点击查看原文：It's Wembanyama's alien world
It’s Wembanyama’s alien world
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss Victor Wembanyama’s dominant run of late, how he could tap into his potential even more and why there is no one else like him, not even Brad Sellers.
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For Spurs, NBA Cup games worth more than money
Tre Jones’ injury comes with unfortunate timing
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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. We made it to December. I am Mike Finger, joined by our usual panel of Express-News Spurs beat writers, Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn, along with sports editor Nick Talbot. Jeff McDonald’s in his secure location in the painted desert, in the valley of the sun. The rest of us are closer to home. But what we all have in common is we are on the bandwagon of a team that might be good, that continues to might be good; the local cagers. Still above 500 heading into this recording. And Jeff McDonald, did just do you have any status update on on the whole question of whether you cover a good team or not?
I mean, it’s the tenth-place San Antonio Spurs. So, let’s go, let’s go Hawkin.
They’re in 10th. Always putting things in perspective. But it’s it’s the tenth place in in the best conference.
Yeah. If they’re in the if if they were in the East, we would definitely be Hawkin’ right now.
Yeah. They they’d be fighting for home court in the East.
Just a housekeeping issue here. As always, the Spurs Insider is in your digital players by Wednesday mornings. By by by the time you wake up on Wednesday morning, some people might be listening to this before the big NBA Cup showdown Tuesday night in Phoenix between the local cagers and the Phoenix Suns. But we’re not going to discuss too much NBA Cup this week because it the Spurs might be in the playoffs, they might not be in the NBA Cup playoffs by the time most of you listen to it on Wednesday. So let’s go back over the week that was. I think Tom and I continued our streak of correctly projecting the the record each week.
Bragging. Your Spurs won two of three. The the the cynic, the pessimist, the the the gray cloud followed beat guy Jeff McDonald predicted one and two. But Tom, you you got it right again. Not only did the Spurs take care of business against the Utah Jazz, but they went on the road to Sacramento and had another one of their patented second-half comebacks to come back against their old friend DeMar DeRozan and the Kings. What what do you think of the week, Tom?
Yeah. I mean, they’re they’re they’re playing pretty good. They’re playing pretty well. The um, you know, but it all comes back to Wemby. Um, you know, Jeff did a great job I thought in his story online and in today’s Express-News in summing up, you know, just how to describe the guy. You know, what he did against Sacramento. Just incredible. And uh, you know, I think he pointed out, Mike, too, that when he scores inside, you know, when he plays like a a seven-foot-four guy, uh, in addition to hitting those three-pointers, pretty damn good.
There was a stretch, Jeff, in the in the second half there and and you had a close-up view of it in in Sacramento, which a place I know you love, that where where it it was the Wembanyama that um I think some of us really enjoy watching where it was at one end of the floor, just no one was getting to the basket. He was just being like the dad. He had he had dad blocks. And then at the other end, he decided he was going to get to the rim and be a seven-foot-four guy who just couldn’t be stopped. And I think the threat of the jump shots that he’d hit in that game, the threat of the three-pointers helped him there. Like I I’m I’m not one of those curmudgeons who says that tall guys have to be close to the basket all the time. The three-pointer is a big part of his game, always will be. He hit a huge fadeaway, like an unguardeable fadeaway over Sabonis during that stretch, too. But then he was ju- he was just getting to the basket and and doing like George Gervin scoop shots, uh, dunks. It was it was fun Wemby to me. I’m wondering if you would agree.
I agree, and it was a very um enlightening and interesting post-game talking to uh acting coach Mitch Johnson and some of the some of the players about it. Um, because you know, there’s still this thing with us, like what are we watching when we watch Victor Wembanyama? What how is this supposed to look? Because like as you mentioned, there is a segment of people, including myself sometimes, where I’m like, you’re seven-three and the guy guarding you is six-three. Just just go be a like you said, be a dad and just drop the ball in over them. Like go be tall. Just go be tall.
