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Speaker 1: The volume. All right, Well, go to hoops tonight. You're

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Speaker 1: at the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody, hope if you guys

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Speaker 1: are having an incredible week, got a jam packed show

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Speaker 1: for you guys today. We got some wild news this

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Speaker 1: morning when we woke up, very weird morning for me.

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Speaker 1: I woke up to my first like real snow day

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Speaker 1: in Denver. I woke up to over six inches of

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Speaker 1: snow around my house. My dogs were going crazy. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if I'm gonna be able to leave the

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Speaker 1: house today. We'll see how that goes. But I've heard

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Speaker 1: good things about the way that Denver cares for their roads.

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Speaker 1: But also woke up to the news that Chris Paul

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Speaker 1: is gonna be shipped away from the Los Angeles Clippers

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Speaker 1: at some point in the next few weeks. We got

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Speaker 1: an announcement saying that this is from Lawrence Frank. We

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Speaker 1: are parting ways with Chris and he will no longer

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Speaker 1: be with the team. We will work with him on

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Speaker 1: the next step of his career. And then he goes

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Speaker 1: on into some more details that we'll get into in

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Speaker 1: a minute of a Chris no longer with the Clippers.

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about how weird. This is why

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Speaker 1: cooler heads probably should have prevailed here, considering no one

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Speaker 1: actually is having fun and having a good time when

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Speaker 1: you're getting your butt kicked every night. And then I

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Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about some specific lineup

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Speaker 1: numbers that point me more towards the Stars when it

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Speaker 1: comes to the struggles that the Clippers are having. And

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Speaker 1: then after that we're gonna hit a couple of National

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Speaker 1: TV games from last night. So the New York Knicks

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Speaker 1: jumped the Boston Celtics early, but the Celtics pretty much

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Speaker 1: dominate them throughout the remainder of that game. Some really

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Speaker 1: fascinating shot creation from Jalen Brown, some exciting trends for

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Speaker 1: the Celtics in terms of the simple fact that, believe

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Speaker 1: it or not, even though the Celtics are thirtieth in

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Speaker 1: defensive rebounding percentage, they are winning the rebound margin in

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Speaker 1: a way that I want to dig into, thanks to

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Speaker 1: the effort of their athletic wings, guys like Jordan Walsh

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Speaker 1: and Hugo Gonzalez and Josh may Not so some Celtics talk. Also,

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Speaker 1: if you're a Nicks, if you're a skeptic in the

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Speaker 1: Knicks at any way, shape or form. Last night was

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Speaker 1: like just a giant advertisement for every single one of

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Speaker 1: the Knicks issues. We'll dig a little bit into that. Then,

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Speaker 1: at the tail end of the show, what was supposed

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Speaker 1: to be just a blowout as Oklahoma City goes into

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Speaker 1: Golden State with Steph Curry out of the lineup, turned

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Speaker 1: into another intense clutch basketball game where the Thunder just

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Speaker 1: played perfect basketball down the stretch. I want to dig

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Speaker 1: into some of the specifics there, just how good shake

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Speaker 1: out as Alexander has been in the clutch this season,

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Speaker 1: their role players, their ball movement, their willingness and to

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Speaker 1: make the right play and knock down shots, and some

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Speaker 1: exciting trends with the Oklahoma City Thunder. You guys are

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Speaker 1: the job. Before we get started. To subscribe to Hoops

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Speaker 1: Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.

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Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter, Underscore, json lts, you guys don't

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Speaker 1: missow announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed where you

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Speaker 1: get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful

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Speaker 1: if you leave a rating in a review. On that front,

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Speaker 1: Jackson is doing incredible work on our social media feeds

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Make sure you guys

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Speaker 1: follow us there for more content throughout the season. And

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Speaker 1: the last but not least, if you want to get

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Speaker 1: mailbag questions into our mail bag, make sure you go

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Speaker 1: into our full episodes on YouTube, scroll down Levy comment

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Speaker 1: and write mail bag with a colent. Write your comment

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Speaker 1: or your question and we'll get to them in our

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Speaker 1: Friday mail bags. Obviously we'll have a mailbag coming this

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Speaker 1: coming Friday. One last quick thing. Two last quick things. Actually,

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Speaker 1: make sure you like this video helps us a lot,

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Speaker 1: so if you just take a second to scroll down

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Speaker 1: and hit that like button, we'd really appreciate it. And

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Speaker 1: then lastly, we have our first playback stream of the week.

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Speaker 1: We're hitting two Eastern Conference Laker games this week, Lakers

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Speaker 1: Raptors tomorrow night and Laker Celtics on Friday night. I've

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Speaker 1: reached out to some people who cover the Raptors and Celtics.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to try to get some guests on so

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Speaker 1: that we can get some more joint coverage of the

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Speaker 1: two teams throughout the show from people that are intimately

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Speaker 1: involved with covering the Raptors and the Celtics. But at

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Speaker 1: the very least, we will be live on playback Thursday

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Speaker 1: night for Lakers RAP as well as Friday night for

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Speaker 1: Laker Celtics. Should be a couple of fun ones there.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So this is the

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Speaker 1: latest in a long line of hilarious treatment of stars

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Speaker 1: by the Clippers' front office. We all remember the Blake

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Speaker 1: Griffin fiasco and everything associated with that, the crazy meeting,

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Speaker 1: the t shirts that were printed, all of the hooplaine

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Speaker 1: basically fake investment, fake emotional investment, and Blake Griffin in

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Speaker 1: his future with the Clippers before they promptly shipp him

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Speaker 1: out of town, juxtaposed with the bizarre Kawhi Leonard aspiration

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Speaker 1: fiasco and the fact that he's been getting paid underneath

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Speaker 1: the table millions and millions and millions of dollars allegedly

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Speaker 1: as part of a cap circumvention scheme that just continues

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Speaker 1: to get more and more crazy the more details that

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Speaker 1: come out. And then four days ago, the Clippers team

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Speaker 1: account tweets a press conference clip of Chris Paul talking

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Speaker 1: about how much he loves it in Los Angeles, and

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Speaker 1: there's a quote of an actual statement in the tweet

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Speaker 1: from the Clippers that says CP three will end his

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Speaker 1: Hall of Fame career at home. Well not anymore. And

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Speaker 1: you know, we know there's going to be more to

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Speaker 1: this story as Chris Paul has been shipped home, and

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Speaker 1: like Laurence Frank for the Record has come out and

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Speaker 1: said that he's not blaming Chris Paul. We have read

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Speaker 1: the beginning of this quote at the start of the show,

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Speaker 1: but he says, we are parting ways with Chris and

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Speaker 1: he will no longer be with the team. We will

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Speaker 1: work with him on the next step of his career,

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Speaker 1: so they're going to find a new home for him.

