EP 168: Too many Threes, Too Much LaMelo?

We break down what, if anything, has gone wrong for the Hornets lately, starting with a closer look at Charlotte’s heavy reliance on the three-point shot. Even though the Hornets rank near the top of the league in both three-point attempts and makes, we explain how that kind of shot profile can create more variance and make the offense feel unstable when the looks stop falling.

We also dig into LaMelo Ball’s recent play, focusing on shot selection and overall offensive balance. The  Hornets have generally been better when he takes fewer shots, and over the last 12 games his shot attempts have gone up while his assists have dipped. It is not a panic segment, especially with Charlotte still going 7-5 over that stretch, but it is a real conversation about whether the offense has gotten a little too LaMelo-heavy. We also touch on the growing number of people on the LaMelo bandwagon.

Later, we check in on the standings, with the Hornets sitting at 39-36 alongside the Heat while the Magic continue to stumble as well. Charlotte has had some tough losses, but so have everyone else in the race, and the 8 seed is still right there for the taking.

To close the show, we hand out Love of the Week to Liam McNeeley after his 10 points in 11 minutes and make the case that the calls for more of his minutes may have been right all along. We also give Love of the Week to Kon Knueppel for his performance in the Knicks game, which might have been his best game of the year.

Follow us on Instagram and X @hornetspodcast 

New Episodes Every Wednesday

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Alright. Three, two, one. Hello and welcome to the Hornets and Heartbreak Podcast. My name is Mark Bernacki, and I'm here with my co-host Tim Rogers. What's up, Tim?

SPEAKER_00 0:14

What do you do? Liquor Mark!

SPEAKER_01 0:17

I'm doing pretty well, man. Uh, Tim, we're gonna do things a little bit differently today. We are recording on a Monday night uh because I'm on vacation on on Wednesday. Um, and unfortunately, we have to record after two tough losses against the 76ers and Celtics. Tim, you told me you wanted to do your heartbreak of the week. Just kind of right at the top here. So uh, Tim, heartbreak of the week. Take it away.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

There's no time to waste, it's urgent. Uh that Sixers game was just a shotgun to the chest. I understand it's not the end of our season, but man, that is the most painful Hornets loss I can remember probably since the play-in. And the only thing I could compare it to is I was dumb enough to attend the Panthers playoff game this year, and I kind of had this similar feeling of just dead inside, and I kind of forgot that the Hornets could still make me feel that way, but it ruined my Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Yeah, it I mean it sucked. It sucked for sure. Uh coming off five wins, um, that game would have put us in the seven seed.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Yeah, soul possession.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yeah, soul possession, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, and obviously we would have had the the tiebreaker against the 76ers. Um, and now it feels like we're sort of in a battle for the eight, uh, realistically. Um although I think what I say about this like changes every week, so who really knows? But but it does feel like we're in like kind of that magic heat tier. Um, and and that moving up and and passing the 76ers without the tiebreaker, that feels like a very tall task with just eight games left in the season. Sorry, seven, seven games?

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Time time really does just fly. Yeah, I guess the Celtics game. Yeah, yeah, and it wasn't like even just seating, seating be damned. We had them. We were running them. I had people over, I invited people to my house. I bought pizza, I bought beer. It was a time for celebration. I said, wow, we're gonna have a great night. And halfway through that third quarter, just laughing. I was like, God, man, like we were texting, everyone, like, phone's blowing up, everyone's having a good time. And then the earth just stopped, and we didn't score for 12 full minutes, didn't make a field goal for 12 full minutes, and it was just every worse fear put on display. I was like, oh dude, fuck. Is this a paper tiger offense? Like it had me questioning months of success. And I have to say, as much as I hate the Heat, I hate the Celtics, there is no worse team to lose to than the Philadelphia 76ers. I understand why people have riots about sports. I hate the 76ers, and I hate Joel Embiid. We blew that game. It was our fault, it was on them. The way that they play makes me understand why people don't watch the NBA. I hate Joel Embiid, and he is a coward, a fraud, and an affront to basketball.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Um, by the way. Uh him in particular, not the 76ers, just watching Joel Embiid uh get to the free throw line 13 times, flopping left and right, just falling on the ground. Um, I mean, he was good, but yeah, I mean the fact that he's he's getting credit for that last block on Brandon Miller, like, and it's being remembered as some like big and bead game. Um, yeah, no, man. I mean, when he played in the Olympics, he got very much exposed because he just stopped getting calls and he sucked. He sucked for the US.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Dude, I and again, this is a little, this is this is maybe too far, a little too grandular. He reminds me of what is going on with the US job reports and just like the Dow in general. He is just like a fraudulent affront. It's like, yeah, I mean, like, it was efficient, the numbers are there, and then you watch it and you actually see what's happening with inflation and everything else, and you're just like, this is a house of cards, and this is all fake. I could not believe it. I was just like, I how do people defend this man for the MVP? And granted, he is a shell of himself, still, still beat us. Like, he's clearly physically just not what he once was, so I'm not taking away. Actually, I am taking away. He was always a loser, and he always played a terrible style of basketball. And like the numbers are there, none of it's real. I will never tell any my kids about Joel Embiid. I would tell them about Carmelo Anthony before that. Just it's just ugly, unethical basketball. And I hate it. Like he makes James Harden seem like Steph Curry.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Yeah. Okay, so I have next on the list talking Tim off the ledge. Uh, because I knew that you were gonna be uh very fired up about this two-game losing streak that the Warrens have had, and obviously the game against the Celtics was like just not even close. And so I mean we looked even worse last night against the Celtics. Um what do you want to do first? Do you want to talk more about what's gone wrong, or do you want to do you wanna talk about positives?

