RIP The Dessert Cart

Transcript

Mark: This week on the Nuggets Pod, Denver clings to life with a game five win. David Adelman is deep in his feelings. And Jenny lays out her plan to replace the White House ballroom with a 30 foot tall mechanical spider for the president to ride around in. All that and more this week on the Nuggets Pod. Perfect timing as always. So we're here after game five.

Jenny: Yes, it is a Tuesday.

Mark: Nuggets now trail the Timberwolves three games to two in round one. Yep. They look pretty bad.

Jenny: Yeah.

Mark: starting with game two where they looked pretty good actually for like most of the game yeah our sister and i were there shout out to the sister yep she got the hook up we were down on the floor watching cam johnson warm up and yokich and a few other guys looked they look great for 14 minutes, I think they were up 19 points, like two minutes into the second quarter. And then within like five minutes of game time, they were losing. And it was kind of all downhill from that point until two of the Timberwolves five best players got injured.

Jenny: in a span of how many minutes, too? It happened quick, it seemed like.

Mark: Not many. DiVincenzo got hurt like a minute in the game four. And then Ant might have been in the second quarter, but yeah, it was like quick succession that those guys went out, which stinks. Like, that, regardless of who wins the series, that just stinks for, Those guys like DiVincenzo, you could see like the ripple of his Achilles just pop when they showed the replays and that's like probably a whole year off of his career.

Jenny: I know. And he was so he seemed so like calm about it. Like he was waving like he knew. But it seemed like, oh, he's he can't even try to stand up on his own.

Mark: That's not good. Stinks. Not good.

Jenny: You never want to see a person get hurt no matter how much you want your team to beat them. Yep. Person getting injured is not fun to see.

Mark: No.

Jenny: I will admit, though, that when that happened, I was like, oh, maybe this is will be a good tied Turner for the Nuggets. Maybe this will mean that they can turn things around. It was not, you're right.

Mark: Yeah, that game kind of reminded me of there have been a few Nuggets games like that. There was one this year where everybody was hurt and Jalen Pickett had like 30 points and they won against maybe a Philly. There was one years ago when they had seven healthy players and they won in Utah. It's like every once in a while that adrenaline or competitive spirit or whatever just kicks in and you win a game that you probably shouldn't win.

Jenny: Yep.

Mark: And Desumu had 40 some points or whatever for Minnesota in game four. But yeah, like long term, I think they still have a good chance of beating the Nuggets. But without those two guys out, I don't think they could go much farther.

Jenny: Well, my game two notes say they came in too hot in the first quarter.

Mark: They did come in hot. And then Minnesota put out like a small ball lineup without Gobert and just the Nuggets defense could not handle it. Minnesota was just driving and either getting right to the basket without any resistance or kicking to a wide open three point shooter. And I think they went something like eight or 10 straight possessions without missing. and that got them back in the game. And then it was kind of back and forth after that and the Nuggets had chances down the stretch. There was that Jokic drive and he like had a five foot floater that he passed off to Christian Brown for some reason. And then Christian missed one of the free throws. But I mean, I don't even really blame him because Jokic should have just shot that.

Jenny: That was also the one that ended with Jamal shooting a two pointer down three.

Mark: Yeah, that was which I kind of I get like there was enough time left for them to get a two and then like foul and hope Minnesota missed another free throw or something. But like. Usually when teams go for two in that situation. It's like a layup Yeah, and the defense usually kind of like concedes that layup because they don't want to foul and give up an and one or like give In this case the Nuggets a chance to score points with the clock stopped He pulled up like a foot inside the 3.9.

Jenny: Yeah, it was

Mark: So yeah, that was not my favorite shot. And then games three and four in Minnesota, we talked about game four a little bit with the injuries, but the Nuggets just looked like they didn't even want to be there. They didn't score 100 points in either game. Their defense was fine, but offensively, man, they just looked disinterested, disengaged. It was like all yokich, Murray.

Jenny: And then they weren't hitting shot. They like weren't making shots.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: That doesn't work.

