Knicks at Hawks | Opening Monologue | POSTGAME RECAP

0:00It's crunch time in the East. This is where the playoff race really starts. When you bet with fanatic sports book, you could earn fan cash up to 10% back on your bets, win or lose. And unlike points that expire, fan cash is the true currency of sports that you could spend on official team gear across every team and league, collectibles, exclusive experiences. It's all on fanatics.com. You're getting access to the world of sports every time you bet with fanatic sports book. And before every game, you could find our Nick's film school best bets right inside the fanatic sports book at. So if you're betting the game, you could bet right along with us. Get in on the action and start earning fan cash today. Fanatic sports book winning hits different here. Rounds in the second one next by three Hawks have to throw it down the link. The round of time outs 1.2 remaining McCollum drives from half court. Oh, he backs it out. He backs it in. No, they wave it off. They wave it off. He didn't get it off the top.

1:00They're going to look at it. Their pistols were looking at each other and then they wave it off. Well, we'll take a look. Both fans are delirious right now McCollum from beyond half court. Still in his hand. I think it's so close. Still in his hand. Still in his hand. Right there. But the clock is still 4.10 to the second. Here you are. The game is over. That was so close. One incredible wild traffic finish. And the next with maybe their best road win of the season. An invigorating victory here in Atlanta. A collective effort. All the things with the net. And that was close. Hold on. Let me catch my breath.

2:02Got a defibrillator over here. This fucking team, man. Welcome to the Nick's film school post game show. Presented by fanatic sports book. Man. I don't know if that's the next best road win of the year. But I think it might be the most important. We have a lot. A lot to get to on that game. But I actually want to start with something that literally I just muted my TV. Crawling at the end of still on the process of giving the on court post game interview. And he said something that I was trying to figure out how I wanted to start off talking about this game and encapsulate what was a wild night on many fronts. A lot of good. Some bad. Ultimately enough to win. Despite one of the wildest endings that you will ever see in a basketball game. And I'm going to and he actually put the words.

3:04In my mouth where he said that win. Fell like last year. And what a fascinating thing to say after a game like that. After a win like that. After a gritty. Come from behind performance in the fourth quarter. I mean several come from behind moments for the next they were down. Repeatedly throughout this game. Always came back took every punch delivered several of their own. Obviously. And for carl into town's to characterize it as. Yeah, that felt like last year. I think that helps explain to me. Why this win. Felt different than some other ones that they have had this year. There was. A great about them throughout the course of this game.

4:07And I understand that's going to be an odd or that is an odd thing to say. About a game where the next gave up 19 offensive rebounds. They they've been having these games right now and then. Where they're just not great on the defensive class. And that's obviously something they would need to clean up if they end up playing. And that's a great team in the playoffs because this the Hawks were huge. And they're feisty and they and their lesser offensive players. Much like Josh Hart. We're going to get to find ways to still impact things positively. And Dyson Daniels, I think was probably example number one of that tonight. But yeah, despite the fact that they gave up all those offensive rebounds. I thought this was an incredibly gritty. Performance from the next tonight. Not the only team where you they could be accused of their offense. Infects or influences their defense, both for the good and the bad. We see when this team is going well on the offensive end of the floor.

5:09It kind of inspires their defense. We see many team times when this team is not going well on the offensive side of the floor. It leads to defensive letdowns. And we've also seen this team kind of wilt at times throughout this year in certain circumstances. Obviously not in every circumstance. They have had some big wins. But if we're calling a spade a spade, some of the best wins have been blowouts. Like, you know, the most recent Denver win comes to mind. And yeah, they have some gritty ones. Obviously the Spurs games. I think both qualify the first Denver win qualifies. But I think given how the last month or so has gone have basically the last like 1012 games have gone. You really wanted to see a performance like this where I know they shot 50% from the field. They only made a third of their threes tonight. And Jalen Brunson obviously for three quarters had one of the worst offensive games that he was having of the entire season.

