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Speaker 1: old coon hoops and I here at the volume heavy Monday.
Speaker 1: Everybody'll ball if you guys had a great weekend and
Speaker 1: then you're having a great start to your week at
Speaker 1: a jampackshow for you. Today, we're gonna hit a game
Speaker 1: reaction off the top between the Milwaukee Bucks and the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn that's interesting game. The Nets had them against the Ropes,
Speaker 1: but the Bucks fought back and got a big win
Speaker 1: thanks to Giannis who kind of got them going in
Speaker 1: the late third quarter and they rode that to the finish.
Speaker 1: Some interesting stuff in crunch time in that game too.
Speaker 1: After that, I want to talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: Nicole and the level he's hitting offensively right now and
Speaker 1: where it ranks for me all time, and especially some
Speaker 1: specific kind of schematic stuff that's helping to unlock it
Speaker 1: all in a little bit of his partnership with Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: And then at the tail end of the show, as
Speaker 1: we do every Monday, Power Ranking is going to hit
Speaker 1: the top ten teams in the league, talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about each of them. You guys are the job.
Speaker 1: Before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops to Night
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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight channel where we're releasing more contents to make
Speaker 1: sure you follow us there, and last but not least,
Speaker 1: keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments. We
Speaker 1: have a really small slate tonight. I think it's just
Speaker 1: Raptors at NICK. So tomorrow morning, we're probably just going
Speaker 1: to do a brief kind of like preview of the
Speaker 1: n season tournament. Obviously, it's single elimination, so anything can happen,
Speaker 1: but I'll give you guys a prediction anyway, And then
Speaker 1: at the tail end of that show, we're just going
Speaker 1: to answer some mailback QUI questions to kill some time
Speaker 1: before we get to the games that evening, and then
Speaker 1: we'll be breaking them down obviously as we get further
Speaker 1: into the week. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: Bucks Nets was an interesting game to me on a
Speaker 1: bunch of different levels. First of all, the nets and
Speaker 1: just what makes them so scrappy, and the simple fact
Speaker 1: that they just have a lot of players that are
Speaker 1: good at things that are mandatory to succeed in the
Speaker 1: modern NBA in terms of covering ground on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: pressuring the ball to make an offense feel uncomfortable, being
Speaker 1: able to chase people off of the three point line
Speaker 1: into lower percentage shots that are contested twos. They've got
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that can do that at a
Speaker 1: pretty high level. And like, again, this is a team
Speaker 1: that I'd keep an eye on in the trade market.
Speaker 1: There's just a lot of guys there that can help
Speaker 1: really good teams around the league, and I'm I'm curious
Speaker 1: to see where some of these guys end up over
Speaker 1: the course of the next few months. But they have
Speaker 1: the Bucks on the rope. On the ropes, they're defending
Speaker 1: Dame extremely well. Dennis Schroeder's applying a lot of ball pressure.
Speaker 1: It's got good quickness to stay in front of Dame,
Speaker 1: but also the length to contest his pull up jump shot.
Speaker 1: They were defending really well, and it kind of looked
Speaker 1: like things were kind of looked like things were teetering
Speaker 1: for the Bucks a little bit there in the late
Speaker 1: third quarter as the Nets kept making runs. I think
Speaker 1: they went up by as much as eleven in that
Speaker 1: kind of late third quarter stretch. But then Yannis just
Speaker 1: refused to let them lose that game and completely took
Speaker 1: things over. He was doing a lot of work in
Speaker 1: the post, hitting that little hook shot over his left shoulder.
Speaker 1: And again, this is something I've been dying for Giannis
Speaker 1: to build out over the course of the last few years,
Speaker 1: because I just think it's a more reliable over the
Speaker 1: top shot. Like, what is the purpose of the over
Speaker 1: the top shot. It's for when you're fatigued or when
Speaker 1: you run into an elite defender that takes away the
Speaker 1: easy stuff that you can get at the rim as
Speaker 1: a power player, right, Like, there's a certain amount of
Speaker 1: like through schematic approach and just through Jannis's indomitable will,
Speaker 1: that he's going to be able to get to the
Speaker 1: basket a certain amount of the time. But when you
Speaker 1: run into certain types of defenders that can slide their feet,
Speaker 1: absorb contact and make you shoot over the top, that's
Speaker 1: where it brings value. To have something that you can
Speaker 1: make over the top, it just has to be a
Speaker 1: high enough percentage shot to be valuable. And that's where,
Speaker 1: like when Giannis was taking a lot of off the
Speaker 1: dribble jump shots, and a lot of them were threes,
Speaker 1: he was not able to hit enough of them to
Speaker 1: justify it even in the large volume, let alone the
Speaker 1: small volume. But now because he's gotten pretty decent at
Speaker 1: that little pull up elbow jump shot, and because he's
Speaker 1: starting to really turn to that left shoulder hook and
Speaker 1: hit it at a higher percentage, he's got something that
Speaker 1: he can go to to both make things easier for
Speaker 1: him in terms of fatigue, but also something he can
Speaker 1: go to when the team needs a bucket. And it
Speaker 1: turned into a situation where in crunch time, the Nets
Speaker 1: really had no choice but to start double teaming Giannis.
Speaker 1: And this is where it turned into what I thought
Speaker 1: was a really gutsy call from Doc Rivers and what
Speaker 1: I thought was the right decision under the circumstances. Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder was giving them a ton of issues, so they
Speaker 1: closed with Andre Jackson on the ball. You would think
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, depending on the matchup, maybe
Speaker 1: you'd want a better offensive player there. But I thought
Speaker 1: it was the right call, especially with how successful Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder was kind of getting to his spots. And then
Speaker 1: the second piece of it was, even though brook Lopez
Speaker 1: can shoot, he was not having a confident game if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, didn't even hit a three in this
Speaker 1: particular game. But Bobby Portis was feeling good and comfortable
Speaker 1: on those above the break threes, especially at the wing.
