MVP Ladder, KD down, Embiid up, and Spurs Break NBA Attendance Record with Michael C. Wright

spot with his West leading Denver Nuggets. Luca don Chech jumps up to number two after a while double overtime win at the Lakers. He had thirty five points, fourteen rebounds, thirteen assists. Just a special special night from Luca that we continue to see. Uh. That bumps Jason Tatum to third though. The Eastern Conference leading Boston Celtics just keep rolling. Just beat the Brooklyn Nets last night. They've won nine of their last eleven. Janice is a four and Joel

and Bead jumps up to number five. But before we get to Joel Embiad, I want to talk about Kevin Durant because he had debuted last week in your top three. Um, not not necessarily his own fault, but he drops down to number six. He sprained that right, uh mc l Sunday in a Brooklyn win at Miami. He'll be reevaluated in two weeks. Uh, something similar that we saw with his left mc L last season. Um in mid January. But well, what's kind of your take on that? How

injuries impact players. We don't know when he'll come back, but just how he had been playing and now dealing with us. Oh, Sarah, maybe I'm just overreacting here, because as soon as I saw that freak injury Sunday against the Heat, I started thinking about last year and I just remember, just just from my vantage point, it seemed like the entire vibe of the brook and that's just

went just down. Um, what they lost something like eleven in a row sixteen of twenty one, and then you know they when they finally went into the playoffs, you sort of knew that they weren't quite right, you know, and and you saw first round and get swept by the Celtics. And so maybe this is an overreaction. And from what I understand, Uh, he's supposed this is not as significant as the one last year, so you know there's a good chance that he's gonna be back sooner.

And you know, I was sort of breaking it down by games thinking about it, like, Okay, say he misses like three weeks, you're talking about maybe ten games, and if he comes back and he's the Katie of old, then to me, he's almost immediately right back in the m v P conversation because that's not a lot of

time missed. And you know, I was telling somebody that, like when you're doing these these m v P votes or or evaluating it, you know, like it's so close that you have to look at how many games these guys are playing. And before Kevin Durant went down, that dude was the model of durability. He played thirty nine out of the first forty games, and you know you don't typically see that with Katie, but he had played

all those games. But he was playing well, I mean, shooting the lights out one for Kevin Durant, killer and playing well on defense. Like to me, he was putting together like a season where you should maybe consider him for the All defensive team. He was a Yeah, I couldn't agree anymore. And I do think you look back at last season when he was out, I think it wasn't just about the losses, but how they were losing. That's when at the time Kyrie Irving was still part time.

Obviously things were not going well with James Harden. I mean that's really where everything started to unravel, uh last season. I think this team, in this group, um one, how Kyrie has been playing the depth of it at all, I think they're better equipped to handle uh an absence

of what Kevin Durant is doing. But I do think for as much as you look at his sparkling offensive numbers and performances, the defensive side is where to me it's the biggest impact because he had been such an integral part of why the nets were better on that end. Um when you look at you're talking about the durability of Durant. Then on the other side of things, look at Joel embiid um you as you mentioned, he jumps up to the fifth spot. He had thirty points in

that loss, uh two. Okay, see it in really Philly, I mean they're in fifth place, but they're just a game back of fourth place Cleveland. We've been talking about Brooklyn just two games back of the net short of Boston, that's got a little bit of space. Those teams, those two through five are kind of bunched up. Um, why did Joel jump up? And why do you think he has an opportunity to keep climbing if he does put

himself on the floor with more regularity and consistency. Well, right now, I think I'm just looking at momentum, and if I'm being honest here, it's sort of overdue. But the thing was in the past. It's like, how can you put him in the top five? Who do you put him over? Because everybody else was you know that not only were they playing just as well as Joel Embi, they were actually playing games. And so you know, with Kevin Durant's injury, to be honest, that is the opportunity. Okay,

let's get him in there and see what happens. But you know when you look like, say you were just messing around on the internet and you got on like Basketball Reference and you clicked on Joel MBS twenty three season, and what what you're gonna see is four or five games and he's you know, going for thirty forty Sometimes fifty and be from outside great games and then you see three or four games inactive, did not dress, did not play, and it's like that throughout that whole you know,

on line statistically and you're just you're just like, well, I need him to play more games. Um. You know, he had missed three games with that foot injury, and then I think he had played sixteen in a row, which was good, but right before that he had missed four games. You know, he's had that playing a fasciitis, you know, that kind of slowed him down coming into the season, and then he suffered supposedly a different foot

injury that's really bothering him now. And he said that this is all about pain management, pain management for him going forward. So I I'm anxious to see if Joel can can stay on the floor because you know, at the end of the day, if he can't stay on the floor, then he's not going to be a big part of this m VP conversation. You gotta play games,

that's the bottom line to me. Yeah, when you look to at Um at your top five and you got Luca and Yoka Chuppa, top Um obviously doing amazing things offensively, got Tatum, Johannest, Joel the offensive side, but also they bring it on the defensive side too, And I think when there's been there's been conversation discussion with embiid it's so much comes down to and I think same with you, honest,

