Speaker 1: The volume Hoops Tonight is presented by FanDuel. The NBA
Speaker 1: is back, and there's no better place to get in
Speaker 1: on the action than with fandel This is my favorite
Speaker 1: sports betting app that is out there. It is safe
Speaker 1: and easy to use, easy to get your money in
Speaker 1: and out. I love that cash out feature, So if
Speaker 1: you're in good shape with one of your bets and
Speaker 1: you don't want to risk garbage time, you can get
Speaker 1: your money out quickly. Use promo code Jason T and
Speaker 1: download the FanDuel app today to make every moment more
Speaker 1: This NBA Season twenty one plus in president Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana.
Speaker 1: Permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia
Speaker 1: or West Virginia. First online real money wager only. Refund
Speaker 1: issued as non withdrawable site credit that expires in fourteen days.
Speaker 1: Restrictions apply. See terms at sports book dot FanDuel dot com.
Speaker 1: Gambling problem called one eight hundred, next step or tech
Speaker 1: next step to five three three four two in Arizona
Speaker 1: one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven
Speaker 1: seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat in Connecticut
Speaker 1: one eight hundred Gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash
Speaker 1: RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, In Virginia one eight
Speaker 1: seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one eight
Speaker 1: hundred to seven zero seven one one seven for confidential
Speaker 1: help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight hope and why,
Speaker 1: or text hope and Why to four six seven three
Speaker 1: six nine in New York. In tennessee redline dial one
Speaker 1: eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee,
Speaker 1: visit www one dot one eight hundred gambler dot net
Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight for
Speaker 1: sented by Fan Duel here at the Volume live on AMP.
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week so far. Don't forget if you're
Speaker 1: checking this out on YouTube or on our podcast feed
Speaker 1: that AMP is the very first place you guys can
Speaker 1: get our postgame analysis. So today we're gonna be breaking
Speaker 1: down the Warriors getting their butt kicked in Milwaukee despite
Speaker 1: going twenty for fifty from three. That's gotta be really upsetting.
Speaker 1: And then we're gonna touch on a couple of games
Speaker 1: from last night, the Brooklyn Nets winning eight out of
Speaker 1: nine by going on the road into Washington and controlling
Speaker 1: that game, and then the Los Angeles Clippers kind of
Speaker 1: sent a message to the Boston Celtics, Paul George and
Speaker 1: Kauai soundly out playing Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown. So
Speaker 1: those are the three games we're gonna get to tonight,
Speaker 1: uh Lakers Celtics which is later tonight, and Kings Sixers.
Speaker 1: Those are two games that I have I have my
Speaker 1: eye on from tonight's s late. We're gonna touch those
Speaker 1: during tomorrow's show. So this was pretty damn dominant from Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: absolutely physically pulverized Golden State. They outrebounded them fifty five
Speaker 1: to thirty seven, They outscored him in the paint to thirty,
Speaker 1: and they outscored him on the fast break sixteen to seven.
Speaker 1: And again, if you would tell me going into this
Speaker 1: game that the Warriors are gonna make twenty three's and
Speaker 1: that they're gonna shoot from the three point line, you
Speaker 1: like your chances in a game like that. But they
Speaker 1: got so soundly dominated in all of these other areas
Speaker 1: of the game that they didn't really even have a chance.
Speaker 1: I never really felt like Milwaukee was threatened, even when
Speaker 1: they went on that little run there late second quarter.
Speaker 1: You get back within six and you don't get back
Speaker 1: in transition three times in a row. Next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: it's twelve point lead going into halftime. But you know
Speaker 1: my rule, we're gonna talk about the Bucks first. We
Speaker 1: will get to the Warriors in their second half as
Speaker 1: their excuse me, the road struggles here in just a
Speaker 1: few minutes. So y honest kind of had a tough
Speaker 1: shooting night, but I thought Joanna's completely dominated this game,
Speaker 1: all with rim pressure. In transition, he struggled in the
Speaker 1: half court because he was kind of trying stuff, taking
Speaker 1: a lot of jump shots in this game, but he
Speaker 1: was just missing them. Um. But in transition, Gold and
Speaker 1: say you couldn't do anything with them. And it's funny
Speaker 1: because I always used to say that the two guys
Speaker 1: that I would construct in a lab to defend the
Speaker 1: Honest that are in this league are Draymond Green and
Speaker 1: Lebron James. That unique combination of quickness with other worldly
Speaker 1: strength and the instincts, the defensive instincts required to beat
Speaker 1: the Honest two spots and make those types of reads
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. And so this particular matchup,
Speaker 1: because I actually really like Kevan Looney as a potential
Speaker 1: nice matchup in certain situations, but they just didn't bring
Speaker 1: the requisite effort tonight. When they walled him up in
Speaker 1: the half court, they did a pretty nice job, but
Speaker 1: when he got out in transition, they were they just
Speaker 1: didn't bring that same type of effort they did against Boston.