Speaker 1: And so when you're double teaming out of the post,
Speaker 1: there are a couple of like simple reads that come
Speaker 1: out of it, right, Like the first read is the
Speaker 1: guy who makes the pass right, so the guy makes
Speaker 1: the post entry. He's sitting one pass away, but he
Speaker 1: usually has to be pretty far away. It's got to
Speaker 1: be like a twenty five twenty six footer. Bobby hit
Speaker 1: one of those off of a basic double team off
Speaker 1: the left block. Giannis is dribbling, Here comes the guy
Speaker 1: digging down into the post, whip it back out. Bobby
Speaker 1: knocks down the shot. But then there's also the swing
Speaker 1: passes that come out of that. But what it ended
Speaker 1: up being was above the breakthrees on the wings a
Speaker 1: little bit further out, but that were moderately contested, and
Speaker 1: so you needed someone that could confidently step into a shot.
Speaker 1: You needed somebody that wasn't going to to you know,
Speaker 1: because if you catch at twenty six feet and the
Speaker 1: guy's closing out at you and you pump fake and
Speaker 1: you swing it, it might not be open anymore and
Speaker 1: the advantage could be gone. It wasn't gonna get It
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna end in some sort of completely wide open,
Speaker 1: uncontested three. They needed somebody to step up and knock
Speaker 1: down moderately contested threes off of those Giannis double teams.
Speaker 1: And Bobby just got hot and he made three after three,
Speaker 1: after three, Chris Middleton made one in that stretch as well,
Speaker 1: and on the other end of the floor. To Bobby's credit,
Speaker 1: the nets we're picking on him quite a bit. It
Speaker 1: was a kind of a steady stream of like Cam
Speaker 1: Johnson and Dennis Schroeder just picking on Bobby in switches,
Speaker 1: and Cam hit like a pretty tough side stepping three
Speaker 1: above the break, and then Dennis just barely turned the
Speaker 1: corner on Bobby. It kind of took a bump and
Speaker 1: knocked down a little bank shot and it looked like, oh,
Speaker 1: this could get a little ugly here with the nets
Speaker 1: attacking Bobby, but he sat in a stance and he
Speaker 1: got some big stops down the stretch, forced Cam Johnson
Speaker 1: into a really ugly miss flat out just blocked Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder on driving floater. So Bobby ended up being kind
Speaker 1: of the hero in this game with the key stops
Speaker 1: down the stretches. The nets were trying to hunt him
Speaker 1: and hitting those big above the break threes off of
Speaker 1: those Jannis double teams. But I really want to zoom
Speaker 1: in on on Giannis for as second, because what he
Speaker 1: did in that game is something that I've been harping
Speaker 1: at harping on for a while, which is like, there
Speaker 1: is a certain amount of there's a certain amount of
Speaker 1: malaise that is inherent in the NBA regular season. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Bucks just ran into it in that Hawks game
Speaker 1: in particular, where they just got ran off the floor
Speaker 1: in transition and it's like, clearly, you're just not engaged.
Speaker 1: You're not running, you're not sprinting, you're not picking up
Speaker 1: the ball, you're not defending the basket. It's a little
Speaker 1: basic details in transition defense, and you end up taking
Speaker 1: a loss. Right, But like, that's part of the NBA season.
Speaker 1: It's long, it drags on. And so this is where
Speaker 1: like well Yannis did in that third quarter when things
Speaker 1: were teetering, he is the guy who has the ability
Speaker 1: to change the tenor of a game and get his
Speaker 1: teammates reinvested in a way where you can then follow
Speaker 1: that through to a win. This is where I was
Speaker 1: being so critical with Lebron James and Anthony Davis last week.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt that there were some injuries, right, Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves is out of the lineup. You got you know,
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilts hurt. You're dealing with some guys out and
Speaker 1: it makes things tougher, right, But that's exactly when you
Speaker 1: need your superstar players to leverage their gifts even more
Speaker 1: because the more you leverage your gifts, the easier you
Speaker 1: make things for your teammates. Then they start to succeed,
Speaker 1: and then the whole team starts to take off. It's
Speaker 1: the rising tide that lifts all boats, right, It's like
Speaker 1: you're seeing this with Nikole Jokic all season two. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing, Like Giannis, He's playing at an insanely
Speaker 1: high level right now. That was another MVP level performance yesterday.
Speaker 1: He's at thirty three twelve and six on the season
Speaker 1: at sixty three percent true shooting. That's just completely outrageous
Speaker 1: and might not even be enough with how well Nikole
Speaker 1: Jokic is playing right now. But like, I just thought
Speaker 1: that was such a great reminder last night, but from
Speaker 1: Yannis of like what you expect from the real top
Speaker 1: tier guys in the league, which is like no matter
Speaker 1: what night, what night of the season, it is, no
Speaker 1: matter what the schedule has been looking like maybe you're
Speaker 1: co star and older guy like Dame just doesn't have
Speaker 1: it going. Things are just looking a little bit bleak,
Speaker 1: and to have a guy that can just step up
Speaker 1: and just kind of gain control of the situation and
Speaker 1: turn a loss into a win is the differentiator in
Speaker 1: a lot of cases. And most importantly, it comes down
Speaker 1: to establishing habits. The teams that let games like that
Speaker 1: slip and just go, ah, screw. It's an eighty two
Speaker 1: game season. It's marathon, not a sprint. We'll make it
Speaker 1: up when we need to. And you know whatever, seating
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter. We can go beat anybody if we
Speaker 1: have to. And it's like, yeah, theoretically all of those
Speaker 1: concepts are true, Like, yeah, the season is long, and
Speaker 1: as long as you feel like you can beat any
Speaker 1: of the teams in your conference, it doesn't really matter
Speaker 1: who you play first or where you go play him.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is the teams that win multiple
Speaker 1: playoff rounds, the teams that play the level of basketball
Speaker 1: necessary to go through that grind in the postseason, tend
Speaker 1: to be the teams that find themselves in a tough
Speaker 1: game in the third order against the team that they
Speaker 1: should beat and fight and get the win rather than
Speaker 1: roll over and lose. And I thought that that was
Speaker 1: just a great justa position of Jannis compared to some
Speaker 1: of the other players around the league, and just the
Speaker 1: way you're supposed to attack things in the middle of
Speaker 1: December when you have the types of big picture goals
Speaker 1: that the Milwaukee Bucks have. So shout out to Jannis
Speaker 1: and Tennkople. Let's talk about Yokic for a minute, though.
