Knicks at Raptors | Opening Monologue | POSTGAME RECAP

0:00What's up, y'all? This MDA season, don't let an injury rule out your bet. Other sportsbooks let injuries box you out, but fanatic sportsbooks fair play protects all bets from first half injury. So if your player goes down with an injury, fanatics keeps your bet out all the court. Make the switch and get more ways to win with Fanatic Sportsbook. Winning hits different here. For the 11th time in the last 19 games, the next of held an opponent under 100 points and they close the game on a 16-to-2 run to beat the Raptors again, improving to 4-0 against Toronto this season. There's a captain getting kudos from the Toronto fans. 111-95, the final, next of 1115-19. It sets up the matchup with Barkey and matchups tomorrow with Oklahoma City coming to town. Welcome to the next film school post game show presented by Fanatic Sportsbook.

1:02I am Jonathan Macri, and we are pleased that you could join us for this post game show. After we just did a watch along, very fun watch along. There it is. I was about to do it for you Mark, and I did that watch along, of course, with my friend and colleague, DJ Zulo, who joins me for the start of this one. Well, hi, DJ. Hey, how are you? I'm great, man. That was a fun, basketball game to watch with you. I always enjoy them. Winner lose, obviously with a win much sweeter. In a game that I feel like, you know, you've talked about this team, especially compared to last year, rack it up really impressive wins. This one obviously isn't on the upper echelon in terms of impressive wins, but impressive nonetheless, a Raptor's team that did not want to lose fourth straight to the next least this season. I know they're losing. Shree goes back a little bit farther than that. They came out aggressive, hungry for a win, and the nicks were able to in a fourth quarter put

2:03their their foot on the Raptor's neck and didn't let go until the final buzzer, and it was a really impressive win for the next. Perfect encapsulation. In my mind, there are there are three types of wins, actually there's four types of wins in NBA season. I've erased the fourth category from my memory, which are games that you actually more feel like a loss. The one that will always I will always always remember is the day after Thanksgiving game against the Hornets last year in the 20th. Yeah, which is probably the worst game of McAlbridge's Nick career. So that's category one. Category two is like just regular wins like that you are not completely forgettable, but like that you're not going to remember much about years from now unless you're Adrian Claudio to see remembers everything. The bucks win on Friday for instance, like one of those games. Category one is the wins you're going to remember for years,

3:04like calves on Christmas, like NBA Cup Final. You know, probably been a couple other ones this year. And then there's category two, which I put this one in, which is like you might not remember them offhand, but then when somebody will be like, Oh, yeah, remember when the next one was 16 to two running at the record. Oh, yeah, RJ had it going and they had notions and the next we're just like, No, this is one of those wins. So, you know, you love them. They're fun wins to get. Yeah, and it's sort of what I like about it. And it kind of encapsulates what this team has really honed in on. And it's the defensive connectivity. I felt like in this one, in particular, yeah, it's one glad around the same page. So I'm going to run with it. They had a game plan that was specific to each Raptors player. So it was like, Ingram, let's be more aggressive at the level. We're not going to give up that easy walk in mid-range shot. Let's keep everything

4:06to the side as they've been doing with Barnes. If he's handling, let's go under the screen because we're going to happily give up all three to Skydy Barnes. With quickly, it was a little bit different. With Barnes with RJ, a little bit different. I felt like they had really strong game plans that was unique to each Raptors player. And just overall, like the fact that they were so aggressive with keeping the ball to the side, not just with how they were icing it, but also where they were bringing that help and kind of pinching in to be more aggressive, like feet in the paint, force the pass over the top, put yourself in a little bit of rotation. But if it's not a manual quickly spotting up, we're okay with maybe being a little bit short on that closeout. So I just felt like the next time and time again, I just keep going back to it. In comparison, the last year, the big difference with how this team is defending is how connected they are and how well they're playing on a string, which, as we know, was not always the case last year. It hasn't always been the case this year, but we've now gotten a good sample size of it being the case. And that's a great

