LIVE: OKC Thunder BEAT EXPECTATIONS this week | Nuggets Rivalry | SGA Returns

0:00On today's Lockdown Thunder Podcast, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets are absolutely rivals. Plus, SGA returned this week, and the Thunder beat expectations this week. You are Lockdown Thunder, your daily Oklahoma City Thunder Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Let's get it going on the Lockdown Thunder Podcast, on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your teams every day, I am your host. Remember, and beat right there for ThundernSci.com, where I was following me on Twitter, at Rylin, underscore styles, follow the show on Twitter, at Ella ThunderPod. On today's show, we're joined as always by Derek Parker on these weekly live shows here, to recap the week that was in preview, the week that will be Derek Parker, you know him, of course, from Acty Parker, on social media, from his channel on YouTube, Derek Dash Parker, covering the draft from OKC Dream Team, and Thunder and SI, where you can find both of us. Derek, how you doing today?

1:02I'm doing good. We had ourselves a late night, Rylin, on the road, getting back at around 4 a.m.c.t, but we're bouncing back, we're here, we would not miss a live stream, even accounting for the fatigue of the Dallas trip. Yeah, it's a return to form here. It's a return to performance protocol that we're in. There was a late one. There's a late one. It was a driving to the wrong side of the right river. There's always an adventure, but I'm just happy that I'm here to tell the tale for that that it was from driving both ways. Now, let's do some takeaways. Derek, takeaways from this week, the Thunder Play, the Raptors, the Pistons, the Nuggets, and then we watched them play the Mavericks in the American Airlines Center. What's your number one takeaway? Yeah, my top takeaway is that Oklahoma City is more than capable of hanging onto the number one seed, and this isn't like a new or novel idea. You know, they've been the best team in the absolute least the second best team record wise in the NBA this season, but I think this was something that coming into the week was a little more up in the air than it seems now.

2:12The Thunder both down major players and getting some of those major players back went three in one this season. They were hyper competitive in each and every one of these games. They showed the clear strengths that they have all season long in really good defense against the Mavericks and these other teams and pressure high leverage defense against teams like Denver and the offense seems to be clicking and they've added offensive pieces and Jared McCain. I just think that they proved over the course of this week that while they may not eventually hang onto the number one seed, they absolutely can. We certainly can't count them out of doing that, which again, coming into the week with San Antonio hadn't lost in a month and Oklahoma City had been flailing and there had been some injury news and they've been a little more up and down. Now it feels like, you know, if they sit back and take care of business down the stretch, they're going to hang on to it. Yeah, I think so too. I mean, listen, this isn't incredibly hard to get the one seed for three straight years in the Western Conference.

3:13If you dug into the history of that, you know, you'll see how difficult that it is to be able to maintain this even for some of the teams who did have diagnostic runs in the NBA. And the Thunder can really do it even though they have a tougher schedule because I think that I'll give you actually flip my script here. I'll give you my bonus takeaway first. The reason why I agree through that I can do this is because I thought that the energy all week from O.K.C. was on point regardless of their competition level. If you look at that Dallas game, where it was a bad team, regardless of who was available. If you look at that Toronto game and that Detroit game where they just really, really shorthanded and if they still got those games into the clutch and went one for one, you know, one in one in those in those two games. And then, of course, the energy was unmatched against Timber. It was a playoffable feel. And so I think that even that Mavericks game, I know that largely people are calling it an ugly game. I think that that label is really based upon the maker misleague stuff that we fall into sometimes. I thought that the Thunder really generated some great offense in that game. The shots just didn't fall, but they were they were high quality looks most of the night. If not all of the night.

4:16And they really made Dallas struggle as you would expect. And they really did their job defensively creating turnovers, getting defensive rebounds and pushing and transition. Forcing them into some tough shots, some tough shots that Dallas made for their few buckets that they were able to generate. So I think that the energy level of this team, really building on like two weeks now, and especially since the all start break, which is those two week, this two week period. It's been on point for OKC back to the levels that it once was of zero and zero one of 82 yada yada yada. And because of that, I feel really strongly that they're going to be able to take care of games like Chicago tomorrow. Take care of the of the gimme games. We went through the schedule at the Alster break there of like, yes, this is the toughest schedule remaining in the NBA, but they were still 10 gimme games out there. So far, the Thunder have taken care of all their gimme games like the Mavericks, like that's et cetera. They got to do it against Chicago. They're going to get those games and then they're not going to lose every single tough game that they play. Obviously, they beat Denver and overtime without three starters. So they're going to win some tough ones as well. And I think that they're going to get that one seed in the last.

