点击查看原文：On a roll, can Spurs keep it going?
On a roll, can Spurs keep it going?
Columnist Mike Finger and beat writers Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss Harrison Barnes’ big week, Chris Paul’s impact, Stephon Castle’s emergence, and Victor Wembanyama’s return from injury as the Spurs string together a surprising streak.
Suggested reading:
It took three quarters, but Victor Wembanyama is officially back
Between Chris Paul and Stephon Castle, Spurs find treasure in age gap
Harrison Barnes teaching young Spurs valuable lessons
Captain Crunch Time: Spurs thrilled by Chris Paul’s heroics
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Here is the transcript of the podcast:
From a highly secure network of top secret locations across North America, this is the Spurs Insider Cornucopia Edition. I’m your host, Mike Finger, joined as always by our panel of Express-News Spurs beat writers, Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn, along with Express-News Sports Editor, Nick Talbot. It’s Thanksgiving week. We’re taking stock of things, we’re getting ready for a feast. Some of us are getting ready for feasts. Jeff McDonald is in a secure location in Utah, which is what I think of when I think of Thanksgiving. And we’re, as a podcast, as a sports department, getting ready to work till June because the San Antonio Spurs, the local cagers, might be, Jeff McDonald, a good basketball team.
Why don’t you calm down a little bit? That’s not June, maybe May. Okay. I’ll tap the brakes a little. Okay, we’ll we’ll we should we need a sober voice here. I guess that’s that’s appreciated. That’s not me.
Yeah, I that was kind of a joke. Um, yeah, since we last convened on the Spurs Insider, we met the morning of the Oklahoma City game on TNT, which seems like a long time ago. And we were all sort of okay with not discussing that because even though the podcast reached our listeners, digital players on Wednesday morning, we figured there wouldn’t be that much to talk about in a game in which Victor Wembanyama didn’t play, Devin Vassell didn’t play, Jeremy Sochan remained out, and they were playing against the best team in the West. But they won that game on TNT. They came from behind against the Utah Jazz two nights later without Victor Wembanyama, won that game, and then against the Golden State Warriors, came from behind in that game with Victor Wembanyama. It’s been a heck of a week.
It’s a pretty good three-game winning streak, right? They beat the Thunder and the Warriors at the time, they came into the Frost Bank Center were respectively the top teams in the West. Like the Spurs knocked the Warriors from the top spot, I mean the Thunder from the top spot by beating them. Then the Warriors come in with the top spot, and the Spurs beat them, and then sandwiched around that is that game against Utah where was the biggest comeback victory of the season. So, lots of good stuff in there, and as you mentioned, two of those wins were pretty shorthanded, and one of them they had Victor for. So, they did a lot of different, they won a lot of different ways, and all those wins were good in a lot of different ways. And I think that’s one thing that was encouraging about that week. It’s not that they beat up on bad teams. It’s not that they lucked out and won this game or that game. They actually, um, you know, beat two really good teams and then kind of messed around against Utah and came back and won. So, good job for the cagers.
Tom, has your opinion of this coming season, the rest of the season changed as a result of how the Spurs have played lately? Are you overreacting?
Yeah, no, they’re they’re, you know, they’re a good team. I think not a not a great team, but they’re maybe a 500 team. Um, although as we pointed out the schedule has helped them a little bit with teams coming in on the second night of back-to-backs. But, uh, you know, a common thread from the week, the play of Harrison Barnes. That is, uh, that might be the most, and I don’t mean I I love me some Harrison Barnes. I got the notification yesterday that Harrison Barnes was named Western Conference Player of the Week, and that might have taken me by more surprise than any announcement I’ve ever seen about a San Antonio Spur winning Western Conference Player of the Week. Because he had a great week, but like it wasn’t until I saw the announcement that I was like, wow, that that he really did have a good week. A lot of other stuff was going on. Um, you had a big Chris Paul week, a big Stephon Castle week, but Harrison Barnes just quietly doing his thing.
