Welcome to the Omni Sports Podcast. Featuring your host, Bobby Labita. Hello and welcome everyone to the Omni Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Bobby Labita, and my goal this week is to guide you through what happened last week in basketball. So if you fell asleep for an entire week or you got lost in some cool new show and you're like you've emerged from your cave and you're like, what happened? What happened in the world of basketball?
Don't you worry, my friend, because I have got your back because I will be your sports shaman for this week guiding you down the religious experience that is basketball. First I'm going to be talking about why I'm a dumb dumb and holding myself accountable as everyone should. Following that I'm going to get into my storylines of the week. Following that I'm going to talk about my predictions for the West. I'm going to get bold and you're going to listen to it buster.
And then after that I'm going to talk about a streak that got snapped in our new trends and streak segment. And then I'm going to give some tips in fantasy basketball. And all right, y'all, let's head to our sponsor of the week. If you're unfamiliar with this segment, every week we have a fake sponsor until hopefully one day we have a real one. But even when we have a real one, we'll still have a fake one. And this week's sponsor are hot seats.
No, I'm not talking about those seats your friend has in their car and you're so jealous because they're so comforting and it feels like being a little baby. But I'm talking about the proverbial coaches hot seat. It's a time of the season where teams start trending in a certain direction and if it's not in a direction fan base is believed in, it's now far enough in the season they're like, okay, this problem should have been corrected already.
And then everyone starts looking at the coaches with a couple extra eyes. I'm sorry, Darwin Ham, the nature of being on the LeBron team and the Los Angeles Lakers is that whenever the Lakers are not doing good, everyone's going to want you fired. We'll talk more about that in a moment, but we about to get dumb. Bobby is a dumb dumb. Bobby is a dumb dumb. Bobby is dumb. Victor Wembenyama. Victor Wembenyama. I just wanted to apologize.
I have received complaints about my pronunciation of your name and rightfully so because I've done it many which ways, ending in putting in an N in places it shouldn't be, putting E's, putting place letters where they shouldn't go. And Victor for that, I am sorry. You are going to be one of the most brilliant players potentially of the next decade, God willing. And I and so many other people should learn to say your name correctly.
And I know Victor that I'm sure you're listening to this podcast. And if you are, I just want to say from the depths of my soul that this beautiful man who you wouldn't know is beautiful because you can only hear his voice, but trust me, he's beautiful is great at many things, but he is not great at saying names so much so that in his profession as a teacher, he has disappointed many students for many years by constantly mispronouncing their names. It's not intentional.
He has many skills, but names, he don't got time for that. And that is sounds problematic and makes the sun worse and and I'm rambling and I should, I should, we should get back to basketball. With one of the most excited games of the year tonight, this was your first time going up against Victor Wembenyama. What was your impression of how he played tonight? He's unbelievable, unbelievable talent can score at that wheel anytime he wants, plays that our way, plays to win.
It was great playing against him. This week we had a clash of the Titans between Victor Wembenyama and Yanis Antento Pumpo. And it was just a beautiful game to watch. It was the Bucks versus the Spurs. And they were going back and forth dunking on each other, blocking each other. The highlights from this game could feel a whole top 10 former sports center game plays of the week. But in the end, the Bucks were able to win.
But as you heard from the comments from Yanis, this is probably the most complete performance we've seen for Victor. He was great on offense and defense and Yanis is doing so much for the Bucks right now. Just watching them was just it was just pure joy. If you want to just like have your mind blown constantly, please go watch the highlights of this game. The Bucks are able to win 125 to 121.
But the Spurs, I think, show that even though that there are five and 30 team, they might be one of the best five and 30 teams ever because they've been playing up to some of these really good teams. They just can't put it all together at the end. And Yanis has been playing really great this year.
And I think that's been kind of lost with all the other great performances this year is really exciting because I think you have five or six people who are playing and what would be maybe an abnormal year like MVP level basketball, but they're all doing it this year. And I think it's super cool. And I think Yanis is definitely in that category, but he's kind of under the radar. You know, he's the he's the he's the old, old MVP.
And I think sometimes when it comes to the narrative of MVP and how time passes, people buy that we sometimes forget the greats or we're ready to crown the next big thing. But this match showed that just for now, Yanis and the old guard are still able to beat the new. And a tough one for the Lakers, Lakers. Now, two and nine in their last 11 games. And I think it's start.
I think it's time to start thinking about the Clippers as a legitimate championship contender, if not a tier one championship contender, you have the tale of two cities or should I really say two teams in one city? You have the Los Angeles Clippers who have been trending upwards looking so good since Kawai has come back. And really when Kawai is on that lineup with Harden and everything, everything's just looking good. They're looking dominant.
