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Speaker 1: to hoop Tonight here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody,

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Speaker 1: op ball. If you guys had an incredible weekend, got

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Speaker 1: a jam packed show for you today. We're just doing

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Speaker 1: power rankings, but I have four additional teams I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: hit in addition to those ten, either mixed in or separately,

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Speaker 1: So we're gonna be hitting on fourteen different NBA teams today.

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Speaker 1: You guys have the joke before we get started. To

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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So getting into our poweranks.

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Speaker 1: Remember when it comes to my power rankings, this is

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Speaker 1: not intended to be contender rankings. This is not even

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Speaker 1: intended to be a look at the entire season. It's

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Speaker 1: a combination of what you've accomplished over the course of

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Speaker 1: the season and how you've been playing as of late.

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Speaker 1: And in this list, especially towards the bottom, when we

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Speaker 1: get into that seven, eight, nine, ten, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: use it as an opportunity to highlight teams that are

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Speaker 1: playing well as of late. This perfect example of this

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Speaker 1: here in the early season is my number ten today,

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Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks. This is a team that started too

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Speaker 1: and eight, so they shouldn't be in the ten spot

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Speaker 1: by the grand scheme of the league. However, they've won

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Speaker 1: six of their last seven. They're playing really good basketball

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Speaker 1: as of late. So I want to use our power

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Speaker 1: rankings as an opportunity to shine a light on Milwaukee

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Speaker 1: and talk a little bit about them. I always just

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Speaker 1: have to throw that out there as a disclaimer, because

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Speaker 1: it's like with player rankings. Everybody uses different rules with

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Speaker 1: their player rankings. Everybody uses different rules even when they're

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Speaker 1: ranking teams. Some people don't factor in the playoffs. Some

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Speaker 1: people are just talking standings. It gets complicated. So I

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Speaker 1: try to give you guys my criteria up front and

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Speaker 1: again I'm primarily using the power rankings as an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to highlight who's been playing well as of late. Lakers

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Speaker 1: fan not in the list today because of the back

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Speaker 1: to back losses. You have the sixth best record in

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Speaker 1: the league. I understand that that'll put you on this

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Speaker 1: list in a lot of different circumstances, but I'm using

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Speaker 1: it to shine the light on these other teams. I

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Speaker 1: do want to talk a little bit about the Lakers

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Speaker 1: in their Magic and Nuggets game, but we're going to

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Speaker 1: do that at the very end of today's video. All right,

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Speaker 1: let's get it into Milwaukee. So when the Bucks were

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Speaker 1: down two and eight, I said that the season wasn't

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Speaker 1: even close to being over because of two reasons. The

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Speaker 1: East is incredibly weak, so you're always like two good

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Speaker 1: weeks from being right back in the mix of things.

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Speaker 1: And then they were about to head into a very

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Speaker 1: easy stretch of their schedule. And now they've won six

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Speaker 1: out of seven since their two and eight start. Now

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Speaker 1: now just one game below five hundred, they're already completely

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Speaker 1: above the play in, sitting at number six in the

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Speaker 1: Eastern Conference, and they're just two back in the lost

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Speaker 1: column of the Orlando Magic at the three seed in

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Speaker 1: the East. That's how quickly things turned around for the

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Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks. Since November twelfth, which is the start of

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Speaker 1: this six out of seven stretch, the Milwaukee Bucks are

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Speaker 1: ninth in offense, eighth in defense, fifth in net rating.

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Speaker 1: They are still struggling on the glass a little bit,

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Speaker 1: and they're struggling in transition. But again, one of the

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Speaker 1: things that happens when you run into the lighter stretches

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Speaker 1: of the schedule, especially for these older, slower teams, Teams

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Speaker 1: like Milwaukee. Teams like the Lakers are a good example

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Speaker 1: of this, right when you run into some of these teams,

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Speaker 1: even though they're not as talented, they're very young and

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Speaker 1: athletic and so like. It's not exactly shocking to me

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Speaker 1: that they would struggle in transition and on the glass

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Speaker 1: and this matchup even though they've been winning the scoreboard battle,

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Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Giannis in this street thirty three points,

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Speaker 1: eleven rebounds, and eight assists. How's that for apex superstar play,

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Speaker 1: all on sixty one percent from the field. But really

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Speaker 1: he's turned it up in terms of his overall level

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Speaker 1: of engagement on the defensive end of the floor. He

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Speaker 1: was not having a good defensive start to the season,

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Speaker 1: either him or Brook. Both of them have been amazing

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Speaker 1: in this span and it's still just super scary. When

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Speaker 1: the two of them are at their best on the

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Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. They compliment each other really well,

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Speaker 1: right because Brook is big long as great defense of instincts,

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Speaker 1: you can do a lot of work to protect the rim.

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Speaker 1: Giannis has the unique ability to cover ground at such

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Speaker 1: an insane rate of speed that he can be in

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Speaker 1: two places at once. He can help hard somewhere while

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Speaker 1: still shutting something down on the other end of the

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Speaker 1: play at a big moment, like that in the Rockets

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Speaker 1: game last week. Right, So, like those two, getting back

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Speaker 1: to that level on defense has gone a long way

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Speaker 1: to re anchoring things on that end of the floor.

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Speaker 1: Giannis is just playing at an insanely high level right now.

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Speaker 1: I'd have him at second in MVP voting if I

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Speaker 1: had to send in a vote today. A couple of

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Speaker 1: guys who've gotten their shooting going finally that needed to

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Speaker 1: get it going, specifically Gary Trent and Brook Lopez. Them

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Speaker 1: struggling early in the year was causing their offense to sputter,

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Speaker 1: and when your offense is sputtering and you're not guarding

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Speaker 1: the way they were to start to year. That's how

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Speaker 1: you can start dropping games to bad teams pretty quickly.

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Speaker 1: And one of the other things that's helped is they've

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Speaker 1: kind of figured out their primary point of attack role,

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Speaker 1: at least the best they can do it within this group,

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Speaker 1: which is like starting games with Andre Jackson just a

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Speaker 1: bigger athlete, right, and then bringing in AJ Green to

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Speaker 1: do a lot of work on the ball on the

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Speaker 1: best guard of the other team, which is giving them

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Speaker 1: at least a higher floor on the defensive end of

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Speaker 1: the four. Again, Andre is a better athlete than AJ,

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Speaker 1: but they've both been bringing both Like Andre's been shooting

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Speaker 1: the ball pretty well and AJ has been defending pretty well, right,

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Speaker 1: So like the two of them have brought some stability

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Speaker 1: to that position. And here's the thing. The Bucks may

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Speaker 1: be playing a light schedule, but they're finally playing a

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Speaker 1: better brand of basketball and that will carry over when

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Speaker 1: you get into the tougher opponents down the line. And again,

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Speaker 1: the situation in the standings appears to have brought the

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Speaker 1: urgency that they were missing early in the season, and

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Speaker 1: now they seem to be back on the right track

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Speaker 1: at number nine the New York Knicks, as their super

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Speaker 1: weird start to the season continues. They went four in

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Speaker 1: a row, including a dominant win in Phoenix, and I

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Speaker 1: know they don't have kd or Bradley Beal at that

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Speaker 1: point in time, but still a big win on the road.

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Speaker 1: Right then they go into Utah, the team that I

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Speaker 1: think is the worst team in the Western Conference, and

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Speaker 1: suffer one of the worst losses that any NBA team

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Speaker 1: has had this year. Utah controlled that game from start

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Speaker 1: to finish. The Knicks weren't playing a defense until it

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Speaker 1: was too late. That point, they were confident. Colin Sexton

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Speaker 1: put them away with a bunch of three point shots

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Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. They had a rough shooting night

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Speaker 1: in that game as well, but it was It was

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Speaker 1: an ugly loss for the Knicks, but they have been

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Speaker 1: playing good ball as of late. The offense has been

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Speaker 1: humming at a super high level. In their last five games.

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Speaker 1: They have a one twenty six offensive rating, which is

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Speaker 1: obviously off the charts. Og Nanobi has been shooting the

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Speaker 1: ball super well and confidently stepping into more complicated shots

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Speaker 1: off the bounce, like dribble combinations into shots. He's been

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Speaker 1: putting the ball on the floor well against closeouts all year.