You know who gets who should get kudos for that award is the Spurs PR staff. That’s what I was thinking. I’m told there was a lot of stumping going on and a lot of making the making the case. And it is odd because I mean this is a league where guys regularly score like 40 all the time. And usually those awards go to guys that have had those weeks where they’ve had 35 and 40 and, um, you know, just three steady 20-point games which was awesome, usually doesn’t win that award. So, hats off to Spurs PR for making that case to whoever it is the league office that that makes that pick. But he, Barnes was huge in that in that winning streak. I mean he he had he hadn’t been really part of the offense, he’s just kind of a glue guy, and all of a sudden he explodes for three straight 20-point games. And you know, it’s Western Conference Player of the Week. And I think I saw the stat yesterday, um, that he is the like, um, most long longest tenured player in league history to win that award for the first time.
That’s something. That’s good for him. Like in your 13th year to win your first Western Conference Player of the Week award is that doesn’t that doesn’t happen.
Yeah. That’s that’s that’s crazy. And I think I speak for the podcast when we say we’ve known Harrison Barnes, we’ve been hanging around Harrison Barnes for what, less than two months, and uh, all I think genuinely happy for the guy. He just seems like a good good dude. Um, great great addition to the locker room, great addition on the floor. We started this season of podcasts by saying that maybe it wasn’t that important for Harrison Barnes to be, um, a productive a a all-star level type player for for the Spurs, like they didn’t add him for that. Not all of it. It turns out he’s giving way way above what I expected him to give.
Uh, yeah, what do you say Tom? Tom Tom was the one that he didn’t say that. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Tom Tom was Tom has been on the Harry B bandwagon from the beginning.
Yeah. I think it’s funny if you think back to our early podcast this season from the preseason. We were talking about how like Barnes just kind of looked older and washed. And he goes from that to Western Conference Player of the Week, which kind of shows that we don’t know what the what the heck we’re talking about over here.
Yeah. It’s it’s there’s just all kinds of surprising developments lately. And this after, um, against a series of podcasts in which the Spurs pretty much did what we expected them to do week to week. Uh, this is the week that has I think been a genuine shocker. Like when nobody saw three victories in a row coming last week. I think we predicted their record correctly in all the previous weeks. But this was the one that that kind of made us take notice. And Tom mentioned the schedule earlier. I kind of want to take a look at that. I’m not sure this is the the discussion that’s going to to make this this particular episode go viral. But there there are two ways to look at the Spurs’ schedule so far. One of them, I guess one of them is that they’ve played way more home games than road games, and they’ve been way way better at home than on the road. So, you could say there that they’ve had an advantage, that things are going to get tougher. That’s true. Tom pointed out, I think they have they’ve had three pretty big victories against teams that have come into the Frost Bank Center on the second night of a back-to-back. That was Minnesota, that was Golden State, and that was who was the third one?
I believe it was OKC. I believe it was OKC. Um, so that’s an advantage there. But the the flip side of this is that the Spurs have played all but one game, they are they are nine and eight heading into Tuesday night’s game at Utah. Sixteen of those seventeen games have been played against the Western Conference. They played only one game against the utter terrible up to no good Eastern Conference. And so, I think when you look overall, I looked at uh Basketball Reference earlier this week, um, projecting their schedule. It’s it’s a pretty neutral schedule the rest of the way. Like there’s not a schedule advantage or schedule disadvantage the rest of the way. Um, the all the all the road games are counterbalanced by all the the Eastern Conference games they have coming up. So, I I think when you say like Tom mentioned this is a 500 team, that’s what their record says. He says they can continue to be that for the rest of the year. I think there’s reason to believe that they could. Like this I don’t think the schedule is going to get so tough at any point where it’s just unmanageable. So, I thought that was that was interesting.
