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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Fan Duel here at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: week so far. Quick show for you today. We're just
Speaker 1: gonna hit three games from last night. The Gold State
Speaker 1: Warriors lost their ninth consecutive road game against a red
Speaker 1: hot Clippers team that has now won four games in
Speaker 1: a row. The Philadelphia seventy six Ers came back from
Speaker 1: down double digits in the second half to beat the
Speaker 1: Calves in Cleveland, albeit without Jared Allen, and then the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics having some late game issues again barely squeaking
Speaker 1: out a win against the Wolves when they led by
Speaker 1: fourteen points in the second half. You guys know the
Speaker 1: drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels.
Speaker 1: You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Underscore Jason Eltie. So you guys don't
Speaker 1: miss any show announcements. And for whatever reason, you guys
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Speaker 1: over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find
Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts Under Hoops tonight, all right,
Speaker 1: the socks and basketball. So we're not going to talk
Speaker 1: about the Lakers today. Kind like what I talked about
Speaker 1: yesterday when Anthony Davis decided to sit, that suddenly became
Speaker 1: a losable game. They don't have a healthy center on
Speaker 1: the roster because of what happened to Mobamba, so they
Speaker 1: gave up seventy something points in the paint and they
Speaker 1: got their ass kick. It's just kind of the unfortunate
Speaker 1: reality of the Lakers in their injury circumstance. But I
Speaker 1: don't think the game really says much about who the
Speaker 1: Lakers are as a basketball team, so I'm not going
Speaker 1: to talk about them today. But let's get to that
Speaker 1: really interesting, highly entertaining game between the Clippers and the Warriors.
Speaker 1: So the Clippers win one thirty four to one twenty six.
Speaker 1: Warriors could not get a stop in the second half.
Speaker 1: I think the Clippers had seventy four or seventy six
Speaker 1: points something like high seventies it points in the second
Speaker 1: half of this game for their fourth consecutive win. They
Speaker 1: really dominated this game physically, which is something that I
Speaker 1: kind of expect in this particular matchup without Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: or Gary Payton. The Warriors lack perimeter size. It's just
Speaker 1: the reality, and the Clippers are one of the best
Speaker 1: perimeter sized teams in the league. And you know, but
Speaker 1: as has been the case for the Warriors all season,
Speaker 1: at the same thing, going into their matchup with the
Speaker 1: Clippers without Steph Curry at home, I think it was
Speaker 1: like a week or two ago, and they handled the Clippers.
Speaker 1: And so again, the Warriors are capable when they're really
Speaker 1: locked in of overcoming some of these issues. They just
Speaker 1: haven't been able to translate that into the road and
Speaker 1: they got dominated physically in this game. They got outrebounded
Speaker 1: forty four to thirty six. They gave up sixteen offensive
Speaker 1: rebounds for twenty seven second chance points. That's basically the
Speaker 1: difference in the game. That was the sixteen to seven
Speaker 1: offensive rebounding advantage in a twenty seven to eleven second
Speaker 1: chance points advantage, so literally the difference in the game.
Speaker 1: The Clippers also forced sixteen turnovers, leading to twenty points,
Speaker 1: and that's what's unfortunate. You get a fifty point game
Speaker 1: out of Steph Curry, literally one of the most ridiculous
Speaker 1: scoring runs that I've seen in a long time. We've
Speaker 1: seen lots of scoring runs. Yeah, step only twenty one
Speaker 1: points in the third quarter. We see big scoring quarters often,
Speaker 1: but the Hippers were completely locked in defensively in that
Speaker 1: quarter and they still could not do anything with step
Speaker 1: Every single shot he hit was absurd difficulty, capped off
Speaker 1: with that weird step through scoop shot that he made
Speaker 1: to finish the third quarter. He played as good as
Speaker 1: you possibly could in that quarter, and the Warriors lost
Speaker 1: that quarter. And that's just the reality of their personnel's shortcomings.
Speaker 1: The Warriors shot eight percent better from the field in
Speaker 1: this game. Can you imagine how hard it would be
Speaker 1: to lose a game when you shoot in the mid
Speaker 1: fifties from the field eight percent better than your opponent.