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Speaker 1: But he also said Chris is a legendary Clipper who

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Speaker 1: at a historic career. And I want to make one

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Speaker 1: thing very clear. No one is blaming Chris for our underperformance,

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Speaker 1: accept responsibility for the record we have right now. There

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Speaker 1: are a lot of reasons why we've struggled. We're grateful

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Speaker 1: for the impact Chris has made on this franchise. We

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Speaker 1: ended up just before we started recording getting some more details.

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Speaker 1: Shan Sharania tweeted Chris Paul and his leadership style clashed

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Speaker 1: with the Clippers. Sources tel ESPN. Paul had been a

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Speaker 1: vote had been vocal in holding management, coaches and players accountable,

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Speaker 1: which the team felt became disruptive. Specifically, hy Lou was

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Speaker 1: not on speaking terms with Paul for several weeks. Chris

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Speaker 1: Haynes then ends up tweeting sources. Weeks ago, Chris Paul

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Speaker 1: requested to have a meeting with Tyrone Lou to discuss

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Speaker 1: allegations of being a negative presence on the team. Lou

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Speaker 1: refused to meet with him. Lawrence Frank traveled to Atlanta

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Speaker 1: to deliver the news of parting ways. Paul desired a

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Speaker 1: final season to be with the Clippers. Now, there's gonna

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Speaker 1: be a lot more that comes out about this. That

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Speaker 1: tweet from Chris Haynes is very clearly Chris Paul's perspective

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Speaker 1: on the situation. I'm sure there's more to it. One

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Speaker 1: of the biggest things that I think about there is

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Speaker 1: like they're getting smashed every night. They've lost fourteen of

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Speaker 1: their last sixteen games. Like, who's gonna have a good

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Speaker 1: attitude right now, who's gonna be all hunky dory smiley

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Speaker 1: and infusing positive energy into the situation. They suck. They're

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Speaker 1: playing trash basketball, right It's gonna be really hard to

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Speaker 1: keep a good attitude in a situation like that. We've

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Speaker 1: even seen James Harden and Kawhi Leonard themselves go into

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Speaker 1: postgame pressers and essentially be like the team's not good

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Speaker 1: enough and start talking about the role players. It's just

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Speaker 1: weird and so like, it's one of those things where

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Speaker 1: I kind of just feel like cooler heads should have prevailed.

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Speaker 1: And we don't know if what Chris Paul is essentially

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Speaker 1: channeling through Chris Haynes is true that he requested to

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Speaker 1: have a meeting with Tyron Lou but ultimately, like this

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Speaker 1: should have been one of those situations where people get

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Speaker 1: together and they go, look, I know you're pissed. I'm

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Speaker 1: pissed too, He's pissed. We're all pissed. We were a

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Speaker 1: legitimate championship contender last year and now we're a bad

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Speaker 1: basketball team. We're getting our butts kicked every single night,

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Speaker 1: even with our stars healthy. Like, this is just bad.

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Speaker 1: Let's find a way to kind of work this out

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Speaker 1: and try to move forward towards our goals, especially when

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Speaker 1: you you know, the last thing the Clippers need right

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Speaker 1: now is fewer good basketball players. So like, on a

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Speaker 1: certain level, I just wish cooler heads would have prevailed,

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Speaker 1: but it's just weird, and I'm sure we're gonna get

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Speaker 1: more details. I'm sure we're gonna get some sort of

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Speaker 1: detailed reporting that comes out from both the story over

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Speaker 1: the course of the next couple of days. We'll obviously

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Speaker 1: have more thoughts about that as it information comes out.

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Speaker 1: But what has happened to the Clippers to me is

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Speaker 1: pretty simple. It's an across the board declined from their

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Speaker 1: stars in combination with a lack of some key pieces

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Speaker 1: that contributed to the team last year. But I'm always

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Speaker 1: going to point towards the stars when the stars themselves

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Speaker 1: aren't able to leverage their gifts the way that they

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Speaker 1: typically do. There's a very simple stat to demonstrate this,

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Speaker 1: and I know Kawhi and James Harden are putting up

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Speaker 1: counting stats, but the actual shock creation data and especially

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Speaker 1: their effort on the defensive end, has not been the same.

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Speaker 1: And there has been a massive drop off in the

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Speaker 1: defensive performance of this Clippers team, which is undercutting any

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Speaker 1: sort of statistical success that James Harden and Kwhi Leonard

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Speaker 1: might be having so in twenty twenty five. So last season,

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Speaker 1: when Kawhi, Leonard, James Harden and if it's Zubots were

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Speaker 1: on the floor together, they outscored teams by fourteen points

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Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions, a plus fourteen net rating, super impressive.

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Speaker 1: They had a one oh eight defensive rating. That's elite.

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Speaker 1: They were elite on the offensive end, they were over

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Speaker 1: one twenties, like right around one twenty one in offensive rating.

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Speaker 1: That same trio. This year, that same group Kawhi, Leonard,

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Speaker 1: James Harden and Beats the Zoubots all on the floor

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Speaker 1: together are getting outscored by ten points per one hundred possessions.

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Speaker 1: They have a one twenty seven defensive rating and their

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Speaker 1: offenses average. So yeah, Jason, Kawhi, Leonard, and James Harden

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Speaker 1: are putting up monster numbers. Their lineups are not scoring

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Speaker 1: nearly as well as they did last season. And of

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Speaker 1: course there's context here. The loss of Norman Powell obviously hurts.

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Speaker 1: I don't even blame the Clippers for that. They were

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Speaker 1: in a weird situation with their timeline, or it didn't

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Speaker 1: really make sense to tie up a bunch of salary

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Speaker 1: in Norman Powell. The move to kind of pivot to

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Speaker 1: Bradley Peel as Bradley Peel Bradley Beal as a stop

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Speaker 1: gap solution. It was defensible in this in the moment. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: having no Norman Powell and no Bradley Beal obviously hurts them.

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Speaker 1: Norman was such an important offensive weapon for them. I

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Speaker 1: think the loss of Derek Jones Junior has been bad

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Speaker 1: for their defense. Although here's the thing. Even when Derek

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Speaker 1: Jones was on the floor to start the year, it's

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Speaker 1: not like they were guarding in those minutes. And that's

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Speaker 1: why I keep coming back to the stars like Chris

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Speaker 1: Dunn and John Collins and Nick Batoom. Is it the

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Speaker 1: same high level role player core that they had last year.

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Speaker 1: It's obviously not due to the injuries and the loss

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Speaker 1: of Norman Powell, but you should still be able to

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Speaker 1: win your minutes with James Harden Kawhi Leonard, Chris Dunn,

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Speaker 1: John Collins and a Vitza Zubats on the floor. And

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Speaker 1: that lineup is getting ran minus seven net this season.

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Speaker 1: That five man grouping. When you're getting shit canned with

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Speaker 1: your best three players on the floor with league average

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Speaker 1: role players around them, I'm not gonna blame the role players.