Mark: Yeah. The other guys I didn't think were aggressive enough. Cam Johnson in particular, just like very hesitant, didn't like want to be the one to take it upon himself to make a play or like to take a contested shot. And it looked after game four like that's it. They've given up.

Jenny: This is all done now. Aaron Gordon didn't play in game three, played a little bit in game four, is that right?

Mark: That's right, yeah. Looked very limited in game four. And then didn't play in game five last night either.

Jenny: Right. Such a bummer. I hope he's okay.

Mark: Yep.

Jenny: I don't know.

Mark: I can't imagine him coming back this playoffs without looking like pretty hampered like he did in game four. Maybe that changes. They have an extra day off now between games five and six, but just doesn't seem like the kind of injury that magically heals in such a short amount of time.

Jenny: Yeah.

Mark: And he's already missed so much time this season with like that same injury and it's still nagging him. It stinks.

Jenny: It does stink. It's a bummer. And I just have to point out there was a moment in game four that Jamal Murray blocked Rudy Gobert. It just made me so happy. I feel like he in particular maybe throughout the series has looked like he's like really hustling and playing defense maybe more than I've ever really seen him play defense before.

Mark: He, I agree in the sense that like his effort has been like the most consistent, I would say. He hasn't shot the ball particularly well, especially since game one. But yeah, he's been playing hard. He has a tough job because he's like their only point guard. And Jaden McDaniels is such a good defender. He's just wearing Jamal out. Which I thought it was nice that they played Tyus Jones some last night. Not only because he's one of my kid's like favorite player ever. Jokingly, but like in our like cul-de-sac basketball games, Tyus Jones is up there with like LeBron and Steph Curry. two seconds left love it one tyus jones for the win it's good yes yes does that did that kid get to see some of the game last night so you can play very little bit because it started so late yeah but yeah hopefully game six he'll be able to watch more but yeah that just like the fact that tyus jones played and could relieve some of that pressure yep was nice. Jamal still didn't shoot the ball very well, but hopefully they can figure out other ways to give him a break in game six.

Jenny: He had that one. I don't even know how to describe it.

Mark: Off the oop from Jokic?

Jenny: Maybe, where he switched hands and went under the basket. Yeah, that was fun to see. He high-fived his dad.

Mark: Yeah, the high-five was after that play where he missed and then he got the rebound and then got stripped and got it back and then went up and got fouled and made it. That was pretty indicative, I think, of how hard he's played for the most part this series. He's still not a great defender, but when he tries, when he's like focused and...

Jenny: He can block Rudy Gobert. Anything is possible.

Mark: Yeah, that was fun. Anytime Rudy gets clowned is fun.

Jenny: I agree.

Mark: He had a shot last night where he was like, Here's the rim, here's his hand, the ball's in between, and he just like shoved the ball up against the front of the rim and missed. Like, how do you not make that? Yeah. But he has, he's good for one or two of those every game, I think.

Jenny: It's awesome.

Mark: Yeah. Jokic looked much better against Rudy last night than...

Jenny: He also made a three pointer last night.

Mark: Yeah, he's also been good for like one of those a game, but it's been like one for eight, one for six. I think last night he was one for four. But that one that he made was big. It was right before halftime.

Jenny: When he hit it, I was like, I can't remember the last time I saw him do that. That felt momentous.

Mark: That one looks like more comfortable for him too than a lot of the other threes he shot in this series. And I was like, maybe he just needs to pull up from like six feet beyond the arc. Just be further away. Yeah, that looked like very nonchalant and smooth. He did it. I don't know. Food for thought. Joker, game six. Just start pulling up from 32. Launch him.

Jenny: Food for thought. I like it. Kim Johnson played great last night. And he really turned it around.

Mark: Yes. Yeah, those two and Joker were the standouts for sure. Spencer Jones may be more than anybody. because of that run in the third quarter. But yeah, I was talking about Cam Johnson earlier in the Minnesota games. He was just so like passive and like it looked like he was worried that somebody was going to get mad at him if he made like an aggressive move to the basket or like pulled up quickly, like coming off of a screen. And last night from the very first possession of the game, he was like, Decisive, aggressive, like if he had an inch of space, he was going to take it. And it made a huge difference. I thought he really helped them set that tone early on.

