Speaker 1: The volume Lakers Tonight is presented by FanDuel Sports Book.
Speaker 1: There's no better place to make every moment more than
Speaker 1: with FanDuel. You get great odds in markets for the
Speaker 1: NBA and a gel college, and so much more. It's
Speaker 1: America's number one sports book. It's super easy to use.
Speaker 1: Plus you can combine multiple bets from the same game
Speaker 1: into a same game parlay. If you are new, just
Speaker 1: download the fandel Sports Book app to get started. Now
Speaker 1: sign up with promo code Jason T so they know
Speaker 1: I sent you 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 text
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
Speaker 1: why or text hope and Why to four six seven
Speaker 1: three six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial
Speaker 1: one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine
Speaker 1: in Tennessee, visit www one dot one eight hundred gambler
Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Lakers Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by Fan Duel here at the Volume. I am
Speaker 1: Jason Tim Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope you all had
Speaker 1: a great weekend. Lots of really interesting basketball to get
Speaker 1: to today. We're gonna break down the Lakers game in
Speaker 1: its entirety. After that, we're going to get into that
Speaker 1: crazy intense game between Phoenix and Philly that got a
Speaker 1: little out of hand late but had some interesting stuff
Speaker 1: going on. James Harden had another really really bad night.
Speaker 1: We're going to dive into that a little bit. And
Speaker 1: then for those of you guys who stick around for
Speaker 1: the end, we're gonna talk about the Timberwolves getting get
Speaker 1: enough another opportunity to try to prove to us that
Speaker 1: they are the real deal, and struggling against the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 1: And then at the end, I want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the standings. We have some couple of
Speaker 1: really really interesting standing situations at the top of the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference and at the bottom of the Western Conference
Speaker 1: that will be extremely important to watch over the course
Speaker 1: of the next couple of weeks. But let's start with
Speaker 1: the Lakers. I understand that it there's a desire to
Speaker 1: to paint one picture about this game. You know, blown
Speaker 1: twenty point lead at halftime, and while on the surface
Speaker 1: that looks really ugly, and I do get that, I
Speaker 1: don't want to undersell that at all by any stretch
Speaker 1: of the imagination. I think that people have to understand
Speaker 1: that these types of games are almost always a war
Speaker 1: that's not about one battle. There's ups and downs, and
Speaker 1: they're usually swings in momentum one way or another. And
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Pelicans have a lot of advantages over
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers because of the injuries to Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: because of things like Dwight Howard. Suddenly you know this
Speaker 1: is he whatever he was in he's not that anymore.
Speaker 1: He used to be a guy that the Lakers could
Speaker 1: depend on every single night to be a pretty darned
Speaker 1: dominant backup center. Not that guy anymore. Even when he
Speaker 1: has days off like this, he just looks really slow.
Speaker 1: There was a hilarious play in the first half where
Speaker 1: I believe when you actually wasn't the second half when
Speaker 1: you Gabriel through a push ahead pass to Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: and you see Dwight like try to hit the jets
Speaker 1: to try to catch up to the ball, and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh man, he just looks like he's one season too
Speaker 1: long in the NBA. When you look at down the
Speaker 1: roster some of the personnel shortcomings of the Lakers, it's
Speaker 1: inevitable that they're gonna have long extended stretches where things
Speaker 1: go poorly. And today was exacerbated by the fact that
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, even though he had a good first half,
Speaker 1: started to struggle in the second half, and then a
Speaker 1: lot of those athleticism advantages started to wear the Lakers down.
Speaker 1: In the first half, Lebron comes out game busters. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about him in a second. Another good, not
Speaker 1: even good, amazing Lebron game. That is something that we
Speaker 1: should take as a positive with this team moving forward.
Speaker 1: But the Lakers also battled and a lot of the
Speaker 1: physicality areas of the game. To start, the Lakers out
Speaker 1: rebounded the Pelicans in the first half. They that was
Speaker 1: an example of effort that's coming in with a feel
Speaker 1: of intensity and an understanding that uh uh, there was
Speaker 1: in the beginning of the game when everything was going
Speaker 1: in the lakers favor. You saw the Pelicans didn't shoot
Speaker 1: the three ball particularly great to start the game. Lebron's
Speaker 1: making thirty footers contested off the catch. There's a lot
Speaker 1: going on in the early parts of that game that
Speaker 1: was advantageous to what the Lakers were doing, and so
Speaker 1: you knew over the course of the game there was
Speaker 1: gonna be a point where that turned on them a
Speaker 1: little bit. And in the second half, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: a lot of those rebounding issues went towards the Pelicans way.
Speaker 1: And when you look at the roster down the line,
Speaker 1: there's an athleticism advantage there that's kind of insane. You've
Speaker 1: got like, especially towards the end of the game. You
Speaker 1: notice this. This is something I talked about a lot
Speaker 1: with the Boston Celtics. So when the Celtics are running
Speaker 1: out their lineup with Marcus Smart, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: Al Horford, Robert Williams or or or whoever it is
Speaker 1: that they have out there, there's not really a weak
Speaker 1: point for you to attack. Everyone's tall, everyone's fastone's athletic.