Um, but um I there were a lot of there was a lot of good quotes that came out of that, but the one that really stuck out to me was Mitch talking about how yeah, he’s learning how like he can do everything. Everything you can possibly want to do on a basketball court, he can do. And he’s learning how to use all the weapons at his disposal, which are more weapons than anyone has ever had at their disposal on an NBA basketball court. So sometimes you’re going to pick the wrong weapon, and sometimes it’s it’s you’re you’re going to mess it up. And he’s he’s going through that. When you I think the quote was like when you have a menu of everything, occasionally you’re going to get it wrong. You’re you’re not going to make the right choice every time. And so I thought that was a really interesting way of looking at it that the fact that he is so talented sometimes uh is a problem because he has to figure out what to do in in in what situation. And I think I think that down the stretch in Sacramento, um he like everything he did worked. And there was a time he did have that one of those baskets over Malik Monk, who is six-foot-three, Victor is seven-foot-three. He had one of those baskets, I think that was the game-tying basket or the go-ahead basket, I think it was a tying basket. And then later they needed one, it was the same situation. He’s got Malik Monk on him. Like go be go go shoot a layup, but no, he he waits for the double team to start, throws it across the the court to Devin Vassell, and it’s a three-pointer now. And I guess that’s the right choice. Now if Vassell misses that shot, you could probably go back and second-guess it, but he made he made the shot and then it was that was a big shot. Like put them up two scores going into the final two minutes, I think that’s kind of what loosened the game for them. So
Well, I’m sure that that closing um quarter closing segment we’re talking about that that was especially maddening, I would I would imagine for Mike Brown, who’s no dummy and who probably looked at the way Victor Wembanyama has played for much of this early part of the season and said, hey, we can get away with having Malik Monk go be the primary defender on Victor Wembanyama because Victor Wembanyama has not been necessarily making guards pay for being short in the post for a lot of the season. And in this particular game, he made Malik Monk and the other shorter guys, I guess everybody is a shorter guy to Victor, but um the other wing guard type players who were guarding him, he made them pay. Um, and even in the middle of that, like Jeff said that that that play stood out to me, the the one where he had made the little guy’s pay a couple of times in a row and then he had it again, and then he decided he’s going to make this cross-court pass to Devin Vassell, uh, who hit the shot. I think that was Victor’s tenth assist. And there was a there was a part of me that was wondering, I wonder if he wanted the tenth assist to get his triple-double. Like when you’re Victor Wembanyama, you can sort of uh like he he he’s admitted he looks at the scoreboard and looks at his stats during games, he knows what’s going on. Maybe he wanted an assist there. He can just toy with teams that way. But that was a that was a fun Victor game. It hasn’t been all Victor with the Spurs so far this season, but we are seeing um prime Wembanyama start we’re starting to get something closer to prime Wembanyama.
Who could seem to be an amazing complement for him as Chris Paul, though.
Yeah. Well, I wanted to go back and you mentioned Mike Brown. I guess he’s not a friend of the podcast, but we enjoy him. He’s a he’s a Spurs expatriot. But everywhere you go, even for the last year and a half now, or a year and however long Victor’s been here, every like everyone wants to ask the opposing coach about Victor and how do you stop him and how who does what does he look like and what, you know, how great is he basically? And you oh you you’ve heard so many people like so many coaches just gush about him. Um, so they asked Mike Brown that before the game in Sacramento. And he brings up Brad Sellers.
Yeah, I’d never heard that before. That was a new one to me.
He says, uh, Brad Sellers, you just had not heard uh the the comparison to uh
Somebody really asked him, like, you know, this guy, you know, he’s so long and tall, how do you deal with him?
Mike Brown says, well, do you remember Brad Sellers?
And I about fell out of my chair because it’s the funniest thing I ever heard in my life. The point I think Mike was eventually getting to was yeah, this guy Brad Sellers came along in the eighties and we thought he was a handful. You know, he was going to be a handful. He was seven-two and could move and whatever. And uh Vic- Vic- Victor’s just, you know, you know, you you look at Victor and he’s just light years beyond that. Like it was kind of a point about how far the game has come. But I didn’t, you know, I’ve never heard anyone bring up Brad Sellers when
In the same breath before Wemby and Brad Sellers. It’s it’s quite it’s quite absurd, the uh Brad Sellers and his what just pull them up and he scored uh how much a 6.3?
