April 7, 2023 • 39 mins
On the latest Pelicans Podcast presented by SeatGeek, Pelicans radio play by play announcer Todd Graffagnini joins the podcast to talk about the rollercoaster win against the Memphis Grizzlies, Trey Murphy and Herb Jones playing so well in the final stretch, and a scouting report on tonight’s game vs. the New York Knicks.
Jim Eichenhofer has sound from the locker room with Larry Nance Jr. and CJ McCollum after the tremendously important OT win over the Grizzlies as he also breaks down the details of all the ways the Pelicans can avoid the NBA play-in completely.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome into the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast presented by Seat Geek,
a podcast dedicated to everything you need to know about
the squad, Up the floor Ingram, Shove, Up the Tray, Leftwight,
three handnemonium in downtown to Orleans. The New Orleans Pelicans
(00:29):
podcast starts right now. Welcome to the Pelicans Podcast presented
by seat Geek. I am Joe Cardosi, joined by the
Notorious Jay. I am jim ikenhoffer Man. You know I'm
feeling I'm feeling all right. You know, we're still sitting
(00:50):
eighth in the in the West. There's so much good
news to talk about. We got a Zion update. We'll
discuss that. We got graph on the horn. I just
I just want to talk about so much stuff first.
I guess we should get to the Zion update. Huh,
we've been waiting for it. We've been waiting for it.
It happened, not much of an update, sort of more
of the same. It's hey, he's going to continue his progress,
(01:13):
which I don't think that's anything anyonets can throw a
parade about. But it's better than hey, he's getting shut down,
which all of the Twitter verse seemed to be expected. Sure,
I mean, you hope that he can be available at
some point. I know we saw some reporting from people
this morning, from Shams to any of that he's not
expected to be available for the play in tournament either.
Hopefully there won't be a play in tournament for the Elegans,
(01:34):
and that will get into that as well. Later they'll
go right to the playoffs and then we can have
we can revisit this conversation. But yeah, I mean, that's
what was on the table yesterday and hopefully we'll hear
some good news in the in the near future. Yeah.
The good thing about the update is it leaves it open.
There is a possibility that Zion could return if we
(01:55):
find ourselves in the playoffs. We will see. Now, we
want to get to the players that are on the
floor playing right now and talk about them. What a
great game against the Grizzlies. An exhausting game against the Grizzlies,
you know, felt like it was in hand. Towards the
end of the fourth Graph was getting cocky reading tweets
about stats, and then he blamed himself for the fourth quarter.
(02:16):
Color beat yourself up. Graph, Come on, superstitious Graph what Yeah,
by the way, he's a he's at his house rubbing
his lucky rabbit's foot all day today. That's why graph
is gonna be on the phone today. But no Graph
was blaming himself reading the Statuh. It just seemed like,
how is the how is this team going to recover
from just having to go into overtime? It was a
(02:38):
big part of Graphs broadcast. Yeah, you know what too,
It's it wasn't just Graph. I feel like there were
seventeen thousand people that were sitting in the stands Wednesday
looking around and saying, like, man, talk about a tough
way to end regulation. How in the world are they
gonna mentally bounce back from that? I mean they were
they had it in hand. You're I mean, any reasonably
(03:00):
human being six second, Yeah, you're up by six. There
was a stat that Andrew Lopez tweeted about teams are
seventeen thousand and zero when they're up by six points
in the final five seconds of regulation. I think so anyways,
every single person, reasonable person, I would say, is thinking, Man,
the Grizzlies now have momentum. Memphis is riding high right now.
(03:21):
Their bench is going crazy because they just totally escaped
a position that no team obviously in many, many years
has been able to prevail from So I mean all
those things and you're thinking, okay, I have no idea
how this is gonna gonna turn into a peat to deflate,
but guess what. They came out and went on a
twelve all run. So that was really impressive, the way
that they were able to just say, hey, what's done
(03:43):
is done. Let's we got an overtime period, it's back
to zero zero, Let's go out there and dominate. And
Jim plucky as always, you were on the streets in
the locker room after the game catching up with mister
Larry Nance, and it seemed like he had some opinions
on that. Let's check it out. I mean we knew
we we knew he had the momentum. I mean, you
know if a few flute play doesn't change that, and so, um,
(04:07):
you know it was it was positive. You know, we
knew that group that we had in had had made
a made a comeback and had h you know, I
had been applying pressure that entire second half. So um,
we're confident. Always good stuff from Larry Nance. He is
always a great SoundBite. And uh, you know, we got
to talk about herb Man thirty five points, five of
eight from three point land. Uh. You know, we know
(04:29):
that Herb puts in the work, and even his own
teammates seemed surprised though by the results of it. Thirty
five points from Herb It's not something you would ever expect. Yeah,
I mean for him to just totally zoom past his
previous career high was kind of funny. Yeah, I mean,
he was in the I think it was mid twenties,
twenty six I think was his career high. Usually when
you see a guy get a career high, they beat
(04:50):
it out by a few points. They don't go from
to thirty five. Yeah, So for him to do that,
it was so much fun to see him come out
and knocked down three. I knew he was on his
way to a big night because he came out immediately
in the first half and made a few three pointers.
I think he started out three for three from deep,
and he had fifteen seventeen points maybe by halftime, So
(05:12):
it was it was awesome. I mean, we know that
that's not what the team looks to him for. We're
not expecting him to score twenty points a night or
anything like that. Yeah. Huge bonus for her to be
able to do that, And I mean, we all know
the guy is extremely beloved, not just among the fan base,
but the locker room as well, so I think people
were everyone was pretty ecstatic. It's just one of those
(05:35):
things that puts a smile on your face to see
that guy we know too that. I mean, there's no
doubt he had struggles earlier in the season. He was
shooting twenty eight percent from three point range before the
All Star Break. Teams still are leaving him open and saying,
you know, we day to shoot threes. So for him
to perform the way he has over the last few
weeks and especially really since the All Star Break, at
(05:57):
the level he's been at has been awesome for him
and a huge plus for the team as well. It
seems like it's paying off. And if people are gonna
sag off a Herb and leave him open just to
know that he can be a threat and that they're
going to have to account for him in the future,
it just helps the team and man seeing Herb CJ. Trey,
they all eclipsed thirty points five threes. That's only the
(06:20):
second time it's ever happened in NBA history. Couldn't happen
to a better group of guys. Yeah, And the first
time that that happened in NBA history was actually earlier
Wednesday night. So kind of funny that, I mean, I
guess it's not surprising that if it was going to
happen to happen now with how much teams are shooting
threes same nights a little ball, Yeah, that is pretty crazy.
(06:43):
But for three guys to have thirty plus and none
of them was brandon ingram as well, that that part
is kind of cool when you when you think about
the weaponry that this team has, and you know, if
Herb is going to turn into a quality offensive player
as well, Trey Murphy is just you know, he's been
one of the most eye opening players in the tire
(07:04):
NBA over the last couple of months, sin since the
All Star break. So I think it's slow, but it's
coming as far as some of the recognition nationally of
like just exactly how good is this Trey Murphy guy.
So all of that kind of came together was you know,
CJ had thirty one as well in that game, and
you know you have three guys do that in historic fashion.
(07:25):
I'm just glad that they were able to get a
win because I have a little touch and go for
a while there, Yes, and it would have felt so
empty and a loss. You know, you almost wouldn't want
to talk about those stats. But because of the win
and because we got to absolutely plant the flag as
the first step of what we want to accomplish. Now
we are guaranteed a play in spot that step one.
But once again, Jim was in his trench coat with
(07:46):
his notepad, hitting the streets because he got to catch
up with that mister C. J. McCallum and talk about it,
didn't you. Yes, indeed, And it was funny listening to
him because he makes some kind of funny comments here
about how for wanting he was surprised that Herb had
thirty five. That was not something that was evident to him.
It seemed like a few of his teammates were surprised.
(08:08):
I thought they'd all be watching Herb score at that point,
but they were shocked. I was gonna say it was
it a quiet thirty five, But then again, like everything
Herb does is quiet, yea, so maybe maybe that wasn't
that pulled up on the rim. It was. It was quiet,
but it was loud. I loved it, Yeah for sure,
And so um CJ just starts talking about how at
the beginning of this clipp he talks about how surprising
(08:29):
it is that no one in New Orleans history that
has ever there's never been a game in New Orleans
history where three players have scored thirty plus in the
same game. No, not the way the NBA is now,
so many different guys are a weapon, r a threat.