Speaker 1: You have to have something that you can go to. Uh,
Speaker 1: you have to have somebody that you can attack, and
Speaker 1: there's just it's just hard to find an option. And
Speaker 1: you saw with the Lakers tonight at the end of
Speaker 1: that game, brandon Ingram had great options. He's like, let
Speaker 1: me attack Austin Reeves here along the left wing on
Speaker 1: a big possession and I'm gonna just shoot over the top. Okay,
Speaker 1: next possession down, I got Molik Monk on a switch.
Speaker 1: I'm eyeballing him at the free throw line. I'm facing up.
Speaker 1: I like my chances in that scenario if I'm brandon Ingram.
Speaker 1: But on the other end of the floor, the athleticism
Speaker 1: advantages that the Lakers are going to aren't as great.
Speaker 1: They're running out there with the lineup with Brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: and Herb Jones and Trey Murphy all on the floor
Speaker 1: at the same time. When you've got three dudes that
Speaker 1: are between six eight and six ten was super long
Speaker 1: arms that run really fast, and they've got Valanciunists underneath
Speaker 1: the basket doing so well as like a back line defender.
Speaker 1: It's just tough. And there's again they have somebody you
Speaker 1: an attack, right, it's C Jim McCollum. You've got this
Speaker 1: guy and C Jim McCollum that you can attack. But
Speaker 1: that's the one guy in the lineup, and the overall
Speaker 1: lineup has so much length that it's too hard for
Speaker 1: them to It's too hard for them to find easy opportunities.
Speaker 1: You know. That's why I was talking about the difference
Speaker 1: between Jason Tatum and Kevin Durant matchup and how for
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, he's attacking easy matchups, but Kevin Durant's coming
Speaker 1: down and he's attacking difficult matchups. Even though Tatum is
Speaker 1: not as good as Kevin Durant, that matchup advantage is
Speaker 1: something that will manifest in that head to head matchup.
Speaker 1: Same for night with lebron In Brandon Ingram. Lebron James
Speaker 1: didn't even have a chance. D uh. Lebron James didn't
Speaker 1: even have a chance at the end of the game
Speaker 1: to attack matchups because they threw a ton of length
Speaker 1: at him and at the end of the game ended
Speaker 1: up being a lot of the Leak Monk and a
Speaker 1: lot of Russell Westbrook. That was the example of that
Speaker 1: defense and the their ability to make the Lakers do
Speaker 1: something they didn't want to do, while on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, the Lakers were giving good matchups
Speaker 1: to the Pelicans to attack. That would That's always an
Speaker 1: interesting phenomenon in these games. It's not it's not just
Speaker 1: did your star make shots and did their star make shots?
Speaker 1: A lot of it's who are they attacking? Are they
Speaker 1: getting one on one opportunity? So you'll notice on those
Speaker 1: late possessions with brandon Ingram and Malik Monk or brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram on the Leak Monk, or brandon Ingram and Austin Reeves,
Speaker 1: the Lakers did not send help. The Lakers did not
Speaker 1: dig in and double team and try to force someone
Speaker 1: else to beat them. They let a very good offensive
Speaker 1: player operate on an island against shorter defensive players, and
Speaker 1: no matter how hard they try, it's gonna be an issue.
Speaker 1: I was a little concerned with that at the end
Speaker 1: of the game. I would have preferred to see the
Speaker 1: Lakers at least do something to try to get Lebron
Speaker 1: on CJ mccollumn. I know it's hard because if you
Speaker 1: run ball screens sometimes they'll trap. But there are other
Speaker 1: ways to work around that. You can set off ball
Speaker 1: screens to try to get a switch. You can move
Speaker 1: the ball in transition to try to get the ball
Speaker 1: quickly so that you're not walking into a set defense.
Speaker 1: There are a couple of different things that I wish
Speaker 1: I would have seen the Lakers do better. But in
Speaker 1: that second half, you saw all those advantages that New
Speaker 1: Orleans had kind of come to roost, and a lot
Speaker 1: of the disadvantages from the Lakers come to roost. Right
Speaker 1: Like the Lakers are not a very athletic team, that
Speaker 1: started to hurt them. Russell Westbrook has been playing well.
