GAME NIGHT: Jayson Tatum Helps Boston Celtics Top Cleveland Cavaliers | Is It Panic Time in Detroit?

0:00On today's show, the Boston Celtics pick up a big win, and Jason Tatum looks like Jason Tatum, at least for a little bit The San Antonio Spurs dominate the Houston Rockets, and is there a problem with the Detroit Pistons? We break it all down on this edition of Lockdown NBA Game Night. When that final buzzer rings, you know it's time for a Lockdown NBA Game Night, all the post-game reactions to every game across the league, every single night. With insights only the hosts that Lockdown can provide. It's the true NBA fans, one stop for all the action. Every game, every night. It's Lockdown NBA Game Night, tipping off now. What's up everybody, my name's Danny Cunningham from Lockdown, Cavs. You Sweeper from Lockdown, Nuggets, and this is the latest edition of Lockdown NBA Game Night. Show where we talk about every single game in the NBA, every single night you can find this show anywhere you get your podcasts. It's Apple. That's Spotify. That's on YouTube as well. And if you're watching us right now, please do us a favor, hit that thumbs up button for us and hit that notification bell if you have not already.

1:03And make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you might be listening to it. It's because of people like you that the Lockdown podcast network is now the number one sports podcast network in all of America. In today's episode brought to you by Fandall. Fandall is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost. Head to fandall.com today to get started. That's fandall.com fandall play your game on today's show. We'll talk about every game from Sunday March 8th, including where we will begin in the city that I reside in as the Boston Celtics. Got a 109 to 98 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon. There's a lot to get into. Jason Tatum was back for his second consecutive games. The Cavs shot the ball very, very poorly in this one and we're going to start with more from John Corales. Boston Celtics get a little something from everybody in their win over the Cavs of John Corales from the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Jason Tatum kicked things off the really nice first quarter. You slow down a lot after that, but came in the fourth quarter and had a nice drive a nice dagger three pointer when the Celtics really needed one.

2:04Jason Brown was pretty good. He had 23 points. Tatum had 20. So familiar kind of scoring nights from Tatum and Brown. Tatum looks like himself for portions of this, then looked to kind of gas that big early stint. I think maybe warm out a little bit, but it's all part of the process. Big contributions off the bench. Peyton Pritchard 18 points. He had some big shots in that fourth quarter getting to a sweet spot, right? It's become a signature for Peyton Pritchard that turn around in the mid range 10, 12, 13 feet. That's that's just what Pritchard has lived on this year. Baylor Sharman with 16 and 10. Another double double for him, even though he is back on the bench, still finding a way to produce, especially after Shaq said, I don't know this kid's name at half time. It was a nice to see him go out and have a big second half. Celtics sweep the cabs this year, 3 and 0 against Cleveland. A nice win lots to talk about on the lockdown Celtics podcast. So what do you think of Tatum in this one?

3:05I noticed that people were very upset that Shaq didn't know who Baylor Sharman was, and I thought that was a, you know, a little segment. Tatum's look great, man. And you know, we were talking about it really before the show. I am still just bewildered in all the best ways that Tatum has looked as fluid as he does to start this run. You know, it's funny, you know, Danny, because typically when I'm watching basketball players, like, you know, I'm watching okay, like fast, fast break. You know, where are they spreading out on the floor? Who's going where? How's the defense picking them up? Okay, they can pick up like what's next? Like what center are they getting into? Are they doing already have a mismatch advantage? Like all that stuff, you know, defensively, like how are they locking them in their keys? Are they attached to their principles? But I've been looking a lot at Tatum just simply grabbing rebounds. Like how is he jumping? How is he moving? How is he closing out? You know, when he's putting, you know, Jalen Tyson, like in the post area, how is he exploding? How is this stopping? How is this stepping? All that stuff for me has just been nothing short of a miracle. And I mean a miracle was in a basketball sense watching Tatum be able to get on the floor and be this fluid already.

