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Speaker 1: for you today, we're hitting three games from the n
Speaker 1: season tournaments late last night, the Golden State Warriors versus
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets, the Orlando Magic versus the New York Knicks,
Speaker 1: and the Memphis Grizzlies versus the Dallas Mavericks. Are going
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Speaker 1: time today? What time is it? Game time? All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So Golden State Denver. Golden State
Speaker 1: goes on a huge run in the late third quarter,
Speaker 1: early fourth quarter that puts them up by eleven. All
Speaker 1: of the role players were making plays. Moses Moody was
Speaker 1: awesome in this stretch. Hit a bunch of key jump shots.
Speaker 1: Gary Payton was scoring on cuts. He had a couple
Speaker 1: of buckets on cuts. He had a huge corner three
Speaker 1: right in front of his bench there in the left corner.
Speaker 1: They forced turnovers, they got out in transition. Kyle Anderson
Speaker 1: had this like crazy nifty driving up and underfinish on
Speaker 1: the right side of the basket. Buddy Held hit a
Speaker 1: big corner three out of the left corner. Brandon Pajemski
Speaker 1: hit a big pull up jump shot against Yokitchen a
Speaker 1: deep drop coverage. Like everybody was making plays. It was
Speaker 1: beautiful basketball. And by the way, for all the guys
Speaker 1: that have like had, you know, have wondered why I've
Speaker 1: been talking about needing a trade of bringing in a
Speaker 1: reliable secondary offensive player. This is really why the Warriors
Speaker 1: are pretty fucking good when they score the basketball. When
Speaker 1: guys that are not Steph Curry can score the basketball,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of self created plays in that sequence.
Speaker 1: Moses Moody hit a three coming off of a dribble
Speaker 1: handoff out of the right corner where he just rows
Speaker 1: up on the move when his man kind of went
Speaker 1: underneath the screen and he rows up and knocked it down.
Speaker 1: That's more or less self created. Kyle Anderson snaking through
Speaker 1: the lane and going up and under and finishing a layup.
Speaker 1: That's more or less self created. Brandon Pazemski hitting a
Speaker 1: jump shot against the drop coverage. That's self created. Gary
Speaker 1: Payton hit a shot coming out of a dribble handoff
Speaker 1: in the right corner in the fourth quarter. We hit
Speaker 1: like a left handed floater in the lane. That's a
Speaker 1: self created shot. When guys on the Warriors are capable
Speaker 1: of creating and making shots for themselves, it makes them
Speaker 1: look a lot better because they have such a great defense.
Speaker 1: It allows him to cover for a night where Steph
Speaker 1: Curry doesn't necessarily have the most efficient scoring night right,
Speaker 1: but then they're very inconsistent, and when those players suddenly
Speaker 1: go cold, it becomes a problem. Like the final sequence
Speaker 1: of this game, when the Warriors were down two, Steph
Speaker 1: gets denied. Denver successfully denies him the basketball twice, and
Speaker 1: so it ends up being a kaminga drive that goes
Speaker 1: nowhere and Andrew Wiggins drive that goes nowhere. It would
Speaker 1: be a luxury to have consistent self created baskets that
Speaker 1: come off of Steph Curry. That's why that concept has
Speaker 1: been something that myself and many others have been harping
Speaker 1: on all season because it's not always going to be
Speaker 1: the way it was at the start of the year.
Speaker 1: There are ups and downs, there are stretches where guys
Speaker 1: go cold. Sometimes you do play bad basketball for a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks and you drop five games in a row,
Speaker 1: and you can make those stretches shorter, and you can
Speaker 1: extend your good stretches by bringing in more consistent offensive production.
Speaker 1: That's why we've been harping on that. Right, but Denver
Speaker 1: was down by eleven, was six minutes left again in
Speaker 1: large part because of that consistent shot creation from other Warriors,
Speaker 1: and then Denver just started to methodically work their way
Speaker 1: back into the game through the strength of their superstar.
Speaker 1: To Kole Joki, it started with him right in the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor against Tray Jackson, Davis just hits
Speaker 1: a couple of easy face up jumpers right in his face.
Speaker 1: There was a really nice pass that Russell Westbrook through
Speaker 1: to Michael Porter Junior in that stretch too, where they
Speaker 1: ran a little off ball action. They rate it twice.
Speaker 1: The first time they ran it with Russ. Russ through
Speaker 1: a rifle pass Moses Spood. He had his back turn,
Speaker 1: hit Michael Porter right in the hands, goes up and
Speaker 1: dunks it. They tried running it out of the very
Speaker 1: next possession of Kyle Anderson kind of snuffed it out
Speaker 1: and got a block, but they got a big bucket there.
Speaker 1: On the MPG curl off of the Russ pass, there
Speaker 1: was a Jokic giving Golf of a pump fake where
Speaker 1: he just kind of dribbled into like a shot like
Speaker 1: pump fake that the Tray Sackson Davis like jumps off
Speaker 1: of his feet, gives up the ball and then just
Speaker 1: cuts behind it, gets the ball right back and lays
Speaker 1: it up. And remember that's the threat of the jump shot,
Speaker 1: which is so important for Jokic. Earlier in the same half,
Speaker 1: he had another pick and pop with Jamal Murray on
Speaker 1: the left wing, pops above the break pump fake tray
Speaker 1: Jackson Davis leaves his feet, just lumbers down the lane
Speaker 1: and gets a layup. That's such an important part of
Speaker 1: his offense. And again, like last year when his jumper
Speaker 1: wasn't on, he got one point zero six points per
Speaker 1: spot up one point two eight points per roll or pop.
Speaker 1: This year one point three six points per spot up
Speaker 1: in one point three six points per roll in pop.
Speaker 1: So like significantly more off ball scoring in gravity from
Speaker 1: Jokic just by him getting that jump shot back on track.
Speaker 1: And again it's not always gonna manifest with him making
Speaker 1: jump shots. It's gonna manifest with him getting easier opportunities
Speaker 1: around the basket to either score or playmate for his
Speaker 1: teammates off of the attention that his jumper can bring.