Speaker 1: I had him in my notes as a major positive
Speaker 1: after that first half because of that little flurry he
Speaker 1: went on in the second quarter. That's just like vintage
Speaker 1: Russ And but as we know this season, you are
Speaker 1: what the whole season says you are not what just
Speaker 1: one little short stretch of basketball is. And in a
Speaker 1: little short stretch of basketball, Russ was really good. But
Speaker 1: for the vast majority of the season he's been bad,
Speaker 1: and he wasn't very good in that uh, in that
Speaker 1: second half. I can't look at that as some sort
Speaker 1: of outlier performance. That's kind of what you're getting with
Speaker 1: Russ this season. So if if the old Lakers manifest,
Speaker 1: meaning you know, it's all Lebron on offense, Malik Monk
Speaker 1: and Taylor Horton, Tucker, Yeah they can make plays, but
Speaker 1: they're also volatile and they're gonna do silly things like
Speaker 1: steak takes, stupid show spots, and and make mistakes and
Speaker 1: things along those lines. I get I totally. I totally
Speaker 1: understand why things went the way they did. So I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna be as much of a doomsday sayer in
Speaker 1: this case. Now when we're looking at the standings and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about this, uh with the Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: as well. But as we get down the stretch here,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, the Spurs, and the Lakers are all kind
Speaker 1: of buying within there. This could go either way here
Speaker 1: down the stretch, and so there's a lot at stake here.
Speaker 1: So for starters, the Spurs are only a half game
Speaker 1: back of the Lakers now. So if the Spurs are
Speaker 1: a half game back of the Lakers, with the Lakers
Speaker 1: upcoming schedule, they gotta play Denver, they gotta play Phoenix.
Speaker 1: There there there's a bunch of tough games just in
Speaker 1: this next week. There's a chance before Anthony Davis gets back,
Speaker 1: that the Lakers actually slip out of the playoff picture entirely.
Speaker 1: And that's tricky. I don't know what to make of that.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be That's gonna be something where you're gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot of pressure down the stretch. If Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis comes back and the Lakers have like five games
Speaker 1: left and they have to go four and one or
Speaker 1: three and two or whatever to get into the postseason,
Speaker 1: that adds a whole other element there. So obviously today hurts.
Speaker 1: But there's one gigantic footnote. The Pelicans announced the other
Speaker 1: day that Zion Williamson is out for the season. Zion
Speaker 1: Williamson is not coming back. There are no reinforcements there.
Speaker 1: What you see with the Pelicans is what you get,
Speaker 1: and They're gonna be tough to beat at home, which
Speaker 1: is why this stretch in the standings is so important.
Speaker 1: This game was important because any chance the Lakers have
Speaker 1: to get to nine instead of ten is the difference
Speaker 1: between making those young athletes from New Orleans come two
Speaker 1: Staples or to the Crypto dot Com Arena and win
Speaker 1: a huge road, single elimination playoff game. That's a different
Speaker 1: deal than you going to New Orleans where young players
Speaker 1: especially feed off the crowd, or athletes especially feed off
Speaker 1: the crowd, and that becomes a really dangerous environment in
Speaker 1: a game that you can very much lose. So that
Speaker 1: that that's what makes this so important down the stretch.
Speaker 1: But again, the Pels are not adding anybody, and the
Speaker 1: Lakers are adding Anthony Davis to this. That's a huge reinforcement. Now,
Speaker 1: we were talking about how over the course of that game,
Speaker 1: advantages for the Pelicans took over right and it ended
Speaker 1: up swinging the game massively. Russ declined at the same
Speaker 1: time as a lot of the Lakers athletes declined, and
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram started making shots and c. J. McCollum started
Speaker 1: making shots. Next thing you know, you blow a twenty
Speaker 1: point lead. That happens. But how does that same progressive fatigue,
Speaker 1: how does that same wearing down, How do those advantages
Speaker 1: materialize if Anthony freaking Davis is on the court. For instance,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, until the last few minutes of the game,
Speaker 1: when they were getting the ball out of Lebron's hands,
Speaker 1: they couldn't do anything with Lebron James. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of talk this week about herb Jones and his athleticism,
Speaker 1: whether or not to be able to bother Lebron. We
Speaker 1: have an answer, no, it does not. On at thirty
Speaker 1: nine again and it was seemingly getting to whatever shot
Speaker 1: he wanted. Okay, so we're not worried about any specific
Speaker 1: athleticism matchup with Lebron Anthony Davis. It's gonna be the
Speaker 1: exact same thing Anthony Davis has taking taken these traditional
Speaker 1: plotting centers, guys like Jonas Valentunas. He's eating guys like
Speaker 1: that for lunch for years. Okay. So that's another example
Speaker 1: of where when this matchup, they play the Pelicans again
Speaker 1: later this week, I believe on Friday, and let's say
Speaker 1: they play him again in the plane that the next
Speaker 1: time these teams face each other, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: whole different physical dynamic. And this is where that dying,
Speaker 1: that that concept of slotting becomes so important. As soon
Speaker 1: as Anthony Davis gets plugged into the Dwight Howard role
Speaker 1: where Dwight Howard was playing tonight, especially in a bigger quantity,
Speaker 1: because he's gonna play like thirty five minutes. Right as
Speaker 1: soon as you slide Anthony Davis there, that takes Dwight
Speaker 1: and either kicks him out of the rotation or puts
Speaker 1: him in a very tiny backup center role. So now
Speaker 1: you took a ad player who is actively hurting, who's
Speaker 1: actively hurting the situation. You're taking that guy and getting
Speaker 1: him out of the lineup. That's a huge plus. Now
Speaker 1: I'm now taking Lebron out of having to play center
Speaker 1: for massive minutes over the course of the game, and
Speaker 1: I'm getting him into a role where he's playing center
Speaker 1: in small mint you know, maybe in fifteen minutes, and
Speaker 1: to where when he's in that situation, he can really
Speaker 1: devote his energy to the defensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: because he doesn't have to stress out about having to
Speaker 1: do it for thirty minutes. And then he'll still have
Speaker 1: those opportunities in the open floor to do everything that
Speaker 1: he's been doing so successfully offensively. Now you take when
Speaker 1: you in Gabriel instead of when you in Gabriel having
Speaker 1: to basically be your athleticism on the back line. Now
Speaker 1: he's alongside Anthony Davis. Now that Anthony that that athleticism
Speaker 1: instead of him trying to jump over Jonas Valentunas, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is eating up Jonas Salentunas. And when you Gabriel
Speaker 1: is now trying to jump over forwards and other players
Speaker 1: that are not way bigger and way stronger than him.