Speaker 1: But that's what it comes down to. That sixteen to
Speaker 1: seven offensive rebound advantage, that's just buying you extra possessions
Speaker 1: twenty seven to eleven and second chance points. That's converting
Speaker 1: stops into baskets. It was just it was a physical
Speaker 1: mismatch everywhere on the floor. Kawhi Leonards constantly getting matched
Speaker 1: up with guys like Dante DiVincenzo and Steph Curry and
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole. Jordan Poole had an absolute nightmare game in
Speaker 1: details of the game, in terms of his rebounding and
Speaker 1: point of attack defense. Terrence Man absolutely dominated that matchup
Speaker 1: in a way that went beyond the box score. Was
Speaker 1: beating him with backcuts, beating him just throwing him out
Speaker 1: of the way to get offensive rebounds, beating him off
Speaker 1: the dribble. That matchup ended up being a big swing
Speaker 1: factor in this game. And this is where I want
Speaker 1: to talk about aggregate size, because again, like there are
Speaker 1: certain elements that you need in order to have a
Speaker 1: functional defense or a functional rebounding team. Right. Like, one
Speaker 1: of the big things that we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: with the Clippers in a little bit is they don't
Speaker 1: really have a real rim protector, which is a huge
Speaker 1: part of why they can't protect the paint, right, But
Speaker 1: they do have a lot of aggregate size on the floor,
Speaker 1: so they can have some success rebounding when all of
Speaker 1: those six sight six seven wings are flying around to
Speaker 1: grab contested rebounds. But when you're looking at these Warriors lineups,
Speaker 1: like even sometimes when it's Draymond and Kevan Luny on
Speaker 1: the floor, they'll be out there and it'll be like
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo, Steph Curry and Jordan Pool, which is just
Speaker 1: really difficult a cover for those guys. There was a
Speaker 1: bench lineup they used in this game that was Dante DiVincenzo,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry, Jordan Pool with Jonathan Cominga and Jamichael Green
Speaker 1: That is a very very young, but very athletic forward
Speaker 1: and then a very unathletic backup five in a three
Speaker 1: guard lineup. They're going to get killed in that situation
Speaker 1: in the physical areas of the game. They're just had
Speaker 1: too big of a disadvantage there. If you go Zubak
Speaker 1: went crazy on the breakdowns that were happening at the
Speaker 1: point of attack for the Warriors, getting all sorts of
Speaker 1: garbage buckets under the ram. He finished with nineteen and sixteen.
Speaker 1: And Kawhi Leonard just got fantastic shot quality all game long.
Speaker 1: You finished with thirty points on nineteen shots. And I
Speaker 1: mean on the Clippers front, Kawai Kawai has been playing
Speaker 1: at a top ten level now for more than a month,
Speaker 1: and it's getting to the point where we have to
Speaker 1: start taking that seriously when we consider the Clippers as
Speaker 1: a threat. You know, I've talked a lot on the
Speaker 1: show that there are what's this, eight teams that I
Speaker 1: considered to be championship contenders. The Milwaukee Bucks, the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventy six ers, the Denver Nuggets, the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors, the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Clippers, in
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers. Those are the only eight teams
Speaker 1: that I think can win the title. Those of you
Speaker 1: guys who follow me on Twitter, you guys might have
Speaker 1: seen me tweet out my current top ten players list.
Speaker 1: I just saw someone else tweet of their version of
Speaker 1: a list out and I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I got a couple of minutes here. I want to
Speaker 1: see where I think things shake out right now in
Speaker 1: my top ten list. Again caveat here being all ten
Speaker 1: of these guys I consider to be top tier superstars,
Speaker 1: so there's not that big of a gap between number
Speaker 1: one and number ten. But I'd have Yannis one, Steph two,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant three, Joel Embiide four because I have him headed,
Speaker 1: Yokis now Yokis five, Lebron James six, Anthony Luca don
Speaker 1: Shot seven, Anthony Davis eighth, Jason Tatum ninth, and Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard tent. All ten of those guys are top ten
Speaker 1: play are like legit top tier superstars. And when I
Speaker 1: go to my list of contenders, every single team on
Speaker 1: that list has one of those guys, which speaks to
Speaker 1: just one of my fundamental basketball beliefs. You can't win
Speaker 1: a title unless you have one of the ten best
Speaker 1: players or one of the top tier superstars in the league.
Speaker 1: I feel very strongly about that. The Bucks have Jannis,
Speaker 1: the Celtics have Tatum, the Sixers have him Be, the
Speaker 1: Nuggets have Yokich, the Warriors have Steph Curry, who is
Speaker 1: playing like he might be even the best player in
Speaker 1: the world right now. The Phoenix Suns of Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: who's probably the best player I've seen in this particular
Speaker 1: regular season. The Clippers have Kawhi and the Lakers have
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis. The only player in that
Speaker 1: list of top ten players that I read off that
Speaker 1: doesn't have a chance to win the title, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is Luca don chich And it's because they are in
Speaker 1: a very similar predicament that the Warriors are in, except
Speaker 1: for the Warriors can at least look back at this
Speaker 1: and go, We've got Gary Payton come in and hopefully
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins is eventually going to come back. And when
Speaker 1: those two guys come back, that bolsters their very specific
Speaker 1: weaknesses and suddenly lines everything up for them to where
Speaker 1: their core players can be great at what they're great
Speaker 1: at and push them over the top. The Mavericks do
Speaker 1: not have that luxury. There's no reinforcements coming. They have
Speaker 1: no you know, six eight excellent perimeter defender, small forward
Speaker 1: that's coming back, you know, from a personal leave of absence.
