what they needed to do, the point differential they needed to get to. So I would be curious if there was a way to have all the teams play, you know, can you have all the teams play on the final day.
Well, you know, to build on what you said, I mean, I guess one of the fear is, of course, going forward in this tournament, is we get to game eighty three, which is an additional game never been played, never been in eighty three, and somebody suffers a horrible injury in a game that they otherwise would not have played. You know, it's one of those sliding doors things where oh they changed this and that led to that effect when the dominoes all fell. You know, you hope something like that
doesn't happen. That would be regrettable and it would certainly be mentioned, you know, next year as the n season tournament revved up again.
Speaking of red up, we are gonna get rebbed up for the in season tournament to actually take place, and take a look at what these matchups will look like, beginning with the quarterfinals right after the brain Welcome Back to mby Paul Sarahustak joined by the great Steve Ashburner and asked, we had a good slate here of quarterfinal games the teams that advanced in shrinking storylines. In the East, you have the number one seeded Milwaukee Bucks playing the
four seed and the New York Knicks. Two and three is the Pacers and the Celtics. On the west side of things, you got Lebron James and the Lakers playing Devin book at Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns, and then the Sacramento Kings. As we talked about with that advancement, we'll take on the New Orleans Pelicans thanks to a
Dallas win against Houston last night. The Pels are in so Zion, will will be playing And you look at these matchups and I'm curious which ones stand out most to you, because I think you've got a mix of some young and up and coming teams, some that have maybe surprised this season. Others you got a lot of big, big star names and legends of the game that will be playing a potential Eastern Conference finals preview of some
that we may expect. And both the Bucks and the Celtics and they both advance, which matchup are you most looking for or two? Here in the quarterfinals?
I would say at this point I would go with the Celtics against the Pacers. First off, you know, the Celtics are considered favorites in the Eastern Conference. Indiana is sort of a long shot playoff contender, and they only thrust that notion on us. You know, since the season began, nobody imagined that the Pacers would play and score the way that they have. I think that they both have, you know, sort of different agendas here. I mean, Boston,
you know, they want no one to get hurt. I'm not sure an nd season tournament is going to mean much. They want to get back to the finals and win a championship. Indiana, this is an opportunity to make some bones and you know, sort of expose some of their players to you know a little more, a little bigger stage, a little bit of glamour that you know, if they can get to Las Vegas, that would be you know, a highlight if the season the rest of the way
doesn't necessarily go their way. So I think that one's intriguing. New Orleans is sort of in the same boat as team that. Hey, you know, we're in the spotlight now and let's take this as far as we can. You know, the Lakers, Phoenix and Sacramento out west, they sort of have bigger ambitions. But I think this will take on
a life of its own. Lebron has been enthused about the in season tournament and a half million dollars per man and what that can mean, you know, generally, not to him as much, but you know, to the guys farther down the bench. But I think Boston Indiana, and you know, if Boston beats the Pacers in Indiana, that'll be considered a good victory. It will bring them potentially
into play in Vegas against Milwaukee. It would be a redo of the Damian Lillard Drew Holliday matchup that we saw last week in Boston that didn't go very well for Milwaukee until the final minutes. So you know, I think that's one other corp of this quarterfinals schedule, Sarah, is that all these teams are to play each other
four times. Anyway, this will now be a fifth time for each of these matchups during the regular season, So it won't just be four times that Milwaukee will have played Boston by you know, playoff time, It'll be five. Same thing with Sons and Lakers and Kings and Pelicans
and Nix and Bucks. So, you know, to play a team five times in one season, you know, that's something that hasn't happened since certainly the pre expansion years, and you just wonder whether that will increase rivalry by the time we get to March in April.
Yeah, and I think all of it is, you know, as they said, these matches, but give me more of the Sons and Lakers. I'm excited to see these two teams go at it. And I had mentioned anytime we get to see you know, and hopefully they will be healthy and playing. But Kevin Durant and Lebron James facing off against one another, you know, to me, the Phoenix is they've won seventh straight. Devin Book has been absolutely just cooking opponents, and the Lakers have had a you know,
up and down start to the season. They're ten and eight, they're sitting in the seventh seed. They just got whacked by forty four points at Philadelphia on Monday night, and so but they are. They were perfect four and oh in these n season tournament games, and obviously there is always the highest of upside about what they can look like. So yeah, so I'm very I'm very psyched to get another chance to watch Phoenix and La this this early point of the season, going get one another. So overall,
it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be interesting. As we said, the quarterfinals begin on December fourth, and then the Semis will take place December seventh, the finals December ninth. Those Semis and finals will be played in Las Vegas, and ask you'll be out there, correct, I.
Will, yep, I'll be there there to to cover all
these firsts's. It'll be interesting to see you know. It'll be different from our usual trips to Vegas in the summertime because a the weather and B We're not going to be at the Thomas and Mac will be at the T Mobile Arena, which is a you know, NBA worthy ready for the league to give a NOD building, and so that will change things up a little more, a little more sizzle, I think than the college campus the low key, which is appropriate for summer league games that we usually get in Vegas.
Oh yeah, another trophy will be raised in Vegas after the Las Vegas Aces have done it the last two w NBA seasons. But it's certain to be fun. We will be reading watching all of all of your stuff in not only next week but as always the upcoming week. So we can't wait to see you and look forward to talking with you again soon.
Thank you Sarah.
NBA Pulse with Sarahustack is a production of the NBA and iHeartRadio. Please rate, review, and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.