And then you have the Lakers who have been struggling, who have lost a lot of games out of their last 10. And they face off today in the Battle of Los Angeles. And to everyone's shock and the way that the sports seem to work where nothing makes sense and the points don't matter is that the Lakers were able to end their losing streak against the Clippers and ended their winning streak.
And so while today, the Lakers may have won, I think for the long term trajectory of this season, I think the Clippers are looking really good. You know, I hope for the Clippers fans out there that the Clippers can remain healthy. If they do, Kawai has played a lot of games this year. He actually has a lot of minutes logged. I don't think you can say anything that you normally would say about Kawai this year because he's been actually quite a bit of an Iron Man.
So as long as the Clippers can keep everyone together, I think they are a has JJ right except a legitimate threat and the Lakers, their downslide has led to people all over the Internet wanting Darwin Ham to get fired. If you're unfamiliar with the Lakers media circus, I don't think it's necessarily the Lakers faults, but when anything happens on the Lakers team, it's put under a microscope and Darwin Ham has been ridiculed by many fans. I think he's not making the right rotations.
He's making the wrong decisions. He's making interesting choices with minutes. And as a result, people are criticizing him. Bam and Abayo basically took a shot at him because in one game, Darwin Ham said after the fact like, well, we're unhealthy. And so that's why we lost and Bam was basically like, well, our team is able to win and we're unhealthy. That's why you have a full roster of players. And so Darwin's under that microscope.
And if the Lakers don't make it, I think into like the top six this season, I think there's going to be a lot of question marks of revolving Darwin Ham. They were able to pull out the win today and it's a good win. But unless that continues, I foresee problems with Darwin Ham's career as a Laker, as the frustrations for the players have been very obvious in the postgame conferences. And their demeanor seemed to not match their coaches.
And sometimes when you see that mismatch and demeanor as a sign of that there could be differences in what's going on in that locker room. And especially with LeBron and him aging, you wonder, you know, will he tried to pull strings faster than other people? It's a joke that LeBron is a coach killer because he is so good that if things aren't working, coaches can be moved on quickly and we'll see if he'll claim or the Lakers will claim another victim.
Kumingo, it looked like he was giving you a good scoring boost in the first half. What went into the decision not to have him play in this? Yeah, he was playing great. And you know, his normal time to go back in would have been around the, you know, five, six minute mark. And Wiggs was playing great. We were rolling. We're up 18, 19, whatever it was. It's going to put one up. It's gone. It's got it off in time. And the nuggets win it. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding?
Our last storyline is the drama with the Warriors. Sorry for such a California centric episode, but we in California, we like to be dramatic. Thank you to the Kings for not being too dramatic, though you did lose by 33 tonight is that when it comes to the Warriors, there's drama because Steve Kerr has been inconsistent with the minutes he's giving to his younger players such as Jonathan Kamiga and Moses Moody. And that has led to them being upset.
We saw in a game this week between Yoke itch and the Warriors as you heard from that clip that the Warriors were up by a lot and Kamiga had been playing great and he didn't play a single minute in the fourth. And while that happened, the nuggets clawed their way back for what is probably my favorite game winning shot in years. And that's not exaggeration. Yoke it's barely had crossed the half court line. He was almost out of bounds and just chucked it up there.
And you just kind of knew when it went in or when it left his hand that it was going to go in. And it's maybe the most emotion I've seen Yoke itch ever show. He was screaming and jumping around and I think it's fortuitous that last week I talked up Victor and Yoke itch and they're they're doing great this week. So thank you basketball gods for making me look good. However, what's not looking good is Steve Kerr right now.
Probably he said after the game as these rumors circulated that the younger players went happy with their minutes that, you know, when I was a player because he used to play for the Chicago Bulls back when Michael Jordan was on the team very famously Michael Jordan punched him in the face. But that's that's a whole other conversation. Just something about being around Steve Kerr and makes people want to punch someone in the face.
But the fact of the matter is that he said that, you know, I always want to play more minutes my 15 years there, which is not really the thing you want to tell a young guy in front of the media of like, well, I struggled to because I suffered. You have to suffer, especially when that team had Michael Jordan and this team has been struggling this year. Even though Steph Curry is really trying to do all that he can, it's just not enough.
And with Dreymond coming back, I think the minutes will even get more funky. I imagine the Warriors will be a trade deadline. Candidately, we'll probably ship out some players who aren't happy and try to bring in some players to fill in those spots. But it seems like a lot of teams that we thought would be doing this doing well at this point in the season are not. And then sometimes we didn't think would be doing as well are doing great.
