© Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
The Sounds of an Absolutely Wild Night in the NBA
Mike Breen and Monica McNutt shine while Sixers' TV crew offers regretful commentary.
1. In Monday's Traina Thoughts, I laid out what a diastrous weekend the NBA had thanks to blowout after blowout.
Well, the ugliness of Saturday and Sunday was wiped away thanks to a pair of sensational finishes on Monday.
The Knicks kicked off the Manic Monday in the Association with a 104–101 win over the Sixers that saw New York trailing by five with 30 seconds remaining.
The Knicks took a 102–101 lead after a mad scramble led to a deep Donte DiVincenzo three-pointer that produced the rare (and ELECTRIC) "Double Bang" from Mike Breen, who was calling the game on MSG Network.
Meanwhile, on the Knicks local radio call, analyst Monica McNutt told the entire story of what was going on during the crazy 30-second finish with her facial expressions and body language in this must-see clip.
As for the Philly side, when the Sixers were up 101-96 with 47 second remaining, their TV crew was talking about how Philadelphia took away homecourt advantage from the Knicks and that the Sixers postgame show would be "fun." WHOOPS!
Over in the West, the Nuggets took a 2–0 series lead over the Lakers thanks to Jamal Murray's buzzer beater for a 101–99 win.
Here was the call from TNT's Kevin Harlan:
On the Nuggets radio side—for some unknown reason—the announcer was screaming that the Lakers needed to foul before Murray drained the winner. Despite that blunder, the call on the shot was on point.
2. The Sixers complained after the game that coach Nick Nurse was trying to call timeout before the Knicks recovered a loose ball that led to DiVincenzo's dagger three-pointer.
That's fine. You want to call out the refs, go for it. However, this I don't understand.
What exactly is the point of this? Do the Sixers think the NBA is going to make the teams replay the final 30 seconds of Game 2? Will the Sixers feel better if the NBA says the refs should've given them a timeout?
3. People all across the sports world love to act like they're so smart by overanalyzing everything to death.
Lakers star Anthony Davis clearly is not one of those people based on his assessment of Murray's game-winning shot for the Nuggets.
4. By now, you've heard the audio of home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt ejecting Aaron Boone in the first inning of Monday's A's-Yankees game despite Boone not doing a thing to warrant the ejection.
The craziest thing about the ejection was how much worse Wendelstedt made it after the fact. He told Boone he didn't care whether Boone was the one who was chirping at him or not. How do you not care? How do you admit that you don't care? Just pathetic.
Then, after the game, Wendelstedt embarrassed himself even further for his explanation for tossing Boone.
I have no faith at all that MLB will do the right thing and suspend Wendelstedt and that's the worst thing about this embarrassing incident.
5. In what might be the most shocking piece of sports media information you'll never hear, ESPN NFL Draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. does not own a cell phone.
6. In case you missed it, we released two SI Media Podcasts last week.
On Friday, a new episode with ESPN's Malika Andrews dropped.
Earlier in the week, we had the first extensive interview with WWE's Cody Rhodes after he won the WWE Undisputed Championship at WrestleMania.
You can listen to each podcast by clicking into the tweets above. You can also listen on Apple andSpotify.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I can't get enough of these videos where "Bobby Heenan" and "Gorilla Monsoon" call vintange sports moments.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X,Instagram and TikTok.