5:25Yeah, I think to your point, the energy has been pretty spectacular over the last couple of weeks. And I would expect that to continue to ramp up as they near the postseason. I think this is a team that understands the moment. And while, yeah, you may be wanted a little more effort, a little more focus in a few games throughout this season. I think when the brighter lights of the postseason turn on or especially down the stretch of San Antonio really does close in on number one, I think this is a team that can absolutely meet the moment. And in terms of, like you said, beating the teams are supposed to beat my second takeaway. I think that she obviously an MVP. He is the reigning MVP. He's the front runner. Like it's ridiculous to just say that he's good, but the baseline that he gives this team is pretty unbelievable. It is like true MVP stuff, like, and maybe even more than MVP, it's like all time type stuff, like not only is he obviously extremely useful against, you know, the higher end teams, the nuggets. He was unbelievable in that game in terms of they didn't have a single soul on the floor who could guard him. He was instant offense. He was just the catalyst for going and getting that game outside of, obviously, the overtime period where they did it without him.

6:34But even outside of the big games like Denver, he is also just such a steadying presence against, you know, in the Mavericks game, there wasn't a single second that it felt like the Mavericks could go get that game because every time it even became slightly less than arm's length. She just took over and to have a player that obviously he literally gives you 20 points tonight in the form of this streak, but more often than that gives you 30, 32 potentially more on any given night. The baseline for that really is what makes this team special. I think, you know, we we kind of lose side of that when he sat these nine games and things like that, but when she's on the court, I mean, they are just a tough, tough team to beat. But once they get all their guys back, that's going to be taken to a whole another level. Yeah, he is the constant of this team whenever he's out there, it just raises the tide of everything that they're able to do, including defensively. Like you look at what you did in Denver and it started the second quarter with the history of great defensive plays. You look at what you did last night, you know, whenever like the Mavericks are really hunting.

7:35And the Thunder being able to comfortably, you know, switch Shae off of a screen to get McCain back away from the ball and put Shae on the ball and have Shae get a stop like that stuff is really valuable to to keep some optionality out there offensively and with your lineups and with Shae, you just never feel like they're going to drop a game when he's on the court. I feel like he's going to be able to get it done in some form or fashion. That's why he's the best player in the world. That's why he's among the greats and he's on the trajectory of being an all time great. And he's one of the best scores already that we've ever seen at the guard position. He's that good continues to break records. He broke one of votes 20 point street records doing it on the road for consecutive games. He's close to breaking the all time record for most straight 20 point games will see how that continues to fair Derek. Another takeaway from this week, I think that the thunder and nuggets are absolutely rivals. I think that the thunder have the rivalry with the nuggets rivalry with the spurs and we're getting to this, this passing of the baton, the passing of the torch to a new era of NBA basketball.

8:42Which is great because you know, whenever the thunder and nuggets play in the pick I'm center next week, that's going to be must see TV for every one who likes basketball, everyone who somewhat enjoys basketball. That'll be must see TV and then anytime that the thunder and spurs get together, that'll be must see TV. And so having these built in especially one in your division, you know for sure you're going to play four times a year. I guess going to be so great for the NBA, but there's no denying these two teams do not like each other. These two teams are like fed up with each other before the ball even to get stepped off like they're just sick and tired of one another. And it's going to be great for the theatrics of the sport and also just purely great basketball. If you even stripped away all of the, you know, scuffles and all of the text and all this flagrants and everything else, it was still just great basketball between the between the lines here. So I think that these two teams just continued to provide excellent excellent games. I would actually push back just a little bit on the fact that they genuinely don't like each other. I think there's a ton of actual genuine mutual respect between these teams.

9:45I think that goes from the top with Shay and Yokech down to the very bottom of this roster to the head coaches. I think genuinely Mark said it in post game a couple different times. These teams make each other better. I think the top end talent is very respectful of each other. I think a lot of this rivalry, which I totally agree I think it is a rivalry. I think it's rooted in genuine competitiveness and just a want to beat the other team, which I don't think necessarily needs to come with. You know, genuine dislike. Now when the ball tips are they going to want to beat that team as bad as possible and can that boil over in certain moments. Sure, absolutely. But I really do think there's a lot of mutual respect between these teams. Yeah, it's a healthy. It's a healthy sports dislike of just wanting to beat them so bad that sometimes things are going to happen. Like sometimes things are going to get out of whack and then sometimes you're going to play a game where it's very clean. It's just a fun fun atmosphere. That's why I think that you can strip away all the extra curriculars from Friday itself a really fun game.

