Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Saturday Slammin' Jam. I'm your host, Andrew Schlecht. On today's show, we're talking about the Utah Jazz. We're going to do some trivia, but before we do any of that, Alex, tell me what happened in the NBA this week.
Andrew, our top story this week is the world champion New York Knicks, who won the NBA Cup this week, beating the San Antonio Spurs 124-113 in Las Vegas. Jalen Brunson scored 25 points in the game, winning the NBA Cup MVP. But the most impressive performance might have been Mitchell Robinson, who grabbed 15 rebounds in only 18 minutes of play, including 10 offensive rebounds.
For all you cupheads out there, that is definitely the most offensive rebounds in an NBA Cup final history. Oh. Now, despite the big win, it was reported after the game that the Knicks would not be hanging a banner to celebrate the NBA Cup win. Boo. The announcement was a massive disappointment for all Cup respecters, but was welcome news for all the Atlantic Division respecters.
Thankfully, the Knicks' five Atlantic Division banners, which celebrate the seasons when the Knicks were better than four teams, will still hang proudly in MSG. The Knicks have now won six in a row, only a game and a half back of the Pistons. Now for the Spurs, it was a disappointing end to their cup run, but there's still a lot to be excited about.
First, to make it to the finals, the Spurs had arguably the biggest win of the season, defeating the Thunder 111-109 in the semifinals.
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Chapter 2: What happened in the NBA this week?
Unlike OKC's first loss of the season, the Thunder were healthy, playing their normal starting lineup for the first time this season. OKC could not overcome minutes restriction. Victor Weminyama, who returned to the Spurs bench for the first time in a month. Wemby scored 22 points and was a game high plus 21 in only 21 minutes.
Now, the other thing for Spurs fans to be excited about is the recent history of NBA Cup finals losers. Two years ago, the Pacers. bounced back from their devastating Cup loss and made the Eastern Conference Finals.
Chapter 3: How did the Knicks perform in the NBA Cup?
Last year, the Thunder rebounded from literally their worst game of the season against the Bucs in the Cup Finals and won the championship. Could the Spurs be the next team to use their NBA Cup loss as fuel for a deep postseason run? One team that probably won't be making a deep postseason run is the Golden State Warriors.
And when that reality begins to sink in for a proud franchise, what else is there to do but email the billionaire over it? This week, Warriors fan Justin Dutari did just that after searching for and finding an email for Warriors owner Joe Lacob.
Justin sent off an email voicing his frustrations about the need for a real second option, a true center, complaining about the immense burden on Steph Curry. Surprisingly, Joe Lacob quickly responded, writing, quote, You can't be as frustrated as me. I am working on it. It's complicated. Style of play. Coach's desires regarding players. League trends. Jimmy is not the problem.
How many fan bases saw this story and were like, what the hell, you could just find their email and yell at them? The fan has a point, though, because this week, Steph Curry broke Michael Jordan's record for most 40-point games after turning 30 when Steph dropped 48 in a game against the Blazers, and yet it wasn't enough as the Blazers won 136-131.
The Warriors have now lost three in a row, dropping to 13-15, ninth in the Western Conference. Now, we didn't have a lot of games this week because of the NBA Cup, so let's talk about some of the crazy results we did get on Thursday night, our first night with a full slate of games in a bit.
One game, after getting an impressive road win in Boston, cementing their place atop the Eastern Conference, the Pistons dropped an overtime game to the Dallas Mavericks, 116-114.
The Mavs have won six of their last eight, and in one of those games they did lose, Cooper Flagg set an historic NBA record, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to score 40 points after he scored 42 in a loss to our Utah Jazz, breaking a record previously held by LeBron.
The Pelicans also got a surprising overtime win on Thursday night, beating the Rockets 133-128, led by Sadiq Bey's season-high 29 points. It is the Pelicans' third consecutive win. which means the Clippers are now only a half game out of being the worst team in the Western Conference. The other surprising win was the Hornets getting the win over the Hawks, 133-126.
Now, maybe the win itself isn't that surprising, but it's how the Hornets did it. Charlotte tied an NBA record with 18 three-pointers in the first half, including seven from LaMelo Ball in his return from an ankle injury. Lamello finished with 28. Con Canipa had 28. Brandon Miller had 26. The game was also Trey Young's return to the lineup, who only played 20 minutes in the loss.
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Chapter 4: What are the latest updates on the Spurs' performance?
He's listed at 6'2". Not buying it. But this dude is awesome. And not only did he play great... in the NBA Cup, but he just had a nice game to save the Knicks butts again against Indianapolis where he had 16 points, 11 assists, six boards. He's a good player and a guy that the Knicks who were just desperate for depth. last season. Just like anybody. Can we get anybody?
And he's played really well for them. And to just have another creator off the bench, he's a really, really good passer. Certainly a great live dribble passer. A guy that can do that for them and has a ton of toughness I mean, he's like flexing on Wimby like that. He just he is like a really good basketball player.
And so for Knicks fans who have been clamoring for him, by the way, behind the scenes want this guy to play more. It's a really good sign for him. Like he's he's playing really well. And perhaps they have found like a nice bench player in Tyler Kolek, who is certainly a cup riser.
Yeah, and the big question now is just how many of these guys are you going to be able to play in the playoffs? How many of Jordan Clarkson, Tyler Kolek, Yabusele, how many of those guys are you going to be confident in once you get to the playoffs?
And you're probably not going to find out until the playoffs, which is why I have heard talks about the Knicks maybe trying to make a move for just one more depth piece. And I do like that idea because it still does worry me a little bit when you get to the playoffs how many of these guys we're actually going to be able to trust.
Sure. But even if you move off of somebody and you have Kolek sitting there, at least you don't feel like, oh my gosh, this guy has no shot of being good.
