April 16, 2025 • 6 mins
"Can the Mavericks overcome emotional exhaustion and rise to the playoff challenge?" Join hosts Ben Rogers, Jeff "Skin" Wade, Kevin "KT" Turner, and Krystina Ray on The Ben and Skin Show as they delve into the intense emotional landscape of the Mavericks' playoff journey. In this episode, the team explores the emotional toll on the Mavericks as they face the Kings in the play-in tournament. With Luka Doncic's tearful montage and the overwhelming noise from the press conference, the hosts discuss whether the Mavs have anything left in the tank. The conversation is filled with insightful analysis and predictions, highlighting the resilience and challenges faced by the team.
- "The noise is too loud. To me, the noise was so loud because Luka Doncic was crying in their own arena." - Ben Rogers
- "If Anthony Davis shows up and is a big presence, guys feed off of that, and then suddenly we have something." - Jeff "Skin" Wade
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh yes, it is the world famous Ben and Skin show,
and it is a MAVs game day, game night, MAVs
Kings happening tonight. The play in skin is happening, and
I can't help but wonder if the MAVs have anything
left in the tank emotionally. They've been so resilient all
season long. They've overcome things. But I feel like Jason
Kidd deserves a ton of credit for that. But I
(00:21):
feel like they've compartmentalized. They've been like, look, all that's noise.
Let's just ignore the noise that's just out They're happening
in the universe. Let's focus on this game. But now
the noise is too loud to me. The noise was
so loud because Luka Doncris was crying in their own
arena watching a montage of his first six and a
half years with the MAVs, and then he went out
(00:42):
and put forty five on the MAVs. The whole stadium
cheering for Luca. That's got to be an odd sensation
for a team to go through, and like you can't
compartmentalize or hide from it at that point, like it's
in your face loud. And then even if they had
overcome that. Now, the biggest MAVs news in the universe
is the press conference from Nico and Rick Welts. So
again that's news at a high volume, and so it
(01:03):
would be totally understandable if emotionally the Mavericks were just
drained by Now, yeah, I think all of that is fair. Again,
we're not gonna see until the ball is tipped in
the air, right, You're gonna know within the first quarter.
We're honestly within the first four or five minutes, if
the MAVs are up for this game, Like, I really
think you're going to know. I think everything you said
(01:25):
about the Lucas situation is accurate. But the one counter
I would put out to that is that then two
days later, Anthony Davis played probably his second best game
as a Maverick. However, he played it against a Toronto
team that was only playing seven guys and he was
covered by Scotty Barnes who's about three inches shorter than him. So, right,
(01:45):
there's levels to all of this. And then I thought, Okay,
so the Mavericks got that game, and then they rested
their guys, so that you go Friday, you go Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
You have four days for PJ. Washington Junior and Anthony
Davis and you know, Derek Lively the second and these
guys to kind of, you know, get there s ready
(02:08):
and get ready for a playoff game. But I think
ultimately yesterday was just another really poorly received Maverick move.
Really in the universe. We talked about this off the
start of the show. And so if you're a guy
on this team, you go to your hotel room, right
You're not gonna go out in Sacramento. You're gonna, you know,
(02:30):
have dinner with your team and your your family, you know,
or your team family, and then get ready for a
playoff game. And then you go back to your room
and you get on the internet. And I don't know
that I saw anything out there and on the Internet
that was supportive of what happened with the Mavericks yesterday.
It just doubled and tripled down on all the negative
(02:50):
energy and all the angst that is surrounding this team's fandom.
And you know what, honestly, if they were going to
put it all together, I think it's probably better that
they have to play this game on the road and
not in their own building, right, that's crazy? Crazy? Then
what a wild turn of events. So it's advantageous to
have a late start on the West Coast. I think
(03:12):
about how weird that is. I agree with you, but
I think ultimately, look, the MAVs are underdogs in this game.
They're not expected to win this game. They're not favored
in this game. The one way they would win this
game is if Anthony Davis goes ham. Yeah, he's the
best player in this game, right on either team, This
is the best player. How healthy is he? I don't know.