So I'm not surprised that it has happened. For I'm
surprise that hasn't happened before, especially with some of the
players they had, because here with Ad Drew was here,
(08:53):
maybe Hit was here when you guys when we had swept,
So like they had enough guys that get thirty just
probably wasn't their name. Willie joked, he said, you mean
to tell me that Chris, Paul, David Weston and me
never got thirty in the game one of the season.
So funny, Herb's shooting at a forty percent from three
since the All Star break. You feel like he's been
making progress offensively as it is, and then he comes
(09:15):
up and has thirty five tonight. Yeah, thirty five, Yeah,
thirty five. Oh Jesus, yeah, thirty five. I didn't read
a box score, but I mean we see the work
that he puts in. It's only man of time before
it translates in shooting. His confidence is repetition, but it's
also conditioning. Man. When you condition your mind to continue
to get reps, it becomes easier. In tonight, Um, that
was him allowing his game to come full circle him.
(09:37):
I'm not surprised he shooting forty. Tell him all the time,
you shoot too much in price. He's like, take chass down.
So were relaxed, man, And he's been getting a lot
of reps since he got here, and he's finally paying off.
Great stuff from CJ. You heard it from him, Herb,
sit your ass down. H It seems like it's finally
paying off. Seems like it's surprising everyone. But man, you
love to see it from a guy like Herb Jones
(09:58):
absolutely beloved here and man, you know, speaking of beloved
local favorites, our own Todd Graffanini is on the horn.
He is, you know, he is stuck at home today
for a bit as he prepares for this game. But
we're gonna give him a holler. Let's check the mood.
Let's check the temperature with our own mister Todd Graffanini
(10:24):
joining us on the Pelicans podcast. This man has been
through it all. He has aged in dog years, but
he is doing it for the people. Radio play by
play voice, mister Todd Graffanini, how are you doing, my friend?
I am much better than I was a couple of
nights ago in the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans did
(10:47):
win the game, so it's all good, but the obviously
last few seconds of regulation did age me a lot.
Which you know, it's this Tommy here, man, it's east
or everybody's supposed to be, you know, happy and enjoyful.
No man's in all seriousness. Look, the bottom line is
(11:11):
the Pells got a win that they needed. And now
you know, you've got two games left in the regular season,
and obviously they both have an opportunity of these both
games that you have an opportunity to uh to move
up in the standings. So you know, no one's gonna
look after the years over really now with the standings out,
(11:33):
no one's really gonna look at how it happened. The
bottom line is that you got the win, and that's
all that matters, and that's what I wanted to talk about.
I mean, you seem to hold it together very well
for a guy who is actively losing his mind on
the radio in real time. I've gotten asked by so
many radio producers and other people, please send me the
end of the fourth and I want to hear graph
(11:54):
because everyone needed to hear the roller coaster. They knew
it would be a ride, and none of them have
been disappointed. I actually labeled the file Graft's joker arc
because it was you giving up feeling it again. How
much fun was it now that you know how it
ended and you're able to sort of, you know, see
it in retrospect. How fun was that overtime? It was.
(12:18):
Here's the thing, Joe, it was a lot of fun
because I think, well, not think, I know that the
mental fortitude that the Pelicans had to show in that
overtime after what happened at the end of regulation, I
mean that shows you something. And I talked about it
on the post game with you guys. You know, this
(12:40):
team in the last couple of seasons under Willie Green
has been a very resilient team, and they continue to
do these types of things time and time again, and
even though I mean for them to come back after
what happened, and look, that would have been a historical
collapse apps. And I'm not just saying this just for
(13:03):
my personal opinion. It was fact. Well, I saw the
tweet after the game, and thank goodness, we didn't have
to bring this up. You know, the tweet that I
read on the air, which obviously I'll never do again
before a game is over, was that no other team
had come back after a fifteen point or more deficit.
(13:23):
Every other team had done it twice the Pelicans were
in twenty eight. Well, when Trey Murphy was at the
free throw line, you figure, well, he's gonna make two
free throws, so he's fifth best in the league. And
he goes one for two, and then five seconds later,
Dylan Brooks gets filed shooting at three by Herb Jones,
and I'm thinking, oh, my goodness, what have I just done.
But you know that that's just a bit of an aside.
(13:45):
But the tweet that I was really referring to was
in the last twenty years, teams were oh and seventeen thousand,
nine hundred and eighty with a six point lead and
four seconds to go, I don't know how I would
have recovered from that one. Gentlemen, we wouldn't have been
calling you today. Yeah, when you get into the seventeen thousands,
(14:07):
it's pretty rare. So we were saved from that one.
But seriously, though, when when you get to overtime after
that happened and you score the first ten points, like,
my goodness, gracious, these guys really can shut these types
of things out, and they did it. So they continue
(14:27):
to just show that mental mental toughness that you need,
especially this time of the year. You know, it's funny
graph you mentioned Trey it. I learned my lesson as
well because when he missed one of those two free throws,
it didn't even phasee me because I'm like, oh, they're
up six. It wasn't I didn't write. I was just like,
no big deal. I was starting to look at what
I was going to write after the game and figure
(14:49):
out what was going to happen postgame. But you know,
that was one of the only things that he didn't
do well in the second half of that game. When
you look at what Trey has been doing, not just
in Wednesday's game, but over the last few weeks and
even since the All Star break. I mean, what are
your impressions of him? To me, it seems like he's
becoming he's clearly showing. You know, for one that him
(15:11):
at the seventeenth pick was tremendous, but just the fact
that he can be such a huge foundation piece I
think going forward over the next few years. Yeah, no, ye,
no question, Jim. I just think this was this is
the player that he is. You know, he had the
potential to be. And it's still just a second year,
even though his second year is almost over, but this
(15:33):
is the type of guy that you need on winning
basketball teams, someone who can really do it all. He's
got the length. He obviously is a marksman from three.
When he gets into a rhythm, I mean, is it
is a lot of fun to watch. But you know,
he's defending, he's rebounding, he's getting to the rim as well, Jim,
(15:57):
And that's the key. And we just talked about his
free throw prowess. So when you put it all together
and I go back to the beginning of the season,
and you know, Antonio Daniels, who the guy as far
as I think he told people, whoever was in the
sound of his voice, that Trey Murphy was going to
be the breakout guy this year, and I don't think
(16:17):
there's any doubt about it that he has become. I mean,
now the thirty point games are starting to pile up,
He's got four of them. You know, he's what the
only player in Pelican history or Hornet history for that matter,
to hit more than nine threes in the game multiple times.
You know, these are the guys that you look around
the league, Jim and Joe that it's like, man, it
(16:39):
would be nice because you see these types of numbers
being put up in today's NBA night in and night out,
It's like, boy, we need a guy like that. Well,
he's the guy. I mean, he is the one who
is capable of these types of numbers. And you know,
moving forward the two games left in the regular season,
the playing tournament and beyond hopefully no play in tournament,
(17:02):
and you'll and you'll get into the top six, you're
gonna need these types of efforts night in and night out.
But we're starting to see these types of efforts night
in and night out where no, he's got a score
and you're counting on him to score, and he's really
coming through and that's the thing. You're you're seeing these
foundational pieces of the Pelicans really blossoming when it matters
(17:26):
the most, and you're seeing them mature almost in front
of our eyes. Herbs game, the thirty five points, five
of eight from three absolutely bananas. Not something you expect
from a Herb Jones. Seeing Trey, as you said, just
shooting the lights out. Look the Herb cj Trey eclipsing
thirty points five threes. That's only happened one other time
(17:48):
in NBA history. It was on the same night against
Uro our next opponents, the New York Next. So, so
give us a little report on those Knicks. I mean,
how dangerous are they gonna be tonight? Well, it's interesting
because and I don't want to kind of slop off
what Herb has been doing too to get into the
(18:09):
Knicks talk. But you know, it hasn't been a great
year for her when you're talking about just him missing games.
I mean, he only missed three four games last year,
so he really had to battle injuries. And I just
think it's now starting to come into his own. The
foul trouble. It seems, as I knock on my forehead,
(18:29):
he's not getting those really early cheap files much anymore,
which has gotten him on the bench early in ball games.
He's starting to play the minutes that he's supposed to
be playing, and you need him out there, not only
for the offense, which is really starting to come around, obviously,
but defensively. He has proven again and again and again
(18:51):
he's one of the best of this league. And he
blocked three more three point attempts the other night. You know,
I don't have the stat in front of me, but
he's got to be leading the league. He can block
three point tennis yea, three point attempts. He's got to
be because nobody does that, and he does it regularly.
But to see him, you know, the way, you know
(19:13):
I talked about in the first quarter the other night,
I mean, Jaren Jackson Junior is literally sitting in the
paint while her Jones is outside. And her mentioned it
after the game, and I said it during the game.