Speaker 1: That's what the concept of slotting is, and that's what's
Speaker 1: so important about it. You have to have people that
Speaker 1: are in their proper roles. And right now, with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis out, everyone's batting outside of their outside of what
Speaker 1: they're capable of, and it's causing it's causing a slotting
Speaker 1: issue for them. Right now, Anthony Davis is coming back.
Speaker 1: It'll make that matchup more interesting for those of you
Speaker 1: who are just joining us. This is Lakers Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by FanDuel. Here. At the volume, we were just talking
Speaker 1: about the uh um. We were just talking about the
Speaker 1: Lakers situation in the standings. I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: Lebron for a second because this is getting absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1: So we talked about this right after he decided to
Speaker 1: sit out the Filly game, about how he needed ammunition
Speaker 1: for a stretch run, how he needed to recharge the
Speaker 1: tank to recharge the batteries refuel for this stretch run.
Speaker 1: He got a nice little six day stretch here to
Speaker 1: get his legs ready this, like I talked about, these
Speaker 1: are wars like this game tonight, there's up and down,
Speaker 1: long forty eight minute battle. Well, it's gonna get even
Speaker 1: crazier here down the stretch with even tougher opponents and
Speaker 1: with even higher stakes first fighting and jockeying for position
Speaker 1: in the standings and then potentially a playing game. But
Speaker 1: what is exciting is he looks physically ready for it.
Speaker 1: There were several stretches in this game where when things
Speaker 1: were teetering, when Lebron was able to hit the gas
Speaker 1: physically to start to get stuff around the basket. He
Speaker 1: was one of the big advantages. Like I talked about
Speaker 1: the the Pelicans have an awesome athletic front court of wings. Right,
Speaker 1: you have herd Jones, her Jones, you have Trey Murphy,
Speaker 1: you have Brandon Ingram, all these lanky six eight to
Speaker 1: six ten guys that are athletes, but none of them
Speaker 1: are strong. There's there's a huge difference between the wing
Speaker 1: and the NBA that's like a Jay Crowder p J.
Speaker 1: Tucker hold their own with like a really low center
Speaker 1: of gravity and a ton of strength to fight you
Speaker 1: off of positions. Those kind of guys can wear guy
Speaker 1: like Lebron out over the course of a series with physicality.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be the opposite as he's going against these
Speaker 1: thin wings, He's going to have the advantage to shove
Speaker 1: them around and when it gets to a big pivotal moment,
Speaker 1: even if it'll be completely exhausting in a playing game
Speaker 1: against New Orleans, Lebron is going to be able to
Speaker 1: bully his way to whatever he wants, which is a
Speaker 1: huge weapon that they can go to it like a
Speaker 1: you know, you know, push this button in case of
Speaker 1: emergency type of offensive option for the Lakers to be
Speaker 1: able to manufacture offense in those really really uh like
Speaker 1: high stakes, a single elimination type of environment. The rusting
Speaker 1: is what in Bonus site played well for a little bit.
Speaker 1: All you have to do there was this one kind
Speaker 1: of sketchy little making. He was making over half his
Speaker 1: threes in that stretch. I think he shot total from
Speaker 1: three over the course of that three game span from
Speaker 1: jump shot the course that three game span, and actually
Speaker 1: it was the vast majority of his field goals made.
Speaker 1: I think he had like four field goals made in
Speaker 1: a three game stretch. Of them were jumps. Russ is
Speaker 1: not at shooter, just wasn't making shots to make things tough.