4:15And I think this is such a credit to him that I'm not trying to not treat him like NBA player because obviously he is and he makes $300 million of course of years and most of us will never see money like that. So I understand like he has a lot helping him be what he is, but just watching him be explosive and not as explosive yet like he doesn't have the same leap ability. But just for him to still be able to be involved offensively on these possessions and then offensively he's doing some good things as well. He's active on the boards. I think by the time we get to May brother and let's say we get to the second round that the NBA playoffs. The real world where Tatum is like not 100% of himself, but you know, maybe he's 80% maybe the the quickness and fluidity is closer than what it is now, maybe it's closer to 90% by that point. And then having that level of wing power with Jalen, Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum back again. I mean this changes everything from me, bro. I just didn't expect it to be like this. I didn't expect it to look this good already.

5:15You know, the Celtics is going to be messy. It's going to take a while to figure out where Tatum slots in with some of this stuff because he's also like not he's not going to hijack possession, but it's also yes to find himself again. It's got to get reps like he can't do it without getting reps on the flea can't just go out there and stand in the corner and say I'm playing like that's not how it works. Yes, exactly. So yeah, you watch the game even more closely did not did but go ahead. Yeah, I mean, like he was a big part of their offense and he had a great start early, like I believe he hit four of his first six shots, he had 12 first quarter, like the first quarter looked like Jason Tatum. And then the next three quarters didn't look like Jason, and I think that's going to be part of the process for him, like he very clearly is not at 100% of his full powers and I don't expect them to be this year. And I don't think anybody like realistically, I didn't expect this this year, I think it's unfair to judge him based upon who he's been and I am wildly impressed that he's at this point this soon. But I also look at it and say this is going to be a work in progress. And I thought that he did more of the little things against Dallas to on Friday night and his first game back rightly.

6:18If you think you get 15 points, I think what 12 rebounds seven assists, the other stuff wasn't necessarily quite as prevalent in this game on Sunday for him. I think you only had three boards and two assists. And this scoring was fine, like you had 20 points on 16 shots, so it's not the most efficient game. But I just think the fact that he's out there and he's able to go through these short stretches where he's able to play at a high level, because that's what the first quarter was it was a short stretch in which he played at a very high level. And then the other 22 minutes that he was on the floor was nowhere near what we expect Jason Tehran to be, but I didn't think that we would see any of those high level stretches. And I just think that's a big testament to him that that's what we're seeing right now, even if it's small stuff right now, like this is a part of the process is john noted. I think you'll be better by the time the post season arrives. I just still don't know what that's going to be. Yeah, it's going to be really interesting, man. I got to say that like I have Joe, Joe Mozilla winning coach of the year right now. I think Miss Johnson is my runner up for number two. But the fact that they've been able to be this good and Missoula ball is in full effect and they're just completely bought into the process.

7:21You know, I'm very happy for the Boston Celtics players in the front office and people that are involved in the process because they deserve all the credit they they're earning this year for getting them where they are. And today was a, I don't you know, it was a great win. That was an important win because this is another team that's trying to contain for the top of the east. And brother, we would have had you, you know, believe it is crazy. But I mean, the Celtics are like they're moving into like a path where, hey, we're two and a half games out of first. Right. We're two, we're two and a half games out of first. Why not? Why not us as Russell Westbrook would say. The reason I will say why not? And I don't believe that the Celtics are going to get up to first in the east. I think it's a conversation. We will start the next segment by talking about the Detroit pistons. Boston has the second most difficult schedule in the NBA remaining. So it's not only that they're going to be working in Tatum. They're going to be doing so they've got two games with OKC left. They see the spurs again. They play the next again, the wolves. They have a game with the sun still like they have a lot of games of their 18 games left against teams that are very good.

