The Zach Lowe Show
Eastern Conference Deep Dive and Bam’s 83 Points With Jaime Jaquez Jr.
02 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
All right, coming up on the Zach Lowe Show on a Thursday morning, Jason Tatum with a triple-double. The Celtics score a million points. Everybody scored a million points last night and beat the Heat. Michael Pena is here. We're going to go around the NBA, some winners and some losers of the last week or so. Top of the East is going to be the center of the discussion. Celtics rolling Pistons.
Just keep on winning without Cade Cunningham. They play Minnesota tonight. We'll see how that game goes. But hat tip to the Pistons, Jalen Duren, all NBA lock at this point. I would hope, I would think he'd be on my ballot if I had a ballot.
Chapter 2: How is Jalen Duren performing this season?
And then the other two teams at the top, the Cavs and the Knicks. Kind of mystery boxes this late in the season. Weird up and down stretches lately. Guys in and out of the lineup. Just weird teams. We tried to sort of get a grip on them.
Chapter 3: What are the Cavs' current challenges?
Then the second half of the East playoff picture in complete chaos. Orlando's ninth. Miami's 10. Philadelphia's back to six. Atlanta just keeps winning. They blew out the magic last night. They're fifth. Quick peek in on all those teams. Plus, we do a little most improved player and some other around the NBA stuff. MVP. Wemby keeps talking about it. Is the door cracking open?
Not just him, but Luka as well. Talk about all that stuff. Then Jaime Jaquez Jr. comes on to talk all things Heat. 83 points. Their weird season. Their new offense. His offseason. His sister playing in the Final Four. And then Sean Fennessey for the season's first Mets corner. We're trying not to be too dire.
Chapter 4: What is the state of the Knicks this season?
Trying to be optimistic. We're trying our best. All coming up on the Zach Lowe Show. The Zach Lowe Show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA postseason is here, and FanDuel knows the only thing better than watching your favorite team win is winning along with them. FanDuel is the best place to bet the teams, players, and plays during their playoff run.
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Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. It's Thursday. We've got, I don't know, two weeks left in the NBA regular season before the play-in, and the East is in chaos all over the place. Michael Pina is here to help us break that down, plus some MVP awards talk, lots of other stuff, a mascot controversy. Pina, how you doing?
I'm doing great, man. I cannot wait to break down what happened with G-Wiz. This is an amazing story. We're not going to lead with that.
We are going to just at least mention at the top that right before we recorded, the Pistons announced that Cade Cunningham will be out re-evaluated in another week, which would mean four more games missed, which if my math is correct, would officially close the door on him making all NBA. The 65 game rule needs to go away. I don't love it. I know that Adam Silver says what it's
it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. That's cool. It just, this is a, this is a bad one. He should at least be third team, all NBA. Give me a, give me as a voter. I'm not a voter anymore. The flexibility to do what I want, at least with that, with third team. But Pistons just let's start at the top of these. Cause the Pistons just keep on winning without Cade Cunningham.
They play Minnesota tonight and the big winner of last night, the Celtics yet again, put up 53 points in the first quarter against Miami and Jason Tatum, 25 points, 18 rebounds, 11 assists. He's officially, if not all the way back and he's not, the efficiency still isn't there. so much closer than anyone could have reasonably expected.
It's not just the rebounding, the shot making the threes coming along. He's got a few blow by drives or finished through contact drives every game now that are like, Oh my God. And the way the Celtics are playing and the way the Pistons are playing, both of those teams have to be very encouraged. And then the Cavs and the Knicks, the other two teams that have been in this top four all season long,
Um, sort of just mystery boxes to me at this point. And I want to get your take on them for a bit, but first of all, Tatum, uh, unbelievable performance all around, not unbelievable. It's Jason Tatum, but like considering where we are, I think. Celtics as favorites in the East is now kind of hard to dispute despite how well the Pistons are playing without cutting him.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Jaime Jaquez Jr. share about his improvement?
He's leading the fast break. He's doing crazy spin moves on people. He hasn't sacrificed anything on defense. I think I might vote for Nikhil Alexander-Walker.
I love it. He was my runner-up. I gave him a long, hard look.
Chapter 6: How did Jaime Jaquez Jr. react to Jimmy Butler's departure?
Almost chose him. And if I'm being honest, part of the reason I chose Darren was because I predicted he would win the award before the season.
Chapter 7: What was it like witnessing Bam score 83 points?
And I like being correct about things, but Nikhil Alexander Walker, 20 points out of nowhere, nine points per game last year. I just love how, you know, he's increased his usage and his touches more than any other player in the league, I think. And yeah, The defense is still all defensive team caliber. He's incredible. He'll pick you up full court. He really cares. He tries.
And him and Dyson Daniels as a backcourt is just phenomenal. And that's one of the reasons why they've been so successful. So, yeah, this is another award where it's just very, it's like impossible to pick between the two. You've got to flip a coin. But I love how, you know, you talk about the spirit of the award, like this is his fourth team, I think.
And obviously the opportunity has increased, but like they didn't bring him in to do this. This wasn't like envisioned.
Chapter 8: How does Jaime Jaquez Jr. feel about the upcoming World Cup?
He came in to come off the bench and like supplement Trey Young. Like it's completely caught everyone off guard. So shout out to him. Love watching him play too. He's so exciting. Just like the handle, the shot making, the body control.
he's great uh the left hand is legendary stuff uh so if you pick him i think that that's well that's totally valid the left hand is part of what makes him so good in atlanta's system because he can come from anywhere at any time you know like a lot of guards he'll start in the corners and come off and take handoffs flying around but he can do that from the right corner or the left corner whereas because he can go he doesn't have like a dominant hand he can go either direction
Whereas a lot of guards, it's like, I have to come from the left corner because I'm right-handed. And they just play like there was a play last night against Orlando. Orlando scored and the Hawks brought the ball up sprinting. And Nikhil was sprinting. Jalen Johnson had the ball and Nikhil was sprinting and he sprinted.
And I mean, sprinted and then came full stop into a back screen of like a flat screen for Jalen Johnson who had the ball. And I froze it 21 on the shot clock when he sets that pick and then sprint out the other side to behind the three point line makes a three with 17 on the shot clock. Just okay. So your point guard is screening randomly with 21 on the shot clock for your power forward.
And then the power forward, it's just, this is, he's such a perfect fit for how they play. So yeah, I mean like Hawks, I don't know if I don't, I don't remember what their over under was, but they might actually end up hitting the over. All right, Michael Pina, anything else you want to get to?
No, this was great. I hope I didn't step on my MVP column that's coming out next week. You might have. But no, we actually held it. I'm not going to lie. We held it because, and you don't want to put too much weight in one game, but the Spurs-Nuggets game on Saturday could be very important. We'll see what happens.
It's going to be a very interesting last week of the season for the MVP. My vote would go to Shea as of now, but I would, if I had a vote, I would not make it now. I would not set it in stone. I want to see how it unfolds. Michael Pina from TheRinger.com. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Zach. The Zach Lowe Show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA season on FanDuel, it's all about the boost.
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