Speaker 1: Oh yes, it is the world famous Ben and Skin show,
Speaker 1: and it is a MAVs game day, game night, MAVs
Speaker 1: Kings happening tonight. The play in skin is happening, and
Speaker 1: I can't help but wonder if the MAVs have anything
Speaker 1: left in the tank emotionally. They've been so resilient all
Speaker 1: season long. They've overcome things. But I feel like Jason
Speaker 1: Kidd deserves a ton of credit for that. But I
Speaker 1: feel like they've compartmentalized. They've been like, look, all that's noise.
Speaker 1: Let's just ignore the noise that's just out They're happening
Speaker 1: in the universe. Let's focus on this game. But now
Speaker 1: the noise is too loud to me. The noise was
Speaker 1: so loud because Luka Doncris was crying in their own
Speaker 1: arena watching a montage of his first six and a
Speaker 1: half years with the MAVs, and then he went out
Speaker 1: and put forty five on the MAVs. The whole stadium
Speaker 1: cheering for Luca. That's got to be an odd sensation
Speaker 1: for a team to go through, and like you can't
Speaker 1: compartmentalize or hide from it at that point, like it's
Speaker 1: in your face loud. And then even if they had
Speaker 1: overcome that. Now, the biggest MAVs news in the universe
Speaker 1: is the press conference from Nico and Rick Welts. So
Speaker 1: again that's news at a high volume, and so it
Speaker 1: would be totally understandable if emotionally the Mavericks were just
Speaker 1: drained by Now, yeah, I think all of that is fair. Again,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna see until the ball is tipped in
Speaker 1: the air, right, You're gonna know within the first quarter.
Speaker 1: We're honestly within the first four or five minutes, if
Speaker 1: the MAVs are up for this game, Like, I really
Speaker 1: think you're going to know. I think everything you said
Speaker 1: about the Lucas situation is accurate. But the one counter
Speaker 1: I would put out to that is that then two
Speaker 1: days later, Anthony Davis played probably his second best game
Speaker 1: as a Maverick. However, he played it against a Toronto
Speaker 1: team that was only playing seven guys and he was
Speaker 1: covered by Scotty Barnes who's about three inches shorter than him. So, right,
Speaker 1: there's levels to all of this. And then I thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: so the Mavericks got that game, and then they rested
Speaker 1: their guys, so that you go Friday, you go Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
Speaker 1: You have four days for PJ. Washington Junior and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis and you know, Derek Lively the second and these
Speaker 1: guys to kind of, you know, get there s ready
Speaker 1: and get ready for a playoff game. But I think
Speaker 1: ultimately yesterday was just another really poorly received Maverick move.
Speaker 1: Really in the universe. We talked about this off the
Speaker 1: start of the show. And so if you're a guy
Speaker 1: on this team, you go to your hotel room, right
Speaker 1: You're not gonna go out in Sacramento. You're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: have dinner with your team and your your family, you know,
Speaker 1: or your team family, and then get ready for a
Speaker 1: playoff game. And then you go back to your room
Speaker 1: and you get on the internet. And I don't know
Speaker 1: that I saw anything out there and on the Internet
Speaker 1: that was supportive of what happened with the Mavericks yesterday.
Speaker 1: It just doubled and tripled down on all the negative
Speaker 1: energy and all the angst that is surrounding this team's fandom.
Speaker 1: And you know what, honestly, if they were going to
Speaker 1: put it all together, I think it's probably better that
Speaker 1: they have to play this game on the road and
Speaker 1: not in their own building, right, that's crazy? Crazy? Then
Speaker 1: what a wild turn of events. So it's advantageous to
Speaker 1: have a late start on the West Coast. I think
Speaker 1: about how weird that is. I agree with you, but
Speaker 1: I think ultimately, look, the MAVs are underdogs in this game.
Speaker 1: They're not expected to win this game. They're not favored
Speaker 1: in this game. The one way they would win this
Speaker 1: game is if Anthony Davis goes ham. Yeah, he's the
Speaker 1: best player in this game, right on either team, This
Speaker 1: is the best player. How healthy is he? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Has he been playing hurt through all of this just
Speaker 1: to try to help the cause? You know, that's that's possible.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's one hundred percent, but if
Speaker 1: that would be the one caveat where I'd say, okay,
Speaker 1: there may be something here. If he just goes straight,
Speaker 1: I'm the best player here mode. If he delivers the
Speaker 1: game he delivered against Atlanta, I think they will win.
Speaker 1: So long as everybody rides with him. That's a great unknown, right,
Speaker 1: But I do think that if he plays the way
Speaker 1: he played against Atlanta, I think his teammates will ride
Speaker 1: with him. I think they'll feed off of that they
Speaker 1: will feed off of Anthony Davis's excellence. And I also
Speaker 1: think a guy like PJ. Washington Junior, you know, I was.
Speaker 1: I went back yesterday and read the McMahon article from
Speaker 1: the day that the Mavericks played the Lakers, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's different sublinks you can click on the previous stories,
Speaker 1: and I forgot that when PJ. Washington Junior kind of
Speaker 1: addressed the crowd through the media and just said, man,
Speaker 1: can y'all not kill it with this fire Nico stuff
Speaker 1: like we're here playing for y'all, Like, can y'all not
Speaker 1: get with us? And I think about him, and I
Speaker 1: think about standing on business, and I think the way
Speaker 1: he goes about his stuff, and so I think if
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis shows up and is a big presence, I
Speaker 1: think PJ. Washington Junior will feed off of that. I
Speaker 1: think a guy like Spencer Dinwiddie, who's been through a lot,
Speaker 1: will feed off of that. I think Derek Lively the
Speaker 1: second is always going to be ready to play. I
Speaker 1: think a guy like Caleb Martin man, he couldn't be
Speaker 1: any more removed from all of the chaos of the Mavericks.
Speaker 1: And the one more thing I would say, you know
Speaker 1: who I thought played better against the Lakers than maybe
Speaker 1: anybody was Max Christy. He had a great stretch in there.
Speaker 1: So I could see a scenario where if Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: shows up and is a big presence, guy's feet off
Speaker 1: of that and then suddenly we have something. But I
Speaker 1: think we're going to figure it out here the next
Speaker 1: in the first four or five minutes of the game.
Speaker 1: What the Mavericks have in that taint tonight? Right? I
Speaker 1: worry about them not having enough playmaking from the point
Speaker 1: guard position. That's there A lot of it's going to
Speaker 1: come down to Dinwiddie And sometimes Dinwiddie looks like one
Speaker 1: of the best players on the planet and sometimes he doesn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's you know, that's fair, I think. And which
Speaker 1: which Dinwiddie are we going to get? All right? Well,
Speaker 1: the pregame is going to start tonight at eight thirty,
Speaker 1: Is that right? But yeah, eight thirty pregame right here,
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