(03:34):
Has he been playing hurt through all of this just
to try to help the cause? You know, that's that's possible.
I don't know if he's one hundred percent, but if
that would be the one caveat where I'd say, okay,
there may be something here. If he just goes straight,
I'm the best player here mode. If he delivers the
game he delivered against Atlanta, I think they will win.
(03:57):
So long as everybody rides with him. That's a great unknown, right,
But I do think that if he plays the way
he played against Atlanta, I think his teammates will ride
with him. I think they'll feed off of that they
will feed off of Anthony Davis's excellence. And I also
think a guy like PJ. Washington Junior, you know, I was.
(04:18):
I went back yesterday and read the McMahon article from
the day that the Mavericks played the Lakers, and you know,
there's different sublinks you can click on the previous stories,
and I forgot that when PJ. Washington Junior kind of
addressed the crowd through the media and just said, man,
can y'all not kill it with this fire Nico stuff
(04:39):
like we're here playing for y'all, Like, can y'all not
get with us? And I think about him, and I
think about standing on business, and I think the way
he goes about his stuff, and so I think if
Anthony Davis shows up and is a big presence, I
think PJ. Washington Junior will feed off of that. I
think a guy like Spencer Dinwiddie, who's been through a lot,
will feed off of that. I think Derek Lively the
(05:01):
second is always going to be ready to play. I
think a guy like Caleb Martin man, he couldn't be
any more removed from all of the chaos of the Mavericks.
And the one more thing I would say, you know
who I thought played better against the Lakers than maybe
anybody was Max Christy. He had a great stretch in there.
So I could see a scenario where if Anthony Davis
(05:24):
shows up and is a big presence, guy's feet off
of that and then suddenly we have something. But I
think we're going to figure it out here the next
in the first four or five minutes of the game.
What the Mavericks have in that taint tonight? Right? I
worry about them not having enough playmaking from the point
guard position. That's there A lot of it's going to
come down to Dinwiddie And sometimes Dinwiddie looks like one
(05:45):
of the best players on the planet and sometimes he doesn't. Yeah,
and that's you know, that's fair, I think. And which
which Dinwiddie are we going to get? All right? Well,
the pregame is going to start tonight at eight thirty,
Is that right? But yeah, eight thirty pregame right here,
eight thirty on the Eagle coming out next. One of
our favorite segments to do in less than four minutes,
The Scroll Patrol. You don't want to miss this The
(06:06):
funniest songs from the Internet. Next,
Oh yes, it is the world famous Ben and Skin show,
and it is a MAVs game day, game night, MAVs
Kings happening tonight. The play in skin is happening, and
I can't help but wonder if the MAVs have anything
left in the tank emotionally. They've been so resilient all
season long. They've overcome things. But I feel like Jason
Kidd deserves a ton of credit for that. But I
(00:21):
feel like they've compartmentalized. They've been like, look, all that's noise.
Let's just ignore the noise that's just out They're happening
in the universe. Let's focus on this game. But now
the noise is too loud to me. The noise was
so loud because Luka Doncris was crying in their own
arena watching a montage of his first six and a
half years with the MAVs, and then he went out
(00:42):
and put forty five on the MAVs. The whole stadium
cheering for Luca. That's got to be an odd sensation
for a team to go through, and like you can't
compartmentalize or hide from it at that point, like it's
in your face loud. And then even if they had
overcome that. Now, the biggest MAVs news in the universe
is the press conference from Nico and Rick Welts. So
again that's news at a high volume, and so it
(01:03):
would be totally understandable if emotionally the Mavericks were just
drained by Now, yeah, I think all of that is fair. Again,
we're not gonna see until the ball is tipped in
the air, right, You're gonna know within the first quarter.
