Realistic Expectations for Jayson Tatum's Comeback & Plotting LeBron's Future

0:00Coming up, on Locked-On NBA Daily, there's a lot of hype around Jason Tatum's return for the Boston Celtics, but we'll talk about realistic expectations tonight against the Mavericks. Meanwhile, nobody knows what the future holds for LeBron James, but I'm going to ask the guys what they think would be the coolest way for LeBron's career to end. And finally, we'll take a look at some big games over the weekend that could swim play off-races in the standings, Locked-On NBA Daily starts now. You are Locked-On NBA, your daily NBA podcast. Part of the Locked-On podcast network, your team, every day. Hello and welcome back to Locked-On NBA Daily, part of the Locked-On podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network, however you're tuning in. On YouTube, on your podcast app, thanks for making us your first listen every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandall. Fandall is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins, with a college basketball parlay profit boost. Head to Fandall.com to get started.

1:00That's Fandall. .com. Fandall, play your game. I'm Wes Goldberg, and today we're talking about Jason Tatum's return. Maveron James is his future and some big games that we got to get to over the weekend. We're doing it as a help of Locked-On's local experts. I have two best with me as always from the Locked-On Nuggets podcast. He's your senior NBA writer for the action network. It's Matt Moore. Matt. Today is the 13 year anniversary of Steph Curry, and kind of his coming out party when he had 54 in Madison Square Garden, and I will always kind of remember is like the first time that it was like, oh, like Steph's a thing now, little did I know, you've become the greatest shooter of all time. No animal facts today. Hey, locked on Bull's podcast. I have one. I have one. I have one about. Where they have the animal facts. Okay. So there's a frog that breaks its own bones to form claws. And then after it's done, reabsorbs the claws and they heal. So it's Wolverine. That sounds like the Wolverine frog. It's a Wolverine frog. Okay. Is that literally what it's called?

2:01No, it should be though. It'd be interesting if the makers of X-Men thought like saw the frog and got inspiration for Wolverine from the frog, but then realized that like a frog isn't as cool as a Wolverine. No, it was, it was Stanley. It was a lot of cocaine that motivated the creation of a lot of the Marvel gear. That's a locked on Bull's podcast, host and Bears and Bulls creator for Bleach Report. Hey, we're going to start with the big news of the day, Jason Tatum, set to make his return 10 months after tearing as Achilles when the Celtics host the Mavericks tonight. We've known for a while now that it was more of a matter of when and not if Jason Tatum was going to come back this season. And there's been a lot of talk about how Jason Tatum can impact the Celtics team that is in second place in the Eastern Conference looking like real contenders in the Eastern Conference. We've talked about that a lot on this show as well. But for the purposes of today's episode, I want to zero in on tonight and talk about realistic expectations for Jason Tatum in tonight's game. Here's more from locked on Celtics. Tomorrow is in no way, I think, about how Jason Tatum performs on the court.

3:04I think tomorrow is about him being on the court, getting that little first taste and getting, yeah, just kind of starting to get his win back, I think more than anything. Yeah, and I'll take it a step further. You need him to suck. You need him to go out there and struggle because that's part of the process, right? I think two minutes into his first thing, you'll see him hand full of shorts just hunched over like, oh my god, this is whoo. Realistic expectations, Matt, for Tatum tonight. And he just scored 35 points, have 17 rebounds, dominate, otherwise he's showing, he's just a beta. No, it's fine. Like, you just need to get out there, man. The step is, it's trusting your body. That to me is always the hardest part when I have covered players coming back from injury.

4:07It's about trusting your body because you just can see them not really trusting it. It's not being worried when you plant either to jump or to sprint. It's being able to do that. And I don't necessarily know the reverse steps of good idea given you're coming off of the Achilles, but I'm also not a physical therapist. Just needs to go out there and just needs to feel comfortable. He doesn't need to worry about fitting in. He doesn't need to worry about the balance that everyone's asking about. I think the concerns about, like, hey, how's this going to go with Jail and our legitimate, but that's a question for 10, 15 games, really, 20 games. That's a 20 games question, not now. This is just about getting him on the court right now. Everyone, no one's going to have super high expectations for Tatum. This is one of the few instances, I think, where we actually have everyone is going to be reasonable about their expectations for an athlete. There's some fan this right now that is expecting him to drop 30 points, but yeah, it is just about getting back on the court, getting those reps in. We'll set the expectations thing. We'll talk about this a little bit the other day, I said it like let the expectation