Speaker 1: So gets that give and go that cuts the lead
Speaker 1: to five with four minutes left. Then they go to
Speaker 1: this just right block post up and they ended up
Speaker 1: getting two buckets for Aaron Gordon out of this, but
Speaker 1: the first one just cuts right off of it. Yokic
Speaker 1: hits am, Aaron Gordon gets a dunk that cuts it
Speaker 1: to four. Jamal Murray was getting hunted by Steph Curry
Speaker 1: down the stretch of this game. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: it in a minute. He gets a big block on
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga at the rim, runs out to the other end,
Speaker 1: draws a blocking foul that cuts it to two. Then
Speaker 1: Jokic gets Steph in a transition cross match on the
Speaker 1: right side of the floor, and as he dribbles into Steph,
Speaker 1: Steph wants to get scrammed out of the switch, so
Speaker 1: he turns in like runs to go guard somebody else
Speaker 1: and just hopes that another warrior will run over there
Speaker 1: and guard Jokic. No warrior goes in guards Jokic. Jokic
Speaker 1: just steps into the jumper by himself and ties the game.
Speaker 1: Then they go back to that exact same post up
Speaker 1: on the right block. The very second Kyle Anderson comes
Speaker 1: over to double Jokic just feeds it over the top
Speaker 1: to Aaron Gordon. Aaron Gordon gets another bucket. Now it's
Speaker 1: one seventeen to one fifteen, and again this is where
Speaker 1: I want to kind of switch gears over to the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the flour because one of the things
Speaker 1: the Nuggets did throughout the game, they were bringing Jokic
Speaker 1: up to the level of the screen and all the
Speaker 1: Steph Curry actions, and then they were running him in
Speaker 1: a deep drop against some of the lesser players, you know,
Speaker 1: like if he was defending a screening action with like
Speaker 1: Gary Payton coming down the lane, or if he was
Speaker 1: defending a screening action against you know, Brandet Pazemski coming
Speaker 1: down the lane. But the Warriors were getting a lot
Speaker 1: of really good stuff just based on the fact that
Speaker 1: Steph was bringing Jokic out to the level. Even though
Speaker 1: Steph didn't have a great scoring game, he had a
Speaker 1: great playmaking game, and a big part of that was
Speaker 1: him bringing Yokic up to the level. So Denver starts
Speaker 1: switching everything down the stretch of this game, and so
Speaker 1: Steph decides to start going at Jamal Murray. And this
Speaker 1: has been a recurring theme for Nuggets fans, like Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray's been getting cooked at the end of these games
Speaker 1: and it's been a huge problem for them. But he
Speaker 1: did a much much better job. Again, like a lot
Speaker 1: of times, when we talk about issues with these teams,
Speaker 1: it's like, Oh, this team needs this or this guy
Speaker 1: can't do that, and it's like a lot of times
Speaker 1: the solution is just do better. Like Jamal's getting killed
Speaker 1: at the end of these games. I've seen them win
Speaker 1: the title where he holds up better in those situations
Speaker 1: where he can make defensive plays like that block on
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaming got the rim. Sometimes you just gotta sit
Speaker 1: in a damn stance, slide those feet and make a
Speaker 1: damn play on the defensive end of the floor when
Speaker 1: they're trying to go at you right. Such an important
Speaker 1: part of overcoming your weaknesses as a basketball team is
Speaker 1: just getting the guys that are the weakness in whatever
Speaker 1: that area is and just getting them to do better.
Speaker 1: And again, like Steph hit a little turnaround jump shot
Speaker 1: on him where he drove along the right lane line
Speaker 1: and spun over his right shoulder and hit a little
Speaker 1: jump shot, but he got stops. The rest of the possessions,
Speaker 1: they went at Steph five times, or excuse me, Steph
Speaker 1: won at Jamal Murray five straight times down the stretch
Speaker 1: of that game, and they ended up generating one basket
Speaker 1: out of it. And then on the final two possessions
Speaker 1: they successfully denied Steph Ball entirely, which forced Jonathan came
Speaker 1: again Andrew Wiggins to try to make something happen, and
Speaker 1: he couldn't make anything happen. So the Warrior offense stalled
Speaker 1: out in large part because Steph wasn't getting clean dribble
Speaker 1: penetration on Jamal Murray. Steph was settling for some tough
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots having to pick up his dribble
Speaker 1: in the mid range, and Jamal just did a good
Speaker 1: job got the stops that he needed. And that really
Speaker 1: was the story of the game for me last night
Speaker 1: as I watched that matchup, Like, we're talking about two
Speaker 1: teams here that have the same major weakness, which is
Speaker 1: beyond their superstar, they don't have reliable shot creation. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously Denvers has higher profile players, right, guys that have
Speaker 1: better reputations than the secondary shot creators for the Warriors,
Speaker 1: but guys like Jamal Murray haven't been playing well this year.
Speaker 1: So like the same issue is there for Denver, which
Speaker 1: is like, if it's not Jokich, there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of like consistent offense that they have on this froster.
Speaker 1: But the difference is Jokic is playing at the level
Speaker 1: of a top tier superstar, the best player in the league,
Speaker 1: and Steph Curry is not. Jokic was able to make
Speaker 1: stuff happen for his team anyway with no one else
Speaker 1: able to hit shots.
Speaker 2: Steph was not. Jokic had thirty eight.
Speaker 1: Points, Steph Curry had twenty four on twenty three shots,
Speaker 1: and again Steph also had eleven assists. He had a
Speaker 1: great playmaking game. Steph did a lot to unlock the offense.
Speaker 1: But I don't think even Warriors fans would act like
Speaker 1: that was a top tier superstar Steph game. And that's
Speaker 1: really the thing. Like Steph has had some really good
Speaker 1: games this year against some really good teams. He's outplayed
Speaker 1: some stars. He outplayed Shake Gilders Alexander in a game,
Speaker 1: he outplayed Jason Tatum in a game. He's outplayed guys,
Speaker 1: and we've seen what it looks like. Golden State can
Speaker 1: beat the Thunder, Golden State can beat Boston, but it
Speaker 1: depends on that version of Steph. Like they didn't beat
Speaker 1: Boston or beat Okac with Steph, whereas averages this year
Speaker 1: at twenty two point six points per game, they beat
Speaker 1: those teams when Steph was able to reach that level.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. It's like, Steph has had really
Speaker 1: good games this year, but he's averaging twenty two point
Speaker 1: six points per game for the season, and he was
Speaker 1: right around that number for the tail end of last season.
Speaker 1: The scoring volume has been down for a really long time.