5:10sign for this team's potential moving on towards April, Major. I think you could count on one hand. Maybe you needed extra finger to the number of like truly busted possessions, defensive possessions in this game. Like there was the one where we both said it in real time, where quickly did have the spot up. It's like the one guy you can lose track of. But even like RJ's little stretch down or nice run down the stretch, like those were those were good shots. Those were like quality shots from a 20 point per game score in the NBA that sometimes as we know very well here in New York, sometimes gets it going. But look, you've said sample size. They've been the number one defense last 18 games. I'm pretty sure now they're going to be the number one defensive league over less 19 games. You know, tomorrow night will be a different animal, a different different challenge. But we'll we'll we'll we'll we'll save that conversation from when we get to it. I think that has to be the lead story is how well this point team is

6:12playing on defense. And I think you you summed it up very well. Before we move on to some of the individual efforts, and this is actually kind of going to be a leeway because how much do you think it is the connectivity as you talked about? And how much do you think it is some of their or not, even just some of their weaker defenders, just they're they're all of their players playing more up to their level. And that goes for the OGs and McAlles of the world. Mm-hmm. All defense caliber players. And obviously the jail in Brunson's and in particular, the quality towns of the world. Yeah, well, let's just stick with the two week quote unquote weak spots on there on the defense. As we both commented, Kat had at least two vertical rim contests didn't get blocks on either one of them, but was clearly deterrent and just staged straight up forced the they offered the player to go through him, forced to misses. I think JB has been just really good as a weak side help defender, you know, the charges are

7:14obviously been a huge boost to his individual defense and the teams defense over the past couple of weeks, but he just feels like less of a sieve on that end. But it really is the three wings that you just have to go back to. And listen, right now it is really obvious like what Josh Hart is able to do on the defensive end, just getting into the basketball and like how much jumping off the page like he and I've talked a lot about how he is able against bigger wings that you know, he's not he's not great against small quicker players, but if you put him up against the guy that he can move with, he has to read us a really good job of leveraging his strength and his low center gravity like go get his right arm typically like right in the midsection of the offensive player and just get underneath them and he time and time again he was able to do that against Brandon Ingram and just and just bother his shooting space. It's really disconcerting when you're shooting and a guy is like right in your shooting zone and Hart did a really good job

8:17in that way. I've talked to you about this on the watch along. I think Mikhail has been and you were right to point out a trough there with the team defensively, but consistently like an a minus defender, which is a super high bar for a guy any player in the league. We're talking about like maybe not all defense, but like a tear below that and he just has been that way and if you're going to be aggressive and flood the zone to an offensive player side to provide that extra help at the rim, you're going to put yourself in rotation and has there been a better player in the league recently of then Mikhail Bridges of getting out to shooters, contesting, controlled, but aggressive. He's kind of met that beautiful combination of being aggressive with this close outs, but also not creating these blow by scenarios where you're really getting broken down. And that's the no G's OGs. Yeah. Go ahead. OG was OG tonight, of course, against his old team. Only took six shots. What would have been nice if you maybe took more, but I'll

9:19leave that for later. The thing with Brad, this is why we need you doing what you do and giving everything an extra watch because he's a version of cat in this sense. Cat could do so many great things. And we're going to talk about him very shortly because I think this was an exceptional cat game. And I think I would say this story, there's a lot of stories of the post-all star break for the next. I think the number one story is probably Carlisle at the end. Again, we'll get to him in a second. But he is, as we always talk about the cat, the loud stuff, some of the stuff is so loud and the loud stuff over shadows, even if there's a lot more of the quieter stuff, the loud stuff is so loud that it overshadows it. It's the same thing with bridges. When bridges, you know, when we see him, you know, like in the first game out of the break, Cade calls for the switch to get bridges on him. And Cade, like, Jules and Jumper on him or whatever, would be like, this is the guy we've traded for his five first round face. Those plays happen from time to time, but there's so much more of the stuff that you're talking about. And when

10:24he has a game like he did tonight, and again, you're like, look at the style I said, I'm going to blow you away from a couple of bridges, but everything he's doing the other end of the board, it makes him, you know, it shows the value there. Yeah, and he's, I just, I won't forget it, because I remember when they traded for him, like all the work I did about him guarding point guards and like his on the ball defense and point of attack, like Nick's finally lose grimes, and they finally have a guy to replace that skill set that they just weren't able to figure out the 2324 season in the playoffs. And quickly it became apparent that bridges really wasn't up to that task at that level. But the beauty of what Mike Brown has done is that he's now moved him off the ball in a much more prioritized way. And just leveraging that strength, like, all right, listen man, seven foot wingspan, if you're in loading up, load it up and help, like you could be in basically two spots at the same time. Impact the, the close out, impact the past. His deals have gone way up this year. So he's been empowered to be aggressive. You've seen the rear