6:13But they kind of dug deep. And they dug deep in a way that yes, it was a lot of Jalen Brunson in the fourth quarter. But I thought they played. And this is where I was kind of going with why I think this might have been the most important road win of the season. If not the most important win of their entire year. They seem to do it together. You know, it was interesting that before this game, Mike Brown had a sound bite. I'm not sure if he was directly asked. I would assume he was directly asked. I'm not sure why Mike Brown would voluntarily bring up the starting five unless he was asked a question about it. But he said, look, you know, never say never. But we're sticking with these starters. And it was very interesting because I think it was Bondy who, and he's not the first person to bring this up. Bondy tweeted that out. And he wrote in the same tweet that he had heard that Landry Shamit had gotten some consideration potentially for a spot in the starting five.

7:18We've heard rumblings of that. I think over the last few weeks, saying Andrew has even talked about it on the show. That like for a little while now, I think there's been a real consideration. And I just find it very interesting because a lot of times people know more than they're able to report at any given time. I find it very interesting that that question was asked before this game. And that Mike Brown was very prepared to say exactly what he said, which is that no, we're sticking this out. And I know there's a lot of talk to talk about at the end of this game. It was a absolutely throwing fourth quarter with some big, big, big time heroic performances from several next lot of heroes in this game. Really almost everybody played had moments where you look at and you say they're not winning the game without this person's effort or that person's effort. But for me, I kind of think I want to go back to the start. And at the very start, it started terribly to possessions to turnovers where I tweeted out at the time, different day, same bullshit.

8:23And it felt like we were heading in that direction early on, especially when Nikhil Alexander Walker. And again, you want to talk about the grit that it talked to win this game. I know the Hawks did not end up having a scintillating shooting performance overall. They ended up shooting 40% from the field. But Nikhil Alexander Walker had maybe not the best game of this career, but one of the two or three best games of this career, the guy was unconscious. And when you throw in those 19 turnovers and then you throw in the next kick in the ball around for most of the first half ended up with 17 turnovers only got 12 of the game. That's a lot to overcome where you're kicking the ball around where you're giving up offensive boards and one of the opposing players is having himself a career night. Not to mention Jaylen Johnson, pretty good night in his own, even though he only scored 21. So a lot to overcome there. And I think that started early with the game that Nikhil Alexander Walker was having.

9:23And they kind of took the early punches and it didn't seem to phase them. My favorite stat of this game, more than Jaylen Brunson's fourth quarter numbers, more than. Carl Anthony Towns third quarter, which was a magnificent. My favorite stat of this game was from the first quarter where they had 11 assists on 13 made field goals. And again, coming off of two straight games, where what did I get on here and talk about in each of those games? I got on here and talk about how boy oh boy, not the starters out there looks awfully fucking good in terms of the ball movement in terms of the energy on both sides of the floor in terms of how they were executing in terms of the energy that they were executing with the purpose that they came out there and played with. One game, no JB, one game, no guy, it didn't seem to matter. It was just not the starters. And then the most recent taste we had in our mouth of the starters was from the previous game against the Rockets where that might have been the worst starters have looked.

10:23Second half of the year. It was it was an atrocity. So to come in here against a team that had one 13 consecutive games in their building and 18 and three. Since the all star break. And like I tried out all my next film school newsletter subscribers on sub stack you find the. You know, easily find the Google next film school sub stack for anybody wants to read today's free newsletter, which is free every Monday. I went through the foremost likely in next Eastern conference first round playoff opponents, one of which is the Atlanta Hawks. And so I spent a lot of time this weekend digging into Atlanta. And like yeah, their record is is partially because they play it. I think I counted 11 tanking teams out of those 18 wins 10 or 11 something like that. But the numbers they're putting together. Are not an accident and the thing that really stunned me and I think I said this with Jeremy.