8:29So I do think that the ones and they also don't have the tiebreaker over the pistons. I believe Detroit won that season series. So I do think that that once he probably not going to be within reach. But I think the fact that they're this close says a lot about how far this team has grown because nobody would have expected this at the start of the year. They moved to 43 and 21 with when calves dropped to 39 and 25 just quickly on the calves. This was one of the worst shooting performances I have ever seen. They were two of 22 from three point range in the first half. They had nine unguarded catching shoot three pointers in the second quarter and they hit one of them and I don't know whether it was a one o'clock start. The time change four days off, but like the calves look much better in the second half than they did the first, but ultimately it is a loss. So we move on to one of the other teams near the top of these is the New York Knicks fall to the Los Angeles Lakers 110 to 97 on Sunday afternoon. The Knicks are in a bit of a rough part of their schedule, but before diving to that, let's hear from Lockdown Lakers with more.

9:31I'm going to ask you to go host a lot of Lockdown Lakers podcast. The Lakers get a 110 97 win over the Knicks in LA LeBron James unable to play because of an elbow injury. And this is one of the best wins of the season for the Lakers and maybe their best defensive win of the season period. The Lakers offense stalled out in the fourth quarter and they had to rely on stops and physicality and activity in order to prevent a comeback. Luke Adoncho played very well on both ends, 35 points, eight rebounds and two steals Austin Reeves, one of his best games in a while, 25 points, five assists and four stocks. Marcus Smart, despite going one of 10 from the field, 18 high plus 27 and the plus minus had so many different plays where he was the tone setter or catalyst for big defensive moments drawing files. He was huge in this game, a really good start for the Lakers as they are about to embark on a stretch of very difficult games.

10:37For more Lakers coverage, make sure you're watching Lockdown Lakers on YouTube and listening wherever you get your podcasts. I do not want to reign on the parade of the Lockdown Lakers podcast, however, the Nick Surner stretch of five games in seven days, it's gone from the Midwest to the East Coast all the way to the West Coast. In an afternoon game in LA just screams schedule lost to me and the Lakers play well, sure, I think there was more at play here. I mean, it's always tough to get those kind of wins on the road when you're on a West Coast swing for an East team or an East Coast swing for West team. That is an NBA history and you can track that and say that there's probability for why you get lose or you get demolished. But I do want to credit the Lakers because again, that same Nick's team went into Denver on Friday and when the game was actually a good game in the first quarter, you know, as soon as the second quarter started, it was 29 27. It's over the nicks and then they just obliterated Denver to rest of the way.

11:37So the nicks deserve a lot of credit for how well they played it's beat the spurs. Obviously didn't had a really close game with the thunder and then they come out here, they beat Denver and then they lose to L.A. And L.A. just they played a really good game and shout out to Luca, you know, he had a he did have a good game. He did have a good defensive game, but I also want to note, man, like, you know, Jared Vanderbilt and Austin Reeves and Rui Hachimura. They all did very special things today and they all helped to make this game what it was. So shout out to them and this was actually an impressive win for me. And I think this should bode well for Lakers fans and say, like, we can at least believe in the process that we have the team, we have the talent to compete. They just have to be able to do it on a night and night out basis and I do think them getting this win over the nicks should matter for them and for their morale. I think it's a nice win. I think they played well, but I think that they caught the nicks that an advantage is spot in the schedule too. I think that definitely matters, but we mentioned the Detroit pistons who are not in an advantage of spot in their schedule. They've lost four straight, including to Miami on Sunday.

12:39We're going to discuss that and everything else left in the NBA right here. I'm not going to be a game night. But first today's show is brought to you by quote spring is a natural reset point. And if there's one thing that can quietly cross businesses money, it's messy communication. Miss calls scattered texts, no clear threat of who said what. And that's why today's episode brought you by quote spelled QO the smarter way to run your business communications. What was the number one rated business phone system on G2 with over 3000 reviews trusted by more than 90,000 businesses. It lets your entire team share one business number so you never miss a call text or an opportunity. Everything lives in one clean thread calls text voicemails. It's all right there. The whole team sees the conversation. So nothing is going to fall through the cracks in the AI summary safe serious time by logging calls and highlighting the next steps automatically. Just make sure business feel a little bit more organized and a whole lot more responsive. So make this season the season of no opportunity and no miss customer.