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Um no, no, I want to continue to talk about what went wrong.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Okay, okay, okay. All right, so we had uh, you know, Tim, the Hornets are now number two in the NBA in three-pointers attempted, and we're number one in three-pointers made. Uh, but what comes with that is three-point shooting variance. So uh last night against the Celtics, I believe we shot 27% from the from three, and against the 76ers, I'm trying to remember, I think it was 32%. Let me pull it up. 31% from three.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

After starting seven for 11.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah, yeah, and I mean in that 76ers game, Lamello ball was seven for 26, and Khan Kanipple was three of 14. So you're not gonna win many games when Lamello and Khan go 10 of 40 from the field and eight for 28 from the three-point line. Um, but we are kind of now, unfortunately, in this like, you know, really good three-point shooting teams uh problem where there's just gonna be off nights. And I think that that's a lot of what's happened in the past two games. So this is kind of a little bit of both of me talking you off the ledge, and also what's gone wrong. Um, I I think I think it's just variants in in three-point shooting, and there's other stuff that we'll talk about as well. But I think that's like the main thing is that we've just been missing our shots that we normally make.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Yeah, I definitely think part of its variance, credit where credit's due, because I don't want to just sit here and like bemoan, like Philly locked us up. Like they played really good defense, like they took the game from us, they won the game, they earned it, and their defense was a big part of it. And yeah, we did definitely miss some shots. You said Khan and Lamello combined for 10 of 40.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, yeah, in that game.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

You know, really felt like you know, 11 for 38, man. I don't know. I thought there were some good looks in there, but yeah, I mean, you know, we were breaking some shots. My boy, my boy Kobe. I'm kind of just assuming he's not making any threes uh when he shoots them for the moment. But yeah, like I understand that it happens. This was this was a pretty drastic. I don't know, like the the Celtics game, I kind of just chalk up to like I don't know, when you're so hung over, and then like you come outside and you see you have a flat tire, it's just like, all right, man, today is just not my day. Like I felt like it was pretty clear in that game that you know we just weren't locked in and they they beat the brakes off us. But uh, yeah, the shooting is very tough, Mark, as you said. It just feels so drastic.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Yeah, it does, and I agree with you about the Celtics game. It feels like the Celtics, well, it feels like both those teams wanted to beat us pretty badly. Um, but the Celtics, especially, after we we had blown them out previously. But we did the same thing to the 76ers, like we beat them fit by 50 points. So um, you know, and they also had Maxie back for the first time, Paul George back for I think the second game. This is their first game playing together. So like they had some uh positive juice um in in that game. I mean, it's it's a game that they really would like to win to show that that that core is still dangerous. Um whereas the Hornets, you know, they just beat the Knicks. Like, there's gonna be a little bit of a come down from that. Um and yes, I I mean I I think it was a really tough loss, don't get me wrong. Um I do think that you know climbing out of the out of the playing tournament is pretty much impossible now. Um we'd have to like win out, and I don't really see that happening. So, but it I mean, I'm gonna try to play the the glass glass half full here, and like yeah, we just had a five and two home stretch. Like you can't win every single game. Uh, we beat the Knicks, Heat, and Magic. That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Yeah, yeah. I think that, you know, like I don't I'm not like writing this team off at all. Like, I don't think this is really anything indicative of like future performance. Just you know, just wallowing in back-to-back, back to back losses. You know, it felt like the good old days, man.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love, I love how emotional you are uh about sports. I I appreciate it. I have to say, for this 76ers game too, I was in Berlin and like my friend was like, Do you wanna like like I was visiting them, they're like, you know, do you want to go out and like drink more or like I'll do whatever you want? And I was like, Yeah, you know, the Hornets play, so I'd be down to like call it an early night. And it's like go back and watch the Hornets lose to the 76ers in Berlin on a Saturday night. So imagine that. Sounds more depressing than whatever you experienced.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