10:46And a really good back and forth game where like, you know, the nuggets got up by 16 and you knew that thunder could make a comeback. And if it was if it was reversed, if the thunder were the ones up 16, you knew that that game wasn't over either. And it's just whenever you can get a situation like that, especially in the regular season, it just shows the different gear that these two teams can get into. And then we talk a lot about like the bad regular season games in the NBA. And I think we talk way too much about the bad regular season games and trying to fix a problem that's not really there. Whenever you can get a match up like this where you know it's never going to be bad. You know that it's going to be energy. It's going to be effort, physicality from the word go. You have to really appreciate that and it is a rivalry. What was another takeaway that you had from this week? My last takeaway and I think this every game, but I'm throwing out my takeaway now. It is just an unbelievable luxury that Oklahoma City has two big men, two centers capable of doing the hub S stuff with their passing ability, whether it's dribble handoffs, finding open shooters, cutters, look ahead, hit a heads and transition.

11:51The combination of versatility that Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylen Williams, Jay Will adds to this team. In addition to Chet, he doesn't do as much of the pure hub stuff, but he is still as far as seven footers go, one of if not the most skilled seven footer will say one of one of the most skilled seven footers on the planet. So I just think it's an unbelievable luxury to have these guys on this team. NBA teams across the league want one of these guys. They want one center that is capable of doing these things and the thunder have two, two and a half if you count Chets skill with the ball in his hand. So it's unbelievable. That lineup last night against Dallas where it was Hartenstein plus Isaiah Joe, Jared McCain, Chet Homegrown, I believe it was AC Alex Caruso. When she is on the court, he's obviously like the kind of son that everyone else orbits. Then typically it would be, you know, an AJ Mitchell, a J Dub, they would be the primary creator last night at Isaiah Hartenstein. And he's just, you know, wheeling and dealing to these three point shooters and Chet Homegrown's making things happen and AC's blowing things up on defense.

12:56It's again, it's just an unbelievable luxury. It's a wrinkle bit. The thunder, the only team in the league to have this wrinkle like other teams have one of these guys. They've got multiple. It's so fun to watch. Isaiah Hartenstein is a floor and ceiling razor on this team as is Jay Will. So I just think about it every time I watch them play. It's pretty special. Yeah, it is very special. I think that whenever you look at the thunder's ability to attack you in so many different ways that this is going to be a tool for them as it has been in the past of. Yes, you can have shade drive the bus. You can have a J J Dub drive some lineups. But you can also attack them from the high post with big men and it continues to change up the looks and it makes you uncomfortable. It keeps your defense guessing it keeps the defense off balance. And it allows them to have some more free flowing offense there and I heart has just been stellar. J will has as continued to grow in that role. And like you mentioned, Chet can do some things as well. So I think that those two in particular though Jay Will and I heart can really change the dynamics of this team's offense speaking of changing the dynamics of the team offense.

13:59Case and loss continues to be stellar like that team against Toronto. He had some Shay like moments like that step back that he hit whenever he walked the ball up. Out of a made Toronto shot gets across the timeline turns the jets on you think that he's going to go to the basket and stops on a dime step back three launches it and hits that he created 50 feet of separation. But between, you know, himself and the defender. So I think that whenever you look at what case and was able to do in that game, it was encouraging but was also encouraging was against Denver and against Dallas. He still had some of those chops playing on the ball where yes, it didn't come from walking the ball. But every time, but it came from in the half court being more comfortable and having the game slowed down for him where he got eight assists yesterday. He didn't score the ball well at all yesterday. But yet he still found advantages for his teammates as a secondary creator and a secondary playmaker and those are the roles that you can see him really step into whenever it's whenever it becomes a situation where you are playing, you know, you are playing a kind of a playoff environment.

15:03Yeah, I mean, we just saw far and away the hottest stretch of case and wallets his career and the questions that you and I were asking pretty consistently where how is this going to parlay when everybody's back and while everybody isn't back just yet, I think you can obviously see the vision of how it is going to work out with case and wallets in the long term. The decisiveness regardless of whether the shots were falling or regardless of whether even the assists were, you know, finding their spots. The decisiveness is clearly better. He has clearly, you know, playing with with more confidence and just processing the game at a faster rate. It has slowed down in some capacity for case and wallets and that especially was the case against Dallas. I mean, the decisions that he was making to your point, he's not walking the ball of every single play and functioning as the point guard and getting tons of ball screens. He's getting it right off the catch. He's getting downhill. He's quickly pitching it to someone else. He's finding, you know, space in the defense. And if not, then he's throwing it back out to Shay or whatever other handler or facilitator is there. So yeah, I think the vision is there and lucky for him.