Speaker 1: They're just completely stuck with what they've got, and so
Speaker 1: I don't consider the Mavericks to be in that group.
Speaker 1: But one of the important things for me to consider
Speaker 1: the Clippers as a legitimate contender was seeing Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: get back to that top tier superstar level. And he's
Speaker 1: comfortably been there for a while now, so that's encouraging
Speaker 1: for the Clippers. I wanted to shout out Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: really quick. He had fifteen, nine and seven in this game.
Speaker 1: He just did a much much better job of making
Speaker 1: Draymond Green pay and the Warriors pay in general for
Speaker 1: ignoring him as aggressively as they did in this last game,
Speaker 1: in the game that they played a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and again, like we're gonna talk about this a little
Speaker 1: bit more when we get to PJ. Tucker when we're
Speaker 1: talking about the sixers. But there are a couple of
Speaker 1: basic things that you can do to remain a threat
Speaker 1: as an off ball player when you struggle to shoot
Speaker 1: the basketball, and first of all, go to the corners
Speaker 1: instead of the wings. Why a corner three is a
Speaker 1: much higher percentage shot than above the break three because
Speaker 1: it's just closer to the rim. Right, Russell Westbrook made
Speaker 1: two corner threes in this game. The second thing set
Speaker 1: off ball screens. So if they're causing you problems by
Speaker 1: ignoring you off the ball, go set a ball screen.
Speaker 1: Go set an off ball screen. Do anything that allows
Speaker 1: your offensive value to be felt if you're struggling to
Speaker 1: knock down that perimeter shot. There was a play in
Speaker 1: the first half of this game where I think it
Speaker 1: was with Paul George where Russ just went up set
Speaker 1: a quick ball screen, slipped to the middle of the
Speaker 1: flour Paul George hit him with the pocket pass. He
Speaker 1: made a little left handed lay up in the lane,
Speaker 1: and last but not least, crash the offensive glass. So
Speaker 1: sit in that week side corner, knock down that three
Speaker 1: when it's there, you know, when the plays in motion,
Speaker 1: don't just stay in there, go screen for somebody, and
Speaker 1: then when the shot goes up, crash like crazy and
Speaker 1: utilize your athleticism. PJ. Tucker is incredible at this that
Speaker 1: baseline offensive rebound, crash out of the week side corner.
Speaker 1: Russ had four offensive rebounds in this game. It was
Speaker 1: a big part of why he was I believe a
Speaker 1: plus ten in this game. He's doing a very very
Speaker 1: nice job trying to find a way to fit with
Speaker 1: the Clippers, and most importantly, it's a much more natural
Speaker 1: basketball fit. The ball makes sense to be in his
Speaker 1: hands as he pushes the pace. He's getting the ball
Speaker 1: to Paul Georgie and Kawhi Leonard in their spots. He's
Speaker 1: being selective. It's just it's the combination of him doing
Speaker 1: the little things and actually having a natural basketball fit
Speaker 1: with the Clippers. So I've I've really appreciated watching Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook in a Clippers jersey. For the record, he's won
Speaker 1: his shifts, meaning he's had a positive plus minus in
Speaker 1: six of their nine games, including five in a row.
Speaker 1: The only weird thing is the clutch thing, which I
Speaker 1: keep talking about. It's just so much harder to make
Speaker 1: up for that ignoring you off the ball thing when
Speaker 1: it's in a late game situation and you only have
Speaker 1: half court sets and teams are being sharper with their
Speaker 1: box outs and they're crashing in their execution right. And
Speaker 1: for the record, the Clippers have played seven clutch games
Speaker 1: since Russ came to the team. They've played four with
Speaker 1: Russ and three without him. They're one in three when
Speaker 1: they play Russ and Crutch time, and they're two and
Speaker 1: one when they benched him. So that's the one thing
Speaker 1: that I want to see them kind of tighten up
Speaker 1: is stick with not playing Russ and Crutch in clutch situations.
Speaker 1: I think that's where you can maximize his impact. In
Speaker 1: this four game winning streep, the Clippers are second in offense.
Speaker 1: My only main concern for them right now is defensively.