13:41Try quote for free and get 20% off your first six months at quote dot com slash locked on NBA. That's quote Q U O dot com slash locked on NBA quote no missed calls no missed customers today show is also brought to you by price picks. Shoot your shot on price picks and get $50 instantly in line. So when you play your first $5 that's right price picks is now giving you $50 in line ups. When you sign up and play your first $5 line up makes every dunk every assist and every big play. That much more said price picks is the number one daily fantasy sports picks app and it's super simple to play. It's easy. You just pick more or less on two to six player staff projections. If your picks are right you can cash in. You can build line ups across a ton of sports basketball that's going on right now big month for basketball. Also going on right now I've watched baseball in the past couple days didn't anticipate it but I have hockey also going on college hoops going on soccer. I'm sure it's going on somewhere golf definitely going on and so much more one feature that's awesome is the early payouts feature.

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15:48You can get into our every day or club bracket pool on discord for a chance to win lock down merch should be a lot of fun. So right now use the code March that is M-A-R-C-H to get your first month for free just head to the link in the show notes to learn more elsewhere in the NBA. The Miami heats get a 121 to 110 win over the Detroit pistons. This is a very nice win for a Miami was the second night of a back to back for Detroit. We will get to the Detroit angle in a second but first here's West Goldberg from locked on heat with more tonight's after beating the hottest team in the NBA. The Miami beat successfully in the NBA at least my record beating the case since here on Sunday at CSA Center 121 to 110 and it was banned out of aisle until a year old leading the way. There's a book that would want to stone to the franchise after the evening of Charlotte on Friday night and they played like the cornerstones of the franchise this one. Entering a two-way effort over the team with the best of the best record in the league.

16:48The bitches were playing on the second night of a back to back was keeping that in mind and they looked like it. They won this game in every fashion, every area, in every way. In transition on the board defensively they were tired. They won the 50-50 balls. They all hustle the best in. Probably to be expected from this is a team that was on the rest of the sedantic there but definitely man you gotta give it to them. They have now funded on a four straight wins of the second time all season and by the time the night ends they could be in sixth place in the Eastern Conference. So look out, these playing their best basketball this season right now maybe being at the right time. We'll have more on this win and what it means going forward over locked on heat. I will say like this is a very good win for Miami as West mentions. I was actually more impressed with the win they had on Saturday night over the Charlotte Horn or Friday night over the Charlotte Horn. It's like that to me given what Detroit is going through right now. I do think is the better of these two wins to West's point because Orlando beat Milwaukee on Sunday night and we'll get to that game in a minute.

17:52Miami still in the plan but they are in a virtual tie just percentage points in terms of win percentage behind Orlando for that spot that final spot in the top six. Yeah, I mean look is there a world remind me just goes on a run here. Like I think it depends like what you define as run. I don't look at them as a team. I don't think that they're capable of beating any of the top four teams in a seven game series in the East. But they can we never heard that before though that that's the only thing right now. I'm not I'm not jumping on the jump to bandwagon to say they're going to do it. But brother, I've heard that before a couple of times were different. And I was somebody that was big on Miami earlier this year before the season I you can go ask West. I was high on Miami coming into this season. I thought they'd be a little bit better than they are. But I was eight and two in their last 10 and they won five straight. They're awesome basketball right now. They're cooking, bro. They are. They're playing and they're in the gym.

18:53They're they're a game out of the 50. They could get to five. I think they're better than the raptors right now. Like the raptors don't look all that great. Get to five. That'd be great. I would love to go to Miami in the first round of the caps. No, no, never mind. I mean, I selfish reasons only he wants to go. You might have been making it to the 50. No, but I will say, man, Miami is cooking. That was a really great game today. And I think for Miami side, they were able to simply just out offense the pistons. And at some level, you know, we talked about this before to show a little bit. That's showing up a lot lately. Y'all I'm talking about the first quarter. The game was not over in the first quarter, but they definitely put a real. Inffits of doubt. You know, they got up to what 36 to 16 at one point 36 to 19 at one point. And it was just kind of like, alright, this is. This is not going great. And then it felt like every time to try to make some runs. It just didn't matter. They were getting to the rim. They were getting to the whole. They got up 20 plus points. Almost like 30.