6.3. Whacking 6.3. Yeah.
6.3 in points a game. Wild. That’s wild.
He wasn’t being he wasn’t being uncomplimentary. He just it was he was a it was a it was a hand-fisted way to make a point. But it made me laugh.
And I had a relative who left his homework in uh the Big Lebowski’s car. I tell you that kid’s that kid’s name was Larry Sellers, I think.
That’s right. Does anybody here know what I’m talking about?
Yes. I thought I thought he his relative played the Pink Panther.
Oh, that’s true, too. Yeah. I’ve got a lot of good Sellers out there.
I have a question. If this isn’t prime Wembanyama, what it is? This last eight games, 31.1 points, 43% from three, 11 rebounds a game, 4.6 assists and 3.4 blocks. If this isn’t prime, what the heck is?
It’s um
So you can read the you can read the statistics all you want, but you if if you watch the games, he hasn’t it hasn’t been prime Victor yet. But like that think that’s what
That’s what I’m saying. Those stat those are MVP-level stats. What so what the heck is prime?
Like that’s that’s the What what the what’s That’s the story of Wembanyama is that you you watch him play and you see how he can be better. Oh, once he figures it out, he’s going to have have mastered that player. He will do that better. At the end of the day, he’s got MVP-level stats. That’s that’s the thing. It’s crazy.
What what that’s what Mitch Johnson has said more than once now is it’s um doing the little things, mastering the fundamentals. Like he can obviously do the spectacular stuff, we’ve seen it. But it’s just the little things that are maybe maybe won’t change his final stat numbers. But it’s it’s it’s it’s kind of like that fourth quarter. It wasn’t just the shots he made, but it’s like all of a sudden he’s going to get rebounds. Like you it you saw I saw a difference in Victor Wembanyama in the fourth quarter in Sacramento in terms of just like I’m going to go get this rebound now. That was a that was a that was a there was a difference to me in the fourth-quarter version of that and the first three quarters. Uh, you know, making a simple play instead of the spectacular play and maybe turning it over. Like he had five turnovers in Sacramento early. Um, it’s just it’s footwork things. It’s that play against Malik Monk uh where he actually scored at the basket by using a little bit of height and fundamentals and just overwhelming a guy. Um, that’s that’s what prime Wembanyama’s going to look like. And maybe it doesn’t change the final box score numbers for him, but I think it changes the game for everybody else when he starts to be um a master of the fundamentals as well as a master of the spectacular plays that only he can do. And once he gets that, like I don’t know, I don’t want to be overdramatic, but once he gets that, it’s it’s like over. It’s it’s done.
I’m glad that you kept us on that point for a while. That was that was uh that that was that was nice of you, Jeff, to step up uh search yourself, say we need to talk more about Victor. I think the listeners enjoyed that. Uh, you know, gives it gives gives me confidence, confidence in my teammates to know that they can take over for me.
Well, yeah. I I mean, I’m a podcasting genius because I’m like we should talk about Victor Wembanyama more.
Uh-huh.
I mean, that was that was, you know, I know not everyone believes that, but
I want to talk about Larry Sellers some more.
What happens, Larry? What happens, Larry, when I I’m not going to finish that.
He he learned it. Yeah, it was a lesson. Uh, he was he was being taught there.
Yeah, but it wasn’t in his car.
Right.
Says what happens, Larry, when you when you stab a stranger in a back in his back, something like that.
Backstabbing.
I don’t I don’t know. That’s got wins, but okay.
Yeah. Well, this is still a family podcast. We’re still going for the like the Disney uh demographic and
It’s like fam families are gathering around their uh telephones in the middle like dinner to listen to this.
Yeah.
They’re listening to this right after they see Moana II.