We're honestly within the first four or five minutes, if
the MAVs are up for this game, Like, I really
think you're going to know. I think everything you said
(01:25):
about the Lucas situation is accurate. But the one counter
I would put out to that is that then two
days later, Anthony Davis played probably his second best game
as a Maverick. However, he played it against a Toronto
team that was only playing seven guys and he was
covered by Scotty Barnes who's about three inches shorter than him. So, right,
(01:45):
there's levels to all of this. And then I thought, Okay,
so the Mavericks got that game, and then they rested
their guys, so that you go Friday, you go Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
You have four days for PJ. Washington Junior and Anthony
Davis and you know, Derek Lively the second and these
guys to kind of, you know, get there s ready
(02:08):
and get ready for a playoff game. But I think
ultimately yesterday was just another really poorly received Maverick move.
Really in the universe. We talked about this off the
start of the show. And so if you're a guy
on this team, you go to your hotel room, right
You're not gonna go out in Sacramento. You're gonna, you know,
(02:30):
have dinner with your team and your your family, you know,
or your team family, and then get ready for a
playoff game. And then you go back to your room
and you get on the internet. And I don't know
that I saw anything out there and on the Internet
that was supportive of what happened with the Mavericks yesterday.
It just doubled and tripled down on all the negative
(02:50):
energy and all the angst that is surrounding this team's fandom.
And you know what, honestly, if they were going to
put it all together, I think it's probably better that
they have to play this game on the road and
not in their own building, right, that's crazy? Crazy? Then
what a wild turn of events. So it's advantageous to
have a late start on the West Coast. I think
(03:12):
about how weird that is. I agree with you, but
I think ultimately, look, the MAVs are underdogs in this game.
They're not expected to win this game. They're not favored
in this game. The one way they would win this
game is if Anthony Davis goes ham. Yeah, he's the
best player in this game, right on either team, This
is the best player. How healthy is he? I don't know.
(03:34):
Has he been playing hurt through all of this just
to try to help the cause? You know, that's that's possible.
I don't know if he's one hundred percent, but if
that would be the one caveat where I'd say, okay,
there may be something here. If he just goes straight,
I'm the best player here mode. If he delivers the
game he delivered against Atlanta, I think they will win.
(03:57):
So long as everybody rides with him. That's a great unknown, right,
But I do think that if he plays the way
he played against Atlanta, I think his teammates will ride
with him. I think they'll feed off of that they
will feed off of Anthony Davis's excellence. And I also
think a guy like PJ. Washington Junior, you know, I was.
(04:18):
I went back yesterday and read the McMahon article from
the day that the Mavericks played the Lakers, and you know,
there's different sublinks you can click on the previous stories,
and I forgot that when PJ. Washington Junior kind of
addressed the crowd through the media and just said, man,
can y'all not kill it with this fire Nico stuff
(04:39):
like we're here playing for y'all, Like, can y'all not
get with us? And I think about him, and I
think about standing on business, and I think the way
he goes about his stuff, and so I think if
Anthony Davis shows up and is a big presence, I
think PJ. Washington Junior will feed off of that. I
think a guy like Spencer Dinwiddie, who's been through a lot,
will feed off of that. I think Derek Lively the
(05:01):
second is always going to be ready to play. I
think a guy like Caleb Martin man, he couldn't be
any more removed from all of the chaos of the Mavericks.
And the one more thing I would say, you know
who I thought played better against the Lakers than maybe
anybody was Max Christy. He had a great stretch in there.
So I could see a scenario where if Anthony Davis
(05:24):
shows up and is a big presence, guy's feet off
of that and then suddenly we have something. But I
think we're going to figure it out here the next
in the first four or five minutes of the game.
What the Mavericks have in that taint tonight? Right? I
worry about them not having enough playmaking from the point
guard position. That's there A lot of it's going to
come down to Dinwiddie And sometimes Dinwiddie looks like one
(05:45):
of the best players on the planet and sometimes he doesn't. Yeah,
and that's you know, that's fair, I think. And which
which Dinwiddie are we going to get? All right? Well,
the pregame is going to start tonight at eight thirty,
Is that right? But yeah, eight thirty pregame right here,
eight thirty on the Eagle coming out next. One of
our favorite segments to do in less than four minutes,
The Scroll Patrol. You don't want to miss this The
(06:06):
funniest songs from the Internet. Next,
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.