I I think if they were in the Eastern Conference, you could I I would entertain the the the conversation of, hey, maybe they can make the playoffs this year in the East. West is probably going to be too big a too big a load, but
Well, okay, uh, if you’re just looking at play-in, and this is ridiculously early, and we’re we’re overreacting to a week of games. That’s what we do on on podcasts. Um, there there are three teams that I think the Spurs feel pretty confident about their ability to remain ahead of. And that would be the bottom of the West, which is your Utah, your New Orleans, who’s just ravaged by injuries and uh bad luck. And then your Portland. And then uh to to make the play-in, tenth spot, you’d need to stay to stay or be ahead of two other teams. And to me the candidates there are I don’t care what the records say now, both of your LA teams. I think you could see sort of falling apart down the stretch because they have old people. Uh, they don’t have the best mix. Like the Lakers have looked great, sure, um, but that could fall apart at any moment. That that’s a team that you could move ahead of. And then like Sacramento, maybe. Um, the Sacramento Sacramento hasn’t been awesome. Um, like I I don’t think any of those are likely, but those are the types of teams that you might uh squint and be able to say maybe they don’t make the play-in. Um, Memphis gets hurt again. Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. You’re just sitting around waiting for Memphis to get horribly injured because they do every year.
Yeah. Uh, Minnesota’s trade splash in the offseason has not looked great so far. Um, the Julius Randle thing, boy, that’s that’s been tough. Uh, I still think they’re probably a top ten team in the West. But any of those teams takes a big injury, uh, an injury that costs them a star player for a month or two, and and that window of opportunity opens up for the Spurs. I don’t think it’s as unlikely as I thought it was a week or two ago that the Spurs could sneak into a tenth spot there. So, that’s something to look forward to the rest of the way.
Speaking of injuries. Spurs Spurs have been rather resilient uh about without Jeremy, Devin, Wemby here and there.
The the games without Victor, um, were really something else, man. Like how on earth did they pull those off? You had you had two Charlie Bassey uh crazy games, um, where like if if you get those kinds of games from Bassey back-to-back, I think the Spurs will take that to the bank. Like you’re never expecting to get that kind of production from him. Yeah. Good kudos on him for doing it. We got Chris Paul winning you a game in the fourth quarter, one of those against Utah. We haven’t even mentioned Chris Paul yet in this podcast, but what a week he had.
Talk about it, Jeff.
Well, I I just overall, I’ve been and maybe this shouldn’t come as a shock, but I’ve been really, um, impressed at the impact he has made on this team. And I think we all kind of assumed he’d have this sort of impact, but I I think he’s surpassed expectations, my expectations. I’m not even even talking about on the floor where he’s been pretty good. Um, just listening to him talk about this team and what what he tells the younger players and how he teaches them and instructs them and I think all that has been really really good for this team. You you see it uh you you see it I I feel like you can see a difference in a lot of players this year in their confidence level and their um and just the way they approach the games. They they you know when when Pop was around he used to talk about different different players like like feeling like they belong. It looks like the whole team kind of feels like they belong. The thing from Chris Paul is uh I’ve we’ve heard him say it a million times already is these guys have to expect to win. They have to come in and learn and expect to win every game, no matter who we’re playing. They’re we’re good, we’re good enough to compete with anybody. And this team is starting to believe that. It doesn’t mean they win every game, but the way this team plays, they don’t get shell-shocked as much like they did last year. And I think a lot of that is the Chris Barnes uh I mean that uh I mixed up I confused the names. Both of them, Chris Paul and and Harrison Barnes bringing that professionalism and experience to the locker room. And as much as they’re contributing on the floor, I I really can’t state enough how much I think they mean to this team behind closed doors.
And and then you got as Chris Paul said the other day, you got a 20-year-old rookie acting like he’s a 39-year-old veteran.
That that’s that’s the guy we need to talk about. What is it too soon to talk about what happens with Stephon Castle when everybody is healthy? Is he still starting?