Once we'll talk about a little bit in the future with my bold predictions. Hello. It's me a little bit in the future, and I'm going to be giving my bold predictions where I'm going to be talking about the West. Two episodes ago, I gave my predictions for the top six in the East. The reason I'm picking the top six is those seeds are free from the play in tournament, which again, the play in tournament is different than the end season tournament.
I'm going to be giving my predictions for how these seeds will end up. And at the end of the year, I will reevaluate and look at all my bull predictions and see how they figured out, and I will give myself a grade and maybe I'll do something associated with that grade. I don't know. I will punish myself if I'm bad and I will celebrate myself if I'm good. But I can tell you for a fact that I'm incredibly worried about these predictions with the East. I felt like it's pretty cut and dry.
I didn't feel like I said anything controversial. However, in today's episode, I think I'm going to get quite spicy ladies and gentlemen, and it's not intentional. It's just not how I thought this season would go at the beginning of the year, and I am going to be going with recent trends. So I'm going to do a countdown six through one, but I will first tell you my not, I guess, my honorable mentions.
Probably the closest honorable mention and one that is currently in the top six that I could see falling out. And I think this makes me sad because I often root for this team, but I am worried about the Sacramento Kings. They of the top nine teams in the West are the only team that have a negative point differential overall in the season. And that makes me worry. They haven't been playing as well recently. Darian Fox has been playing as well.
And so I'm just a little concerned on what they'll their longevity for the season. They've just been very streaky and I could foresee them falling. Part of the fact is that the West is also incredibly good and incredibly talented in the top seven seeds are all incredibly tight. And so unfortunately, someone has to fall out. Other kind of spicy take is I don't foresee the Suns or the Lakers getting up there either.
I think they will be in the play in tournament and it will be a dramatic LeBron versus Durant to decide who makes it in. But for my top six first and probably a spicy take and the Pelicans, I think the Pelicans have played well. They made it to the semifinals of the end season tournament for what it's worth. They are a big team. They have a lot of different pieces. They have a really good point differential.
And I just think that as the season goes on, I think as Zion kind of fits himself into this team, I think that they will continue to be better. I feel like the team is kind of Zion and everyone else. And what I mean by that is it feels like they play more cohesively. Part of the fact of that is that Zion didn't play a lot last year with these players, but Zion is just incredibly talented and makes a bunch of crazy plays.
And I think that the Pelicans have a hardworking mentality and a good team, good team focus. And so for that, I think that they will bump themselves up. Next I have the Mavs. I think the Mavs are good. Luca with Luca, you always have a chance. And with Luca, you can always, you know, for the most part, except last year, make it to the playoffs. I think Kyrie and Luca are starting to work next to each other and able to fill in when one isn't doing as well. And I do worry about their depth.
I do worry about their defense. Derek Lively right now is having an amazing season for rookie. He has like one of the highest true shooting percentages in the league and that has a lot to do with how Luca is facilitating the ball. But you know, there's always concerns when you have high usage players like that, that you know, over the grind of the season, if you miss games or things happen that maybe things could go backwards. Next I have the, and forth, the Nuggets.
I think the Nuggets are going to, you know, towards the end of the season kind of focus on resting a little bit. I think their concern, especially like when you've won a championship and you've been consistently in the playoffs, I think you become less concerned necessarily getting the first seed. You get more interested in being healthy and since the Nuggets have inconsistent health, it would probably be a good thing. Third, I have the Clippers who are currently fourth.
I think that they will continue to play well and I'm going to be optimistic that there won't be injuries for them knock on wood. But you know, I think when you have a bunch of smart players like Harden and Kawhi and Paul George and you have the energy that is Russell Westbrook off the bench, I think good things can happen. In second, I have the Timberwolves.
They're currently in first and you know, by a couple of games, I do think that their lack of offense sometimes will maybe over the course of the season come to hurt them. I think their defense is spectacular and clearly the best in the league, but I do think that you still run the risk of, you know, facing teams that have hot shooting nights, you know, matter how good your defense is, you can't stop, you know, you know, 50% shooting from three or something like that.
And they haven't had many of those kind of unlucky games and that could happen and kind of swing things, which gives me my one seed, which is maybe a spicy take to some, but I have the Oklahoma City Thunder. The reason for that is I think they are young and hungry and they're going to fight the whole season and Shay is incredible. He is so good. He has the highest steals per game. He's great with assists. He's getting a lot of points.
And I think the thunder or scare you have Chet who's playing, you know, out of his mind. And the thing that's like really exciting if you're a thunder fan is that they have so many first picks over the next few years. I really think that the thunder will be a contending team for a long, long time. And it's funny, you know, there was a meme for many years about Sam Presti, the general manager for the thunder and how he is addicted to getting picks.
