Why Jason Kidd Played Anthony Davis into the 4th in the Dallas Mavericks Blowout Loss to OKC

Why Jason Kidd Played Anthony Davis into the 4th in the Dallas Mavericks Blowout Loss to OKC

On today’s show, I need to know what Jason Kid was thinking in the fourth quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Fine to lose to the Thunder, but a decision with Anthony Davis confounded me. We’ll talk about that more. Today is locked on match. This is Cooper Flag and you’re listening to locked on. I think that’s a good question. Dang. Right now, you know, I still got my dog Dwight Pal. Locked on your daily Dallas Mavericks podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day I’m going to get a city like back and welcome you’re locked on to the Dallas Mavericks your team every day my name is Nick Angstead medium member cover the map for 10 years thanks for being every day or make it like a map your first listen to the lock on podcast network the number one sports podcast network today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel if you want to be the middle right in the middle of the action this season visit fanuel.com and place your live NFL bets all season long. Joining me as always, the postgame prodigy from the great slightly biased YouTube channel. What you got for me, slightly biased, guys. They do this to everyone. Before you freak out, they do this to every team they play. The Mavs are just the next victim. Oh, I thought you talking about the Cowboys or the Lions. Oh, no. The Cowboys have done this the for years. That was tough. That was tough. Today’s episode, we’ll talk about the Mavs lost to the Thunder. We’ll talk about Cooper Flag. We’ll talk about Nembi. We’ll talk about um Naji Marshall probably. We’ll obviously talk about the Anthony Davis situation, but let’s start here slightly biased. We need to talk about one of the greatest players I think we’ve ever seen. The run that this player is doing, the shots that this player can make are absolutely insane to me. It makes no sense. The growth I’ve seen from this player has been wild. Down 20. Jaden Hardy is one of the greatest players I’ve ever seen in my life. Buddy, check the timeline. I already made the joke. 23 points, hits five threes against this Thunder team. Jaden Hardy in garbage time is like one of the best players ever. It’s hilarious cuz it’s almost a certainty. Anytime the Mavs are down a million and Hardy goes in, whatever team the Mavs are playing, somebody will message me or text me. It’s like, why does Hardy not play? It’s like Thunder like Thunder fans will be like, “Hey, you think we can trade for Hardy?” Like like yeah, I give like they’re having those like dude like the AJ Bitchel conversation was like, “Dude, if Hardy was like the lead guard of a team, no, I mean I Jane Hardy is very good in Garbage Time and did have 23 points and led them led the Mavericks in scoring, but to me I looked it up. I looked it up. His net rating like if you filter out garbage time is like plus two. So they’re still winning his minutes. Is there an anti-cleaning the glass website? Because cleaning the glass takes out garbage time. Is there a website that only puts in garbage time? You could you could do low low like low minute filters on some of these websites. And he was like a plus nine or something like they just dominate the garbage time minutes. Well, he’s a plus three in a game. The Mavericks lost by 20. Did not cover. They were They’re a 15 point underdog. I need to talk about Jason Kidd and Anthony Davis and this whole situation. Anthony Davis has his worst game as a Dallas Maverick and he left one game after six minutes. his worst game doesn’t score. 0 for six going into the fourth quarter. And in the third quarter, he knocks knees with with Chad Homegrren. Just it’s like a basketball play. It’s not like a oh my gosh, I’m so concerned my Anthony is so injuryprone, but he knocks knees with him, goes to the like goes to the bench right after, checks out of the game, has this giant ice pack and wrap around his knee. He already has calf issues. It’s the other leg, but still he already has a calf issue. Had an adductor thing. He’s had, you know, obviously injury issues before. Mavs are down 30. 