Speaker 1: So he goes for fifty six in Washington, probably the
Speaker 1: worst loss of any team in the NBA this season,
Speaker 1: as the Nuggets lose to the two win Wizards at
Speaker 1: that point, but Jokic goes for fifty six. He goes
Speaker 1: for forty eight in Atlanta, when for thirty eight last
Speaker 1: week in Golden State. So his last four games, Yokic
Speaker 1: is averaging forty two points, fifteen rebounds, and eight assists
Speaker 1: on fifty six percent from the field, fifty percent from three,
Speaker 1: and seventy eight percent from the free throw line. He's
Speaker 1: also averaging three steals per game over that span. There's
Speaker 1: a couple of specific things that are driving this. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot about Yokic's jump shot, and I
Speaker 1: don't need to get too far into that. Didn't shoot
Speaker 1: the ball super well last year, started to hurt him
Speaker 1: with teams leaving him open on pops and in spot
Speaker 1: up situations. We won't get any further into that. He
Speaker 1: is shooting extremely well this season one point three five
Speaker 1: points per jump shot. Among all players in the NBA
Speaker 1: that have attempted at least one hundred jump shots this year,
Speaker 1: that one point three to five points per shot mark
Speaker 1: ranks second in the entire league. That's how good Yoki
Speaker 1: just shooting the basketball. Anybody want to guess who's number one?
Speaker 1: Aj Green from the Milwaukee Bucks was number one front
Speaker 1: players who have attempted at least one hundred shots, but
Speaker 1: just obviously shooting the ball extremely well. He's especially shooting
Speaker 1: the ball well as of late in face up situations.
Speaker 1: This has been a big part of both the Atlanta
Speaker 1: game and the Washington game. Whether it's like catching at
Speaker 1: the elbow and just turning and facing up, coming off
Speaker 1: of screening actions and kind of like flowing into ISOs
Speaker 1: around that like foul line area. But all he does
Speaker 1: is he just kind of jabs and just leans back
Speaker 1: and just shoots right over the top. He's shooting seventy
Speaker 1: eight percent so far here on those face up jump shots,
Speaker 1: according to Synergy that's been a big thing that's boosted
Speaker 1: his scoring. Again. Like when you can accentuate your scoring
Speaker 1: with jump shooting, that's when you can hit some really
Speaker 1: high scoring numbers because it's easier to counter, you know,
Speaker 1: like crazy paint scoring with health defense than it is
Speaker 1: to deal with the guy who's just shooting over the
Speaker 1: top of you every single time. He scored over ten
Speaker 1: points on jump shots in four of the last five games.
Speaker 1: It's been a huge part of his success. And then
Speaker 1: he's just absolutely crushing teams rolling in ball screens, and
Speaker 1: this is something that was not really working for the
Speaker 1: Nuggets in the early part of the season. I want
Speaker 1: to dive into that concept a little bit. He didn't
Speaker 1: have a single game all season before this weekend where
Speaker 1: he had over ten points in a single game in
Speaker 1: rollman possessions, meaning like catching the ball in a ball
Speaker 1: screen in the pocket and scoring out of those situations,
Speaker 1: not a single game with over ten. He had twenty
Speaker 1: seven points on rollman possessions in the Washington and Atlanta
Speaker 1: game games combined. This is where I want to shout
Speaker 1: out Rush Westbrook. So think of it like this, what
Speaker 1: opens up the pocket in a ball screen? So like
Speaker 1: if Jamal's dribbling at the top of the key, or
Speaker 1: if he's coming off of a dribble handoff, whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it, that two man game and his
Speaker 1: defender is chasing over the top and Yo Kicic's defender
Speaker 1: is defending in you know, kind of a typical ball
Speaker 1: screen coverage where he's kind of splitting the difference between
Speaker 1: both guys. What's going to get the opening for Yo
Speaker 1: Kitchen the pocket on ball defenders behind whoever's the ball handler,
Speaker 1: screen defender is splitting the difference usually like that no
Speaker 1: roller behind coverage, Right, how do you get Yokic open there?
Speaker 1: That screen defender has to lean towards the ball handler.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't lean towards the ball handler, the pocket's
Speaker 1: not open. If the pocket's not open, Yo kich isn't
Speaker 1: going to get his opportunities to score there. Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: when he was at his best, and what made this
Speaker 1: so effective was Jamal was cooking teams coming off of
Speaker 1: these scoring acts, these screening actions, whether it was with
Speaker 1: curling and getting into floater range and making shots there.
Speaker 1: If he's coming off and shooting pull up jump shots, right,
Speaker 1: Jamal hasn't been as good this year, so it's been
Speaker 1: harder to unlock that part of the game. Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: has been getting downhill in these ball screens, and it's
Speaker 1: become such a problem for teams that he's either engaging
Speaker 1: the screen defender and getting that pocket, or they're trying
Speaker 1: to meet Jim. They're trying to meet Russ at the
Speaker 1: screen to stop him from turning the corner, because once
Speaker 1: he gets ahead of Steam he can be such a
Speaker 1: problem there. And so Russ's ability to engage the screen
Speaker 1: defender by actually getting downhill in those screens is forcing
Speaker 1: Jokic's defender to account for us, which is leaving Yokic
Speaker 1: with all these super easy opportunities in the short range
Speaker 1: where he's so deadly with that floater or quick isolation
Speaker 1: moves on the catch where can just spin over one
Speaker 1: of his shoulders and knock down a shot. It is
Speaker 1: completely unlocked, something that was missing during the early part
Speaker 1: of this season. Again, twenty seven rollman points in two
Speaker 1: games after not having a single game over ten points
Speaker 1: to start the season. Russell Westbrook with twenty three assists
Speaker 1: in the last two games. Fourteen of those assists or
Speaker 1: to Nikolea Jokich. It's been a really interesting partnership. And again,
Speaker 1: like a simple basketball concept, a two man game requires
Speaker 1: two threats, and it's not going to be as effective
Speaker 1: if one of the guys is not a threat. And
Speaker 1: say what you want about Russell Westbrook and some of
Speaker 1: his weaknesses at this point in his career, he's still
Speaker 1: a great athlete that can turn the corner and get
Speaker 1: downhill and wreck ha havoc for a defense, and he's
Speaker 1: done a lot to help Nikole Jokic get going in
Speaker 1: the role area, that short roll area on the floor.