Speaker 1: Like against Boston they had the like a a chaotic
Speaker 1: effort just just forcing their way back in transition defense
Speaker 1: to contain Boston, and then they just didn't bring that tonight,
Speaker 1: which has been an issue. And again that's kind of
Speaker 1: the Janice thing too, Like Joannice just keeps coming at
Speaker 1: you in waves. I noticed this um to a great
Speaker 1: extent in that Boston Celtics series last year. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Grant Williams can stay in front of Jana's a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and so can Al Horford maybe for even
Speaker 1: a couple of games. But eventually, the better athlete that
Speaker 1: is more well conditioned, that has that advantage is going
Speaker 1: to continue to break on that shore until he eventually
Speaker 1: overcomes them. And and that's kind of the way it
Speaker 1: was tonight. You could they they did a nice job
Speaker 1: in half court, but they couldn't get in front of
Speaker 1: him enough times in transition. And then when they did
Speaker 1: get in front of him in transition, he was beating
Speaker 1: you with the pass. It was just an onslaught that
Speaker 1: that never stopped, and Golden State couldn't do anything with him.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because that's part of why I think
Speaker 1: he's so clearly the best player in the league. That
Speaker 1: that type of physical onslaught is proven to succeed in
Speaker 1: the NBA playoffs because a lot of the shot making stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it doesn't go away entirely, but the
Speaker 1: percentages dip way down, and the bigger physical teams tend
Speaker 1: to control that setting in the n b A and
Speaker 1: Janice is the guy that you can count on to
Speaker 1: thrive in those environments and ways that a lot of
Speaker 1: teams can't. And I mean Golden State again, I thought
Speaker 1: a lot of effort related issues tonight, but they also
Speaker 1: got physically manhandled in this game. They're very, very physical ball.
Speaker 1: You know, we talked about drop coverage being a problem
Speaker 1: for for and State when we were talking in and
Speaker 1: Milwaukee was running in a just as much of a
Speaker 1: drop coverage. Like we were joking about how Blake Griffin
Speaker 1: was too far back, and usually names and Al Horford
Speaker 1: are back, but they're not that far back, you know,
Speaker 1: like Brook Lobez and a lot of these drop coverages
Speaker 1: was sitting, you know, twenty feet behind the screen. Janice
Speaker 1: was doing a better job getting up, but Brooke was
Speaker 1: pretty far back. And they were just so physical on
Speaker 1: the ball, and then also on off ball with all
Speaker 1: of Golden States screening interchanges and they're cutting and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, they really wore down Golden State. And and
Speaker 1: that's kind of the Janice effects to He's the personification
Speaker 1: of that effect within one basketball player, just wearing you
Speaker 1: down on both ends of the floor until eventually you
Speaker 1: break and then once again Jannice is passing continues to
Speaker 1: be really impressive. Um, you had a really nice no
Speaker 1: look fee to Wesley Matthews in one of his transition
Speaker 1: sequences when he passes out of the post or out
Speaker 1: of isolation or out of pick and roll. This year,
Speaker 1: the Bucks have scored a hundred and twenty one point
Speaker 1: on a hundred and seventeen possessions, which is really really good.
Speaker 1: It's just a statement type of game from him. I
Speaker 1: still think Steph has had a little bit better regular
Speaker 1: season this year. And you guys know my rule. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna switch any rankings when it comes to you
Speaker 1: know how I really perceived these players in the grand
Speaker 1: scheme of things until we get to the offseason. But
Speaker 1: this kind of felt like a statement type of game
Speaker 1: from Janna. It's like, don't forget that he is best
Speaker 1: player in the world. And then Bobby Portis was also
Speaker 1: really good tonight. Did a great job abusing the smaller
Speaker 1: Warriors perimeter players, which is gonna be an issue when
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins is out of the lineup. Um. I talked
Speaker 1: to my guy who's pretty well connected with the Warriors,
Speaker 1: and he said that they expect Andrew Wiggins back within
Speaker 1: the next week and that it's not anything serious. They're
Speaker 1: just kind of taking their time with him. But Bobby
Speaker 1: port Is, you know, yet, still isn't shooting great from
Speaker 1: the perimeter. That's the biggest thing, the big thing that
Speaker 1: they need to get going at the level he had
Speaker 1: in the previous seasons. But a really nice scoring job
Speaker 1: from him, and he's just in this last like half
Speaker 1: dozen games or so, is starting to look more like
Speaker 1: the Bobby port Is from last year. Um the Warriors.
Speaker 1: Though the Warriors are twelve and two at home, and
Speaker 1: they are two and twelve on the road coming into tonight,
Speaker 1: because the data hasn't updated when the Warriors are on
Speaker 1: the road, Compared to all the other teams in the
Speaker 1: league on the road, they are twenty ninth and defense
Speaker 1: and twenty five and rebounding. So what happened to them tonight?