11:24They are great at all the things that you want to be great again at against the next. They take away threes they they teams don't shoot three well against them. And you can see why because they fight like hell. They've great perimeter defenders. They're very switchable. And then on the other end they take a ton of threes. Despite the fact that they have in their starting lineup or perimeter player who doesn't really shoot threes, although we shot three tonight. I said Daniels. But everybody else on their roster pretty much shoots it. And they make threes at a high percentage. So those four things that's that's a tough way to go about your business if you're playing them. And so 13 wins in a row at home, not an accident, not an aberration. This is a real team. And so for anybody who's hearing everything I'm saying and I'm waxing poetic about a next three point win that was a point one seconds away from going into overtime on a miracle. CJ McCollum, he will talk about the leak in execution as well. And you're saying, come on, man.

12:25We're supposed to be talking about this team as a championship contender. And you're and you're going nuts over a winning. It's the freaking Hawks. Listen. Remember this. I remember this from my decade as a New York City public school teacher. You meet students where they are. And maybe that's me being maybe that's me actually belittling the next a little bit. But I know my basketball team. And I know my basketball team struggles. And I know how they've looked for a little while now. They have gotten going during some stretches of play this season. But there have also been some stretches to play that made me feel a certain type of way and I know I'm not the only one. So on a night when yes, they were, it was a close win. But it was also a night where they were very imperfect giving up all those offensive rebound and turn the ball over all those times. And for three quarters, Jalen Brunson was really, I liked his process.

13:27But he was just, I mean, from an execution standpoint, it was, it was not what you want at all. And of course, he finishes with 30 points because he's Jalen Brunson. So big time stuff from this basketball team. And then we could now, I guess, get into, and then one other thing just about how they came out. Who have been the guys that have gotten most of the criticism this year? I know Brunson's been catching some shit of late and there's perpetually a band of angry misfit toys who want to, you know, banish part to the shadow dimension. But for the most part, most of the criticism has been aimed at Karan and the towns on McAlbridge's for most of this year. And I thought both of those guys, again, hashtag meaningful for them to come out of the gate, cat, impacting the game in a big way, not necessarily was scoring. Big time room contests, big time rebounds and big time passing and towns ended up in this game with six assists.

14:27He could add a triple double. I think we were talking about it in our betting and sweating chat, how if the nicks could make it three for the middle two quarters of this game, cat would have had a triple double. And he's still ended up with six assists and he embraced that role and you could tell he was embracing that role from the outset. And then McAlbridge is, what do we always say about McAlbridge is seeks no contact, avoids physicality, the whole thing. The man had two dunks in the first four minutes of the game, it was 10, 10, two of the four of the nicks, 10 points where I'm a Calbridge is dunks. It was absolutely a delight to see. And then I want to get this out of the way early because before we get to the fourth quarter, I know I'm bearing the lead crazy fourth quarter, but I want to get all the stuff that I think matters even more. Mike Brown, experimentation throughout the night, doing some things that we have not seen before. So number one, we got the Twin Towers, bearing Karl Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson in the first quarter.

15:28That might be the first time I remember seeing that all year. If it's happened in another first quarter this year, I don't remember it. And we got it for a nice little bit. And part of the reason for that was so Mitchell Robinson staying on his normal substitution plan. As far as when he came in in the first quarter, but Karl Anthony Towns, not going out of the game as early as he usually does, which led to the next thing from Mike Brown, which was starting the second quarter with no Jalen Brunson and no Karl Anthony Towns on the floor. The part that I know that was some of the beatwriters were focusing on earlier today. Jose Alvarado being out of the rotation. We've been, I've been talking about this for a month. Maybe not a month because Alvarado was playing well for a while, but at least a few weeks. Like, do the math. He's not taking due side of the rotation. He's not taking Langer Shaman out of the rotation. Once Clarkson started playing like this, so not a month, so the last few weeks. Once Clarkson started playing like this, I was like, there's no way he's taking Jordan Clarkson out of the rotation.