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Speaker 1: He's converting spot ups at one point one point eight

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Speaker 1: points per possession, which is really good. And OG's doing

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Speaker 1: some damage in the post. He's personally shooting nine for

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Speaker 1: fourteen from the field there and he's run twenty four

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Speaker 1: post ups so far this year, getting one point twenty

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Speaker 1: nine points per possessions. Basically twice a game or once

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Speaker 1: a half, they can go to Og in the block

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Speaker 1: and they're getting good production out of that. He's had

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Speaker 1: at least twenty four points in five of the last

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Speaker 1: eight games. That's a pretty big little scoring stretch there

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Speaker 1: from og Ananoby. The defense is still really bad, Like

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Speaker 1: even during the four game winning streak, the Knicks were

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Speaker 1: giving up one hundred and nineteen points per one hundred possessions.

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Speaker 1: And again in that stretch they played Washington, Brooklyn twice,

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Speaker 1: and Phoenix without Kevin Durant or Bradley Beal. So the

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Speaker 1: defense is just not where it needs to be. Like,

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Speaker 1: there are two serious teams, two teams with real ambitions

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Speaker 1: this year that are in the bottom ten of defensive rating,

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Speaker 1: and it's the Lakers and the Knicks. When I look

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Speaker 1: at the Lakers, it makes so much sense to me

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Speaker 1: because they're just so unathletic on the perimeter that they're

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Speaker 1: just going to be in a lot of situations where

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Speaker 1: they're compromising in rotation and they're just going to be struggling. Right.

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Speaker 1: They're also a team that tries to outscore people like

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Speaker 1: the Knicks, but they have real athleticism issues on the perimeter.

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Speaker 1: The Knicks don't. They have a ton of perimeter defense,

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Speaker 1: and they've been a good paint defense. This is a

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Speaker 1: crazy thing. There's been all this, like all these like

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Speaker 1: stats thrown around as like oh, Carl Town's rim defensive

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Speaker 1: field goal percentage, which that kind of stuff all has

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Speaker 1: flaws anyway, but they've been fine in the paint. They're

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Speaker 1: allowing the ninth fewest points in the paint per game.

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Speaker 1: They've allowed the sixth fewest made restricted area of field

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Speaker 1: goals per game. They allow opponents to shoot just sixty

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Speaker 1: five percent in the restricted area, which is solid, that's

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Speaker 1: like league average this year. So like it's going wrong

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Speaker 1: for them on the perimeter, and that's the confusing part

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Speaker 1: to me. With a roster that has three very good

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Speaker 1: defenders playing at the two three and four and some

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Speaker 1: quick defenders that come in off the bench. So let's

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Speaker 1: talk about it in some more detail. They're allowing the

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Speaker 1: fourth most made threes per game, the sixth most attempts,

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Speaker 1: and the sixth worst percentage that they are allowing two opponents,

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Speaker 1: So they're getting slice and diced at the three point line.

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Speaker 1: I dug into a bunch of film this morning to

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Speaker 1: try to kind of figure out where it's going wrong

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Speaker 1: for the Knicks at the three point line. And really,

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Speaker 1: there's there's some effort stuff that is always like part

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Speaker 1: of every team's defensive film. Like it's the NBA regular season,

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Speaker 1: there's day two games. You can cherry pick clips from

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Speaker 1: any team around the league to make them look really

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Speaker 1: bad just by hunting down the pass essions where they're

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Speaker 1: not particularly engaged or locked in, right, Like that's kind

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Speaker 1: of the name of the game when it comes to

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Speaker 1: the NBA regular season, right, So like some of it

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Speaker 1: is that, And yeah, they'll lose shooters in transition from

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Speaker 1: time to time, or like a good defender like Josh Harden,

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Speaker 1: mckaal bridge is og and ob will lose contain of

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Speaker 1: the ball just by not sliding their feet very well.

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Speaker 1: And they'll end up in rotation and something bad will happen.

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Speaker 1: But that's effort stuff, and I'm not super worried about

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Speaker 1: that in the long run. And again, like especially I

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Speaker 1: was talking about bad defense, like the East is so

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Speaker 1: brutally weak, Like I pulled this up today, I uh,

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Speaker 1: the let me pull up the number, because this was

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Speaker 1: like legitimately shocking to me. In head to head matchups

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Speaker 1: between the East and the Western Conference this year, the

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Speaker 1: West is forty four and twenty five. For perspective, that's

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Speaker 1: the second highest interconference win percentage in league history. The

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Speaker 1: only time another conference dominated the other conference at a

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Speaker 1: higher rate than the West is doing to the East

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Speaker 1: this year was in nineteen sixty when the Eastern Conference

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Speaker 1: won seventy one percent of their games against the West. So,

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Speaker 1: like is really weak, and like, these teams in the

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Speaker 1: East are playing the vast majority of their schedule against

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Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference, and so there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: stretches where like they're just gonna be bored teams that

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Speaker 1: are up at the top part of the Eastern Conference.

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Speaker 1: They're not going to be playing their best basketball all

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Speaker 1: the time because they're not gonna be getting challenged all

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Speaker 1: the time. So like some of that we have to

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Speaker 1: set aside when I'm looking for schematic reasons like personnel

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Speaker 1: weaknesses or schematic reasons where I'm seeing things fall apart

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Speaker 1: for the Knicks on the perimeter in their defense, there's

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Speaker 1: two things that stand out to me. One in general

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Speaker 1: and unwillingness to switch. And this is something I've been

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Speaker 1: talking about all season, but like in the Jazz Game

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Speaker 1: in particular, they would not switch oj Anobi or Michale

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Speaker 1: Bridges off of Lori market and unless they absolutely had to,

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Speaker 1: And so in a lot of cases their guard would

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Speaker 1: just run up set a decent pick and like a

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Speaker 1: guy like a Lourie would just fly off of the

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Speaker 1: screen because Mikhale or Og would get picked and he'd

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Speaker 1: just come off and shoot a three. Or they do

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Speaker 1: a lot of inverted action where they would just have

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Speaker 1: Lori come up and set the screen and Jalen Brunson

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Speaker 1: would be guarding like someone like Johnny Jusang or someone

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Speaker 1: like Keante George, and he would just dribble off and

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Speaker 1: because Og and McHale aren't switching or helping, they would

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Speaker 1: just step into wide open threes off the dribble and

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Speaker 1: knock it down. There's a little bit of like overhelp

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Speaker 1: stuff going on to where guys get sucked into the

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Speaker 1: lane too far. So some of this is schematic, Like

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Speaker 1: to me, we see so many of these defenses around

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Speaker 1: the league between teams like Golden State, Boston and Cleveland.

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Speaker 1: Teams have some similar personnel on the perimeter to what

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Speaker 1: the Knicks have. And what they do is they do

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Speaker 1: a lot of switching and then they trust their guys

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Speaker 1: to contain. They'll dig down and recover. They'll occasionally break

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Speaker 1: out an aggressive look. They might blitz on occasion to

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Speaker 1: try to speed the game up or to try to

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Speaker 1: force some turnovers and get out in transition. But they switch,

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Speaker 1: they contain, they play passing lanes, and they take away

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Speaker 1: those easy drive and kick threes that you can get

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Speaker 1: in those situations. And like there's a lot of it's

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Speaker 1: a combination of two things. It's the unwillingness to switch,

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Speaker 1: and then it's the attacking of the entry points. And

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Speaker 1: this is happening with Kat, this is happening with Jalen

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Speaker 1: Brunston pretty consistently, teams just getting them involved in the

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Speaker 1: screening action. And my thing is like a lot of

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Speaker 1: the problem there is they're still not switching. Like, if

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Speaker 1: you switch that action, do you give up a mismatch

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Speaker 1: and do you have to load up and have to

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Speaker 1: plan for it? Sure? Can you possibly end up with

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Speaker 1: some problems on the offensive glass, sure, but none of

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Speaker 1: that is as bad as letting good shooters walk into

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Speaker 1: wide open threes, which has been something that has consistently

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Speaker 1: torched the Knicks all season long. And so like my

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Speaker 1: thing is, like I would just be a little bit

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Speaker 1: more willing to switch, especially when you have that off

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Speaker 1: ball speed when you need to help and rotate, you

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Speaker 1: have the personnel to be able to do that well.