Jenny: Totally. I was watching highlights a little bit ago and. Side note, we have a new puppy. He's very cute, but he's very little and sleeps a lot. And I was watching the highlights without any audio and on, like, double speed. There were multiple instances of just, like, bump, bump, bump, shoot, Cam Johnson. Like, and it looked, it just is funny when you're watching it with no sound and it's going twice as fast. There goes Cam. Shoot, shoot.

Mark: Were these highlights from last night? From last night's game. From game five, yeah. So that, I feel like, The difference between real speed in game five and like the sped up highlights from game five is the same as the difference between Cam Johnson, like in games three and four. Yes. And Cam Johnson last night, it looked like he was actually like playing at two X speed.

Jenny: Yeah. He had 18 points.

Mark: He only missed three steals. He was I think six for six from two point range. So, yeah, hopefully we get that same version of him in game six.

Jenny: You're right.

Mark: I can't imagine Spencer Jones is going to have 20 points in game six, but man, that was exciting last night.

Jenny: Four three-pointers, and they're so ugly.

Mark: They're so ugly, but they all, he shot them all like with confidence. They all look good. After they left his hands as they were moving up his body to his release point, they don't look as good. But yeah, once it was off his fingers, they all look good. There was one great defense on Julius Randall, too.

Jenny: Yep, he did. He hustled. There was one play that I felt like, oh, this really exemplifies maybe the difference between game two and this game, because I remember hearing them, I think specifically Jamal Murray after game two, he was like, we just got sped up. Like we got like the adrenaline's pumping. We got sped up. We have like something we need to do differently is like slow our offense down, take our time, like get to our spots, whatever. So there was a moment last night when Christian Brown Got a rebound I think or maybe someone passed to him and he like waited for the a defender to like kind of fly over and then he like I think he was going to try to shoot it or I don't think he was like trying to pump fake. But then it was like he realized all of a sudden Spencer's open out on the three point line and just like shot it out. And then it was a made three pointer. He's like, oh, yeah, that extra fraction of a second of like calm down.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: See what's happening. then make your decision. It just was fun to see.

Mark: It worked out on that possession. I will say that that has been driving me crazy about Christian Brown in this series. Like, he last year was so confident and so good finishing around the basket. And I bet his ankle injury has a lot to do with it. But this series in particular, he's just been terrible at that. Like, he missed an easy layup in the first quarter. He's missed so many shots at the rim. He's gotten blocked. He's been like hesitant to shoot and had chances to go up like right at the basket and then kicked it out to somebody else. So hopefully, I don't know, he played better in the second half and he had that dunk where he got teed up because he pointed at Jaden McDaniels. So maybe that gives him a little swagger back, hopefully.

Jenny: He also hit a three pointer in the fourth quarter last night.

Mark: That was huge because Minnesota had cut it to 10 I think after it had been like 27 and then that three pushed it back to 13 and I think they got a steal and like a breakaway on the next possession and Then I kind of relaxed and was like, OK, I think they've got this. But when Minnesota cut it to 10 with like five minutes left still and Christian Brown is shooting the three. Like, oh, dear. If he had missed that, it could have gotten real nervous times. But thankfully, it didn't. He did it.

Jenny: Yeah, he made it. Yeah. Do you think it had anything to do with the rainbow cake?

Mark: Yeah, I'm sure it did. So now you just need to make another one on Thursday? On Thursday.

Jenny: I don't think the one I made yesterday is going to be gone by Thursday. Well, give me a big chunk of it. We're just going to carry over.

Mark: Do you want to tell the backstory of the rainbow cake?

Jenny: Sure.

Mark: This kind of ties in with Kate and I going to game two. Totally.

Jenny: Kate is our sister, who we have not named yet on the pod, I don't think. She is the one who took you to game two. Back in like, I want to say it was 2018. How far did the Nuggets go in the playoffs in 2018?

Mark: Man, my memory is that's the year they lost to the Timberwolves in game 82 and didn't even make the playoffs, but I don't remember for sure.