You know, I had I had people over and they were still like, oh boy, what do you want to do now? And I was like, I think you guys should leave. They were like, oh, I thought this was kind of a bit, and I was like, nope, don't want to hang out anymore. Nah, you know, shout out, shout out Walker, shout out Frank, great friends, loyal listeners. But yeah, I was really just uh like they were trying to have conversation, and I just kept being like, brutal, man, brutal. That was brutal. Like, I just like that's all that's all I could think. It's just like, man, we really had it. Also, since I just crapped all over Embiid, Tyrese Maxie is one of the most entertaining players in the league and an absolute blast to watch. When he dunked on Miles Bridges and then went to dap him up and pulled the hand back, I was like, God, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Yeah, also, he's so fast. Like, is there a faster NBA player ever? He's so fast.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

He is ridiculously quick. It does kind of seem like he has like turbo shoes on. Yeah. Um, I obviously, you know, had to hate on him a little bit because it was the mellow draft class, and people were like, Tyrese Maxi actually the best guard. So, you know, just being a dumb brain, you just have to defend your guy. But man, Maxie is really just one of one, definitely top five most entertaining players in the league. And I'll finally just drop the vendetta against him. Nothing but love going forward.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Okay, well, um, now that you're a 76ers fan, I I have some bad things to say actually about uh Lamello. So uh I think that first of all, this is gonna be a bit unfair because he's asked to do like just so much on the team. Um, but yeah, tough shot selection the past couple games. Um like those floaters that he takes in the mid-range, when they go in, they look cool, but when they don't, it's just a horrible shot. All right, so in the last two games, he shot eight of thirty from three. And really the real thing that I'm gonna criticize him for is just shooting too much. So he was seven for nineteen in the Celtics game and then seven for twenty six in the Philly game. Um, and I have some stats for you here, Tim. When Lamello takes 21 shots or more, the Hornets have that that has happened 12 times. What do you think the Hornets record is?

SPEAKER_00 13:27

I'm gonna go four and eight.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

That's actually that's exactly correct. Um, all right. 10 times this season, Lamelo's shot, 12 times or fewer. What do you think the Hornets record is?

SPEAKER_00 13:40

I'm gonna go nine and three. You say 10 times? 10 times. Or 12 times. Oh, okay. I'll go eight and two. That's right. How did you know that? How did you guess both of those correctly? It's in my blood, man. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