5:08sets themselves as he acclimates back, but like he's making a damn near historic return 10 months after Teran is Achilles, like, I don't think it's fair to have any like set expectations far as a disco output or anything like that. Get your feet wet and then let's see what happens after that. Yeah, does he come off the bench, right? There's obviously going to be some sort of minutes restriction. They unlocked on Celtics, believe that Tatum probably ends up coming off the bench, so I'll defer to them. That makes some sense, right? You bring them in at some point in the first quarter. He has his moment in front of the crowd in Boston, and that way you can manage his minutes, right? You get them in at maybe the first TV time out. You take them in at the next one or whatever it is, probably plays 15 to 17 minutes tonight. Yeah, just get them on the court, get them as wind and all these things. What I find interesting at least at this stage for now for Tatum and going forward is that this Celtics team is playing really well, and Tatum is going to need some room to do all the things that you guys are talking about. Get his wind, take these steps, kind of explore and see how his body is reacting to these

6:10things. Matt, you talked about this, I think with Nikola Yokech, how when he came back from his injury, obviously it's a far less dramatic than this one with Tatum, but how sometimes when a superstar comes back, it can throw a team a little bit in the short term, and maybe that is something that we see right away here. I mean, it's not just a can, it almost always does. It's a real problem, and I can't mention this yesterday and Celtics fans are like, oh no, Niem is Cade is going to have to learn how to adjust whatever, and I'm just like, look, yes, Cade just played well this season. You know you know your rotation, that's big for players comfort. You know where you're supposed to be on the court. Everything changes a little bit, like where Tatum needs you to be is different because his driving patterns are different from Jalen Brown's, so you have to be able to work around those. You have had one thing that you've been doing. You've built one system over the course of this season, and people have said like, well they've had guys in and out, yes, but the core elements have still been the same. Everything shifts when you add a player who has the ball this much, and that's his game on the court. So there's an adjustment period in terms of chemistry and timing, and I'm not going

7:15to be surprised if the Celtics struggle over the next 10 days before, or really the next like six, seven games, and then settle in. It's a process, and it's okay for that to be a process, but just don't be surprised if it's trouble. Now, he might come back and drop a huge game tonight, and it's a huge, awesome story. That's entirely possible. But even then, I would expect the next game, okay, maybe a little bit worse. It's just difficult to reintegrate guys to play this much with the ball this much into the system. Is there any responsibility on Jalen Brown to help Tatum work his way back in? Brown is the leader of that team, the highest usage guy on that team. Is there anything that falls on Jalen's plate in terms of trying to bring Jason Tatum back into the fold? I mean, no more than him setting up anybody else as the leader of that team as it stands right now, like his, like, yeah, he's playing off each other, maybe at times, but you need to let him, like I said, Aquamates, just for a while first.

8:16I wouldn't say we're probably 10, 12 games before you're really looking at the balance and the dynamic, maybe even in now a little bit more between Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown at this point, like just to facilitate for him where you can help him get him in this spot. But other than that, I don't think Jalen needs to be doing a whole lot right now right away. Matt. I think I think Jalen Brown needs to be Jalen Brown. I think he needs to continue doing what's best for Jalen Brown because I don't know how this is going to go and it could go great, right? We all, a lot of people were like, the Jays can't coexist and they proved that wrong and they want to title, okay? I just think that it's been a couple years and players have their own goals about their careers and we'll kind of see how this goes. I just think, I think this is going to be an interesting situation to watch him boss in over the next 18 months. You know, he's going to sacrifice the most. Baylor Shireman will eventually probably be replaced by Jason Tatum in the starting

9:20lineup, but it's been a good run for Baylor in that starting. Thank you for your contributions, Baylor. We'll see you next year. We've talked a lot around the league now about LeBron James. Even going into the season, was this going to be his last year, is it going to be his last year with the Lakers? We have the letter from LeBron and Rich Paul going to the Lakers in reference to Luca and the Lakers turning maybe a page here. I'm going to ask you guys, how do we want to see him spend his final season if this indeed isn't it? We'll talk about that next. Stay tuned. Today's episode of Locked on NBA Daily is brought to you by Fandall. College basketball is non-stop. Big games, tight spreads, momentum swings every single night from early tip-offs to late night West Coast shootouts. There's always action on the board. Now Fandall is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost. You can build any college hoops parlay that you want, rivalry games, ranked matchups, whatever fits your read. You can express totals, player props, and match how you see the slate playing out.