11:26contest shop lock. I had another one tonight. Just been a consistently excellent defensive season for him. Strength wise, he saw Arja go through him at times. That's going to be something that he's going to give up. Kade is a tough matchup for him. But we don't have to worry about that at least tonight. But going forward, man, he just is such, such off-ball value as a defensive player that his floor as a producer of, like, impactful minutes, a minute NBA basketball is super high because of what he can do on that end. But that's the thing. And that's why, and let's save towns. Let's go back to hard. To talk about the three wings and 10 them, because if you have an OJ, I don't know, be playing at the level that we know OG, that he is playing at right now. He could take the Kade. I know he did not do well against Kade in the last matchup, but it was his first game back from injury. And I just, I think that was probably an anomaly in retrospect. Like, he could take that matchup, leaving bridges to do what, like, not have to deal with that.

12:29And then if you could also have heart as part of the equation, like tonight, we saw hard on barns on a couple of occasions. You had a nice, really nice stop on barns and the last several minutes of the game is in this one going on the 16th to run to close it out. All three of those guys, like, just filling their roles. And I, it's a stick on heart for a second. I thought he was the best player in the game tonight. And I kept saying it as the game was going on. I'm like, is it just me or is he playing a really good game? And I know he started out very quietly. He had a, he had a Frank Milkean aligned in the first quarter, but ends up with 12, 7 and 7, the three steals, two blocks. Like, I don't know how many 12, 7, 7, 3, 2 games, Josh Hart has had this year. It can't be that many. I can't be. No, not especially the steals and the blocks, only the two turnovers. The past two bridges that we both commented in real time, 95, 93 point game. Next we're only down only up to Raptors making a push. And because the Raptors, this is like

13:29where the connectivity on the offensive end becomes really important. Because obviously, what are the Raptors love to do? Like, get hyper aggressive in your face, like, balled an aisle. Like, really try to make things uncomfortable. We saw Brunson really struggle with that at times. Hearts handball bridges. One of the best cutters in the league reads it, back cut, heart, hit them. And if you go back and watch that play, it wasn't like they were like closely contained. Heart made that pass from pretty far away and lead bridges perfectly for a two handed dunk. That was obviously a great kickstarter for a huge Nick 16 to 2 run. And yeah, hearts passing and playmaking in general, the rebounding, the loose balls, the offensive rebounds that he was able to just take away from the Raptors and just kind of break their will at the end. Classic Josh Hart stuff there. phenomenal game. I agree with you. I thought he was the best over all Nick on both sides, consistently in that game. And it's just one of those occasions where I commented Raptors down

14:3214, RJ's going for a loose ball. And heart is just outwork some. Outwork some gets the ball. Heart RJ is on the team that is up down 14. You think you'd be the desperate one? No, hearts the desperate one. And that's just the skill of playing at that level and intensity and effort, where it's just part of your DNA. And that was a great example of that. And in just a classic heart performance and close to that game. And it was, it's more you're talking about that play and it just kind of hits me. First of all, that was hearts first five stock game of the season. So yeah, this is his first time he's had this particular stat line. Well, like, you know, seeing him snatch the ball away from hurdle there on the possession where they had the two offensive rebounds that ended with the cat long two. Again, during that run, but like him being the first of that ball on the on the baseline over RJ. Look, it's an over generalization,

15:33but like, as we saw it in the fourth quarter of this game when he kind of put the team on his back, RJ has talents as a scorer that like Josh Hart just doesn't have. And like, that's why he got drafted third. And that's why the Nick's invested a lot of time and energy into him. But there was also a reason that something changed about this team when they traded for Josh Hart and all of a sudden Josh Hart started basically not, you know, taking RJ's role. But like, the beginning of the end for RJ was really when they traded for Josh Hart. You know, and it's because it is what they needed for the team more than what RJ brought. Obviously, there's been other evolution since then Julius Wenau cat came in the whole thing, but it's very, you know, it's interesting snapshot moment there on it. It was fun. And we should say to be fair, Hart, I think a couple of possessions he was guarded by a center really wasn't in this one.