Basically, he did all the, he did the Paul George trade. He, you know, there is a trade where he had Chris Paul, lots of Paul's, you know, he's traded these big names in order to get a lot of trade assets. And now that he's hit on a couple of drafts in a row and you still have that draft capital, you know, that is something that could go out and get a Durant or get another star player who could be conceivably unhappy in their location. And so I think the thunder have positioned themselves well.
And if they're able to do what I think they'll do, I think they will be the hottest free agent team, like the team you'd want to go to most next year. And we'll see at the end of the year if I'm being a little too bold or bullish, but right now I'm very bullish on the thunder. Next up we have a new segment called Streaks and Trends. We're going streaky! Yes! I'm here to tell you about a streak that finally ended.
If you did not know, the Utah Jazz have not had a player who had a triple double in 15 years. And that doesn't sound like a real thing to say because you look at Yolketsu gets a triple double, you know, every other game or you look back to the fact that Russell Westbrook not once but twice averts a triple double for an entire season. But in a cold night in Utah, Jordan Clarkson grabs a rebound because his teammate doesn't grab the rebound intentionally and the crowd erupts and cheers.
And if you were not paying attention, you'd be like, why are they cheering so loud on a random Jordan Clarkson rebound? And it was because it broke the streak. And so what's wild to me is not only is a streak 15 years, but the Utah Jazz fans were so aware of it that the second it happened, that the streak was over, they all were cheering. And Jordan Clarkson immediately called a timeout and you could have swore that the Utah Jazz had just won a big important game.
But no, they ended a big important streak in Utah. And for that, I'm happy for you. And it was probably the happiest I've seen Utah Jazz players this whole year. So Utah, stay happy. And I hope you get another triple double soon. It's also wild because in fantasy basketball categories leagues, there are some that do triple doubles. Imagine you've had a Utah Jazz player any year the last 15 years, that'd be so depressing.
But speaking of fantasy and thankfully not talking about categories, you should not have in your category fantasy league. I'm going to be giving you another big tip. And this big tip is look at the whole story. What I mean by that is it's very difficult for us to not become box score merchants. Now a box score merchant is just someone who looks at the stats at the end of a game and you're like, oh, bam, that's what I want to do.
These players will have incredibly high spike games or they'll be really good in one stat. You're like, oh, I really need this stat. So let me pick that. But you don't consider that they're terrible and a category and actually detriment in other places. And so while you might be like, oh, it'd be great for this, they're actually going to on the whole hurt you and basically be a grenade for your team and blow your team up.
And then you're sad because your team is dead and you've committed a terrible, terrible prime. And how could you do that? How could you do that to your fantasy players? You're supposed to be their coach. You're supposed to protect them. But one way to protect yourself is to pay attention to the whole story. Other ways this is true is that the beginning of the season has a disproportionate coloring of our memory and actually look at trends.
So for example, Tyrese Maxey, who I've been fanboying over the whole year and rightfully so has been shooting 34% from three the last 20 games, which is not particularly good, but he was so hot at the beginning of the year that it kind of makes murky the fact that he hasn't been as good consistently. Now no, that does not mean you should be dropping Tyrese Maxey. If you want to do that, please do so and I will pick him up.
But what I'm saying is that there are other players who may be on that tier and you're like, oh my God, look how many points per game they have, but you're not paying attention to the fact that they were doing that at the beginning of the season or a player that was sitting out is now coming back. And as I mentioned last week, consider this with also the fact that there could be teams that are going to be tanking. There are going to be teams that are going to be trade for candidates.
They're teams that are going to be selling assets. And so don't just get washed up in the stats and it's easy to get washed up in the stats. But when you're making a decision, it's picking up or dropping someone really take that extra energy to do that. And on the flip side, if you notice players who don't pass that test once you look at the whole story, they may be players that you drop or you try to trade. I made the reference to grenade before.
There's this idea that sometimes you drop a player who is appealing to pick up, but they actually could have something detrimental like they will make three out of 10 free throws, aka their Andre drum and Andre make your freaking free throws. You're making people sad over here. We'll write everyone that concludes another week of the Omni Sports basketball podcast. Please check us out. We're in many places now. We're on Tik Tok. We're on Instagram. We're on at where we're at your mama's house.
No, we're not there, but we're in a lot of places. Please also feel free to respond if you're on Spotify, you know, write notes. If there's any feedback you'd like to give, we're available at Omni Sports 423 at gmail.com and we welcome your feedback. And once again, thank you all for listening. If you haven't already, please share this with friends. If you don't mind, please rate this. This helps it show up in the algorithm.
And you know, I hope you have a wonderful day and that basketball can take all the pain away.