10:21Then you can apply that profit boost and instantly bump up the potential payout. Not only with college basketball, but take a look at the NBA. We talk about it all the time. We talk about the title odds and the favorites here. If you think Jason Tatum is going to be the spark that maybe launches a Celtics championship run here, check out the odds and maybe include them into one of your parlays. You can go save, you can go bold, ride with the team that you've been following all season long. It's your parlay, your style, now with more upside behind it. Head to Fandall.com to get started that's fandall.com Fandall, play your game. Welcome back to Locked on NBA Daily. The best way to support the show, subscribe on YouTube. We are Monday to Friday at 1pm Eastern wherever you get your podcasts. There's been a lot of speculation about LeBron's future and whether this is his final season in Los Angeles. Most people seem to think that he'll play for another season. When we talk about what might be his last season and what it might look like, who he's going to play for in all these different scenarios, we tend to limit those options to two teams,

11:24the Lakers and the Cavaliers. I don't want to do predictions, guys, because we've talked about this a little bit before. I just kind of want to open up the whole world here to us in terms of LeBron's last year, because I'm watching the game last night and just, I don't know, I can't help the thing that maybe it's just sort of done for LeBron with the Lakers, it maybe feels like it's trending that way, but he loves Los Angeles and all these other things. But let's just sort of speculate wildly here, freedom to get crazy. What would be the coolest or most interesting way for LeBron James to end his career? Hayes, we'll start with you. Most interesting way, not in reality. You just want to just, whatever you, you're writing the final chapter of LeBron James to career and you're in charge. Oh, go play in Golden State with Steph Curry. Go play in Golden State with Steph Curry. It'll be fun. I don't care about none of that. It will be fun. I would love to see those guys would have a lot of fun, especially when they're playing with Drayman is still there as well, when people will epist off a lot of people, yeah,

12:27but it gets the people going. Oh, yeah, I'm very against LeBron and stuff. You made the Wildhogs jokes repeatedly and then you're signing up for the wildest, hoggiest movie of all time. Yeah, double down on the wildhogs, absolutely. It would be like a burden magic into their careers together, it would just be like that kind of way. Anything that's not people in is going to be unsatisfying. I understand. You really think that? Yeah, I really do. I really do think so. If you go to the Golden State, there's the lamest possible outcome. Hases is I very, I don't know. The only spot for Alchemistane MLA. I don't think I've ever said this to Hase. This is objectively wrong. That's that. Going to the Golden State is a good idea. It's objectively the worst idea. I didn't say it's a good idea. That wasn't the question, the question was the question. It's a good idea. It's up to me. If I go to the table. Going to New York would be neat. I think from a certain standpoint, but I just, it feels a little fake, right? Where you've already been a Laker. Yeah, it would feel like Lakers East Coast.

13:27It would be like, I just did it for the Jersey. Going back to Miami doesn't make any sense and isn't like, isn't, isn't really cathartic. That's the most born answer. There's not, you know, going to San Antonio to play with women, Yama. I kind of could get on board with that idea. He'd never do it because of San Antonio. But like the idea of him being like, I want to play my final year with the guy who's going to be the future of the league. Yeah. We'll be sharing in the next generation. Yeah. Passing the torch. That would be a little cool. But to me, it's just like, look, you're going to have the billboard outside with his arms outstretched doing the chalk throw outside the Cleveland Cavaliers. Like if you haven't been, there's this giant, when he was in Cleveland, there's this giant building that they did an entire mirror on the side of. We're all witnesses and having that outside that's going to say we were all witnesses is going to be absolutely incredible and give you chills every time he's introduced, it'll

14:28be incredible. The last time he plays a building in Cleveland will be amazing of all of his titles. There's not one that matters more than the Cavs one. When you win a title for a franchise that has not won one and you give them their first title. It is for the team that you grew up with, it's such an incredible story. He should have never gone to LA. He could have gone somewhere else. It was like a real franchise. He should have never gone to the Lakers and he needs to end it with the Cavs. There's no, there's not going to be a satisfying ending unless it's with the Cavs. You're probably right in terms of the story, book part of this mat and you are if nothing a storyteller. But I tend to start, I kind of think about LeBron James in the same way that I think about Tom Brady at the stage of their careers and Brady, when he left the Patriots, went to the most random team. Just went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Why? Because it gave him a chance to win.