Speaker 1: They are twenty fifth in defensive ratings since Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: came to town A nine games ago, and they've been
Speaker 1: pretty They had been struggling defensively for a couple of
Speaker 1: months before Russ came, So I'm not blaming Russ. I
Speaker 1: blame it on rim protection. The reality is is Zoobach
Speaker 1: is an okay rim protector, but he's not a real
Speaker 1: rim protector. And you know, Plumbley's an okay rim protector,
Speaker 1: but he's not a real rim protector. No one's getting
Speaker 1: scared of those guys when they go to the rim,
Speaker 1: and that's a huge part of why they've been seventeenth
Speaker 1: in points in the paint allowed per game this season
Speaker 1: and twenty seventh in points in the pain allowed per
Speaker 1: game since Russell Westbrook came to the team. So they're
Speaker 1: just not going to be able to protect the paint.
Speaker 1: That's the one thing that makes me concerned about them.
Speaker 1: And why when I list the contenders those eight teams
Speaker 1: that I consider championship contenders, I'd put the Clippers dead
Speaker 1: last on that list. And the main reason why is,
Speaker 1: how are you going to win the title if you
Speaker 1: don't have a top tier defensive front cord. That's something
Speaker 1: that I've talked about a lot on this show. You've
Speaker 1: got to have legitimate rim protection. They just don't the
Speaker 1: Lakers do. The Warriors do, and that's what makes them
Speaker 1: the puncher's threat, a puncher's chance threat in a higher
Speaker 1: capacity than the Clippers are, in my opinion. So the
Speaker 1: Warriors have now lost nine consecutive road games. The last
Speaker 1: time they won a road game was six weeks ago
Speaker 1: against the Oklahoma City Thunder. And my theory on this
Speaker 1: is there is a certain amount of competitive energy that
Speaker 1: allows you to overcome your personnel shortcomings, right, Like you
Speaker 1: know the concept of like playing bigger than you are.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was one of those guys when I
Speaker 1: was in college. I was only six six, but I
Speaker 1: was always one of the best rebounders in my conference,
Speaker 1: just because I played bigger than I was, and so
Speaker 1: I was kind of utilized as a defensive front court
Speaker 1: player in a way that allowed me to use my
Speaker 1: athleticism because I could jump and I had long arms,
Speaker 1: Right Like, you can compete and make up for some
Speaker 1: of your shortcomings in terms of your physical your physical tools,
Speaker 1: Right Like, I was battling with six ten guys, but
Speaker 1: I just played harder than them. It would box them
Speaker 1: out and jump higher than them and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: You know, when they're at home, the Warriors can compensate
Speaker 1: for their lack of size by playing hard, But when
Speaker 1: they get on the road, naturally, it's harder to get
Speaker 1: that same level of competitive energy. And the home team
Speaker 1: is feeding off of their home crowd, And I think
Speaker 1: you see all those personnel shortcomings come to the surface,
Speaker 1: Like they are just an unbelievably tiny team without Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins and without Gary Payton, who's a six three guard
Speaker 1: who plays really big, Like just he plays like a
Speaker 1: power forward in terms of his ability to defend and
Speaker 1: rebound and impact the game with his physicality. That's just
Speaker 1: the reality. He's another one of those guys, and he
Speaker 1: was like that. When I played in the same conference
Speaker 1: as him in college, he was one of those guys.
Speaker 1: He was like defensive player of the year, grabbed a
Speaker 1: million rebounds. That was what he did from his inception
Speaker 1: as a basketball player. And so, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: understand how they like they can overcome this. Steph put
Speaker 1: up fifty last night. Draymond's competing, Kavan Luni's competing, They're
Speaker 1: they're they're trying, but they just they just can't match
Speaker 1: the effort differential the way they can at home. And
Speaker 1: it doesn't get any easier. They're going to Atlanta next
Speaker 1: potentially without Draymond if he doesn't get a tech rescinded.
Speaker 1: Then they got to go to Memphis. You know exactly
Speaker 1: what's going to happen there. They can they can win
Speaker 1: that game. I give him a chance to, but Memphis
Speaker 1: is one of them physical teams in the league. That's
Speaker 1: going to be a really tough game to win. Then
Speaker 1: they got to go to Houston. Sounds easy, right, They
Speaker 1: just beat the Celtics and beat the Lakers. Now, the
Speaker 1: Lakers didn't have Anthony Davis, but they still have a
Speaker 1: lot of skill and a lot of good players, and
Speaker 1: they couldn't win that game, so it's not it's not
Speaker 1: getting any easier. Ironically, go into Dallas and the final
Speaker 1: game in this trip is the one that I think
Speaker 1: they should win, but it's only because Dallas has all
Speaker 1: of the same side shortcomings that Golden State does, and
Speaker 1: so you know, but then again, if what if Luca
Speaker 1: and Kyrie are back at that point, then you could
Speaker 1: have a much tougher game, So it doesn't get any easier.