Speaker 1: It was the reality of that situation was he was
Speaker 1: making shots he doesn't usually make, that was spreading things
Speaker 1: out for him and making things easier for him. Inevitably
Speaker 1: he was going to aggress. Well, here you go. He
Speaker 1: made some jump shots in the first half, but they're
Speaker 1: in the second half. He was struggling, and over confidence
Speaker 1: got the best when he took the really dumb, bad
Speaker 1: three out of a trip threat on the right wing
Speaker 1: that didn't make any sense. That's the thing that scares
Speaker 1: me with Russ is the when you when we consider
Speaker 1: the good stretches of Russ text to be these games
Speaker 1: where he makes jump shots and we all look at
Speaker 1: each other, even in that locker room, and go, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what we need this is what Russ is doing. Well,
Speaker 1: this is what we've got to defeat into. Let Russ cook.
Speaker 1: This is the way he's gonna play. Okay, well, that
Speaker 1: actually doesn't work really well in the long run. And
Speaker 1: a large sample size and a large sample size, he's
Speaker 1: not going to make those jump shots. And a large
Speaker 1: sample size, he's gonna fade in and out of games defensively.
Speaker 1: In a large sample size, he's gonna struggle to finish
Speaker 1: over length and athleticism around the basket. And so that's
Speaker 1: where I get concerned. And then guess what Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is coming back, probably this week. Russ is gonna get
Speaker 1: shrunk back down into a smaller role again offensively, and
Speaker 1: we'll see how that affects his rhythm. You know. That's
Speaker 1: why you know, there was a lot of Russ optimism
Speaker 1: over the course of this last week. Let's not get
Speaker 1: ahead of ourselves. A lot of that was made jump shots.
Speaker 1: A lot of that was Anthony Davis being out, a
Speaker 1: lot of that was him having an easier offensive role,
Speaker 1: more space to operate. Things along those lines. I'm still concerned,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, and it it is
Speaker 1: the last thing I'll say about the Lakers. This is
Speaker 1: a process. I told you guys when they had this
Speaker 1: good stretch last week. The only way that this works
Speaker 1: out is if they treat this next three weeks like
Speaker 1: a training camp. They have to steadily get better. Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel just said in the postgame pressure a press or,
Speaker 1: time is running out for us, and he's correct. This
Speaker 1: team does not have a ton of time to get
Speaker 1: from where they're at to where they need to be
Speaker 1: with their habits and all of the details of their identity.
Speaker 1: By the time the season starts, they're running out of time.
Speaker 1: They just have to continue make incremental to continuing continue
Speaker 1: to make incremental improvements, because this thing doesn't happen overnight.
Speaker 1: If I took your men's league team and we were like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna learn a five on five defense, and I
Speaker 1: was gonna have you guys do these rotations and these
Speaker 1: double teams and things like that, there's no chance in hell,
Speaker 1: even if you study the playbook inside and out, that
Speaker 1: you would be able to do it tomorrow. You have
Speaker 1: to build habits. You have to. If you are a
Speaker 1: bad defensive team in the n b A and you
Speaker 1: want to establish a solid defensive identity. It can take
Speaker 1: games and games and games and practices and practices and
Speaker 1: practices to establish all of that. That's what they have
Speaker 1: to do. They looked a little better for ended stretches tonight.
Speaker 1: Their defense in the first half was excellent. That's a
Speaker 1: longer stretch of good defense than they've had in a
Speaker 1: long time, so that's a positive. But they have to
Speaker 1: continue to build on that over the course of the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks. All right, let's move on to
Speaker 1: the Sixers and the Suns. So this is a game
Speaker 1: that I'm really really excited to dive into the film tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Every time I see these straight up like battles of
Speaker 1: Titans in the NBA and the regular season, there's always
Speaker 1: all these little details that you can get into when
Speaker 1: you dive into the film the next day. Like I'm
Speaker 1: really excited to look closer at the embed eight and matchup.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to look closer at how the Sun's
Speaker 1: attacked James Harden on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: specifically Chris Paul and pick and roll. Those are little details.
Speaker 1: Will probably have a video coming out about that tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But one of the most interesting things to me about
Speaker 1: this game has to do with a glaring flaw in
Speaker 1: Philly struggling at this point in his career to be
Speaker 1: the same James Harden that he was in two thousand
Speaker 1: eighteen with Hugh Houston. He's two for eleven again tonight
Speaker 1: he had fourteen and seven and nine, which as a
Speaker 1: stat line doesn't seem horrible, right, only two turnovers, you're
Speaker 1: getting nine assists. Like, technically he's in a playmaking role.
Speaker 1: But guys, when we're talking about the top of the East,
Speaker 1: when we're comparing Philly to Milwaukee with Janice and all
Speaker 1: the defending champion pedigree, when we're talking about Brooklyn and
Speaker 1: everything that they've got cooking. They destroyed Miami yesterday. That's
Speaker 1: a game that we're not gonna get to tonight, that
Speaker 1: I'll get to later this week. That's the Brooklyn's got
Speaker 1: something cooking right now. Okay, and then Miami's in a
Speaker 1: down slump right now, but they're not gonna be an
Speaker 1: easy out. Boston looks freaking incredible. So in order for
Speaker 1: Philly to have a chance, James Harden has to be
Speaker 1: a superstar. James Harden has to be the James Harden
Speaker 1: from Houston in two thousand and eighteen. That's how good
Speaker 1: he has to be, and he simply has not been.