Jenny: Maybe it was 2017.

Mark: If it was a playoff game, I think it maybe would have been after that.

Jenny: 2019.

Mark: It doesn't matter.

Jenny: It was sometime between 2016 and 2020 because our kids were alive and we had not we did not yet live in the house we live in currently. Anyway, where we lived at the time was like not far from ballerina. And Kate, at the time, was managing the suite that her employer had season tickets for. And so often, she was going to the game and she would have an extra ticket or a few extra tickets. And many times she invited me to these games. I feel like we've talked about this before, haven't we? And I was like, I love being out at nighttime because we left the arena and it was dark.

Mark: I do remember that. Yeah.

Jenny: So that during that stretch of time, we would go and just be in this fancy suite to watch the games. And there was like so much food always that was really delicious. And at the time, pre-COVID, they used to have a dessert cart at ballerina that would make its way around the club level, like at halftime or after halftime.

Mark: Sad to say the desert cart did not make an appearance in game two.

Jenny: RIP the desert cart. I think it's done since COVID because it really was just like a cart of things that were open to the air and you could get cake.

Mark: So awesome.

Jenny: They would just slice the cake up.

Mark: Yeah. On demand. This is kind of tangential, but in the suite that we were in for game two, they had like all kinds of food set up. The one thing that got completely eaten was the tray of cookies. So if they brought the dessert cart back, it would be a huge hit.

Jenny: Yeah. Maybe they could keep Peyton Watson if they, I don't know.

Mark: If they brought it back.

Jenny: Maybe the dessert cart could pay for Peyton Watson to stay on the nuggets next year. I don't know. Anyway, my favorite thing from the dessert cart was the rainbow cake. And it really was just like a vanilla cake that was colored the colors of the rainbow and all the different layers. And it just always tasted really good. So then when I discovered that it was gone the first time we went after, I think it was because of COVID that they did away with the dessert car and then it just has never come back.

Mark: Yeah. And I remember you were pumped because you were like, F that LGBTQ stuff. Give me a white cake with white frosting.

Jenny: Not true, not true. I love. I am pro LGBTQ rights equalities. This is known as going on. I'm on record. Yeah, no, it was it was always like just a fun treat outside of getting to be at the game and sit in like a fun, fancy seat. It was fun to be like, and now I'd like to have a slice of the rainbow cake, please. Anyway, then in whatever year it was, I discovered that they didn't have it at the arena anymore. I decided to make one one year during the playoffs. And I just because it was like, I want to eat some rainbow cake while I'm watching the Nuggets. And I don't remember how or when it started, but it sort of became this tradition that was like when they are facing elimination, I'm going to make a rainbow cake. And for whatever reason, sometimes it like worked out to help them.

Mark: such as yesterday. It didn't help them.

Jenny: It didn't make any difference in how they played, but my superstitious fandom.

Mark: You put that psychic energy out into the world, and enough of it made it to ballerina.

Jenny: I do believe that's real on some levels. And I made more than one rainbow cake the year that they won the title, and we ate it the night that they won game five of the finals. So I don't know. I made one yesterday. We ate it last night. It tasted delicious.

Mark: Another elimination game coming up Thursday.

Jenny: Yep. So now I have to save some. I'm going to save some. I'm not going to make another one. I don't have time for that.

Mark: If they make it to game seven, will you make another one?

Jenny: Sure. Game seven's on Saturday. Would be on Saturday.

Mark: Probably. Yeah, I actually don't know.

Jenny: I'll be like full disclosure too, Dan and I actually did it together and it took like half as long because he's much more efficient with his kitchen skills than I am. He uses a food scale, just done. It's great.

Mark: That is great.

Jenny: It was fun. We had a good time. And the cake was delicious. I can't wait to try it.

Mark: Game six is Thursday. How you feeling about that in Minnesota? Their crowds going to be fired up.

Jenny: Better now than I did before last night's game. And I don't, I just still think it's going to be a high hurdle.

Mark: I agree.

Jenny: Especially. If they're not... If they don't make their shots. I don't know, it doesn't matter how much they hustle or how good their defense is.

