点击查看原文：Fox makes a return, and Wemby makes more magic
Fox makes a return, and Wemby makes more magic
Columnist Mike Finger and beat writers Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss another Spurs’ winning streak, with De’Aaron Fox making his long-awaited season debut, and Victor Wembanyama posting an unprecedented stat line in Chicago.
Suggested reading:
Three takeaways as Wemby owns fourth quarter at Chicago
How De’Aaron Fox hit his most important goal in debut
Inside Stephon Castle’s assist binge
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Mike Finger: From a highly secure network of top-secret locations across North America, this is the Spurs Insider with another winning streak edition. I am Mike Finger, joined as always by San Antonio Express News Spurs beat writers Tom Orsborn and Jeff McDonald.
Jeffery is hoping to do the unthinkable and get on a plane this week that takes off on time and arrives back home in time. But he can be encouraged by the fact that he’s already seen something unprecedented, easy for me to say. Uh, Victor Wembanyama with yet another night that no one in the NBA has ever accomplished before. Is that where we want to start, Jeff? The Spurs have won three in a row. The the stat combination that Victor put up against the Bulls, uh, of Victor Wembanyama-esque, and uh, the Spurs are winning again.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, here’s what was on my mind uh, leaving the United Center last night and will probably appear uh, in the Express News dead tree edition and also expressnews.com in in the hours and days to come, but how many times over the past several seasons, mostly in the pre-Wemby era, have we seen the Spurs lose a game exactly the way the Chicago Bulls lost a game last night? Where they’re, you know, young and plucky and and game and fighting hard and and right there in the fourth quarter and then the other team’s star just, you know, does other team star things and takes over the game and it’s it’s a, it’s a narrow loss. It’s a moral victory for the Spurs. How many times have we seen that over the past several years?
And and now, uh, the Spurs are the team that has that guy. And actually, as someone in the locker room corrected me, they have two of those guys now. But last night it was Victor Wembanyama. And so much of the NBA comes down to star players making plays in the fourth quarter. Like you can you can break it down a, a game down a million different ways, but usually, if your best player is is the best player on the floor in the fourth quarter, you win the game. And the Spurs have those guys now and that’s going to be the thing that it’s already been the thing that’s gotten them some victories they wouldn’t have had before. And that’s going to be the thing that keeps them rolling. I think the line that Mitch Johnson used is um, uh, I may be paraphrasing a little bit, but it’s like sometimes it’s the players more than the plays down the stretch. And last night, the Spurs had the player, and that’s what got them the game.
Mike Finger: As the uh, person in the locker room who corrected you last night, um, could point out, that other player was the one who did it on Saturday against New Orleans in his first game back.
Jeff McDonald: I’m aware. I was at that one too.
Mike Finger: Yep. And, and that we, we have many topics to cover this week as usual, but De’Aaron Fox, who had not played in many, many months, had been growing increasingly frustrated about not being able to return, wanting to get clearance to return. In his first game back against the Pelicans, did exactly what Jeff just described. He gave the Spurs a player who knew how to finish against a team that was young and plucky and looking to steal one. De’Aaron Fox didn’t let him do it, much like Victor Wembanyama did not let the the Bulls do it on Monday night. And when you add it all up in combination with a victory on Friday that easily could have been a loss against probably the best team that the Spurs played in this last three games stretch, the Houston Rockets, you have a a three-game winning streak, a three and one record since our last podcast, which exceeds all of our predictions from last week. I think we all had them going two and two. And the Spurs are in second place in the Western Conference, Tom.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, yeah, it’s, it’s um, you know, you look at, you look at what they’re doing and you you know, from time to time you’d think we could be working till June. Uh, that’s hyperbolically of course, but I mean, the playoffs uh, definitely something to start thinking about, start making those plans. Fans and uh reporters.
Mike Finger: But it’s a long season, you know, there’s a long season. Injuries can pop up. God knows what else. So, but uh, looking good right now. My my strategy as a podcast host whenever Tom Orsborn has a hot take is to just stay silent and he will immediately start backtracking. That’s that’s the, that’s the Tom Orsborn way. He’s, he will, he will just give him a pause and he will think maybe I shouldn’t have said that. And he will say the Spurs are great, but maybe they’re not. And that’s how we get the listeners, man. We always qualify.