16:06He's got even more games to figure it out as well down the stretch. He's going to have time to actually, you know, hone the skills that he was in the primary role now as more of a secondary and ancillary option. So case and wallets, what a player. Indeed, what a week it was where we were right and where we were wrong this past week. We both had the nuggets game being the best game. It by far was there's no doubt about that. The Mavericks, whenever you look at this, they were the worst game that we both picked and we were right. It was the most boring game of the weekend that the Raptors game got really good, really fast. The pistons game was really awesome to see the thunder fight and get that game to clutch. And then the Dallas game was just the Dallas game. So it is what it is. I said that the I said that the nuggets rival would be the storyline. That was correct. We also said that Toronto would be the nerdy game to watch. That was correct that we get Toronto was a was a very fun game as well. So we were also wrong. Those were we were right. We were wrong on saying that the thunder went two and two. They went three and one actually. So they beat our expectations of this team.

17:13Whenever you look at the week that was you were closest to being right on this topic. You said that she would play one fourth quarter and it did not look like he'd play in two. You were almost a hundred percent right. But then yesterday marked the sides to put shade back into the fourth quarter. We asked him about that after the game. I asked him, you know, what was the thought process of putting shade back in. And he mentioned that you know, he wanted to kind of slam the door shut on the game and mission accomplished there. The thunder did slam the door shut. And so I said zero. So like you get half a point. I get no points at all because you were you were nearly correct. And then neither one of us truly guessed the storyline right because we said MVP and then the one seed. But ultimately the story lines. If you load up the national shows today are all about the Lou dork dust up and we'll get to more on that later. But we were technically wrong on that. Although I think that people who were actually talking basketball. They did fall into our story lines, but they couldn't resist talking, Lou dork, even though it was what 72 hours later nonetheless though that's where we were right and wrong.

18:15Derek, how do you feel about the performance this week? I didn't feel great about it. Honestly, it feels like some of the gray areas we were right on and some of the more concrete numbers areas, you know, three and one, two and two, zero, four quarters. We were pretty wrong on those. So I think we're going to bounce back though. This is a predictable week. I would say coming up knock on wood. So I'm excited about the upcoming week bounce back week for us. A bounce back week. Will it be a return to form for Derek Parker and myself find out after this on the lockdown thunder podcast. We're back on the lockdown thunder podcast on the lockdown podcast network. You were teams every day. We heard talk with Derek Parker as we always do on these live streams to preview the week the thunder this week. Take on the bulls, the nicks, the warriors, the nicks are on the second night of back to back the warriors. Before that, they have two days off heading into that warriors game. The warriors will be without stuff curry as he's going to be reevaluated past that thunder window, according to the most recent reporting.

19:17So without further ado, Derek, the best game of the week. It's nicks. It's got to be nicks. I mean, the bulls fully, you know, positioning themselves for the 26 draft. I believe they're one and nine in their last 10. That's not conducive to beating the thunder, even accounting for some people that probably want to beat the thunder in that organization and then. Steph out of the warriors game, even accounting for rest. I mean, it's nicks. It's, it's got to be nicks. Yeah, there's just no other. There's really no other answer for this week. It's just has to be in New York. Now we did differ on the most boring game. And I wonder if perhaps the draft sicko and you and the gravitating toward young players. It might be the reason why, but my most boring game is the bulls on the front end of a back to back, a front end of a priority back to back where you know that the nicks is the biggest game. I wonder what the injury report will look like later tonight whenever they put it out for this game against Chicago and try to manage your back to back set. But I have the bulls. You have the warriors. Mine is just hey, you know what the warriors games at home. It's a Western conference team. And I think that they can really just run it up in that game with the bulls.

20:28I'm less confident in their ability to run up only because we haven't seen the injury report yet. And I do wonder if there's some preparation that's going to go on to make sure that they're ready for the next game. So that's why put the bulls. Why did you throw the warriors in there? I'm just pretty disinterested in this warriors roster, especially sandstaff. I mean, there's just like we'll get into our nerdy watches. But the bulls at least excite me in like a sicko way, as you mentioned, like it's truly one of the lesser rosters out there right now. And that's just awesome for me. The warriors are not that way by design. They're just not humming right now. And they don't have stuff. And I'm just not interested in watching the warriors right now. And I know that, like you said, this is inherently a little more interesting just because you know this could be a postseason matchup, but it's at least the West team. It's golden state, but I don't care. I just don't care. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. These two, these two games besides the New York are uninspiring to say the least. I'm going to cheat. It's such an uninspiring week. I'm going to cheat on my best storyline in a game and just say all of the games. I'm watching for Chase 20 point streak.