Speaker 1: Then they come home, but their home games are against
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventy six ers, who have been the best
Speaker 1: team in the league since since the beginning of December,
Speaker 1: in the Sacramento Kings, who are not an easy game,
Speaker 1: excuse me, then the Minnesota Timberwolves, and then the rest
Speaker 1: of their in the Minnesota Timberwolves are just a really
Speaker 1: interesting matchup with their perimeter defense. Then their schedule loosens
Speaker 1: up a little bit, and I think their last seven
Speaker 1: games are pretty easy, but there's two really tough road
Speaker 1: games in there. There's a road game at Denver in
Speaker 1: a road game at Sacramento, so you know, the schedule
Speaker 1: is not favorable for the Warriors. They really need Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins back, and they're just gonna need herculean efforts from
Speaker 1: their core players every single night in order to maintain
Speaker 1: a spot above the plan. I gun to my head.
Speaker 1: I still think that the Warriors will end up getting
Speaker 1: either the sixth seed or the fifth seed. But it's
Speaker 1: gonna take. It's gonna take a lot. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: to really pour their heart and soul into this over
Speaker 1: the course of the last few weeks. All right, Philly Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Cleveland went on a nice little run in the middle
Speaker 1: of this game to get it up to seventy to
Speaker 1: fifty seven, and then the Sixers immediately went on an
Speaker 1: eighteen to one run. And there's a couple of specific
Speaker 1: concepts that I want to touch on from the standpoint
Speaker 1: of Philly because one mbiads rim protection in the middle
Speaker 1: of that run. And you know, we see this a
Speaker 1: lot with the Cavs, right like, they start spam and
Speaker 1: pick and roll with Donovan Mitchell and Darius Scartland, and
Speaker 1: they're digging off of the small forwards that can't shoot,
Speaker 1: and they're funneling everybody to Joel Embead and it just
Speaker 1: becomes about can Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell knocked down
Speaker 1: incredibly difficult shots, and they go through these cold stretches,
Speaker 1: their offense can get absolutely stifled if Darius Garland and
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell aren't making shots. They wanted an eighteen to
Speaker 1: one run, and then Darius Garland followed it up with
Speaker 1: like a solo seven oh run by himself or seven
Speaker 1: straight points by himself, and like they were all incredibly
Speaker 1: difficult shots. This like ridiculous fading jumper along the baseline.
Speaker 1: He get like this wild running three in transition in
Speaker 1: the right corner, a really tough floater in the lane.
Speaker 1: Like when they're tough shot making clicks in they can
Speaker 1: make shots, but they just don't have the ability to
Speaker 1: use them as primary advantage creators. Like one of the
Speaker 1: nice things for phillis advantage creators for James Harden, Tyree
Speaker 1: s Maaxie, and Joel Embiid is when they're kicking to guys.
Speaker 1: They're kicking to Shake Milton, he's knocking that thing down.
Speaker 1: They're kicking to Georges Niang, He's knocking that down. Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris is gonna make that corner three d Anthony Melton
Speaker 1: is gonna make that shot. And then their court like
Speaker 1: and beat Harden and Maxie. They're all good off ball players,
Speaker 1: so everybody can shoot, and so like, all they've got
Speaker 1: to do is get over the top of that screen
Speaker 1: and bring an extra defender into the play, and then
Speaker 1: once they do, they're just kicking to wide open shooters
Speaker 1: that can knock them down. Philly on a points per
Speaker 1: possession basis, is the number one spot up team in
Speaker 1: the league. No one's better. Cleveland is nineteenth. All of
Speaker 1: those teams that I listed is the eight contenders, all
Speaker 1: of them are above Cleveland and their spot up shooting
Speaker 1: even the Lakers. And the Lakers data is poisoned by
Speaker 1: the fact that they had no shooting for the first
Speaker 1: two thirds of the season. They're a much better spot
Speaker 1: up team now. But you get the point. This is like, again,
Speaker 1: do you guys remember when I did the the advanced
Speaker 1: metrics rant like two or three days ago, I talked
Speaker 1: about how like even the data that I use, which
Speaker 1: is like points per possession stuff on like pick and
Speaker 1: rolls and ISOs and different play types or line up
Speaker 1: dat or things along those lines, even those play type
Speaker 1: data points, they don't factor in spot up shooting. Right,
Speaker 1: Like if James Harden is coming off a pick and roll,
Speaker 1: and he's surrounded by three shooters and Joel Embiid as
Speaker 1: his role man. That's just an easier pick and roll
Speaker 1: to run than it is for Donovan Mitchell with non
Speaker 1: shooters around him, right, and rollman that aren't as talented
Speaker 1: is Joel Embid Right. Like, That's why I keep talking
Speaker 1: about how complicated the game of basketball is. That was
Speaker 1: not Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland versus Harden and Embid
Speaker 1: last night. That's not how basketball works. It was Darius
Speaker 1: Garland and Donovan Mitchell surrounded by one of the worst
Speaker 1: spot up group spot up shooting corps in the league
Speaker 1: for a good team, and Philly's surrounded by the very best.