Jeff McDonald: What I’m hearing is I need to uh, cancel that vacation I have planned for uh, for mid-mid-April. I’ve had a, I’ve had a running vacation scheduled for mid-April for like the last six years. I guess I should cancel that this time.
Tom Orsborn: There you go.
Mike Finger: If you look at the the conference, and this is way too early to be doing this, but there, there are some teams that are going through it right now and that might be categorized as uh, being mess-like, as being uh, maybe uh, not as stout as they thought they were a month or so ago. And instead of like when when the season started, you looked at 10, 11 teams in the Western Conference that thought they should be making the playoffs. I mean that now I I’m looking at seven good teams and eight teams that have some question marks. And the Spurs are one of the seven good teams, I think. Um, and so does that guarantee mid-April? Not necessarily, but I think it makes it more likely than not that the Spurs are playing in a playoff series and uh, and might not be in that that play-in part of it. So that might be an overreaction, but I think that’s uh, that’s probably the general wisdom right now is the Spurs are are in that top group.
Tom Orsborn: Well, they’re doing exactly what the, what we talked about before the start of the season, they needed to make hay with, with this schedule and they’re they’re definitely doing that.
Jeff McDonald: I still think 8 and 2 is, is a lot. Like I, if you said to make hay, I would have, I wouldn’t have said 8 and 2. I would have thought, oh, maybe six and four would be great. You know, I didn’t expect them to, to win every, every game uh, that they’re supposed to win. So, I mean, I would say they’ve even, even though we knew it’s a softish schedule to open the season and, um, I I would still say they’ve exceeded expectations even with that kind of uh, curve thrown in there.
Mike Finger: I have not read Jeff McDonald’s story that will be in the dead tree edition, I guess on, on um, Wednesday off the, off the Chicago game, but I would assume that in addition to the perspective he just offered about how the Spurs are winning these close games, he also has a pretty interesting um, observation on Victor Wembanyama and his three-point percentage, which I know you brought up last night. Um, you know where I’m going with this.
Jeff McDonald: Heading into last night’s game, Victor Wembanyama was, he had made eight three-pointers all season in 34 attempts. And if you don’t want to do the math yourself, uh, in in your head, I’ll give you a second. But if you don’t, that’s 23.5% from three-point range heading into Monday. Uh, and then he was 6 for 9 with the two biggest ones coming in the fourth quarter, tying the game and going ahead uh, and in the go-ahead shot. And it’s like even when there’s something that looks to the league like Victor’s cryptonite for a while, he ends up just beating you over the head with it anyway, eventually. I mean it was Vucevic kind of mentioned that last night. Like, he hadn’t even been shooting him well and all of a sudden he’s hitting these, these, you know, over me. So, again…
Mike Finger: Both of those possessions were kind of striking in that even though we all knew, everyone watching knew the, the in general terms, the statistic that Jeff just mentioned, that he that Victor Wembanyama had not been shooting three-pointers well this year, I think in the United Center and among the people watching at home, I think everyone had kind of the same thought on both of those plays and that of course this is going in. That that’s, that’s one of those deals that Jeff is talking about with the best player on the floor late in a game, you just expect good things to happen. And even though Victor had been shooting 23% for the year, like both of those shots were exactly the shots that he wanted, that the Spurs wanted. They were over another big guy. Um, neither of them were wide open threes by any means, but they were confidently taken. They were confidently made. And it they just, Jeff, you got that sense in the arena, right, that of course these two shots are going to go in.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, and the second one was striking in that um, you know, the first one was almost a little bit in transition, like it was, it was kind of a quick pull. The second one was Victor, you know, almost at midcourt, dribbling the ball, waving his teammates off. I mean it’s the kind of thing you’ve seen at the end of games where it’s, you know, that’s like Michael Jordan or LeBron. But this is a 7’4" guy waving everyone off to go one-on-one and then shoot a pull up three-pointer. Like it was, it was fascinating both from the the mental aspect of it of what Vic is thinking there, like I’m, I’m taking this shot. Uh, and the physical aspect of a 7’4" guy pulling that off. It was, it was really striking to just see him, I mean watching him wave his teammates away and saying basically, I got this, I’m going to make a play with this. And Victor said after the game, you know, I thought about driving, but that would kind of complicate things going to a crowd. I thought I could get some separation and just uh, you know, make that three. And then Victor said, you know, I guess I made the right choice. So.