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Speaker 1: It starts with the Stars. They're not playing any defense,

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Speaker 1: the team as a unit isn't scoring as well as

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Speaker 1: they used to, and now they're pouting after games and

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Speaker 1: blaming the role players. To me, it's been all of it.

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Speaker 1: It's been the drop off from the core foundational stars.

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Speaker 1: It's been the injury to Bradley Beal in the context

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Speaker 1: of losing Norman Powell. It's all of it combined. But

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Speaker 1: in those situations, I always think it's pretty lame to

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Speaker 1: go to the dudes who make very little money and

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Speaker 1: the dudes that have small roles and be like, it's

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Speaker 1: your fault, we're bad. When the dudes that are making

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Speaker 1: all the money that are on the floor and they're

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Speaker 1: not doing the same level of work that they did

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Speaker 1: last year, I'm gonna always look at the stars in

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Speaker 1: a situation like that. I could not have been more

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Speaker 1: wrong about the Clippers this season. We're gonna do a

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Speaker 1: prediction check in soon. This is something that I think

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Speaker 1: is fun because there have been like several predictions this

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Speaker 1: year that I've been like dead on about, and there's

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Speaker 1: been several that I've been dead wrong about, and so

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Speaker 1: I think it'd be fun to kind of go back

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Speaker 1: and look at all of the different predictions I made

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Speaker 1: this offseason and how things are going on those fronts.

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Speaker 1: We're going to do that at some point down the

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Speaker 1: line in the next week or two. But this one

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Speaker 1: in particular, I said, I thought that the Clippers, beyond

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Speaker 1: the Houston OKC Denver tier, had the best chance to

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Speaker 1: like rack up regular season wins and get that fourth

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Speaker 1: seed or be a team that has home court in

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Speaker 1: the first round, because I believed in their depth, because

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Speaker 1: I believed in the compatibility excuse me, of all the

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Speaker 1: different types of players that they have on that roster. Literally,

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Speaker 1: one of my worst takes ever could not have been

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Speaker 1: more wrong. They're just bad, man, And again, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: a Chris Paul issue, And like, I just feel like

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Speaker 1: cooler heads should have prevailed here, because now you're adding

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Speaker 1: insult to injury. Literally, the injury being this basketball team

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Speaker 1: being bad, and the insult being you taking arguably the

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Speaker 1: best Clipper ever and trashing him and kicking him off

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Speaker 1: the team. And it's just really unfortunate. All right, Let's

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Speaker 1: get into a couple of basketball games from last night.

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Speaker 1: gambler or start with Nick Celtics. Really a dominant performance

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Speaker 1: from the Celtics after a hot Knicks start. If it

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Speaker 1: wasn't for Mikale Bridges just being like an absolute laser

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Speaker 1: off the catch, even over contests from three, Celtics probably

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Speaker 1: win this game by fifteen twenty points. And shout out

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Speaker 1: to Michale Bridges. He's shooting like nine percent better from

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Speaker 1: three this year than he did last year. It's every

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Speaker 1: time he rises up. I just feel like it's going

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Speaker 1: in this season and that has been a big boost

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Speaker 1: to the Knicks offense. But the Celtics, after getting off

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Speaker 1: to a rough start, really played some great basketball down

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Speaker 1: the stretch of this game to get a big win

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Speaker 1: versus the Knicks. I thought Joe Miszula showed good patience

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Speaker 1: with his game plan. I get a couple of things

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Speaker 1: early on, like he had Nimi Kita guarding Josh Hart

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Speaker 1: and just sagging off in the paint and heart was

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Speaker 1: burning him in the first quarter in threes and quick

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Speaker 1: little drives and little mid range jump shots, and it

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00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:07,120
Speaker 1: was not working for Boston. Early in the game, they

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Speaker 1: were sending aggressive help on Karl Anthony Towns's drives in

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Speaker 1: post up. As soon as he put the ball on

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00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:15,440
Speaker 1: the floor, they'd be swarming around him trying to turn

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Speaker 1: him over and force him into into bad misses. And

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00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:22,320
Speaker 1: that wasn't working for the first like quarter and a half,

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Speaker 1: and the Nicks ended up leading by as much as fourteen.

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Speaker 1: Early in the game, Kat was scoring sometimes over double

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Speaker 1: and triple teams, Josh Hart hitting shots, Jalen Brunson got

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Speaker 1: off to a good start, like a lot of things

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Speaker 1: went the next way early, and also Jaln Brown, who

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00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:39,840
Speaker 1: had a fantastic game which we're gonna get into, but

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00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:41,360
Speaker 1: he got off to a rough start, and so the

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00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:44,520
Speaker 1: Nicks ended up getting off to that fourteen point lead.

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Speaker 1: But the Celtics just kept playing hard and they kept

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Speaker 1: to their game plan. Like Kat the rest of the game.

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Speaker 1: He had a nice box score game because he did

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Speaker 1: a bunch of damage off the ball, like some offensive rebounds,

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Speaker 1: a couple of like driving kick sequences where he just

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Speaker 1: ended up wide open underneath the basket, and the Celtics

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Speaker 1: ended up going centerless for the majority of this game,

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Speaker 1: which I which ended up also benefiting CAT in some

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00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:07,600
Speaker 1: of those like dunker spot offensive rebound sequences, But as

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Speaker 1: far as his one on ones went, or I should

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00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:12,320
Speaker 1: say his individual attacks those ISOs in his post ups.

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Speaker 1: Over the course of the game, he just kept trying

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Speaker 1: to shoot through double teams, and he was turning the

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00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:19,679
Speaker 1: ball over and having some bad misses, and overall, I

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Speaker 1: thought that their coverage in set half court situation started

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Speaker 1: to work pretty well against Cat, And then Josh Hart

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Speaker 1: missed his last three threes and over the final three

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Speaker 1: quarters of the game was a minus thirteen. So the

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00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:33,639
Speaker 1: game plan there ended up working as time went on,

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Speaker 1: albeit in some stretches without a center on the floor.