That's crazy. Uh yeah, yeah, that's correct. Um, and I think it's like a recent trend that he's shooting more. So in the last 12 games, he's shooting 18.4 field goals attempted per game, whereas in the first 63 games of the season, he was shooting 16.9 shots per game. So he's up one and a half shots per game in the past 12. Um, and it's not like we're like doing poorly in the past 12 games. We're 7-5, but I've just been noticing it and kind of kind of clocking it. I brought it brought it up uh a couple episodes ago. Um, that again, first 63 games of the season, 7.3 assists per game. And in the last 12, that's down one and a half assists. It's down to five plus yeah, yeah. So I mean, he's playing a little bit more selfishly. Um, and it's not a good thing. Um, and and when he's cold, when he I mean when he's hot, it's amazing. Like, you know, he's had like really good games in the past 12 games, like uh that heat game was uh amazing game, right? Um, but so much is on him. He's asked to do so much that these bad games, like um you know, he's just gotta be a little bit more consistent if he wants to be all NBA level uh point guard. He he needs to kind of find ways to contribute when he's not shooting the ball well. Um and that doesn't mean shoot the ball more, that means get your teammates involved.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Yeah, you can kind of see, especially in that Philly game where it was like starting to slip away and he was like Because I don't I don't think they're I mean not that they're all good looks, but like I am a believer in like I'm cool with LaMelo pulling up five feet beyond the line, like if he's got some daylight. But yeah, you do kind of see him. It's like the only time LaMelo, it seems like he's actively like thinking while playing basketball. Like, not like I know that he does, but you know, the reputation is like, oh man, so free-flowing, like god, like you know, just beautiful when it's working. And then when we we are like on the other end of like a 10-2 run, he's like running numbers in his head, and it just doesn't ever seem to work out.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And again, I I want to like make it very clear that I I think Lamelo is awesome, and I think he's the best player on this team. Um, but I just don't think he's like all the way there yet. And there's a lot of people in the national media that have said, you know, like, oh, like Lamelo took such a big leap this year, uh, he's a different player. Um, and I would agree with that to an extent. Like, he's he's improved a little bit this season, but he's kind of the same player. Like, like he's kind of the same as he was last year, and he still has the same flaws that he had last year and the year before that. Um, except now he's now he's healthy, right? So there's still some improvement to be done there to not be so inconsistent. Um and I think that there's just kind of a ceiling on on a LaMelo Bald-led team at the moment because uh this games like this happen, and game games like specifically the seven of twenty-six against the 76ers happen.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

He just like, you know, obviously this isn't in exact science here, but if you just like go back through all the shots that he took as to games like there's really no easy shots. You know, like he never just like gets off a nice like four for five in the paint, you know, like maneuvering, like it's it's been, I mean, this has to been our most repeated thing we've said on this podcast. The guy just can't consistently score in like within in the arc. Like it's been a problem since his rookie year. And there have been flashes where he's getting in the line more and like things have improved. Oh, it seems like you know, maybe like the touch has gotten a little better. But at the end of the day, it's like he just he relies on really tough shots, and when they don't go in, even if the offense itself is still there, like he just never gets any freebies. And part of that's you know, doing with having to run the offense, not like anyone's setting him up. But yeah, you just never see him, you know, knock down a couple just easy just layups. Like, where are they at? It's kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. And again, uh, I feel almost bad, like just like, oh, the hornets lost, let's blame Lamelo. But um, but uh that I mean he is kind of the biggest culprit in the I think in the past two games. I there's there's a third, there's another culprit that I want to bring up as well. So we'll we'll take the attention off Lamello. Uh Musa. Um he got he got exposed a little bit in in the past two games. Um like the fact that I can barely remember the Celtic center's name is a problem that he just dominated Musa. Uh Keda, right? He he looked like the better, better five in that matchup by a long shot. Um and you know, he picked up two early fouls on embeat, or maybe three early fouls on embeat. I can't remember. Um he got him, but him getting dominated by um beat is like an expected thing. Uh the Celtics game, that that probably shouldn't be happening.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Yeah, the Celtics game is tough. And also, you know, again, because I feel like I was I never want to come off like a crybaby. Um, Nick Nurse putting in Andre Drummond in the start of the fourth quarter. I mean, what a coaching move. Drummond came in there. Like, I'm serious. Like, I remember being like, this is kind of like risky, and then bang, no more offensive rebounds. Drummond has some dumb fouls. He did what Andre Drummond does, but that is a mammoth individual and a crazy coaching counter by Nurse to pull out after not playing him at all the first three quarters. Um, yeah, I think the like I think the moose question's like still a great value, still love the guy. But it's it's fair to ask some questions. And honestly, you know, the offense is humming, it's not like that's like a big issue. The absolute lack of any any kind of shot is a little tough.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think he looks really good against most teams, and there's a certain matchups with mammoth uh centers that he's going to struggle uh with. And so, like, I mean, really, I would think that if we played Boston the first round, that would be like a pretty good matchup for for us for Musa, but like if we played Detroit in the first round, um, you know, I know everybody's excited to see that that matchup, but at the center position, that's problematic. That's problematic for us. Um, I mean, Duran would would handle uh Moosa in the paint.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Yeah, definitely part of the reason why that fight happened. But you know, I mean the thing is when you watch short, it's like at least we didn't trade that guy away.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

You know? Alright, Tim. Uh, it's good to have you back, by the way. It's good to have good old Heartbreak Tim back. Um, okay, so I have on here more talking you off the ledge. Uh Hornets are 39-36. We lost last night uh to the Celtics, the number two team in the East. Do you know who the Heat lost to?