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Speaker 1: And so like closing up some of the automatic openings

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Speaker 1: that open up by virtue of them not being willing

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Speaker 1: to switch, and then just in general better effort than

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Speaker 1: they've been giving, I think we'll go a long way

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Speaker 1: towards helping close things up for them on the perimeter.

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Speaker 1: But like, again, schematically, this to me feels like a

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Speaker 1: team that should play a little bit more on defense,

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Speaker 1: like a team like the Warriors, or a team like

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Speaker 1: the Calves, or a team like Boston where it's a

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Speaker 1: little bit more switching, a little bit more containing instead

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Speaker 1: of constantly asking guys to navigate screens, which again they

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Speaker 1: can do, and they can do effectively. I think McHale

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Speaker 1: bridges and ogn andob well McHale more than og but

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Speaker 1: they both have that ability. But it's just a lot

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Speaker 1: to ask, and you have the personnel to be able

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Speaker 1: to make things a little bit easier on them. Again,

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Speaker 1: it's about leveraging the strength of your team. The strength

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Speaker 1: of your team is you have really strong and versatial

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Speaker 1: defensively at the two through four spots. Lean into that

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Speaker 1: as much as possible as you can. Again, the Knicks

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Speaker 1: are on the right track, but they still have a

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Speaker 1: long way to go at this point. Number eight the

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Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets. Two in one week gets them to nine

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Speaker 1: and six. They're currently holding down the sixth seed in

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Speaker 1: the Western Conference. They got revenge on Memphis in a

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Speaker 1: game that Michael Porter Junior and Jamal Murray combined for

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Speaker 1: fifty one points. They lost to Dallas and Yokic's return

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Speaker 1: to zoom in on this game, and it's gonna be

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Speaker 1: a little bit of Dallas mixed in with Denver here.

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Speaker 1: This is one of those four extra teams that I'm

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Speaker 1: hitting today. The Dallas game was a really rough Jamal

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Speaker 1: Murray game. He was four for sixteen from the field

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Speaker 1: and repeatedly got cooked down the stretch. A couple of

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Speaker 1: big driving layups that he gave up to PJ. Washington,

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Speaker 1: once where he went right around him, once where he

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Speaker 1: went right through him. And then the play that iced

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Speaker 1: the game, a possession where Jamal overhelped a little bit

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Speaker 1: on a roll and then had to threw a bad

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Speaker 1: close out at Najie Marshall and gave him an easy

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Speaker 1: driving bank shot that ended up icing that game. Otherwise

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Speaker 1: Denver would have had a three in oher week. And

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Speaker 1: so let's switch over to Dallas for a second. Here,

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Speaker 1: tip of the cap to them. They've been playing some

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Speaker 1: decent basketball without Luca. They had seven players in double

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00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:42,399
Speaker 1: figures in that Denver game, and a lot of the

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Speaker 1: stuff that I talked about over the summer is starting

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Speaker 1: to come to fruition for them without Luca, which is

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Speaker 1: their aggregate ball handling. This is a roster that has

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Speaker 1: a lot of offensive skill like Kyrie, can make plays

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Speaker 1: with the balls, can make plays with the ball. Kyrie

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Speaker 1: can make plays with the ball, can make plays with

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Speaker 1: the ball. Clay Clay had a rough game but he

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Speaker 1: can make plays. Quinton Grimes can make plays, right, Spencer Dinwood,

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Speaker 1: he can make plays. He's shown a lot of really

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Speaker 1: high level shot making over this recent stretch. Jayden Hardy

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Speaker 1: can make plays. Najie Marshall, who's amazing in the Denver game. So, like,

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Speaker 1: they have just a lot of guys that can do

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Speaker 1: stuff with the basketball and the dagger possession. And this

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Speaker 1: is a set that they've been running primarily with Luca

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Speaker 1: off the floor this year, but it's something I'd like

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Speaker 1: to see them run more. Is okay? So Dallas is

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Speaker 1: up one seventeen to one to fifteen with just under

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00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:31,840
Speaker 1: a minute left, and they're running that like stuff where

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00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:33,520
Speaker 1: they throw the ball to Derek Lively at the top

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00:18:33,520 --> 00:18:35,000
Speaker 1: of the key and they have the guards like kind

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00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:37,439
Speaker 1: of like screen for each other and then whirl around

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Speaker 1: him right. And on this sequence there's multiple guys running

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Speaker 1: off of Derek Lively. The first guy runs off, it's

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Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving and Derek Glive is holding the ball and

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Speaker 1: he looks and Kyrie's well guarded. It's not there, right.

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Speaker 1: The second guy that comes off was Quintin Grimes. And

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Speaker 1: when Quentin Grimes comes off, Jokic ends up because Derek

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Speaker 1: Glivey actually pitches the ball to Derek, Jokic has to

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Speaker 1: show high. So Yoki shows high and now there's two

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Speaker 1: on the ball. And as there's two on the ball,

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Speaker 1: this one Lively rolls on. And when Lively rolls, that's

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Speaker 1: what drags Jamal Murray just barely into the lane to

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Speaker 1: throw a little bit of extra help on that Lively role, which,

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Speaker 1: by the way, was a mistake. But as I talk

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Speaker 1: about you run offense to get the defense to make mistake,

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Speaker 1: that's literally the reason why you do it. So because

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Speaker 1: Jamal helps a little bit on that role, Naje kind

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00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:30,879
Speaker 1: of relocates over to the top of the key Quintin

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00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:33,720
Speaker 1: pitches it to him. Then that's what gives Najie Marshall

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to attack the closeout where he drives and

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00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:38,679
Speaker 1: he hits the little bank shot high off the glass.

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00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:42,919
Speaker 1: So again it's like there's multiple threats weaponizing the passing

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Speaker 1: ability of Derek Lively to get great shots. Again, the

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Speaker 1: ball and player movement for this team has been really

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Speaker 1: good for the Luca injury. When Luca comes back, he

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Speaker 1: needs to play in that style at least some of

430
00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:55,240
Speaker 1: the time, because this needs to be a punch that

431
00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:57,400
Speaker 1: you have. Yes, you want to be able to go, oh,

432
00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:00,920
Speaker 1: we're just gonna spam Luca double drag or or spain

433
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:02,240
Speaker 1: pick and roll or whatever it is you want to

434
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:07,639
Speaker 1: do to really leverage Luca's slow down, surgical offensive skill.

435
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,040
Speaker 1: But you also want to be able to have this punch,

436
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:12,200
Speaker 1: the punch that they've been riding to some pretty impressive

437
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,400
Speaker 1: wins without look of this year, which is the everyone's

438
00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:17,880
Speaker 1: eating kind of look, right, and I think that that's

439
00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:20,919
Speaker 1: been really encouraging. But back over to Dallas or Denver,

440
00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:22,720
Speaker 1: excuse me, so on the tail end of the back

441
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,119
Speaker 1: to back, Denver gets back on track with a dominant

442
00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:29,200
Speaker 1: win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Nicole Jokicz just kicked

443
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:31,920
Speaker 1: the living shit out of Anthony Davis in this game,

444
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:34,360
Speaker 1: which was a big reversal from the dynamic that took

445
00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:36,440
Speaker 1: place in the first round last year, where Lebron and

446
00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:39,200
Speaker 1: Ad kind of went toe to toe with Jokich and

447
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:43,000
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray. The Lakers completely fell apart right before halftime

448
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,520
Speaker 1: and never recovered. I'm going to do a Laker segment

449
00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:47,000
Speaker 1: at the tail end of the show, and we'll talk

450
00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:48,880
Speaker 1: some more about that game, because it was a lot

451
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:50,639
Speaker 1: of good Denver, but it was also like just a

452
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:52,840
Speaker 1: really weird stretch of basketball. So we'll get into that

453
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:54,600
Speaker 1: when we talk Lakers at the tail end of the show.