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Speaker 1: But Jalen Brown eventually found his footing and he ended

347
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Speaker 1: up having just a really really nice shot creation game

348
00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,840
Speaker 1: just completely picked apart the Knicks defense, mostly with methodical

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Speaker 1: matchup attacking, relentless attacking Jalen Brunson in action early in

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Speaker 1: the game. The Knicks were willing to essentially concede that

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Speaker 1: switch and let Jalen work against Jalen and Jalen Brown

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00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:02,359
Speaker 1: just bullied him. And he's been so incredibly comfortable in

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Speaker 1: the mid range this year, just kind of making some

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Speaker 1: sort of aggressive move to get down to that like

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00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:08,600
Speaker 1: ten to twelve foot range, and then just little quick

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Speaker 1: step backs or little short right shoulder fades and little

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00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:14,479
Speaker 1: step through short jump shots and floaters and things like that,

358
00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:18,280
Speaker 1: and he's torching teams on that. He's shooting fifty five

359
00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:21,760
Speaker 1: percent this season, forty seven for eighty five on jump

360
00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:27,199
Speaker 1: shots inside of seventeen feet and Jalen Brown scored directly

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00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:31,000
Speaker 1: on Jalen Brunson one on one five times in this game,

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00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:34,560
Speaker 1: including a nasty blowby dunk in transition where he got

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00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:36,720
Speaker 1: him with a little crossover and went up and dunked

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00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:40,320
Speaker 1: in traffic. He picked on Tyler Kollok on a little

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00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:42,719
Speaker 1: transition drive, beat him to the basket, just bullied him

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Speaker 1: with his left shoulder, got all the way to the basket.

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00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:47,400
Speaker 1: He picked on Mitchell Robinson in a switch, mixed him

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00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:49,320
Speaker 1: up with a series of off the dribble moves and

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00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:51,359
Speaker 1: hit a little mid range pull up. He was picking

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00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:54,240
Speaker 1: on Cat and ball screens, beating him in deep drop coverage.

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00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:56,159
Speaker 1: He had him in a ISO one on one off

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00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,040
Speaker 1: the right wing, and Cat was just sagging off and

373
00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:00,399
Speaker 1: he just did a little methodical, little slow jack step,

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00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:05,359
Speaker 1: rose up and hit a three. Just consistently beating the

375
00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:09,520
Speaker 1: weaker Knicks defenders in space over and over again. He

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00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:13,320
Speaker 1: made it abundantly clear through those first three quarters that

377
00:19:13,359 --> 00:19:16,480
Speaker 1: he was going to be deliberate about hunting New York's

378
00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,040
Speaker 1: weakest defenders and scoring on them. So as a result

379
00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:22,040
Speaker 1: down the stretch, when Jalen Brown started hunting Jalen Brunson

380
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:24,560
Speaker 1: in screens again in the fourth quarter, the Knicks just

381
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:29,520
Speaker 1: started blitzing and hard doubling, and so Jalen just kept

382
00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:32,040
Speaker 1: hitting the short roller and then we got some really

383
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,080
Speaker 1: fascinating four on three sequences led by a lot of

384
00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:38,520
Speaker 1: good short roll passing from Jordan Walsh and from Josh Maynott,

385
00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:41,320
Speaker 1: and the Celtics ended up getting wide open threes every

386
00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:44,000
Speaker 1: single time out of those Jalen Brown blitzes in doubles,

387
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:46,480
Speaker 1: they made several of them, and they ended up winning

388
00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:50,960
Speaker 1: the game. And that's the impressive piece of this. It's

389
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,119
Speaker 1: the game management from Jalen Brown. That's the growth that

390
00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:56,360
Speaker 1: you're excited to see if you're a Celtics fan. Obviously,

391
00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:59,600
Speaker 1: an exciting game box score wise, I think he only

392
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:01,800
Speaker 1: had four assists. That doesn't tell the full story when

393
00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 1: you're getting trapped and they're playing four on three and

394
00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:06,160
Speaker 1: the assist is going to the short role man some

395
00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:09,959
Speaker 1: really high level playmaking. It was impressive game management because

396
00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:12,520
Speaker 1: of that deliberate method with which he was attacking. We

397
00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:14,919
Speaker 1: talked about this a lot, but like having intentionality on

398
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:17,480
Speaker 1: offense instead of just playing for the sake of playing,

399
00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:19,399
Speaker 1: where it would drive me crazy when I'd watch a

400
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:22,320
Speaker 1: team like Orlando and it's like, why is Palo isoting

401
00:20:22,359 --> 00:20:25,320
Speaker 1: bam Adebayo on a switch? Like that's just bad process.

402
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:26,760
Speaker 1: Like even if you want to get to your mid

403
00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:29,879
Speaker 1: range game, like do something early in the possession so

404
00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:32,080
Speaker 1: that you're not attacking the other team's best defender, Like,

405
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:33,439
Speaker 1: it just doesn't make a lot of sense. That's a

406
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,560
Speaker 1: lack of intentionality, right, And like that is really the

407
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:39,040
Speaker 1: big difference. If Jalen Brown goes like I'm just going

408
00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:41,440
Speaker 1: to try to score on Mikale Bridges over and over again,

409
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:43,760
Speaker 1: it ain't gonna work out, Right, There was a level

410
00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:48,840
Speaker 1: of intentionality the attacking of the weaker Knicks defenders in space,

411
00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:50,720
Speaker 1: doing it in the middle of the floor where it's

412
00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,919
Speaker 1: hard to double team having the spacing set up, especially

413
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:55,720
Speaker 1: when the blitzer started coming, so that you can quit

414
00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:59,320
Speaker 1: capitalize on the four on three. Just really deliberate, high

415
00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:02,480
Speaker 1: level offense of basketball from Jalen Brown. And again, this

416
00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:05,600
Speaker 1: is a Celtics team that over I think they're seven

417
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:07,320
Speaker 1: to two in their last nine games, and they have

418
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:10,440
Speaker 1: like a one to twenty six offensive rating in those

419
00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,119
Speaker 1: nine games, and Jalen Brown deserves the line's share of

420
00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:15,320
Speaker 1: the credit for that, for the damage that he's done

421
00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:18,400
Speaker 1: matchup attacking and getting them into their driving kick sequences

422
00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:21,399
Speaker 1: that can unlock their high level three point shooting. In

423
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:25,280
Speaker 1: Jalen's last fourteen games, he's averaging thirty one points, seven

424
00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:29,040
Speaker 1: rebounds in five assists, just doing phenomenal work. He's uh.

425
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:31,159
Speaker 1: I was looking at some shot creation data. He's been

426
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:34,440
Speaker 1: the fourth best high volume ISO guy in the league

427
00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:36,520
Speaker 1: this year. There are twelve players in the NBA that

428
00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:39,280
Speaker 1: I've run at least one hundred ISOs including passes already.

429
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,480
Speaker 1: He's fourth on that list. Only Luca Shay and Julius

430
00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:45,960
Speaker 1: Randall have been better. He's been getting just over one

431
00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:50,879
Speaker 1: point one points per possession on ISOs including passes. Jalen Brown,

432
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,040
Speaker 1: fueled again by that high level shooting there in the

433
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,840
Speaker 1: mid range. Derek White poured in another twenty two. You

434
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,639
Speaker 1: remember how like inefficient he was to start this season.