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Who did the Heat lose to, Mark?

SPEAKER_01 21:22

The Pacers. They lost to the Pacers, and the Magic lost to the Raptors by 52 points. Um, I don't know if you know this. They gave up a 31 to zero run.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Um the the largest in NBA history.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, so the Hornets had a tough night against the Celtics, but the two people who we are competing with for, or the two teams we are competing with for um eighth place had far worse nights. And then I have some other things for us. Um the Hornets play the Nets, the Suns, and then the Pacers. So, like, you know, reasonable outcome is two and one. Best case, also reasonable outcome three and oh. Um the Heat. They play Philly and Boston. And the Magic play Phoenix and Atlanta. So like, you know, after these next three games, I'm pretty sure we're gonna be ahead of both these two teams. Um, and that puts us in eighth place, which is like realistically not that different from being the eighth seed. And if we I mean I'm sorry, from being the seventh seed. Um, and all we'll have to do is, you know, beat the heater of the magic. And if we if we lose that first game, beat the heater of the magic to make the playoffs. And that doesn't sound that hard. I think we still got it.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Yeah, I I agree. Like, as fun as it is, like I enjoy, you know, I enjoy being doom and gloom. Yes, my dog does as well. Um, I enjoy being doom and gloom, but yeah, like long term, like still feel pretty confident we're making the playoffs. Like, you know, these games I feel like would have just been nice to have more, not even for seeding, but more just be like, yeah, we are a top five team. Like, and that's like how we handle business. But yeah, dude, we'll blow the doors off the heat if they come our way.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

No, no, I mean we have we have the Nets up next. It is just like a perfect bounce back game. The Suns game will be interesting. That's like a game that we have to win if we want to be taken seriously, and the Suns at home, and then and then the Pacers. So there's a really very real chance that we hit we go 3-0 in the in the next three games, and we're just looking back at the standings. Um, and and we're we're laughing at the heat and the magic behind us. So uh let's hope hope that that happens. Don't want to um jinx it. Um, Tim, what do you have for love of the week?