Speaker 1: The teams are really loading up on him, and again
Speaker 1: in the past, teams are really loading up on him
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one and he averaged, you know, thirty
Speaker 1: two points per game because he was playing like the
Speaker 1: best player in the world.
Speaker 2: At that point.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm gonna say the exact same thing that I
Speaker 1: said as it pertains the Lebron Right, Like, I don't
Speaker 1: think these guys are over. I don't think I don't
Speaker 1: think the run of these guys is over. I think
Speaker 1: that they have more good basketball in them. But they
Speaker 1: just have to find a way to play better basketball.
Speaker 1: And as long as they continue to play like this,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be really hard for their teams to overcome
Speaker 1: their shortcomings. Right, The Lakers have shortcomings in terms of
Speaker 1: their athleticism on the perimeter, which the Warriors don't. But
Speaker 1: the Warriors have issues with shot creation off of Steph,
Speaker 1: which the Lakers don't. They have tons of guys that
Speaker 1: can run off this. Right We're gona talk about that
Speaker 1: later when we talk a little bit about Spencer Dinwiddie,
Speaker 1: because I find his success Dallas to be pretty fascinating
Speaker 1: as it pertains to where he kind of slotted as
Speaker 1: a shot creator compared to where he was with the Lakers.
Speaker 2: Right, Like, the.
Speaker 1: Bottom line is, these teams have glaring flaws. The Warriors
Speaker 1: don't have reliable shot creation beyond Steph, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: don't have perimeter athleticism, and right now, Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Steph Curry are not doing enough to overcome that. And like,
Speaker 1: I get that it's tough, and I get for the record,
Speaker 1: I still believe these teams are worth investing in. But
Speaker 1: at this point, until whatever change is made, the only
Speaker 1: thing that can really remedy this is like STEP's got
Speaker 1: to get back to the point where he's averaging twenty
Speaker 1: eight twenty nine points per game on over sixty percent
Speaker 1: through shooting. And until he does that, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: really hard for this team to beat the good teams
Speaker 1: that are in the Western Conference, and they're dropping some
Speaker 1: games right now. And again with Yokich, it'sct it's the
Speaker 1: exact opposite story, Like he's overcoming a lot of these
Speaker 1: issues because he's playing better basketball than anyone else in
Speaker 1: the world is at this point. He's methodically walking teams
Speaker 1: down at the end of games, getting whatever the hell
Speaker 1: he wants for even like he's cre makeable shots for
Speaker 1: players that have their issues. Yeah, I Varon Gordon's got
Speaker 1: to shoot spot up threes all night, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: an issue. But if he's just catching and dunking off
Speaker 1: of cuts, it's gonna work.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Like, obviously, in order for the Nuggets to get to
Speaker 1: that top tier level, they're gonna need Jamal Murray to
Speaker 1: return to form. They're gonna need a lot of things
Speaker 1: to kind of change in the way guys have been
Speaker 1: playing to start this season. But in terms of floating
Speaker 1: the ship over the course of the regular season and
Speaker 1: kind of maintaining where they need to be, Jokics right
Speaker 1: now is allowing them to make up for that, and
Speaker 1: they're playing better basketball right now. Again, Like that's when
Speaker 1: it almost always just comes down to, like how well
Speaker 1: is your are your stars playing? I don't really even
Speaker 1: think it's possible to properly evaluate the supporting cast of
Speaker 1: teams like this when their stars aren't playing well because
Speaker 1: supporting cast players depend on the advantages created by their stars, right,
Speaker 1: And so like it's it's just one of those things
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on. Like again, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's over. I think both Steph and Lebron will have
Speaker 1: moments this year where they get back to form. But
Speaker 1: neither of these teams is accomplishing anything unless they get
Speaker 1: to April and they're playing at the level they need
Speaker 1: to be playing at as top tier superstars in this league.
Speaker 1: All right, Moving on to Magic Nicks. The Knicks did
Speaker 1: a really nice job of containing the basketball in this game. Again,
Speaker 1: that's been one of their biggest issues throughout this entire
Speaker 1: this entire season, just not very good at the point
Speaker 1: of attack for a roster that should be given the
Speaker 1: personnel that they have on board. They did a couple
Speaker 1: of specific things and a lot of matchup stuff, right, Like,
Speaker 1: Orlando's not a great pull up jump shooting team, so
Speaker 1: you can go underneath ball screens, you can give them
Speaker 1: space and ISOs and try to absorb contact rather than
Speaker 1: needing to pressure the ball. But they just as a
Speaker 1: team did a better job they were shrinking the floor
Speaker 1: with nail help and stunting. They were in their ISOs
Speaker 1: like giving that space and kind of playing in that
Speaker 1: middle ground where you feel like you're baiting teams into
Speaker 1: tougher pull up jump shots. Their weak side rotations were
Speaker 1: really solid. They got a lot of steals with the
Speaker 1: wingman covering for the low man. Again, I always talk
Speaker 1: about the difference between like what I see when I
Speaker 1: see a bad team versus a good team, where like
Speaker 1: a lot of the bad teams, it's like you just
Speaker 1: run a ball screen. You just kick to the corner
Speaker 1: and a guy gets a wide open three. But the
Speaker 1: good teams will have that windshield wiper rotation where the
Speaker 1: guy who's guarding the weak side wing will drop to
Speaker 1: the corner, and a lot of times if you time
Speaker 1: that right, you can get steals in those situations. And
Speaker 1: the Knicks got a couple of steals like that, and
Speaker 1: then Jalen Brunson really put this game away in the
Speaker 1: early third quarter. I mean, the Knicks were dominating throughout,
Speaker 1: they were up twenty at a half, but he really
Speaker 1: put the game away in the early third quarter just
Speaker 1: going at Kentavious Caldwell Pope, he kicked him. I did
Speaker 1: like a little low gather on a crossover where he
Speaker 1: got an and one. He put him in jail on
Speaker 1: a ball screen and bumped him off for an easy
Speaker 1: mid range jumps out. He had another low gatherer on
Speaker 1: Wendell Carter JUNI you're on a little sliced through the lane,
Speaker 1: and both McHale bridges and OJ and Andobi hit movement
Speaker 1: threes in that run, just just coming off. McHale came
Speaker 1: off of a little Chicago action in the corner, knocked
Speaker 1: one down, Og hit one in transition when he was
Speaker 1: in and all of a sudden they were up by
Speaker 1: thirty five and the game was over. And so the
Speaker 1: Knicks offense is really coming together kind of the way
Speaker 1: I was hoping it would when I saw the trades.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: As I talked about last year, one of the big
Speaker 1: changes in my basketball worldview is that in order to
Speaker 1: be a truly great offense that is good enough to
Speaker 1: win in the at the highest levels of the NBA,
Speaker 1: you have to have variety, and you have to have
Speaker 1: you have to have multiple ways to score the basketball
Speaker 1: so that when a defensive adjustment comes that targets something
Speaker 1: that you like to do on a possession by possession basis,
Speaker 1: you can kind of shift gears and find something else
Speaker 1: to do, right, I don't think it's a coincidence that
Speaker 1: Dallas ran into issues when they were able to just
Speaker 1: put Jason Tatum on the centers and shut down the
Speaker 1: ball screen attack, and all of a sudden it turned
Speaker 1: into like a lot of isolation jump shots, and Kyrie
Speaker 1: went cold and Luca wasn't hot enough, and then they
Speaker 1: couldn't get the stops that they needed and they ended
Speaker 1: up losing that series. Right by adding the same thing
Speaker 1: goes with the Knicks, by the way, like when it's
Speaker 1: all Jalen Brunson and just a bunch of guys that
Speaker 1: are just passing the ball back to him, I feel
Speaker 1: like there's a certain limit that that offense can get
Speaker 1: to when they run into better defenses and things really
Speaker 1: grind to a halt. And so when you have more
Speaker 1: guys that can make plays, more guys that can capitalize
Speaker 1: on advantage. It's one of the things that I've always
Speaker 1: thought about when it comes to the higher levels of
Speaker 1: the NBA playoffs, when you face truly elite defenses, they
Speaker 1: tend to they tend to be really.