Probably. Just probably too soon because these things work themselves out. Yeah. But but sure. Let’s let’s let’s do it. The if everyone is healthy at the same time, um, you figure you have uh the the the projected opening night starting lineup, uh, which was not the opening night starting lineup because Devin Vassell wasn’t healthy at that point. But uh the projected lineup going into the year was Chris Paul, Devin Vassell, uh Jeremy Sochan, Harrison Barnes and Victor Wembanyama. Um, to to keep Stephon Castle in the starting lineup whenever everybody is healthy, that means sending Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes or Jeremy Sochan to the bench. Um, I’m not sure that happens. I’m not sure this will come up because there’s just always somebody with an injury at some point. But but at 100% health, that’s what you need to do. Uh, I can look I can see it both ways. I I can see the argument to keep Stephon Castle starting and playing alongside Chris Paul. I I wrote about that relationship, which we’ve all mentioned, and I find it just fascinating and riveting and really interesting the Chris Paul, Stephon Castle dynamic. Our our good friends at TNT Inside the NBA, which is going to continue to be produced for years to come, heard good news for uh for those folks. Good good news for our old friend Dan McCarney is going to stay working for the NBA for years to come, thanks to the new deal. They pointed out on their show last week that the largest age gap between starting guards, starting teammate guards in NBA history was De’Aaron Fox and Vince Carter who were like 20 years apart for three games back in like 2018. The second biggest age gap is Chris Paul and Stephon Castle who have been starting a bunch of games together and might continue to. And that dynamic like they’re really good. If you can break down the um the the the efficiency by lineups, and you can break down two two-man combinations in the Spurs and every team’s uh uh net efficiency. Um, and the best two-man lineup the Spurs have used this year for at least I think 100 minutes, weirdly enough is Julian Champagnie and Stephon Castle, which may or may not be reflective of anything significant. But the second best is Chris Paul and Stephon Castle, which matches the eye test. I think the third best is Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama, which is the two star players. But the point is like those those two guys, Chris and and Stephon play really well together. And you want to kind of maximize that. So, that’s an argument to keep Stephon playing with him. You could also switch things up and and use a finishing lineup, uh, as opposed to a starting lineup. But yeah, there’s different ways you can do it. I I I just think Stephon and Chris together really give you something.
I I agree. You’ll have to figure out a way to keep some shooting in those lineups though.
Yeah. Like you’re going to have to have a Vassell in there or a Champagnie in there to to balance it out. You can’t have a bunch of guys who can’t shoot then that’ll be a problem.
Right. The other thing is, um, let’s say I won’t bore the listeners with listing every one of the top ten players. But if if you start that lineup that we talked about, the the opening lineup night lineup, then the next five guys, you don’t necessarily have a a power forward of a four to play. You have four sort of wing you have Tre Jones, three wing players and Zach Collins. Just position-wise, like the easiest thing to do would be to send either Sochan or Barnes to the bench as your backup forward. I’m not sure you want to do that. Like here’s the thing for Mitch Johnson. Same as it was for Greg Popovich, same as it was for every NBA coach. It’s not just about, you know, fantasy basketball, putting the best uh statistical lineups together. You have to manage personalities, you have to manage, um, just just what what sending someone to the bench or putting in the lineup, how does that affect confidence, how does that affect, you know, interpersonal uh chemistry, all that type of stuff. Like that’ll be interesting to see how Mitch manages it when it comes up. This is a uh segue into the fact that I think Mitch Johnson has done a really really good job as an NBA head coach so far.
Mm-hm. Tom, what do you think?
Yeah, no, he’s pushed all the right buttons. He’s he’s uh, you know, maintained Pop’s basic program, which was smart. Um, he’s made some good in-game adjustments. Yeah, I mean there’s you can’t you can’t criticize him really at all. I mean he’s done a great job. It’s been a big week for him, like you know coming back on Oklahoma City, coming coming back on, you know, Steve Kerr and the Warriors. Like that there was a big Mitch Johnson week.
This might be way too hot-take-y podcast-y, but uh is there something to the fact like Jeff was raving in the uh media room the other night about how great the Spurs team has been in third quarters this year? Is how how much of that is just on a head coach making some halftime adjustments, uh, not giving up uh pressing the right buttons coming out of halftime?