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Uh my love of the week is um Con Kanipple actually reminded me of Larry Bird against the Knicks. When when he went down and twisted his ankle, I was like flipping out, and then he just came back and made a concerted effort to kind of kick their teeth in, and I was just like, that's real Larry Bird moment right there. Like, this guy's got killer instinct, and like, you know, rationale be damned. But I think that that was his best game in the season. And also, my take is that Knicks game, not like blowouts, something like that, that is the highest level basketball that's ever been played at Spectrum Center.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Man, that that might be true. Um, I mean, both Lamello and Brandon also had 20 or more points, and it feels like this team almost every single night, one of those three has 20 or more points. Um, it's just so much fun to watch them when they're clicking and they're moving the ball and everybody's shooting the ball well. By the way, Con Kanipple number one in the league in threes, Lamelo's number three, and Brandon Miller is like 21st or something. Um, best three-point shooting team since the Golden State Warriors, maybe, or best three-point shooting trio, at least, since the Golden State Warriors. Um, yeah, that game was awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome game. My friend Alex texted me like a ranking of his favorite team of the top teams of the past decade, and I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic, but it was like, you know, 90s Bulls, 15, 16 Warriors, uh, I don't know, like the the Heatles, and then the Hornets. Like, and he's a Knicks fan. He just watched that game and was like, fuck, this team's good.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Yeah, that was that was incredibly high-level hoops, and maybe my favorite moment of the game is when Ananobi hit the back-to-back threes, and Dell called it in the air and was just like, oh, come on, when it was just that electric uh third quarter with all the back and forths. I mean, that was a great game. I think that might be just like purely my favorite game since we've been doing the podcast, and like I would watch that on a loop and be happy.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, that I mean the Celtics win earlier this year is a close competitor, though, I have to say.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Oh, yeah. Like, I don't think it's the best that we've played. I just think as far as just like a back and forth like knockout game, like that could that would be a random like hardwood classics if that was still a thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I gotcha. Yeah, it was it was an awesome, awesome game. Um, okay, my love of the week is that uh I've been just like kind of really good at predicting things on this podcast, Tim. You know, I said Lamella wasn't playing that well with any one player of the week. Let's hope that happens again. Uh, we said Grant wasn't playing well. He had 20-point games after that. We said Kobe wasn't playing well. Uh, and then he started playing unbelievably well uh in these past like week or two. And you know, we told Charles Lee to play Liam McNeely, and he did. He did last night. The offense sucked so much that Liam McNeely got his first real minutes since January 8th. Uh, he had 10 points in 11 minutes, Tim. I'm not that good in math, but that's almost one to one. Put him in there 36 minutes, he's getting 36 points. Uh, Liam McNeely. We we needed a little offensive boost. He did not give us enough of a boost, but he was actually pretty serviceable um last night uh against the Celtics, and I'm interested to see if he he continues to get some run. Um and I'd like I'd like to see his minutes cut down into Sion's minutes just a little bit more and Josh Green's less, but um that's what that's what happened.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah, I'm I'm with you. That was I mean, that was the main reason to watch the game, honestly. When he was in there in the first quarter, I was like, wait a second, wait a second, let's fully lock back in. Like, even if we lose, I just want to see that guy had three rebounds right off the rip. Um, and yeah, I hope that I think that that's a cool move by Charles Lee to be that flexible this, you know, with this little time left in the season. For him to kind of put that out, if he continues to do so. I mean, Lee obviously is cemented in good in our book, but no, I don't know. That that really just caught my eye. And he always gives guys a chance, but I hope that Liam takes this chance, continues to get it, and runs with it.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Yeah, for sure. I mean, it was surprising. I I thought that Liam was not gonna get minutes this year. Um I was I was surprised and like happily surprised to see Liam in there. And then, like, it's like I've been like preaching this, like it's the correct thing to do, give him minutes because uh he should develop, and like you know, he's a uh we invested a lot of capital in him, so you know, let him get get a real run. And then he's out there, and I'm like, wait a second, like I want to win this game. Like, can we can we put back in the good players? Uh, but nah, I mean, yeah, I thought he was good last night.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Yeah, we we love to see it. We don't all in all, I feel like I feel like you talked me off the ledge, Mark.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Hell yeah. I I am uh glad that I was able to do that. Yeah, I mean, for the listeners on during the Knicks game, you were texting me this is the happiest moment of my life. And then I mean on Saturday, I could tell. I could tell that you were just ejected. Um, and I was I was too, but uh not as much as you. So I gotta come on the podcast and and play the opposite, opposite role. Um what do you have for media corner, Tim?

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Media Corner. Um, actually on something uplifting this time around. And uh as a chaser for the Sixers game, went and saw Project Hail Mary on Sunday, starring my boy Ryan Gosling. And um, I don't know, if you're one of those people that only goes to like one or two movies per year, I would highly recommend going to see this in theaters. I had an absolute blast. Um and I'm not gonna lie, I was crying. I was crying hard too. And then I was like, oh man, like I can't believe this is getting to me. And I look over and it's the sold-out, sold-out house. More than half my rows just sitting there crying at an innocuous scene. But um, yeah, it was an absolute just five-star banger to see in theaters. Highly recommend.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

All right. Uh I have uh I have a movie, but I'm gonna um preface it with a story. I was just in Berlin, and you know, in Berlin, what do you do? Well, you go do some like World War II shit. So uh did a walking tour and like stood uh where Hitler's bunker was, which is pretty crazy. Um went to an old like World War II bomb shelter uh bunker. Uh that was for like civilians. Uh and like just yeah, just like super interesting to be in like that historic of a city. Um like weird, weird feelings around uh all of that. Uh in a city that's so new, just entirely rebuilt. They had this mountain or like a hill, I should say, that is just like a hill you can go for a walk on uh now. Um, but it was just all the rubble was used to build this hill. They just put all the rubble in one spot, uh, and now the hill is like a nice like park. Um, anyways, so yeah, what did I watch? Inglorious bastards. That's what I watched. Hell yeah. Um, yeah, because it was it was on my mind. So yeah, I crushed, I crushed it. Great movie. Uh, one of the best um World War II uh movies, even though it's obviously fiction, but yeah, it's a great film.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Ah, what a what a wreck, Mark. What a wreck. I love I love the uh the story leading up to it. Yeah, that's that's second only to your to your fight club revelation from years past.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Well, uh yeah, I'm happy that you can appreciate me taking uh taking media corner seriously for once.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Um it's the only reason I came back.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

All right. Uh well, it has been real, Tim.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

It has been real, and you be safe out there, liquor mark. Peace. Peace.