Speaker 1: This brings me to something I was talking about or
Speaker 1: thinking about I should say when I was watching Jokics
Speaker 1: this weekend. I don't know that Jokic will ever be
Speaker 1: able to reach Lebron's two way peak because Lebron for
Speaker 1: over a decade was a top three defender in the league,
Speaker 1: maybe not in terms of regular season awards, but like
Speaker 1: especially in playoff settings from the mid two thousands to
Speaker 1: the mid twenty tens, and really it's still in spurts
Speaker 1: up until twenty twenty, was able to leverage himself as
Speaker 1: an athlete on the floor in transition and on defense
Speaker 1: in a way that Jokic never will be able to do.
Speaker 1: And overall, Lebron and Jokic are just so different as
Speaker 1: players that there's just a huge subjectivity element. And this
Speaker 1: is probably something that we'll just argue about forever, but
Speaker 1: I will say this, I have never seen a basketball
Speaker 1: player more easily generate offense for his team than Nikole
Speaker 1: Jokic is doing right now. Not Lebron, not Kobe, not
Speaker 1: kd not Steph. It may not have the aesthetic flair
Speaker 1: that some of those guys do, it may not look
Speaker 1: the same as some of the great offensive players of old,
Speaker 1: but it is brutally effective. There isn't a soul in
Speaker 1: the league that can guard him one on one. He's
Speaker 1: the best passer in the league. There's very little variance
Speaker 1: in his game compared to his peers. Again, he's an
Speaker 1: elite shooter, but he doesn't take a lot of jump shots.
Speaker 1: He's not depend on whether or not jump shots go
Speaker 1: in or don't go in. His short range scoring has
Speaker 1: sky high field goal percentage. Another way to put it
Speaker 1: is like this, a Jokic iso or a ball screen
Speaker 1: or a post up has a score percentage, meaning percentage
Speaker 1: of possessions that end in points have his score percentage
Speaker 1: well over fifty percent, so in late game situations, they
Speaker 1: have the safest bet to generate points out of anybody
Speaker 1: in the league, which is another part of why they've
Speaker 1: been a top five clutch offense this year. Here's another
Speaker 1: basic stat to explain just how effective Jokich has been
Speaker 1: as an offensive player to start this year. In Jokic's
Speaker 1: minutes this year, the Nuggets have a one twenty four
Speaker 1: offensive rating despite not having a single teammate that can
Speaker 1: reliably provide twenty points a game on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. We got to call it like we
Speaker 1: see it. Nobody has ever been this effective on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor in the history of basketball.
Speaker 1: This is unprecedented. Again, I'm a big Lebron fan, I'm
Speaker 1: a big step fan, and Steph's had some really special moments,
Speaker 1: and Lebron was a really damn good offensive player at
Speaker 1: his peak, pretty close to this, but I don't think
Speaker 1: he was this good on the offensive end even at
Speaker 1: his absolute peak. Thirty two points fourteen rebounds tennisis per
Speaker 1: game on sixty five percent tru shooting so far to
Speaker 1: start this year. It's just completely ridiculous. I don't know
Speaker 1: what else to say. I just can't. We can't lie
Speaker 1: about what we're seeing right now. No one's ever done this.
Speaker 1: This is unprecedented in terms of offensive production on the
Speaker 1: at the NBA level. All right, let's get into our
Speaker 1: power rankings, and again, all of our odds that I
Speaker 1: go over today are provided by our partner DraftKings, in
Speaker 1: case you're interested in jumping on any of these teams.
Speaker 1: In terms of futures, starting with number ten, the Miami Heat,
Speaker 1: they've won three in a row, seven other last ten
Speaker 1: some quality wins in there too. They beat the Caves,
Speaker 1: they beat the Lakers, the Suns, and the MAVs all
Speaker 1: over that ten game span. In this last ten games,
Speaker 1: they are eleventh in offense, ninth in defense, sixth and
Speaker 1: net rating, and ninth in rebounding. Tyler Harrow has been hooping.
Speaker 1: He was unreal during the win against Cleveland yesterday. Really
Speaker 1: was the primary offensive initiator. A lot of action where
Speaker 1: they were looking to attack Garland, going through him, shooting
Speaker 1: over the top of him, that sort of thing. Thirty
Speaker 1: four points, six rebounds, and seven assists for Tyler Harrow
Speaker 1: in the win. He's also averaging twenty four, six and
Speaker 1: five in this seven and three stretch. Also little known fact,
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow has been the best pull up jump shooter
Speaker 1: in the league this year. Remember that was something that
Speaker 1: was kind of a weakness for him in the early
Speaker 1: part of his career, where he was like capable of
Speaker 1: getting hot as a pull up shooter, he just was
Speaker 1: never consistent with it. But he's been getting one point
Speaker 1: two to three points per pull up jump shot this year,
Speaker 1: number one in the league among the thirty six players
Speaker 1: that have attempted at least one hundred pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler came back from his injury. They've started playing
Speaker 1: through him more and he's found a really nice rhythm.
Speaker 1: He's at twenty two, six and five on sixty three
Speaker 1: percent from the field and fifty eight percent from three
Speaker 1: over this ten game stretch, and they're getting some really
Speaker 1: nice contributions down the roster. They moved Terry Rozier to
Speaker 1: the bench, and he's been shooting the ball better because
Speaker 1: he can just come in and be aggressive without fear
Speaker 1: of stepping on other guys toes. Drew Smith has been
Speaker 1: giving them good minutes off the bench too. He's just
Speaker 1: an athletic guard who plays super hard. He slides his feet,
Speaker 1: guards the ball well, he completes competes on the glass,
Speaker 1: and he's been shooting the ball well as well. And
Speaker 1: they're just that usual pesky Miami Heat type of defense,
Speaker 1: mixing up scheme, randomly picking up full court, randomly going zone.