16:36I know we were going to talk about cat. Maybe it's a good transition cat. Yeah. Yeah. Had the luxury and we'll have to call it a luxury now until we see it more consistently but guarded by a center. So you saw, I think him take advantage of that at times, but it is, it does, you know, make it more difficult for the whole offense as a whole when teams do put the X5 on on Hart. They didn't have to deal with it today, but it goes to show you that they're, you know, not every team is equipped to do that. You know, they don't have a women Yama that can be so dominant as a rumour. So it is a good reminder that, yes, this is probably the best scheme to defend the NICS, but there are a few teams that can actually do it and feel comfortable doing it. And that is, that also needs to be said as well. Yeah. And look, as people will surely point out, the NICS are probably going to need to go through multiple of those teams. 100% both season. So it's not like, you know, we're sitting here keeping our fingers crossed. Again, I will give a shameless plug for you. Go watch DJ's video that he just put up on Patreon because it shows how

17:41exactly the NICS kind of figured it out in real, I just hard specifically figured it out in real time against San Antonio, which, you know, it's the, if you get dodged or wrenched, you get dodged ball. If you could figure it out against spurs, you could figure it out against, you know, pretty much anyone. Kat, um, were there a couple of frustrating moments in the game? There was, there was the three possessions stint in the, when was that second quarter where it was, yeah, weird. One heart-leaf cat possession where he dribbled the ball up court and never passed it. So it was very straight and that was followed by, I think it all, uh, it's a foul. Yeah. There was that and then there were a couple times where they couldn't get him the ball. No, that's not okay. Oh, as it was every game. That's not all on cat. Like a little bit on cat, part of it's on a teammate's part of it's on who else is out there on the court who were people helping off of the whole thing. Um, but like, there is just so much good happening with towns right

18:42now. And like, what's the stat line tonight? 21 points, 10 of 17 from the field, 12 rebounds, six assists. I didn't even realize he had six assists. Um, how about this? Six assists from cat, seven assists from, uh, heart, 10 assists from Jalen Brunson. Quiet 10 assists for Jalen. Really was nicks, we both were on it first two possessions. How well the nicks were passing the ball and just moving in which is a prerequisite against this Raptor team. Nicks did a really nice job and cat was a big part of that. Um, yeah, six, six times for him. Uh, you got credit. We won't steal one block. He's just playing really well. Just right. And, and that again, we talked about bridges having a high floor because of the defensive value. I think we have to, listen, towns is not a bridges level defender in terms of the impact, although there are certain defensive metrics that would argue against that. But there is something to be said about him having a lot, you know, kind of locked into this space now defensively where it just feels like there's

19:48competency as like the baseline. And he'll be tested in different ways in the playoffs and we'll have to see if he can maintain this sort of, uh, impact. But it just feels like there's never, there's rarely possessions where defensively there's massive issues on that end. There are times where he just is in the wrong spot and that you could see heart or bridges. Those two specifically will kind of call him out. You'll see it on the broadcast where like you should have been and we shouldn't have switched here or you, you are the wrong side of the screen there. That stuff still happens and you kind of have to, that stuff just baked into the cat experience. But there is just, you know, the defensive rebounding and the rim protection even if it's kind of like below the rim rim protection, like he's just a big body that is being better at just being in the way, getting his chest in front of the ball. And we know he could switch. We know he can guard in space and do a pretty good job of forcing a contested mid-range shot. And, you know, offensively, there's still all this passive floor spacing that is there.

20:50And that's another reason why like he'll have these stat lines. You're like, he wasn't, not tonight, but like general, like he'll have a stat line that doesn't jump off the screen and he's like a plus 12 or plus 15. And it's plus my, it's been shared a bunch like how great it's been since the off-star break. It is, it's because he's now defending at a, yeah, it's right up there. So he's defending at a really high level for him, but in general, like a really strong baseline. And he is a obviously an elite floor spacer than when he is, as he did today, roll to the rim. Great these pockets because, you know, there's times where Fred had the great article about him screening and kind of meandering and that really rolling, that really popping. Yeah, picking me under. There you go. Tonight he was in a start with off Rado in the second quarter, where he's, he's setting those screens. And the first one was like he set a initial screen. Had to re-screen it because the Raptors went under the first one. Re-screen forced the over. Now you get the pocket developing. He gets the pass from Alvarado.