454
00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:56,919
Speaker 1: But the short version is is that the Nuggets just

455
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:00,880
Speaker 1: have an insane mental advantage over the Lakers. Are loaded

456
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 1: with super confident and talented offensive players. Again, they're fourth

457
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,479
Speaker 1: in offense on the season. They just played a magic

458
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:12,440
Speaker 1: team two nights earlier that is much much better defensively

459
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:14,840
Speaker 1: than Denver is, and they hung a one to twenty

460
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:17,960
Speaker 1: offensive rating on them, Like that's how good the Laker

461
00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:22,040
Speaker 1: offense is. And Denver had them looking despondent in the

462
00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:25,320
Speaker 1: third quarter. Not a single one of them looked confident,

463
00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,119
Speaker 1: not a single one of them was in rhythm. It

464
00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:29,879
Speaker 1: was actually crazy what they did to them. And that

465
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:32,280
Speaker 1: is the mental dynamic ap play. When you make a

466
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:37,119
Speaker 1: team play uncharacteristic basketball, that's when the mental aspect starts

467
00:21:37,119 --> 00:21:40,359
Speaker 1: to feed into things. Right. There are physical advantages, like

468
00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:43,960
Speaker 1: actual talent advantages, which are obviously part of the deal here,

469
00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:48,200
Speaker 1: but those physical and talented advantages have manifested so many

470
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,119
Speaker 1: times in this matchup over the last three years that

471
00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:54,800
Speaker 1: it's really starting to sit and affect the confidence of

472
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: the Lakers in this matchup. And I thought that was

473
00:21:56,600 --> 00:22:00,080
Speaker 1: really fascinating because again, that's the same Lakers team that

474
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:03,640
Speaker 1: diced up the Orlando Magic, a very very very good

475
00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:07,399
Speaker 1: top tier defense in this league two nights earlier, and

476
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,520
Speaker 1: they had fifteen points over a fifteen minute span over

477
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:13,000
Speaker 1: the second, third, and fourth quarters in the Denver game. Like,

478
00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: that's the type of mental advantage that Denver has in

479
00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:19,320
Speaker 1: this matchup. Russell Westbrook had his way with the unathletic

480
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,240
Speaker 1: Laker guards had a big time revenge game in that one.

481
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:24,760
Speaker 1: It was just a complete and total outclassing. And so

482
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:27,520
Speaker 1: everything is looking pretty good for the Nuggets overall. My

483
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:30,200
Speaker 1: only concern with them is the Jamal Murray piece. Now,

484
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:33,440
Speaker 1: unathletic guards all around the league are struggling in a

485
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:35,439
Speaker 1: lot of ways this year as the game has changed

486
00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:37,359
Speaker 1: and become more fast and more spread out, both in

487
00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:41,120
Speaker 1: transition and in the half court. But like Denver beats Dallas,

488
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:45,199
Speaker 1: if Jamal doesn't just get repeatedly cooked in space at

489
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:46,960
Speaker 1: the tail end of that game, and like it wasn't

490
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,360
Speaker 1: just Kyrie cooking him, it was guys like PJ. Washington

491
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 1: going right around him or threw him bench guards like

492
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:55,600
Speaker 1: Naji Marshall, and then on the other end of the floor,

493
00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:57,479
Speaker 1: he just hasn't been good enough offensively to make up

494
00:22:57,480 --> 00:22:59,439
Speaker 1: for it. Right, Like, he had less than fifteen points

495
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 1: in a game this season more times then he's had

496
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:07,000
Speaker 1: twenty or more points. Again, he's had more games where

497
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,320
Speaker 1: he had fifteen or fewer points than he had twenty

498
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,720
Speaker 1: or more. That's not the same Jamal Murray that they

499
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,879
Speaker 1: won the championship with. He shot forty percent from the

500
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:19,199
Speaker 1: field or worse in half of his games this season.

501
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:22,040
Speaker 1: And here's the thing, Like Jokic is playing at a

502
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:24,640
Speaker 1: level that is somewhat rare in NBA history. He's dominant

503
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:27,600
Speaker 1: every single night. So like he's got to get it

504
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,199
Speaker 1: together and he's got to meet Jokic as close to

505
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:32,520
Speaker 1: the level that he's capable of getting to as possible,

506
00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:35,480
Speaker 1: because it's just with Yoki's playing at this level, you

507
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 1: have a legit chance to get another trophy and they're

508
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:39,240
Speaker 1: gonna need more out of Jamal to get to that point.

509
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:41,879
Speaker 1: One last Nuggets shout out the athletes Christian Brown and

510
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:44,879
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson in addition to making shots and defending and

511
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,879
Speaker 1: rebounding and doing all the things that they do at

512
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:49,679
Speaker 1: such a high level to help his team win, you

513
00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:53,720
Speaker 1: can also literally see Jokic gaining trust in them. I

514
00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:58,240
Speaker 1: watched the Nuggets, I've watched the Denver or the Dallas

515
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,520
Speaker 1: game in particular. I was really impressed by like some

516
00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:04,640
Speaker 1: of these possessions where Yokic was in deep, like had

517
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,560
Speaker 1: the ball getting over to his left shoulder to where

518
00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:10,679
Speaker 1: he could go to that hook that he makes sixty

519
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,040
Speaker 1: five seventy percent of the time, and like could have

520
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:17,880
Speaker 1: shot it, but saw a defender like leaning pretty far

521
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,320
Speaker 1: in off of Peyton Watson or Christian Brown and like

522
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:23,960
Speaker 1: made the kickout pass. That's trust, right, because if the

523
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:27,639
Speaker 1: roles are reversed and that's a player that Jokic doesn't trust,

524
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:30,680
Speaker 1: he's gonna try to shoot over that, right. That's a

525
00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 1: shot that he feels like he can get to. And

526
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,439
Speaker 1: I just I've seen like it just a gaining momentum

527
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:40,040
Speaker 1: in the partnership between Jokic and Peyton Watson and Christian Brown.

528
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:42,800
Speaker 1: They just look like they're starting to get that sort

529
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:45,560
Speaker 1: of basketball chemistry and Yokic is starting to trust them.

530
00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:47,840
Speaker 1: On a high level. So like that that I think

531
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: is encouraging on the Denver front. Number seven, the Los

532
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,120
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers. How about a four and ah week. They've

533
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 1: won five in a row overall, They're now to eleven

534
00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:58,720
Speaker 1: and seven. They are the five seed out in the

535
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:02,280
Speaker 1: Western Conference against legitimately tough schedule. They beat the Warriors.

536
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:05,359
Speaker 1: They they're the only team to beat the Orlando Magic

537
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,919
Speaker 1: since November sixth, and they beat the Kinks. They're second

538
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,919
Speaker 1: in defense and second in rebounding over this stretch, no

539
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,919
Speaker 1: surprise with the absurd amount of defensive talent and athleticism

540
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:16,879
Speaker 1: that they have. And the crazy thing is James Harden

541
00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 1: still hasn't really got it going. And like some of

542
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:21,879
Speaker 1: it is the personnel they're playing right, Like, the Clippers

543
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:23,960
Speaker 1: are playing a lot of defensive minded groups, and that's

544
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:25,679
Speaker 1: going to make it easier for teams to load up

545
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,560
Speaker 1: on James Harden. He's not going to have some majestically

546
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 1: you know, efficient season this year, but I do think

547
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 1: he's capable of playing harder, or excuse me, capable of

548
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 1: playing better than he has to this point in the season.

549
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 1: And that's encouraging. The formula is working. They have six

550
00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:43,199
Speaker 1: players averaging double figures during the win streak. James is

551
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 1: making enough plays, and Norm Powell continues to hit just

552
00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:47,959
Speaker 1: like every single big shot that the team needs him

553
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:49,600
Speaker 1: to hit in big moments at the end of games.

554
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 1: I've been right about some things to start this year,

555
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:53,680
Speaker 1: and I've been wrong about others, obviously, but this is

556
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:55,959
Speaker 1: a team that I was right about, and it's starting

557
00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:59,919
Speaker 1: to like cement my basketball worldview as it pertains to

558
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:04,320
Speaker 1: perimeter athleticism being the best foundational strength for an NBA

559
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:08,040
Speaker 1: basketball team to have. Moving on number six, the Houston

560
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:10,919
Speaker 1: Rockets two and two week, they lost a heartbreaker to

561
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: Milwaukee in a game where you got to see kind

562
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:15,240
Speaker 1: of the best and worst of the Rockets on both

563
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:17,960
Speaker 1: ends of the floor right like incredible defense, so basically

564
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,040
Speaker 1: the only team that has made Gianna's struggle as of late.