Mike Finger: A 7’4" guy with two other point guards on the floor too. That’s another funny thing is that we’ve talked so much about who the point guard is and do the Spurs have too many of them and how does everybody fit their roles. But with the game on the line, it’s Victor Wembanyama, the, the, the 7’4" guy who waves everybody off and and initiates things. And…
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, it’s it’s fascinating to watch what they’re becoming. And, you know, like you said, the game before that was De’Aaron Fox taking the big shot. Like it could have been De’Aaron, but it’s sort of somehow, sometimes it’s how the game is unfolding, how how things are going. I think, I think if Victor had somehow missed the game-tying shot, maybe you see something different, um, the next trip. But because he was feeling it, you know, he’s got free rein to do what he wants there and he’s, he’s learning what, I mean he’s, he’s always had a knack for those moments, but I think he’s getting even more, um, confident and comfortable and learning and learning, um, what to do with them.
Mike Finger: I’m not sure Victor, if Victor brought this up to you last night, but I think another um, facet that played into this was he liked that matchup on a big guy. And the Bulls are the first team in a while that have had a big guy guarding him. And when you have um, a traditional matchup for him, like I think he licks his chops. And as many times as I think I have mentioned on this podcast and and Tom and Jeff have sort of chimed in that maybe Victor gets too dribble-happy sometimes, maybe, you know, there have been times when he looks for the three-point shot too much, um, for a guy who can dominate inside. Like in that situation, I don’t mind it at all. Like that’s a, that’s a huge matchup when you have Nikola Vucevic, who’s a good player, but who Victor is just that, that is the matchup where he can just eat a another big guy’s lunch on the perimeter. And if you had um, Royce O’Neal or Alex Caruso or you know, name your little guy on Victor in that situation, he probably does not react the same way. But I think that that matchup in particular was one that he really liked and there was not much that Vuc could do with that.
Just for for posterity’s sake, the unprecedented numbers I mentioned earlier, 38 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, five blocks and six three-pointers made. That combination…
Tom Orsborn: It’s a first.
Mike Finger: That combination no one has ever done in NBA history. No, uh, uh, Oscar Robertson, no Wilt Chamberlain, they couldn’t make three pointers of course. No Michael Jordan, no LeBron James, no Sandro Mamukelashvili. I knew where that was going. No one, no one’s ever done that before. Um…
Tom Orsborn: Sandro would do all that in 20 minutes.
Mike Finger: Yeah. That’s, that’s true. Um, it’s, it’s, you almost take it for granted that you see something like that almost every night he plays. And this is at the end of a, a podcast week in which the first three games uh, were not vintage Victor Wembanyama games. They were games when you wondered is, is he going to work things out? We can kind of review those. Um, they, they were games when he was being guarded by the little guys, being double-teamed and and uh, you know, having some difficulty. But the Spurs won two of those three against the uh, against the Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Pelicans. Had a pretty fun game against the L.A. Lakers, which seems like years ago. Uh, but that was not a blowout by any means. That went down to the wire and then that it was, it was heartbreaking, a tough one to take in many ways, and the Spurs responded with a three game winning streak. Just as a whole, Jeff, your impressions of what we’ve seen since we last met.
Jeff McDonald: It was a good week. It was a good week for the local cagers. And I think, um, I mean the the win over Houston was probably their most impressive one to date, to me. Number one, that’s the best team they’ve played overall so far. And that’s a team that’s going to make you grind one out. They’re going to beat on you. They’re going to claw at you. They they defend Victor as well as anyone in the league traditionally. And the Spurs made it work. It didn’t always look pretty. There was um, Houston was up on them I think 11 in the second quarter. And I was thinking in years past, this is where it gets away. They don’t ever turn games like that. And they fought back into it and then got into a fourth quarter game that could go either way and then they were the ones that took control of it. And again, I think that’s a pretty big step for this team. especially when you account for the fact that it came against a team uh, as, as good as the Rockets. I mean, I think you would say Oklahoma City is clearly the best team in the West, best team in the, in the league. But if you’re saying who’s the second best team in the, in the West, the Rockets are a team that I would, I would put in the, put on the ballot, you know? And the Spurs were able to handle them in a, in a, basically get down in the mud, get in the trenches with them and grind out a game against the team known for grinding out games. So I thought that was a really impressive win even if it wasn’t pretty at all times.