I think it’s the new rookie speech at halftime. Yeah. Yeah. Just cribbed Pop-ism.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don’t know. There’s something like like you can’t look at anything. The the one of his first games as uh the acting head coach, they blew a big lead at the Intuit Dome against the Clippers, which happens. The Spurs have done that many times over the years. Lots of NBA teams have blown big leads, especially in recent years. Uh, that that didn’t reflect great on on the the coaching staff. But like he’s done in reverse more times than that happened. And Jeff, you might have an article in front of you, but I saw something recently like they’re they’re nine and two when ahead by ten points in a game, which ten points in a game isn’t that much anymore in the modern NBA. And to be nine and two like that’s probably one of the best records in the league and way better than it was last year or the year before.
And yeah, how how much of that is is the coaching, probably some of it. How much of that is, as we mentioned, having more veterans around to sort of stabilize the ship. How much of that is the other guys growing up? Like it’s probably a combination of all of that.
Yeah.
Going back to Chris Paul, Tom, you remember his introductory press conference in San Antonio this summer? And he followed that up several times after that, every time someone would bring up the fact that the Spurs have all these young guys who he’s going to be able to mentor, or who’s going to be able to to nurture that type of thing. He was very quick that first day and many days after that to say, hey, I’m here to hoop. Like I’ll do that type of stuff, but that’s I’m not a coach. And what’s been kind of cool to see is he’s doing exactly what people expected him to do. He is mentoring, he is nurturing, but it’s not in your face lecturing. Like he’s not pretending to be a coach. He is he is mentoring by hooping. Um, yeah. It’s And uh that that might be what makes it so effective is it’s not just some old guy sitting there telling them what to do. It’s watch me just take the heck over this game in the in the closing minutes against Oklahoma City, against Utah. Like and it’s also like every every dead ball, even during live action, like never shutting up around Stephon Castle. Jeff’s mentioned it before, Chris Paul never stops talking. So, it’s it’s the mentoring while hooping, and then just the fun camaraderie that we get to see when the locker room doors open, that never stops. Uh, it’s Jeff mentioned it earlier, but to watch Chris Paul be Chris Paul has been one of my favorite parts of covering this team this season.
Yeah, it’s just who he is. I mean he doesn’t have to force it. It’s just coming out very naturally, you know. And and yeah, I mean it’s same with Harrison Barnes. I mean the Brian Wright is looking pretty good with those two guys and with Castle, you know. Yeah. I mean you look back One of you wrote about the uh Chris Paul play in the uh Utah game where he’s, you know, pounding the ball in the left arc and like signaling at Stephon Castle to come over and like talking. It felt like that moment went on for like 15 seconds. Like waiting him over, pulling to the floor where he wanted the screen, talking at it. And then Steph comes and does it and it’s an immediate pass and layup and and one to step to Stephon Castle, like Chris saw that Chris moves ahead and just needed to get Castle on the same page. And that was that was the darnest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Just an immediate an immediate basket.
And Steph said I asked Steph about that and he’s you know, did did you know why Chris Paul was asking for that screen? And he thought he said no, I thought he wanted he wanted to switch. Uh, you know, he want he wanted the screen so he could Chris Paul could switch onto Stephon Castle’s man. And almost without realizing what was happening while it was happening, uh, Stephon Castle comes over sets his screen and the next thing he knows, the ball is in his hand and he has a layup and an and one. It’s it’s Chris Paul is something else, man. Um, really is. Another thing is Go ahead. And Harrison Barnes is saying we we continually give Harrison Barnes short shrift. The Western Conference Player of the Week, but he does a similar he has a similar impact on this team. And and what did I guess we got we got to throw in like uh there’s a caveat here. What did what did Brian Wright give up to get Harrison Barnes? Oh, wait. He he got him for free. And he and he got a draft pick out of the deal. You got the Western Conference Player of the Week for free. And you got Sacramento’s first-round pick in like 2030. How how was that even possible?