Okay. Yeah. Um, I mentioned Chris Paul earlier, who I do want to discuss because he still just is the epitome of everything this team needed. Like I this is also a pretty obvious take uh to follow the Victor Wembanyama is good take. But um, that was a pretty good signing. And every week, every game it that becomes more and more evident. Just it seemed natural in July when it happened. It seemed obvious back then that of course, that’s the kind of guy this team needs. And um, you know, a couple times this past week, though we’ve been going back to that Utah game, uh Chris Paul hit a huge three, did Chris Paul stuff in the closing minutes of the Sacramento game. And and I want to throw this out, like just to overreact and to be very hot-take-y on the podcast here. Um, realize I’m kind of a prisoner of the moment. And this guy’s 39 years old and could, you know, have a have a terrible injury in the next week or the next four months.
Oh, man.
I’m I’m just saying like stuff happens. But like am I crazy for thinking they sh- that like Chris Paul could come back next year and do this with the Spurs again at 40?
Oh, man.
I I I wo- uh wow. I didn’t I didn’t anticipate that question.
Well, that that’s this that’s what makes it a hot take.
And this is it’s ridiculous to speak about this this early in the season. We don’t know how it’s going to go. We don’t know how the the next four months are going to go. But Chris Paul doesn’t seem like a guy who’s about to retire. Uh, the Trey Jones is a free agent and addition too and we talked about Trey Jones later, too. But Trey Jones is a free agent, Chris Paul’s a free agent. Um, there’s not just I I don’t think this is going to be a an offseason where there’s a huge free agent signing um for the Spurs or for anybody else. I don’t think it’s go- a huge activity free agent summer. Um, if if he’s continuing to give exactly what he’s giving now, like why walk away from that?
I guess I have two thoughts. If he continues to play like he’s played and you think he can continue to play this way going into next season and he wants to continue to be here, sure. Like it’s it’s worked out. So far it’s worked out. I I think the word is swimmingly.
Swimmingly.
So um that’s one side of it. I guess my only maybe uh pause would be don’t you want to hand the reins to Steph Curry at some point?
Yeah. That’s the other side of it. But also like Steph Curry and Chris Paul together it works.
It does.
But I don’t even know if they’re starting together once everybody gets healthy. Like that’s just something to monitor, not be
Maybe there’s another issue there. This is this that’s a ridiculous topic to throw out. They they have way too many good players. The tenth place in the West, tenth-placed team in the West is just loaded.
But another reason I thought about it is because Chris Paul seems to like like genuinely like it here so much.
Yeah.
And and part of it is just he’s he’s hooping. And this is a place where he can play and have fun and uh be relied upon and do game-winning things, and he might not be able to do that elsewhere. And we don’t need to spend the whole segment, a whole five minutes talking about Chris Paul coming back next year. I just thought it was worth throwing out there that I don’t think that’s necessarily preposterous to think that he could be back for another season. Whereas if you would have mentioned that to me in the summer, I would have thought oh, this is a one season thing. It could be like a three-month thing before he’s traded.
Yeah, I would have thought it was a three-month thing.
For sure. Uh, I think it’s up to him. I think it’s ultimately his decision if he wants to chase a title, if he thinks he can get one here with the progress that the aliens are the alien is making. And uh
Well, it’s it’s I mean it’s it’s it’s up to the Spurs, too. They might decide that um you know, because because Chris Paul’s not going to play for free.
Yeah.
Um, they might decide that those resources could be better used next year and I I don’t see them bringing back both Chris Paul and Trey Jones. I think they’re going to need a non-Steph Curry point guard next year and it might come down to one or the other or somebody from outside the organization. But that like I I I just want to reiterate that the Chris Paul fit in San Antonio was just amazing.
Very good. You know else who’s fit very well, Mike Finger? Uh, is Harrison Barnes, much better than uh
You missed you missed the podcast last last week. We did a lot of Harrison Barnes stuff uh when he was Player of the Week. And uh, yeah, and he he continues to be good.
Um, yeah. Uh, I don’t know. What what what was the what was the last three games after his Player of the Week? He didn’t have Player of the Week stats again.
Yeah, I I don’t think he’s going to get Player of the Week this week. I don’t think it’s going to be back-to-back.