21:33He's so close to breaking Welch record. He's at 122 games right now of playing and getting 20 plus points. 123 now after the Mavericks game. And you know, he's got to try to beat Welch record of 126. So keep it intact here this week. I believe you can tie it. Of course, we played in every game against golden state. I'm just very curious how it's going to go. And what defenses are going to look like if the defenses are going to start really just live. Really just locking it on only stopping Jay from getting 20 and trying to sell out to do that. Or if it's going to be a normal game and he gets to 20 just all that goes into Chase 20 point streak. I'm very, very interested in this week because there's not a lot of else to be interested in. Yeah, he talked last night after the Mavericks game about how his legs are a little more under him. You know, he had that poster dunk. That's what he was referencing. But he definitely does obviously having scored, you know, 36 and whatever 29 30 against Dallas. He obviously does look to be, you know, healthy. He's worked through this injury and he seems rested in general. So yeah, certainly something to watch out for, especially if he's rested. He's going to really, really be trying to push for that. So props to him. My best storyline is just continuing to look out for the injury return.

22:50AJ's return timeline was the same as Shay obviously Shay has made his return. AJ's not back yet. He did have this secondary like ankle tweak in addition to the abdominal strain. So he's still working through that. Dub working through his re aggravated hamstring. I believe his reevaluation window, which again, as always, that doesn't mean that very day he's going to come back. It just means they're going to reevaluate that would place him. I believe it was March 6, which is the day before the Warriors game. He is on the road trip with the team, which makes me think, you know, they could be ramping up in some capacity. So just be on the lookout for both of these guys. Obviously to absolutely crucial pieces to this thunder team. They're going to want to ramp them up, you know, in the home stretch of the season ahead of the post season. So maybe Warriors game, maybe Denver on Monday. Look out. Look out for that storyline for sure. The nerdy basketball watch. Well, you every day, there's no my theory on New York. Why I cannot take them as serious competitors to OKC, even while giving them respect of like they could win the East, they could get to the finals.

23:58But if they played OKC in the finals, I just do not see a world in which you can play carl and tea towns and Jalen Brunson against this thunder offense. I think that there's just too many mismatches to to get it into. If you're Oklahoma City now, obviously this will be a harder theory to judge if they don't have Jada back and if they don't have their full comment, but even just trying to eventually like I don't know how you keep him from just picking his matchup with the ways that the thunder offense can attack you. So I'm going to go with the everydayers getting to test my theory can the New York defense stand up against Shia and against OKC. That's what I'm watching for in a nerdy way to try to take a victory lap next week. Dennis, keep your eyes peeled for the end of the the episode here. My nerdy basketball watch bulls newbies Leonard Miller rob dealing him again. This one's for the sickos. They swung high at the deadline. They're trying to get some upside guys in, you know, former wolves forward Leonard Miller. He was a thunder fan favorite at the draft and then former wolf rob dealing him as well, who was a Derek Parker fan favorite at the draft.

25:01Yes. Prior to his hammered out expectations of what he wants in a player defense decent basketball player. So I mean, they're just both fun to watch. I've given the longest leash of all time. You're not going to win this game. Of course you're not. So give him 35 minutes against one of the best teams in the league. Give yourself a nice little measuring stick for Leonard Miller and Rob Dillingham moving forward. I love that you put these two guys on there because I was all in on Leonard Miller in his draft and you were all in on Rob Dillingham in his draft. And so it's the two perfect players to pick for this very show. And that'll be something interesting that we'll be watching for who's going to have the better showing who's whose prospect is going to have the better showing between Leonard Miller and Rob Dillingham tomorrow night. The most interesting opposing player. I think that you're actually right on this one and I'm wrong because I just went with Brunson. I obviously steps out. It's like I just I love watching Jalen Brunson former maf my guy. And I think that he's going to be really interesting to watch both in how he attacks his thunder defense, which of course is so chit-chit swissable and long and lengthy and athletic and physical.