19:53Like this was just an absolute domination win by Miami. And I'm telling you, brother, David Mitchell, Bama, the bio, Tyler hero, Jaime Hakez, Andrew Wiggins. It might sound like a bunch of guys, yo, bitch, it might sound like a bunch of guys. But with Spowe at the helm. Man, I wouldn't be shocked, bro. If we go into the playoffs or like, bro, there's no way they're doing this again. Because there won't be a way, but I do think there's something to talk about from this game. And that's Detroit, who's now lost for a straight. Here's Koo from Lockdown Pistons on that. Detroit Pistons have not played Good Basketball since All-Star Break ended. Also Lockdown Pistons podcast Kooke here here. It's getting pretty close to hitting that panic button for the Detroit Pistons. I'm not going to lie to you. Doing what the SAR Thompson being out. You're seeing how the defense has completely fallen apart. And even really going all the way back to the All-Star Break. The last 10 games, the Pistons have fallen from the best defense in the NBA. They played like the last 10 games, the 16th best defense in the NBA.

20:53And some of that was with the SAR already on the floor. They have completely lost what they had defensively. Over the last 10 games, what they've been doing for the first few months. The dribble penetration that they're allowing has been absolutely criminal. Some of the rotations that they've been having on the defensive end has been criminal. The effort on the defensive end from a lot of players has been criminal. And now you lose your best perimeter to the defender. Your best defender, what was holding defense together in his minutes, the last 10 games when he was on the floor. He had a 104 defensive rating. And yet still, you have the 15th, 16th best defense in the NBA. Now he's not here in the minutes without the SAR. They have a 119 defensive rating. They just a lot of 103, two Miami through three quarters. If they can't get their defense to get back to where it was with the SAR out for the foreseeable future, they're going to be in trouble. Time to press the panic button and Detroit. No, it's too short of a sample size. But as I said, if the South is getting up to that number one seed,

21:55that is panic button worthy because a lot of them are minimum for the playoffs and them getting to the finals are going to be contingent of them having home court throughout. And again, brother, their offense is mid and it's going to be mid because they only have Cade and some, you know, incinerary players. But it's their defense that's actually not been super highly. And I think that's just a more stretcher. That's just actually something that's kind of taking place right now. But I think it's all matchup based for them. Yeah. Like I look in and they've not obviously played the Celtics with Tatum. So we can just throw that out. We have no evidence there. They've cooked the nicks every time they play them. Like just flat out, destroyed New York in all three matchups. Games against the calves. But two and two, one of their wins was again, as we mentioned earlier, in overtime when the calves were without Don of a Mitchell without James Harden, missing a bunch of key guys. The other one was because Dennis Jenkins hit seven threes.

22:56And the other two games, the calves kind of dominated them. And one of them was without Don of a Mitchell too. So like I look at Detroit and say their path to getting to the finals is again, I don't know what they'll look like against Boston. That's fully healthy. But they can't see Cleveland because they will not win a series that they do not have the offense to keep up with the calves. And I think the calves have too many guys to throw at Kate Cunningham. And that can really just make life difficult for the pistons to score enough. I want to believe that with you. I still want to see Evan Mobile and Jared Allen in that series. I just think three is worth more than two and the pistons and not shoot. And they can't. They don't have more than one guy that can create them. And I think that's the biggest issue form that not only do they, because Kate hit six, Kate was six of nine from three in this game. The rest of the pistons were five of 28. And like that is not some outlier type performance from them recently. That has been who they won a game against Orlando last week, where they were four of 30 from beyond the yard.

23:56Like this is who they are. It's they don't have enough offense. I think it's time to press the panic button if you're a Detroit pistons fan. Because things are not looking good lately. But we've got a few more games to get to including the San Antonio Spurs, putting an absolute smack down on the Houston Rockets. That's next right here. I'm locked in and be a game night. But first today's show brought to you by Fandall. College basketball is nonstop. You've got big games tight spreads momentum swings every single night from early tip-offs to late night west coast. Shootouts. There's always action on the board right now. Fandall is giving you a way to turn that energy into an even bigger potential win, with a college basketball parlay profit boost. You can build any college hoops parlay you want, rival regains, ranked matchups, conference tournaments, right? You can pick a winner whatever conference you like. Pick your winner. You can build a parlay on conference champs. You can mix spreads, totals, player props to match, how you see the slate playing out, then apply the profit boost and instantly bump up the potential payout. So go safe. Go bold. Ride with the team.