This is complete and utter disrespect. It's total disrespect how
they're playing him. And the only way to stop that
is to do what he did and just sit there
(19:34):
and drain threes. And this is not a coincidence anymore.
He's shooting nearly fifty percent from distance since March first.
That is a pretty solid sample size, jens U. And
if he continues to do that, uh, the spacing defensively
is obviously going to not be what it has been.
Instead of just packing the paint, they're gonna have to
(19:56):
come out and guard this guy, and that's just going
to free things up for other guys. Getting back to
the Knicks, you know, they're not going to have Jalen
Brunson tonight. They're not going to have Julius Randall. And
what that has done for Tom Thibodeau and the Knicks
is that's allowed him to play some of these younger
guys that haven't had a lot of opportunity because what
(20:17):
brun and Randall have done. And now you're seeing guys
like Clinton Grimes, Emmanual Quickly, Obi Toppin, who was a
lottery pick a couple of years ago. These guys are
playing a ton of minutes and they're really starting to produce.
And you talked about the three thirty point scores in
the five three point games, which never happened in the
(20:39):
history of the NBA, and it happened twice the other
night with the Knicks. Grimes Quickly and Topping each had
thirty points in the each mate three five threes, So
you know those kids are playing with a lot of confidence.
You throw in Mitchell Robinson as a walking double double,
or oh buddy Josh Hart, who is just a perfect
fit for Tom Thibodeau what he does because he does
(21:01):
all the dirty work. You know, they've got a pretty
solid team, even though they're gonna be without their two
top guys. Tonight they are number five. Tell me if
you had this one, you're bingo card. They're actually tied
for third and offensive rating in the league at one
seventeen per one hundred persession. You do not think of
(21:22):
a Tom Thibodeau team as being offensive. It is strictly
defensive with him. But they are putting up multitudes of points.
I mean they've hit over one hundred thirty and the
last couple of ball games they went into Cleveland without
without Julius Rynold and hung one hundred and thirty eight
on Cleveland, who's a really good defensive team. So even
though they don't have their two top guys, you cannot
(21:44):
let up one bit because they have scoring. I just
am really going to be curious to see how the
Pell's defense is going to play this team tonight. No. RJ.
Barrett is questionable the last I checked, right, So he's
their third rating score. I mean we know, I mean
who's I don't even want to sit here and make
a prediction of whether he's going to play or not.
But we know that the Knicks are also locked into
(22:05):
the five seed in the East. So and I think
in a lot of cases, teams are going to take
precautions when it's a situation of they don't really have
anything to gain from, you know, this game tonight. But
um Graph and you mentioned earlier just how important these
two games are this weekend for the Pelicans with what's
at stake, So I wanted to ask you, do you
have a firm grasp right now as we sit here
(22:27):
that if the Pelicans win two games on what it
will take, what scenarios that there are for them to
get into the top six. Jim, that's what you're here for.
I was told there was no mass during the podcast.
I'm tired of hoping other teams lose. I just think
I just think if the Pels win these two games
(22:49):
tonight and on Sunday, Minnesota and you know it. That
game on Sunday is going to mean something one way
or another. We were kind of hoping that we would
get through everything out at meaning anything, but it's going
to for somebody. It's going to mean something, and it's
gonna mean for any other team, it's going to mean something,
and it's gonna mean something for the Pels. I just think, again,
(23:12):
this is just my gut. If the Pells win these
two games tonight and Sunday, um, I think everything else
is going to take care of itself. That's just my
personal opinion. Staying out of the top, staying out of
the playing tournament that is, um, you know, and everything's
gonna shake out. I don't know what you guys think
on that, but that's that's just me. Now we're gonna
(23:34):
go through that in the segment at the end the show.
In terms of the scenarios and what it's going to take,
I think if you look at the situation, and again
I will explain this later on after we say audios
to Graph in this Segmentum, I think you're right Graph
that if they win two games, if they win both
of the games, UM, most likely they will be top six,
(23:55):
just based on there's a few different ways that they
can get in, and one of the methods actually involves
most of the other teams winning the vast majority of
their games. So there's there's different ways that they can
get in. But obviously they have to win their two games.
If they don't win their two games, it's impossible pretty
much for them to be top six. I think you're right.
You win these two games, and there's a really good chance.
(24:16):
I'm not gonna sit here and crunch the percentages and
tell you it's sixty four point three if they win.
I don't even know exactly what the percentage would be,
but um, it'll become clear. I think, as I explain
this later, that if they win these two games, there's
a pretty good chance that they'll be Top six. They're
gonna will become clear. There's gonna need They're gonna need
some Jim. Jim, I'd like to ask you a question
(24:37):
because again the floor, so you're going to be doing
this later, Yes, I just want to ask you for
my own personal benefits. If the Pelicans split, h if
we go one and one in these next two is
there any chance of getting top six? I think there is,
But you're talking about teams having to like Golden State
would have to lose to Portland on Saturday and the
(24:59):
Clip would have to lose to Actually, I think they're
playing Portland as well on Saturday, and then yeah, I
think Portland's uh miracle wins or they might have used them.
They definitely used it up last Sunday in Minnesota. That's
just that's just me. It's a long story short if
(25:20):
they could go one and one and still, but it'll
take them, It'll take a miracle that we've never seen before. Hey,
here's our novel idea. Let's win too. I agree with Graph.
I know you've got a big game to call tonight.
I know that you're you're pacing about the Graph estate.
Uh so, man, if you if you got loins Girdham,
because it's gonna be a good one tonight. And man,
(25:42):
I'm just excited to hear your calls as always on
the radio. My friend, let's go get them. I appreciate
a gentleman. And you know, just thinking about that too, Joe.
It really has been a great It's hard to believe,
but this is the forty first home game of the year,
the final home game of the year, and the Pells
have had really really a good year at home it,
(26:04):
you know, and we in my four year NBA career
here calling these games, haven't been able to say that
this has been really solid when you're going into a
game knowing we actually have a home court advantage. So
I think big, big shout out to the fans. I mean,
sellout after sellout this year, and I would expect another
(26:27):
one here tonight. And obviously it's an important game, so
come on out if you don't have your tickets. I don't.
I would believe there aren't many left and show the
support because this is such a crucial game, and just
to pick up yet another home when would be absolutely
(26:48):
key before we had to Minneapolis. Absolutely we need you
all loud and proud in the Smoothie King Center doing
your best graph impressions. We need you hollering graph. We
will see you tonight, my friend, I'll be their gens.
Great stuff from our friend and yours, mister Todd Graffanini
(27:10):
radio play by Playboys four your New Orleans Pelicans. Give
him a follow at inte graph all right, Jim, I am.
I have a bunch of numbers in front of me
that I do not understand all right, I am. I'm
more of a creative type. Math confuses and frightens me.
So I see the various scenarios in front of you.
(27:32):
The West is fluid, so much to talk about. As
we talked about with graph, we want to just win.
But let's just talk about all the various scenarios I
could check out in the West. You know, people sometimes
in twenty twenty three use the expression that you were
in your bag. Yeah. People say you're in the lab. Yeah.
I think I was in my bag and in the
(27:52):
lab on both of these he was in his bag lab.
Is that yes? But I have good news for you because,
you know, as crazy complicated as this whole situation might seem,
I've been able to boil it down somewhat reasonably to
terms that I think normal people unlike myself can understand. Right,
So I tried to make this as simple as possible. Okay. So,
(28:14):
and by the way, I want to give credit to
Jewel here this one. I promise this won't take long,
and that's so that's a good thing. First, I want
to give a shout out to on Twitter at e
Flint because he actually pointed out something that made this
very um easier to explain and understand. So the first
scenario here is the Pelicans. I should preface all of
(28:36):
this by saying, anything I'm going to talk about now
is assuming that the Pelicans go to and and win
both games. Okay, if they don't win two games, there's
no conversation about the top six anyways. All right, So anyways,
so right, So here's the first one. Pelicans go too
and oh, if they get a loss from any two
of the three Golden State Clippers Lakers, they will be
(28:57):
a top six seed. So you don't need multiple losses
from a bunch of teams. You don't need. All you
need is two of those three teams to lose ones. Okay,
we'll take them. We'll take some of them, or any
of them losing twice as well, sure, but just at
a bare minimum. If two of those three teams loses
then and the Pelicans win twice, they're all good. They're
(29:19):
in the top six. And I think one of the
things that is important to point out from that part
of it specifically is Golden State plays at Sacramento Friday,
the Lakers host Phoenix Friday. If the Pelicans win Friday
against the Knicks, and those teams both lose, the Pelicans
will go into Sunday knowing that all they have to
do is win and they'll be top six. So you
really want to root for that. You want to root for,
(29:40):
like I said, the Warriors to lose tonight and the
Lakers tonight. So I think that's pretty simple. Yeah, so
let me go to the second scenario that is feasible
besides the one I detailed in terms of needing two
of the three Warriors Lakers Clippers to lose. Is this
is going to get a little complicated, but it's actually
really good news if you think about it. Because I
(30:00):
wrote about this in Five Things to Know. I'm calling
this scenario the least help needed possible scenario pathway because
this is gonna probably blow people's minds. But if the
Pelicans go to an OH, Golden State also goes to
an O, the Lakers also go to an O, but
the Clippers go one and one, that gets you into
(30:22):
the top six. So do not despair, Yeah, do not
despair if the Warriors and the Lakers both win tonight,
because if they both they win tonight and Sunday and
they're both playing teams on Sunday that are out of
the race. So they both win tonight and the Clippers
split their two games, which is also feasible because the
(30:42):
Clippers play Portland's Saturday, a team that's not putting their
best foot forward, yes, and then Sunday the Clippers play Phoenix,
which is still undefeated with Kevin Durant as we speak
Friday morning. So that kind of that was kind of
amazing to me to think that you could have all
of the teams are quote unquote runing to lose actually
(31:03):
win both of their games in the Warriors and the Lakers.