74 to 104. There’s no shot they’re going to win this game. None. Right. The Mavs did go on a 30 to0 run against the Thunder, but there’s a player that led that run that is not on this team anymore. Anthony Davis checks back in and basically all the starters in Hardy check back in to start the fourth quarter. And so I’m like, “All right, well, okay. Jason Kid wants to see what this this group can do.” They play they play in the fourth quarter until 8 minutes and 8 seconds. Anthony Davis finally scores off of a swing from Cooper flag over to Naji Marshall. Great entry pass over the top. Anthony Davis gets behind the defense, scores. You’re like, “All right, great.” Then as soon as he scores, Musa Cisce comes to the scorers table and he checks in for Anthony Davis at 7:44, like like 15 seconds after. Did Jason Kidd literally just put Anthony Davis into the game, risk potential injury again for him to just score one bucket? What’s the difference to me between two points that Anthony Davis scored tonight and zero points? Is it that big of a difference that they needed to put him in for this buck? Does he have some kind of LeBron like stat like streak that he needs to score two at least a point in every game he’s played or something like that? It makes no sense and I think he’s risking a lot. Well, some people might point out the clutch sports connection where LeBron scored eight points and then AD scores two points. Combine combined that’s 10 points to help for tribute to LeBron. Well, at least LeBron made the game-winning assist. True. All of that reporting is so funny. It’s like what a great heartwarming story. LeBron sacrifices Tid Gabe. I’m like, all right. All right. I watched the game. He couldn’t hit a shot to save his life. Hey, do we want to do the little like I was watching this game, that Lakers game, and LeBron is not in any of the celebration images. I said, no, he he he like was off to the side to be fair. Very off to the side, but he was like had his he was celebrating. Okay. Well, but my biggest one is he looks it don’t look good over there for him. Was he was he celebrating because Luca wasn’t playing and they won a game? No, I he looks he looks for the first time in LeBron’s career, he looks old. He does look old, but he has still can be effective. Yeah, AD looked old tonight and bad. I mean, um yeah, this is where maybe I I’ll say kid probably has that player like if because I don’t understand the decision really at all either. But if if he’s almost certainly not playing tomorrow night, right, have it back to back for sure. So, they’re just like, “All right, like get out there. Hey, maybe a few guys don’t play. I don’t know. Uh get out there and and since you’re not going to play tomorrow night, let’s get a few more minutes at least.” And yeah, there’s probably some like, hey, I played in the league before. Like I, you know, I was a guy. I was the best player on the team. Like, let’s go get you a point. Because it it wasn’t like it was just like, all right, go out there and we’ll run our off like we’ll do our typical stuff. It was a very clear like intentional get on the block. We’re going to get you the ball in the middle of the floor. We’re going to get you an entry pass. Like, uh, I don’t know. It was kind of infantilizing in my opinion, but hey, you know, it is what it is really. kid is a players coach and there maybe there is something to not about the level of like media scrutiny or or fan scrutiny or whatever that if he scores zero points now maybe there is something to that but maybe get scrutinized anyway for two points 100% 100% but the zero looks wor look looks looks worse like on a gra on the on the uh like the clutch points or basketball forever graphic where he just has a zero with the black gradient on the bottom. It’s like that looks worse than two. And maybe there’s something to the the mental side for Anthony Davis because that seems to be in play here with All right, you got to got let’s get Anthony Davis ramping back up again. Let’s get him back to to where he is. He’s had some really good games for the Mavericks. Yeah, that 17 and 17. He had he’s had some awesome games for the Mavs the last couple in this Mavs three-game win streak. And the Mavs loses to the Thunder and I’m I have no problem with them losing to the Thunder at all. Like no problem with that. That team is incredible. But this Anthony Davis thing was just it just doesn’t make any sense to me. And I think maybe Jason Kidden was like, “All right, let’s get him a bucket so that at least he isn’t thinking about a goose egg that he put up for for like, you know, cuz he’s not going to play in this next game. So what? He’s going to have to sit for like two three days and think about this.” Yeah. And I mean, this is No. No. No. He Okay. If he doesn’t score that like a week, right? It’s a week, isn’t it? I’m about to reverse course on this. Jason Kidd made one of the smartest choices we’ve