Speaker 2: Slow to break down.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is like when you
Speaker 1: do get over the top of a ball screen and
Speaker 1: get downhill a little bit, their point of attack I
Speaker 1: usually is still pretty physical and making you feel pretty uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: you know, like even when it looks like there's a
Speaker 1: little room in the mid range for a pull up,
Speaker 1: like they usually have a really big long ball screen
Speaker 1: defender that like kind of like can shrink that gap
Speaker 1: pretty quickly, and even the lob isn't as open as
Speaker 1: you think. And like you see a skip pass and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, that guy's open, but you throw the
Speaker 1: skip pass and the dude who's in the low man
Speaker 1: position is just insanely fast and he just can close
Speaker 1: out really well and that opening is just gone. And
Speaker 1: so like when you're playing against the better defense is
Speaker 1: it's like you have to create a very slight advantage
Speaker 1: at the start of the possession by barely getting the
Speaker 1: defense to lean one way, and then you have to
Speaker 1: kick to a guy who's got a really good defender
Speaker 1: closing out at him, and he's got to turn that
Speaker 1: close out into an even bigger advantage. And then that
Speaker 1: guy's got to come off of the next close out
Speaker 1: and do an even better job, and then maybe you'll
Speaker 1: get a moderately contested three or a moderately contested shot
Speaker 1: at the rim, or a matchup that you kind of
Speaker 1: like that you might be able to get an ISO
Speaker 1: or post up shot against. But like when you're playing
Speaker 1: against the elite defenses, it's just really hard, and so
Speaker 1: having really high level offensive players all over the floor
Speaker 1: makes it easier for you to do that incremental breakdown
Speaker 1: of a defense. The Knicks have been the number one
Speaker 1: offense in the league this year. They have a one
Speaker 1: to twenty three offensive rating in their last eleven games.
Speaker 1: Last night against Orlando was their ninth game this season
Speaker 1: scoring over one hundred and twenty points. And like again,
Speaker 1: when you uh like there's some specific dynamic accept play
Speaker 1: that make it more complicated, right, Like kat as a
Speaker 1: spacing big always causes issues for certain teams, But like
Speaker 1: a lot of teams are, you know, putting their center
Speaker 1: on Josh Harten causing problems there. So it's like one
Speaker 1: of those things where it still comes down to, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, your ability to capitalize and
Speaker 1: expand on advantages and then to finish plays at the
Speaker 1: end and then just having McHale Bridges on the Florida
Speaker 1: By the way, mckel Bridges is playing much better. That
Speaker 1: was a beautiful game against Orlando there. He's starting to
Speaker 1: hit some of those threes when he's running into the
Speaker 1: corner on the mover relocating right. He's starting to make
Speaker 1: some of those classic mid range pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: that he used to make all the time when he
Speaker 1: was driving closeouts in Phoenix. By the way, mckel bridges
Speaker 1: his first ten games fifteen points per game, his last
Speaker 1: eleven games eighteen points per game. His three point shooting
Speaker 1: percentage has gone up from thirty one percent to thirty
Speaker 1: five percent over that span. So like getting more juice
Speaker 1: out of mckel bridges. Oh, Jannonobi went cold there for
Speaker 1: a while, but he got back against Orlando. He's had
Speaker 1: stretches where he's been really good. Karl Anthony Towns has
Speaker 1: been amazing all season. He's averaging twenty five points per
Speaker 1: game on sixty five percent through shooting. That's just outrageous, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, Jalen Brunson looks as comfortable as ever. He
Speaker 1: gets to pick his spots more than ever, He has
Speaker 1: more space to work with than ever. His usage has dropped.
Speaker 1: He was in last year he was a thirty three
Speaker 1: percent usage guy, which is like closer to Luca than
Speaker 1: you'd like to be, right, But in this season he's
Speaker 1: down to thirty percent, which is pretty standard for a
Speaker 1: superstar in this league when you're in a normal equal
Speaker 1: opportunity offense.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: As a result, he's over sixty percent through shooting for
Speaker 1: the first time since coming to the Knicks. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like all of this has just made life easier on everybody.
Speaker 1: And then even like, like all these guys fit really well,
Speaker 1: Like Josh Hart obviously has his shooting limitations, but he
Speaker 1: brings a lot of downhill force. He had ten assists
Speaker 1: against the Magic, and now after watching the game, some
Speaker 1: of those were just like swing passes to dudes who
Speaker 1: made one on one shots that probably shouldn't have counted
Speaker 1: as assists. But he still gets like three or four
Speaker 1: assists a game where he's just bringing downhill force with
Speaker 1: a transition drive or even just an offensive rebound for
Speaker 1: a kickout. It's like he makes plays or creates advantages
Speaker 1: for his teammates using his downhill force he's got. He's
Speaker 1: like a little bowling ball that's really difficult to stop
Speaker 1: when he gets going with the full head of steam,
Speaker 1: and so they just have all of this offensive talent.