16:29So that's three undersized guards, none of which are your point guard. Who's the ad man out? The guy who's shooting like, you know, 37% from the field and like 29% from three or whatever it is. So that wasn't a surprise to me that he's going with the three other small guards in the, to start the second quarter, along with OG, although he ran that line up a little with Josh Hart at a certain point in the game. But it makes the most sense that OG is the power forward there, but then having Mitch out there. And then I'm watching it for a little bit and look, I know that lineup's probably going to catch some shit. I think it got outscored, but that's a defense. That's an all defense lineup. You know, and I liked that Mike Brown tried it out. Is it going to be something he's going to go to again? I don't know. But I thought they looked okay on offense. I don't know how I think it's surviving on some good defense with that group out there. But I thought they looked okay. You know, sham it doing kind of most of the ball handling.

17:30Mitch is doing Mitch stuff. And while we're talking about Mitch arrived and said I might as well get to him now because my God. Just beast mode. Just absolute fucking wreckage carnage. Like NC 17, cover your children's eyes. What a performance throughout the entire night. And it was from the moment he checked in until the last moment he was on the floor from Mitchell Robinson. The numbers are like whatever. They're fine. Eight points, 12 rebounds. Four on the offensive glass. And then you go look at the defensive stats column. And sometimes defensive stats could be could be deceiving. Not these three blocks and two steals from Mitch. And I don't know how many other plays where he impacted shots in and around the rim. I mean, he had a classic block three. We haven't seen too many of those over the last few years. It was great to get one of those back, which of course led to the big. Oh, Jen and OB dunk. And then my favorite moment from Mitch of the night.

18:31I had a few favorite moments from Mitch on the night. But I'm diving first deal. You absolutely love to see that. Another big physicality play in the fourth quarter before he checked out of the game. First play back in was the block three. But early on the first quarter, or excuse me, second quarter. And we know Mitch likes to chat, likes to chirp. He's a churper, big time churper. And nobody ever pays any attention to it because it's Mr. Robinson and he's a fucking clown. But like it was rare that you see him react on the court when he doesn't get an opportunity. And he was under the basket. And I noticed it. And I didn't think I think it was was a car accident. I had the ball. I forget about the ball. Didn't get the pass to Mitch under the basket. And I didn't know if he had the pass because it was a hawk defender in the vicinity. And Mitch does like, he looks to the sky and does like one of these or whatever. And it kind of physically or visibly frustrated that he can get the pass.

19:32What does he do? He gets right back in the fucking play. And by the way, just after he got the steal that led to the pass break, I should have noted that. It gets right back in the play, grabs the offensive rebound. It leads to the put back. Then more interesting stuff. We've spent all season, most of two seasons talking about Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Downs or the worst star pairing in the NBA in terms of how they amplify each other or how they don't do that. And what does Mike Brown do? Put them back into the game together. At the same time, no stagger puts them back in together. I think perhaps seeing what or liking what he saw in the first quarter between those two guys. And he put them in there with Macau Bridges. Now it was in the middle of it Atlanta run. So maybe it was trying to stem the tide. Whatever it was. What I loved is after Atlanta kind of scored a few more points.

20:32They called the time out. What was the first play out of the time out? A JB Karl Anthony Downs pick and roll. It led to a really nice easy cat drive and a score. And again, going back to my theme of the night. Was this the most important win of the year when you put all the little pieces together. When you look at how Karl Anthony Downs and Jalen Brunson were interacting with each other. We haven't gotten to the fourth quarter yet. This was absolutely brilliant. And so they're down for it. They have despite having 11 turn orders and giving up 12 offensive rebounds. And Jalen Brunson going to evade from the field. So all things considered. I thought it was good that they were rolling down four. Obviously you got to clean that other stuff up. What happens in the third quarter? Again, why was this game important? How about Karl Anthony Downs talk about beast mode? Karl Anthony Downs putting the basketball team on his back. They were down at one point. I believe they were down by 10. I will double check that what the Atlanta Hawks biggest lead was either 10 or 11 was 10.