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily a matchup thing. I mean, hell, we
Speaker 1: saw them hold up physically extremely well against Boston, and
Speaker 1: though they don't have the singular player that Janice is,
Speaker 1: but down the roster, they come at you physically in
Speaker 1: a similar manner. They're extremely physical on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, and they constantly relentlessly drive the basketball
Speaker 1: to the rim, just with a ton of players as
Speaker 1: opposed to just the honest type of impact. So what
Speaker 1: has been happening to them tonight? What happened to them
Speaker 1: tonight is something that's been happening to them all season
Speaker 1: on the road. Why is that, Well, I think it's
Speaker 1: a couple of reasons. First, it's you have a younger roster.
Speaker 1: Young players typically don't have really good habits. So we
Speaker 1: we talk We I talked about this a lot. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're a basketball player, every time you
Speaker 1: have success, you try to figure out what specifically caused
Speaker 1: you to have that success you can replicate it. And
Speaker 1: then when you have a bad game, you try to
Speaker 1: pay attention to what specifically caused you to have a
Speaker 1: bad game so you can avoid doing that in the future.
Speaker 1: So by the time you become a veteran player, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you're playing basketball in your thirties, like you
Speaker 1: just have a really good feel for how to have
Speaker 1: good games and how to avoid the bad games. But
Speaker 1: when you're a young player, those habits aren't really sharp yet.
Speaker 1: And then also young players typically feed on emotion, you know,
Speaker 1: like it's not even just a crowd thing, it's just
Speaker 1: a basketball thing. For instance, you you got all you
Speaker 1: guys who played basketball a lot. You see the guy
Speaker 1: that goes in dunks on someone and then loses his
Speaker 1: damn mind, probably hasn't done that very many times in
Speaker 1: his life, and it's kind of a cool emotional moment
Speaker 1: for him, so he gets swept up in it. But
Speaker 1: like when you've dunked on a lot of people playing basketball.
Speaker 1: It's kind of just another play and you run back
Speaker 1: on defense. You expect that from yourself, right, And the
Speaker 1: same thing goes with feeding off of the crowd, you know,
Speaker 1: like you I've ventured to guess I I joke about
Speaker 1: this with my wife sometimes, Like, can you imagine what
Speaker 1: it must feel like for Lebron to run out into
Speaker 1: an arena of twenty people like he He probably doesn't
Speaker 1: feel much at all anymore, you know, compared to the
Speaker 1: way a young player would react when he hits a
Speaker 1: three out of the corner in front of twenty home fans.
Speaker 1: And so what does that really translate to? That means
Speaker 1: young players are more willing to play hard and smart
Speaker 1: when they're at home than they are on the road.
Speaker 1: They're more likely to hang their head and kind of
Speaker 1: let go of the rope when things go poorly on
Speaker 1: the road. So I think that's part of it for
Speaker 1: Golden State. And then the second thing is the veterans,
Speaker 1: like gold Golden State starters got rolled again tonight. And look,
Speaker 1: they're the defending champs. They're not nearly as motivated as
Speaker 1: they were last year. That's just a fact. That's same again,
Speaker 1: that same ferocious transition defense that they had against Boston
Speaker 1: on Saturday night. We saw the other end of that
Speaker 1: coin today. They were really slow getting back, which is
Speaker 1: something you just can't afford to do against the honest
Speaker 1: So what do we make of that as we kind
Speaker 1: of zoom out of from it. It's textbook championship malays.
Speaker 1: We've seen this before, but at the same time, we've
Speaker 1: seen what the ceiling is still like Boston. Like that
Speaker 1: Boston team was killing everybody, including on the road going
Speaker 1: into that Golden State game, and then they just completely
Speaker 1: manhandled them. Golden State sent a clear message to Boston
Speaker 1: that they are still better than them, you know. And
Speaker 1: so when we look at that, we know the ceiling
Speaker 1: is still there, and for for whatever reason, they're just
Speaker 1: not getting to their frequently enough. Usually championship teams are deep,
Speaker 1: and this is kind of the problem with what Bob
Speaker 1: Meyers did and with Joe Laco did this summer when
Speaker 1: they let go of Gary Payton a second outo Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: You know, you had death and you had young players,
Speaker 1: but you let your depth go for financial reasons and
Speaker 1: also the clear way in the rotation for your young
Speaker 1: players to play. And so now that margin for error
Speaker 1: for what allows you to win in the NBA on
Speaker 1: a daily basis is smaller than what it was last year.
Speaker 1: And so as a result, when the Warrior starters are
Speaker 1: bringing a little bit of you know, inconsistent effort, particularly
Speaker 1: on the road, there it's not enough for them to
Speaker 1: float during the regular season. So what does it really
Speaker 1: translate to is a balancing act as it pertains to
Speaker 1: the standings, because like when you're looking at it for
Speaker 1: playoff matchups, like I always think about, you know, the
Speaker 1: Lakers in one, they kept telling themselves, who cares, just
Speaker 1: get to the play in We've been hurt all year.