565
00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 1: They were forcing turnovers, they were getting out in transition.

566
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:25,879
Speaker 1: In that matchup, Fred van Vliet had some stretches of

567
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 1: really surgical half court offense, but they just had too

568
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 1: many stretches where their offense bogged down and at the

569
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,359
Speaker 1: tail end of the game, Milwaukee just found a matchup

570
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:35,119
Speaker 1: that they liked and it was a speed matchup. They

571
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 1: liked Damian Lizard against Stillon Brooks, and he was able

572
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,600
Speaker 1: to beat him off the dribble twice, once to draw

573
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 1: foul and once they had the layup that ended up

574
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: winning the game. Then ended up being what went south

575
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 1: for the Rockets, but they got back on track by

576
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,879
Speaker 1: putting Tyres Halliburton and Ben matherin in jail as they

577
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,800
Speaker 1: blew out the Pacers, and then they split a baseball

578
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: series with Portland. And by the way, Portland is feisty.

579
00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:56,720
Speaker 1: They've won four games against teams that are five hundred

580
00:26:56,800 --> 00:27:00,800
Speaker 1: or better. For perspective, that's the same as Cleveland. Cleveland

581
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:02,640
Speaker 1: has four wins against teams that are five hundred better,

582
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,719
Speaker 1: so does Portland, and Boston only has three. So like

583
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:09,760
Speaker 1: Portland's feisty, they've proven that they can beat good teams

584
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:12,160
Speaker 1: on any given night. And that's a good Rockets team.

585
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:14,719
Speaker 1: Like a good Rockets team, that's been a big problem

586
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,240
Speaker 1: around the league. And against seven and three against teams

587
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 1: that are five hundred are better this year are the

588
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,480
Speaker 1: Houston Rockets. That was a big time win for the

589
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 1: Portland Trailblazers. But anyway, the Rockets are sitting at twelve

590
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: and six. They're third in the Western Conference seven and

591
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:30,280
Speaker 1: three against teams that are five hundred are better fifteenth

592
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,320
Speaker 1: in offense, second in defense, fourth in net rating. I

593
00:27:33,359 --> 00:27:36,439
Speaker 1: basically look at them as like a better deeper version

594
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: of the Los Angeles Clippers, who, by the way, the

595
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: Rockets beat twice in a row earlier this season. Number

596
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 1: five the Orlando Magic. They've won eight out of nine,

597
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 1: some really nice wins against the Pacers and against the Suns,

598
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: and then stole a game against the Lakers on Thursday.

599
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:52,960
Speaker 1: Got some help from Anthony Davis and that one who

600
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 1: like this is crazy. I was at a friends giving

601
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:58,639
Speaker 1: thing that night, and I had been kind of monitoring

602
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 1: the game, and when Lebron got the rebound and the

603
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: kick ahead pass to a d and the final minute

604
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: for the dunk, I was like, Oh, this game's over,

605
00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:08,159
Speaker 1: and I like put my phone away and started just

606
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: like enjoying the night. And then I get a text

607
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:13,679
Speaker 1: message from Logan Swam, our head of content here at

608
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 1: the Volume, who's also a diehard Lakers fan, and he's like,

609
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:18,680
Speaker 1: worst loss of the or of the Lebron ad era,

610
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:20,399
Speaker 1: And I'm like, what, how did they lose? How did

611
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 1: they lose that game, that's not possible, Like they won

612
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:24,400
Speaker 1: that game. I watched it, you know, and then go

613
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,600
Speaker 1: check my phone and ad misses three free throws in

614
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:31,520
Speaker 1: the final minute as Franz Wagner hits a dagger step

615
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:33,200
Speaker 1: back three over Cam Reddish at the top of the

616
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 1: key in the magic of eight out of nine, and

617
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 1: that seemed to like send the Lakers into a little

618
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:39,160
Speaker 1: bit of a spiral too, which we're going to get

619
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 1: into them later. But the formula for Orlando has been defense.

620
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:44,600
Speaker 1: In Franz Wagner right, they have a one o two

621
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 1: defensive rating in this eight game stretch, which is even

622
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: better than they were earlier in the season. Jalen Suggs

623
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 1: is like he's like a lockdown corner. It's like Patrick's certain,

624
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: like you just put him on the other team's best

625
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 1: guard and he just takes him out of the game.

626
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,280
Speaker 1: He like annihilated Austin Reeve in that Thursday night game,

627
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: and that like here's the thing, Like the Lakers have

628
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:07,840
Speaker 1: some issues with athletic guards, but like Austin usually finds

629
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,240
Speaker 1: a way to at least be pretty good even against

630
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 1: athletic mismatches. And Jalen Suggs just literally removed him from

631
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 1: the game, had him complaining at the refs all night.

632
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 1: It was just a really impressive performance from Jalen Suggs.

633
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,000
Speaker 1: They had a really nice offensive night. Two shot the

634
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:23,480
Speaker 1: three well and then was overpowering guards to get to

635
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 1: spots in the short and mid range as well. And

636
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 1: then as a unit, they just have so much size

637
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 1: in athleticism, which helps them navigate the Lebron and Ad issue,

638
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:33,720
Speaker 1: but just other big front lines around the league. And

639
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: then Franz Wagner has just been playing at a superstar

640
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 1: level during this eight game stretch twenty nine seven and

641
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 1: seven over an eight game stretch on fifty nine percent

642
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 1: true shooting. That's not just good, that's special. That's like

643
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:51,680
Speaker 1: at the top tier of forward, you know, kind of

644
00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:55,360
Speaker 1: like multifaceted, you know, Swiss Army knife type of forward

645
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,000
Speaker 1: play that you get out of this league. That's really

646
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: really good stuff there from Franz. He's kicking teams apart

647
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 1: and pick and roll. I talked about this last week,

648
00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: but like really likes to work around that like elbow

649
00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: area where like he'll snake the ball screen and kind

650
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:10,280
Speaker 1: of work in that area and wait for someone to

651
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: just kind of come in too far and he'll throw

652
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 1: kickout passes. He can score in the mid range. He's

653
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:16,920
Speaker 1: been picking on switches with his size and his ability

654
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 1: to shoot over the top. Is just a really nice

655
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 1: shot creation season for him. So far, he's run three

656
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 1: hundred and ten pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups

657
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 1: including passes, and he's generated three hundred and nineteen points.

658
00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 1: That's one point zero three points per possession. And again

659
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 1: on a team where without Palo he's clearly at the

660
00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:37,360
Speaker 1: top of the scouting report, doesn't have a reliable number

661
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 1: two and isn't exactly surrounded by a ton of offensive talent,

662
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 1: so like a high volume to be generating shots the

663
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:45,480
Speaker 1: way that he has this year is really impressive. Like, guys,

664
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,960
Speaker 1: Moe Wagner is the second leading Magic score over the

665
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:51,920
Speaker 1: course of this eight game stretch, So like that's really

666
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 1: really high level play from the Orlando Magic and Franz

667
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 1: is hooping looks super confident when he's in control of

668
00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 1: the game. I've been really impressed by them over the

669
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: course the last couple of weeks. Number four, the Golden

670
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:04,880
Speaker 1: State Warriors, they've had a two and two week. They

671
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 1: lost to the Clippers in a game that looks just

672
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 1: like the last time the Warriors played the Clippers, like

673
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:13,440
Speaker 1: all of the Warriors guards other than staff struggled, and

674
00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:15,880
Speaker 1: They're offense sputtered and ended up being a loss. They

675
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: got back on track with two wins against Atlanta in

676
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: New Orleans. Andrew Wiggins was awesome in those two games.