Mike Finger: It wasn’t pretty and old friend of the podcast, Ime Udoka told new friend of the podcast, Danielle Lerner that the Rockets got punked by the Spurs. And that’s sort of a new thing to, to, to suggest that uh, that San Ant, a new thing that’s also an an old thing from years, from decades ago, but a new thing and that the, the Spurs are a team that are just kind of pushing a pretty tough team around.
Tom Orsborn: Tom, and that was, that was a return for your friend and ours, Jeremy Sohan to the floor. Start getting into all the players who returned in recent days, but that was a good Jeremy game. Yeah, he came back against the Lakers, I think, but uh, the Lakers, you’re, you’re correct. But, but your point, yeah, your point is well taken, but the guy who did a lot of the punking was the guy who, uh, put on a pair of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat after the game. Yeah. I think that, uh, I think we should note how well Keldon Johnson’s been playing on the offensive boards. He had three more last night and, yeah, I mean he, he came into that game. It was, it was a perfect, uh, example of why he’s, you know, in the top 10 list in offensive rebound percentage. Um, he’s the only guy in that list who’s under 6’10" and and he playing against Houston, he, you know, he was going against three guys that are 6’10" or more, four guys, I think, on that roster that are key rotation players. And he’s the one coming away with the board. So he did a lot of punking in that one.
Mike Finger: He’s just a delight.
Tom Orsborn: He is.
Mike Finger: What a year. We’ve talked so many times over the podcast, Jeff especially, um, about how cool it would be to see him, the longest tenured Spur, the guy who’s been here for all of the six-year playoff drought to finally be on a team that was winning again and contributing to it. And that’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s not just on the team that’s winning again, he is making major contributions to it. Just playing really well. Um, Devin Vassell didn’t play well last night against the Bulls. Jeff might have an update on his health, but I was looking at like some advanced nerd stats yesterday and his net rating is the best on the team and one of the best in the league. or it was heading into the Bulls game. Like, I think we sort of overlooked how well Devin Vassell is fitting into his new spot. Um, but Tom’s right, great week for Keldon, great uh, season so far for Devin Vassell. Julian Champagnie came back from a tough ending against the Lakers and really contributed to that victory over the Rockets. Jeff had that on expressnews.com in the paper. Um, just a lot, it’s not just a Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, Stefan Castle show, even though those three guys are all contributing. Everybody is doing good stuff.
Tom Orsborn: Harrison Barnes with a big block.
Mike Finger: Harrison Barnes, yeah.
Jeff McDonald: This isn’t like a, a very trenched observation, but one of the reasons they’re winning a lot of games is because they have a lot of good players now. Yeah. Like gone are the days where there’s, you know, you have maybe six, seven guys you like and the rest of the rotation is flotsam and jetsam, you know. I don’t know where’d they trade flotsam to? I can’t remember. But um…
Mike Finger: I think the Pelicans traded a first round pick for flotsam, unprotected.
Jeff McDonald: But um, now they’ve got, I mean, they’ve got more guys than you can use really. Like there are guys that are not going to be able to play that are, that are, there have been guys that have contributed to this start that have given you some good moments that uh, that are, that now that everyone’s back are not going to be able to play as much. And so, in a lot of ways that’s the key to the league, right? Just keep plugging in good players. Like the more good players you can play for, for the more of the 48 minutes, the better you do. And again, that’s a change from years past where it’s usually the other teams that have all these guys like, ah, I forgot about that guy and he’s, he’s just made six points in a row. Now it is the Spurs have those kind of guys.