435
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:01,720
Speaker 1: He's eighteen points per game in his last eight games

436
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,840
Speaker 1: on fifty eight percent for shooting, so way more efficient

437
00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:07,840
Speaker 1: than he was last year in this stretch I shouldn't

438
00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:10,600
Speaker 1: say last year to start the year. And that eighteen

439
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,439
Speaker 1: points per game number is actually ahead of where he

440
00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,119
Speaker 1: was last year in his scoring volume. So finally starting

441
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:19,280
Speaker 1: to kind of find his comfort in his more you know,

442
00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:23,000
Speaker 1: high usage offensive role in this particular team construct. But

443
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:24,560
Speaker 1: I want to zoom in on the Celtics role player

444
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:28,359
Speaker 1: wings for a minute, specifically Jordan Walsh, Josh Maynot, and

445
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:33,320
Speaker 1: Hugo Gonzales. So obviously their size, athleticism an activity are

446
00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:36,080
Speaker 1: vital to the Celtics because of their lack of a center.

447
00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:39,480
Speaker 1: Rotation right like Cada has been good for the Celtics

448
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 1: this year, but it's been rough once you get past that,

449
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:43,120
Speaker 1: and so the Celtics have started to go a little

450
00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:47,760
Speaker 1: bit more and more into centerless looks. They're actually they've

451
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:50,879
Speaker 1: run lineups without a center for three hundred and twelve

452
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:53,600
Speaker 1: possessions this season, according to Cleaning the Last, and they

453
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:58,320
Speaker 1: have a plus nine net rating in those minutes without

454
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:00,800
Speaker 1: a center all offense. By the way, they're they're scoring

455
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:03,080
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty five points per one hundred possessions

456
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 1: in those centerless groups, just spacing the floor with tons

457
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:08,679
Speaker 1: of shooting and allowing Jalen Brown to hunt matchups as

458
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:11,240
Speaker 1: they get the defense into rotation. The Celtics ended up

459
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,639
Speaker 1: playing centerless for twenty seven of the forty eight minutes

460
00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:16,800
Speaker 1: last night, So definitely something to keep an eye on

461
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:18,680
Speaker 1: with Boston is they're going to kind of lean into

462
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:21,240
Speaker 1: that more and more. When you're small, that's going to

463
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:24,639
Speaker 1: dictate swarming, right Like you, if you're smaller, you have

464
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:26,560
Speaker 1: to be faster and you've got to cover a lot

465
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:29,639
Speaker 1: of ground in rotation to feel bigger than you actually

466
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:32,639
Speaker 1: are by being able to like double a guy like

467
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,159
Speaker 1: Cat Samwich, rebound, do all these different kinds of things,

468
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:39,880
Speaker 1: and it just puts a lot of emphasis on covering ground,

469
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:43,639
Speaker 1: right and like having athletes that play hard, that's the

470
00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:46,080
Speaker 1: way that you get this done right. And again, like

471
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 1: the Celtics have not been necessarily winning games with defense,

472
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:52,159
Speaker 1: but you have to get a certain number of stops

473
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: to win games, and those guys deserve a lot of

474
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 1: credit for that, Like they're getting major on ball assignments.

475
00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: Jordan Walsh saw a ton of Brunson in this game

476
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,440
Speaker 1: and did phenomenal work played him and do an inefficient

477
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 1: shooting night. The swarming of cat and like help and

478
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:07,560
Speaker 1: double team situations rotating out the shooters off of it.

479
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 1: That is a lot of those role player wings doing

480
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 1: the work. And most importantly, I want to actually move

481
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:14,879
Speaker 1: to the other end of the floor here. Those guys

482
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,680
Speaker 1: are killing teams on the offensive glass. Just those three

483
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:23,960
Speaker 1: guys Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez and Josh Maynot had

484
00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 1: eight offensive rebounds last night. Just between the three of them,

485
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 1: they had twelve points just on easy little putbacks. It

486
00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:35,439
Speaker 1: was literally the difference in the game last night. Like

487
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,679
Speaker 1: shot goes up and Jordan Wallash just runs right by

488
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,600
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson for a putback, or Josh may Not just

489
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 1: runs right by his man for a putback, or Hugo

490
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:45,840
Speaker 1: Gonzalez just runs right by his man for a putback.

491
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:50,280
Speaker 1: Like they're turning misses into layups because those guys keep

492
00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:52,720
Speaker 1: beating everybody to the ball. And again, the Celtics shoot

493
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,720
Speaker 1: a lot of threes, which means a lot of long rebounds.

494
00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:59,640
Speaker 1: They consistently corner crash they beat teams to those long

495
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 1: rebound and I've actually found this to be a really

496
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,679
Speaker 1: fascinating trend with the Celtics because the Celtics are the

497
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 1: worst defensive rebounding team in the league. They're thirtieth in

498
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,159
Speaker 1: defensive rebound percentage, which is to be expected, right, they

499
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:14,000
Speaker 1: don't have the front court talent for it, like Nimi

500
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:17,240
Speaker 1: Keita's I guess you could call him the starting caliber center,

501
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 1: but certainly in like the bottom third of the league

502
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,720
Speaker 1: in terms of starting caliber centers. And then you don't

503
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: have another guy who's really a quality rotation level center.

504
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 1: You don't really have a traditional power forward. You have

505
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:31,119
Speaker 1: a bunch of bench level dudes that are playing that

506
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 1: power forward role. You don't have the front court talent

507
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:38,080
Speaker 1: to be a good defensive rebounding team. Yet they're still

508
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 1: grabbing just under fifty percent of available rebounds because they

509
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,800
Speaker 1: do so much damage on the offensive glass. They're rebounding

510
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,359
Speaker 1: thirty three percent of their own misses, which ranks ninth

511
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:51,200
Speaker 1: in the NBA, and again there's a different dynamic that's

512
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: taking place here. So many of these Celtics offensive rebounds

513
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:56,439
Speaker 1: are dudes crashing out of the corner or off the

514
00:25:56,440 --> 00:26:00,880
Speaker 1: wing and literally getting layups, like he grab it put

515
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:03,919
Speaker 1: it right back in underneath the basket because they space

516
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: you out so much and then they crash. There's like runways,

517
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 1: legit runways for these forwards to run in and grab

518
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 1: an offensive rebound and put it back on the other

519
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 1: end of the floor. The Celtics are certainly trying to

520
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,680
Speaker 1: get defensive rebounds. They're swarming, and so there's a lot

521
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: of plays where like a big dude underneath the basket

522
00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:24,440
Speaker 1: gets an offensive rebound on the Celtics, but he's immediately

523
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:27,159
Speaker 1: surrounded by three dudes and he either throws up a

524
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,960
Speaker 1: putback that he misses or has to kick the ball out.