Speaker 1: They were doing a really good job yesterday of bogging
Speaker 1: down the Cavs pick and roll attack by digging down
Speaker 1: on the rollman and causing some issues there. They held
Speaker 1: Cleveland to just eight points on rollman possessions yesterday. They
Speaker 1: are the fourth best team in the league at scoring
Speaker 1: on rollman possessions and had double figures in three straight
Speaker 1: games on rollman possessions, and the Heat held them to
Speaker 1: eight just by digging down, slapping at the ball, disrupting
Speaker 1: the rhythm of those guys on the catch. They defended
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell really well. Good mix of Jimmy Butler and
Speaker 1: Hayward Highsmith there. The biggest thing for them by far, though,
Speaker 1: is they're getting consistent offensive production on two fronts now
Speaker 1: with Jimmy getting going. If you remember, to start the
Speaker 1: year was all Tyler, Harrow and Jimmy and Bam were
Speaker 1: floundering and a lot of bad body language, a lot
Speaker 1: of weird shots selection and now Jimmy and Tyler have
Speaker 1: it going and they look more like a good team.
Speaker 1: And if you believe in the heat right now, they
Speaker 1: are plus forty five hundred to win the title and
Speaker 1: plus sixteen hundred to win the Eastern Conference. Number nine
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors a two and two week los's
Speaker 1: a tough one to Denver. They were up eight with
Speaker 1: four and a half minutes left, but then Jokic walked
Speaker 1: them down, and then the Nuggets got a couple of
Speaker 1: good defensive possessions against Steph where they denied him. The
Speaker 1: basketball got some stops. Nuggets got that win. But then
Speaker 1: the Warriors bounced back by beating Houston without Stephan Draymond,
Speaker 1: one of the biggest wins for them this season. Johnavicamingo
Speaker 1: went off in that game. Really impressive defensive effort from
Speaker 1: the whole group. Just found money to win a game
Speaker 1: like that against a really good Western Conference team without
Speaker 1: your two best players. They split a two game home
Speaker 1: set against Minnesota to very different games. Like Draymond came
Speaker 1: off the bench in the first game and then Wiggins
Speaker 1: was out for the second game, and it was all
Speaker 1: basically to facilitate a return for Jonathan Kaminga to the
Speaker 1: starting lineup. And the idea here is they desperately need
Speaker 1: someone that can become that consistent secondary score next to Steph,
Speaker 1: and statistically, in theory, it's doing that, and his four
Speaker 1: games that he started here consecutively started all of these
Speaker 1: last four games, it's averaging twenty one points on forty
Speaker 1: nine percent from the field and thirty eight percent from three.
Speaker 1: But it is inconsistent, like he was unbelievably good in
Speaker 1: the Houston game and then pretty uneven in the Minnesota games.
Speaker 1: And so I think part of it is to try
Speaker 1: to drive some rhythm for Kaminga, to try to get
Speaker 1: him going so that they get some more consistent scoring
Speaker 1: next next to Steph. But I also think it serves
Speaker 1: a second purpose, and that is there have been a
Speaker 1: lot of reports going around that the Warriors are looking
Speaker 1: for a second start to pair with Steph. Not a
Speaker 1: big shock. This has been one of the biggest talking
Speaker 1: points surrounding this team to start this season. But changes
Speaker 1: in value you can go a long way to facilitate that.
Speaker 1: So even if someone like me doesn't think Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: is ready to be of secondary scoring option on a
Speaker 1: championship level team. He can certainly do it during the
Speaker 1: regular season for a middle of the pack Western Conference team,
Speaker 1: and then in the process he can increase his trade value.
Speaker 1: Then on the other end, like for instance, we talked
Speaker 1: about Brandon Ingram a lot in the mail bag. If
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram has a series ankle injury like this, that
Speaker 1: could affect his trade value. So maybe something like Kaminga's
Speaker 1: value going up in Ingram's value going down could facilitate
Speaker 1: something like that. Or if it's not brandon Ingram, maybe
Speaker 1: it's someone else. But I think that's a big part
Speaker 1: of it too, Just trying to drive rhythm, trying to
Speaker 1: provide some secondary scoring for Steph, and trying to increase
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga's trade value by getting him as much opportunity
Speaker 1: as possible. Last thing I wanted to hit before we
Speaker 1: move on, there's a really funny moment at the end
Speaker 1: of the second Timberwolves game. Everyone's seeing the highlight of
Speaker 1: Dreymond Green getting that dunk and then doing the night
Speaker 1: Night celebration as he runs down the floor. But there
Speaker 1: was a really funny a basketball concept at play there
Speaker 1: because they ran an inverted ball screen. Was Steph screening
Speaker 1: for Draymond as he was getting downhill. And it's kind
Speaker 1: of genius if you think about it, because we all
Speaker 1: know I should say I shouldn't say genius. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like diabolical and evil to do this, but that's
Speaker 1: what's so funny about it. So Draymond obviously doesn't like
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert. Not a big shock. He's openly put him
Speaker 1: in a headlock on national television and then he if
Speaker 1: you guys remember in the Western Conference Finals last year,
Speaker 1: in Game two, he's like throwing a party in the
Speaker 1: stands as he's covering the Luka Doncic game winner over
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert to put the MAVs up two zero in
Speaker 1: that series. So not exactly a big shock that Draymond
Speaker 1: doesn't like Rudy Gobert. That said, though, this was the
Speaker 1: perfect way to try to humiliate him. So again, like
Speaker 1: what do we always talk about with inverted ball screens?