I think it was uh Shaedon Sharpe that Player of the Week this week.
That’s true. I I I think I saw that.
Um, yeah, the the uh the this I I I don’t want to do too much NBA Cup stuff just because of our timing. But it’s worth mentioning that heading into Tuesday night’s game, some of you will listen to this before the Spurs take on the Suns. Uh, Spurs have a chance to play for a Cup. Um, that’s something, I guess.
Yeah, that’s um like as you mentioned, we we can’t predict the future as we’re recording this, so I don’t know if they’ve beaten Phoenix or not beaten Phoenix. But uh the outcome doesn’t matter to the point I’m about to make. It’s just being in that game where you’re playing for something. It’s win and get to the get to the next round. It’s win and advance in a tournament. Um, it’s not going to the playoffs and it’s not uh competing for the playoffs, but it’s something that a lot of guys on this roster have not experienced before. That kind of like I guess we’ll call it pressure, like that pressure of like a big game where there’s stakes involved.
Um, guys on this team, I mean a lot of the younger guys have not experienced that before, and I think it’ll be good for them. Win or lose, it’ll be good for them. To play in a game that feels like a playoff type game even if it’s not really.
Um, I think that’s a step in the development of this team that they desperately need. And then and so it’s good that they got themselves in this position where they’re actually playing a game that semi-matters.
Okay.
If they win the McDonald’s Cup, will it be displayed somewhere, or will it be tucked away in a
What? This become McDonald’s Cup?
McDonald’s Championship, yeah.
When did this become McDonald’s? I thought it was Emirates.
No, I’m saying remember the McDonald’s Championship trophy they had uh
Yeah.
Found it one night. It was uh
Do you remember we it was the night uh we watched the draft at the
It was the draft.
Place.
Yes, but I don’t know wh- why are we talking about the McDo- what what what does McDonald’s have to do with this?
I’m saying if they win the NBA Cup, do they display it prominently?
I see.
Do you remember that we were like in a closet, and there was like
Yes.
Monteoro.
At the old Spurs facility. I believe it was the Jeremy Sochan draft.
Yes, this cr- and this was the Cup they won in uh Europe. Like some pretty season thing from like twenty twenty 2007 or something, right? And it was in a it was in a supply closet like above the Cheez-Its and the uh
Really? And the and the Raisin Bran.
Like that’s what it was, a pantry. It wasn’t it wasn’t a supply closet, it was a food pantry.
It looked exactly like my pantry.
So, it was just crammed Raisin Bran and a like in the McDonald’s Cup.
That’s a good observation, Tom. Uh, I was just thrown by you calling it the McDonald’s Cup because uh we’re you know, it’s you know, it was the Emirates.
It was the night.
The 1999 McDonald’s Championship.
But the um I I think to answer that your question whether or not it was earnest or sincere, not is like the the NBA makes sure they they wouldn’t be allowed to put the Emirates Cup in the pantry because like there the the NBA has I believe and and I probably shouldn’t speak out of school here, but I believe they’ve encouraged teams to uh display the Cup and the banner uh in their arenas, which is why you have that ridiculous thing in uh in Staples Crypto in Los Angeles where the their end-season banner is hung alongside their mini NBA championship. Do not put up a banner for this.
I mean, the Spurs aren’t supposed to. The Spurs aren’t going to win the Spurs aren’t going to win the whole thing, but if you do, don’t put up a banner.
I think that they’re supposed to.
Or what? That that’d be a good problem to have.
Or what? I’d I’d rather take the fine.
People would like it. You know, the winner raising ceremony.
Not not in San Antonio. We are a title-winning town, like an actual title-winning town. We don’t we don’t celebrate in-season tournaments here.
And the and the the land of the Lakers is not a title-winning town.
They just didn’t they just didn’t have the gumption to tell Adam Silver to go get bent.
We’re going to replay this snippet of this podcast um in in several months on the night when the Spurs hang the in-season Emirates Cup banner and you you’re saying that the that anyone who who did so does not have gumption. It’s going to get you in trouble.