ever seen because if Anthony Davis doesn’t score, he sits with a goose egg for an entire week and just has to think about it until they play the Brooklyn Nets and then he can go out and uh and dominate again. Jason Kid, save the Mav season. Smart man. God, that’s crazy. They have a week off. Yeah, that’s a great way to look at it though. That’s that’s the route I want to take. But you this is partially why and look 80s ads are really good. We’ve seen it since he’s come back like the the Thunder do this to almost every team they play like they humiliate people. It’s it’s compared to it’s compared to league like compared to the league average and stuff. It’s one of the best defenses if not the best defense in the history of basketball. And like I don’t even need to throw numbers at you. Watch them play. Yeah. there. The way they move and fly around the court and the way they rotate and the way they close out is unbelievable. It is crazy. And yeah, AD in theory this is a matchup where you know no Hartinstein they’re starting Jay Will like hey there you like there boy Kevin Gray tweeted out that hey I’ve heard from sources around the league that the Mavs are like forcing teams to build their team a little bit differently with this double big stuff. They started Jill tonight. I’ve people are going to you know make whatever statements they want for I’ve watched pretty much every Thunder game this year. Yes, they started Jay. Well, that’s not a thing they do usually with Chad out there. So, they did that cuz the Bavs are a little bit bigger and uh man, yeah, they clamped them up. I mean, that’s just it. And they didn’t have Dort or Caruso. I know they’re stupid, man. Or Hardenstein. Like, talk about three really good defenders. Dort, Caruso, and Hardenstein could go on any team and make them a top 10 defense, I think. Yeah, those save maybe the the Wizards. I I will say with the way Hardenstein’s played this year, those are three top 10 defensive players in the NBA like that is it’s it’s crazy to me what they have going on. The Thunder the the Rockets have 110 defensive rating on cleaning the glass that they’re number two in the NBA. The Thunder have a 105. Yeah. Five points ahead of the next team. That is a that’s a defense right there. What is it? They’re 10 points better than league average. Like it it is by that metric. Well, the league average on clean the glass is 116. So, so 12 points. Yeah. 11 points. So, by by that metric, they’re like one of the best defenses in the history of the game. So, there’s no shame. There’s no shame in losing and having a bad game, you know? Uh this is one of the arguments for and and I push back on a little bit because it’s like, well, I don’t want to trade AD for peanuts. Like, he’s still a really good player, so you shouldn’t settle for a horrible garbage trade package just to say you traded him. But this is where like the vi like the for the sake of him like if I were in AD’s camp I’m like dude like these games are going to be so amplified here like you know just from like your like a mental well-being perspective. That’s where I’d be like maybe it’s best to have a fresh start somewhere else. Well and this team is nowhere close to this Thunder team or probably even some of the other playoff teams in the west. Would Kyrie, PJ, Gaffford, even Lively, if he came back, would they close the gap at all with this Thunder team? Because that’s what we’re talking about if we’re like, “Hey, don’t tank. Just go for it.” Talk about that coming up. Today’s episode of Locks brought to you by Door Dash. Brought to you by the thing that brings you all kinds of things. The season is heating up and Door Dash has a way to keep fans in their bag the whole way through. Whether you’re watching the highlights, the tunnel fits, or your favorite player, Door Dash makes the entire season more fun. Even cup games, cuz cup games are not that fun for Mavs fans right now. Every player has their bag with Door Dash fans have one, too. Door Dash keeps your snacks stocked, your gear fresh, and your watch party vibes absolutely on point. 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They’ve got NBA odds as well. There’s NBA records. There’s This is a new tab. I haven’t seen this one. Here we go. Thunder. 