15:29They wanted them, they needed a quarterback, they had a good defense, good weapons and they were willing to sign Gronk and he just went and he won a championship there and I wonder for LeBron, I think a satisfying way would look, Cleveland's really good, right? So you can go to Cleveland and maybe take that team over the top, get him back to the NBA finals. But I think it should be for LeBron chasing a ring at the end and it shouldn't be, you know, graphing yourself to the Oklahoma City Thunder or one of these teams. It should be a team that makes sense for you. It's still got to make sense for LeBron, you need to be surrounded by shooting, you need decent defense, good coaching, good culture, all that stuff. Can he walk into somewhere with a framework and legitimately compete? So here's my idea, guys. The Charlotte Hornets, yeah, I thought I thought about this one. He walks into Charlotte, driving kicks together, he's just locked up. He walks into Charlotte, he's driving and kicking the Com Canipple and Brandon Miller. He could help mentor LaMelo Ball because God, we know he needs it.

16:30And Matt, to your point, nothing is better than that first championship for a franchise. Tom James, go in a Steph's town and winning that organization's first franchise. Can we? Would be so interesting to me. Can we go to Petty Route? I thought I was, let's keep going. We're heading in that direction, Pays, they're short on talent. They need another guy who he needs to walk to the Los Angeles Clippers and win them their first title. And then throw it down and then throw it down in front of that would be a great storyline, like LeBron still in L.A. but with the other franchise against the Lakers off any wins their first title and makes it clear it's not about the franchise, it's about the player. And like the ultimate middle finger to Lakers ownership and how this and this endeavor has

17:35gone, it would be, I think in Pays' interest here, it would be absolutely incredible. Here's, there's not a free agent is a problem, there's not like a free agent on the market, but like, all right, they void Kawaii's contract, you clear that money, you sign LeBron and then you go get one more guy to go with Garland and Mathurin. And just like, if we could find that guy, if find that guy, man, that would be, that to me would be an incredible story for him to win a title with the Los Angeles Clippers. Where does Niederhausen rank among the best centers that LeBron has played with? I mean, the ones with Liz Frank, certainly, I feel so bad for that kid, I know, I know. I think there's a lot of different options on the board here, right? I mean, people have brought up Dallas teaming up with Kyrie Irving, that's gone away since AD, this is the AD trade, but maybe him and Kyrie get together this summer and plot out a final step. Maybe that's something that's there. Don't like that idea. Kyrie left him.

18:36Don't like that. Not a good one. Don't like that. Yeah. Let your, let your ghost be okay. Um, I think if there's a, if there's anybody else, you need to go to the Eastern Conference just because the path in the West is what it is, is there, is it just more open in the Eastern Conference? This is why I think the Cleveland idea does have legs is because this is not like a, a middling Cavs team. Like this is like, you could talk yourself and do Cavs with another year of Don and Mitchell, James Harden, LeBron James, Evan Moby-Jerett, like that team is stack days. Yeah. It is stack. It would be, it would be a fun team to watch for sure. I think that that's the team that can't, that can't win the title. And I mean, the, the, the perfect storyline message, like in reality, the perfect storyline is the most one that's probably going to have these probably going to go back to the Cavs. That's the best storyline. Wouldn't, oh, okay. Okay. Now because there's too far away from contending him and Jordan, in Jordan, Boles colors would be pretty cool. The other one is like and hey, Wes, you're going to, you're going to vomit, but like, look,