525
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:32,480
Speaker 1: And if he kicks the ball out, the Celtics can

526
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:34,960
Speaker 1: reset their defense and they have a better chance to

527
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: get a stop compared to one of those putbacks. And

528
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:41,160
Speaker 1: so this is the most fascinating stat about the Celtics

529
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 1: rebounding that demonstrates this concept of the Celtics getting a

530
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 1: lot offensive rebounds that are easy putbacks and then making

531
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: sure the offensive rebounds they concede are in swarms that

532
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 1: are leading to either misses or kickouts to where they

533
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:59,160
Speaker 1: can reset their defense. The Celtics are winning the second

534
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:04,760
Speaker 1: point a second chance points margin. The Celtics score seventeen

535
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:09,639
Speaker 1: point six second chance points every game. Their opponents score

536
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: seventeen point one second chance points every game. They are

537
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:19,960
Speaker 1: winning the second chance points margin. It's it's it's unbelievable

538
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 1: to me. It's such a fascinating, like little bit of

539
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: basketball like margin play. And I want to shout out

540
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:29,439
Speaker 1: Joe Mazoula on this, because like you're sitting there and

541
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,959
Speaker 1: you're and you're trying to determine how you're gonna win

542
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,879
Speaker 1: basketball games and how to construct lineups, and and you know,

543
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 1: obviously every team it's you know, in the same way

544
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 1: that in the NFL you're looking at like offense, defense,

545
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 1: special teams and limiting turnovers. Similarly in the NBA you're

546
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 1: looking at like your half court offense, your half court defense,

547
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:48,679
Speaker 1: your transition defense, and you're looking at margins. Are we

548
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:52,040
Speaker 1: gonna do damage as a turnover force, turnovers, get out

549
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:54,119
Speaker 1: and transition kind of team? Are we gonna do damage

550
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 1: on the offensive glass? Are we gonna do damage by

551
00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: you know, winning the free throw margin, by not fouling

552
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:01,159
Speaker 1: and by getting to the foul line a lot. Like

553
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: there's all these like different little margins you're looking to hunt.

554
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:06,919
Speaker 1: And if you were the Celtics coming into the season,

555
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 1: and if you're a Celtics fan, and I just went

556
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: up to you and I was like, you guys are

557
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:13,400
Speaker 1: gonna literally win the second chance points battle this year.

558
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,160
Speaker 1: None of you would have believed me because they don't

559
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:18,600
Speaker 1: have the front court talent to be a good defensive

560
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:22,000
Speaker 1: rebounding team and they're getting destroyed on the defensive class

561
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:25,120
Speaker 1: like it's a problem. And yet they're turning that into

562
00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:28,240
Speaker 1: something in their favor by having these high motor wings

563
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:32,119
Speaker 1: that are consistently crashing and capitalizing on the attention that

564
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:34,919
Speaker 1: their stars draw, and they're getting these runways to just

565
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: grab the ball and put it right back up in

566
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 1: the basket. It's a really fascinating trend. And again, just

567
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 1: shout out to Joe Mizoula for that. Again, the Celtics

568
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:43,960
Speaker 1: seven and two in their last nine games, number one

569
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:45,520
Speaker 1: offense in the NBA, and that span a one to

570
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:47,960
Speaker 1: twenty six offensive rating, just some really impressive work from

571
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,440
Speaker 1: them on the knickt front. Again, I don't want to

572
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 1: overreact to a single regular season game, but that was

573
00:28:55,440 --> 00:29:01,280
Speaker 1: quite literally the embodiment of every single negative Knicks talking point. So,

574
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 1: for instance, the easy entry points into their defense, Boston

575
00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 1: was able to easily just attack Jalen Brunson, score on

576
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: him one on one a bunch, and then draw second

577
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 1: defenders that unlocked open shots as the defense was in rotation.

578
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 1: Not just that, but like targeting Karl Anthony Towns in action,

579
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: beating him in a deep drop coverage, beating him one

580
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 1: on one the way that Jaylen Brown did. We've talked

581
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 1: about Kat's mistake making on defense like Jalen Brunson. Jaylen

582
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 1: Brunston ended up making a lot of mistakes last night himself.

583
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:35,880
Speaker 1: He ended up missing a lot of those box outs

584
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 1: that led to easy putbacks. But generally speaking, in like

585
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:41,960
Speaker 1: a big playoff game, Jalen Brunson is like pretty attentive,

586
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: and it's more just like he has physical limitations. But

587
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 1: then you have this other type of bad defender, which

588
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 1: is like the mistake making like pays no attention to

589
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:52,760
Speaker 1: the defensive game plan type of defender and Kat, and

590
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 1: we saw a bunch of examples of that last night.

591
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 1: Kat was hilarious to watch on defense in that game.

592
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: It feels like he's freelancing all the time. Like there

593
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: was a sequence of ball screens at the beginning of

594
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 1: the game that I thought were a good example of this.

595
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:08,760
Speaker 1: So Derek White comes off of a ball screen off

596
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:10,880
Speaker 1: the top one of the first possessions of the game,

597
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: and Kat's just like, go ahead, shoot it. He's second

598
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 1: way back, He's like back almost at like the charge circle,

599
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: and he's kind of just standing there and he just

600
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,360
Speaker 1: lets Derek White take a pull up three off off

601
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 1: of a ball screen. Derek White misses the shot. And

602
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: then the very next two ball screens Derek White and

603
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: Me Mei Kayta ball screens that Boston runs. Kat like

604
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:35,840
Speaker 1: on the first one comes up in like a catch.

605
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 1: Heage so he's like not quite up at the level

606
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 1: but pretty close and easy easily lets Nimi get behind him.

607
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:44,720
Speaker 1: Derek White just pitches it over the top, Nemi gets

608
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 1: a dunk, and then on the third one, he like

609
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 1: closes out at Derek White, like Derek White comes over

610
00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:52,640
Speaker 1: the top of the screen and he like sprints out

611
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 1: at Derek White, who then just throws it right to

612
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 1: me Kata and gets a dunk. So we got three

613
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 1: ball screens between Derek White and Kata, and we got

614
00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:04,280
Speaker 1: three completely different coverages from Cat to start the game.

615
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 1: Because there's no game plan discipline, he's just doing his

616
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:13,800
Speaker 1: own thing. It's freelancing in crunch time, which again because

617
00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: Michel Bridges made every damn shot he took, the knicks

618
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: were right there, they were within three late in the game,

619
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 1: and like there were just a couple of these hilarious

620
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:24,160
Speaker 1: mistakes from Cat. There was this play where Jalen Brown

621
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: gets downhill and a screen off of a this little

622
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:31,080
Speaker 1: spin off of Jordan Clarkson, and he loses his balance

623
00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 1: on the move and so he's like falling down and

624
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:35,640
Speaker 1: he's like drifting away all the way out kind of

625
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: past the left block, and he's just kind of throwing

626
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: up like a bullshit little right handed floater that has

627
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 1: like no chance of going in because he's falling over

628
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:45,960
Speaker 1: and Kat is not there. Kat's kind of back around

629
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:48,240
Speaker 1: the basket. He had stunted up at Jalen Brown, which

630
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:51,240
Speaker 1: made him make a countermove, and Jalen had kind of

631
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:53,360
Speaker 1: gotten away from him, but again Jalen was falling over

632
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:55,960
Speaker 1: and so Kat's there and he has a decision to make.