Speaker 1: The big guy who's guarding the ball doesn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of experience navigating screens because he's usually the screen defender,
Speaker 1: not the guy fighting through the screen. Right then you've
Speaker 1: got a shooter screening for Draymon, in this case, the
Speaker 1: best shooter in the world. So Jad McDaniels, who's guarding Steph,
Speaker 1: is not going to want to help off of Steph
Speaker 1: to stop Draymond Green driving to the basket. So it's
Speaker 1: a genius play design because all Draymond has to do
Speaker 1: and you could see he saw the coming the whole time.
Speaker 1: He's high stepping up the four, just starting to get
Speaker 1: his groove going before he even starts attacking. And then
Speaker 1: as he starts driving, all Steph has to do is
Speaker 1: hit go bear with a good screen. Jada McDaniels is
Speaker 1: not going to help, and Draymond just turns the corner,
Speaker 1: goes up there and jackhammers it with one hand and
Speaker 1: goes down the floor doing the Night Night. Just hilarious because,
Speaker 1: like again, this is the type of pettiness that we
Speaker 1: all live for, right as a beef between two players,
Speaker 1: a play design specifically to humiliate that player, and then
Speaker 1: Draymond gets to take his victory lap on Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 1: If you're looking to bet on the Warriors futures right now,
Speaker 1: they're plus eighteen hundred to win the title, plus nine
Speaker 1: hundred to win the Western Conference. Number eight. The Milwaukee
Speaker 1: Buck's not gonna spend too much time on him because
Speaker 1: we just talked about them at the top of the show.
Speaker 1: But two and two this week blew out the Pistons
Speaker 1: in Detroit. Then they got ran off the floor against Atlanta,
Speaker 1: just a really sloppy game for their transition defense that
Speaker 1: just got ran by all night long by Jalen Johnson.
Speaker 1: Then they lost a tough game in Boston, and that
Speaker 1: one was disappointing because they were in that game really
Speaker 1: until late and then just made some execution errors. Dame
Speaker 1: tried to like grift a foul and a three point
Speaker 1: shot against Jalen Brown on the ensuing miss, Giannis like
Speaker 1: gambled in the backcourt. Boston scored in transition. I thought
Speaker 1: Giannis took two really bad pull up jump shots down
Speaker 1: the stretch of that game that he didn't need to take.
Speaker 1: I just got tay him out played him both down
Speaker 1: the stretch in that game. So a little bit disappointing there,
Speaker 1: But then they got to bounce back win against Brooklyn
Speaker 1: that we talked about off the top, which was a
Speaker 1: really impressive game, and really impressive show of fight from
Speaker 1: that team. Bucks right now plus seventeen hundred to win
Speaker 1: the title, plus eight hundred to win the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: Number seven the Orlando Magic two and two week, a
Speaker 1: couple of losses in New York and Philly, got some
Speaker 1: really a couple losses in New York and Philly, and
Speaker 1: then they won in Philly, and then they got to
Speaker 1: win at home against the Suns. Got some really bad
Speaker 1: news on the fran Franz Wagner front. He torez oblique.
Speaker 1: Kind of crazy because I've never even I can't even
Speaker 1: remember the previous time I heard of that injury happening
Speaker 1: to an NBA player, and now it's happened to two
Speaker 1: of the best players on the same team, like a
Speaker 1: month apart, So that's really strange. But they still have
Speaker 1: a super high floor because they still have a ton
Speaker 1: of perimeter speed and a lot of guys who can
Speaker 1: guard the ball at multiple positions. And they already won
Speaker 1: their first game without Franz coming back to beat the
Speaker 1: Suns yesterday. Jalen Suggs really took over the creation load
Speaker 1: in that game. He's hit four threes in three consecutive games,
Speaker 1: a lot of really impressive footwork from Jalen Suggs in
Speaker 1: that game, a lot of like again, it's always interesting
Speaker 1: when you see guys get hurt and guys step into
Speaker 1: larger roles, you get to learn more about some of
Speaker 1: their more advanced skill development. And Jalen Suggs a lot
Speaker 1: of like nifty like step throughs and pivots and like
Speaker 1: pump bakes leading into to counters and just a lot
Speaker 1: of really impressive scoring chops that he showed in the
Speaker 1: short to mid range in that game against the Suns.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, this Franz Wagner injury comes at the worst
Speaker 1: possible time because Orlando's next six games are at Milwaukee
Speaker 1: and then a home stand, but a home stand against OKCE, Miami, Boston,
Speaker 1: Miami again, and the New York Knicks. So Mike drop
Speaker 1: some games here in the standings. It'll be really interesting
Speaker 1: to see with the high floor I'm talking about at home,
Speaker 1: playing in front of their home crowd, if they could
Speaker 1: just somehow eke out two or three of those wins,
Speaker 1: they could be in pretty good shape moving forward. The
Speaker 1: magic right now plus forty five hundred to win the title,
Speaker 1: plus fifteen hundred to win the Eastern Conference Number six.
Speaker 1: The Houston Rockets one and two week for them, they
Speaker 1: lost on the road in Sacramento, and then they suffered
Speaker 1: a bad loss to Golden State in San Francisco. Without
Speaker 1: Steph or Draymond playing, offense really bogged down in that one.
Speaker 1: That's one of the big things I've noticed with Houston
Speaker 1: this year is the inconsistency of Jalen Green and Fred
Speaker 1: Van Vliet. When those two guys are like good, bad
Speaker 1: and everything in between on any given night, it just
Speaker 1: is really difficult for them to have like steady offensive production,
Speaker 1: and like when both of them struggle, they can lose
Speaker 1: to anyone. That Warriors game, Jalen Green and Fred Van
Speaker 1: Vliet combined to go nine for thirty two from the
Speaker 1: field for just twenty seven points. And again I went
Speaker 1: over some examples last week, but whenever those two struggle,
Speaker 1: it's like a guaranteed loss, regardless of who they're playing,
Speaker 1: just because of their offensive limitations. But Ema Udoka jumped
Speaker 1: on them after that game and basically called them soft,
Speaker 1: and then they had a nice little bounce back win
Speaker 1: against the Clippers, who are missing James Harden. The Rockets
Speaker 1: right now are plus five thousand to win the NBA
Speaker 1: title and plus two thousand to win the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: Number five the Memphis Grizzlies. They've won three in a
Speaker 1: row and now nine out of ten. Should have beat
Speaker 1: Dallas too. They were up big in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: but they really lost their composure in that game, committed
Speaker 1: several silly fouls, and then they lost Spencer Dinwoody twice
Speaker 1: in crunch time for threes. Somewhat discouraging because they had
Speaker 1: won six in a row against some bad teams and
Speaker 1: that could have been like that legitimizing win. But then
Speaker 1: they got their legitimizing win against Boston. They bounced back,
Speaker 1: first of all beating the Kings, then they beat the
Speaker 1: Celtics in Boston. John Morangoes for thirty two to nine
Speaker 1: and nine has one of the best highlights I've seen
Speaker 1: in the last few years. That double hump reverse dunk.
