Welcome back to Numbers on the Board.

Numbers on the Board.

On today's episode, we will recap the NBA Cup quarterfinals.

We'll play a very new game to Numbers on the Board.

And I guess producer Christian got a surprise for us at the end of the show. Can't wait to see what that is. Fellas, how are we doing today?

You're doing good. It sounds like everybody got their rest last night because I hear a lot of energy right now.

My rest was so good, I started running late because I woke up like, ooh, yeah, like just sat there and bask in that rest last night I did have

wake up in four in the morning to go to the bathroom thinking it was like six or seven and like oh I

still got like two three more hours of sleep yeah that's a great feeling yeah it's a great feeling

we got dropped the mic we do I want to ask y'all what teams around the NBA do you all expect to rise in the standings? Yeah, it is a, right now we have like such a clump, especially in the Eastern Conference where like the three seed and the ninth seed is like different about one game or so. So we could see a lot of different things. It'll be that way the whole year, my opinion. The first thing that came to mind is the Pacers.

They've been playing decent enough basketball over the last two or so weeks. I don't believe that they're about to magically become a 500 team. But right now they're like, what, the 13th C? I could definitely see them jumping up. They're 14. So I could definitely see them jumping up to like 11. maybe even a sneaky playing team as some of those teams ahead of them

are trying to lose on purpose.

And they, again, they've been putting together good games. Pascal's Yacom is playing good hoops. Nimhard is playing better. They're as close to healthy as they can be without Halliburg being on the roster. So I'm like, that's a good spot. I mean, I think the cast, potentially, I mean, they're sitting at the 7th C right now currently. So they aren't playing great basketball right now, but when they get it going, there is a world where they can go back up to the three-seat up there with the Celtics. There is a world where they can get back to that, but we just don't know when that'll be.

Yeah, I feel worried about the Cavaliers because, again, we're expecting them to be,

or looked at them to be number one seed-esque, and they just haven't even looked close to it.

A lot of that is just the offense has looked really rough.

You could say that's due to the injuries and the missing people. Darius Scarlin, eventually he's going to find his shot. He is shooting really bad right now. Like, it's got to be, you know, coming back from the toe and just getting a rhythm. But I'm expecting him to shoot the ball a lot better. DeAndre Hunter is not really shooting the ball well. And it's kind of affecting their defense. This team is one of those, you know, teams that their defense is affected by their offense some nights. And it's been most recently, the shooting has been off, so their defense has been bad, too. They're one of those teams that even though they have started off so poor, I can't close the door on them. Because I was just thinking about last year, around this time last season, the Pacers were three games under 500. And then they got together the second half of the season. They went on the finals run. The Minnesota Timble was two years ago where 500 a team at this point. And like, I don't know, there was so much basketball left. I think the main thing for them is somehow getting healthy, right?

Darius Garland will be having games where he plays and then like halfway through the game, you can see him start to limp out of nowhere because of his toe. Jared Allen has only played like 10 or 12 games. He's supposed to come back, though. So they just need to get healthy and then we can really look at who they are as a team. But I'm not out completely. How long, I mean, is it even smart for DG to be playing if he is laboring throughout the game?

Well, they stay saying that it's not, I don't know how to explain it. It's not an injury necessarily. It's just about tweaking. There's no way to say, like, if he's set for an extra month, that he won't come back and retweak it. It's just one of those things that you just have to figure out on the fly. And if he can't do that, then, you know, so that's a little bit.

Yeah, the door all. that he won't come back and retweak it. It's just one of those things that you just have to figure out on the fly.

And if he can't do that, then, you know, so that's a little bit more. Yeah, the door will always be open for them for the rest of the season just because at the end of the day, you got to take them out in seven games in the playoffs. And again, to y'all's point, we've seen a lot of conversations over the last few years, ready to close the drone teams prematurely and forgetting that the playoff is matchup base. So even if they don't rise up in a stand-ins, where are they right now? Seven, they will play to your Knicks. If they stay seven, if they stay, well, no, we don't know who they would play because they playing. Yeah. Or they stayed just in that range.

I think they would still be a team that, hey, my Knicks wouldn't probably want to play the Cavaliers in the first round. Like, here's your reward. And, you know, if they start to click at the right time or get healthy at the right time, there's still a team that, again, you would have to take out in seven games. So, but I also am going to, like, I'm also not going to find 90 excuses for the Cavaliers because this has been the rinse and repeat thing every year.

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