Mike Finger: That is the Oklahoma City model, right? In that for for many years in the league, it was just the team with the best three guys won, and that’s why you saw so many of the big threes and the super teams and that worked. The the NBA has sort of changed. You need to have a a deep roster of not necessarily difference makers, but guys who can really contribute and not just take up space. And just the game is faster. Um, uh, pressure is a bigger part of it. You need more shooters, you need more contributors. Oklahoma City exemplified that last year and the Spurs are developing that. They’re not as deep as OKC is, um, obviously. I mean we’re talking about the defending NBA champs, but you’re right, there’s, now that these guys are getting healthy again and um, uh, Dylan Harper is not healthy yet, but other than that, the team is healthy. Um, you’re seeing guys like just a Luke Kornet who had not played since the second game, had been dealing with an ankle, played really well those first two games. Um, had been out for what, two weeks. His first game back, I, I counted five alley-oop dunks from Stefan Castle last night. Like, it it was just he was just right on time over and over and over again. And that’s a small part of what he, of what he contributes, but when you add that dimension to this team in addition to his defense, in addition to just what he can do alongside and in place of Victor Wembanyama, like that’s, that’s your eighth, ninth guy. That’s pretty good.
Jeff McDonald: That French Vanilla combo was pretty huge in the fourth quarter last night in Chicago. Like, I mean Victor obviously and for good reason gets all the attention with his 18, but Luke had, Luke had 10 points in the fourth quarter. French Vanilla combined for 28 of the Spurs’ 32 points in the fourth last night. And um, like you said, a lot of it is lobs from Steph. I did ask Steph about throwing lobs to Luke as compared to Victor, and he admitted that it is different, but uh maybe counterintuitively, he said it’s easier to throw lobs to Luke Kornet because they’re easier passes and especially because, especially when he’s playing with Victor, because Victor gets so much attention. If the other team has one good big guy defender, that guy’s with Vic. So Luke has Luke has more free rein when everybody’s paying attention to uh, to Victor. This is what Steph told me last last night. So when those two are on the floor, um, Steph is definitely looking for Luke at the rim. Like, like all the time.
Mike Finger: It makes sense. And you know what else is counterintuitive when it comes to Steph Castle is I think there was probably a five minute block on last week’s podcast where we were talking about how he needs to play off the ball and the best thing that’s going to happen for him is when De’Aaron Fox comes back and he can create plays for himself and not have to worry about creating for others. And De’Aaron Fox came back and Stefan Castle responded with two of his best assist games of his career. And could you explain that, Jeff? I think I see why it’s happening, but it is sort of counterintuitive.
Jeff McDonald: I can’t. Steph still has his hands on the ball a lot. Why is it, why is it, why are the assists more than they were, you know, a week ago? I have no, I don’t know. I don’t know. Um, but you’re right. It’s two, it’s three straight double digit assist games for, for, for um, for uh, Stefan Castle. And…
Mike Finger: I think it’s because instead of making the passes he feels he has to make, he’s making the passes he wants to make. And maybe that’s a subtle difference and maybe just having De’Aaron Fox out there just creates another player for defenses to worry about and those lobs to Luke Kornet and the the passes to Devin Vassell and Victor Wembanyama are just easier to see. But I think there is definitely a a corollary, there there is a uh, a correlation between having Fox out there and Steph playing better. I just did not expect that the return of the point guard, of the starting point guard to mean that Steph Castle is is all of a sudden a double digit assist guy. But it’s cool to watch.
Jeff McDonald: How did uh, how did Mitch Johnson, you could say he’s hitting a lot of singles. He’s hitting a lot of singles with his passes. He’s not necessarily trying to make the home run pass. He’s just doing the easy one like you said and…
Tom Orsborn: The lob to Kornet.
Jeff McDonald: The reason they’re easy is because there’s a lot of, there’s better players around them. Maybe that’s what it is.
Mike Finger: Yep. Um, yeah, how long does this last? The good vibes.
Jeff McDonald: This podcast? How long does this podcast last? We’re going to be canceled any day now. What do you mean?
Mike Finger: The, no, the, um, the good vibes. You know, the NBA season is a long season. There’s always ebbs and flows. There’s going to be a losing streak around the bend. But we have to think that this team is playing like this when Fox hasn’t been around forever and his first two games have gone swimmingly. Uh, Luke Kornet, seamless addition after being out for six games. Uh, I guess we could mention that Kelly Olynyk and Lindy Waters have returned as well. Jeremy Sohan looked really nice against the Lakers, has not been as great since then, but you can sort of see what his role is. And there are nights when he’s going to make a difference, there are nights when he might not. Um, Jeff, did you want to say anything about Devin Vassell who left early last night or Monday night against the Bulls?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, it was a, they said he had a migraine. And so um, you know, they they didn’t put him back in. Mitch kind of mentioned after the game that that Devin came over at some point in the third quarter and said he’s feeling better, maybe he go back in, but the medical staff wasn’t having it. Um, didn’t sound like anything that was going to linger going forward, but I guess we’ll know more when the team gets back uh, back, back to San Antonio, shoot around Wednesday uh for that for that Warriors game. Maybe there’ll be an update then.