Speaker 1: When push comes to show, we've got Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, we can beat anybody. And you know they
Speaker 1: weren't wrong. They were up two games to one on Phoenix,
Speaker 1: but then what happened. Anthony Davis broke down and obviously
Speaker 1: he had been dealing with a bunch of issues. But
Speaker 1: it's just a lot to ask for that route, Like
Speaker 1: what does that route look like? Because if the Warriors
Speaker 1: continue to play like this, they will be around five
Speaker 1: hundred this year. And it's not it's not that they
Speaker 1: are five hundred basketball team in in in a vacuum.
Speaker 1: It's just the reality of how deep the Western conferences
Speaker 1: this year. That like, if you play the level of
Speaker 1: basketball Golden States playing, you're gonna lose half your games,
Speaker 1: you know. And so if you end up around five
Speaker 1: hundred and this deep Western Conference, you're gonna be in
Speaker 1: the play in game. So what does that look like
Speaker 1: for you? Now, I've got to win a high stakes game,
Speaker 1: potentially on the road, potentially two games, depending on where
Speaker 1: I end up in the standings, just to get out
Speaker 1: of the plan. My reward for getting out of the
Speaker 1: plan is I have to now beat the top seed
Speaker 1: without home court advantage of the second seed. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: say we get through that. So we've got through high
Speaker 1: stakes playing game and we just beat the top seed.
Speaker 1: Our reward for that is now we have to play
Speaker 1: a middle seed in the Western Conference, also on the road,
Speaker 1: and that's in the Western Conference this year. That could
Speaker 1: be anybody. That could be the Clippers, that could be
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets, that could be the Phoenix Suns, that
Speaker 1: could be the New Orleans Pelicans, like who who the
Speaker 1: hell knows how this is all gonna shake up, But
Speaker 1: it's probably gonna be somebody tough again. And then if
Speaker 1: you happen to get through that, your reward is you
Speaker 1: get to play the other top seed also on the road.
Speaker 1: Oh and guess who's coming out of the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: It's the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks. It's just
Speaker 1: a lot to ask for a team that, as we've
Speaker 1: been saying, is not very deep and has some older
Speaker 1: veteran players, you know, so you know I I think
Speaker 1: it's very important for Golden State to recapture some of
Speaker 1: that urgency and go on a run. And we know
Speaker 1: they're capable of it if they play good basketball. They're
Speaker 1: good enough with how good they're starting lineup is to
Speaker 1: rip off a dominant twenty game stretch where they got
Speaker 1: like fifteen and five, And if they do that, with
Speaker 1: how wide open the Western Conferences, that might be enough
Speaker 1: to get you into of one through four seed. Now
Speaker 1: you have home court, you know, for potentially two rounds.
Speaker 1: There's a lot, there's a lot of benefits that come
Speaker 1: with that, right. The problem is is that they have
Speaker 1: to dramatically increase their effort to get to that point,
Speaker 1: which brings me back to the trade market. Like, the
Speaker 1: other thing you can do is you can trade a
Speaker 1: couple of these young players. Wouldn't touch Jonathan Cominga, but
Speaker 1: I think Wiseman and Moody. I would flip those two
Speaker 1: guys for a quality veteran role player in this league
Speaker 1: that brings you some of that depth that increases your
Speaker 1: margin for error, so that you have a better chance
Speaker 1: of floating during a regular season where your starters are
Speaker 1: not really concerned with giving daily effort the way that
Speaker 1: they have been in the past, which is completely normal.
Speaker 1: They are defend defending champs and they're old. That's it's
Speaker 1: just a part of the human experience. But yeah, this
Speaker 1: the dichotomy between um, the Warriors on the road and
Speaker 1: at home is pretty jarring at this point. All right,
Speaker 1: moving onto the nets in the Wizard. So the Wizards
Speaker 1: actually had a five point lead in the second quarter
Speaker 1: of this game, and we got kind of a vintage
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving run. He hit a really tough three off
Speaker 1: of a dribble handoff on the right wing, and then
Speaker 1: he hit like this ridiculous like five or six dribble
Speaker 1: combination pull up two at the left elbow, and then
Speaker 1: he had a driving layup. But the one you guys
Speaker 1: probably already saw all over social media where he went
Speaker 1: up with his right hand, switched to his left hand
Speaker 1: and scooped it in on his way down. Vintage Kyrie,
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that you grow to expect from
Speaker 1: him over the years. But he also made some nice
Speaker 1: defensive place too. He had back to back steels. He
Speaker 1: had a an isolation against Cris Apps Porzingis at the
Speaker 1: top of the key um where he did what you're
Speaker 1: supposed to do there, which is like, hey, if you
Speaker 1: play positional defense against Porzingis, he's just gonna shoot over
Speaker 1: the top of you. And he attacked the basketball, just
Speaker 1: was really aggressive to try to attack his handle and
Speaker 1: he forced to turn over. And then similar play on
Speaker 1: the next possession down where Kyle Kuzman came off of
Speaker 1: a dribble handoff, Kyrie switched on him and was just
Speaker 1: aggressive at his shooting pocket and knocked the ball free.