Because Sacramento wanted DeMar DeMar DeMar DeRozan that badly. That’s that’s what it was. Like we’re not even being sarcastic here. This is that’s that’s that was the deal. It’s really something else, man.
High times in Spurs Land. It would be a good time to uh if with all this positivity, with all this uh uh possible success come up. It would be a good time to maybe subscribe to expressnews.com or at least check it out. Subscribe to the uh Express-News Spurs Nation newsletter. Um, yeah, follow follow Spurs writers on Blue Sky where you get breaking up-to-date updates. Up-to-date updates. That those are my favorite kinds of updates, up-to-date updates. Um, lots of good stuff up there for Spurs fans to uh to check out. What what have we missed in this riveting podcast, Tom?
Well, another thing that I think’s been neat about this uh early season so far, um, Wemby, he loves all of this. You know. He really does. He’s a superstar, face of the franchise, generational player, Wemby. He he loves it. He loves seeing Chris Paul doing what he’s doing. He loves Stephon Castle doing what you know, he’s just there was no ego there with him. Maybe I’m wrong, um, but what do you guys think? I mean that that dynamic, he’s kind of uh Tim Duncan-like in just embracing all of this and wanting to see every guy on the team succeed.
He was he was the biggest cheerleader in the arena those games when he was injured, you know.
He’s he’s just I I feel like I don’t talk about him enough on this podcast because I don’t like uh sounding like some kind of homer cheerleader because it’s just uh how can you be anything but effusive in your enthusiasm, your praise for what you see from that dude. He he he impresses you every week. And he he came back from that, he missed three games. Was it three or four? Three. Three. Yeah. He missed three after banging his knee against Anthony Davis’s knee. Uh, said it was uh turned out to be a little more serious than he thought it was. Immediately swelled up a little bit. But there was no structural damage. Uh, that game Saturday against Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, who were the top team in the Western Conference, hitting on all cylinders. Uh, they built a how big of a lead, Jeff? Seventeen Seventeen points. With like a minute to go in the third quarter though, like it was a late lead.
Well, Victor Wembanyama just looked like a guy who’d missed three games in a row with a swollen knee. Uh, looked like he wasn’t in game shape. Was taking some shots that we didn’t love. Uh, seemed to be out of sorts. And then as Harrison Barnes put it after that game, uh, flipped the switch, like the great ones can do. And you probably don’t want to get into the habit of doing that every game, but when Victor Wembanyama flips the switch, man, it is it is worth the price of admission. Uh, as it was Saturday night. Like that that guy takes over games like few people do. And uh
He has a feel for the for the big moments, that’s for sure. And like some of those threes that you don’t necessarily like for him to take in the second quarter, I swear I don’t have the stats on this. This is just like a gut feel. I swear those seem to go in a higher percentage of the time, like when there are big shots in the fourth, he seems to knock them down. I I I he does. It just feels that way. And then there was yeah, there was the one where he hit the he was two of ten from three, hit like a contested one to bring the Spurs within one in the fourth quarter against Golden State. Goes down the other end and and blocks a shot to start uh, you know, a fast break and of course the arena is going freaking nuts now. Then comes down a little bit later, hits a deep three to put them up six. And it’s just those little spurts. And Oh, and then the at the end like they need they still need baskets, and now he’s finding Harrison Barnes on these little cuts for a couple of them. Yeah. That was a great pass to Harrison Barnes man. It’s true. It was it was two consecutive possessions. They did it. It goes back to my original point. You know, he he finishes that game with nine assists, the two key setups to Harrison Barnes, and he’s as happy with that as anything that he’s that he can, you know, distribute out of those double teams and make things happen for other guys.
He was just having a dog of a game for three quarters and ended up he ended up winning the game for him in the fourth. That’s there that’s there’s that’s a thing to have. Like a good good skill to have.
And this isn’t being a homer, Mike, it’s just facts.