677
00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 1: He had fifty seven points in the two games. We're

678
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:25,560
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Andrew here in just a second. But

679
00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 1: then they're up ten going into the fourth quarter in

680
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: San Antonio and Victor win Minyama happened just completely dominated

681
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: the game on both ends. He had multiple out of

682
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 1: area blocks where he's seeming like somebody looked like they

683
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:39,959
Speaker 1: were open and he just like Moses Moody had one

684
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: where it looked like he got an offensive rebound put

685
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 1: back and he just turned over his left shoulder to

686
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 1: shoot a hook and Victor was like behind the backboard

687
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:47,640
Speaker 1: and he just and like it looked like he was

688
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:49,840
Speaker 1: out of balance and he just kind of like came

689
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 1: up and swallowed the shot up and threw it out

690
00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,719
Speaker 1: to Stephan Castle. He had another one where Lindy Waters

691
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: was driving and it looked like Victor was on the

692
00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,240
Speaker 1: weak side and it looked like he was out of

693
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 1: the play. He just came flying in and swatted Lindy

694
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:04,240
Speaker 1: Waters off the glass. Lindy missed two easy kickout reads

695
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: in the in crunch time. That was one thing that

696
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:08,479
Speaker 1: I that stood out to me where I was like,

697
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:11,760
Speaker 1: when when the defense is really overplaying those drives, that's

698
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: where you got to take those kickouts when they're available.

699
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: There was a like a wide open Angrew Wiggins on

700
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 1: one of them that he overlooked. It just there's little

701
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:20,280
Speaker 1: a couple of bad decisions there down the stretch, but

702
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,840
Speaker 1: Victor was incredible on defense and then on offense. He

703
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 1: was driving to the rim and getting layups. He had

704
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 1: a driving feed to Julian Champagne cutting out of the

705
00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 1: right corner that was just such an incredible feel and

706
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: touch pass, like he threw it like way before it

707
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 1: was even a time for him to jump. It just

708
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 1: kind of like landed perfectly in the spot for Julian

709
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:40,880
Speaker 1: just to go up and dunk it easy. It was

710
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:44,360
Speaker 1: just such a pass that demonstrates Victor's feel for the game.

711
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 1: And then he got a shotgoing, which was funny because

712
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:49,280
Speaker 1: to start the fourth quarter he had like a couple

713
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: of really bad misses from three, like one where he

714
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 1: damn near put a hole in the backboard and I'm like,

715
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 1: oh man, Like, Victor's really at a rhythm. And then

716
00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 1: he gets an easy, little like eighteen footer at the

717
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 1: right l out of a ball screen with Chris Paul

718
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 1: there where he's wide open and it's a super easy

719
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,120
Speaker 1: up and down in rhythm, knocks it down and it

720
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:09,880
Speaker 1: was like the floodgates open. And then suddenly he was

721
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 1: just hitting every three that he took and just completely

722
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:14,480
Speaker 1: dominate the game down the stretch. And then he also

723
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 1: got a major contribution out of Stefan Castle, who is

724
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 1: one of my favorite guys coming out of the draft,

725
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:21,160
Speaker 1: and he continues to just look look amazing. He had

726
00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:23,720
Speaker 1: a huge driving finish against Kavan Looney on a switch.

727
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 1: I clipped this play and put it on my Twitter feed,

728
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 1: where again he does a sweeping crossover, but it's not

729
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 1: the dribble that impresses me. He takes a hard There's

730
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: there's two plays down the stretch that game that I

731
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 1: would look at if you're a Spurs fan. It's the

732
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: left to right crossover on Kevon Looney and then it's

733
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 1: the play where he drove by Draymond Green at the

734
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 1: top of the key and drew a foul, and both

735
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 1: of them started out of a high hesitation in the

736
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 1: left hand and you could tell like it actually came

737
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 1: out of order, like the Looney crossover was actually before

738
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 1: the Draymond play. But it's interesting because they set each

739
00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 1: other up in their own way so like and the

740
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 1: Draymond play sits in a high hesitation and then just

741
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:07,680
Speaker 1: launches himself forward going left and he comes to almost

742
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 1: a complete stop in the hesitation, and then the first

743
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:15,680
Speaker 1: step is lightning quick, and Draymond has no choice but

744
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:17,879
Speaker 1: to just wrap him up and foul him basically right.

745
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:21,200
Speaker 1: And then on the Looney play, it's the exact same thing.

746
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,920
Speaker 1: He launches himself on a left drive out of the

747
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:28,760
Speaker 1: high hesitation and then right on his left foot plants,

748
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:30,920
Speaker 1: he whips it across back to the right, and now

749
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 1: he's going to the right and he doests loony and

750
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:34,879
Speaker 1: if you watch Loony, Looney does like a full two

751
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 1: foot hop over to cut off that left hand drive,

752
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:42,080
Speaker 1: and like that's what makes again, it's the simple concept, right,

753
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:44,000
Speaker 1: It's the most of the best scores in the world

754
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:46,359
Speaker 1: don't have like seventeen different moves that they use all

755
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:47,919
Speaker 1: the time, like most of the best scores in the world.

756
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:50,680
Speaker 1: It's like move countermove, Like I have a right shoulder fade,

757
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 1: left shoulder fade, which everyone you overplay, I'm going the

758
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:54,440
Speaker 1: other way and if you ever play the jumper, I'm

759
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:57,080
Speaker 1: stepping through right or like in this case, like the

760
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:00,200
Speaker 1: Stefan Castle just gets a nasty high hesitation jumps. And

761
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 1: by the way, he had a huge three at the

762
00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 1: top of the key down the stretch in this game.

763
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:06,480
Speaker 1: But if he can get into high hesitation and he

764
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 1: can shoot, and he can throw a hard drive to

765
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 1: the left and then he has a nasty crossover to

766
00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: the right, Like that's literally all it takes. As long

767
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 1: as all three are real threats, that's all it takes.

768
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 1: You don't need anything more than that. Everything else is

769
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:26,480
Speaker 1: just fluff, right, And I think he also did an

770
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 1: incredible job on Steph Curry all night long. That was

771
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:31,360
Speaker 1: the weird thing about the Spurs game, Like Steph just

772
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:33,840
Speaker 1: couldn't make a shot all night long. But Stefan Castle

773
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 1: just just really, really, really impressive start to this season

774
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 1: for a rookie and quick note on the Spurs before

775
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 1: we move on back to the Warriors. I mean, Stefan

776
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:46,000
Speaker 1: Castle's rise so quickly in the early phase of his

777
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:48,239
Speaker 1: career just gives the Spurs such an interesting core, which

778
00:35:48,239 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 1: is not how I felt coming into the season. At first.

779
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:53,720
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, you have Victor, you have Devin Vessel,

780
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,359
Speaker 1: not really sure what he's going to be, right, and

781
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 1: then Jeremy sohon Right, like is this really clunky fit

782
00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 1: because like really inconsistent shooter and decision maker. Right, but

783
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 1: he's like the very good defensive player and has like

784
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:09,279
Speaker 1: a knack for scoring the ball, even at least he's

785
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 1: shown it this year, even though like he can be

786
00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:13,719
Speaker 1: limited in some other offensive ways. So like it's kind

787
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,120
Speaker 1: of like a really weird forward. And then like a

788
00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:18,600
Speaker 1: guard that we just don't know what he is, but

789
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 1: like Stefan Castle is so obviously very good. Like I

790
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 1: can already tell what Steph Castle's going to be. He's

791
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:29,759
Speaker 1: going to be a very good guard defender that can

792
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 1: shoot and score off the bounce like that. That's like automatic,

793
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:38,319
Speaker 1: great foundational guard. I think Spurs fans should be like

794
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 1: incredibly excited about Stefan Castle because now I look at

795
00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,479
Speaker 1: it as like Victor and Steph and then we'll see

796
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 1: what happens with Devin Vessel and Jeremy Sohan, but because

797
00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:52,279
Speaker 1: they're kind of like teared down, because I know what

798
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:54,919
Speaker 1: Stefan Castle's going to be and I know how well

799
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 1: that works in the modern NBA, Like, it just makes

800
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:01,880
Speaker 1: me feel infinitely more confident about this group moving forward.