I I don’t I don’t care. I’ll stand by my uh lack of gumption comment.
Okay.
Just have some gumption.
What is gumption?
Have some uh Do you have any any other gumption-filled takes from the past week of of Spurs action or NBA? Here, how about this? Sometimes um when when we’re out in the world, people have questions about the podcast. Some people are new to the podcast. I I I know a couple people who just started listening to the podcast in the last couple of uh weeks or months. They enjoy the show, and we appreciate that. And uh but but there the show is full of all kinds of little in-jokes. You know, people ask about the secure location, and and there’s a story behind that, and I’m not going to get into it this week because I want to reward the the the the guys the the OG’s, the people who go way back to the beginning and remember those jokes. But a question that we get a lot from newcomers, especially younger newcomers. By younger, I mean like younger than 40. Um, is is why do you call the Spurs the local cagers? And we’ve we’ve we’ve explained this before on the show, but the reason I bring it up this week is because the the the uh the panelists on this show were all enjoying Thanksgiving away from each other, which made it all the better last week.
That’s what I gave thanks for the most.
Tom was doing his Thanksgiving thing, Jeff was doing his Thanksgiving thing, Nick was doing his Thanksgiving thing, I was doing mine. And uh I get this uh group text from a fellow panelist, and it’s Jeff McDonald, who and and I’ll let you tell the story, but this relates to the to the local cagers because you sent uh photos to us from some old yearbook or some old scrapbook with um newspaper clippings. And uh it talked about a track team and it called them the cindermen. Which cindermen is amazing.
Yes.
And this goes to all the old nomenclature that used to be in newspapers about what you would call different sports athletes. Like the the the football players were time you can jump in grit irons, cuz they put grit on the iron.
Yeah. Because of because of the grid iron, but I don’t even know what grid iron means.
Yeah. I guess I get what the others.
Uh, well, cindermen I had not heard before. I thought the stars were thin-clad cuz they wore thin then clothes, clothing.
Thin-clad.
I think I like cindermen better.
And and did you realize why where the the origin of cindermen came from?
I’ve because the track is made of cinder, correct?
The track is made of cinder.
And anyway, then in the old days the uh back the ba- basketball was played in a cage, like in in high school are- high school gyms. And uh they’d there’d be like chicken wire around the court. I don’t kn- that that might have been when Tom was in high school. He can he can elaborate on this. But that’s where cagers came from. You’d look in the newspaper, it’d be like the the the the the Jay cagers beat Holmes, or the the Breckinridge cagers beat the column, whatever.
And and if you lived in a town like that was just, you know, a small town, maybe like uh like maybe where you grew up, you could they would just say the local cagers. They’d lack a name. And so there you go.
And back in the days when we were using words like Cracker Jack to describe something excellent.
Uh, see there’s a joke group.
Baseball baseball guys were known as the horsehide nine.
Horsehide nine. That’s going way back. That’s amazing.
Yeah. It was the whatever AirB uh we all my family all met at like an Airbnb outside of San Marcos cuz we had people coming in from out of town, and in this Airbnb, you know, people just it’s their homes or whatever, they just have like kitschy decorations. And one of them was a 1975 Southwest Texas um you know, university or guess college yearbook. So I was flipping through that and found cindermen.
Southwest Texas State, now Texas State. Correct.
Yes.
Before that, wasn’t it the Texas Women’s College?
It was Texas Teachers College.
Teachers Teachers College.
When when LBJ was there.
Yeah.
LBJ would be Lyndon Baines Johnson, uh former president, one of the presidents of these United States.
That’s that’s a good background with the kids, Tom.
Excellent. Married to Lady Bird. I mean, don’t you have to explain these things now?
You do. For for the viewers and listeners at home.
President is President is the lead the chief executive of the of the country that we live.
What uh what what what game show did Lyndon Baines Johnson host before he became president?
Boy, I don’t know. I’m just guess I’d just I just just assume that’s a prerequisite.
Oh, I see. I see. That’s a that’s that’s a good one there, Jeff.