Speaker 1: It's been super resilient too. Like in the five games
Speaker 1: that the Knicks have played against top ten defenses according
Speaker 1: to Cleaning the Glass, they have a one to seventeen
Speaker 1: offensive rating, which ranks fifth in the NBA. So their
Speaker 1: offense has continued to function even when they've played the
Speaker 1: higher level defenses in the league. During the eight and
Speaker 1: two stretch that they are in in their last ten games,
Speaker 1: their defense has been a little bit better too. They
Speaker 1: have a one to thirteen point eight defensive rating, which
Speaker 1: is seventeenth in the league over that span.
Speaker 2: It's a little more complicated.
Speaker 1: Than that, right, Like Orlando is a team that they
Speaker 1: could go under picks on, that they could play off
Speaker 1: of guys and kind of pack the paint. Most of
Speaker 1: the limited offenses they've played, they've been able to shut down.
Speaker 1: But like Phoenix lit him up a little bit, Denver
Speaker 1: lit him up a little bit, Dallas let him up
Speaker 1: a little bit, they just happen to outscore Phoenix because
Speaker 1: they scored one hundred and thirty eight points, and they
Speaker 1: happen to outscore Denver because they scored one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty five points. But like, the only reason I'm really
Speaker 1: concerned there, and the only reason I'm harping on that
Speaker 1: all season is because I think in the big picture,
Speaker 1: you've got to think about everything through the lens of Boston.
Speaker 1: You won't be able to outscore Boston. I think they'll
Speaker 1: be able to outscore basically any other team in the
Speaker 1: league if they need to in a series. I feel
Speaker 1: like that's an option, which is like, we can just
Speaker 1: score crazy well and give ourselves a chance to beat
Speaker 1: this team. I feel like they can do that to
Speaker 1: get to just about anybody, but Boston is a completely
Speaker 1: different story, and you're going to have to find a
Speaker 1: way to slow down Boston's offense if you're gonna have
Speaker 1: any chance to win that conference. So like really encouraging
Speaker 1: stuff on the offensive end of the floor, everything coming
Speaker 1: together with the vision that you would have expected when
Speaker 1: make with making a deal for a guy like Michal
Speaker 1: Bridges with making a deal for a guy like Karl
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns. The two man game with Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: and Jalen Brunston continues to be devastating all sorts of
Speaker 1: encouraging stuff there, but I'm gonna keep harping on in
Speaker 1: the defense all season because it's just something that they
Speaker 1: need to polish up if they're gonna contend with the
Speaker 1: team like Boston. On the Orlando front, I thought this
Speaker 1: was really fascinating. They're second in defensive rating on the season,
Speaker 1: but this was yet another example of their defense getting
Speaker 1: lit up by an elite offense. The Knicks are number
Speaker 1: one in offense. They put a one to seventeen offensive
Speaker 1: rating on the Magic. Memphis is number five in offense.
Speaker 1: They put a one to eighteen offensive rating on the Magic.
Speaker 1: The Cavs are second in offense. They put a one
Speaker 1: to seventeen offensive rating on the Magic. The Lakers or
Speaker 1: a top five offense at the time of their matchup.
Speaker 1: They've slipped to ten now, but they're still top ten.
Speaker 1: They hung a one to twenty one offensive rating on
Speaker 1: the Orlando Magic. In fact, according to Cleaning the Glass,
Speaker 1: despite the Magic being second in defense overall, they're just
Speaker 1: fourteenth in defense against the ten best offenses in the league,
Speaker 1: so it's not a very resilient defense. The top five
Speaker 1: most resilient defenses, by the way, for those wondering. This
Speaker 1: is just a little side note. Memphis, Houston, OKC, the Clippers,
Speaker 1: and Golden State all teams with just an absurd amount
Speaker 1: of speed. Now what's causing the problem? When I watched
Speaker 1: the Magic, the consistent theme is they get spread out
Speaker 1: and lit up from three in those games. So like
Speaker 1: when they can play teams and they can really pack
Speaker 1: the paint, their size becomes a big problem. And they
Speaker 1: do have speed at the guard position, but without Paalo,
Speaker 1: they're not as mobile on the front line as they
Speaker 1: could be at times, and they can get a little
Speaker 1: bit reckless with their gambling. And this team is third
Speaker 1: best in the league at forcing turnovers, second best at
Speaker 1: blocking shots, but when they leave their feet or when
Speaker 1: they lunge for the ball against smart teams, they can
Speaker 1: end up in rotation. And when they're in rotation, some
Speaker 1: of their bigger, slower guys can be an issue there.
Speaker 1: It's again, it's not a huge deal, and I do
Speaker 1: think Palo is a major help there because like going
Speaker 1: just adding another guy who's six ' ten and pretty
Speaker 1: damn fast is going to go a long way to
Speaker 1: helping them cover ground in rotation. But it's just something
Speaker 1: interesting to keep an eye and eye on in terms
Speaker 1: of a trend, which is that the Orlando Magic are
Speaker 1: getting stops against everybody except the best offenses in the league,
Speaker 1: and in those games, they're getting lit up from three
Speaker 1: and getting kind of burned in rotation a lot. Just
Speaker 1: something to keep an eye as we progress through this season.
Speaker 1: All before we get out of here, let's move on
Speaker 1: to Memphis Dallas kind of a wild game. Memphis completely
Speaker 1: dominated most of the second half. John Morant was like
Speaker 1: annihilating them. He's just getting to wherever he wanted on
Speaker 1: the floor. He had twenty six points just in the
Speaker 1: second half, and Dallas kind of felt like they were
Speaker 1: on their heels most of the game. And by the way,
Speaker 1: Memphis has been a top five offense this year, and
Speaker 1: it starts with John. No one can really guard this guy.