24:56You've been following all season. It's your parlay, your style and now with even more upside behind it. So right now what you need to do as conference tournament week is here. We are the one of my favorite weeks of the college basketball season is here. So you have to head to fandall.com today to start celebrating it. That's fandall.com F-A-N-D-U-E-L dot com today. Fandall play your game today. Show is also brought to you by indeed workplace chaos deadlines stacking up your inbox. Probably overflowing in the one position that you have to fill. Well, it's still sitting open when the pressure is on. And you need the right hire. This is a job for sponsor jobs. Indeed sponsor jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for. Skills, experience, location. So you're not just hoping that the right candidate stumbles across your post. And here's a stat that says it all in the minute that I've been talking to you. Companies like yours have made 27 hires on indeed according to indeed data worldwide. So spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results.

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27:00Yeah, man, I sent on my on the timeline after watching this game. There is a world in which Victor women Yama is the closest thing we've ever gotten to a perfect NBA player. And when you see games like today where he seems to be able to show a level of mastery with the basketball. It's an off into player, especially in transition or just when he's moving. It's just makes you look at it. It's like man, like he's not even like fully polished yet. And look, the spurs are, you know, I was really high on them coming into the year, but obviously they've moved into a different tier man. Bro, if you told me they're the second best team. But hey, as first as we beat OKC three times. If you told me they were the second best team in the conference, I would disagree with you at this point Denver has not been healthy all year. Murray's day today with an ankle, like they can't seem to get right. They've already whooped OKC multiple times. They believe the spurs believe they have the best player in the series versus OKC.

28:02And I don't, I mean, you might not think as you might think as shade better now. But I'm telling you that having a defensive anchor that's that good that literally can change every possession in the game. And then on offensive in he's also growing into he's a he's a very good offensive player, like not an elite one yet. But then Dylan Harper to Fond Castle, Darren Fox, like. Bro, we start going through the archetypes of having multiple ball handlers and elite defense and like maybe an unsolvable player. Hey man, I'm not a lot of you spurs fans. You should feel very, very good about your chances this year. Yeah, I think they're the second best team in basketball right now. I feel very strong. Now is that are they going to get to the finals or are they going to win? I don't know. I'm not ready to say that. Like I want. I'm very excited to see what the spurs look like in a postseason environment because it is different. Like it's a different game when you get there and they don't have experience there. But I am incredibly excited to see what that's going to look like in San Antonio when that day finally does arrives.

29:07But I want to move on to the Orlando magic as they get a 130 to 91 win over the Yanis less version of the Milwaukee bucks. Here's a guy Philip Ross and Reich with locked on magic for more. Most of locked on magic here at five so far is the Orlando magic dismantled a walkie box 130 to 91. You can certainly look at the opponent and make all those conclusions. But as I was saying these kinds of games, you still have to do the job. And what's increasingly becoming clear is that the Orlando magic more than capable of doing the job at night in and night out. That has been the M.O. for this team really since the all star break there now. I believe six and four or some 64 73 since the all star break. They are taking care of their business and doing what they have to do to win. And a lot of it starts with palo bank. And starts with him beginning to take control on command of games the way that you'd expect to start to. I have been as critical of as any one of palo and palo has gotten plenty of criticism from around the national meeting around the league. But he scores 33 points on 12 for 16 shooting days was 26 in the first half. He sets that tone for the team on offense gets a fishing shot at the tax quickly.