But if the Clippers split, you still move into the
top six. And the reason for that is because that
combination would create a three way tie between the Pelicans
and the two LA teams. Luckily for the Pelicans, the
Clippers actually swept the Lakers four oh. So that creates
a situation where the Pelicans sweep of the Clippers benefits
(31:26):
them to a great extent as aggregate head to head records.
It also would negate the three one Lakers edge over
the Pelicans in the season series, so that in some
ways that would be the most sweet I think for
things to unfold, because that would actually make the Pelicans six,
the Clippers seven, and the Lakers eight, so the Lakers
would play the Clippers in the playing game. So, I mean,
(31:48):
the only part of this that's a little dicey. I'm
sure people are gonna have a hard time wrapping their
minds around with that combination. You actually want the Lakers
to win twice. I don't know if I want to
recommend on this Sacred Pelicans podcast that, but anyways, it'd
be funny if they lose twice. That's fine, right, But
the point being that it's not just that they have
to get a bunch of help. There's actually a way
(32:09):
that the Pelicans can get top six even if two
of these other three teams win win out from here
to the end. So it's feasible when when Graff asked
me about, you know, ways that they can get in
and how reasonable it is to think if the Pelicans
beat the Knicks and they beat the Timberwolves, how likely
it is that they are top six. That's why I say,
I think it is pretty likely if they win both games.
(32:30):
It's definitely not a guarantee in a given but if
they win both, I think they're looking to be in
good shape. And we know definitively too that if they
win both games, the worst that they could be is eighth,
So you still would be in that position where you
have two chances to win one game. And last thing
I'll mention too on this whole thing, last regular season
(32:52):
home games to it against the Knicks. But since the
Pelicans can finish no worse than ninth, they're guaranteed to
have a home game. It could be it could be
a play home game, or if they skip the plan completely,
obviously you'll get two home games in the first round
of the playoffs against whoever you would play. So we
can definitely say that Friday night against New York is
definitely not the last time that the Pelicans are going
(33:12):
to be in the smoothe King Center for the season. Yes,
that's and that's a sweet feeling, isn't it Knowing you'll
get to get in there and then holler some more. Jim,
that is a great Jim Nario maybe my favorite. Look.
If you found your eyes glazing over and confusion hitting you,
here's the summary. Just keep smiling and yelling, Go Pels.
It'll end up okay, keep winning, Keep taking care of
(33:35):
Basil tc B speaking of taking care of business, you're
gonna be having to take care of some business. Yeah, Unfortunately,
I have a very negative Jim Nario to layout for everyone,
and that is I'm not gonna be here all of
next week because I have to have eye surgery. Now
you sit there and you say, Jim, why the heck
would you time this for the play in tournament possibly
(33:57):
the beginning of the postseason, And I say, the people
hanging when they need you the most. So Joe is
going to be running the show all of next week.
It probably I'm hoping that I can make some kind
of cameo maybe by the end of the week. Depending
one here, Well, yeah, I won't actually be and I
won't be leaving my home based on what I have
to do. So that's what you think when I throw
(34:17):
you in the trunk and bring in here. We'll see.
But yeah, no, I I had to get this done. Unfortunately,
I'm I'm definitely no doctor. But the experts told me
that you can't wait on this, you got to do
it immediately. It's nothing serious, but I was concerned that
if I didn't do it, that you know, the Pelicans
make a run to June and it's still not taken
care of, and I can't see, and my typos have
(34:37):
are running rampant everywhere, and everyone's like, is this even English? Right?
What he's writing? I gotta get this done on I'm
actually doing this Monday, and I'm hoping, in the ultimate
positive scenario, that the Pelicans get a top six seed.
They don't even be they're not even part of the
playing tournament, because yes, I am going to be observing
(34:58):
the playing tournament in some fashion watch, but it's going
to be from home. And this is a kind of
a crazy number but or fact, but I've never missed
a home game in my entire seventeen years here, regular
season or playoffs. So if they, if they're in the
playing tournament, have a home game next week, I'm going
to that'll be the first time I ever miss one.
So that makes me a little sad. But guess what,
(35:19):
win two games, get a little bit of help on
the skullboard, and then they can take all of next
week off. I can rest easy, I can get into
recovery mode and be back fresh and ready to go
when the playoffs start. To tag do it for Jim Athy, Pelicans,
come on. Vision is important We're glad that you're Yeah,
(35:40):
you don't have to, you know, just babble what you
think happened. Uh so, man, we're just good luck with that.
We will hold down the fort for you, but Pelicans
do it for Jim. You heard it. Uh Man, it's
uh it's you're our cal Ripken Junior, and we just
want your street to continue before before we get out
of here, we we have a tie and pick an
(36:01):
epic tie breaker we must break tonight. Jim and I
have been uh tied up and the pick them. It's
we call it hashtag Saturday Scorer because it's only during
the Saturday games where Joe, myself, Gus, Cat and Gill
and a fan pick that's determined by a vote on Twitter.
We all pick who's gonna try to exceed their scoring
(36:21):
average by the most points. And as it turns out,
your two friendly co hosts of the Pelicans podcast ended
up with four wins a piece over the course of
the entire season. And you know one of the things
that's I guess I'll pat ourselves on the back too.
We can only pick a player once all season, so
it's not like every single week we can be like, yeah,
(36:42):
let's I'll take brandon ingram me. We can only pick
a guy once. I think we actually both won quit
when we did picking by the way, we did another story.
But so it comes down to there's no more Saturday
games left, so I kind of had to pick a
game to tiebreakers left to right right, So we ended
up up with Friday. This game against the Knicks is
going to be the tiebreaker, the ultimate decider. Yes. So,
(37:08):
and as we mentioned, we did stick with the rules
of we can only pick a player once, so we
had to go with someone that we had not chosen
over the course of the season. Yeah, and as a
result of that, I ended up with Larry Nance, who's
averaging let me see, six point eight points per game
might be kind of safe. Joe ended up with Dyson
(37:30):
Daniels at three point nine points per game. So, as
we say, the part about the average that's important is,
you know, exceeding it. It's not like whoever scores more
points wins. It's it's gonna be you take how many
points they score, you subtract their scoring average. So let
the best man, yes, loser has to get the other
(37:50):
person's face tattooed on their chests. So I've been drawn.
I didn't know about this. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you
didn't sign the contad probably did, but didn't read it
when you signed it in Bush. Well, it's it's binding.
So Larry nance Ellio dunks, let's go. Let's go so
high drama here on the Pelicans podcast, Jim may be
in recovery with one eye and a still bleeding chest
(38:11):
headsof Joe, Yes, sorry, listen, el Wow what a week?
Yeah Hey, join us at the Pels twelve watch party.
Gus Catngeal will be at the Mid City Yacht Club
with the Pells twelve pregame doing the show from there,
So show up, have a few drakes, arm wrestle Gus
if you feel like it. We will have some of
(38:31):
the radio crew out there as well, and just so
glad to be out there with the Pells twelve. They
always throw a great event and we just love hanging
out there with the people. So until Monday, thanks for
listening to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, presented Buy seat Geek.