19:36he's played for the most iconic franchise in the League of the Lakers, go play for the Celtics. Play for The Celtics? They got shot at. I'd love to see that just because after every game, I would have to FaceTime West, like I just got to see your face today. Let's just. That would be devastating. I did look is the Miami heat a terrible option. They don't have lead ball killer. Lebron James Comes checks in. He's got Dave young Mitchell on the perimeter bam bang anchoring the defense You play the face of the league. Are you trying to kill him? No, slow it down. Who cares? Scrapped off in some system bring Lebron in you could kick out the hero and pal We're having fun on the same on the same token as the As the when be front of like us passing the torch Well, that Minnesota With aunt. I mean, we got what don't we literally have that moment in that starting five Show on Netflix where Lebron is talking about like the next guy Yeah, and then it kind of pans to Anthony Edwards. Yeah Minnesota would be cool I would actually kind of like to see Lebron end up with just some random team that gives him a chance to be yeah

20:41And just like hey, I want a Minnesota colors. Why not? I like to see him wind up with a team that really needs like the cultural shift That needs like a guy that comes in and changes yeah shows the guys what it's like to compete at that level Yeah, we've got some big games over the weekend for the playoffs standings We're going to tell you what you need to be paying attention to this weekend after this This special segment is brought to you by five hour energy welcome to the five hour energy flavor draft We're looking at every aspect of the draft to let you know which tasty flavors are the best in which might just be sleepers The board set the flavors are ready and only one is gonna take the top spot Five hour energy is a wide variety of flavors. They really do have something for everyone and five hour energy shots Give you the boost was zero sugar. I'm looking at my draft board And I think the clear number one has to be cherry. I'm a classic guy cherries classic sweet light tart edge It's bright. It's punchy. It has that slight tang finish can't go wrong It is the go-to but here's my sleeper pick strawberry banana sweet strawberry flavor up front soft mellow banana finish smooth creamy fruit

21:44Profile it tastes like you're drinking a fruit smoothie very low acidity easy to drink with a gentle sweet aftertaste Find your new favorite flavor of five hour energy shots available online at five hour energy dot com or on Amazon Today's episode of lock that NBA is brought to you by indeed workplace chaos deadline stacking up inbox Overflowing in the one position that you have to fill still sitting open When the pressure is on and you need the right hire this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs Indeed sponsored jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for the skills experience location So you're not just hoping that the right candidate stumbles across your post And here's a stat that says it all in the minute I've been talking to you companies like yours made 27 hires on indeed according to indeed data worldwide So if you're hiring spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates who check all of your boxes with indeed sponsored jobs Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all of your boxes less stress less time More results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos This is a job for indeed sponsored jobs and listeners and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit

22:47To help get your your job the premium status it deserves at indeed dot com slash podcast Just go to indeed dot com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying that you heard about it You heard about indeed on this podcast locked on NBA Indeed dot com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need to hire this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs Welcome back to locked on NBA daily things for making the locked on podcast network your first listen We have a show for every team check out locked on Celtics and locked on Lakers for more on today's top stories We're going to take a look at some big games over the weekend We are in the thick of the playoff race here and there's some games that are going to matter Starting Friday night heat at Hornets if you're not watching the Jason Tatum return This is the game that you guys should be watching This team this game has a lot at stake not only for the chase for six place because the heat right now a loss behind Philadelphia for six plays Charlotte Starting to creep up two and a half games out right now in the ninth in the ninth seed

23:49It's possible that they could catch up to possibly the sixth seed But really what we're talking about here is my am you can get the the tie break over Charlotte for the season With a win Charlotte can narrow the gap for that Seven eight spot with a win if they win at home tonight my am you coming off the second night of a back-to-back And as we know Hayes the difference between that seven eight part of the play internment versus that nine ten part of the play internment where Charlotte is now Is massive right Charlotte right now we'd have to win two games to get into the playoffs if you get into that seven eight portion Two chances to win one game a lot of stake in this game. What are you watching for? I mean, just to see Charlotte Hornet can keep it to Charlotte Hornets can keep it up They are a very fun team to watch. We're playing really good basketball right now. They have one six in a row When you look at them in the Miami heat I think they're 12th and 13th in strength the schedule remaining so the very similar path there If they can get into that seven eight matchup, you know that get that doesn't guarantee anything But it gives them a better chance to make the playoffs So just seeing the Hornets continue to play tough play good on both sides and of course con can nipple to just keep scoring the ball like crazy