That’s this week’s up-to-date update is Victor Wembanyama still good. Uh, we will uh Jeff is Jeff is hanging in there in Utah for the first night of a back-to-back. Uh, that game will be played before this podcast reaches many of you listeners, so we all appreciate. Um, so I guess that can be part of our prediction for the rest of the week. Um, even though we could look foolish for predicting whatever we predict about the Utah game Tuesday night after people have already seen it. But uh the second night of that back-to-back is back home at the Frost against the vaunted Lakers, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, JJ Redick and company. Then a Sunday game at Sacramento starting a uh starting a road trip that I believe Jeff will be on as well. Uh, we will not include Phoenix in this podcasting prediction even though uh that’s another Tuesday game. Uh, but anyway, Utah on the road, Lakers at home, Sacramento on the road. What’s your record in that game, Tom, in that stretch Tom Orsborn, those three games?
Uh, you know, it’s it’s tough because that Wednesday you got a long gap before they play at Sacramento. Yeah. I can see them losing at Sacramento, but they’re going to be well-rested. So, I’m going to go with two and one. Two and one. Yep. They’re going to be They’ll lose to the Lakers? The good times, no, the good times are going to roll uh against Utah. I think they’ll beat the Lakers. Ah. And then uh Sacramento, maybe that maybe that long layoff will work against them, they lose at Sacramento.
An important point, I believe both the Spurs and the Lakers play uh on the second night of back-to-backs. So there’s no rest advantage there. Lakers are at Phoenix. Yep. Jeff Jeff McDonald, what do you have for those three games?
I think for like the third time this year, I’m going to say they better win that Utah game. Yeah. But yeah, I I think it’s going to be kind of a tough week. But maybe the the back-to-back thing against the Lakers, like maybe the Spurs do have a smaller advantage there. The Lakers are a much older team than the Spurs. So, maybe they do have a I I have a shot at that one. But but I always go conservative on these, I’m going to say one and two.
All right. How about two and one?
It’s Thanksgiving. Uh, um, this year most looking forward to Thursday, Tom Orsborn?
Most looking forward to?
Yeah.
Well, it’s a it’s uh, you know, being at home. Uh, No, the dish. The dish. The dish. Oh, the dish! The dish! You know I I didn’t enunciate properly. The dish! I love pumpkin pie! The sweet dish! With a little Pumpkin pie. With some cream on top. Last year I was at the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco for Thanksgiving. They had the best pumpkin pie. And they had that with Irish coffee, just topped off a great meal.
Well, you’ll be home with family this time, that’ll be good.
Jeff likes it all. Jeff probably likes the you get you have a bulgogi bowl for your Thanksgiving dinner there, Jeff McDonald.
I’ve never heard I’ve never heard of that.
No, I’m going to have I’m going to have preferred items at the at the Frost Bank Center. I I arrived at my hotel here in Salt Lake City and the Jazz had left me a nice little welcome gift, a little bag. And it’s got all kinds of stuff that that I might use on Thanksgiving. Like uh there’s a bag of uh peanut butter overnight oats. Huh? With flax, uh chia and hemp. Hemp, is that legal? And uh there’s a little uh uh bottle of uh PBfit Classic Roasted Peanut Powder. That I could also also use. And also a first aid kit. For some reason. You may need that. The Utah Jazz know Jeff McDonald well if they’re sending a first aid kit to his hotel room. That’s pretty good. Well, I’m I’m told uh there’s a little note that said these were from like their sponsors. So Oh. But I got this bag thinking, oh, there’ll be some snacks that I can dig into tonight, you know, or whatever, or maybe a bottle of water or something. But no, it’s uh overnight oats and uh roasted peanut powder.
I don’t even know if this can get through TSA on the way back, you know.
Yeah. Well, I’m you know, I’m going to you know Thanksgiving, I’m going to be thankful. I’m not going to look a gift horse gift bag in the mouth. I’m just going to be thankful and grateful for what for the hospitality that the Utah Jazz have provided me so far.
Excellent segue to the finisher, Jeff. We all should be thankful. Uh, should be a a good week. Enjoy the moments while you can. Until next time, take care of each other and keep it real.