(38:55):
Join us three times per week on Pelicans dot com,
the Pelicans Mobile app, or you can subscribe to the
podcast on iTunes. We'll see you next time right here
on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast, presented by seat Geeg,
Alice steel Ingram up the floor, Herb Come On, Herb
(39:15):
Duck get down, two hands thirty four, her Herbert kay
Jones offensive ful, Dylon Brooks on the inbound, and Dylan
Brooks exits stage left
Welcome into the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast presented by Seat Geek,
a podcast dedicated to everything you need to know about
the squad, Up the floor Ingram, Shove, Up the Tray, Leftwight,
three handnemonium in downtown to Orleans. The New Orleans Pelicans
(00:29):
podcast starts right now. Welcome to the Pelicans Podcast presented
by seat Geek. I am Joe Cardosi, joined by the
Notorious Jay. I am jim ikenhoffer Man. You know I'm
feeling I'm feeling all right. You know, we're still sitting
(00:50):
eighth in the in the West. There's so much good
news to talk about. We got a Zion update. We'll
discuss that. We got graph on the horn. I just
I just want to talk about so much stuff first.
I guess we should get to the Zion update. Huh,
we've been waiting for it. We've been waiting for it.
It happened, not much of an update, sort of more
of the same. It's hey, he's going to continue his progress,
(01:13):
which I don't think that's anything anyonets can throw a
parade about. But it's better than hey, he's getting shut down,
which all of the Twitter verse seemed to be expected. Sure,
I mean, you hope that he can be available at
some point. I know we saw some reporting from people
this morning, from Shams to any of that he's not
expected to be available for the play in tournament either.
Hopefully there won't be a play in tournament for the Elegans,
(01:34):
and that will get into that as well. Later they'll
go right to the playoffs and then we can have
we can revisit this conversation. But yeah, I mean, that's
what was on the table yesterday and hopefully we'll hear
some good news in the in the near future. Yeah.
The good thing about the update is it leaves it open.
There is a possibility that Zion could return if we
(01:55):
find ourselves in the playoffs. We will see. Now, we
want to get to the players that are on the
floor playing right now and talk about them. What a
great game against the Grizzlies. An exhausting game against the Grizzlies,
you know, felt like it was in hand. Towards the
end of the fourth Graph was getting cocky reading tweets
about stats, and then he blamed himself for the fourth quarter.
(02:16):
Color beat yourself up. Graph, Come on, superstitious Graph what Yeah,
by the way, he's a he's at his house rubbing
his lucky rabbit's foot all day today. That's why graph
is gonna be on the phone today. But no Graph
was blaming himself reading the Statuh. It just seemed like,
how is the how is this team going to recover
from just having to go into overtime? It was a
(02:38):
big part of Graphs broadcast. Yeah, you know what too,
It's it wasn't just Graph. I feel like there were
seventeen thousand people that were sitting in the stands Wednesday
looking around and saying, like, man, talk about a tough
way to end regulation. How in the world are they
gonna mentally bounce back from that? I mean they were
they had it in hand. You're I mean, any reasonably
(03:00):
human being six second, Yeah, you're up by six. There
was a stat that Andrew Lopez tweeted about teams are
seventeen thousand and zero when they're up by six points
in the final five seconds of regulation. I think so anyways,
every single person, reasonable person, I would say, is thinking, Man,
the Grizzlies now have momentum. Memphis is riding high right now.
(03:21):
Their bench is going crazy because they just totally escaped
a position that no team obviously in many, many years
has been able to prevail from So I mean all
those things and you're thinking, okay, I have no idea
how this is gonna gonna turn into a peat to deflate,
but guess what. They came out and went on a
twelve all run. So that was really impressive, the way
that they were able to just say, hey, what's done
(03:43):
is done. Let's we got an overtime period, it's back
to zero zero, Let's go out there and dominate. And
Jim plucky as always, you were on the streets in
the locker room after the game catching up with mister
Larry Nance, and it seemed like he had some opinions
on that. Let's check it out. I mean we knew
we we knew he had the momentum. I mean, you
know if a few flute play doesn't change that, and so, um,
(04:07):
you know it was it was positive. You know, we
knew that group that we had in had had made
a made a comeback and had h you know, I
had been applying pressure that entire second half. So um,
we're confident. Always good stuff from Larry Nance. He is
always a great SoundBite. And uh, you know, we got
to talk about herb Man thirty five points, five of
eight from three point land. Uh. You know, we know
(04:29):
that Herb puts in the work, and even his own
teammates seemed surprised though by the results of it. Thirty
five points from Herb It's not something you would ever expect. Yeah,
I mean for him to just totally zoom past his
previous career high was kind of funny. Yeah, I mean,
he was in the I think it was mid twenties,
twenty six I think was his career high. Usually when
you see a guy get a career high, they beat
(04:50):
it out by a few points. They don't go from
to thirty five. Yeah, So for him to do that,
it was so much fun to see him come out
and knocked down three. I knew he was on his
way to a big night because he came out immediately
in the first half and made a few three pointers.
I think he started out three for three from deep,
and he had fifteen seventeen points maybe by halftime, So
(05:12):
it was it was awesome. I mean, we know that
that's not what the team looks to him for. We're
not expecting him to score twenty points a night or
anything like that. Yeah. Huge bonus for her to be
able to do that, And I mean, we all know
the guy is extremely beloved, not just among the fan base,
but the locker room as well, so I think people
were everyone was pretty ecstatic. It's just one of those
(05:35):
things that puts a smile on your face to see
that guy we know too that. I mean, there's no
doubt he had struggles earlier in the season. He was
shooting twenty eight percent from three point range before the
All Star Break. Teams still are leaving him open and saying,
you know, we day to shoot threes. So for him
to perform the way he has over the last few
weeks and especially really since the All Star Break, at
(05:57):
the level he's been at has been awesome for him
and a huge plus for the team as well. It
seems like it's paying off. And if people are gonna
sag off a Herb and leave him open just to
know that he can be a threat and that they're
going to have to account for him in the future,
it just helps the team and man seeing Herb CJ. Trey,
they all eclipsed thirty points five threes. That's only the
(06:20):
second time it's ever happened in NBA history. Couldn't happen
to a better group of guys. Yeah, And the first
time that that happened in NBA history was actually earlier
Wednesday night. So kind of funny that, I mean, I
guess it's not surprising that if it was going to
happen to happen now with how much teams are shooting
threes same nights a little ball, Yeah, that is pretty crazy.
(06:43):
But for three guys to have thirty plus and none
of them was brandon ingram as well, that that part
is kind of cool when you when you think about
the weaponry that this team has, and you know, if
Herb is going to turn into a quality offensive player
as well, Trey Murphy is just you know, he's been
one of the most eye opening players in the tire
(07:04):
NBA over the last couple of months, sin since the
All Star break. So I think it's slow, but it's
coming as far as some of the recognition nationally of
like just exactly how good is this Trey Murphy guy.
So all of that kind of came together was you know,
CJ had thirty one as well in that game, and
you know you have three guys do that in historic fashion.
(07:25):
I'm just glad that they were able to get a
win because I have a little touch and go for
a while there, Yes, and it would have felt so
empty and a loss. You know, you almost wouldn't want
to talk about those stats. But because of the win
and because we got to absolutely plant the flag as
the first step of what we want to accomplish. Now
we are guaranteed a play in spot that step one.
But once again, Jim was in his trench coat with
(07:46):
his notepad, hitting the streets because he got to catch
up with that mister C. J. McCallum and talk about it,
didn't you. Yes, indeed, And it was funny listening to
him because he makes some kind of funny comments here
about how for wanting he was surprised that Herb had
thirty five. That was not something that was evident to him.
It seemed like a few of his teammates were surprised.
(08:08):
I thought they'd all be watching Herb score at that point,
but they were shocked. I was gonna say it was
it a quiet thirty five, But then again, like everything
Herb does is quiet, yea, so maybe maybe that wasn't
that pulled up on the rim. It was. It was quiet,
but it was loud. I loved it, Yeah for sure,
And so um CJ just starts talking about how at
the beginning of this clipp he talks about how surprising
(08:29):
it is that no one in New Orleans history that
has ever there's never been a game in New Orleans
history where three players have scored thirty plus in the
same game. No, not the way the NBA is now,
so many different guys are a weapon, r a threat.
So I'm not surprised that it has happened. For I'm
surprise that hasn't happened before, especially with some of the
players they had, because here with Ad Drew was here,
(08:53):
maybe Hit was here when you guys when we had swept,
So like they had enough guys that get thirty just
probably wasn't their name. Willie joked, he said, you mean
to tell me that Chris, Paul, David Weston and me
never got thirty in the game one of the season.