801
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:04,960
Speaker 1: And I mean, like the arena was on fire in

802
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:07,280
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter when Steph Castle and Victor wimen Yama

803
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 1: took that game over. It was an unreal energy and

804
00:37:09,719 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 1: you can really feel the momentum gaining with this the

805
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:15,919
Speaker 1: San Antonio Spurs back to the Warriors. Though you blew

806
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 1: a game on the road, it happens Steph had a

807
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:20,960
Speaker 1: really bad game. You didn't get much from anybody not

808
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 1: named Wiggins, which has become a recurring theme. So I

809
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:25,360
Speaker 1: want to talk about Wiggins for a second. This is

810
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:28,720
Speaker 1: where we're gonna go positive for the Warriors. That was Wiggins'

811
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:33,279
Speaker 1: fourth straight twenty point game. He never did it more

812
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:35,560
Speaker 1: than two times in a row last year. In fact,

813
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:39,080
Speaker 1: the last time Andrew Wiggins played in four consecutive games

814
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:41,399
Speaker 1: and scored at least twenty points in all of them.

815
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:45,000
Speaker 1: Was May of twenty twenty one in the COVID season,

816
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: towards the tail end of the regular season. And again,

817
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 1: that was a year when there was like a lot

818
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:53,120
Speaker 1: of roster issues with the Warriors and he had to

819
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,280
Speaker 1: be more aggressive. Right He's over sixty percent true shooting

820
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: for the first time ever. He's having the best three

821
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,320
Speaker 1: point shooting season of his career. He's having the best

822
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:04,600
Speaker 1: free throw shooting season of his career. His touch is

823
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 1: just at a better spot where it's than it's ever been,

824
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 1: all while providing excellent defense on the perimeter. I think

825
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,280
Speaker 1: he's out playing many of his peers at his position

826
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:14,960
Speaker 1: around the league. And again, like I talked about this

827
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 1: a little bit in the mailbag on Friday, Like I uh,

828
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:20,560
Speaker 1: when I talk about potential trades for the Warriors, it's

829
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 1: not about now. This is not a Warriors team that's

830
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 1: looking to make a trade right now. I think they'd

831
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:26,680
Speaker 1: be stupid too. This is a team that should not

832
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:30,239
Speaker 1: make a single trade until maybe early February, maybe not

833
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:33,279
Speaker 1: at all, But when they get to February, you make

834
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:35,759
Speaker 1: that call. But if Andrew Wiggins is going to play

835
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,279
Speaker 1: like one of the better forwards in the league. Then

836
00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:40,080
Speaker 1: you just got the guy that you would hunt in

837
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 1: the trade market anyway. Right, this is what I said

838
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 1: they needed. They needed a reliable twenty plus point per

839
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:50,520
Speaker 1: game efficient score at the forward position. If Andrew Wiggins

840
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:55,120
Speaker 1: becomes that or regains that footing in this league, it's

841
00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:56,880
Speaker 1: not just about him being untradeable. It's just there's no

842
00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:58,839
Speaker 1: reason to make a trade anymore because Andrew Wiggins has

843
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:02,399
Speaker 1: become the guy that you needed in that support role.

844
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:04,879
Speaker 1: I mean, here's the thing. You'll lose in that game

845
00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 1: because Steph is bad. And like for the vast majority,

846
00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:11,240
Speaker 1: the only team in the league that can really afford

847
00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:13,600
Speaker 1: consistently for their best player to have a bad game

848
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,280
Speaker 1: is the Boston Celtics because they have so much talent.

849
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 1: But like most of the teams in the league are

850
00:39:18,719 --> 00:39:20,839
Speaker 1: in a struggle with their best player struggles. And that's

851
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:22,880
Speaker 1: all that happened in San Antonio last night. But like,

852
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:27,319
Speaker 1: really really impressive stretch of basketball from Andrew Wiggins. The

853
00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:29,680
Speaker 1: schedule for the Warriors is getting a little intense, though.

854
00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:31,120
Speaker 1: I wanted to go over this because I just think

855
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:33,440
Speaker 1: this is fascinating. This is one of the toughest stretches

856
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:36,360
Speaker 1: of schedule, extended stretches of schedule that I've seen for

857
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 1: an NBA team, emphasized by a couple of tough Eastern

858
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:43,279
Speaker 1: Conference opponents and just an incredibly stacked West. But they

859
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:45,600
Speaker 1: have an easy one against Brooklyn at home is their

860
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:49,800
Speaker 1: next game. But after that home for OKC at Phoenix,

861
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:54,200
Speaker 1: who will have Kadie and Bradley Beilback at Denver Houston,

862
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 1: who is both really good and a team that matches

863
00:39:57,160 --> 00:40:02,520
Speaker 1: up physically with Golden State. Well, Minnesota, Minnesota again, then Memphis,

864
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:06,800
Speaker 1: then Minnesota again in Memphis. That's a couple of weeks

865
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:08,560
Speaker 1: from now, so they could be healthier and have more

866
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:12,759
Speaker 1: guys in the lineup right then Indiana, then the Lakers,

867
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:17,320
Speaker 1: then the Clippers, then the Suns again, then the Calves,

868
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,040
Speaker 1: then the Sixers, and that's like roughly a month from now,

869
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:24,360
Speaker 1: so they could be healthier then the Grizzlies, than the

870
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,759
Speaker 1: Kings and the Heat. So like there, the Warriors are

871
00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:30,239
Speaker 1: heading into basically a month plus of like playing a

872
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 1: good team every single night. And so we're gonna learn

873
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 1: a lot about the Warriors over this stretch and just

874
00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 1: how capable this roster is of shouldering the load that

875
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:41,239
Speaker 1: they're gonna need to shoulder in order to get what

876
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:56,000
Speaker 1: they want to get done this year. Number three, They'laoma

877
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:58,960
Speaker 1: City Thunder one in one week. They haven't played since

878
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,040
Speaker 1: the twentieth, which is weird. They only had two games

879
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:03,759
Speaker 1: last week. They lost at San Antonio, really bad loss,

880
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 1: no victor women Yama. In that game, they completely lost

881
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:08,360
Speaker 1: control of the game over a matter of minutes. In

882
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:10,680
Speaker 1: the early third quarter. The Spurs were playing through Zach

883
00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:13,560
Speaker 1: Collins in the post, just posting up smaller Thunder players

884
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:15,319
Speaker 1: and he was either just going through them or drawing

885
00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:17,400
Speaker 1: a second defender and dropping off for a guy underneath

886
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:19,400
Speaker 1: the rim. And then they just had like a really

887
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 1: bad stretch of shot selection from Jalen Williams and Shay

888
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 1: Gilders Alexander. They went down by sixteen in like kind

889
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:27,880
Speaker 1: of the mid third, and then they were chasing their

890
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:30,160
Speaker 1: tail the rest of the game, never regained control. They

891
00:41:30,160 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 1: actually went down by twenty one in the fourth quarter.

892
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 1: So lost in San Antonio, really bad loss for the Thunder,

893
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 1: But then they bounced back with a win against Portland.

894
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams had thirty in that one. Jalen Williams has

895
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:41,160
Speaker 1: been hooping, by the way, in his last six games,

896
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 1: he's averaging twenty six points, seven rebounds, and six assists

897
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,480
Speaker 1: on fifty five percent from the field, forty percent from three,

898
00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:50,360
Speaker 1: and one hundred percent from the line. Very good basketball

899
00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 1: from Jalen Williams. But I want to zero in on

900
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:56,480
Speaker 1: the shot selection piece for a second, because the Thunder

901
00:41:56,560 --> 00:42:00,120
Speaker 1: are underachieving on offense. That goes to say that. That

902
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:02,040
Speaker 1: goes without saying. They're twelfth in offense right now, which

903
00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:04,680
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense given the type of personnel that

904
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:06,839
Speaker 1: they have, especially with them having played small as much

905
00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:08,920
Speaker 1: as they have, which in theory should open things up

906
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 1: for your spacing and you're driving kick game, right. But

907
00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:12,919
Speaker 1: I want to zero in on this for a second

908
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 1: because the Thunder are awesome. They're gonna win plenty of games.

909
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:21,600
Speaker 1: They're not gonna be a team that struggles in the standings.