21:32Karl Anthony Downs put the same on his back. Go shoots five to five in the third quarter. He is eight of nine at one point in the basketball game. Absolutely the team. And it's all again, we know it's not always him. They have to get him the ball. And Yakuokangu was on me. Oh, okay. Give me the rock. I'm going to take this guy off the triple. And he did that on a few occasions. He got a Kongu now. For all the ways that the Hawks might be a tough matchup against the next and in fairness. I think they're going to be a tough matchup for anybody that they play. The one thing they don't really have is an ideal defender to deal with Karl Anthony Downs. I mean, they were so desperate and I feel it's probably a little disparaging to Jonathan Cumminga. But sorry, but like it felt like a little bit of desperation having Jonathan Cumminga tried to guard Karl Anthony Downs. No, I know they don't have Jockelandel. I'm sorry. Jockelandel is not this Karl Anthony Downs stopper. And the fact that they tried Cumminga is like, oh, well, you guys really don't have anybody

22:32for this matchup. And I think they know it. I think the next obviously figured it out. Now you want more than nine shots for Karl Anthony Downs to three quarters, but that gets us into the same old tired cat conversations. And again, I'm not paying as much attention to the fact that he only had nine shots with three quarters. I'm paying more attention to his impact on the basketball game. And I thought between the shot attempts and between the passes, and obviously on the defensive end, I think you put it all together and I think you had a huge impact still probably want to get him a little bit more, but I'm not going to go crazy about it because again, this is just a no pun intended. He's a different kind of cat and you're going to, on one hand, you maybe want to force the issue a little bit, but on the other hand, he has to want you to force the issue a little bit, but whatever. He was awesome. And so just great effort. Loved hearing Mike Green say at the end of the third quarter, the next fans are roaring right now.

23:33Good job on the Hawks fans getting loud throughout the night, but like, look, still a next town as are many towns along the eastern seaboard. Start of the fourth quarter, maybe a telling sign that in terms of Mike Brown, not having as much confidence in the lineup they started the second quarter with this time, same lineup except with far too many towns in place of Mitchell Robinson, doesn't go great. After down three, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart come back into the game after a rest cat comes back in the game. And then again, immediately after a Jalen Brunson miss, again, Jalen Brunson took some rough shots in this game. It wasn't just that he was bad through the first three quarters. Again, I didn't mind the process too much. There were a handful of shots. You're like, probably not the best shot you could take right there. One of those shots, cat gets the board and gets it to OG who goes super two on free throws to tie it up.

24:34And then we had maybe the most significant moment of the game that did not involve Jalen Brunson ripping the city of Atlanta's heart out. Josh Hart who had not had a good game to this point at all. I think he only ended up with one field goal. I forget if the field goal was before or after this was right around this time. But it was not having a good game. I don't know. He wasn't playing badly. He just wasn't having as big of an impact as he's capable of having. He has a bad turnover. Like it's just very bad. He tries to get the ball to, I don't even know who's trying to get the ball to, but he threw it right into the hands of an Atlanta hawk and down they come and the keelogs enter Walker hits a three to put the hawks up 97 to 92. And it was interesting and I know the camera doesn't always do this, but the camera followed heart back to the bench. And you saw multiple players.

25:37Mikhail was one of them. I think there was a team staffer was another one. Try to give heart a pound like to try to encourage him, like, you know, prop him up. And Josh Hart is just, to spawn that, absolutely, to spawn that. And it looked like to one person, he was like, just get away from me. And he wanted none of it. And I noticed that and I'm like, and look, just people out there who like, whether they want to win or not, they hate Josh Hart. They hate the idea of Josh Hart. They hate the fact that he is an imperfect basketball player, whereas someone like me who is nothing if not imperfect, that's my favorite thing about him. And it's always going to be my, it's going to be why I love him until he retires. I'll route for him no matter what team he's on. And I saw that and I saw his reaction. I'm like, that's why I'm always going to ride with Josh Hart because he cares in a way that is just unlike a lot of players care.