So funny, Herb's shooting at a forty percent from three
since the All Star break. You feel like he's been
making progress offensively as it is, and then he comes
(09:15):
up and has thirty five tonight. Yeah, thirty five, Yeah,
thirty five. Oh Jesus, yeah, thirty five. I didn't read
a box score, but I mean we see the work
that he puts in. It's only man of time before
it translates in shooting. His confidence is repetition, but it's
also conditioning. Man. When you condition your mind to continue
to get reps, it becomes easier. In tonight, Um, that
was him allowing his game to come full circle him.
(09:37):
I'm not surprised he shooting forty. Tell him all the time,
you shoot too much in price. He's like, take chass down.
So were relaxed, man, And he's been getting a lot
of reps since he got here, and he's finally paying off.
Great stuff from CJ. You heard it from him, Herb,
sit your ass down. H It seems like it's finally
paying off. Seems like it's surprising everyone. But man, you
love to see it from a guy like Herb Jones
(09:58):
absolutely beloved here and man, you know, speaking of beloved
local favorites, our own Todd Graffanini is on the horn.
He is, you know, he is stuck at home today
for a bit as he prepares for this game. But
we're gonna give him a holler. Let's check the mood.
Let's check the temperature with our own mister Todd Graffanini
(10:24):
joining us on the Pelicans podcast. This man has been
through it all. He has aged in dog years, but
he is doing it for the people. Radio play by
play voice, mister Todd Graffanini, how are you doing, my friend?
I am much better than I was a couple of
nights ago in the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans did
(10:47):
win the game, so it's all good, but the obviously
last few seconds of regulation did age me a lot.
Which you know, it's this Tommy here, man, it's east
or everybody's supposed to be, you know, happy and enjoyful.
No man's in all seriousness. Look, the bottom line is
(11:11):
the Pells got a win that they needed. And now
you know, you've got two games left in the regular season,
and obviously they both have an opportunity of these both
games that you have an opportunity to uh to move
up in the standings. So you know, no one's gonna
look after the years over really now with the standings out,
(11:33):
no one's really gonna look at how it happened. The
bottom line is that you got the win, and that's
all that matters, and that's what I wanted to talk about.
I mean, you seem to hold it together very well
for a guy who is actively losing his mind on
the radio in real time. I've gotten asked by so
many radio producers and other people, please send me the
end of the fourth and I want to hear graph
(11:54):
because everyone needed to hear the roller coaster. They knew
it would be a ride, and none of them have
been disappointed. I actually labeled the file Graft's joker arc
because it was you giving up feeling it again. How
much fun was it now that you know how it
ended and you're able to sort of, you know, see
it in retrospect. How fun was that overtime? It was.
(12:18):
Here's the thing, Joe, it was a lot of fun
because I think, well, not think, I know that the
mental fortitude that the Pelicans had to show in that
overtime after what happened at the end of regulation, I
mean that shows you something. And I talked about it
on the post game with you guys. You know, this
(12:40):
team in the last couple of seasons under Willie Green
has been a very resilient team, and they continue to
do these types of things time and time again, and
even though I mean for them to come back after
what happened, and look, that would have been a historical
collapse apps. And I'm not just saying this just for
(13:03):
my personal opinion. It was fact. Well, I saw the
tweet after the game, and thank goodness, we didn't have
to bring this up. You know, the tweet that I
read on the air, which obviously I'll never do again
before a game is over, was that no other team
had come back after a fifteen point or more deficit.
(13:23):
Every other team had done it twice the Pelicans were
in twenty eight. Well, when Trey Murphy was at the
free throw line, you figure, well, he's gonna make two
free throws, so he's fifth best in the league. And
he goes one for two, and then five seconds later,
Dylan Brooks gets filed shooting at three by Herb Jones,
and I'm thinking, oh, my goodness, what have I just done.
But you know that that's just a bit of an aside.
(13:45):
But the tweet that I was really referring to was
in the last twenty years, teams were oh and seventeen thousand,
nine hundred and eighty with a six point lead and
four seconds to go, I don't know how I would
have recovered from that one. Gentlemen, we wouldn't have been
calling you today. Yeah, when you get into the seventeen thousands,
(14:07):
it's pretty rare. So we were saved from that one.
But seriously, though, when when you get to overtime after
that happened and you score the first ten points, like,
my goodness, gracious, these guys really can shut these types
of things out, and they did it. So they continue
(14:27):
to just show that mental mental toughness that you need,
especially this time of the year. You know, it's funny
graph you mentioned Trey it. I learned my lesson as
well because when he missed one of those two free throws,
it didn't even phasee me because I'm like, oh, they're
up six. It wasn't I didn't write. I was just like,
no big deal. I was starting to look at what
I was going to write after the game and figure
(14:49):
out what was going to happen postgame. But you know,
that was one of the only things that he didn't
do well in the second half of that game. When
you look at what Trey has been doing, not just
in Wednesday's game, but over the last few weeks and
even since the All Star break. I mean, what are
your impressions of him? To me, it seems like he's
becoming he's clearly showing. You know, for one that him
(15:11):
at the seventeenth pick was tremendous, but just the fact
that he can be such a huge foundation piece I
think going forward over the next few years. Yeah, no, ye,
no question, Jim. I just think this was this is
the player that he is. You know, he had the
potential to be. And it's still just a second year,
even though his second year is almost over, but this
(15:33):
is the type of guy that you need on winning
basketball teams, someone who can really do it all. He's
got the length. He obviously is a marksman from three.
When he gets into a rhythm, I mean, is it
is a lot of fun to watch. But you know,
he's defending, he's rebounding, he's getting to the rim as well, Jim,
(15:57):
And that's the key. And we just talked about his
free throw prowess. So when you put it all together
and I go back to the beginning of the season,
and you know, Antonio Daniels, who the guy as far
as I think he told people, whoever was in the
sound of his voice, that Trey Murphy was going to
be the breakout guy this year, and I don't think
(16:17):
there's any doubt about it that he has become. I mean,
now the thirty point games are starting to pile up,
He's got four of them. You know, he's what the
only player in Pelican history or Hornet history for that matter,
to hit more than nine threes in the game multiple times.
You know, these are the guys that you look around
the league, Jim and Joe that it's like, man, it
(16:39):
would be nice because you see these types of numbers
being put up in today's NBA night in and night out,
It's like, boy, we need a guy like that. Well,
he's the guy. I mean, he is the one who
is capable of these types of numbers. And you know,
moving forward the two games left in the regular season,
the playing tournament and beyond hopefully no play in tournament,
(17:02):
and you'll and you'll get into the top six, you're
gonna need these types of efforts night in and night out.
But we're starting to see these types of efforts night
in and night out where no, he's got a score
and you're counting on him to score, and he's really
coming through and that's the thing. You're you're seeing these
foundational pieces of the Pelicans really blossoming when it matters
(17:26):
the most, and you're seeing them mature almost in front
of our eyes. Herbs game, the thirty five points, five
of eight from three absolutely bananas. Not something you expect
from a Herb Jones. Seeing Trey, as you said, just
shooting the lights out. Look the Herb cj Trey eclipsing
thirty points five threes. That's only happened one other time
(17:48):
in NBA history. It was on the same night against
Uro our next opponents, the New York Next. So, so
give us a little report on those Knicks. I mean,
how dangerous are they gonna be tonight? Well, it's interesting
because and I don't want to kind of slop off
what Herb has been doing too to get into the
(18:09):
Knicks talk. But you know, it hasn't been a great
year for her when you're talking about just him missing games.
I mean, he only missed three four games last year,
so he really had to battle injuries. And I just
think it's now starting to come into his own. The
foul trouble. It seems, as I knock on my forehead,
(18:29):
he's not getting those really early cheap files much anymore,
which has gotten him on the bench early in ball games.
He's starting to play the minutes that he's supposed to
be playing, and you need him out there, not only
for the offense, which is really starting to come around, obviously,
but defensively. He has proven again and again and again
(18:51):
he's one of the best of this league. And he
blocked three more three point attempts the other night. You know,
I don't have the stat in front of me, but
he's got to be leading the league. He can block
three point tennis yea, three point attempts. He's got to
be because nobody does that, and he does it regularly.
But to see him, you know, the way, you know
(19:13):
I talked about in the first quarter the other night,
I mean, Jaren Jackson Junior is literally sitting in the
paint while her Jones is outside. And her mentioned it
after the game, and I said it during the game.
This is complete and utter disrespect. It's total disrespect how
they're playing him. And the only way to stop that
is to do what he did and just sit there
(19:34):
and drain threes. And this is not a coincidence anymore.
He's shooting nearly fifty percent from distance since March first.