Speaker 1: Kyrie's got quick hands, and he's got quick feet, and
Speaker 1: he's got good instincts. So when he's actually engaged on
Speaker 1: the defensive end, which he has been a lot over
Speaker 1: the course of the last couple of weeks, he's capable
Speaker 1: of making some impact defensive play. So Kyrie went on
Speaker 1: a run, got the Nets back in the lead. K
Speaker 1: D came back in and the end of the second
Speaker 1: quarter played well. Then he had like ten and two.
Speaker 1: In the third quarter they went up by seventeen, and
Speaker 1: then it was a classic, you know, stiff arm type
Speaker 1: of game where they kind of hovered around at ten
Speaker 1: point lead. They ended up winning by twelve. The Nets
Speaker 1: are good. We did this with the Lakers last week, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Lakers started to inten but their fourth and winning
Speaker 1: percentage since November thirte and they have some quality wins,
Speaker 1: including that big road win uh in Milwaukee. So we
Speaker 1: need to recalibrate how we look at the Lakers. And
Speaker 1: obviously they're even further away than the Nets were, but
Speaker 1: we have to acknowledge the difference in the way they
Speaker 1: played there versus at the beginning of the season, and
Speaker 1: the Nets are in a similar spot. They started two
Speaker 1: and six, but since November four their fifteen and six.
Speaker 1: That's the third best winning percentage in the league during
Speaker 1: that span. In fact, for the whole season now, even
Speaker 1: counting their bad start, the Nets now have the eighth
Speaker 1: best record in the league, and they're up to eleventh
Speaker 1: and offense and defense. So if you guys remember coming
Speaker 1: into the season, I had all these tears for our
Speaker 1: power rankings, and at the top I had the core
Speaker 1: four teams like Clippers, Celtics, Bucks, and Warriors right, and
Speaker 1: then we had our if things go right contenders. Then
Speaker 1: we had our puncher's chance contenders. And I had in
Speaker 1: that five and six spot, I had two teams that
Speaker 1: have had pretty uneven starts to the season, but we've
Speaker 1: seen their ceiling, and that was the Sixers. I had
Speaker 1: at five, and I had the Brooklyn Nets at six.
Speaker 1: So even after everything that happened last summer, even after
Speaker 1: everything that's happened with Kyrie Irving, even after everything that
Speaker 1: happened with Ben Simmons, I thought the Nets had the
Speaker 1: sixth best chance to win the title. And the reason
Speaker 1: why is they are pretty damn good on paper. That
Speaker 1: why I didn't like what Katie said in those interviews.
Speaker 1: I think it was about a month ago where he
Speaker 1: was talking about, you know, the guys on the roster, because,
Speaker 1: like I understand, he was frustrated with the guys that
Speaker 1: were available at that point, but help was on the way,
Speaker 1: and I didn't understand the hand grenade, the proverbial a
Speaker 1: grenade that he threw just kind of on the supporting cast,
Speaker 1: understanding that help was on the way. And the reality
Speaker 1: is that they do have a lot of talent when
Speaker 1: you really take a step back and you look at it,
Speaker 1: like Kyrie is a pretty damn legit number two. He's
Speaker 1: won a championship as a number two in the past,
Speaker 1: albeit alongside the second greatest player of all time. But
Speaker 1: they have a ton of shooting, like with Joe Harris
Speaker 1: and Seth Curry You don't Want Nabbies turned into like
Speaker 1: a really interesting three and D player for them, and
Speaker 1: Markive Morris is shooting really well, even Royce O'Neil shooting
Speaker 1: from three this year. Then they have like a bunch
Speaker 1: of long, athletic defensive players with Kevin Durant, Nick Claxston
Speaker 1: and Ben Simmons and even you you don want Navies
Speaker 1: showing a lot of flashes of defense. He had a
Speaker 1: really nice play in isolation against Will Barton in that
Speaker 1: game where Will Barton like really got down into his
Speaker 1: chest and he just held his ground, didn't foul, waited
Speaker 1: for Will Barton to go up, and then he extended
Speaker 1: with his left arm and blocked the shot. They're clearly
Speaker 1: not as talented as Boston or Milwaukee. That goes without saying.