74 wins. NBA record plus 550. Those are not even longot odds for that team. 550. You bet $100, you win $550. That’s not even like a good deal. uh Matt uh Thunder to win 77 regular season wins plus 2500. That’s that’s not that’s that’s crazy to me. So if you want to be right in the middle of the the action this season in the NFL or with the NBA or anything, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. FanDuel, the game moves fast and so can you. Shut it down. Let’s go home. Thanks for hanging out with us on Locked on Apps, being part of the show. Part of the raccoon squad. That’s what we call our listeners listening every day. We’re doing a daily show. Shows all the time. Shows here, shows there, shows everywhere. We also have a text line. Check the QR code. Links in the description to get text from us. Subscribe to that. We appreciate each and every one of you for checking out the show. We also have a way to get uh another thing coming up. The announcement that the lockdown is making. So stay tuned for that. That’s coming Monday. All right. Slightly the Dallas Mavericks talked about the Anthony Davis thing. He played a bad game. Move on from it. It’s a wash. We’ll we’ll check back with him in a week when they play the Brooklyn Nets probably. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens there. Um the thing the big the big conversation about the Mavericks obviously has been should they tank? Should they just go for it? And the quote that the thing that I’ve heard from people from the Mavericks and the fans that want the Mavs to go for it and Anthony Davis believers is like hey just go for it. See what happens. We haven’t seen this team together. Now we’ve seen this Mavs team play the Thunder and they did play him close at the beginning of the year but now they just played the Thunder and their Thunder are down players and they just got beat by the Thunder really bad. Didn’t look anywhere close to them. Would Kyrie PJ Gafford even Lively if he comes back which I doubt it but if they come back does that close the gap with this Thunder team in any way? Because if the Mavs do make it back to the playoffs they’re probably going to be the seventh eighth seed something like that and they’re going to play the and they’re going to play the Thunder. I don’t know what would have to happen for this Mavs team to compete with the Thunder to be honest with you. Like um I know this has just turned into a Thunder Glaze session in the eyes of many of you, but like Well, so is the broadcast. So yeah, I mean it’s just the reality that this team’s 22 and one. Are they 23 and one now? 23 now. 23 and one. I mean uh yeah, I don’t think this Mavs team could reach a point where they’re competing against this team and and even in the with the like retroactively the Nico vision thing. I don’t think that team if healthy is competing either really. Like obviously getting PJ back and Lively being here like if the Mavs were completely healthy like obviously they’re much better than they are now and they they’d be better than this and maybe it’d be a little bit more competitive but no I don’t think I don’t think they would win the series. I just don’t Would they win a game? I don’t think they would win a game. Maybe. And I and I want to and I want to to like mention there when I say that I don’t think anybody is is beating this Thunder team. I think it I said this earlier today in a video where I’m like if the Thunder don’t win if the barring an injury the Thunder don’t win the finals this year that it would be like a Netflix documentary worthy thing documenting the series like the team that beat them. It be they would have to do the thing where they play all the postgame interviews where they all join together. It’s like the, you know, the dog pile or whatever and they’re all like barking or whatever and then they would play like somber music underneath it like this team didn’t take it seriously. They don’t bark anymore, do they? No, they don’t anymore. Thank god. That was a thing they used to do. I know. That was bad. It’s funny cuz I I agree with that if Trayvon clip where it was like, yeah, you this team can’t win while barking. I was like, that might be true. They only barked for certain players, too. And I found that I found that very strange and I don’t think they did it last year. I could be wrong. They did it the year. They did it the year before the for sure. I I can still hear it in my ears and then I heard how quiet that crowd was. Yep. 23 and one. Incred incredible. I mean, do you agree with me? Like what do you what do you think? They’re no They’re nowhere they’re nowhere close. I don’t think they would win a game. They they may win a game the way that the Grizzlies won a game last year where it’s like all of a sudden the Ms. win a game. Oh, the Grizzlies almost won a game, right? Were they like they like way up? Okay. They would almost win a