21:52Finishes and was able to kind of continue that momentum as a screen roll guy with Brunson. I thought his role game just in general was really good because the Raptors weren't, they were switching some actions. They weren't giving him the, the, the pop on the three. We had to go to a, you know, a second option, which is his, his role, which is not, hasn't always been there this year, but Fred itself, Rado, credit the Brunson for finding him. In those occasions, he just rolled hard. And that's another thing where you, you have to kind of, it's not a skill necessarily, but it takes work to, to roll in that way with that effort, possession after possession. And I thought, can't do a really good job of doing that. But his offensive repertoire cannot be just drives. Like, I think we know that by now, there has to be, and we've kind of talked, we talked about this so much with TIBS. And we talked about it early on with Mike Brown, of like, what else are you doing to, to score on, quote, spring him, you know, other than the low hanging fruit, which I think we would all agree,

22:56they still probably not doing enough of like, there's, we still want to see more trail threes, which is getting, it's always a question of, like, is that on cat? There's that on the coach, is that on the point guard? It's also like the defense. Probably number one priority is not given that shot up. So we also have to like, beware that that's also part of the reason why they're not, maybe materializing as much. But having cat, you know, get the ball on these rolls and, and not have to have it be all self-generated drives. It just feels like such a, such a boon. And then you sprinkle in the other stuff you try to get your, he had that early in the game, I think he had a nice post. It was like a baby, a, baby hook. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was one dribble left kind of spun back over his left shoulder into the middle of the paint. And it was his head, beautiful hook shot with his right hand, which he mixed that stuff in. He mixed it in. Yeah. Yeah. Real good. Got a heart. Yeah. Tonight, 130 offensive rating with heart on the four 103.1 with him off. So yeah, hearts, I said play with the game. We talked about bridges, talked about cats,

24:01talked about hard OG. I don't know what else there was to say about him other than he was, it was a really, really solid OG game. He did all the things you started to do. I want to fact, actually finish. We don't go for that much longer. Finish on Brunson. The bench tonight, they, they brought energy because they always brought energy. Avarado in particular in the second quarter brought the energy that he usually brings up. Not a, not a, other than Mitch, who I thought was very good. Not a band or night for any of the bench guys. And yes, that includes the award. We saw some great moments from Muhammad, the award. But like, as people were coming out with me with, you know, pitchforks on like the, after the supposed post game, when I'm like trying to be like, guys, don't go writing 12 playoff rotation minutes in pen quite yet. Like a stretch like he had tonight, again, it was literally a two possession stretch on offense. And then, and then the overzoopers on the, on the perimeter coverage of, of an

25:01room that just gave up a drive. Like, he's a rookie. He's going to make rookie mistakes. It's fine. But just that's, you know, it's worth pointing out. Yeah, I agree with you in that way. It felt like part of it was, I don't, I just didn't understand why we were not sending a screen up to, to how I can help him out of those isolation possessions. Probably not. He's not at that level yet. I did think on, on Avarado, it didn't sustain. But his second quarter impact, I thought was huge for the game itself, like to give the next momentum. You know, I think it was like a 13 to two or 13 for run that he kind of helped pick off with cat. Like that run in the second quarter, I thought was really important. Second half really turned for him in a, in a negative way. But I, I do think his second quarter stand was huge for the next because Brunson and I got him going at that point. It felt like he kind of lifted the nicks in a way that is what you want from your energy producing, you know, ball hawk. But also like really, I think intuitive distributor and he got Mitch on a lob,

26:08mentioning the cat rolls to the rim. Just a guy that you're basically rolled to the rim. And just, I talked about this on the watch long, feel confident that they are the number one look for him in those plays. I feel like it's, it's a good way for them to get going a little bit. So Avarado standing in the second quarter, I thought was, you know, let me lost the time a little bit, but an important moment for that game. So team high plus 19 tonight. Good. 17 minutes. There you go. Let's end on JB. As we were watching, I actually said this during the watch long because I say so many smart things. Arguably, then like, I don't know if I said the worst, Nick tonight, but like the least impressive, Nick, I think at the time he was five of 15 from the field for like 12 points or 13 points or whatever it was. And we were commenting that like you pointed out there was a possession where like he did, like the ball was in his hands the whole time. And it ended with a tough mid-range or over barns. And we saw a couple of those possessions. But this was like, not anything close to a classic Brunson game for the majority of