Speaker 1: I mean, they've won eight out of nine. Guess who
Speaker 1: their loss was. It was the loss against the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: where it looks pretty much just like it did in
Speaker 1: the first round last year. Katie couldn't like really struggle
Speaker 1: handling the basketball. You know, the guys hit a bunch
Speaker 1: of pull up jump shots, but they never really competitively
Speaker 1: in that game. So, yeah, they're not Milwaukee or Boston,
Speaker 1: but they are very talented. And this is not a
Speaker 1: roster issue like it is for the Lakers where you're
Speaker 1: asking Lebron James and Anthony Davis to be superheroes every
Speaker 1: night for them to uh, for them to have a
Speaker 1: chance to win. But you know, in that tier that's
Speaker 1: right below those top four teams, the Nets are very
Speaker 1: much in that mix, and so like, yeah, they need
Speaker 1: a lot to break their way in order to win
Speaker 1: the title. But that's the same for a lot of
Speaker 1: teams around this league, and you can never completely write
Speaker 1: them off. With Kevin Durant and like we've seen this
Speaker 1: too many times in NBA history where things do break
Speaker 1: right for teams, you know, kind of like Milwaukee in
Speaker 1: One Like. It might be a Phoenix Suns that gets
Speaker 1: out of the Western Conference, a flawed team because the
Speaker 1: injuries and matchups and a random upset here and next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, you have a chance to win the title
Speaker 1: with the relatively easy schedule, like the Milwaukee Bucks did
Speaker 1: in one Like. That's kind of the way it can break,
Speaker 1: which is why you keep your foot on the gas
Speaker 1: and you stay in the race even when you're not
Speaker 1: necessarily as good as some of the best teams in
Speaker 1: the league. All right, let's move on to the Clippers
Speaker 1: in the Celtics. So Clippers completely dominated this game. They
Speaker 1: won one thirteen to ninety three. They led by double
Speaker 1: digits for more than half the game. Kawai and Paul
Speaker 1: George soundly outplayed Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. They combined
Speaker 1: for fifty one points on eighteen for thirty four shooting,
Speaker 1: with nine assists and four turnovers. Tatum and Brown combined
Speaker 1: forty one on sixteen for thirty five with six assists
Speaker 1: and five turnovers. Jayson Tatum was below fifty in the
Speaker 1: paint again, he was five for eleven. Remember Rim finishing
Speaker 1: was one of his big weaknesses last year, and then
Speaker 1: he had kind of seemed to remedy that. There was
Speaker 1: talk about this fancy rim contact drill that he was
Speaker 1: doing a lot over the summer, which I've been trying
Speaker 1: to track down because I want to hear about it, um,
Speaker 1: But like there was some drill that he's been doing.
Speaker 1: He's been working on it. He had been playing really
Speaker 1: well in the restricted area and in the paint coming
Speaker 1: into this season. Coming into that Golden State game, he
Speaker 1: was six in the paint in the restricted area in
Speaker 1: the Golden State game. In the Clippers game, he's thirty
Speaker 1: nine in the in the paint in the restricted area.
Speaker 1: And you know, the big part that stands out to
Speaker 1: me on tape is shot selection. He just continually is
Speaker 1: forcing tough layups over rim congestion. There's a play where
Speaker 1: he challenged Zoo bok at the rim last night where
Speaker 1: it's like he was downhill, he had already beat multiple defenders,
Speaker 1: he was in a congested paint, and he tried like
Speaker 1: a damn near impossible left handed finished over Zoo Boch
Speaker 1: instead of just driving and kicking the basketball. You know,
Speaker 1: it's so important for him to understand that they know
Speaker 1: what they want him to be, a play finisher, but
Speaker 1: it might be the play finisher after two or three
Speaker 1: actions and not necessarily in that first action. And this
Speaker 1: is that ugly side of Boston that we keep talking about.
Speaker 1: It's the you drive and get into zoo box and
Speaker 1: you kick to the corner, and then you relocate, and
Speaker 1: then that guy drives and kicks and kicks to you.
Speaker 1: Now you attack that close out and Zoobach got out
Speaker 1: to the perimeter because he was containing, and now you've
Speaker 1: got to lay up. You know, there's there's always that
Speaker 1: opportunity to eventually be aggressive once the defense is in
Speaker 1: rotation and they make a mistake. But when Boston drives
Speaker 1: into the teeth of the defense and tries to shoot
Speaker 1: over the top of the rim protection, that's where they
Speaker 1: have problems. And I've been talking about that for years
Speaker 1: and Joe Missoul has been calling it rim reads, which
Speaker 1: is another interesting way to refer to it. But that's
Speaker 1: the idea. When you get into the rim, do you
Speaker 1: have a chance for a high percentage shot in the
Speaker 1: restricted area? Cool? If not, keep it moving, you know,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, you're just gonna
Speaker 1: get better shots when you get the defense moving more frequently.
Speaker 1: Kawhile Leonard looked great in this game. He's slowly but
Speaker 1: surely starting to look like his legs are getting stronger,
Speaker 1: and then he's getting his rhythm back. He got to
Speaker 1: the rim a bunch in this game, a bunch of
Speaker 1: driving layups um even against you know, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of him attacking Marcus Smart and uh In Malcolm
Speaker 1: Brogden in this game, which is what you expect, and
Speaker 1: that's what you gotta do. If you're the Celtics, if
Speaker 1: you're going against the Celtics, if you're going against the
Speaker 1: Celtics and you are a team that's got big scoring wings,
Speaker 1: you need to try your hardest to target Marcus smart
Speaker 1: and and Malcolm Brogden. They're gonna be more difficult. They're
Speaker 1: gonna target your handle, they're gonna ball pressure you more.