game like the Grizzlies almost won a game. I in my mind I thought that they won some random game and I remember Jaw like freaking out being like we got this. But I guess that was in the middle of that game, wasn’t it? I think Jo was hurt even. Maybe. I don’t remember anything. No, they were the Grizzlies were up like 30 in a game and lost. Yes, that was it. Yeah, the the Mavs wouldn’t be anywhere close. And that’s another reason why you got to keep Anthony Davis healthy. And if Anthony Davis gets hurt, it’d be one of the biggest things like the biggest disasters that could happen to the Mavs this year is because you keep him healthy. You can trade him, you can move on, you can try, you know, we got to retool around Cooper Flag. That’s that’s the next thing. Look at this Thunder team and look at how they they grew. They started with SGA. You got pieces and you slowly built it and now it’s sustain it’s sustainable success. You got to build sustainable success around Cooper Flag. And right now they’re going to hit the end of this, you know, Niko Vision like era. And Nico Vision sounds like one of the worst Universal Studios rides you could ever ride. Sounds like a 1980s game console. Nico Vision. Would you like to play Double Bigs? Whereas like back in the day where there was like point guard, but before like all the big companies took over, there was like 12 different game consoles. Now there are only 12 companies. Yeah. To Yeah. Period. Total. Are you guys are we is this who are we owned by Netflix? Like is this Well, this company is in the middle of a merger. So, all right, Tuby. This is where we’re going to be exclusively moving. Nextar techna merger. It’s like we’re part of this whole thing, too. Next. No, that’s where that’s where we are. Uh, all right. Cooper flag 16 points, two assists, two rebounds, did have four turnovers, missed all three of his three. Still struggling from the from the three-point line. I still attest that it’s it’s thumb related. Got to the free throw line six times. And when they had that moment in the second quarter where he’s navigating traffic, gets fouled by SGA. OKC challenges it. Were you as upset as I was when they reversed that call? Yeah. I mean, I thought I thought the the hand on the shoulder was probably enough for a call there, but it was enough for a call that they called it. Yeah, I know. I’m I’m a little surprised they overturned it, but you know, whatever. That was the start of the the run though. It was 40 to 43 and then by the end of the half it was 4863. That was a 20 to8 run. Then by the uh halfway through the third quarter it was 58 to 86. Just a casual like 43 15 run by the Thunder there. Yeah. Just that was the turning point. Yeah. I mean you you have to play especially this Mavs team. You can’t have a stretch of like two turnovers. You can’t have a stretch of like two miss shots because then there’s going to be a snowball effect. And you know, this isn’t a team, this Mavs team against anybody isn’t a team that’s built to like go on these gigantic runs. And they they’ve done it a couple times this year, but I mean like a 10-point deficit’s a big one. Yeah. Right. Regardless of who this team’s playing, uh let alone this Oklahoma City team. So yeah, I mean it was just uh what were what did you say they were? 15 point underdogs. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they were supposed to get blown out. They got didn’t even cover. Flag had 16 points, though. He had two points in that first game against the Thunder. How do you think he looked compared to how he looked before? Cuz I thought I thought he handled stuff a little bit better. He had some of those turnovers, but at least he figured out how to get some buckets. And in the what was it, the third quarter he started to get going? You’re like, “All right, here we go. Here’s Cooper Flag getting the line, scoring in traffic, getting fouled.” Yeah. I mean, his his scoring totals, I think, are a little inflated because he was out there with gar in garbage time. got a few buckets. But I I do like that cuz yeah, the first game he the infamous two-point game or whatever it was where I felt like that was his first real taste of like, oh my god, like this is what NBA defenses are about. Like this is a little the NBA defense. Yeah. This is a little intimidating. Uh and kind of shrunk a little just, you know, that it’s natural, but just kind of shrunk a little bit and was very riskadverse sometimes like in the NFL. It’s like, well, this quarterback doesn’t turn the ball over. And it’s just like, yeah, cuz he doesn’t do