Speaker 1: Regardless of whether you're a good or a bad team.
Speaker 1: That is a huge part of the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: It is a five on five sport. You're either creating
Speaker 1: an advantage for a spot up player or the help
Speaker 1: defenders are staying home and your stars get to go
Speaker 1: to work. But that's a delicate balance. And Cleveland is
Speaker 1: constantly playing with Lamar Stevens and Isaaca Chetti. Osman had
Speaker 1: some misses last night on wide open shots were like
Speaker 1: his follow through was like corkscrewing and the ball was
Speaker 1: going two feet off to the left of the rim
Speaker 1: like some nasty misses. But man, like you help off
Speaker 1: a shake Milton in the weekside corner. It's like shit,
Speaker 1: that's going in every single time, at least that's what
Speaker 1: it feels like, and per the numbers, it does more
Speaker 1: often than it does for other teams. Like that sort
Speaker 1: of thing really does matter. The one thing that could
Speaker 1: potentially be the saving grace for Cleveland, and he's only
Speaker 1: played a little bit, mostly in garbage time, is maybe
Speaker 1: Danny Green can get back to where he was physically
Speaker 1: before the injury, to where he can guard small forwards.
Speaker 1: Like I covered Danny Green closely when he was with
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and like he struggles a little bit with quickness,
Speaker 1: but he's a good big body that can guard bigger players.
Speaker 1: He makes a lot of sense potentially as that guy
Speaker 1: who can fill that small forward position. And he's so
Speaker 1: far he's knocking down his spot up. Perhaps I'll beat
Speaker 1: in garbage time like he's averaging two points per spot
Speaker 1: up possessions so far, sixteen points on eight spot up
Speaker 1: possessions since he came to since he started playing for
Speaker 1: the Cavs. But obviously he's got to get back one
Speaker 1: hundred percent physically to the point or JB. Bickerstaff can
Speaker 1: trust him to defend. But like maybe that's the guy
Speaker 1: that gives them a little bit more depth there, you know,
Speaker 1: and then Carris Lavert can kind of slide into some
Speaker 1: of that. But it's just it's gonna be extremely difficult
Speaker 1: for Cleveland to win because they you can just completely
Speaker 1: shut down their offense and their front court players can't shoot.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, you get to Philly, like even with Phi,
Speaker 1: Like with Philly, you've got Joel Embiid who can shoot,
Speaker 1: and then Pj's Tucker who can't. But just like we
Speaker 1: talked about with earlier with Russell, Westbrook is one of
Speaker 1: the best players in the league get remaining a threat
Speaker 1: offensively despite not being a consistent shooter. And by the way,
Speaker 1: he made a corner three like he does in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter of this game. But then he's crashing the
Speaker 1: offensive glass, he's setting off ball screens, he's doing all
Speaker 1: sorts of things to maintain his offensive value. It's just
Speaker 1: such an important part of the game of basketball that
Speaker 1: doesn't get discussed often enough. Lastly, on Philly, before we
Speaker 1: move on and Beat and Harden are so locked in
Speaker 1: right now. James Harden at thirteen in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: again last night, a bunch of clutch threes. Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: is just on a defensive tear, anchoring their entire defense.
Speaker 1: He only had five points in the fourth quarter last night,
Speaker 1: but his clutch scoring has been one of the biggest
Speaker 1: things that I've been impressed by in the last couple
Speaker 1: of months. And then their spot up shooting is off
Speaker 1: off the charts, like we talked about. That makes it
Speaker 1: really hard to double their ISOs or to triple their
Speaker 1: pick and rolls. That it just you have to send
Speaker 1: an extra defender over, but if you do, you're giving
Speaker 1: an open shot up. So like Joel Ebid was operating
Speaker 1: in a lot of single coverage in this game, and
Speaker 1: it's because of that spot up shooting. The Sixers are
Speaker 1: thirty four and ten in their last forty four games.
Speaker 1: That's two and a half games ahead of second place
Speaker 1: Denver in that span, best record in the league. That's
Speaker 1: more than half the season. And like, I think they
Speaker 1: match up really well with Milwaukee and not so well
Speaker 1: with Boston, So it's gonna be matchups but with each
Speaker 1: passing day, you know, and I posited this question on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed today, but like, at what point do
Speaker 1: we have to just consider Philly to be a top
Speaker 1: tier contender because they're playing every bit as good as
Speaker 1: Boston in Milwaukee? You know, again, I have my same concerns.