Speaker 1: But you have a puncher's chance in the sense that
Speaker 1: you can you can get clean looks over the top
Speaker 1: of them because of your size advantage. But there were
Speaker 1: even some places where he was just looking eye to
Speaker 1: eye with Jalen Brown and just dropping his shoulder, hitting
Speaker 1: the gap and getting all the way to the rim,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to take this as an opportunity to
Speaker 1: talk about the importance of strength when it comes to
Speaker 1: ball handling, because the dirty little secret is is that
Speaker 1: the NBA is super physical. Don't let the old guys
Speaker 1: fool you. Don't listen to the stuff about hand checking
Speaker 1: the dirt. Like like, literally, in the nineteen eighties, teams
Speaker 1: were scoring a million points. Okay, like that, It's just
Speaker 1: it's it's co copletely factually inaccurate. They were scoring a
Speaker 1: million points despite never shooting threes. Okay, So the NBA
Speaker 1: is every bit as physical now as it ever has been,
Speaker 1: with exception of a little phase there in the late
Speaker 1: nineties where it became kind of ridiculous and then they
Speaker 1: had to loosen it up a little bit. But the
Speaker 1: NBA is physical. It's not about your necessarily your ability
Speaker 1: to dribble the basketball. There are a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that can dribble through cones at an extremely high level.
Speaker 1: It's about dribbling when you're getting hit and guys are
Speaker 1: swiping at the ball and they're hitting your arm like
Speaker 1: you can practice that crossover dribble a hundred times, but
Speaker 1: that depends on the muscle memory of the ball ending
Speaker 1: up in the same spot every single time. And if
Speaker 1: I'm getting into you and I'm I'm disrupting you with physicality,
Speaker 1: I don't care how hand how good your hand eye
Speaker 1: coordination is, or how sharp you are with your ball handling.
Speaker 1: You better be able to protect the ball with your body.
Speaker 1: And you know, like, say what you want about Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: At his peak, he was a better athlete and hopefully
Speaker 1: he gets back there, but he's probably the strongest wing
Speaker 1: in the league not named Lebron. When you hit him,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have the same effect that it does on
Speaker 1: other players, and he it's so funny because you see him.
Speaker 1: There was the drive against Jalen Brown, the one that
Speaker 1: I'm referring to. You know, he's on the right wing
Speaker 1: and he kind of just does like a crossover dribble
Speaker 1: and then hits the gap. There's not a gap there.
Speaker 1: There's not a lot of space, and Jalen Brown's kind
Speaker 1: of riding with him. But like like I said, it's
Speaker 1: that you have a tiny opening and you force your
Speaker 1: way through it with physicality, and if you're the bigger,
Speaker 1: stronger player, you're gonna get all the way to the rim,
Speaker 1: and he on this particular play, just blew up Jalen's
Speaker 1: right shoulder, went right through him and went all the
Speaker 1: way to the rim and finished with his left hands
Speaker 1: with his left hand. But that's how he gets to
Speaker 1: his spots, and that's what helps him get the lift
Speaker 1: that he needs to rise up and knock the shots
Speaker 1: shots down. That's what how helps him protect the basketball,
Speaker 1: and that's how he was killing Boston. Um. He also
Speaker 1: had a couple of tough threes. Remember I was a
Speaker 1: big thing I always look at with Kwai Leonard. When
Speaker 1: he's really in a rhythm, he can hit his pull
Speaker 1: up three point shot. And he had a transition three
Speaker 1: where he dribbled up the floor and just elevated and
Speaker 1: rose up and knocked it down. And then there was
Speaker 1: a late one in the fourth quarter where Grant Williams
Speaker 1: closed out on him and he kind of just baited
Speaker 1: him into closing out and sitting down in his stance
Speaker 1: and then just elevated and rose up and knocked it down.
Speaker 1: Um still just thirteen for thirty six on pull up
Speaker 1: jumpers for this year, so he's got a ways to
Speaker 1: go to get to like his peak. But he is
Speaker 1: getting um, getting into a nice groove, and then he's
Speaker 1: passing the ball really, really well this year at six
Speaker 1: assists last night, six assists in the previous game. That
Speaker 1: used to be his biggest weakness, and he's really improved.
Speaker 1: When when Kawhi Leonard has passed out of pick and
Speaker 1: rolls this year, the Clippers have scored one point four
Speaker 1: eight points per possession, which is in percentile. When he
Speaker 1: has passed at ISO this year, the Clippers have scored
Speaker 1: one point three nine points possession, which is percentile. So
Speaker 1: quality as big as weakness floor vision, he's turned it
Speaker 1: into his strength at this phase in his career, which
Speaker 1: is very important as it pertains to his physical decline.