Mike Finger: That’s a good segue into the week ahead. We did not, none of us were accurate with our predictions last week, but we have another chance this week. The Spurs have the Golden State Warriors in a, they call it a baseball series, two games at home in a row on Wednesday and Friday. And then after that, we have, anybody know off the top of their heads? I’m going to test you.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, yeah, Sacramento, Sunday.
Mike Finger: Sacramento on Sunday. And the mighty…
Tom Orsborn: Memphis. And the mighty Memphis.
Mike Finger: Well, uh, we will record on Tuesday morning.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah.
Mike Finger: So…
Tom Orsborn: Well, I’m just saying looking, looking ahead, there’s, they can stack some wins.
Mike Finger: It’s a five-game home stand. They haven’t lost at home yet.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah. The rest of that home stand is Memphis on Tuesday and the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday. Those are all winnable games. The Warriors are a good team, and it’s hard to beat the same team twice in a row, but that five-game winning streak or five five-game home stand does not scream uh, bleak times ahead. It’s another opportunity.
Tom Orsborn: Golden State is at Oklahoma City tonight. So they’re coming to San Antonio on the second end of a back-to-back. Yep. Yes. Yes.
Mike Finger: Yep. Um, we will, we will predict three of these because we will, uh, reconvene before the Memphis game. So you have Golden State on the second half of a back-to-back for the Warriors. You have, uh, two nights later, the Warriors again and Sunday afternoon, a matinee against the the woeful Sacramento Kings. Tom, you can begin. What do you think the local cagers will do in that three-game set?
Tom Orsborn: Well, since you chided me for not having a hot take earlier, uh, and backing off, I’m, I’m going to, I’m going to say 3 and 0. I’m not backing off. I’m not backing off. I’m sticking to it. You got them back-to-back, uh, Golden State coming in back after, after playing Oklahoma City. Spurs are going to win that one. Uh, they’ll be ready, they’ll be ready to, to repeat, to sweep the Golden State Warriors on this, uh, baseball back-to-back. And, uh, yeah, then they’ll be…
Mike Finger: I think that Friday night game against the Warriors is another Amazon Prime game.
Tom Orsborn: It is. Yes.
Mike Finger: Exclusive national Amazon Prime game. That was uh, that’s interesting to see uh, how that worked out and the the most noteworthy thing is an Amazon Prime game means Jeff gets to sit on the floor, which I know he enjoys.
Jeff McDonald: Oh yeah, that is enjoyable. It’s a different game down there, you guys. Those players are very tall. I don’t know if you notice. They’re very tall. You can’t tell from the platform how tall they are. Also, there’s just a ton of cursing.
Mike Finger: Yeah. And that’s just on press row.
Tom Orsborn: That’s just from Jeremy.
Jeff McDonald: No, that’s, that’s, yeah, that’s me when it goes to overtime.
Mike Finger: Jeff, are you going to be as bold as your colleague in your three-game prediction?
Jeff McDonald: Well, let me ask you this. It’s something I should know. I’m trying to Google it now. What is Steph Curry’s prognosis for these games? Hasn’t he been out?
Tom Orsborn: Well, he’s been, he’s had a cold. He’s had, yeah, just a common cold apparently, but he’s, he’s coming back against OKC, but…
Jeff McDonald: Okay.
Tom Orsborn: You could see them resting him.
Jeff McDonald: I’m I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to go with two and one. I think it’s just hard to beat a team twice in the same series and the Warriors are good enough to pull off one of those games. Probably, probably the second one. Um, so I’m going to go two and one if if Curry’s a full go.
Mike Finger: I’m going to concur uh with with Jeff as his difficult.
Jeff McDonald: You can’t win every game.
Mike Finger: Yeah. Yeah, it’s hard to beat the same team twice. And I think uh, the the Golden State’s record is is reflected, um, it’s it’s a reflection of not having everybody. And Steph has been out and Steph’s going to come back. And uh, it’ll be another, one of those, one of these games, this is a hot take, is going to be a a classic Curry versus Wembanyama showdown, which the uh, the national TV loves. That might be on Amazon Prime on Friday night.