Speaker 1: I've talked about a lot on this show. What is
Speaker 1: so important with James Harden is his ability to beat
Speaker 1: people off the dribble and get all the way to
Speaker 1: the basket. Everything else in his game depends on it.
Speaker 1: If he has you off balance getting to the basket,
Speaker 1: that's what allows him to get sufficient separation on his
Speaker 1: step back so that he can go straight up and down,
Speaker 1: have good balance and knock that shot down him. Getting
Speaker 1: straight line drives to the basket is what opens up
Speaker 1: all of his high end playmaking game. That's how he
Speaker 1: gets his fifteen sixteen assists nights when he's living in
Speaker 1: the paint. That's what gets him to the foul line.
Speaker 1: That's how he ends up with those thirty thirty five
Speaker 1: point point totals is getting to the foul line, getting
Speaker 1: to the basket. Everything is predicated on that. But for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, and again, Phoenix is a very good defensive
Speaker 1: team with a lot of length, but they have some
Speaker 1: guys you can attack. They have guys like Lander Shaman
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker and Campaign and even Chris Paul with
Speaker 1: the size advantage. There are guys on that team that
Speaker 1: you can attack and James Harden just is not capable
Speaker 1: of breaking them down. That's an issue. That's something that
Speaker 1: scares me for that team for a playoffs here, Like
Speaker 1: I always say, when you're talking about the next level,
Speaker 1: the top tier teams, which are the guys you're gonna
Speaker 1: play in the second round of the playoffs on and
Speaker 1: if you struggle in the regular season, you might face
Speaker 1: them early see see the Lakers. But when you're facing
Speaker 1: those high end defensive teams, you have to have somebody
Speaker 1: who can warp the defense. If you let five good
Speaker 1: defensive players stay home and you play one on one
Speaker 1: all game long, you're gonna get your butt kicked. That's
Speaker 1: like what's going on with the Celtics. You have to
Speaker 1: have somebody who can get that first defensive rotation, that
Speaker 1: first team, that help side, because the only way you're
Speaker 1: gonna succeed against those types of defenses is by getting
Speaker 1: them in rotation. And if James Harden can't beat people
Speaker 1: at the point of attack, if James Harden can't do
Speaker 1: his thing up on the top of the key to
Speaker 1: break down the defense, they are going to struggle to
Speaker 1: score against Milwaukee. They're going to struggle to score against Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: They're gonna struggle to score gainst Miami, and they're say,
Speaker 1: sure as hell, are going to struggle to score against Boston.
Speaker 1: That's a huge issue. If it's a hamstring issue, then
Speaker 1: maybe it gets better over the course of the next
Speaker 1: couple of weeks and he can get into a peak
Speaker 1: physical condition and restore this by the postseason. If not,
Speaker 1: if this is a decline, if this is what the
Speaker 1: new James Harden is, then Philly can't win this thing.
Speaker 1: They simply don't have enough perimeter talent. The irony is
Speaker 1: Chris Paul still looks amazing. Nineteen points and fourteen assists
Speaker 1: against tonight, only one turnover, nine for fifteen from the field.
Speaker 1: It's wild because after the Houston Rockets experience, I bet
Speaker 1: you if you gave a bunch of truth serum to
Speaker 1: James Harden, he would have telled you so long, Chris Paul,
Speaker 1: get rust in here. He's the younger, better version of you.
Speaker 1: You can go right off into the sunset with the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City thunder. Fast forward a couple of years. Here
Speaker 1: we are in two Chris Paul's arguably the better player.
Speaker 1: He's taken way better care of his body ever since
Speaker 1: a hamstring injury in two thousand eighteen. Allegedly, Chris Paul's
Speaker 1: gone vegan. That's been a huge part of his recent
Speaker 1: physical kind of renaissance. Chris Paul is a testament to
Speaker 1: maximizing this phase of his career, while James Harden is
Speaker 1: a testament to minimizing this phase of his career, and
Speaker 1: as a result, a significantly better player in James Harden
Speaker 1: is arguably below Chris Paul is a basketball player right now,
Speaker 1: which is absolutely insane. One last note on the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker talked about him a lot over the course
Speaker 1: of the m v P rais. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: the m v P. I don't think Booker, Morant or
Speaker 1: Tatum can be the MVP because how good their teams
Speaker 1: are overall, they're just better players, having better seasons, having
Speaker 1: nearly as much success with less talent around them at
Speaker 1: the top. That's why I don't think they're in the running.
Speaker 1: That said, Devin Booker is playing unbelievable basketball right now.