30:10It gets to the basket seemingly at will. And yeah, Yanis was out tonight bucks don't have their full complement of players. He took advantage of that the way a star is supposed to do. And in the second half as the magic needed to expand that lead. He became a facilitator. He became the hub of everything as the defense collapse around him. This is what star players do. And palo is doing it more and more since the all so break. And that is why the magic are back in the race for six are back in the race for fifth and climbing those standings very, very steadily. There are tougher challenges ahead. The magic face the cows on Wednesday. They'll take this win because they all count the same in the end. They do all count the same. There's no doubt about that. And he's right. Like this is a team that I think I personally had written off as they'll be in the plan. We'll see what happens. They'll have to take on Boston or New York or somebody tough in the first round. They're finding their way. I still don't think they're a team similar to Miami. I don't think they're a team capable of winning a postseason series. But this is a nice one for them. And then on the other side of things. Milwaukee's four games behind the plan right now.

31:10Like I think they're out of time. Yeah. No, that's over. That's not a story. It's not even talked about that. Not even worth talking about. Um, but shout out by the way. There's not been a lot of hype. Everybody wants to talk about Apollo and Jerome. He's not playing well. Apollo last 10 games. 26 points. Nine rebounds. Six assist a game. He's also shooting 51% from the field. 34 from three and 82 from the line. That's good for a 62 shooting. That's a public average shooting and scoring. That's really good. It's good to see it. First stretch from Paula. Thank you. I would like to see it for a longer stretch from Paula. Because that is unfortunately not who Paula. Bank arrow has been for most of his career. It's a very much a basketball for Paula. Bank arrow. And he deserves credit for playing some very good winning basketball. As of late, but I do want to move on. As we get short on time here as the New Orleans Pelicans. Get a one thirty eight to one one eighteen win over the Washington. Wizards. Here's our guy Jake Madison with more. Pelicans beat the Washington. Wizards with one of the straight up weirdest box scores. You're going to see in a very long time in an NBA game. I'm Jake Madison, a host of locked on Pelicans.

32:12The Pelicans won by twenty one thirty eight one eighteen. I've actually just closing the door midway through the fourth quarter against this pretty bad wizard's team. We're three young only played about 18 minutes here. You got good performances all around. Trey Murphy loved the way with 24 points for New Orleans. Zion Looms in 20 points on just eight shot attempts. Sadeek Bay in the 20s as well. Just a good night for New Orleans here. That was helped by forty seven free throw attempts. That's second highest in franchise history here. They won a game making just seven threes. The Pelicans were seven for just twenty three attempts. I guess it doesn't matter when you're just getting into the paint, getting fouled and going to the line every single time. The Pelicans had thirty six free throw attempts in the first half alone. Waiting a game in the NBA in twenty twenty six with just seven made threes. Pretty unbelievable. I got the story over at locked on Pelicans. That isn't absurd amount of free throw attempts. That's all I have to say on this game. That is so many free throws. That's a lot of free throws brother. So many free throws but moving on to Portland where the trailblazers get a one thirty one to one eleven win

33:17over the Indiana Pacers are guy Tony East on the scene. So one eleven places to one thirty one the final score from here in the mode of center Tony East here. Talking for locked on Pacers tough one for the Pacers again, but it's the same game they've showed very, very often in this nine game losing streak. Some spirit play thirty five ish minutes and some dreadful stretches that cost them this time of twenty to two run for Portland. They're about to late in the second quarter and the blazers ended up winning by twenty. That was very costly for the Pacers. Their defense has been absolutely dreadful since the also break they've lost all nine of their games in that stretch. Frequently a different reason tonight. It was a variety of reasons Blazers got to the paint when they wanted. They got open threes when they wanted. They were just better than the Pacers in every way. Despite Pascal see outcome continuing to carry at least a somewhat size of a load on offense. Other guys playing somewhat well. J. Huff had got going in the second half. The Pacers just can't knock it over the hump and win a game. That's their ninth in a row. They play the Kings and a very, very important inverse standings game in their next game on Tuesday. Well much more on locked on Pacers. I can almost hear Pacers fan chanting keep the pick every time they lose because that is the most important thing is they need to keep the pick.