26:06And then how does he hide on the defensive in for himself? How does he hide against his thunder offense? I just find it very curious how they're going to operate Jalen Brunson in this matchup. But your X factor, your most interesting player, I think is actually more intriguing. I went with Carl Anthony Towns. I agree that Jalen Brunson is like, you know, the shining piece to this this matchup. Like he is, we know what we're going to get out of Brunson. I think he's an MVP level guy in the least like he's going to give you good offense, even against the team like Oklahoma City, like, I'm just a really big Brunson guy to be honest, but cat. I think it's probably the X factor for the Knicks in that if he can get his game off as well, they're a tough team to beat. Now, I agree with you in the sense that is he a perfect defensive matchup for Oklahoma City. Of course not. Is he guaranteed to go be, you know, the offensive star that he is against the guy like chat home grin and I say a heart and shine absolutely not. But if he does play above average defense, which I actually am not that out on cats defense. Now in terms of contention, sure, but I think he can have moments. He's long, he's smart. He can he can play decent these sometimes. And then if he does get into his offensive game, then they're going to be a tough team to beat.

27:15So cat, I think is probably the biggest swing factor, whereas Brunson obviously the best player, but we know what we're getting out of Brunson. Yeah, that's fair for sure. And so I think that cat would be the right way to go. Now we have the same answers for the record prediction and how many fourth quarters at Shay plays in three and 0 and two. I think that we're going to be totally right on that. And we have different story lines in different ways. My storyline is that by the end of this week, the Thunder go three and 0 and they look awesome in doing so. The prediction is that the Thunder will be considered back, the Thunder will be considered back where they need to be be back as the favorites overwhelmingly in the Western Conference. I'm making that in some ways, judging opposed to the spur schedule. Yes, they play let off you tomorrow. But then they play the Troy at home on Thursday, then they have a back to back and play the Clippers on Friday at home, then they in the week with the Rockets. So it's like, you know, they could have a two and two week if they go to and two and the Thunder go three and 0. Like then you can just split the hairs there and look at the cushion that Thunder are generating and it's getting late early on this season to where you could feel really good.

28:22I like to your prediction a lot so much so that I almost just was like, you know what second that, but this is a podcast we have to have original take so I said that the MVP is over. I think at the end of this week, you know, Shay, if they do go three and 0 if they beat a supposed contender in New York and take care of business against a few other teams. You know, like you said, just just generally get back with Denver, you know, falling a little bit. When being Kate, I think are just a step behind that I just think they're, you know, a year away from truly being in these talks. And I think we'll be pretty close to wrapping up the MVP conversation at this point, especially if Oklahoma City, obviously this is next week, but it'll be on the precipice of him breaking the record. It'll be on the precipice of Denver, Oklahoma City game three, it'll be on the precipice of again, the Thunder probably being back. So it feels like all of these combinations of things are just going to kind of put that conversation to the side and say, you know what, that's over.

29:23It's probably going to be Shay. He's the raining. He's the front runner. They're good. They're going to probably get number one and then we can move into other conversations. Yeah, for sure. For sure. The Spurs did lose their perfect week. They're perfect month. They did not lose in February. Then they lost yesterday to New York, giving OK, see a full three games up on the one seed. The next, I'm sorry, the nuggets are half a game up of the Lakers who are in the 60 right now. And the ones are tied for three. Some funny business here in the Western conference standing, Derek, where do you think that Denver will finish this season? Really tough to predict. I think they get the car back on the road in some capacity, like, I don't know that they, they're probably not going to get back up to, you know, two. I would say three is probably the ceiling and probably where I would put them. But Minnesota also feels, you know, a little more just put together right now and they feel like they're kind of returning to that team that that we thought they could be coming into the season in the absolute least as, you know, a Western conference finals contender.

30:24They've got one of the better players in the NBA. So I really don't know. I think as the thunder, you want them to avoid the four or five, obviously, but right now feels like that might be the case. Yeah, I think that they're going to go four or five most realistically, but they could get to three. So I'm going to go four or five match up there for Denver. And now Derek, we got to hand out our technical fouls of the week. My technical foul simply goes to James Williams, the referee who called Nicole Yoke, the Joker after a review. Listen, James Williams, you're a Joker. You're a clown. Back in my day, when you put the stripes on, when you put the stripes on and you put the whistle on, you had a certain level of the core, you had a certain level of professionalism. You had a certain level of doing your job properly. And this is just not a good look. And it's not about the fact that he called Yoke, it's the Joker and Shay SGA. It's about the simple professionalism that needs to happen for a league that people have always

31:27put fun at for, oh, is it rigged? Oh, are the refs even any good? Like, you have all this bad PR, whenever you look at the NBA's regular season, we look at the NBA's officiating crews. And you can't double down on that and give the optics of the Joker. And no, listen, again, if you don't want to do the old school and say, you know, two blue and what in the number and the Jersey color and everything, then just go, you'll just have a xander. Yo, catch Edwards. So Wednesday, just just do the last name. That's the foul on the don't you have to have a dog and pony show. Oh, look at me. I'm James Williams. I'm an NBA ref that can't see the floor. And I'm just going to, I'm just going to thought these nicknames. Get out of here with that. Have some professionalism. Go and find your dignity. It's laying on the ground of the pay come center right now. Pick it up, regroup, buckle your bootstraps and get back on track because this nonsense has got to end because it is disrespectful to the league. It's disrespectful to yourself. It's disrespectful to your family. It's disrespectful to everything involved the refs association. It is unbelievably embarrassing that he felt the need to do that.