633
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 1: He can either turn around and box out Jordan Walsh

634
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,239
Speaker 1: and get the rebound after Jalen misses this crazy one

635
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 1: leg floater that he's taking, or he can do what

636
00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 1: he ended up doing, which was take a step towards

637
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:08,480
Speaker 1: Jalen where he's not even close to Jalen, like he's

638
00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 1: not in position to contest the shot at all, jumps

639
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 1: over towards Jalen. It just kind of goes like this

640
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 1: and just like waves both of his arms up in

641
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 1: the air, gets himself out of position. Jordan Walsh boom

642
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 1: put back and it's like it's like those kinds of

643
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:26,960
Speaker 1: little decisions hurt the team. Jordan Walsh has made three

644
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 1: corner threes all season on nine attempts. There's a play

645
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:34,840
Speaker 1: where he catches it open in the left corner and

646
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:37,720
Speaker 1: Kat chases him off the line like he's Steph Curry,

647
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 1: goes flying out to the corner, jumps out of his shoes.

648
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: Jordan Walsh just easily rips the clothes out and gets

649
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:47,600
Speaker 1: a lamp. You're like, what are you doing? And It's

650
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 1: like when you combine that the legit mismatches that you

651
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:55,440
Speaker 1: can hunt, which involves both Kat and Jalen Brunson, but

652
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:57,920
Speaker 1: also when you have a guy that's legitimately one of

653
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 1: the most mistake prone defenders I've ever watched, with absolutely

654
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 1: no discipline within the defensive game plan, it's really difficult

655
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,880
Speaker 1: to overcome. All of that was on display last night

656
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,000
Speaker 1: against the Celtics. On offense, we saw some of the

657
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,240
Speaker 1: other things too, like Jalen Brunson kind of struggling to

658
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:17,360
Speaker 1: score efficiently against more of like a swarming athletic perimeter.

659
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 1: Look Karl Anthony Town struggling with double teams, teams putting

660
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: their center on Josh Harten Daringham to shoot, which again

661
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 1: the Knicks ended up burning in the first quarter, but

662
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:28,840
Speaker 1: not for the rest of the game. Again, if it

663
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:32,479
Speaker 1: wasn't for Michale Bridges, that's probably a blowout last night,

664
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:35,360
Speaker 1: a fifteen to twenty point win for Boston. Now, to

665
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 1: be clear, none of this necessarily changes my opinion as

666
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 1: it pertains to the Knicks. The decline, excuse me of

667
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 1: Cleveland has just kind of made it look like every

668
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 1: team at the top of the East is flawed in

669
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:51,840
Speaker 1: one way or another. So, you know, I don't want

670
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:53,200
Speaker 1: to just sit here and pretend like the Knicks are

671
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 1: the only team at the top of the East that

672
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,000
Speaker 1: has issues. They're not. All these teams have issues, and

673
00:33:57,040 --> 00:33:58,960
Speaker 1: I would argue that they have as good a chance

674
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:00,920
Speaker 1: as anybody to win this come Renference. It's wide open.

675
00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 1: It's basically there for anybody to win. But like every year,

676
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:06,960
Speaker 1: when I start to buy into the Knicks a little bit,

677
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 1: the same three or four issues come up to the surface,

678
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:12,440
Speaker 1: and it just is one of those things that I

679
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:16,359
Speaker 1: think is like a insurmountable barrier between them being one

680
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,640
Speaker 1: of these like second tier teams and a legitimate team

681
00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:21,400
Speaker 1: that you feel like has a shot to win the title.

682
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:31,120
Speaker 1: All Right, before we get out of here tonight, I

683
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:34,279
Speaker 1: wanted to talk briefly about what the Thunder ended up

684
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:36,120
Speaker 1: doing to the Warriors and crunch time last night. So

685
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 1: Thunder Warriors went about as you would have expected in

686
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 1: the first half with Steph Curry out, but then the

687
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,480
Speaker 1: Warriors ended up catching fire in that second half. The

688
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 1: you know, we got a Pat Spencer show. He was

689
00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: getting like one on one buckets, like hitting tough shots

690
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 1: to eat like a little right shoulder fade away over

691
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 1: Chet Holmgren on the right block. That was an insane shot.

692
00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 1: Draymond Green's hitting threes, Gary Payton's hitting threes pods hits

693
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:01,440
Speaker 1: like a bomb, and the third quarter like a leaning,

694
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: drifting bomb from like thirty feet. Jonathan Kamena is getting

695
00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 1: in on the action, hitting threes, running action with Seth Curry.

696
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 1: Seth Curry ends up getting hot all of a sudden.

697
00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 1: The Warriors had a four point lead in the kind

698
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 1: like earlyish part of the middle part of the fourth quarter,

699
00:35:17,600 --> 00:35:20,399
Speaker 1: and then the Thunder just played perfect basketball from there

700
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,480
Speaker 1: and ended up winning by twelve. The Warriors went zone

701
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,360
Speaker 1: during this stretch and it briefly flustered the Thunder, but

702
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:28,680
Speaker 1: then they methodically broke him down. In crunch time. They

703
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 1: got a little pass to the middle to Case and

704
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 1: Wallace and Chet just kind of relocates right to the

705
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:34,880
Speaker 1: top of the key, pitch it back to Chet. He

706
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 1: knocks down to three. Aj Mitchell beats the zone just

707
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:39,919
Speaker 1: by driving off the wing and hitting like a little

708
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:42,920
Speaker 1: left a left handed scoop shot over Draymond Green. Then

709
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:44,640
Speaker 1: the Warriors bail on the zone and they go one

710
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:47,920
Speaker 1: on one or man to man, excuse me, and Shade

711
00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 1: just starts relentlessly hunting Buddy. Heeled walks him down for

712
00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 1: a couple little elbow jumpers there on the left side.

713
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,920
Speaker 1: HiT's like a nasty step back three off of the

714
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,360
Speaker 1: right wing. That step back has become just such a

715
00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:02,080
Speaker 1: reliable shot for Shay. At the end of the game,

716
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 1: something I want to talk about in a little bit,

717
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 1: he had a really nice piece of advantage creation where

718
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:09,239
Speaker 1: he gets Buddy out on the right wing, snatched left

719
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 1: right crossover just toasts him off the dribble. The entire

720
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,759
Speaker 1: Warriors defense just kind of rotates right low man steps over.

721
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:16,919
Speaker 1: They rotate on the weak side, the left wing is open.