but also the impact they make defensively. When you look at Joel other than just being on the floor, what what would he need to do this season for Philadelphia or what would the Sixers need to accomplish for him to win m v P. Finally, well, he's gonna need a lot of help from James Harden, who is actually playing very well. I mean he's not putting up the point totals that he normally does, but you know he's

facilitating um like you mentioned his his defense. I mean, the dude is you know, he's a wall down there, you know, in the paint seven plots tonight, and so you know, if he can just continue to play the way Joel Embi plays, he's got a good shot. But again, it's all it's all about just the availability and being out there on the floor for him. Alright, speaking of out on the floor, you're gonna be at a special floor court tonight. The Golden State Warriors. In San Antonio.

Spurs are playing in a big, big game at the Alamo Dome, trying to break the NBA's old time attendance record. We're gonna talk about that right after the break. Welcome back Saracousta joined by Michael c Right. All right, Uh, you got a fun one. I think it's gonna be a fun one for you tonight. Uh. San Antonio Spurs celebrating their fiftieth anniversary in San Antonio. They host the Golden State Warriors this evening at the Alamo Dome. Back

Home at the Dome is what they're calling it. They're trying to break the NBA's old time single game attendance record, which was at six uh in forty six, and that was part of the Michael Jordan's lead Bulls and Atlanta Hawks playing at the Georgia Dome back in nineteen. Uh. What's your expectations for tonight? Are you? Are you ready for this? Oh? I think it's gonna be wild. And you know, the game doesn't start until six thirty. I live about fifteen minutes away. I'm leaving it too, because

it's going to be a madhouse like this morning. They opened up some of the free garagers downtown at three o'clock. All the all the garages are free, and so you know, there's there's just gonna be this just just blood of traffic downtown. And you know, my expectation is, I guess some nostalgia because you know, a lot of fans, like I haven't been here that long, but when you talk to a lot of Spurs fans, they talk about that, like what it was like for those games to be

in the Animo Dome. And you know, I attended my kids high school graduation at the Alamo Dome. I've been to U t s A football games, but I've never been to a Spurs game. And so it's gonna be interesting because you know, in the past, they only used half the arena. They had this big old blue curtain. It's sort of cordoned off the court, and you know, it was only half of the arena. But this time they're using all of it, and they've expanded capacity to

sixty eight thousand. They've already sold the sixty five thousand tickets, but they released some extra tickets and these are gonna be standing room only tickets, So you know, if they're selling these tickets. Then you know, people just want to be in the building for this. It's sort of a historic event. Coach Pop said it was a wasson a lifetime opportunity for Spurs fans. Yeah, I'm excited to see, excited to see how it goes. I was at the Alamo Dome once. My my brother played in the Alamo

Bowl uh a while back, a while while back. But but Steff talked, I'm curious your perspective on how you think the players uh feel or what it's like playing in that stuff. Had mentioned that when they went on that turner and run back in two thousand and eight, he had played to Ford Field uh in Detroit. But do you think for players that the spacing of it, I mean, you just think about death, perception, shooting, all the stuff. Like, what's it like would you imagine for

a player being in an environment like that. Well, a lot of the guys from the Warriors actually practiced at the Dome yesterday and you know, so they could sort of get get a feel for the site lines and like you said, the depth perception and you know, I know, back in the day, like because Steve Kerr actually played in that Georgia Dove game that broke the He's the

Coast tonight. He's a former spir He's a former Spur who played a bunch of games in the Alimo Dome, and he said that, like, you know, when the opponents would come in, he said, you know, like anytime you played in San Antonio, you always sort of had a built in excuse. You know, you could blame the dome because, like you said, the depth perception it's a problem, and the site lines. But I think the way they've got it set up now, I think Steph was saying yesterday

that this is a little bit different. He said, it's actually better because they're sort of elevated on the floor. And so I'm interested to see how the shooting was, especially with a team like Golden State. I mean, they live a dime by the three, So yeah, it's gonna be fun to watch. And then like these young Spurs, you know, they don't shoot it all that well, but

I think they're gonna just really dig the atmosphere. And not only that, you know, they've been playing all their games at the A T and T Center, so they've never played a game at the Animal Dome in front of this many fans. And so when you get that that floor and you're about to play that game and you see that this you've got sixty eight thousand, almost all Spurs fans rooting for you. I think that that sort of do us up until you as far as like you know, you could feel the love from the

home fans, and I think that's gonna make them play harder. Yeah, that's tough. That's tough. I can't wait to see how it goes. And we know you got to get there. We want to make sure you beat all the traffic. So Michael, thank you so much for joining us, and uh make sure to check out your m v P Ladder and all the rest of your work on NBA dot com. We got John Schumann coming back with us on Monday with a brand new power rankings. Don't forget to check in next week NBA Pulse with Syracustack as

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