Speaker 1: Like he's been putting on a show every night and
Speaker 1: he's just becoming musty television. But I watched that dunk,
Speaker 1: that driving baseline dunk, like twenty times that night. It's legitimately,
Speaker 1: legitimately one of the best highlights I've seen in recent years,
Speaker 1: and just goes to show the incredible show that John
Speaker 1: Moran is. And then Jared Jackson Junior, he put on
Speaker 1: an absolute show, a fundamentally great basketball in that second half,
Speaker 1: just carrying the Memphis offense for stretches, hitting threes, He's
Speaker 1: putting every Boston wing in the blender and just pivoting
Speaker 1: over both shoulders for spinning hook shots and just a
Speaker 1: clinic of post moves. He had three steals and four blocks.
Speaker 1: He's been playing really, really well for this team, and
Speaker 1: it just him giving them like real balance to their
Speaker 1: scoring because again, like Bain provides like screening action scoring right,
Speaker 1: like shooting coming off of screens. The guy can get
Speaker 1: downhill on curls, stuff like that. John Moran's just kind
Speaker 1: of a unicorn, right, But like Jared Jackson brings the
Speaker 1: bully ball, he brings the big mismatch attacking forward to
Speaker 1: beat switches with size, and again that just rounds everything
Speaker 1: out for them offensively. That's their third in offense overall
Speaker 1: over this ten game span, seventh in defense over this
Speaker 1: ten game span. They're fast on the perimeter, they have
Speaker 1: rim protection, they're defending the three point line incredibly well.
Speaker 1: In the streak They're allowing fewer than twelve mad threes
Speaker 1: per game, which is third best in the NBA over
Speaker 1: this ten game span. They're also ten top ten enforcing
Speaker 1: turnovers and scoring on turnovers over this span. The only
Speaker 1: weird thing is the Marcus smart fit has looked a
Speaker 1: little odd as of Lady's been coming off the bench.
Speaker 1: He's taken some funky shots, his rotation minutes seemed to
Speaker 1: be shrinking a little bit. It's not as good defensively
Speaker 1: as he used to be. He was the culprit of
Speaker 1: a lot of those bad fouls at the end against Dallas.
Speaker 1: Just something I'm keeping an eye on because I wonder
Speaker 1: if he ends up getting moved before the end of
Speaker 1: this year. The Grizzlies are plus three thousand to win
Speaker 1: the title, plus fourteen hundred to win the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: Number four. The Dallas Mavericks quickly becoming one of the
Speaker 1: teams that I'm highest on here around the NBA. They've
Speaker 1: won seven in row and eleven out of twelve. They
Speaker 1: have the best record in the league over the last
Speaker 1: twelve games for any team. Third in offense, seventh and
Speaker 1: defense second net rating, first in rebounding and since returning
Speaker 1: from injury, Luca has looked more like Luca thirty one
Speaker 1: eleven to ten on fifty one percent from the field
Speaker 1: in forty three percent from three, basically the MVP level
Speaker 1: Luca that we all knew Luca could be, but that
Speaker 1: he wasn't being to start this year. I wasn't particularly
Speaker 1: worried about. I figured it would just takes some time,
Speaker 1: and it seems to be that he's coming around. And
Speaker 1: then after going nineteen for thirty from the field over
Speaker 1: the last two games, Kyrie Irving is now up to
Speaker 1: sixty three percent true shooting on the season. Remember how
Speaker 1: we talked about Tyler Harrow in his pull up jump shooting.
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving's been the third best pull up jump shooter
Speaker 1: in the league to start this year. Thirty six players
Speaker 1: have attempted at least one hundred Kyrie is getting one
Speaker 1: point one to nine points per attempt, which ranks third.
Speaker 1: They're also super deep. They have a half dozen different
Speaker 1: role players that can be a star on any given
Speaker 1: night as star in their role I mean, and then
Speaker 1: they're versatile. They're huge on the front line, fast on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. I was a little concerned about their perimeter
Speaker 1: speed to start the year, but then a couple guys popped,
Speaker 1: like Quintin Grimes has pop, Spencer Dinwitodi has popped, and
Speaker 1: like getting two athletic guards that basically were considered fringe
Speaker 1: rotation guys to start the year. That's really alleviated that
Speaker 1: concern for me. I feel like they have a ton
Speaker 1: of matchup flexibility. They have a lot more ball handling
Speaker 1: and shooting than last year. Again, I believe that Luca
Speaker 1: and Kyrie will play better in the postseason this year
Speaker 1: than they did last year. I think they're the third
Speaker 1: most likely championship contending team in the league this year.
Speaker 1: I think they have a favorable schedule for the rest
Speaker 1: of this month, so like I'd be looking out for
Speaker 1: Boston or for Dallas, excuse me, to potentially be the
Speaker 1: number one seed in the West going into the new year,
Speaker 1: especially if they can win in Oklahoma City tomorrow night
Speaker 1: and gain a game on them heading into that stretch.