Um, we have a a week ahead to look with to look at um three home games after Jeff gets back from the valley of the sun. Uh, playing in pretty quick su- succession. Three home games in four days against the Chicago Bulls, who the Spurs have a vested interest in, might be getting their draft pick this year. The Sacramento Kings, who the Spurs have a vested interest in, will be getting their draft pick in like third 2030, 2031, something like that. And uh those are back-to-back on Thursday and Friday. And then on Sunday, the the foundering floundering New Orleans Pelicans, who are just beat up with injuries and not playing very well at all, a visit Frost Bank Center on Sunday. Those are the three we know for sure. We will find out after the Phoenix game on Tuesday night uh what the rest of next week entails. The uh league will assign uh games to fill up at the end of the Emirates Cup. So we have one road game.
One road game.
I believe the Spurs could be at either Oklahoma City or Portland.
Yeah.
If they lose.
Home game maybe against Golden State, or well, it probably wouldn’t be because Golden State’s in the Cup. But um yeah, we have we have some of a framework as to what to expect.
If they win, if they win, they’re they’re going to be playing somewhere, I think.
Yeah.
The other three teams that if they win are I believe Houston and Dallas and Golden State.
Yeah, those will probably be the other three, yeah.
Yeah. And then looking further ahead, uh mid mid-December, Atlanta, Portland at home, and then at Philadelphia.
Yeah.
And there’s like there’s a common theme in all these games.
Yep.
Yes. Yes, it could be a good month. But just for the next just just for the three home games, we will uh conclude with our uh traditional uh prognostications. You got your Bulls, your Kings, your Pelicans, three games in four days. I will start off by making a bold, bold, bold proclamation that the local cagers will go three and oh.
Two and one, losing to Sacramento on the second night of the back-to-back.
Full back-to-back.
That that seems about right.
Two and one, I guess is my prediction, although, you know.
They’re they’re still Sacramento does kind of own them one, that they’re two and oh against the Kings so far.
Yeah. Here’s another thing to think about though with the with that Kings series. Um, when you look ahead to whether or not your your Spurs can make the play-in or the playoffs or what have you, like other teams that they could be around at the end there include the Sacramento Kings. And if you win a third game against the Sacramento Kings, that clinches that tiebreaker, which may or may not be important. So that’s an extra incentive there.
It’s it’s hard to it’s hard to beat a team three te- three times so close together.
It is.
Like we saw we saw that with Utah.
Yep.
Even Utah snuck one in at the Frost.
So second night of the back-to-back, I could see the Kings.
Yeah. Local cagers weren’t very good the last time they played them, the second of a back-to-back, although that was traveling from Utah to face the Lakers on Thanksgiving Eve.
Yep.
Yeah.
That’s that’s another test for them. And I mentioned the word incentive there, and it brought to mind that that’s a word that Tom Orsborn, I believe, taught Victor Wembanyama earlier this
Remember that?
Yes.
Yeah.
I’m asking about an extra incentive, and he said I haven’t heard that word before.
Yeah.
So that was good.
Uh, can always learn something. We will try to learn something more interesting between now and next week when we reconvene again. Probably want to have any for closing thoughts?
So Victor’s like that guy who you go into like one of us when we go into a restaurant, good restaurant, and the menu’s just overwhelming.
Mm-hmm.
There’s there’s so many things to choose from. You have just have a hard time picking one.
Yeah, every so hard time picking one. Every so often you make a bad order. Sometimes you got to go with what the place is known best for. That’s that’s my rule.
Yeah.
You can’t go wrong there.
So always always order the McNuggets, is what you’re saying?
Yeah. That’s why I always get the McNuggets. And when you’re in a place even nicer than that, you get distracted by both the menu and the waiter’s insistence that you use your hat stool.
Um, That’s right. That’s another callback.
More more inside jokes.
Anyway, the children listening to this podcast have no idea what’s going on right now.
I that’s why I like
It’s a valiant effort to be a family show.
Um, anyway.
I mean there’s there’s children that have been born since the hat stool story that are now listening to the podcast, and you have to explain it