Tom Orsborn: That’s on the national schedule, that one.
Mike Finger: That’s a, that’s a cup game, by the way. Another cup game. The Spurs are 1 and 0 in the cup.
Tom Orsborn: They’re motivated for the cup this year.
Mike Finger: Tom is, Tom is motivated to get to Las Vegas for the final. He’s already got his reservations booked, allegedly.
Tom Orsborn: That’s right.
Mike Finger: And uh, and you know, that was a funny moment. We, Tom and I had made it back into the the media room in time to see the end of the Amazon Prime broadcast when Victor Wembanyama was asked about playing in the group of death, which I did not know was a thing and Victor Wembanyama did not know it was a thing. But it’s like the, the World Cup, right, Tom, it’s like the the the toughest group. And the Spurs allegedly are in it. And they’re leading it.
Jeff McDonald: They really are. Like who else is in the group?
Mike Finger: You got your Golden State Warriors. You got your Houston Rockets. You got your Denver Nuggets. And then a team, oh, the Portland Trailblazers. The upstart Portland Trailblazers. It really is a group of death. Yeah. But the four games that the Spurs play in the cup, uh, for, for those of you who, who are not familiar with the cup because the Spurs have really not contended much for the cup. You, you play your other four teams in your group on uh scheduled nights in November, usually Fridays, a couple of Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And if you finish in the top eight, you move on to the next round. And uh, the Spurs have won their first one against the Rockets. Their second one is against the Warriors on Friday. The Wednesday night game against the Warriors this week will not count in the cup, but the Friday one does. And then that Thanksgiving week, that, that trip that Jeff is on, I believe are both uh, cup games at the Trailblazers and at the Nuggets. And that will determine who goes on. But uh, if the Spurs emerge from the group of death, that’s another feather in their cap. And like I said, I I picked them to go two and one. The the upcoming schedule beyond the Warriors has the Kings and the Grizzlies who are two of the more messier, more messier, two of the two of the more struggling teams in the Western conference.
Tom Orsborn: Got them at home.
Jeff McDonald: Eventually they’re going to hit this stretch where they got Oklahoma City twice and Denver’s in there and they’re playing Cleveland twice and…
Mike Finger: Well, yeah.
Jeff McDonald: They’ve got some elite teams coming in, in December. So…
Tom Orsborn: Yeah. Get them right now. At Denver, at Minnesota, at Orlando, at Cleveland. Yeah.
Mike Finger: Yeah, but I mean at any team can say that. Like it’s not like a they’re they’re hitting a stretch and with the team they have now, they’re not going to hit a stretch where it just seems impossible.
Jeff McDonald: Right.
Mike Finger: Like you look at the rest of November, it’s, it looks pretty navigable. And uh, you know, that’s that December stretch that Jeff is talking about, I see two Washingtons, I see New Orleans in there. Like…
Jeff McDonald: Look, this podcast is just getting way too rosy and it’s making me anxious and I need to bring it, I need to throw some cold water on something somehow. It’s hard, it’s hard to be a wet blanket this week.
Mike Finger: Well, speaking of anxiousness and speaking of uh, uh needing to find some negatives, here’s the big question. Is your flight going to take off on time here in the next uh, couple hours?
Jeff McDonald: I think I live here now. In Chicago? I think I live here in Chicago now. It’s gonna be hard to cover the Spurs from Chicago. They don’t come back here this year.
Mike Finger: Yeah.
Jeff McDonald: So…
Mike Finger: Do you have Amazon Prime?
Jeff McDonald: Uh, I I could get it on my laptop, yeah.
Mike Finger: Well, at least you can watch the Friday game that way.
Jeff McDonald: That’s good.
Mike Finger: Do you have NBC Peacock?
Jeff McDonald: Um, I uh, I could probably uh, I could probably arrange that.
Mike Finger: You can watch the Memphis game next Tuesday. The interviews might be difficult. But you’ll make, you’ll make it work somehow. We all will make it work somehow. Tom will make it work. Tom is willing to step in much like the bench players on the San Antonio Spurs are ready to step in when needed. And somehow, some way, we will get it done until we meet you next time. Until then, take care of each other and keep it real.