Speaker 1: The same thing I've said about Lebron, Like one of
Speaker 1: the biggest reasons that Lebron has been able to stay
Speaker 1: relevant at this phase in his career is he's such
Speaker 1: a good passer and he's turned himself into a viable
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooter that you know, he's still had
Speaker 1: a lot a great deal of impact in the tail
Speaker 1: end of his career. Like, as you've phase out physically,
Speaker 1: you've got to replace that physical decline with skill, and
Speaker 1: that's what Kauai has done with his passing ability. For
Speaker 1: the Clippers as we're looking at them, as you know,
Speaker 1: one of those top four teams, everything comes down to
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard and Paul George being great, not good, but great.
Speaker 1: Kind of similar to what we were talking about with
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Like the Clippers are even
Speaker 1: after last night offense this year, but if you look
Speaker 1: at it like they're they're scoring a hundred and nine
Speaker 1: points per one hundred possessions. Boston is best in the
Speaker 1: league get a hundred and eighteen points per one possessions.
Speaker 1: There's not huge chasms between these teams, but that the
Speaker 1: difference is shot making and what stars do to squeeze
Speaker 1: those little extra bits of offense out over the course
Speaker 1: of a game where you might have a hundred possessions,
Speaker 1: whether it's Paul George hitting a tough contest at three
Speaker 1: late clock, Kawhi Leonard hitting a post up fade away,
Speaker 1: or then warping the defense to create higher quality spot
Speaker 1: up opportunities. That's the difference between a hundred and eight
Speaker 1: points per hundred nine points per one hundred possessions in eighteen.
Speaker 1: They need Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to be great.
Speaker 1: It's the exact same thing that was happening with the
Speaker 1: With the Lakers, they were the worst offense in the
Speaker 1: league to start the year, but Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: weren't playing well. Neither of them was hitting any shots
Speaker 1: over the top of the defense. Lebron wasn't doing nearly
Speaker 1: good enough job getting downhill, and Anthony Davis wasn't dominating
Speaker 1: the paint that he has been the way that he
Speaker 1: has been. But since November, that's when a D started
Speaker 1: his run, the Lakers are fifth in offense and Lebron
Speaker 1: has also been much much better. So the worst offense
Speaker 1: in the league turned into the top five offense over
Speaker 1: the course of a month of basketball because their two
Speaker 1: stars finally started playing like the superstars that they are.
Speaker 1: That there's not you know, when I'm looking at the
Speaker 1: difference between the bad offenses in the league and the
Speaker 1: good offense of the good offenses in the league, most
Speaker 1: of it comes down to superstar production. There is role
Speaker 1: players stuff, you know, Obviously, spot up shooting is important,
Speaker 1: but having superstars that are producing in a high level offensively, well,
Speaker 1: it just goes a long way again, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: the shot making, it's rescuing possessions, it's attacking mismatches, and
Speaker 1: then most importantly, it's advantage creation. When we look at
Speaker 1: the Clippers roster, there's a lot of really intriguing players there.
Speaker 1: Mark Marcus Morris is a good basketball player. Luke Kennard
Speaker 1: good basketball players. Zoo Bach, really good player, Reggie Jackson,
Speaker 1: you know Nick Patum and his lightning quick release, like
Speaker 1: the They have a lot of really good offensive players
Speaker 1: in the offense. And a big part of that is, like,
Speaker 1: when you ask that caliber of player to stare eye
Speaker 1: to eye with a defensive player in a set defense
Speaker 1: and a half court environment, they're gonna struggle because NBA
Speaker 1: athletes are too good at defense. But if Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: is getting downhill and passing the way that he has been,
Speaker 1: if Paul George is getting downhill and passing the way
Speaker 1: that he has been, or hell, when Paul George is
Speaker 1: shooting the way he is coming off of screens and
Speaker 1: he's drawing multiple defenders on on wide pin downs and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, that creates all of a sudden, wide
Speaker 1: open opportunities for the likes of Luke Kennard and Nick
Speaker 1: Patumee and Marcus Morris, which they can convert at a
Speaker 1: much higher level because they're more skilled than most of
Speaker 1: the role players in the league. So everything comes down
Speaker 1: to Klin Paul George and their ability to play like superstars.
Speaker 1: That's what gives them such a such an exciting ceiling,
Speaker 1: which is why I had them as one of the
Speaker 1: top four teams in the league. They can look Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum and Jalen Brown, the best duo in the league,
Speaker 1: in the face and they can out play them, and
Speaker 1: and that that just changes the math of all of this. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they have a long way to go to prove that
Speaker 1: they can do it, but I thought that that was
Speaker 1: a really big step for them in a big statement game. Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. Like I said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be covering Kings, Sixers and Lakers Celtics tomorrow.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate your sport. Now see you
Speaker 1: guys next time. The volume