Speaker 1: He's playmaking at an extremely high level. He's just slicing
Speaker 1: and dicing teams in the middle of the lane. He
Speaker 1: hasn't been shooting very well this year, but he's got
Speaker 1: such a repertoire of counter moves and over the top
Speaker 1: shots that he can hit in the short to mid range,
Speaker 1: like he's over fifty two percent on floaters and hooks
Speaker 1: this year. So even though he's shooting like a super
Speaker 1: low twenty nine percent on off the dribble jump shots,
Speaker 1: he's still getting enough over the top shot creation as
Speaker 1: an option for him in the short to mid range,
Speaker 1: and his playmaking has been so good there it's just
Speaker 1: been a problem for a lot of teams in this league,
Speaker 1: as Memphis has been a really good offense. But Dallas
Speaker 1: walked him down in that fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington I thought it was the star of that run.
Speaker 1: He had a couple of huge threes. He beat Jay
Speaker 1: huff On a driving a close out out of the
Speaker 1: right corner where he made a really athletic move towards
Speaker 1: the rim. He also got the key stop on John
Speaker 1: Morant a possession where again, like with Jaw, you give
Speaker 1: him space because the pull up jumper's not there. But
Speaker 1: even if you beat him to the first spot, it's
Speaker 1: his counter moves that he has in that mid range
Speaker 1: euro steps, spins. He hit Klay Thompson with a disgusting
Speaker 1: spin move in that fourth quarter that just left him
Speaker 1: like glued to the floor, and like he just has
Speaker 1: all these counter moves in that range, so you have
Speaker 1: to like absorb contact by beating him to the spot.
Speaker 1: Then you have to recover to that secondary move, and
Speaker 1: he got a great contest on a John Morant little
Speaker 1: mid range shot where he forced him to really fade
Speaker 1: and have to shoot it higher than he typically does
Speaker 1: and forced a mist. It was a huge stop in
Speaker 1: that game. Luka Dancic hit a huge three. John Murray
Speaker 1: hit a three that put him up eight. He had
Speaker 1: a huge three a step back over Marcus Smart that
Speaker 1: pulled them back within five and kept the game close.
Speaker 1: Derek Lively had two huge offensive rebounds, and then Spencer
Speaker 1: Dinwoodie hit the biggest shots of the game and running
Speaker 1: transition three on the right wing that kind of was
Speaker 1: a little bit of an iffy shot, but like he
Speaker 1: got his legs into it and he shot it up
Speaker 1: in the air and he knocked it down and then
Speaker 1: a couple of possessions two. I think it was the
Speaker 1: very next possession. Actually, he ends up hitting the dagger
Speaker 1: on the right wing that puts the Mavericks up five
Speaker 1: and they get out of there for the game. Now,
Speaker 1: before we move on to some of the big picture stuff,
Speaker 1: a lot of talk for coming out of that game
Speaker 1: about free throw differential and like oh my god, the
Speaker 1: refs just gave Dallas so many free throws in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, and blah blah, blah blah, And like, you
Speaker 1: guys know how I feel about this sort of thing,
Speaker 1: Like I am consistent across the board, regardless of team,
Speaker 1: regardless of who it is. I think complaining about free
Speaker 1: free throw differential is the lamest, the lamest shit in
Speaker 1: the world. It's a loser mentality. Even when I see
Speaker 1: pros and pro coaches do it, I'm like, ugh, Like
Speaker 1: that's just such a bad look because like once again,
Speaker 1: when you go on the road, you expect that you're
Speaker 1: gonna probably be on the wrong end of a couple
Speaker 1: of calls. It's part of your mental toughness going into
Speaker 1: that situation. You have to be ready for it, prepared
Speaker 1: for it, and be willing to play through it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And then nine times out of ten, when I go
Speaker 1: back and watch these games and I see a free
Speaker 1: throw differential, the team that's getting more free throws is
Speaker 1: almost always the team that is playing a style that
Speaker 1: is conducive to it. They're usually playing with more force.
Speaker 1: They tend to have like a play style that is
Speaker 1: maybe more grifty and just better at getting to the line.
Speaker 1: They usually are bigger and more athletic, and smaller players
Speaker 1: are trying to compensate for it by hacking and doing
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. And like I watched that game, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there were a couple of calls. I didn't like the
Speaker 1: offensive rebound with the one that got reviewed where they
Speaker 1: ended up reversing it and giving Derek Lively to free throws,
Speaker 1: Like yeah, I disagree with that. I think it should
Speaker 1: have just been Dallas side out of bounds or based
Speaker 1: on out of bounds, like if you're it just as
Speaker 1: ridiculous to just reward somebody with free throws for contact
Speaker 1: that happens all the time in the end of these games,
Speaker 1: and guys are fighting for rebounds, so like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought that was a bad call.
Speaker 2: There was also a.
Speaker 1: Jaren Jackson baseline drive where I thought he got Derek
Speaker 1: Leively was out of position and I thought he kind
Speaker 1: of came down on his shoulder. I thought it should
Speaker 1: have been a foul, right, But the rest of them,
Speaker 1: like Marcus Smart trying to fight over the top of
Speaker 1: a screen against Luka Doncicz, like forty five feet from
Speaker 1: the basket and tripping him, Like that's a stupid foul,
Speaker 1: and it's a foul every single time you tripped him.
Speaker 1: So he fell. The ref's not gonna just let it
Speaker 1: go and you're in the penalty and again that's a
Speaker 1: pick forty five feet from the basket. Luca's not gonna
Speaker 1: pull up that shot, just go under by. By physically
Speaker 1: fighting over the top of that screen, you put the
Speaker 1: ref in a position where he could make a call,
Speaker 1: and he did. There was another play. It was a
Speaker 1: three point game, like with like two minutes left, and
Speaker 1: Luca gets a defensive rebound and Marcus Smart just runs
Speaker 1: in and hacks him on both arms, like right in
Speaker 1: front of the ref. If you watch the replay that,
Speaker 1: you can see the ref like blow the whistle and
Speaker 1: kind of shake his head a little bit as if like, dude,
Speaker 1: you're making me make the call, like what the hell
Speaker 1: are you doing?
Speaker 2: And so like.
Speaker 1: But more often than not, when I see games like
Speaker 1: that and I go back and look, the team that
Speaker 1: ends up in the free throw disparity is just doing
Speaker 1: stupid shit. And that's what Memphis was doing. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: were a couple of bad calls. You're right, it's part
Speaker 1: of the game. If you go on the road, you
Speaker 1: expect to get a couple of bad calls. I'll be
Speaker 1: rooting for the Lakers tonight in Miami. I expect them
Speaker 1: to get a couple of bad calls down the stretch
Speaker 1: of that game. That's just how it goes when you
Speaker 1: play basketball, especially when you go on the road. It's
Speaker 1: always a part of the game. It could happen to
Speaker 1: you at home too. It's a variable. You go into
Speaker 1: games knowing the refs are gonna make mistakes, just like
Speaker 1: we are going to make mistakes. That is part of basketball.