anything, right? Like game manager. Yeah. Like, you can’t turn the ball over if you’re not doing anything. And tonight, I liked I liked his aggressiveness. And first half, he was, you know, the scoring numbers weren’t great, but I think he was two of eight from the field or something like that with 10 points before kind of pouring it on there a little bit at the end. But I I just like that he was still aggressive and assertive and getting downhill and getting in the middle of the floor and attacking guys off the dribble. That was encouraging for me. And you know, it it wasn’t as good of a game as we’ve seen him have recently where he’s been very very good. But it was encouraging though. Like I I do walk away from this one thinking like, “All right, Coupe wasn’t, you know, Coupe didn’t turn the ball over once and then was like, “Okay, I’m I’m horrified now.” Which is which is nice. He stepped back up. And the thing about Cooper Flag is he learns and he learned playing against his Thunder team and it was a little slow going but we’ve seen some really slow first halfs from him against every team and even teams he’s faced before and so yeah that wasn’t a surprise to me but it was good to see him get going later and the more you play a team like this the better you’re going to get I think is down the line if he gets used to playing a team you know like the Thunder now they’ve played he’s been you dribbled against Case Walls like three times now including preseason I made this point tonight and tell me if you agree or not but like there’s a very good chance this is the best defense he will ever play in his career. Yeah. I mean, we’re talking about them historically being that historically great, then yeah, sure. And if you’re thinking like, well, the second apron, they might have to get rid of like Dort or something in the offseason, like they’ll they’ll be maybe a little bit worse next year. So, it’s like this could be the best defense that he plays at any point in his career. I think Dort was probably a difference between the Thunder team he faced then in the beginning of the season, the Thunder team he faced now. Yeah. I mean, Dort’s not a fun for anybody, let alone a guy in what was that? His third game. Fourth game. Yeah, third. Like fourth game. Yeah. Crazy. What does it say about Ryan Nemhard that he only played the four minutes and 16 seconds in the fourth quarter that the other starters played? Well, uh, the fact that D’Angelo Russell and Caleb Martin are in the garbage time group is just not great. that d like that dichotomy that the fact that the Caleb Martin and Die Russell have been relegated to basically like 11th 12th men even though the Mavs don’t even have that many viable players right now. Yeah. And Ryan Nemhard the two-way guy is a starter and is coming out of the fourth quarter with the other starters is one of the reasons why his team is where they are right now is like those guys not being viable rotation players has really hurt them. And I think it just mean shows that Ryan Nehard is like, “All right, he’s the starter going forward and he’s not the kid.” It’s not even like a Brandon Williams as the starter or D Russell was the starter. Like it’s not shaky, it’s solidified. I I honestly wonder, and this is from some of just like the postgame press conferences and stuff and some of the answers the guys have given of just like how yeah, he’s he’s so smart, he he’s fun to play with and things like that. I really doubt it. But I do wonder if there was maybe like a meeting or something and some of the players were like, “Yo, we kind of like we kind of like Nimi like called Nimi.” Maybe. I wonder what Well, you did have that moment where Clay and Angel Russell said, “Hey, we showed him his his college highlights to pump him up.” So, they’re at least like talking into him. I have an up I have an update. Okay. Um Mike Curtis just posted this quote from from Anthony Davis on his performance tonight. I hold myself accountable for the play, but we don’t have time. I don’t have time to dwell on it. We have a 24-hour turnaround and we play tomorrow. Got to get prepared for tomorrow. Grant Asa said that Anthony Davis expressed no concern over his left knee and said he plans to play against the Houston Rockets tomorrow. Okay, there you go. Good for him. Do you disagree with that? I don’t disagree. I don’t disagree with the quote. If it’s happening, just think fine. All right, we’ll see. I mean, if he can play, if he can play, I don’t have a problem with it really, cuz what did he play tonight? I mean, realistically, how many like