Speaker 1: He's starting to look like a bona fide top ten
Speaker 1: ish player in the NBA. He's putting himself with Moran
Speaker 1: and Tatum in that conversation for being right around the
Speaker 1: ninth tenth best player in the league. In his last
Speaker 1: twelve games, he's averaging thirty one points per game on
Speaker 1: sixty five point four true shooting. Just unbelievable stuff from
Speaker 1: Devin Booker. A huge part of this is him developing
Speaker 1: as a three point shooter. That was always one of
Speaker 1: his weakness is relative to the rest of his games. Obviously,
Speaker 1: a dominant mid range score has all sorts of crafty
Speaker 1: finishes around the basket, but he's become so dynamic from
Speaker 1: the three point line that he's getting comfortable shots everywhere
Speaker 1: on the floor. Devin Booker is amazing again. I still
Speaker 1: think the Phoenix Suns are the favorite to win the
Speaker 1: title at this point, all right, moving on to the
Speaker 1: Wolves and the Celtics. So once again, the Minnesota timber
Speaker 1: Wolves lose to a team that's at full strength, that
Speaker 1: did this a video about this yesterday. In their previous
Speaker 1: twenty six games since January, the Timberwolves were nineteen and seven.
Speaker 1: That was the third best win percentage in the entire
Speaker 1: NBA over that span. They were third in offense sixth
Speaker 1: in defense. A huge part of that was what they
Speaker 1: were doing in transition. They lead the league in pace
Speaker 1: over that span, their second in the league and fast
Speaker 1: break points per games per games. So they're getting stops
Speaker 1: and they're getting out in transition and running and they
Speaker 1: finally got a signature win. They beat all these good teams,
Speaker 1: but there was always one of the best players on
Speaker 1: the other team sitting out for whatever reason. Well, they
Speaker 1: finally got a chance to beat a team at full
Speaker 1: strength in the Dallas Mavericks the other day, and they
Speaker 1: did so. They controlled the game throughout and they gotta win.
Speaker 1: Problem is, Dallas is a good team. Boston is a
Speaker 1: great team, and they absolutely utterly dominated them. What have
Speaker 1: I been telling you, guys is my biggest fear with
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's their guard play well. Any Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards played well tonight. Kudos to him. He showed up
Speaker 1: athletically against the very athletic team. He rose to that occasion.
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell four points on six shots tonight. It's just
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be able to get enough out of
Speaker 1: their back court, in my opinion, to consistently break out,
Speaker 1: breakdown these top tier defenses. I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: just how dominant the Boston Celtics had been in March,
Speaker 1: so they completely they uh the month of March. March
Speaker 1: starts with them dominating the Hawks at home. Then they
Speaker 1: play the Grizzlies at home, beat him by thirteen, dominant win.
Speaker 1: Then they play the Celtics at home and win. That's
Speaker 1: the game where Tatum out plays Kevin Durant. Then they
Speaker 1: go into the into Charlotte and dominate the Hornets. Then
Speaker 1: they come home and blow out the Pistons. Then they
Speaker 1: lose that really close game to the Dallas Mavericks at home. OK,
Speaker 1: did a video breakdown of the game, really really close game.
Speaker 1: At the end, they were double teaming Jayson Tatum all
Speaker 1: over the floor. Tatum, Uh, their teammates just missed some shots.
Speaker 1: Tatum actually got a couple of decent looks and he
Speaker 1: missed those as well. Whatever, they lost a close game
Speaker 1: to the Mavericks. Then they go right back to beating
Speaker 1: the crap out of everybody. They beat the Warriors by two,
Speaker 1: Then they beat the Kings on the road by twenty nine.
Speaker 1: Then they went into Denver blew out the Nuggets by twenty.
Speaker 1: Then they gotta win on the road in Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: against the thunder Then they utterly demolished the Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: by twenty eight the other night on national television. And
Speaker 1: then today they take that Timberwolves team that again has
Speaker 1: been the third best winning percentage in the entire NBA
Speaker 1: over the course of the last two months and beat
Speaker 1: the ship out of him and beat him by twenty two.
Speaker 1: I keep telling talking to you guys about how they
Speaker 1: were winning all these games. When I did our first
Speaker 1: power rankings and I had the Celtics that close to
Speaker 1: the top, I told you guys that Jalen Brown and
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum weren't even shooting well. And in the time
Speaker 1: from that power rankings to the next one, Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: got hot and they were bowling everybody out. Well, guess what,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown last five games twenty eight point four points
Speaker 1: per game from the field from three from the line
Speaker 1: on five point four three point attempts per game. So
Speaker 1: now Jalen Brown's cooking too, and they're kicking everybody's ass.
Speaker 1: This is gonna it's gonna be really really interesting to
Speaker 1: see what happens here in this post season because there's
Speaker 1: this other element here too that I think people look over.
Speaker 1: This team has a ship ton of playoff experience. Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum has gone toe to toe with Lebron James in
Speaker 1: Game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals and was making
Speaker 1: big plays in the fourth quarter. Jalen Brown has been
Speaker 1: in a million playoff games over the course of this span.
Speaker 1: Al Horford has been in a bunch of big playoff games.
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart has been in a bunch of big playoff games.
