The referee tossed a coin to determine first possession. An NBA announcing crew was settled in. A rapt audience found itself laughing, letting go of the tension of our ongoing national debate. The Jimmy Kimmel vs Ted Cruz “Blobfish Basketball Classic” was about to begin, and everyone had an opportunity to forget about politics for a few moments.

But Jimmy just couldn’t help himself.

In today’s clip, the ABC late-night comic introduces footage of the one-on-one basketball game between himself and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Kimmel doesn’t spare himself in his introduction, joking that his lousy athletic skills took many hours to produce a requisite number of points.

The footage is another story. On the court, the liberal comic trolls the fish-faced Senator from the start, poking Cruz about his low favorability rating and his failure to address child abuse at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Who wins the challenge? You’ll have to click to find out.