Speaker 1: And again, like I'm not trying to harp on Memphis
Speaker 1: fans here because I've seen Dallas fans do it. Hell
Speaker 1: Lakers fans. The Lakers have the best free throw differential
Speaker 1: in the league over the last couple of years, and
Speaker 1: I've seen Laker fans say Lebron gets the worst whistle
Speaker 1: and oh ad got hacked on that one, like everyone
Speaker 1: does it. I personally think it's lame. I think it's
Speaker 1: completely I think it's a huge waste of time to
Speaker 1: even focus on. I have big picture concerns about officiating
Speaker 1: in the NBA, but I think talking about it within
Speaker 1: the scale of within the scope of competition is a
Speaker 1: big waste of time, and I think it's a loser mentality.
Speaker 1: And again, like this has been a consistent theme from Memphis.
Speaker 1: They have struggled with execution and decision making at the
Speaker 1: end of games they're two and six and clutch situations.
Speaker 2: This year.
Speaker 1: They had a negative clutch net rating a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago when Joe was healthy most of the season. Again, like,
Speaker 1: this is one of those things where it's like a
Speaker 1: lot of times at the end of these games, it'll
Speaker 1: swing on a couple of decisions. Marcus Smart rushed three
Speaker 1: at the above the break on a ghost screen. That
Speaker 1: was a bad shot. Him committing those two bad fouls,
Speaker 1: those three mistakes get wiped out, that could be a
Speaker 1: very different game, right, Like, it's just more often than not,
Speaker 1: it just comes down to your decision making and execution
Speaker 1: in those situations, not something out of your control like
Speaker 1: the refs or something along those lines. And bottom line
Speaker 1: is John Moran, after slicing and dicing them all night,
Speaker 1: really couldn't get anything for himself except for that three
Speaker 1: point shot that he hit from above the break during
Speaker 1: crunch time. So like that was the issue at the
Speaker 1: end of that game. Luca was able to consistently generate
Speaker 1: some pretty high quality shots, and Memphis was it. They
Speaker 1: ended up getting the win and of key offensive rebounds
Speaker 1: for Dallas. Things along those lines. I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this while I was watching the game last night. I
Speaker 1: think Dallas is the third best team in the entire NBA.
Speaker 1: I landed here in a different way than I did
Speaker 1: last year. Like last year, I had Dallas as third
Speaker 1: as well. Going into the playoffs, I had Boston and
Speaker 1: Denver and then a end of a tier, and then
Speaker 1: I had Dallas as the top of the second tier
Speaker 1: of championship teams. This year, I came in with Dallas
Speaker 1: at number five. I had Denver and New York above them.
Speaker 1: But from what I've seen from all three of those
Speaker 1: teams this year, I think Dallas is better than both
Speaker 1: of them. They just have so many good players, and
Speaker 1: some of last year's guys have gotten better. Luke and
Speaker 1: Kyrie or Luke and Kyrie. I'm not going to get
Speaker 1: too far into them. Like Luca's numbers are down this
Speaker 1: year and everyone's freaking out. I couldn't care less. I
Speaker 1: expect Luca to be a better player than and he
Speaker 1: was last year. By the time he gets to the postseason,
Speaker 1: as long as he says healthy. So I'm just not
Speaker 1: worried about Luca. And by the way, in his last
Speaker 1: two games, he's averaging thirty seven points, ten rebounds, nine
Speaker 1: assists on fifty seven percent from the field in forty
Speaker 1: seven percent from three with seven steals. By the way,
Speaker 1: as he continues to play passing lanes really well, like Lucas,
Speaker 1: seems to be getting back to form, I'm not worried
Speaker 1: about him.
Speaker 2: PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington is shooting the ball much better than he did
Speaker 1: last year. You remember last year after the finals when
Speaker 1: I talked about how much PJ. Washington would probably be
Speaker 1: repping above the above the break threes all summer in
Speaker 1: the gym. Well, he's shooting forty nine percent on above
Speaker 1: the break threes this year. He has good form. I
Speaker 1: think he's capable of being a reliable shooter there and
Speaker 1: that could be key for the Boston matchup. As we know,
Speaker 1: in the Boston matchup with Darre Jones out of the equation,
Speaker 1: that's likely going to be a center on PJ Washington
Speaker 1: and him needing to hit pick and pop jump shots.
Speaker 1: If they were to get back into that matchup. Those
Speaker 1: above the break threes are vitally important for them in
Speaker 1: that specific matchup. He's also just a really good functional athlete.
Speaker 1: Like he got that key stop against Jaw, He gets
Speaker 1: contested defense, rebounds, he brings real downhill force driving close outs,
Speaker 1: he can beat mismatches in the post. He's just a
Speaker 1: really really good player. Dereklively is just awesome. He had
Speaker 1: six offensive rebounds last night. Last year, Derek Lively was
Speaker 1: basically a one to one assist to turnover guy. This
Speaker 1: year he's a two to one assist to turnover guy.
Speaker 1: Like I talked about guys getting better, Derek Lively and PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington are just better basketball players now than they were
Speaker 1: last year. That's an ad of talent to this team.
Speaker 2: By the way, Derek G.
Speaker 1: Lively's over fifty percent on hooks when he needs to
Speaker 1: finish over the top of a switch or a quick
Speaker 1: offensive rebound put back, something along those lines. He's generated
Speaker 1: thirteen points on ten post ups this year. That's low volume,
Speaker 1: but that's one point three points per possession. When you
Speaker 1: dump the ball to the block to Derek Lively, Him
Speaker 1: and PJ. Washington just make for a very athletically imposing frontline.
Speaker 1: The defensive rebound really well when the two of them
Speaker 1: are on the floor together. Dallas has not been a
Speaker 1: good defensive rebounding team this year, but they get seventy
Speaker 1: five percent of their defensive rebounds that are available when
Speaker 1: PJ and Derek Glively are on the floor together. They
Speaker 1: both can switch in ball screens and guard perimeter players.