Speaker 1: Can Doc Rivers make the appropriate adjustments and play the
Speaker 1: right guys? I don't know. Can James Harden maintain his
Speaker 1: level of effectiveness in the postseason? I don't know. Same
Speaker 1: thing for a Joel Embiad I don't know. But based
Speaker 1: on what we're seeing in this regular season, they're checking
Speaker 1: a lot of boxes. Do you have multiple top tier
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say top tier. Do you have multiple excellent
Speaker 1: shot creators check? Do you have great spot up shooting check?
Speaker 1: Do you have great rim protection? Check? Do you have
Speaker 1: a defender that can guard Jannis? Yes? PJ Tucker, you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: just do better than most not do what Obviously it's
Speaker 1: more complicated than that, but PJ. Tucker did an awesome
Speaker 1: job on Yannis in their last matchup. There are What
Speaker 1: it comes down to is, in these situations, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to beat Philly four times out of seven they're
Speaker 1: gonna funnel you to Joel Embiid, They're gonna get high
Speaker 1: quality shots on offense. I'm having a hard time talking
Speaker 1: myself out of them as a legitimate championship contender. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll approach it again when we get to the end
Speaker 1: of the season. But they've been really impressive for a
Speaker 1: long time now. All right, before you get out of here,
Speaker 1: Boston Minnesota. You know, it's funny because I it kind
Speaker 1: of followed the pathway of a lot of Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: games this year. Went up big fourteen in the second half,
Speaker 1: then at the end of the game, their offense stagnates
Speaker 1: and then they barely squeak out a win or maybe
Speaker 1: they end up losing because of their poor late game play,
Speaker 1: which is something that has been you know, it wasn't
Speaker 1: a problem for the first two thirds of the season,
Speaker 1: but man as of late, Boston's late game execution has
Speaker 1: gone almost back to last year levels, which is problematic.
Speaker 1: It's funny because, like, there are teams that I watch
Speaker 1: so much that it just gets to the point where
Speaker 1: every game I watched them, it looks the same. And
Speaker 1: that's kind of where I'm at with Boston and part
Speaker 1: of that is they're driving kick team. They're not an
Speaker 1: improvisational shot making type of team. They really only have
Speaker 1: one guy like that on the roster, and that's Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: They're very much like a machine and they're everything for
Speaker 1: them comes down to rim decisions. You know. I always
Speaker 1: talk about how, you know, like field goal percentage at
Speaker 1: the rim, I think is just as much about making
Speaker 1: decisions there as it is about your touch or your
Speaker 1: ability to finish with you know, english off the glass
Speaker 1: or whatever it might be. Getting to the rim protector
Speaker 1: and making a call as to whether or not you've
Speaker 1: got a good opportunity to finish over the top and
Speaker 1: if you don't kicking it, that to me is what
Speaker 1: swings everything for Boston. And in their big run. I
Speaker 1: mean it was a close game at halftime and they're
Speaker 1: big run in the third quarter. It's like guys just
Speaker 1: making the right rim decisions. Jason Tatum gets downhill instead
Speaker 1: of challenging go Bear at the rim. It's a hook
Speaker 1: pass over to Horford in the corner, pop extra passed,
Speaker 1: Derek White knocks down with three. You know, it's a
Speaker 1: little high low action that gets Jalen Brown cutting towards
Speaker 1: the basket, engaging the rim protector, kick out in the
Speaker 1: right corner to Al Horford for three. When they are
Speaker 1: making the right rim decisions in passing out of congestion
Speaker 1: under the basket, they get these incredibly high quality threes,
Speaker 1: and they're really tough to beat. When they start challenging
Speaker 1: rim protectors or not trying to drive the ball to
Speaker 1: the basket and rather settling for pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: that is when their offense falls apart. They are not
Speaker 1: a good pull up jumps team by percentage compared to
Speaker 1: the other teams at the top of the league. And
Speaker 1: so it's just that's the that's the dynamic all the
Speaker 1: time with Boston. Now, one thing I will say Minnesota
Speaker 1: is an excellent perimeter defense team. They're one of the
Speaker 1: few teams in the league that have the ability to
Speaker 1: shut off your dribble penetration and that was a big
Speaker 1: part of how they got back into this game. And
Speaker 1: like when they put out there Rudy Gobert with Kyle Anderson,
Speaker 1: with Jade McDaniels and Anthony Edwards, that's four outstanding defensive players.
Speaker 1: And you know what was funny is when they had
Speaker 1: their best success was when they would attack Mike Conley.