Mark: Yeah, and like, famously, role players like Spencer Jones, Cam Johnson tend to shoot worse on the road. So I feel like it may be more than any time so far will have to be a game where Jokic carries the scoring load if they're gonna win.

Jenny: Yeah.

Mark: Because he's like the fail safe. He's like the one that At least historically you don't have to worry about like shooting variants because he's just so good at shooting two-pointers He has enough experience going up against GoBear that he knows how to score against him inside and from the mid-range. If he's able to score, then that means maybe Minnesota has to double team him, and that just opens stuff up for everybody else. I don't know. I thought Jokic was great last night, but in a way that was like, different from the way he'll have to play in game six, because I just don't think you can count on Spencer Jones making four threes. You know, maybe Tim Hardaway Jr. shoots better. I don't know if Cam Johnson's going to score as well as he did. Maybe Jamal shoots better. But yeah, I mean, that's my initial thought is it's going to come down to Jokic and how well he's able to assert himself as a scorer.

Jenny: Logo threes. That's what we're hoping for.

Mark: It looked smooth last night. So if he just comes out and is five for five from three in the first quarter.

Jenny: Yeah.

Mark: Could go a long way.

Jenny: Perfect. Let's do it. Line it up. What do you plan? Line it up. Line it up. Make a plan. Put it in the plan.

Mark: A man, a plan, a canal Panama.

Jenny: Yep. You got it. I just, I feel like I can't shake the sense that there's like, I don't know, some interpersonal stuff going on. Do you think that?

Mark: I definitely think there's like some, something weird in just the mood of the team. They just haven't seemed as engaged or. excited about playing in the playoffs, as you would think. You know, like everybody coming into the year thought the Nuggets were one of like the two or three top title contenders. Then when they went on their winning streak at the end of the regular season and were almost 100% healthy going into the playoffs, a whole bunch of people picked them to either win the Western Conference and like knock off the Thunder or to just win the title outright. And so you, I at least kind of thought, okay, like... That's the expectation around the league. The Nuggets must feel that and expect that of themselves, too, and they're going to come out and show that. And for the first five quarters of the series, they did. And then I don't know what happened after that, but the rest of game two and all of games three and four, they just looked like they didn't care that much. And if the season ended in this first round, they would be like, Oh, well.

Jenny: Yeah.

Mark: And I don't know why. Maybe it's I don't know.

Jenny: Maybe they do actually feel that way. I mean, I feel like like any any one in their shoes feels that way, probably sometimes at various points in their career, don't you think?

Mark: Yeah, I do. But that's also kind of been the excuse the last couple of years before this one, like they lost in game seven to Minnesota the year after they won the title. And everybody was like, man, they just looked so tired. They were just ready to be done. Blah, blah, blah.

Jenny: That was also the year that Coach Malone's dad died. Remember that? And it was like. He didn't have there was like no respite. It was like his dad died in October and then They just, like, I don't know how you grieve something like that if you're the head coach of the world champs. Like, I don't, I think he needed a break. That's what I'm trying to say. Probably he wasn't the only one, but I remember feeling that, like, oh, good, I'm glad he's done for right now and he can maybe go do what he needs to do.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: Anyway, I interrupted you.

Mark: I don't know. Thinking like last year, they were definitely hurt and they lost in seven to OKC. But there were also games in that series where they like they lost by a lot and just looked like they didn't care. And so I don't know maybe that I don't remember that being the case the year they won the title. But maybe that was just a unique year and the personalities on the team are such that this is just This is just what happens. It seems like they have they've had tons of regular season games like that over the years where it's like you're playing the Wizards. This game actually matters, but you are just going through the motions. Who knows? But I mean, for now, they're still alive. And if they come out and play great in game six. That would be really exciting. It would be fun to see what would happen after that.

Jenny: That's true. Also, what happened yesterday is that David Adelman played so many. More players. I mean, you mentioned that earlier, but I just feel like... Yeah, Tyus Jones hadn't played maybe at all in this series.