26:40And sure enough, what do we get down the stretch? We get Josh Hart playing defense on the Kellogg's end or Walker, forcing a 24 second violation. We get Josh Hart getting to, or we, sorry, Josh Hart playing the initial defense on C.J. McCollum that leads to the JB Steel, which led to Jalen Brunson getting the two point shot to finally give the next lead, put him up one or two 100. We get Josh Hart with two offensive rebounds on the same possession. Unfortunately, they didn't lead to any points. So you want to talk about getting 70-30 balls. And then, of course, we get who is the guy that plays the defense on Jalen Johnson for the last, or the third, and the big, the third to last talk shot of the game, was Josh Hart. And you know, nothing I say on here is going to change the people's minds out there who want to sell Josh Hart down the river and that's fine.

27:40Big fan base, diversity of opinions, the whole thing. I will ride with him until the end of time, and it's for stuff like that. And then that just leaves JB. I was pre-writing a column for later this week and shout out to all my sub-stack folks. Do on my end of year grades. And I, or end of regular season grades. And I was right in the JB section and I ended up, I don't want to reveal too much, but I'm giving JB a slightly higher grade than I, my gut says that I said I probably should. And I just wrote, like, it just doesn't feel like a great JB season. The numbers say it's not a great JB season, the individual numbers say it's not a great JB season, the advanced numbers say it's not a great JB season. I know he was an old star, he's going to make all NBA, despite what some crazy people might think.

28:41But it hasn't had the feel of a season that he has kind of had full command of is the term that I want to use. And it feels like, whereas it has been a louder struggle at times for Kat, for Mikhail, for Hart sometimes, obviously, even for OG, not recently, but for OG as well. But the JB struggles, obviously he's had some clunker of, clunkers of games, but it's been a more subtle struggle, like, you know, national media people, nobody's talking about like, oh, JB is not JB this year, because it's not obvious. But if you watch him night in and night out, you're like, something, it's just been a little off. And it hasn't just been the defense, which has actually improved. But something about him, it feels like he's not himself. So for him to have a close of this game, he scores 17 points in the fourth quarter and is, I mean, just masterful, I mean, I was trying to write down everything that he did.

29:46The heart or the three to tie the game at 100 all, maybe that was the biggest shot of the game, either that or the one to put him up to or the one to put him up, 104102. That was probably the best one. People want to put him up 104102 with whatever it was, 25 or 30 seconds left. Masterful stuff, just masterful stuff. And I've said this before, and I'll say it again. If you were a Nick Fane, who still has faith that this team could actually fuck around and do something in the next two months, for all the different things that we could talk ourselves into about this could go well and that could go well and matchups and starters and yada yada yada. If you believe in this team, it's because you believe in Jail Bronson. And he reminded everybody why, when he was not having it. He reminded everybody why he is worth believing in 30 points, 13 assists, again, to get back to my original theme when I started this show out.

30:49Just intentionality, I think, was in the right place for a lot of this night. And you know, look, this is tough matchup for him, wrote about that today too. Tough matchup, Dyson Daniels, there's no joke, Nikhil Alexander Walker's no joke, as far as defense goes. So great to see that. Things I didn't mention, OJ and OB really, really, really nice game, 22 points on 14 shots. He is just now solidified himself. It's like, yeah, I'm the third offensive option. I'm going to act like the third offensive option. I'm going to shoot like the third offensive option. I'm going to go by my business like the offensive option and honestly, that's healthy. It's healthy for everybody to know what everybody's role is. And I think, by the way, you know, who probably doesn't mind being third offensive option, OJ and OB. And when someone's out and he gets to be the second and a lot of nights he feels like the second, when someone's having an off night or whatever, or that's the ball just finds his hands.