how many like seriously like hard minutes did he play tonight? I just maybe have flashbacks of the Houston half and maybe that’s just clouding my vision on this. Yeah. Well, let me tell you something. Houston Houston Houston is is probably the second best team in the league. So, probably probably said they were the second best defense like probably a bit of a rerun of what we saw tonight. Maybe maybe he maybe they’re looking at it like well the first half of this Thunder game and then it becomes a blowout so second half doesn’t count and then tomorrow night will be the same thing. So we will only be realistically be playing one full game over the next two nights. Yeah. Really? So hey, Anthony Davis is playing. So there you go. Yeah. We’ll see what happens. I to me it’s just like play but just don’t get hurt. It’s the only thing for me. Yeah. And I mean at the same time you can’t treat him with kitty gloves, you know? Like if he wants to play and he’s healthy to play, he’s playing. I’m just I’m saying to the universe, I’m not even saying to a coach, to training staff, nobody. I’m just saying to to the basketball gods, if they’re still listening to Mavs media, Mavs fans, they’re listening to anybody. You know, I’ll say this. I don’t mind backtobacks at all. Like, if you if you feel like you’re good to play, cool. I do agree with earlier where it’s like if you’re down 30 in the fourth quarter, like what do we even What are you doing? Yeah. Like there’s I I and I’ve been that way for forever. It’s like there’s really no point in having guys out there, man. I’d be one of those coaches where it’s like like go sit your ass down on the end of the bench. Think about what you’ve done for the entire fourth quarter. Think about this. I’d be pulling the I I’ reaction emotional. I’d be we’d give up a three to go down four with four minutes left. I’d say get off already. Get in there. Like a fivepoint swing where you miss a layup and they had three in transition on the other end. And you’re like, “That’s it. We’re done.” Yeah. Hardy, Caleb, let’s go. Well, if Hardy went in, they would probably win the game. Maybe they should maybe they should go down early. Yeah. And bring Hardy in earlier. Then maybe they you you’d have the best player on the court. Yeah, I could see that. Like go down 20 early, put Hardy in, let him hit some threes. You’re down nine now. Now your team’s kind of got some momentum going into halftime or something. Oh man, Anthony plans to play. Good for him, man. All right, there you go. Check out Slightly Bias YouTube. Is that it? What else you got? Well, I always feel bad. I’ I’ve wanted to make a point cuz I feel bad when we don’t mention guys like Naji. Naji and Max I thought played good games. Naji Marshall 18 points, eight of 11 from the field. He fights, man. Eight of nine on twos. He does not stop. No. And I’ve respected that. ever since the trade, ever since everything, he has been the one that has like consistently put in the most effort, energy, and my thought on that is I just really wanted to see him in a playoff setting, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to get that this season, but yeah, maybe next season. Also, I’m I’m at the point with Max where it’s like, and I don’t know if you guys have noticed on this episode or not, I’m starting to call guys by their first name. Yeah, you do. You’re like Sean Heath at the free throw line. Yeah, I kind of like doing it. It’s kind of fun. Max. So, Ma, so Max, cuz that’s what I’m calling him now. Uh, I’m getting to the point with his efficiency and stuff where it’s like, “All right, can we get up to like 12 shots a game, you know, like six shots?” It’s like, “Yeah, it’s cool. You’re going like five of six every night. Can we get up to like 12 13 shots? Can we figure out how to get that in the game plan?” Cuz if we’re We need you to shoot threes cuz you’re our second best three-point shooter. Even the last couple of games, his mid-range shots have looked really good. He like guys go over the screen, he steps up, hits a like hits a shot, he hit one tonight. I think there’s there’s room for him to shoot more. And I think some of that is him. It’s like, hey man, if you if you’ve got the ball and you feel like you’ve got an advantage, go ahead go ahead. I’m with you. Oh, by the way, speaking of Max, and this is actually kind of a a good segue because remember after the trade happened for a little bit, we were calling it similar to the SGA trade, the Max Christie trade. Max Christie was the SGAA of the uh Luga Dodgers trade. Well, Max has played way more games, so