Mark: He played like 15 minutes or something. Big Val got more time than he's been getting.

Jenny: He had like nine points.

Mark: He looked rough at first because he got like a bunch of fouls and turnovers like within a minute of coming in, but then he kind of settled down and... He was pretty effective after that. They it's good that they have somebody who will like be tough and like physical.

Jenny: That's what there was people around. There was a oh, Jamal shot a three pointer. Do you remember this play? Jamal shot the ball. It went in and like almost simultaneously. They called him because he just like shoved somebody and I really was like. Got yet like that's right.

Mark: That one was like one of his lesser shoves though I think that was on Randall and Randall really sold that went like whoa like Tumbling across the lane and he probably got nudged but that of all of the fouls they called or could have called on that big Val I thought was one of the weaker ones. But yeah, he definitely was like throwing people around, not having it, which there's maybe a fine line there between doing too much of that and just being dumb about it, and where I thought he ended up for most of last night, which was like, creating like an attitude and like a confidence and like a no-nonsense thing that kind of rubs off on everybody else.

Jenny: Yeah, that was fun to see.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: I also wonder if, as David Adelman, speaking as a new puppy parent and a parent of humans, like when you're new to something that's like, I mean, obviously he's not new to the NBA, but like being the head coach for the whole season and then like trying to manage the team, in the first round of the playoffs, like, first time he's done that, right? Can you relate to the feeling of, like, I've been doing what I know works or, like, has worked in the past, and I feel there's, like, an anxiety about, like, changing it, even though I know that, like, it'll be better for everyone in the long run if I do. Like, the unknown of doing something different feels like almost paralyzing.

Mark: Yeah, 100%. I thought he was way too reluctant to do that through game four, especially in games three and four. He like didn't really try different rotations. The offense looked like very stagnant because it seemed like they were trying to attack in the same ways over and over again. And I thought he got away from that more in game five, which I thought was helpful. So now, hopefully, game six is like its own new thing where it's not like, okay, we're going back to what we were doing in the early part of the series, because that's what worked for us through the regular season. And it's not just, oh, let's do what we did in game five, because we won game five. Hopefully, it's like a new thing where it's like, okay, that we haven't done yet. Like canvas. What can we throw out there that maybe we'll work even more effectively than it did for us in Game five and might catch Minnesota off guard in a way that we haven't yet. But yeah, I'm sure it's hard in your first run with like expectations because last year the expectations were low, right? Firing Malone like right before come as close as they did to beating OKC.

Jenny: Yep.

Mark: But yeah, this year, like I was saying, like people expect that they could win the title.

Jenny: Yeah.

Mark: And he's the guy. And when things start going poorly, he's the one who gets a lot of the blame for that. And I think rightfully so. I don't think he's really handled it all that well. Given his postgame comments after games four and five, but I mean, he has a chance to shut all the critics up if they come back and win this series and go on like a longer run.

Jenny: Okay, hear me out. Valanchunas starts instead of Spencer Jones.

Mark: Okay, in game six and that and brings that like

Jenny: back the F-up energy and shuts down the crowd. I don't know, just, I don't know, maybe something to think about. Element of surprise.

Mark: Yeah. Unexpected. Balanchunas, Jokic, Anne-Marie as perimeter defenders is not exciting.

Jenny: Just imagine though. Imagine the possibilities otherwise.

Mark: Oh man, if David Adelman had the guts to roll that starting lineup out, I would give him kudos.

Jenny: Just see how it goes. Give it a couple minutes. Just give it a couple minutes.

Mark: Have Valanchunas set high ball screens for Jokic to free him up for his 35 foot threes.

Jenny: I'm saying, come on. He might be onto something. Just saying. If I can make a rainbow cake, David Adelman. You can start in the Twin Towers. You can take some risks. Oh, man. Okay, I have to share something with you, and I've been saving this all season.

Mark: Oh, boy.

Jenny: It's from a book. I know you're shocked. All right, this book is called There's Always This Year. I think I gave it to you for your birthday. Yes. Yeah, it's Hanafabdurki. Yes, really good. I'm 96% sure that's how you pronounce his name. I don't know if I've ever actually heard him say it. He's from Cleveland. He's a like poet and music writer and has now- Did he win like a MacArthur grant?