31:51Great game from OJ, McCall. I talked about how his start to the game finished with 15 points on 13 shots. You know, I thought he did a nice job filling up the stab sheet, a couple of steels and a block. But I thought McCall's two way, but all five starters with the exception of JB, first three quarters and like hard, having a quieter game. I thought the starters played well individually and I thought they played well together as for the bench. We talked about Mitch already minutes total, so if you care about this sort of thing. Brunson did play 39 OG, played 37. I've been writing this since the start of the season, since before the season started. Like, come nut cutting time, there'll be two guys, you can basically put it in pen somewhere between 37 and 39 minutes a night. And that's Jalen Brunson and OJ and OB. Everybody else will fluctuate. So Mitch 20 minutes, Shaman 21 minutes, McBride 20 minutes, and Landry Shaman only two shots by the way tonight. But I thought it was good.

32:51I concentrated more on trying to run the show, didn't have any turnovers, so that's good. And then Jordan Clarkson, so three turnovers in nine minutes, not exactly what you want, not ideal. But we got more of Jordan Clarkson's usual hustle, which is always a plus. There's a play that he made tonight that I remember. I saw it. I'm like, there's Jordan Clarkson for you, but maybe not his best night. And I think like, honestly, you look at the minute totals tonight. I could see these being, I could see these being the minute totals for a playoff game. You know, where it's essentially an eight and a half memory rotation. Mitch Shaman and McBride all get 20 minutes up up. And on a night where maybe Jordan Clarkson isn't like electrifying on either end, he's the half, you know, and it's like, you saw it tonight, it's a nine minute night.

33:55But oh, man, just a fucking last thing before we go. So late game execution, I'm gonna go ahead and say not necessarily a strong suit for the next. So they go up by what was it for with five point, whatever seconds ago. And then CJ gets open because, and I didn't have a chance to rewatch this, but it felt like somebody decided to double a con, which sprung CJ open. Now, I don't know who dropped the ball there. You know, I thought it was interesting in that a decent amount of time went by because like the CJ three went down with whatever it was, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, something like that. But a decent amount of time went off like at least, the ball, at least the inbound didn't go to the guy that took the three. It went to a guy who then passed it to the guy who took the three. So it wasn't the absolute worst situation, but it was pretty close.

34:58And the decision to double a con will, you know, maybe you get a steal there, maybe a tip of ball, whatever. A lot of things could happen. That's at the end of the world. The thing that I found a little interesting is that the Hawks then had no timeouts and they decided to make both free throws. Now 1.2 seconds, look, as it was, you make both. And then it's not even like you got a bomb, like they avoided the bomb down the floor. So like that was again, a good job not allowing a long pass. Yeah, it's a pass it in the back court. And then more than that, the guy had to take a dribble. Brunson smart job by him, actually, I think not fouling, like we've seen that happen a lot this year, guys like fouling at end of game situations, like inexplicably, Brunson like tried to get in the way, didn't foul.

35:58Okay. And then CJ throws up a fucking prayer that banks in, which look, if that counted, I would have been like this, of course, right? What I would, is would you kill the only thing I could think to kill them on is the decision to make the second free throw only because I just the other thing I thought was interesting. You took town, you put mentioned the game, you took towns out of the game. And I was thinking, well, you got these two seven footers. If Brunson misses the second free throw, as long as you get like a fingertip on the ball, like games over, like, and what are the odds that the hawks are going to get a clean rebound there, you know? I would bet on Mitchell Robinson or Carl Anthony Towns getting a finger on the ball. And again, they get a finger ball, the game's over. And even if the hawks do get a clean rebound, at that point, they, if, if they're dribbling,

37:01like times going on, times starts exact the moment you touch the ball. So I don't know if that person would have been dribbling to a shot more likely than not, it would have been a pass ahead, which even in that sort of pass ahead, now, you know, you open yourself up to a loss. If you missed the second free throw on purpose, you open yourself up to a loss. I, I'm not saying it would have been, it's a slam dunk, missed the second free throw, but that's the only thing that I could think of there. I'm like, so they gave us a heart attack as they usually do. And yet, they won the game. I gave you one, Andrew.

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