It's crunch time.

Friends.

Kemba Walker has been back in the Celtics lineup 10 games.

Now remember, he missed 13 while rehabbing his left knee is numbers down across the board from his career averages.

So perk.

Is this something that will just improve with time?

Or is there legit concern here?

No, he's big concerns here because Kimball just don't look himself.

And And I'm not saying help wise Rachel.

He just having, ah, hard time of getting the ball into the basket or finding his road.

With the emergence of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Kimba is now the third option.

And guess what?

The city of Boston.

They don't want to hear any excuses Cuba is gonna have toe.

Gonna have to deliver.

Excuse.

Well, you're right about one thing.

Purkiss Greatest Tatum and Brown have been.

If they really want to go to the Finals a championship, they need the Kemba that they signed as a free agent Couple years back, I've been watching him really closely.

When you had the one for 12 for the Lakers, I thought, but that's just one game.

But it's been four or five games now, and I can't tell if it's, you know, he has Thio create separation by stopping short on that need, putting a lot of pressure on it.

Is it a mental thing that he's not 100% sure or is it more physical thing?

I don't think it's physical because they're increasing his minutes, which they wouldn't dio if his knee was hurting, so definitely bears watching.

I think if it's a mental thing, you hope he gets there.

He's one of the nicest guys in the NBA.

You can't help but root for Kemba Walker.

Yeah, for sure.

Absolutely.

I talked to him last week, he said.

It is a little bit of a rhythm thing still, which I guess is both mental right and physical, a little bit to some degree.

And of course, you know Jalen Brown emerged.

He's always been so good, right?

But the explosion that he's had this season happened when Campbell was out.

So he did say it was a little bit of an adjustment for that, too.

We will see let's move, move over to G League ignite because that team made its season debut today.

Top prospects Jonathan come Inga and Jalen Greene combining for 30 points in a win over the Santa Cruz Warriors.

This was fun, Jackie.

They won by five points.

Did you expect?

Did you expect that these were these were the top prospects team playing against the grown ups, as we say, right?

Yeah.

I love the fact that the prospects could get it done.

I learned all about Jalen Greene from our pal Ramona Shelburne.

And the story she did.

I didn't know that much about him.

So it gave me some stats and stuff to put to the face.

It looks like a keeper to me.

Yeah, absolutely great, Jackie.

Both of these kids are youngsters and very, very talented, and they don't care about who they're facing.

That's the most impressive thing that I got from the game last night.

That whoever it was, grown men or not, they were ready for the moment.

Well, I know that the G League ignite games.

They're gonna be on the ESPN family of networks all season.

I'm pretty psyched for this.

There's some fun stuff going on in the little It's the mini bubble, the mini bubble down in Orlando.

Let's talk about the books and sons because they're the nightcap of tonight's ESPN doubleheader.

Phoenix looking for their fourth straight win.

Perk.

Do you expect the books to cool off the scorching hot Suns here?

Because Phoenix looks good.

Well, you know, Rachel, I was high on Phoenix once.

They traded for Chris Paul.

And guess what?

I'm still high on them.

The Bucks are not going into Phoenix tonight and getting no type of win.

The Phoenix are committed on the defense event.

I love the way that that role players Jae Crowder, McKell Bridges is playing there.

The Booker and DeAndre aiding playing like the young stars that we've been waiting to see.

Well, I think the big problem for the boxes Djourou Holiday is now out, we think because of covert protocols, and you know he would be coming helpful when you're trying to slow down Devin Booker, I would think, but I will say this about the box they seem to be rounding into form.

Yanis in particular.

We haven't seen the best of Yannis yet That that trajectory is going to keep rising.

I find it hard to ever bet against Yannas.

And look, the bucks have been very open about the fact that they're using this regular season to experiment more.

They have heard all of the criticism there.

Last two postseason runs not only fell short but fell short in a way where the team just seemed too rigid, Inflexible wasn't able to switch on the fly.

So they're using this regular season to change who they can be in the postseason, and that is sometimes messy.

So, Jackie Yes, I do expect them to get better as the season goes on.

I'm already doing pretty well there, near the top of the Eastern Conference, but it's gonna be interesting.

And, of course, DeAndre eaten.

As we've been hearing.

He's been improving his defense.

It will be a test for him tonight as well.

All right, time for our league pass game of the night.

We've got a lot of great options to choose from nine games on the MBA slate this evening, but Onley one features the league past MVPs from the past two season.

Oh yes, our league past winner for this season so far has been Lemelle a ball in the Hornets.

They're facing off against our league past are from last year, John Moran and the Grizzlies.

Eight.

Eastern Jackie.

Which player would you rather have for the next five years?

Lemelle Oh, or reigning Rookie of the year job?

Yes.

So 100% tried to bail on this question because I pull Think they're really, really exciting.

And Lemelle a ball has blown me away.

Just blow me away with what he's been able to do right out of the chute for a team that really needed him to do that.

So I'm picking John Moran.

But Onley because we have a larger sample size of his specialness, I think they're both going to be really good.

I agree with you jacket.

And since you took job, I'm gonna take Lemelle Oh, just to give both of them their flowers.

But if you want a kid that's gonna come in and put and put up big numbers and sell out arenas and sell shoes and jerseys, I'm taking the mellow ball.

The kid that's flat out box office, period.

I agree with you both.

It's a hard choice because they're both so good.

John Marantz leadership, I think, is something that I would point to right now.

Lem L.

O.

Is being asked to do that yet, so it's not criticism he's not being put in that position.

But we've seen John in that position both on and off the court, and you've seen how those other young players on the Grizzlies have rallied around them.

And really, his DNA has spread to all of them.

So even when he was out, they had the same fight that we know that he has every night.

I've been so impressed with that.

So impressed with both of them.

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