Yeah. And maybe this turns everything around. Maybe he becomes a staple of the rotation following this cup win.
Is this a colic sanity that is just about to emerge in New York?
Let's go. For my good, I want to talk about the All-Star game because All-Star voting opened up this week. I think we have one of the strongest crop of potential first-time All-Stars we've had in a long while. Austin Reeves, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Johnson, Jalen Duren, Duren. Danny Avdia, maybe Josh Giddey, since the Bulls decided to start winning some games this week.
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Chapter 5: What is the current situation of the Golden State Warriors?
This is like a locked-in All-Star performance so far.
Dude, we're like five years removed from Bubba Murray, and he's just now making the All-Star team. That's crazy.
Let's flip it around. Let's get a little negative. Andrew, what was your bad this week?
My bad this week is a press release that came from Walt Disney. I don't know if you are aware. What's he up to? What Mr. Walt's been up to. You know what Dunk the Halls is?
Dunk the Halls. I do not know what Dunk the Halls is.
All right, so if you're unaware of what Dunk the Halls is, they tried this last year, and it's where they play a game so that this year it's the Cavs-Knicks are going to be on television, and then you can turn to this alternate channel, and instead of watching a real basketball game, you can watch the players. It kind of looks like a video game, but it's like... I don't know.
Carl Anthony Towns, I think, was on this last year, too, the Knicks. What was he on? Yeah, on the Knicks, where he was goofy. And you can watch Jalen Brunson as Chip and Dale. It's this cartoonized version of an actual game that's happening. And you're against this. They tried it last year. It's just funny that the NBA is like, God, we will try anything. We'll do anything.
We have to keep changing the all-star game. It has to keep changing to keep everybody's attention. And then they played Dunk the Halls last year. You don't even know what it was. And they're like, you know what? Run it back. And not only run it back, let's add Stitch is what they decided to do. Adding Stitch. Okay. Stitch is going to be making his Dunk the Halls debut.
I just can't believe this is happening. To me, it's just a very strange thing.
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Chapter 6: How is Keontae George developing with the Jazz?
I tuned in for it, and as I'm watching it, I just thought, there's no way they're running back Dunk the Halls. But you know what? They're running back dunk the halls. I think it's a bad thing. We can't just watch a basketball game? What is happening?
Honestly, Andrew, everything you've said so far has just gotten me more excited for dunk the halls.
Listen, I knew it would. I want you to actually watch it. Because I watched it last year, and it was... It was odd. I'm like, I don't understand who this is exactly for. Who are they targeting here?
I will say they could boost the roster a little bit. They're using a lot of the classic Disney characters. They're fine, but I feel like they're a little outdated. There was an NFL version of this. You got to see Mike Wazowski do a kickoff. Now, you can't tell me you don't want to see Mike Wazowski do a kickoff. Huh? What about Big Sully running it in?
I am now, and I'm thinking about it, pretty intrigued by the football version of that.
Yeah.
The basketball version, I'm just out on. I'm completely out on. It's like, well, our basketball game isn't entertaining enough. Let's make sure that these guys are Donald Goofy.
See, Donald Goofy. I think they just need to switch up the characters. I think if we had more representation from the Pixar crew.
Oh, we had like Toy Story guys out there?
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Chapter 7: What are the expectations for the Jazz moving forward?
There's been plenty of flashes as an off-ball movement shooter, which was kind of the sell on him going into the draft. What have you thought about the rest of his game and what are your expectations for how the Jazz are going to explore his game the rest of the season? Are you expecting to see more heavy on-ball minutes with him?
Yeah, I mean, as the Jazz progress their season with the hopes that they're not going to win too many more games... Right. I expect for there to be, like, a lot more Ace Bailey, just so that they can kind of give him a runway, and I... As in years past, I think that you can expect more of Lowry sitting or other guys not playing on certain nights.
And so that's just going to give a bigger runway for a lot of the young guys on the team, but especially Ace Bailey. I mean, I think what has surprised me the most is that he is so much more than advertised and then also nothing at all like he was advertised. Like, He came in because of his management and representation issues as a guy that everyone was like, this selfish, entitled, horrible kid.
And it's just so far from the truth because he couldn't be happier to just be in the NBA. I've never seen a teenager – come into the NBA and just like, so willing to be like, yes, coach, anything you need. I am just happy to be here. I will be the loudest one clapping. Does anybody need water? Like, and he's just so happy to be here and also passes the ball a ton.
He's not selfish, but if you, you know, put it in context, what was happening at Rutgers, it's like, yeah, we want Ace Bailey to score 35 points. So just put the ball in his hands and let him do whatever he wants. And, And if he knows that his teammates aren't going to make the shots, then like, why would he pass it to them?
And he's in a completely different situation where he's like, yeah, Lowry's the guy that I want to have the ball in his hands. I will pass it to him every time. So he's really smart. He's really athletic. And all of the tiny little flashes that we've seen, it just makes me so excited about what else is coming in the future. Yeah.
How hard is it to judge defense on this team? I think they're 29th, I said, in defense. And Ace Bailey kind of had that reputation like, oh, this guy's going to be a pretty good defender one day. What have you seen on that end from him?
uh, willingness is the first thing. So, you know, like he's clearly been told by who, whatever coach it is that like, you better be in a low stance anytime that you're on the ball. And I want you communicating no matter what, or you're just not going to be on the court because he is just like perfectly positioned and constantly talking. And so he's trying to do all the right things right now.
And I think that just like, um, like nervousness and newness to the league is not something that's worn off and is probably going to take him a while. Like these guys are coming in younger and younger now. And so, yeah, he seems like that. He seems like a teenager, which he is. And so, but he's so long and, And he's so long in wingspan and like his legs are so long.
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