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  • Welcome back.

  • The Wizards, playing their first game since January 11th On Sunday, Washington lost 1 21 toe, 101 to San Antonio.

  • The Wizards had their previous six games remember postponed because they didn't have enough eligible players due to the league's Covic protocols.

  • They've only played a total of 12 games all season, which is, of course, last in the league.

  • So, Brian, how realistic do you think it really is to assume the Reuters will play a 72 game schedule?

  • So let's just talk some realities of the calendar.

  • So the MBA has not announced the second half season schedule.

  • So in theory, they could extend things and squeeze this in because you've got Memphis who's also got a bunch of games backlogged and hopefully not.

  • But there could be some more teams.

  • But the problem is, is that the MBA wants to finish its finals before the Olympics, which begin July 23rd, 24th.

  • Now, I don't know what's gonna happen with the Olympics, either.

  • Rachel, I wish I could tell you, but the MBA does not want to go head to head in the finals with Simone Biles.

  • Okay?

  • Or you know Ledecky S O K.

  • Ledecky.

  • So I think it's unlikely that they get to play the full 72 games.

  • What's the NBA's gonna do about that?

  • Stand by and watch.

  • You know baseball didn't have an equal number of games is potentially a rotten situation.

  • Nobody likes it.

  • But that's the reality.

  • I agree.

  • I don't I don't see.

  • I don't see that happening.

  • I don't think they'll they'll make 72 games, either.

  • We saw, uh, college football go through stuff like that, so I just I just think they'll try to get as many games as possible and figure it out.

  • You look back now when the schedule half of the schedule came out originally, it's just it's genius and it kind of gives the MBA some wiggle room to figure out how they could get as many games as possible.

  • Move the schedule around eso.

  • I thought on that aspect of aspect of it that was smart to do because you know, you you don't have a bubble, so things like this is gonna happen.

  • You said you just hope you doesn't continue toe miss more games.

  • They're already at six.

  • As you start to get the double digits.

  • That's gonna be virtually impossible to make up 10 10 games.

  • So it won't happen.

  • And look, I've heard players, fans.

  • A lot of people say, Man, this isn't fair.

  • What's going on?

  • The competitive balance is off.

  • Yes, you are correct.

  • This will be a season where not every team will get the same fair shot.

  • That is something that everybody accepted when they decided to go forward and have a season outside the bubble, and they decided that it was worth it because of the money that they would make and the fact that this business would be sustained through to the fact that we finally hopefully get to come out on the other side of this tunnel, and they decided that they didn't want to go back to a bubble.

  • So if you decide those two things, you are going to have unfair situations for some teams, and that is the Washington Wizards right now on Vince Scott, Brooks said.

  • I think all of our guys are going to have to get back into MBA rhythm, making the point that it's not just getting another game in that it's getting back into that rhythm, he said.

  • It's been totally taken away from us.

  • What can you tell us about how difficult it is to regain your rhythm after a two week lay off in the middle of the season?

  • Yeah, Yeah, absolutely.

  • Like when you When you miss one or two do it.

  • Let's say two or three games issue sometimes one or two games, you get off rhythm and you're just trying toe thio Catch your breath and you just feel you feel like sometimes you've missed a month of basketball.

  • So imagine missing six games in a row.

  • Yeah, practice.

  • You can simulate the MBA, Uh, n b a game all you want, but this is the competition, the level of play that what you have to play at every time, because in practice you can play a quarter and then you're gonna stop.

  • You're gonna stop toe, make a point in practice.

  • But you can't simulate an n b a game you can't simulate playing against ah LeBron James or Kevin Durant hard and so on and so forth.

  • So, yeah, I mean, it's just gonna take time and, you know, I hope it Wizards fans and out there didn't expect them to come back hitting the ground running, talking about, Oh, they have all this rest.

  • Yes, they did.

  • They had a lot of rest, but at the same time, the rhythm also comes with that, and you can't get that back.

  • You just have to continue to play games so hopefully they can play games to get back where they want to be.

  • And look, we see this with individual players, right?

  • A guy misses a couple weeks because of an injury.

  • It takes him a minute to get his rhythm back.

  • But now it's the whole team.

  • Obviously, that is a whole different.

  • You could run all you want.

  • You could ride.

  • You could run all you want, ride the bike all you want, get on the treadmill, do all of that.

  • It's nothing that can get you back into game shape, but playing absolutely.

  • All right, I want to switch gears because did anyone notice a trend happening this weekend?

  • The big man is back.

  • Well, at least according to our friend Kendrick Perkins, first having fun tweeting right now, big men still exist.

  • Gosh, dang it Indeed.

  • 33 14 boards cousins, 28 17 boards.

  • Bam!

  • 41 9 times a D, 37 28 minutes.

  • Yokich 29 points, 22 boards six times and it wouldn't be a perk tweet without carry on, Vince.

  • You witnessed the evolution from Bully Ball.

  • Two small ball in the latter part of your career.

  • But what do you think?

  • Do you agree with Perk about the resurgence?

  • The big man?

  • Right now, we also have toe.

  • We can't forget about Clint Capela, who had a triple double with 10 blocks.

  • Aziz.

  • Well, I mean, the, uh, that's a fair tweet.

  • And he's right.

  • The bigs right now are playing unbelievable basketball.

  • Whether it's bully ball defense, triple doubles passes.

  • I mean, you can't You're playing.

  • They're playing through, uh, Yokich their e.

  • I mean 10 blocks in the game.

  • You don't You don't see that often.

  • You're seeing 20 25 rebounds.

  • You're seeing big.

  • Like you said at a bio, putting up 40 points shooting threes.

  • I mean, the biggest back, the biggest back.

  • And they've adapted to the new style of play.

  • So kudos to the to the big man.

  • Yeah, if we took an M v p straw poll right now.

  • Uh, two of the guys would be on the near the top of list would be Joe L and B to Nikolai Yokich.

  • We're talking about classic true five men players and the last time ah, full on center one m v p was shocked.

  • Back in 2000, Duncan and Dirk wanted, but they were, you know, played power forward Duncan.

  • Especially so the fact that even the centers are in the M V p discussion and I'm not saying they would win it.

  • You know, LeBron is building a beautiful case with the Lakers LeBron yet again.

  • But the fact that that's happening is showing you that the teams air figuring out how to use their talented big men and their three point shooters how to use them together.

  • It's a process to use something that Joel and we would like to say, and that process is leading to A and B to putting up.

  • He had a big time weekend to in two wins over the Celtics.

  • So, um, he's right up there as well.

  • Well, during this show, the N B A just announced its Eastern and Western Conference players of the week.

  • Joel Embiid and Nikolai Yokich.

  • Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

  • Subscribe Thio, ESPN plus.

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