Speaker 1: So if you believe in the Maps plus eleven hundred
Speaker 1: right now to win the title according to DraftKings, plus
Speaker 1: five point fifty to win the Western Conference number three
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder, really easy schedule for them this week,
Speaker 1: just the Jazz, the Raptors, and Pelicans. They went three
Speaker 1: to zero. Put on an offensive masterclass in the first
Speaker 1: half against Orlando as Shay and Jalen combined for thirty
Speaker 1: nine points on eighteen shots to start that game. Alex
Speaker 1: Cruso got off to a rough start to start this
Speaker 1: Year's hit multiple threes in backback games for the first
Speaker 1: time this season, so that's a good sign. Much more
Speaker 1: fun week for the Oklahoma City Thunder coming up with
Speaker 1: the n Season Tournament starting with Dallas tomorrow night. Will
Speaker 1: be covering that game in the Wednesday morning show The
Speaker 1: Thunder Right Now. Plus three to eighty to win the
Speaker 1: NBA title, plus one ninety five to win the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: Number two the Boston Celtics. It started the week three
Speaker 1: to zero, including an impressive win over the Bucks where
Speaker 1: I just thought they out executed him down the stretch.
Speaker 1: Tatum continues to just do a really nice job executing
Speaker 1: in the half court. I thought his second half against
Speaker 1: Milwaukee was one of his best that he's played in
Speaker 1: a long time. Continues to show just a ton of
Speaker 1: growth as that surgeon in the half court decision making.
Speaker 1: When things really slowed down, they dropped a tough one
Speaker 1: of the Memphis Grizzlies where they just got outshot. It
Speaker 1: was a super funky game. They stuck Jaron Jackson and
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday and just completely ignored him and Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: like shot sixty percent on corner threes last year, but
Speaker 1: he's just having a weird year with corner threes this
Speaker 1: year and down to thirty one percent, obviously a huge
Speaker 1: drop off from last year, but he just kind of struggled.
Speaker 1: They kind of threw them out a rhythm as a team,
Speaker 1: and the Celtics went eighteen for sixty from three in
Speaker 1: that game. The Grizzlies only made three fewer threes on
Speaker 1: twenty seven fewer attempts. I had a lot of people
Speaker 1: send me questions on Twitter like are you concerned at
Speaker 1: all with the Celtics and their number in the three
Speaker 1: point volume that they're taking, And I'm just not. I
Speaker 1: just I've They've just shown too often that they can
Speaker 1: rain things in and get the right shots when they
Speaker 1: need to. This is again like slippage and execution happens
Speaker 1: for every single team in the league. For super talented
Speaker 1: teams like Boston, It's not going to look like it
Speaker 1: did for the Lakers. It's not going to look like
Speaker 1: them quitting in Miami and getting blown out by forty.
Speaker 1: For them, it's going to be like, yeah, they settle
Speaker 1: a little bit more than they should, maybe they don't
Speaker 1: defend as sharp as they should, and things get a
Speaker 1: little funky. But like that's the equivalent of a funk
Speaker 1: for the Celtics team. Like, I'm not concerned about their
Speaker 1: shots selection. They've shown a pretty extended sample to me
Speaker 1: of them getting that under control when they need to.
Speaker 1: Tatum again, is just playing at the highest level I've
Speaker 1: seen him play in the half courts, So to be honest,
Speaker 1: I'm more confident in the Celtics as a championship favorite
Speaker 1: than ever. I think they're just better than last year. Again,
Speaker 1: Tatum is substantially better than last year, both statistically and
Speaker 1: in his overall feel for the game. Peyton Pritchard has
Speaker 1: become arguably the best backup guard in the league. Sam
Speaker 1: Hauser as of late, is shooting the ball as confidently
Speaker 1: and effectively as anyone in the league. He's at forty
Speaker 1: six percent from three on six attempts per game in
Speaker 1: just twenty three minutes per game over his last eight games,
Speaker 1: and it's like full on green light, like if he
Speaker 1: gets any space, it's going up type of stuff, and
Speaker 1: he's just hitting him at a crazy high rate. Like
Speaker 1: these are just influxes of talent. Howser getting better, Pritchard
Speaker 1: getting better, Tatum getting better. These already make a team
Speaker 1: that is was the best team in the league talent
Speaker 1: wise into an even more talented team. And again, I've
Speaker 1: seen people complaining about Drew and about Jalen and some
Speaker 1: of their struggles that they're having. I'm just not worried
Speaker 1: about them. In the big picture. They're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: And so I'm just having a hard time conceptualizing any
Speaker 1: team beating Boston four times in two weeks. If you
Speaker 1: agree with me, the Celtics right now are plus two
Speaker 1: to sixty five to win the title, plus one twenty
Speaker 1: to win the Eastern Conference, and the number one the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers. They won three straight to start the week,
Speaker 1: including just eviscerating the Nuggets and picking Rowledge couldn't guard
Speaker 1: him in ball screens. Then they dropped a really tough
Speaker 1: one on the road in Miami, some similar stuff to
Speaker 1: what we've seen of late, like Miami just attacking Garland
Speaker 1: a lot in ball screens and in ISO's and then
Speaker 1: the offensive glass, which is something that has periodically popped
Speaker 1: up for this team over the years. But they started
Speaker 1: really good on the defensive glass at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season, like they were top ten defensive rebounding team
Speaker 1: to start the season in the first month or so.
Speaker 1: In the last month, though, they've been a bottom ten
Speaker 1: defensive rebounding team. They give up ten offensive rebounds to
Speaker 1: Miami in nineteen second chance points. It was basically the
Speaker 1: difference in the game. And if you remember going back
Speaker 1: even to the to the Knick series in the first
Speaker 1: round last or two years ago, this has been something
Speaker 1: that's popped up for them a little bit periodically as
Speaker 1: their ability to defensive rebounds. Something to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on the Cavaliers right now. Or plus fourteen hundred to
Speaker 1: win the title and plus six hundred to win the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference. All odds are provided by our partner Draft Kings,
Speaker 1: and that will do it for today's power rankings, and
Speaker 1: that will do it for today's show. As always, as
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting Oops tonight.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with a little bit of an
Speaker 1: end season tournament preview as well as well as a mailbag.
Speaker 1: Make sure you get those questions dropped in the comments.
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys, then the volume. What's up guys.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I'd really appreciate it.