Speaker 1: This team has a ton of of of of pedigree
Speaker 1: in that department, and everything that's telling everything that this
Speaker 1: season is telling us, is that they should very well
Speaker 1: could be the favorite. Now. I don't think they have
Speaker 1: nearly as much offensive talent as a team like Phoenix does.
Speaker 1: So I have to go with the team like Phoenix
Speaker 1: when I'm picking the NBA champion, because I think they're
Speaker 1: a little bit more versatile. I think they have a
Speaker 1: few more punches, a couple a couple more directions they
Speaker 1: can go. So I'm leaning towards Phoenix as my favorite,
Speaker 1: But every single day Boston just inches a little bit closer,
Speaker 1: and I'm there's this question I keep having, is there
Speaker 1: a chance that We're going to look back at this
Speaker 1: thing in the middle of June and go like, man,
Speaker 1: how do we not know the Celtics. We're just gonna
Speaker 1: run over everybody. They have the best defense in the league.
Speaker 1: Nobody can score on them in the half court when
Speaker 1: they get set, and then on offense, they've got these
Speaker 1: two big versall forwards that can attack mismatches all game long.
Speaker 1: Look at that down the stretch of that game you
Speaker 1: saw you saw, or in the first half of that game,
Speaker 1: especially late second quarter, you saw Jalen Brown just picking
Speaker 1: on these small Minnesota guards. That's the advantage that they have.
Speaker 1: They have these their offensive players are big and can
Speaker 1: rely on physicality in those environments as well. Boston looks
Speaker 1: incredibly good really quickly. Before we get out of here tonight,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to, uh, just talk about that race
Speaker 1: at the top of the East because I think it's
Speaker 1: important over the next couple of weeks for on a
Speaker 1: couple of different fronts. So as you can see Boston
Speaker 1: as the one seed at this exact moment in time,
Speaker 1: Miami's right there, Milwaukee's right there, Philadelphia is right there.
Speaker 1: They're all within half game of each other. So it's
Speaker 1: it's essentially could go either way here down the stretch.
Speaker 1: Boston has the third toughest remaining scheduled by opponent winning percentage.
Speaker 1: The Bucks have the seventh toughest remaining schedule, my Amy
Speaker 1: has the nineteenth toughest remaining schedule, and Philly has the
Speaker 1: second easiest remaining schedule. Now for Boston, that just doesn't
Speaker 1: seem to matter. They're beating anybody anyway, everybody anyway. So
Speaker 1: Boston I would probably make the favorite to get the
Speaker 1: one seed. But keep an eye on Philly because I
Speaker 1: talked about in my video that I did on Saturday
Speaker 1: that are on on Friday, that the m v P
Speaker 1: was kind of up for grabs there for Johannice. If
Speaker 1: the Bucks could get the one seed. But the Bucks
Speaker 1: have a tough schedule remaining, and they lost again yesterday.
Speaker 1: They are struggling to to uh a Drew Holiday was
Speaker 1: out for that game, of course, but which has been
Speaker 1: an issue this entire season. But the Bucks have a chance,
Speaker 1: but they have a tough schedule. Look at Philly if
Speaker 1: they if they have an easy schedule here down the
Speaker 1: stretch and they just clean house on those games, you
Speaker 1: could see Philly get the one seed, which is important
Speaker 1: for a couple of different reasons. The same case I
Speaker 1: made for Janice for m v P getting the one
Speaker 1: seed also applies for Joel Embiid. So if the Sixers
Speaker 1: can eat out enough wins over this easy schedule down
Speaker 1: the stretch and they get the one seed, I could
Speaker 1: see a very strong case for Joel MVP Joe Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid for m v P. And then home court advantage.
Speaker 1: I talked all the time about how these playoffs series
Speaker 1: is are decided by the smallest of margins, and one
Speaker 1: mismatch here, one guy gets hurt, here, one role player
Speaker 1: goes down there, one pivotal game on a home floor
Speaker 1: versus on the road could be the difference between one
Speaker 1: team advancing and another team advancing. And obviously this is
Speaker 1: second round home court advantage on on at stake here.
Speaker 1: If Philly finishes first, they get home court in the
Speaker 1: second round and in the conference finals. If they finished fourth,
Speaker 1: which is where they're currently sitting now, they have to
Speaker 1: go on the road to Boston in the second round.
Speaker 1: Now they have to play potentially the Milwaukee Bucks. With
Speaker 1: Milwaukee having Game five and seven at home. That gets
Speaker 1: a lot tougher, so just keep an eye on that
Speaker 1: down the stretch. Could go either way, and I think
Speaker 1: it's really relevant for both the end VP race and
Speaker 1: for home court advantage over the playoff run. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. I sincerely apologize
Speaker 1: for the technical difficulties there at the beginning. We'll get
Speaker 1: it all sorted out and edited for you guys later today.
Speaker 1: We will be back on Tuesday for the next Laker game.
Speaker 1: We'll be going right after the final buzzer then. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your guys support, and we'll see you
Speaker 1: guys in a couple of days. Volume