27:12the night. And yet you look up at the end. 26 points on 22 shots. Okay, not the best efficiency, but 26, 10 with one turn over and made every big shot in the fourth quarter because of course he did. You know, 10 points. Yeah, 10 points on 47 from the field in the fourth quarter plus nine. Three to make it a hundred and 93. That was probably the biggest shot of the game. And just to move the in and out triple the right hand, hurdle was playing up at the level a little bit. So, hurdle is the classic drop big that's going to typically play in a more traditional deep drop. And in this case, because Brunson is such a good pull-up shooter, play it a little bit higher. Brunson freezes him with that in and out dribble puts her hurdle on his heels, never able to contest the shot. And I don't think it was shed that was Guardian gets hit on the screen. And it's basically a wide open screen. It was a cat rescreen, right? It was two screens from might have been. Yeah, that's a good point. And so that's a second or third time cat had that

28:15had a possession where he's now re-screening to create an opening. Yeah, listen, Barnes is a really tough defender for him because he doesn't foul. He's maniacal about keeping his hands high, which is all he's doing to sound the referees I'm not fouling and he never fouls Brunson. And it's just a he's well equipped to slide with with JB contests without fouling. And it's just a really tough tough matchup for him. I thought there was a moment. I think it was the fourth quarter where Barnes goes out, shed comes in and Brunson immediately makes two mid-range shots, might have been late third. I could no, no, it was no, it was the fourth and it was right. So Bridges hit a mid-ranger. So the Raptors went on their run. Bridges hit a mid-ranger to end the run and it felt like a big mid-ranger in the moment. Bridges, again, the only 11 points in the game, there's a big basket like the dunk off the pass from heart and then that midi. And then after that

29:20midi, Brunson hit two in a row, it was right after Barnes had left the game. That's right. Yeah. Right. Okay. Thank you for getting time stamping that because it was a moment where you just saw his eyes widen with Barnes going to the bench. And as should a defender, a shed is, these are the guys and you've seen this with Davey on Mitchell when they he tries to guard Brunson, they can get into his dribble. But if Brunson is able to kind of walk them to around either right or left elbow, he could just rise up over the top and that was a case in this situation where he was able to get to his spots. Make those two shots, got him going a little bit, got the nicks going a little bit. But yeah, it was a, it was a super impressive Brunson game. But as you said, just made every big play late in the game, was secure with the basketball, moved it well, got off it when he needed to and played well. And despite not shooting it in a way that is, you know, typical for him. So it's a, when you go, you go, you can win a game, maybe not play great offensively, but you can win a game with Brunson being neutralized at times.

30:24It's always a nice sign for your team. Um, I just went back and, and look, uh, bridges and Brunson come buying for the first 13 points of the fourth quarter for the next. Yeah, well, it's cute. And because there are some possessions, I think the bridges midi was that like turn around against Pertle where like nothing was materializing and he just was up with it and dead. It was nothing. They, they, they, they ran some, they didn't run sets. They didn't run any off fence at times in the, in that quarter. And when Brunson was out of the game tonight, there were a couple of gnarly possessions. They're 100% and there's something to monitor with. Obviously, um, now he's gonna do play 36 minutes. So it wasn't like he played 30 or so, but, uh, I will say the minutes were interesting because it's just looking back at it now. He brought 37 37 37, but everyone else was like really low. You seem like everyone else is like in around low 30s or upper 20s of the core group there. So, um, last thing and, uh, shout out,

31:30we have 1500 people watching, um, appreciate all of you. Yeah, go ahead and smash that like button. Got it. That's, that's what the kids said 10 years ago, apparently. Um, last thing before I let you go. Okay, see game tomorrow. We already know. Mitchell Robinson is, is not gonna play because it's second. I have back the back. Um, Brunson played 37 tonight. How are you thinking about that game? How would you, I mean, we've had some suggestions like maybe the next, not, you know, not throw the game, but let, you know, maybe, maybe they rest some guy, you know, what are your thoughts? I think it's going to be a great data collection game because you know the defense is going to because they have, it's going to be a roaming big on heart. It's 100% the case. So you're going to have an opportunity there to in two out of the last three games. So you, to play against the defense that is going to scheme with their ghost coverage on heart