Speaker 1: This kind of goes to what we were talking about
Speaker 1: with entry points, right Like I told you guys a
Speaker 1: lot about this when we were talking about Denver. When
Speaker 1: when you it doesn't matter how good your perimeter defense is,
Speaker 1: if I can get you into rotation. Once you're in rotation,
Speaker 1: like like if if Jayson Tatum is closing out at
Speaker 1: me from fifteen feet away, I can shoot, I can
Speaker 1: shoot a catch and shoot three, Like, it just doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: right Or if if if you're really good shooter and
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum's fifteen feet away from you and he's sprinting
Speaker 1: out at you, you can pump fake and probably beat
Speaker 1: him off the dribble, right Like, in an advantage situation,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't doesn't really matter how good you are
Speaker 1: as at defense. You're you're given such a big advantage
Speaker 1: you can capitalize on that play, right Like, That's why
Speaker 1: it's so important to get the defense into rotation. And
Speaker 1: so even one guy, Mike Conley, gives you an opportunity
Speaker 1: as an entry point to get the defense on rotation.
Speaker 1: And there was a key play down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game ninety three and Malcolm Brogden just wasn't trying
Speaker 1: to go to the rim, wasn't trying to beat Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert with some tough layup. He just gained. He just
Speaker 1: dribbled past Mike Conley just a little bit and got
Speaker 1: Minnesota's defense to react just a little bit and throw
Speaker 1: a kickout past to Marcus Smart against Kyle Anderson, who
Speaker 1: was closing out at his right side, and Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: ripped through to the left towards the middle and made
Speaker 1: an and one layup like that, to me is that
Speaker 1: the definition of that concept. If Marcus Smart is attacking
Speaker 1: Kyle Anderson like from a standstill, he's probably not beating him.
Speaker 1: But if he's got an advantage now he can beat
Speaker 1: him to the middle and finish at the basket. That
Speaker 1: to me is the dynamic that allows you to attack
Speaker 1: an entry point and have success. And that is why
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily care how good defensively, guys like Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon and Catavious Cobble Pope and Bruce Browner. If Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray's out there, you can beat him off the dribble
Speaker 1: and you can start the wheel. Once I start the wheel,
Speaker 1: there's two There's another slow footed center on the floor too, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's where that defensive concept comes in. And what
Speaker 1: I think is so interesting about that is that's a
Speaker 1: Minnesota team that has way better defensive talent, and they
Speaker 1: were able to have a couple of possessions of offensive
Speaker 1: success just by attacking Conley. Part of the reason why
Speaker 1: I think they struggled is they didn't attack only enough.
Speaker 1: Like there was a bunch of possessions where Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: kept trying to get Jaden McDaniels on a switch and
Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, Like Jady McDaniels is one of the
Speaker 1: best perimeter defenders on the league, in the league, what
Speaker 1: do you do? And then like he scored on him
Speaker 1: one time. He had this like kind of wild layup
Speaker 1: underneath the rim that he made. But like that's that.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna win that battle very often. And so
Speaker 1: offensive decision making continues to be my main concern with Boston.
Speaker 1: I wasn't as concerned about it throughout the regular season,
Speaker 1: but as of late, they're kind of regressing a bit
Speaker 1: and that's concerning to me. So I hope they can
Speaker 1: tighten that up because they're gonna need to be sharp
Speaker 1: in that area to have any hope of winning the trophy.
Speaker 1: But like I will say, I was impressed by Minnesota
Speaker 1: in this game. They did a really good job containing
Speaker 1: the ball and preventing Boston from getting into their driving kick.
Speaker 1: At the end, Anthony Edwards, he settled for a bad
Speaker 1: three late. It was like one of one ninety nine.
Speaker 1: He took a contested pull up three that he missed,
Speaker 1: but like he had a lot of success just bullying
Speaker 1: his way to the basket. And I've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about how him, how he's like a downhill power guard,
Speaker 1: and you saw a lot of that against Boston's wings,
Speaker 1: where like they would slide their feet and you know,
Speaker 1: kind of have some resistance to aunt, but he just
Speaker 1: blows through that shoulder because he's so damned strong and
Speaker 1: he's got such a low center of gravity, and he
Speaker 1: was he was magnificent at the end of this game.
Speaker 1: He was had had some nice playmaking stretches as well.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm really really excited to see where Minnesota
Speaker 1: goes in the coming years. They just need to show
Speaker 1: her up a couple of positions, namely that have my
Speaker 1: Kinley position and then getting basically just a better version
Speaker 1: of Kyle Anderson at that Power Forwards at the Power
Speaker 1: Forward spot. All right, guys, that's all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. We're taking off
Speaker 1: tomorrow and then we'll have a video coming out on
Speaker 1: Sunday morning that's breaking down the games from Friday and
Speaker 1: Saturday night. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support and
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys on Sunday morning. The Volume two