Speaker 1: They run the floor super well. Dallas has a ninety
Speaker 1: six percentile transition defense when those two are on the
Speaker 1: floor together, and they provide spacing in their own ways,
Speaker 1: with PJ. Washington knocking down shots and driving closeouts, and
Speaker 1: with Derek Lively as a vertical spacer and a guy
Speaker 1: who can make plays in the four on three when
Speaker 1: he gets ignored in blitzes and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: So like PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington and Derek Lively have both gotten better, Daniel Gafford
Speaker 1: gives them depth to have a good center on the
Speaker 1: floor for forty eight minutes. Spencer Dinwoody has become like
Speaker 1: their de facto third option and is closing games for
Speaker 1: them at the three. In the last five games, Spencer
Speaker 1: dinwood He's averaging seventeen points and six assists on fifty
Speaker 1: two percent from the field in fifty two percent from
Speaker 1: three not to mention, he gives them a good perimeter
Speaker 1: defense option in that lineup. And you know, I actually
Speaker 1: find this really fascinating because I wanted the Lakers to
Speaker 1: bring Spencer Dinwoody back. I thought he was a good player,
Speaker 1: but he did not have a good offensive season the
Speaker 1: brief time that he was in LA And a big
Speaker 1: part of that was where he was in the pecking order.
Speaker 1: Like Austin was getting more touches than Spencer. De loo
Speaker 1: is getting more touches in Spencer. Lebron's getting more touches
Speaker 1: than Spencer. Hell Ruey's getting more touches than Spencer. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is getting more touches than Spencer. Spencer was like
Speaker 1: the sixth option on that team, as he'd come in as.
Speaker 2: A backup guard. Right.
Speaker 1: So, like as I look at Dallas's situation and the
Speaker 1: recent success that Spencer's had, Spencer's a rhythm player. He
Speaker 1: needs to have the ball in his hands and he
Speaker 1: needs to be he needs to feel like he can
Speaker 1: take a shot without getting in trouble. He's the kind
Speaker 1: of guy, he's a little He's got a little bit
Speaker 1: of that audaciousness in him where he's like he will
Speaker 1: take that movement transition three in a clutch situation, but
Speaker 1: he's also got the confidence in the skill to knock
Speaker 1: it down too.
Speaker 2: He just has to be in rhythm.
Speaker 1: And again he'll have stretches when he goes cold and
Speaker 1: he has his issues, but I like him as an
Speaker 1: option there. It gives them an option, and that's really
Speaker 1: the key. It's about versatility. We haven't even talked about
Speaker 1: the depth of the roster, guys like Nauji Marshall, Jaden Hardy,
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson. Lay Thompson hasn't even played really well this year, right,
Speaker 1: But like they have versatility. When you take it the
Speaker 1: look at their core four, so Kyrie, Luca, Derek Lively,
Speaker 1: and PJ. Washington, we can assume that those five are
Speaker 1: more or less or those four are more or less
Speaker 1: going to be the closing four for any matchup.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But because of certain players are playing better, they have
Speaker 1: a lot of different options. They can go like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're playing a big team like the Denver Nuggets and
Speaker 1: you need more size, well bringing Maxi Kleba. Just go Luka,
Speaker 1: Kyrie and then go PJ. Maxi Derek Lively. Now, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you've got a lot of size. You
Speaker 1: could put a big on Jokic while having a big
Speaker 1: in help on the back line. Right, you put Kleeba
Speaker 1: on the Jokich and put Lively in help. Right, you
Speaker 1: can bring in extra size for that matchup. Oh, we're
Speaker 1: guarding Boston and we just need another guy who can
Speaker 1: guard on the perimeter really well. Well, you can go
Speaker 1: with Naji Marshall at the three or Spencer Dinwoodie with
Speaker 1: as well as he's playing. Spencer's a good defender and
Speaker 1: he's not a great defender, but he's a good defender
Speaker 1: and he can really do the job. He's got long arms,
Speaker 1: good size, good strength. It can move pretty well. Right,
Speaker 1: Let's say you're playing like a team like in Orlando
Speaker 1: or another team that has a lot of size that
Speaker 1: likes to match upon a team like the Lakers, for instance,
Speaker 1: like Klay Thompson is one of the best options in
Speaker 1: the league for like defending players in the post and
Speaker 1: shooting the three, and so you could put Clay at
Speaker 1: the three for matchups like that. They have a lot
Speaker 1: of versatility for different types of matchups in the conference,
Speaker 1: and it didn't feel like that last year because they
Speaker 1: didn't have, you know, guys like Spencer, didn't Winn Narget,
Speaker 1: Nauji Marshall, they didn't have guys like Klay Thompson to
Speaker 1: have for those types of looks. Right, they're deep enough
Speaker 1: to stay high in the standings all season. We just
Speaker 1: saw them whether the loss of Luca for a little while,
Speaker 1: and I think they match up better than with Boston
Speaker 1: than they did last year. Do I think they'd beat Boston.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't pick them, but it's an easier path to see,
Speaker 1: Like PJ Washington making above the break threes would really
Speaker 1: help in that matchup. I think Luca will be in
Speaker 1: better shape and defend better in that series after he
Speaker 1: got embarrassed last year. Spencer at the three gives them
Speaker 1: another mobile perimeter player to have as an option in
Speaker 1: those situations. Kyrie was really cold in that series last year.
Speaker 1: It's easy to see a pathway where he would be
Speaker 1: better this year. Right, So, like they're a long shot
Speaker 1: still because it feels like there's a gap between them
Speaker 1: in Boston, but I feel like they've closed that gap
Speaker 1: some amount, and so all it takes is certain variables
Speaker 1: to go their way for them to be able to
Speaker 1: potentially get it done in like a puncher's chance type
Speaker 1: of sense, and if you believe in that again, all ads.
Speaker 1: All odds provided by DraftKings.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: The Dallas Mavericks are plus five point fifty to win
Speaker 1: the conference and plus eleven hundred to win the title,
Speaker 1: So some real odd odds opportunity there if you're looking
Speaker 1: to make a bet on Dallas. All right, guys, That's
Speaker 1: all I have for today is always a sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting the show. We got another packed
Speaker 1: slate tonight and we'll have more game breakdowns than maybe
Speaker 1: even some film tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys then.
Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: What's up guys?
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
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Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
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