That is a pretty solid sample size, jens U. And
if he continues to do that, uh, the spacing defensively
is obviously going to not be what it has been.
Instead of just packing the paint, they're gonna have to
(19:56):
come out and guard this guy, and that's just going
to free things up for other guys. Getting back to
the Knicks, you know, they're not going to have Jalen
Brunson tonight. They're not going to have Julius Randall. And
what that has done for Tom Thibodeau and the Knicks
is that's allowed him to play some of these younger
guys that haven't had a lot of opportunity because what
(20:17):
brun and Randall have done. And now you're seeing guys
like Clinton Grimes, Emmanual Quickly, Obi Toppin, who was a
lottery pick a couple of years ago. These guys are
playing a ton of minutes and they're really starting to produce.
And you talked about the three thirty point scores in
the five three point games, which never happened in the
(20:39):
history of the NBA, and it happened twice the other
night with the Knicks. Grimes Quickly and Topping each had
thirty points in the each mate three five threes, So
you know those kids are playing with a lot of confidence.
You throw in Mitchell Robinson as a walking double double,
or oh buddy Josh Hart, who is just a perfect
fit for Tom Thibodeau what he does because he does
(21:01):
all the dirty work. You know, they've got a pretty
solid team, even though they're gonna be without their two
top guys. Tonight they are number five. Tell me if
you had this one, you're bingo card. They're actually tied
for third and offensive rating in the league at one
seventeen per one hundred persession. You do not think of
(21:22):
a Tom Thibodeau team as being offensive. It is strictly
defensive with him. But they are putting up multitudes of points.
I mean they've hit over one hundred thirty and the
last couple of ball games they went into Cleveland without
without Julius Rynold and hung one hundred and thirty eight
on Cleveland, who's a really good defensive team. So even
though they don't have their two top guys, you cannot
(21:44):
let up one bit because they have scoring. I just
am really going to be curious to see how the
Pell's defense is going to play this team tonight. No. RJ.
Barrett is questionable the last I checked, right, So he's
their third rating score. I mean we know, I mean
who's I don't even want to sit here and make
a prediction of whether he's going to play or not.
But we know that the Knicks are also locked into
(22:05):
the five seed in the East. So and I think
in a lot of cases, teams are going to take
precautions when it's a situation of they don't really have
anything to gain from, you know, this game tonight. But
um Graph and you mentioned earlier just how important these
two games are this weekend for the Pelicans with what's
at stake, So I wanted to ask you, do you
have a firm grasp right now as we sit here
(22:27):
that if the Pelicans win two games on what it
will take, what scenarios that there are for them to
get into the top six. Jim, that's what you're here for.
I was told there was no mass during the podcast.
I'm tired of hoping other teams lose. I just think
I just think if the Pels win these two games
(22:49):
tonight and on Sunday, Minnesota and you know it. That
game on Sunday is going to mean something one way
or another. We were kind of hoping that we would
get through everything out at meaning anything, but it's going
to for somebody. It's going to mean something, and it's
gonna mean for any other team, it's going to mean something,
and it's gonna mean something for the Pels. I just think, again,
(23:12):
this is just my gut. If the Pells win these
two games tonight and Sunday, um, I think everything else
is going to take care of itself. That's just my
personal opinion. Staying out of the top, staying out of
the playing tournament that is, um, you know, and everything's
gonna shake out. I don't know what you guys think
on that, but that's that's just me. Now we're gonna
(23:34):
go through that in the segment at the end the show.
In terms of the scenarios and what it's going to take,
I think if you look at the situation, and again
I will explain this later on after we say audios
to Graph in this Segmentum, I think you're right Graph
that if they win two games, if they win both
of the games, UM, most likely they will be top six,
(23:55):
just based on there's a few different ways that they
can get in, and one of the methods actually involves
most of the other teams winning the vast majority of
their games. So there's there's different ways that they can
get in. But obviously they have to win their two games.
If they don't win their two games, it's impossible pretty
much for them to be top six. I think you're right.
You win these two games, and there's a really good chance.
(24:16):
I'm not gonna sit here and crunch the percentages and
tell you it's sixty four point three if they win.
I don't even know exactly what the percentage would be,
but um, it'll become clear. I think, as I explain
this later, that if they win these two games, there's
a pretty good chance that they'll be Top six. They're
gonna will become clear. There's gonna need They're gonna need
some Jim. Jim, I'd like to ask you a question
(24:37):
because again the floor, so you're going to be doing
this later, Yes, I just want to ask you for
my own personal benefits. If the Pelicans split, h if
we go one and one in these next two is
there any chance of getting top six? I think there is,
But you're talking about teams having to like Golden State
would have to lose to Portland on Saturday and the
(24:59):
Clip would have to lose to Actually, I think they're
playing Portland as well on Saturday, and then yeah, I
think Portland's uh miracle wins or they might have used them.
They definitely used it up last Sunday in Minnesota. That's
just that's just me. It's a long story short if
(25:20):
they could go one and one and still, but it'll
take them, It'll take a miracle that we've never seen before. Hey,
here's our novel idea. Let's win too. I agree with Graph.
I know you've got a big game to call tonight.
I know that you're you're pacing about the Graph estate.
Uh so, man, if you if you got loins Girdham,
because it's gonna be a good one tonight. And man,
(25:42):
I'm just excited to hear your calls as always on
the radio. My friend, let's go get them. I appreciate
a gentleman. And you know, just thinking about that too, Joe.
It really has been a great It's hard to believe,
but this is the forty first home game of the year,
the final home game of the year, and the Pells
have had really really a good year at home it,
(26:04):
you know, and we in my four year NBA career
here calling these games, haven't been able to say that
this has been really solid when you're going into a
game knowing we actually have a home court advantage. So
I think big, big shout out to the fans. I mean,
sellout after sellout this year, and I would expect another
(26:27):
one here tonight. And obviously it's an important game, so
come on out if you don't have your tickets. I don't.
I would believe there aren't many left and show the
support because this is such a crucial game, and just
to pick up yet another home when would be absolutely
(26:48):
key before we had to Minneapolis. Absolutely we need you
all loud and proud in the Smoothie King Center doing
your best graph impressions. We need you hollering graph. We
will see you tonight, my friend, I'll be their gens.
Great stuff from our friend and yours, mister Todd Graffanini
(27:10):
radio play by Playboys four your New Orleans Pelicans. Give
him a follow at inte graph all right, Jim, I am.
I have a bunch of numbers in front of me
that I do not understand all right, I am. I'm
more of a creative type. Math confuses and frightens me.
So I see the various scenarios in front of you.
(27:32):
The West is fluid, so much to talk about. As
we talked about with graph, we want to just win.
But let's just talk about all the various scenarios I
could check out in the West. You know, people sometimes
in twenty twenty three use the expression that you were
in your bag. Yeah. People say you're in the lab. Yeah.
I think I was in my bag and in the
(27:52):
lab on both of these he was in his bag lab.
Is that yes? But I have good news for you because,
you know, as crazy complicated as this whole situation might seem,
I've been able to boil it down somewhat reasonably to
terms that I think normal people unlike myself can understand. Right,
So I tried to make this as simple as possible. Okay. So,
(28:14):
and by the way, I want to give credit to
Jewel here this one. I promise this won't take long,
and that's so that's a good thing. First, I want
to give a shout out to on Twitter at e
Flint because he actually pointed out something that made this
very um easier to explain and understand. So the first
scenario here is the Pelicans. I should preface all of
(28:36):
this by saying, anything I'm going to talk about now
is assuming that the Pelicans go to and and win
both games. Okay, if they don't win two games, there's
no conversation about the top six anyways. All right, So anyways,
so right, So here's the first one. Pelicans go too
and oh, if they get a loss from any two
of the three Golden State Clippers Lakers, they will be
(28:57):
a top six seed. So you don't need multiple losses
from a bunch of teams. You don't need. All you
need is two of those three teams to lose ones. Okay,
we'll take them. We'll take some of them, or any
of them losing twice as well, sure, but just at
a bare minimum. If two of those three teams loses
then and the Pelicans win twice, they're all good. They're
(29:19):
in the top six. And I think one of the
things that is important to point out from that part
of it specifically is Golden State plays at Sacramento Friday,
the Lakers host Phoenix Friday. If the Pelicans win Friday
against the Knicks, and those teams both lose, the Pelicans
will go into Sunday knowing that all they have to
do is win and they'll be top six. So you
really want to root for that. You want to root for,
(29:40):
like I said, the Warriors to lose tonight and the
Lakers tonight. So I think that's pretty simple. Yeah, so
let me go to the second scenario that is feasible
besides the one I detailed in terms of needing two
of the three Warriors Lakers Clippers to lose. Is this
is going to get a little complicated, but it's actually
really good news if you think about it. Because I
(30:00):
wrote about this in Five Things to Know. I'm calling
this scenario the least help needed possible scenario pathway because
this is gonna probably blow people's minds. But if the
Pelicans go to an OH, Golden State also goes to
an O, the Lakers also go to an O, but
the Clippers go one and one, that gets you into
(30:22):
the top six. So do not despair, Yeah, do not
despair if the Warriors and the Lakers both win tonight,
because if they both they win tonight and Sunday and
they're both playing teams on Sunday that are out of
the race. So they both win tonight and the Clippers
split their two games, which is also feasible because the
(30:42):
Clippers play Portland's Saturday, a team that's not putting their
best foot forward, yes, and then Sunday the Clippers play Phoenix,
which is still undefeated with Kevin Durant as we speak
Friday morning. So that kind of that was kind of
amazing to me to think that you could have all
of the teams are quote unquote runing to lose actually
(31:03):
win both of their games in the Warriors and the Lakers.