34:21They're bad. They're not going to be bad next year, but they're bad right now. And they need to keep that pick. Yeah, but I'm actually hoping that the Pacers do. I mean, I would love the Clippers to also get a two. So I feel like I'm torn here. But for the sake of the fact that they made that gamble and they also are taking the real tank here because how he's out. I would love for them to be able to re up and say, Hey, we got Caleb Wilson and Pascal see occupant because we watching Hollywood and Ryan and Andrew Nimhard. Let's go see if we can win a championship. Yeah. And if they don't keep that pick, I think we will probably feel differently about their chances for the next couple of years, but we will have to wait and see. And now we head on out to the Toronto Raptors, giving a one to 22 to 92 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, Toronto led and scoring by RJ Barrett with 31 points on 13 of 19 from the floor Cooper flag has a bit of an off 90 and idea 17 points on seven of 17 shooting had a port had six assists was a game time decision because of a foot ankle injury that he's been dealing with. It's why he picked up the first technical file of his entire career, I believe is what he told the media after this game.

35:22Yeah, man, you know, that happens sometimes like, you know, Cooper is young. He's extremely competitive and he hates losing and this is probably the most losing he's ever done in his life. But this is what a transition here is in the NBA, so he'll figure that out. Obviously, I think he's going to be a superstar one day, but shout out man, like, again, we're talking about like who's rising, who's falling, the Raptors, they needed this win in the worst way. Yes, they they did. They are fairly suddenly, I think in a fight for fifth in the Eastern Conference and I think that if I would have told you that a month ago, you'd say, oh, Philly has figured it out and instead Philly is now down in eighth in the Eastern Conference in. It's with Orlando and Miami, I'm not sure that a ton of people I know I certainly didn't see that coming, but moving on. We've got two more games to get to is the Sacramento Kings. Yeah, the worst team in basketball gets a 126 to 110 win over the Chicago Bulls. Maxime right now leads them with 26 points. Russell Westbrook has a triple double his 23 points 11 boards 12 assists in a win. The Bulls are led by Colin Sexton who had 28 points hit seventh reason this game, so nice game for him.

36:26I would imagine that the Kings are maybe happy to finally win one and the Bulls are not too upset to lose this game. Yeah, shout out to Russ man, this is an incredible player to be this in year 18. I think of his career and then you still be putting a triple doubles and having effective nights like this, like that's amazing form. And then the last game of the night, the Phoenix Suns get a really nice 111 to 99 win over the Charlotte Hornets Hornets. It's been one of the NBA's best teams over the past couple of months. Phoenix has had Devon Booker back. I believe this is his fourth game back. They're still without Dylan Brooks. Booker goes off for 30 points on 7 of 18 shooting a perfect 15 of 15 at the free throw line. Also hands out tennisists in a win. Lamella ball led the way for Charlotte. He had 22 points. Khan Knipple had 15 points on just four of 11 shooting overall a really, really nice win for Phoenix. Great win for the Suns Hornets have been the best team in the leagues in January. So getting a win over that team is important. And for them, it keeps them fighting to have a playoff chance this year as well. Shout out to Devon Booker. Shout out to Jordan, as well.

37:29Jordan, I would have as probably number two on my coach of the year ballot. If I had so many good coaches this year, bro, like there are a lot of great candidates. I think for me, I think Missoula, like there's a gap between what he's done in Boston and the rest of the league. And then I think it's Jordan out and a bunch of guys in that two, three spot right now. You could go a lot of different ways. And there's not really arguments against a lot of guys. Sure. Mark Dagnott as well. Like again, there's just so many great coaches in league. Mitch Johnson. I mean, we could JB Bicker staff. There are a lot of really great coaches that have had a lot of really great seasons. And I hope that you had a great time listening to this latest edition of Lockdown NBA game, right? The show where we talk about every single game, every single night. You can find this show anywhere you get your podcast. It's Apple Spotify or on YouTube as well. Please do us a favor. Make sure you hit the thumbs up button in the notification bell on YouTube if you have not already. And make sure you're subscribed to the show and we'll be back tomorrow talking about every NBA game.