32:37And he felt that that was cool to do. Again, it's about professionalism. And in society, we've lost a level of of koof in this society because everyone wants to try to see themselves as a star. Everyone's trying to see themselves as a personality as something that they're not, frankly, you're an official. Be an official. You're not on the microphone during reviews to give a state of the union. You're on the microphone during reviews to say what happened and what happened was yoke. Williams double technical files. That's all you got to do. That's all you got to do. You don't have to do anything else, but that I don't need any of the extracurriculars from the officials. In fact, there's too much extracurricular officials. And it's why the the NBA reputation for officials is a gutter. So figure it out. Regroup. Look, James, everybody has bad days. This is a really bad day for you. But you can't let one bad day turn into two. Fix it. Just fix it because that is clown behavior. Calling Shay SGA clown behavior, calling Yoke to the Joker clown behavior. It's not about Yoke. It's it's not about Shay.

33:42It's about what you need to be doing and in doing your job. It's Yoke. It's Yoke to something Xander. It's it's simple. It's very simple. Keep it simple. Stupid. Kiss. You learn that a lot and a lot. Perhaps some of these officials need to take a tour of lot. Perhaps they should be, you know, officiating eyes in our high school basketball because some of them don't deserve to be in the NBA. Not just the G league, but the one thing you can do. The one thing you can control. Right. Is what you do on that microphone. That's the one thing you can't control. If you miss a call, you miss a call. If you don't, if you don't see it, you don't see it. If you don't know the rules, you don't know the rules. But the one thing that is inexcusable to mess up is when you head over to that to that scores table and you load up that microphone. You can't afford to mess that up. And calling a player by a nickname is just a cardinal sent to me. There has to be a more measured. There has to be a more mature. There has to be more professional approach. That was idiotic. So for that James Williams. You love to hand these out on Friday. Here's one for you, buddy.

34:45It's right there in the name official. Just be official. Right. I've got it. I can't get inspired up as you. I wish I could. But my technical foul goes to the Denver Nuggets. And even more than the Denver Nuggets, this extends to absolutely anybody that expected an NBA head coach not to stick up for their guy, their player. Per Sam Amick's article as the Nuggets are particularly displeased with Thunder head coach Mark Dignal's response following the game and team source said that response verbatim. I will say this. If a player is running up the floor and get stripped, we expect a flagrant to from this point forward. That's all that's the president. I cannot believe out of all the things like I am on record on the OKC Dream Team podcast. Go subscribe. That Lou Dort should have been kicked out. It should have been a flagrant to if you wanted to continue playing basketball. He shouldn't have done it.

35:46But I cannot believe people are so up and arms about this Dignal comment. If you in your right mind, genuinely believe that an NBA head coach is going to throw their own player under the bus. You are operating from a very silly position. It's not going to happen. Adelman wouldn't do it. Dignal's not going to do it. The other 28 head coaches around the NBA are not going to do it. You don't throw your own player under the bus. It doesn't happen. And if you're a nuggets fan, if you're a different fan, if you're a thunder fan and you're expecting him to do that, it's silly. It's you're completely wasting your energy. If you want to waste it in other spots, go ahead. This is not the spot. It was a very tame comment in terms of we expect what they're getting. We want that as well. If an nuggets player did that, that's what Mark Dignal would expect. That's what he's saying. He didn't say he disagreed with the call, nothing like that. So I just think it's absolutely ridiculous that this of all things is getting talked about because what do you want Mark Dignal to do in this situation? Like no other coach is going to do that. They're not going to throw Lou Dort under the bus in that way. It's not how locker rooms work. It's not how NBA head coaching works. There's no positive for doing that. It's ridiculous to expect it.