24:49Matt I think this game is more for Miami on the line than Charlotte. I think Miami's got to start to prove that They are they got separate themselves Duel and B didn't miss another week with injury that just came out Is going to be re-evaluated in a week so it could be longer than that Like there's an opportunity here for them to be able to get into the six-spot they got to get out of the plane They had to give a start for them to just like Peter off like this and they've had you know, they've had health stuff Welcome to league everybody's had health stuff So Charlotte's been so much better of a team for the last three months than Miami and Miami was such a better team for the first two months than Charlotte I think Miami needs to prove that their style of basketball can Whether a team like this where the Charlotte Hornets are big on the interior and the Charlotte Hornets take a lot of threes And they're often so much better than Miami's like Miami needs. I think this is a perfect concept game I actually did this game means way more for Miami than it does for Charlotte I don't disagree Matt I think I think this is a really big game. You're facing the hottest team in the league right now on the second item back to back

25:51The heat on a three-game win streak two of these last games were against Brooklyn nets at home a stinky tanky Brooklyn nets team The one thing that could open the door to a Miami upset tonight over the Hornets on the road The Hornets do turn the ball over a lot and they still do even with them winning Miami has done a really good job recently scoring off of turnovers creating turnovers and scoring off those turnovers Of Charlotte's going to kind of gift them some of those opportunities. They have to make the most of them The next game I want to talk about on Saturday 76ers at Hawks you just mentioned the big news there Matt that Jolombi is going to miss some time here Still going to be an interesting match up Philly in that six spot at Lanna all the way down at 10 But on a five game win streak and trying to climb up. What are you watching for in this one Matt? The sixers get a figure out how to win again without NB they had this good stretch at the start of the season and they have been lost without him since basically January 1st They got to get figure out how to win without a man like you don't know if Jolombi is going to be there You just don't you just don't know if he's going to be there. So Tyree's maxi versus

26:54Dale versus Dyson Daniels great matchup right phenomenal The sixers are a little small when they don't have NB'd so you got Jol and Johnson maybe with more room to operate And then Again, I regret that we have to discuss him, but you do have the Jonathan Kamingo question Here versus the sixers Dominic Barlow and the rest of those guys trying to figure out how to keep him from getting to the rim They've had a real problem with the with rim defense without uh NB'd around nambona. I don't think he's had a good follow-up season. So A lot of questions I think here for the sixers that they also need to kind of like stabilize things because look at Miami Surges they're going to be in the play in tournament and I just feel like with NB's availability that leaves you open to the possibility of sliding to eight or worse Hey, I think Matt brings up a really good point. This there's a lot on the line for Philly in this one Yeah, the Philly has to get it together. I mean They're four and six in the last ten. You don't want to follow them and playing if you can avoid it at all um, and so you know Philly got to recapture what they had kind of earlier in the season when they were hovering around like the second and third

27:58See there for a little while and get some better balance going on because um teams like Charlotte teams like Miami They're they're they're waiting now the Hawks on the other side of this like They've won five games in a row second longest win streak in the Eastern Conference Caming has been really good for them. He started one game so far. I don't know if you can keep that up You guys know I love Jaylen Johnson and I still think Jaylen Johnson as a chance Especially against the 76ers team to take over that game Yeah, probably be the best player in that game right especially with NB'd out in Paul George still serving that suspension um calves at Celtics Sunday afternoon Primetime game unclear right now if we know that Jason Tatum is gonna if Jason Tatum is gonna play in this game probably not But maybe he does I don't really know The game is being played in Boston, which potentially could matter here But Hayes. What are you watching for with two of the top four seeds in the east? Yeah, I mean the Celtics of course, you know whether Tatum plays or not can they can they continue their level play Um, but this calves seem like it's you keep waiting you know that they're a talented team