But if the Clippers split, you still move into the
top six. And the reason for that is because that
combination would create a three way tie between the Pelicans
and the two LA teams. Luckily for the Pelicans, the
Clippers actually swept the Lakers four oh. So that creates
a situation where the Pelicans sweep of the Clippers benefits
(31:26):
them to a great extent as aggregate head to head records.
It also would negate the three one Lakers edge over
the Pelicans in the season series, so that in some
ways that would be the most sweet I think for
things to unfold, because that would actually make the Pelicans six,
the Clippers seven, and the Lakers eight, so the Lakers
would play the Clippers in the playing game. So, I mean,
(31:48):
the only part of this that's a little dicey. I'm
sure people are gonna have a hard time wrapping their
minds around with that combination. You actually want the Lakers
to win twice. I don't know if I want to
recommend on this Sacred Pelicans podcast that, but anyways, it'd
be funny if they lose twice. That's fine, right, But
the point being that it's not just that they have
to get a bunch of help. There's actually a way
(32:09):
that the Pelicans can get top six even if two
of these other three teams win win out from here
to the end. So it's feasible when when Graff asked
me about, you know, ways that they can get in
and how reasonable it is to think if the Pelicans
beat the Knicks and they beat the Timberwolves, how likely
it is that they are top six. That's why I say,
I think it is pretty likely if they win both games.
(32:30):
It's definitely not a guarantee in a given but if
they win both, I think they're looking to be in
good shape. And we know definitively too that if they
win both games, the worst that they could be is eighth,
So you still would be in that position where you
have two chances to win one game. And last thing
I'll mention too on this whole thing, last regular season
(32:52):
home games to it against the Knicks. But since the
Pelicans can finish no worse than ninth, they're guaranteed to
have a home game. It could be it could be
a play home game, or if they skip the plan completely,
obviously you'll get two home games in the first round
of the playoffs against whoever you would play. So we
can definitely say that Friday night against New York is
definitely not the last time that the Pelicans are going
(33:12):
to be in the smoothe King Center for the season. Yes,
that's and that's a sweet feeling, isn't it Knowing you'll
get to get in there and then holler some more. Jim,
that is a great Jim Nario maybe my favorite. Look.
If you found your eyes glazing over and confusion hitting you,
here's the summary. Just keep smiling and yelling, Go Pels.
It'll end up okay, keep winning, Keep taking care of
(33:35):
Basil tc B speaking of taking care of business, you're
gonna be having to take care of some business. Yeah, Unfortunately,
I have a very negative Jim Nario to layout for everyone,
and that is I'm not gonna be here all of
next week because I have to have eye surgery. Now
you sit there and you say, Jim, why the heck
would you time this for the play in tournament possibly
(33:57):
the beginning of the postseason, And I say, the people
hanging when they need you the most. So Joe is
going to be running the show all of next week.
It probably I'm hoping that I can make some kind
of cameo maybe by the end of the week. Depending
one here, Well, yeah, I won't actually be and I
won't be leaving my home based on what I have
to do. So that's what you think when I throw
(34:17):
you in the trunk and bring in here. We'll see.
But yeah, no, I I had to get this done. Unfortunately,
I'm I'm definitely no doctor. But the experts told me
that you can't wait on this, you got to do
it immediately. It's nothing serious, but I was concerned that
if I didn't do it, that you know, the Pelicans
make a run to June and it's still not taken
care of, and I can't see, and my typos have
(34:37):
are running rampant everywhere, and everyone's like, is this even English? Right?
What he's writing? I gotta get this done on I'm
actually doing this Monday, and I'm hoping, in the ultimate
positive scenario, that the Pelicans get a top six seed.
They don't even be they're not even part of the
playing tournament, because yes, I am going to be observing
(34:58):
the playing tournament in some fashion watch, but it's going
to be from home. And this is a kind of
a crazy number but or fact, but I've never missed
a home game in my entire seventeen years here, regular
season or playoffs. So if they, if they're in the
playing tournament, have a home game next week, I'm going
to that'll be the first time I ever miss one.
So that makes me a little sad. But guess what,
(35:19):
win two games, get a little bit of help on
the skullboard, and then they can take all of next
week off. I can rest easy, I can get into
recovery mode and be back fresh and ready to go
when the playoffs start. To tag do it for Jim Athy, Pelicans,
come on. Vision is important We're glad that you're Yeah,
(35:40):
you don't have to, you know, just babble what you
think happened. Uh so, man, we're just good luck with that.
We will hold down the fort for you, but Pelicans
do it for Jim. You heard it. Uh Man, it's
uh it's you're our cal Ripken Junior, and we just
want your street to continue before before we get out
of here, we we have a tie and pick an
(36:01):
epic tie breaker we must break tonight. Jim and I
have been uh tied up and the pick them. It's
we call it hashtag Saturday Scorer because it's only during
the Saturday games where Joe, myself, Gus, Cat and Gill
and a fan pick that's determined by a vote on Twitter.
We all pick who's gonna try to exceed their scoring
(36:21):
average by the most points. And as it turns out,
your two friendly co hosts of the Pelicans podcast ended
up with four wins a piece over the course of
the entire season. And you know one of the things
that's I guess I'll pat ourselves on the back too.
We can only pick a player once all season, so
it's not like every single week we can be like, yeah,
(36:42):
let's I'll take brandon ingram me. We can only pick
a guy once. I think we actually both won quit
when we did picking by the way, we did another story.
But so it comes down to there's no more Saturday
games left, so I kind of had to pick a
game to tiebreakers left to right right, So we ended
up up with Friday. This game against the Knicks is
going to be the tiebreaker, the ultimate decider. Yes. So,
(37:08):
and as we mentioned, we did stick with the rules
of we can only pick a player once, so we
had to go with someone that we had not chosen
over the course of the season. Yeah, and as a
result of that, I ended up with Larry Nance, who's
averaging let me see, six point eight points per game
might be kind of safe. Joe ended up with Dyson
(37:30):
Daniels at three point nine points per game. So, as
we say, the part about the average that's important is,
you know, exceeding it. It's not like whoever scores more
points wins. It's it's gonna be you take how many
points they score, you subtract their scoring average. So let
the best man, yes, loser has to get the other
(37:50):
person's face tattooed on their chests. So I've been drawn.
I didn't know about this. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you
didn't sign the contad probably did, but didn't read it
when you signed it in Bush. Well, it's it's binding.
So Larry nance Ellio dunks, let's go. Let's go so
high drama here on the Pelicans podcast, Jim may be
in recovery with one eye and a still bleeding chest
(38:11):
headsof Joe, Yes, sorry, listen, el Wow what a week?
Yeah Hey, join us at the Pels twelve watch party.
Gus Catngeal will be at the Mid City Yacht Club
with the Pells twelve pregame doing the show from there,
So show up, have a few drakes, arm wrestle Gus
if you feel like it. We will have some of
(38:31):
the radio crew out there as well, and just so
glad to be out there with the Pells twelve. They
always throw a great event and we just love hanging
out there with the people. So until Monday, thanks for
listening to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, presented Buy seat Geek.
(38:55):
Join us three times per week on Pelicans dot com,
the Pelicans Mobile app, or you can subscribe to the
podcast on iTunes. We'll see you next time right here
on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast, presented by seat Geeg,
Alice steel Ingram up the floor, Herb Come On, Herb
(39:15):
Duck get down, two hands thirty four, her Herbert kay
Jones offensive ful, Dylon Brooks on the inbound, and Dylan
Brooks exits stage left
Host
Jim Eichenhofer
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