it’s still the still the Max Christie trade right now, dude. SGA had 33 on 12 shot on 10 of 12 shooting, man. I mean, it is crazy. Two threes. Took two threes. That’s it. He’s shooting 44% from three this year. This is like one of the best guard two two-year stretches I’ve seen maybe ever from I mean it is crazy what he does every night. And the fact that the fact that he was like a mid round pick like a 12th pick or whatever and then just a like a throwin young player in a Paul George trade with all those other picks too and to then he was that that he was then he was on that terrible Thunder team for two years and now to see what he is what a trajectory. Well, it’s it’s funny. It’s funny because like uh I really liked him in on the Clippers and then I kind of had a vested interest in him and followed him. Then I really liked him that bubble year and obviously you know that was like a lot of Dennis Rutder and Chris Paul but like Shay wasn’t good in that playoff series but he was good that year and then the next two years if you were w like he was very good and they shut him down for half the the second half of the season both years cuz they were wanting to tank and he was entering that phase was like all right this guy might be a little bit too good. Uh man, he is just he is unguardable. And you can say whatever you want about foul league. Like he didn’t even really bait foul bait much tonight. He literally got whatever he wanted. That second quarter was a little that that second great score is foul bait. Oh, for sure. But he still did it. Yeah. The only the only great scoreer who doesn’t foul bait that I get on my hands and knees and praise that uh maybe now that he’s coming back from a catastrophic injury does start to foul bait is Kyrie Irving. It’s true. He doesn’t He doesn’t at all. And it’s annoying that he doesn’t. I know. Let’s Let’s get a couple like bump into some guy thing. Like let’s let’s get you to the free throw line a little bit more. Wild. Do you have anything else? I’m I’m just I I know it’s going to piss people off, but I’m just I seriously am amazed how good the Thunder team is. Oh, I I don’t If they’re pissed off, it’s on them. They’re better than last year. I know. I mean, it’s I don’t think people truthfully truthfully grasp what they’re watching. They don’t because there’s no like hype story about them. It’s not Katie on the Warriors where you’re just like this isn’t the best team. It’s not LeBron, Wayade, and Bosch on the Heat where there’s all this like hype around them. It’s just like a built team that their big their big acquisition was Isaiah Hartstein and Alex Caruso. You know, it’s like that not like they came out of nowhere and got this all this hype out of nowhere. They have no hype around them. Well, we’ll see what they do after this year. We’ll see. There you go. Go listen to slightly bias. Great YouTube channel. Great stuff happening all the time. We’ll be back tomorrow with a postgame show against the Rockets. Might be some of the same. We’ll talk about talk to you guys tomorrow. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mavs. Peace out. Let’s get Let’s get you four tomorrow night. A ad.

The Dallas Mavericks suffered a tough loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder as questions continue to surround the team’s performance in the NBA. What happened with Jason Kidd’s coaching decisions, Cooper Flagg’s development, Anthony Davis’ health, and what the future holds for Kyrie Irving and the Mavs in a stacked Western Conference?

Nick Angstadt and Slightly Biased break down the Dallas Mavericks’ loss to the Thunder, with detailed analysis on Anthony Davis’ injury, Cooper Flagg’s growth, and the role of Naji Marshall. The episode covers key players and topics including Jason Kidd, Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington, D’Angelo Russell, and Ryan Nembhard, along with notable mentions of the Thunder, Rockets, and other NBA teams. Listen in for facts and reaction on the Mavs’ playoff outlook, the impact of trades, and what moves Nico Harrison and the front office might consider as the NBA season heats up.

Learn why the Mavs are struggling to compete with teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, get updates on injury news, and hear insightful opinions on how the combination of Cooper Flagg, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis can affect Dallas’ future in the NBA.

0:00 Jason Kidd’s AD Decision
8:32 Thunder’s Dominant Defense…
14:44 Can Mavs Compete with Thunder?

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