28:59There's seven in three in their last ten and you know the addition of James Hardin has really worked out for them Having a healthy body there and I wouldn't be surprised if we see the calves kind of Try to catch up and get to that that third or maybe even float with that second seed as as the season goes on So this is a really important matchup for them there Ah, I kind of I really want to see Cleveland have a performance that matches kind of what they've been It feels that they've gotten a bunch of of wins, but they're short on good wins Since Hardin came back. We'll see if if Donovan is Mitchell cleared or not. Do we know that yet? Uh, trending in that direction of trending in that it's that they're gonna try and target him for that spot That makes sense uh, and then now my next question is do the Cavaliers play on Saturday? Is my okay? They do not hey Here, congratulations at B.A. You sketched a matinee game without somebody on a back-to-back good for you Um, I do think this is a I it's gonna be a great game and yeah tiebreaker is gonna be matter. These are the games that I start to love at this time of year where These are games that actually matter they have tiebreaker implications both teams are gonna need that one

30:00I do think part of our job here is to sort of sort through all of the NBA chaos and all the news and all of the games That are happening all the time and tell people hey, these are the things that matter We're almost like tastemakers in a sense of hey watch these things. These are the things that matter This game on Sunday Cav Celtics is a big one Uh, it's time to end the show the way we do every Friday with our fave of the week is kick us off My favorite thing of this week so far Um, I said I'm gonna go outside of basketball here for a second my son Um, well, it's still related to basketball my son is 12 years old. I bring him up a lot on the show He goes and then out of watching basketball very consistently and so me and him We're talking the other day and he was just like yeah dad, you know, I feel like you're you're you're really you're really harsh on a couple of players Like oh my harsh on apparently my son watches every day on his lunch break. He watches us and locked on NBA. So there you guys go Hello, hello, hey's his son. Um, who are you harsh on He thinks I'm harsh on like um, he thinks I I could be easier on bulls players

31:01He also thinks I'm harsh apparently on jalen brown, which I feel like I always talk glowingly about jalen brown over here so Yeah, I think you know a little bit more harsh on jalen brown Yeah, in my opinion of course Matt your favorite of the week I Think my I actually want to I'm sorry. I'm going to go negative. I'm going to go negative here Uh my least favorite thing of the week is is how much officiating has become this talking point I do not mind if you want to criticize officiating, but you need to do it from some sort of perspective of this was clearly A wrong call call or a bad series of calls Not I this series of calls was bad because my team suffered from it I am very sick of we have to do something about officiating why Because my team got the worst of stop it stop it stop it Like sometimes like unlike like learn the rules understand these things and then criticize I'm a little bit over everyone thinking that all the officiating is out to get them. I'm just a little bit over it

32:01Uh, like I'm with you. I think officiating talk is the least Interesting version of sports radio and and I try to avoid it at all costs because it does just tend to be a home or take at the end of the day My favorite thing of the week Russell Westbrook calling out former locked on Kings host Matt George in a post game media session Not just Matt George to be fair It was the entire King's thing, but he went at match George first as his first target But I want to give credit to Matt because Westbrook accused him of not being around the team and Matt pushed back And I think that was a good I think it was a good move by Matt George and uh and shout out to Matt George He's doing great. By the way, people are like Sacramento people are saying like well, he should you know He should he ends because Matt went home and recorded a podcast about it. Yeah, like answer the questions And he took accountability and was like I was probably too harsh about this like I can own that But people are like why didn't you talk to Russ in person? Do you know what would happen if you tried to talk to Russell Westbrook Like if you try to grab him in the hallway to be like hey Russ. Can we talk for a second PR would spear you Like they would hit you in the back of the head with a chair

33:03Russell Westbrook I have covered Russell Westbrook I appreciate Russell Westbrook. I respect Russell Westbrook and when he's accomplished I think he's gotten a bad rap for a lot of reasons that aren't his fault Russ does not entertain these things He's not interested in having a conversation with you and one of the things that drives me absolutely nuts I try and treat every player as like an individual As their own person Because you should you should treat everyone that way But players refer to the media We're all the same as if we all have the same goals the same jobs The same tactics the same stuff And it's really obnoxious and nobody wants a hero of media complaining I get to where jobs are are cushy I'm just saying From a logical standpoint Let's treat each other as individuals and people and not make broad statements about either side And that's a good lesson to take with you to the weekend If you like what you heard today subscribe to lock that NBA Whenever you get your podcasts including on YouTube Thank you to Matt and Hayes for their expertise every day

34:03Thank you for making the lock down podcast network You're first listen. We'll see you right back here next week on lock down NBA daily