32:30and you're going to get all these reps to figure out how they, how they're going to attack it. It'll be very interesting to see if the nicks, if and when that happens, do you still sort of get heart in the initial screening action? Do you try to spring him in that way or spring Brunson in that way by having heart screen with if it's homegrown guarding him or whomever it is? And how do you play that way? How do you still get cat? Part of the deal in that, in, in that scenario. So just to see how they go up against that type of defense. And then, you know, I, well, I don't know what Shay's status is going to be. I mean, he didn't play tonight. He sat out to me. He's going to play tomorrow. If he sat out tonight, I would assume he's going to play tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a fascinating match up there because he would assume it's going to, I don't love the OG match up there because of the quickness. I think it's going to be bridges on him with some Alvarado sprinkled in there probably as the primary guys on there. So it's just

33:35a really good team, a great team that you're going to kind of stack up against. So I'm not in the business of like suggesting they should throw the game or like bench guys and and all that because I think this team still needs to get reps against defenses that are going to specifically attack them by not attacking Josh Ardon offense. And you have to figure out a way to do to be really honed in on that type of defense. And if it's not working, like have, have counters and have options out of that. So yeah, I mean, look forward to the, you know, how they stack up. You know that they are going to put your, your darts and your carusos and whoever else is on cat. And yeah, but I straight up and like, yeah, they'll have the roaming, the roaming big. I am, I want to see if the next can, can make something out of those possessions. That's the thing that I'm

34:37going to, it's a, it's a, it's a hard question, but it's also a cat question. That's one of those. Yeah. And now what's going to hurt is you can't throw the Mitch curveball to teams because you saw the spurs do, you know, resort to the five on Mitch because they're so worried about his offensive rebounding. Now you don't have that option in this one because you can pair Mitch with heart. And I know you're, you're lacking shooting, but at least you're kind of locking the five on the Mitch. Listen, those, those lineups, I get the no shooting, those lineups have been good. Yeah, they were good last year. And they've been, they've been good this year. Josh and Mitch together. And it's not just the team, it's offense offensively because they've rebound 40% of their misses. So, you know, and it's, it's Brunson ball. Like, is it always the prettiest? No, but guess what? Jayden Brunson has a lot of experience as, as he does. Caleb Cooper once said, you know, going through the jungle gym. So, you won't have that, but it's a, it's still a really good test for this team. And,

35:41you know, it's a, I think the Shay matchup is where I'm probably most interested in like, I don't really know how the nicks are going to play that one. I, I do think it's going to be primarily bridges. And then, I know, Deuce had a lot of match that had a time with him last year, most obviously get him this year. But there, it's a, the thing about where the nicks are right now is that they should feel really good about their team. Yeah, they should. And they should feel really good about trying to look at the rest of the season, not only in playoff CD mode, but also like trying to develop your calluses for the playoffs. And that's, that's a good place to be in. I think that's what tomorrow should be. Very well said. Look, they're 14, 22. As you said, the nicks have every right to feel good. Same record, by the way, after 62 games last year. But more impressive, I would say. The highs have certainly been higher. And they've had more of

36:46Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's, that's, you think you nailed it. And I think that's why I would give this team in terms of how impressive the record feels a bit of an edge because of the minutes being a little bit lower. So you're not really getting, you're not honing in on like, I'm playing my best guys. The majority of it, you know, 35 plus minutes. I'm going to sprinkle in players that maybe the other coach wouldn't play. And I'm going to get some really big time wins. And you think he'd be factor those two things. I think this team's been a little bit more impressive. You almost wonder because the biggest AA big difference. Kat had an un, I mean, he was all on me last year. He had it, he had an accept arguably the, but a Hall of Fame player, that's not arguably he's making the whole fame feature stays healthy for a couple of years. A Hall of Fame player had arguably as best off at some season. This year has not been the case. But the, I'll say, the trials of tribulations of Carlton, he towns this year have kind of forced them, whether it's you want to

37:48call it going back to the drawing board or whatever it is, there has been a reassessment of yes, how he's used. Maybe that is for the best because for as good as his offensive season was last year, as we saw in the playoffs, like when teams did certain things, it was like, oh, shit, what do we do now? Not to say that it completely stifed, but there were some, there were some rough moments in the past maybe going through this now will help ease that transition into postseason basketball, but we'll see, we'll see, we'll see You must be 21 or over gambling problem called 1-800-Gamber, Connecticut called

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