722
00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:20,680
Speaker 1: Jdub's there, Shay just whips a cross court pass that

723
00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:23,480
Speaker 1: hits JDub right in the hands. Extra pass Isa Joe

724
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,000
Speaker 1: in the corner he knocks down at three. JDub himself

725
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:27,840
Speaker 1: got in on the action with like a really tough,

726
00:36:28,239 --> 00:36:30,440
Speaker 1: driving right handed layup that he scooped high off of

727
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:32,239
Speaker 1: the glass and then on the other end of the floor.

728
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:35,560
Speaker 1: I mean, i'llbeit against the limited Warriors lineup just stop

729
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,000
Speaker 1: after stop after stop after stop in the thunder end

730
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,239
Speaker 1: up winning like twelve, he had another game again like

731
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:44,520
Speaker 1: As the schedule has gotten tougher for OKC, they've ended

732
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 1: up in a bunch of these clutch games and yet

733
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:49,800
Speaker 1: another time where they just look unbeatable in that setting.

734
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:52,720
Speaker 1: They've played in ten clutch games so far this season.

735
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:55,799
Speaker 1: They're nine and one in those games, the one loss,

736
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:58,279
Speaker 1: of course, being the Portland game. They have a one

737
00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:02,600
Speaker 1: thirty seven offensive rating in the clutch, a ninety five

738
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:07,680
Speaker 1: defensive rating in the clutch. Shake Gilda Alexander is twenty

739
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:11,279
Speaker 1: five for forty six from the field in crunch time

740
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 1: this season. That's fifty four percent. He's hit six clutch threes.

741
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 1: He's hit a bunch of them in every one of

742
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 1: these games. Hit a huge one against Minnesota, hit a

743
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:22,479
Speaker 1: huge one against Phoenix, hit a huge one again last

744
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 1: night over Buddy Healed on the right wing. He's just

745
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:26,600
Speaker 1: getting into his bag and he can either go to

746
00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:29,359
Speaker 1: that little pound dribble with his left hand step back,

747
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:32,000
Speaker 1: or that like little side step with his h going

748
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: towards his right, like the one he hit over Buddy Healed,

749
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:37,800
Speaker 1: and he's just really confident. He's trusting it right now.

750
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,560
Speaker 1: It's made six of them so far this season in

751
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,800
Speaker 1: crunch time, hitting forty percent, and most of those misses

752
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 1: were earlier in the season. He's been in a great

753
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:49,280
Speaker 1: groove as of late, nine assists to just one turnover

754
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:51,920
Speaker 1: in crunch time and like you want to be like, Okay,

755
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:54,160
Speaker 1: you got to send doubles, and the Warriors were pretty

756
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 1: content to let Shay just work one on one against Buddy.

757
00:37:57,320 --> 00:37:59,160
Speaker 1: But at the same time, like guys are hitting shots.

758
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,920
Speaker 1: We talked about the clutch three that chet Holmgren hit.

759
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,880
Speaker 1: Isaiah Joe hits a big clutch three last night. On

760
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:09,400
Speaker 1: the season. If you leave Cason Wallace open for three

761
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:13,040
Speaker 1: in crunch time, he's three for six. You leave chet

762
00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:16,720
Speaker 1: Holmgren open for three in crunch time, he's three for five.

763
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:21,600
Speaker 1: Like they're just they're burning you when you help and like,

764
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,200
Speaker 1: and it's one of those things where we've seen teams

765
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:28,960
Speaker 1: manage to keep it somewhat close against Oklahoma City for

766
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 1: one reason or another, and then down the stretch it's

767
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,360
Speaker 1: just shake Gildas Alexander looking like far and away the

768
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:39,360
Speaker 1: most comfortable player on the floor. But it's not just

769
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 1: his one on one play. It's the awesome passing sequences,

770
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:47,359
Speaker 1: the methodical ball movement through the zone. It's the role

771
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 1: players knocking down catch and shoot threes. Having guys like

772
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:53,960
Speaker 1: AJ Mitchell and j Dubb who can hit a gap

773
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 1: and create some dribble penetration and get something up off

774
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 1: of the rim that they can score on in crunch time,

775
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 1: and they just look unbeatable. And again, if this keeps up,

776
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 1: like we're gonna do our contender rankings again in a month.

777
00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:08,920
Speaker 1: You know, we did our first contender rankings update like

778
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:11,480
Speaker 1: a week ago or so, and I think it was

779
00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:13,840
Speaker 1: just last Friday, And in that Contender rankings for the

780
00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:15,640
Speaker 1: first time, I moved to OKAC back up to the

781
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:17,239
Speaker 1: number one spot. But I still have them in the

782
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:20,240
Speaker 1: same tier with OKAC and or with Denver in Houston.

783
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:23,400
Speaker 1: If this keeps up, like if they're sitting in a

784
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:27,080
Speaker 1: similar spot a month from now, I like it's starting

785
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 1: to look to me like Oklahoma City is in their

786
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:33,280
Speaker 1: own tier. I see a separation building. Houston and Denver

787
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:35,759
Speaker 1: are really good. There are a couple teams too that

788
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 1: are a trade away, like if Detroit makes some sort

789
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:41,239
Speaker 1: of big splashy move for scoring forward, or if the

790
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 1: Lakers get someone like Herb Jones. There are teams that

791
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:45,680
Speaker 1: might be able to move up into that tier, but

792
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:48,279
Speaker 1: to me, that tier is beginning to look like a

793
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:51,480
Speaker 1: tier that is beneath Oklahoma City. As yet again they

794
00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:55,359
Speaker 1: get a big win in crunch time last night. All right, guys,

795
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight or today, I

796
00:39:57,160 --> 00:39:59,239
Speaker 1: should say, is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for

797
00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:02,439
Speaker 1: supporting us since supporting the show again. Remember we have

798
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:07,880
Speaker 1: playback streams coming the next two nights. Thursday at I

799
00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:10,719
Speaker 1: want to say four pm Pacific time against or No,

800
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:16,080
Speaker 1: it's four thirty pm Pacific time Toronto Lakers Raptors again.

801
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:17,480
Speaker 1: I'm going to be trying to get a Raptor's got

802
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:19,120
Speaker 1: to come on and join us for that one. And

803
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:23,560
Speaker 1: then Friday night four pm Pacific time Lakers Celtics. Also

804
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:25,359
Speaker 1: going to try to get a Celtics guy for that one.

805
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 1: Come hang out again playback dot Tv slash Shops tonight

806
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:31,880
Speaker 1: will have a live watch along party for both of

807
00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: those games. We'll obviously have more content coming this week too.

808
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 1: We'll have a show tomorrow as well as a mailbag

809
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 1: on Friday. Again, as always, sincerely appreciate you guys for

810
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:43,640
Speaker 1: supporting us. In supporting the show. Have a good rest

811
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:45,560
Speaker 1: of your day and I will see you guys tomorrow morning.