Mark: I think he did. At some point maybe? He's a genius.

Jenny: Certified genius and like a like lifelong Cavs fan, and wrote this book that is about so many things and like all of life and being a person who is from and lives in Cleveland and also the Cavs and specifically the year that they won the title with Lebron. Was that 2016? 2017? 2016. It was 2016. There's a part of this book where he's talking about the idea of underdogs. And there's also a lot of it that's about political unrest and social inequalities. And then he starts talking specifically about this man named Henry Green, who was killed by the police in Cleveland. from what I understand egregiously and unjustly and just like really devastatingly. So I'm going to read you three paragraphs from this book. Giddy up.

Mark: Okay.

Jenny: Pawdience. If you don't want to hear this, you can shut it off now and also get out of my life because I think it's great. And the first time I read this, the first time I read this book, it moved me to tears. And I think it's apt for the moment that we are in bigger picture in the United States right now.

Mark: You sound like you might be on the verge of tears right now. I might be.

Jenny: I think it's also apt for the moment that the Denver Nuggets and us as their fans find ourselves in right now.

Mark: Hellish landscapes on both counts.

Jenny: Yeah. Kinda. Okay, here we go. Yes, praise be to the underdogs and those who worship in the church of slim chances. I haven't fully let go of the childlike simplicity that pulls me away from the odds and whispers to my most cynical corners that anyone, anywhere, can win. But I have seen a city go up and smoke and then go up and smoke again. I have seen the cops walk, go home to their families while sobs and shouts tremble the floors of a classroom. I have seen mayors pour money into military grade weapons while public school students sweat in the fall and freeze in the winters. I don't mean to pull us back from our delights and triumphs, but while standing inches from a police officer's face during a protest for Henry Green, I knew that one of us was more afraid than the other. And even with that math in my favor, I was the one between the two of us who didn't have a gun to reach for, who didn't have an army at their back. Forgive me for instantly stripping away the romantics of the underdog that I have so generously laid out, but I let my skepticism sink in to even the meaningless corners. The corners that I know can be determined by a good or bad shooting night or the right punch to the weakest part of a jaw. And yet, I know what I know. Sometimes the people who are supposed to win end up winning. The bad people, the worst people, the people who shouldn't have any control, and yet they do. Whoever has the gun on their hip and a badge on their chest wins. Whoever can murder an unarmed person and walk home to their family wins. Whatever murderer can get a photo of themselves smiling in their police academy photo on the front page of a paper is the person who wins. And these are certainly not our underdogs. Whoever can sign a bill, whoever can abandon their office or their home when protesters arrive at their doorstep, whoever can do harm and then become a ghost when it is time to answer for the harm done. These are the winners. Yes, whoever wires a bomb to a car wins. even if only temporarily. Whoever spins a city into panic, explosions punctuating the daytime hours, they win until they are on the wrong end of a car's ignition, coughing its way toward an eruption of orange heat. This obsession, this continued pursuit of the right underdog to believe in, it arrives to me so easily because I know who wins most often. I know this and I still run out into the streets thinking it might stop them or at least prolong their inevitable victory parade. That's the trick. Stealing back one game here or there. Make it home alive. Extend the series. That's all you got to do. Just extend the series.

Mark: Home alive. Making home alive.

Jenny: Nuggets. I'll make another rainbow cake.

Mark: You heard it here.

Jenny: I'll make one for anyone who wants one. Just kidding. Maybe not that. I haven't given up hope. I think that's where I'm at.

Mark: Yeah, me neither.

Jenny: Great. Then we agree. Hooray. You got a wreck this week?

Mark: Mmm Do you have one?

Jenny: Nope, I forgot.

Mark: Okay. Yeah, I Don't have one coming to mind right away.

Jenny: All right No ricks this week rainbow cake and Hanif Abdurraqib Mm-hmm, whatever you can find that was written by him. Yeah, I need some rainbow cake. That's it Go nugs. Here we go Bye