36:55That's identical foul. Like DA is my guy. I've been a long time supporter of David Adelman. I spoke glowingly about the job he did getting thrusted into the position two days before the season ended and taking that team to game seven in the semi finals against OKC. And I think that he really coached his butt off in that series. I think he's a great coach, but you know that this is a, this is a statement from an experience of the position. And it's hard and emotions are high and the pressure is on. We've talked about how Denver slipped all the way to basically being the succeed right now. It's difficult. It really is, but you've got to do better than this. You just have to as a head coach, you've got to do better than this. I mean, privately, you can be mad that the thunder didn't take it as seriously as you'd wanted them to in the post game press conferences.

37:55But it's also not your place. It's also not your house. Derek, these quotes remind me of someone who let's say that you and I got on a bird the day and we flew out to Portland for the first round of the NBA playoffs. On that plane, sitting in the row behind us, there's this little toddler, little tight, just screaming and crying and kicking our seat and being obnoxious. That would objectively suck. That would objectively ruin the experience and it would be inconsiderate to say the very least. And you would hope that the parent would take the kid aside and just say, hey, we can't do that here. This isn't the power place for that. But if the parent didn't want to publicly on the plane. Well, I don't know if you can even spank your kids anymore. But if the public is on the plane, if the parent did not want to sternly ask the kid to stop doing that, we would not turn around and be rate the parent of just how could you let your kid be so out of control.

39:05We'd sit there and take it. And then we'd talk about the bad parenting. After the flight, we'd talk about the bad parenting in private, but we would not turn around to the parent and say, you need to be better at this because they can parent their children, however they'd like. And in a lot of ways, this is David Adam and commenting on parenting from a different parent. Control your house. Control your kid. Control your situation. The second that you cross that line and control someone else situation, then you then you've gone too far, then you look weak, then you look pathetic. Okay, frankly, because I don't hear David Adam and and I love him to death. I don't hear David Adam and throw on you could turn to the bus for his flops throwing you could turn to the bus for some of the cheap shots that he that he gets in. I don't hear him throwing those guys on the bus whenever they like accountability whenever they drop games that they should. I don't hear him as an accountability holding coach, frankly. And that's okay. That's that's not that's the deal. We don't know what happens behind closed doors, just like he doesn't know what happens behind the closed doors of O.K.C. So to take a press conference clip from a guy and we both love Mark, but from a guy who's never going to make headlines in his presser.

40:12Right. He'll give you some great answers. Like I thought that his answer to me yesterday about why he put shade back in the game. I thought those are very thoughtful answer and he explained how you know that was a decision that could have gone either way and he got into the details of why he put shade back in the game in the fourth quarter. He'll give you those kind of answers, but that's not going to create news on your national podcast like this. He's just not that kind of coach to do that. He doesn't use the press conference as a vehicle to get his point across to a team to get his point across to the media to weaponize the media in any way like a Chris French. So it's like you know that about him. And you still expected him to do what like what did you expect him to do what and here's the other thing. What would have been a satisfying answer to David Amman to the point that he doesn't bring it up 36 hours later before again that he eventually loses. Perhaps you should have focused on beating Minnesota. Perhaps you should have been able to turn the page and move on and worry about this next Monday whenever you get another shot at OKC. It's just all the way around sucks by David Amman to do this. And again, did you expect anything less from from the situation like what would you what would David Amman have done.

41:14And that's why I think that Mark actually is really good in the media of just like he doesn't call for this kind of stuff that happened because like what would he expect himself to do in that scenario. What what what would David Amman have done if the shoes on the other foot if Bruce Brown was in mood towards position. Do you think that he'd just be rate Bruce Brown or do you think it publicly or do you think that it publicly say. Look what marked it. I know all these guys. It's an unfortunate situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it wasn't anything messy or anything like that. I can't use respect everybody. Come on now. Come on now. Can we be serious for once? Can we be serious just for one time. And it just is a it's a shame because I do not want to pile on David Amman because I really do like him. I really liked interviewing him. I like his coaching style, but what did he expect Mark to say that that's what I would leave it with. And this this extends outside of adamant to there's tons of like people that are genuinely wanting something more out of this. And it's like, listen, you can want that, but to put any real energy into that is silly. It's silly. You're not going to get it. It's not going to happen. It does not happen.

42:15Is so I think it's technical foul worthy, Ryan. As we've discussed that length. That's the technical foul. Well, Eric, another Monday show in the books will have plenty more for you. I'm not done thunder throughout the week every single day. After every single game plus our live streams that we do, including our squad show tomorrow at 330 p.m. Central until then, Derek. We will talk to them later. Go check out Derek on YouTube, Derek, dash Parker. And go get all the draft content over there. Check us out on learn as I come in on OKC Dream T1 Patreon. Until next time, folks, be good and be good to one another.