910
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:24,360
Speaker 1: They're tied for the one seed in the West despite

911
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:26,440
Speaker 1: chat Holmer and getting hurt and some pretty rough injury

912
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 1: luck down the roster, right, So this is not like

913
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:34,879
Speaker 1: a gloom and doom Thunder tick. But what Oklahoma City

914
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 1: is going through actually reminds me in a lot of

915
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:38,680
Speaker 1: ways of what the Celtics went through a few years back,

916
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 1: And there are some other parallels there too, Like they

917
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:43,759
Speaker 1: have enormous amounts of talent, specifically a few guys that

918
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:45,839
Speaker 1: are still just barely scratching the surface of what they're

919
00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:50,720
Speaker 1: capable of, but in like kind of like a situation

920
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 1: where their best player is mature for his age, Like

921
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 1: Tatum and Shay both kind of remind me of each

922
00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 1: other in the sense that, like they're in their mid twenties,

923
00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:00,040
Speaker 1: but they carry themselves like guys in their thirties. It

924
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:02,919
Speaker 1: like they just act like grown adults and they don't

925
00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 1: make a lot of like kind of the immature mistakes

926
00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:08,400
Speaker 1: that younger stars around the league make, right, and so

927
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:11,600
Speaker 1: like there's some parallels there, but it extends. I'm more

928
00:43:11,719 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 1: referring to the shot selection piece. To be clear, before

929
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:19,160
Speaker 1: we get into this, every team goes through stretches where

930
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 1: they take bad shots. It's part of the game. The

931
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:25,160
Speaker 1: game is about rhythm. You're constantly like chasing a good

932
00:43:25,239 --> 00:43:27,640
Speaker 1: rhythm or when you're in a bad rhythm, trying to

933
00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:29,480
Speaker 1: get it back right. You're trying to extend a good

934
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: rhythm or get out of a bad rhythm right like

935
00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: that's part of the game. The best teams are just

936
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:38,160
Speaker 1: able to identify when they're in bad rhythm. Hey guys,

937
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 1: we're taking bad shots. Let's refocus. Let's get this figured out. Right,

938
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:45,280
Speaker 1: The good teams quickly regain control compared to the bad teams.

939
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 1: The Celtics used to be a team that would win

940
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:51,279
Speaker 1: plenty of games, but with bad process, their talent was

941
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:54,480
Speaker 1: the enemy of their success sometimes, right, Like, great players

942
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:58,440
Speaker 1: have an issue where they can just get a decent

943
00:43:58,560 --> 00:44:03,080
Speaker 1: shot whenever they want, Right, Like, you're staring down a

944
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:08,239
Speaker 1: defensive player and you're Jason Tatum, Like he can just

945
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 1: do a pound dribble between his legs and get a

946
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 1: pretty decent look at a twenty five foot or off

947
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:17,120
Speaker 1: the bounce. Jalen Brown can wherever he is on the

948
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:19,279
Speaker 1: floor just elevate and shoot because he's one of the

949
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:22,279
Speaker 1: best athletes in the league. Derek White needs very little

950
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:26,840
Speaker 1: space to get a shot off. They had this problem

951
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:29,560
Speaker 1: early on where their talent was the enemy of their

952
00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:34,640
Speaker 1: success because like, it takes patience and maturity to turn

953
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 1: down those shots and only take them when you absolutely

954
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:40,560
Speaker 1: have to, because you're working as hard as you can

955
00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 1: to generate great shots right. That's the situation that Oklahoma

956
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:48,720
Speaker 1: City is in now, because like they're at this point

957
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:52,640
Speaker 1: now where they are just taking the shot that makes

958
00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:56,320
Speaker 1: the most sense within that immediate moment for that talented player.

959
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:00,359
Speaker 1: In that run against the Spurs, the U when they

960
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:03,760
Speaker 1: lost control of that game, Jalen Williams like really tough,

961
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:08,319
Speaker 1: contested sixteen footer along the baseline early in the shot clock,

962
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:12,319
Speaker 1: like lou Dort contested catch and shoot three on the

963
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:14,120
Speaker 1: right wing, when like they didn't even try to run

964
00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:15,719
Speaker 1: any action. It was just like a kickout and he

965
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:18,840
Speaker 1: just shot it. Like there's just these too many possessions

966
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:21,520
Speaker 1: in a row where they just don't hunt the great

967
00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:24,440
Speaker 1: shots that they're capable of getting with the talent that

968
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:27,759
Speaker 1: they have. What happened with Boston over the course of

969
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:30,840
Speaker 1: the last few years, you could see a shift in

970
00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:35,120
Speaker 1: their maturity. It wasn't just the influx of Drew Holliday

971
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:38,279
Speaker 1: and chrisops Porzingis. Yeah, those guys are awesome and they help,

972
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:41,040
Speaker 1: but Porzingis missed most of the playoffs last year, and

973
00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:43,320
Speaker 1: Drew is better than Marcus Smart, but Marcus Smart is

974
00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:46,400
Speaker 1: also really good. It was a modest upgrade of Marcus Smart.

975
00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:49,960
Speaker 1: The biggest change in the Boston Celtics over the last

976
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:52,600
Speaker 1: couple of years is their ability to manage the flow

977
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:57,320
Speaker 1: of basketball games, to identify when they're taking bad shots,

978
00:45:57,360 --> 00:45:59,239
Speaker 1: when they're in bad rhythm and they need to lock

979
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:02,680
Speaker 1: in and execute at a higher level, identifying like, guys,

980
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:04,760
Speaker 1: we're bullshitting right now, we need to get it together.

981
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:07,239
Speaker 1: They've just gotten so much better at making the ugly

982
00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:12,640
Speaker 1: stretches fewer, shorter, and further between. Like that is where

983
00:46:12,719 --> 00:46:16,399
Speaker 1: things turned around for the Boston Celtics. So okay, see

984
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:18,319
Speaker 1: to me, feels like where Boston was a few years

985
00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:19,840
Speaker 1: ago in the sense that they have a tendency to

986
00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:23,160
Speaker 1: lose control of games as decision makers, and they struggle

987
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:25,160
Speaker 1: to settle down and execute from time to time, and

988
00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:28,680
Speaker 1: again it won't show in the standings. They're too talented

989
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:31,040
Speaker 1: to drop a bunch of games. It didn't even show

990
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:32,840
Speaker 1: in the offensive rating for the Celtics back in the

991
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:35,399
Speaker 1: day like it's actually showing for Oklahoma City, which means

992
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 1: they're maybe even further behind in that regard. But like

993
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 1: the court, at its core, the strength of the Thunder

994
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:45,560
Speaker 1: is their aggregate offensive talent. They can space you out

995
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:49,480
Speaker 1: and pick you apart for great shots. That is their strength,

996
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:52,040
Speaker 1: and at a certain point they will need to get

997
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:54,719
Speaker 1: better at that specific process. Maybe it'll be this year,

998
00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:57,279
Speaker 1: maybe it won't be this year. But if it's not

999
00:46:57,440 --> 00:46:59,919
Speaker 1: this year, then they have the potential to get beat

1000
00:47:00,239 --> 00:47:03,200
Speaker 1: team that isn't as talented as they are in an

1001
00:47:03,239 --> 00:47:06,359
Speaker 1: earlier playoff round than they would like. They were more

1002
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:09,279
Speaker 1: talented than the Dallas Mavericks last year. They were just

1003
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:11,759
Speaker 1: younger and less mature. And remember the big thing that

1004
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:14,680
Speaker 1: I talked about in that series was rim decisions. They

1005
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:17,760
Speaker 1: kept driving into the paint and challenging Dallas's rim protectors

1006
00:47:18,120 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 1: instead of making the kickout passes that were available in

1007
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:23,680
Speaker 1: chasing down those great shots. What does that remind you of?

1008
00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:27,520
Speaker 1: Do you guys remember that Celtics Bucks series in twenty

1009
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:31,359
Speaker 1: twenty two. That entire series hinged back and forth on

1010
00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:34,960
Speaker 1: the Celtics foolishly challenging Brook Lopez at the rim instead

1011
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:37,440
Speaker 1: of making the right decision when they got there. This

1012
00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:39,719
Speaker 1: is all part of that process of growing up as

1013
00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:42,120
Speaker 1: a basketball team and growing up as a basketball player,

1014
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:44,920
Speaker 1: and I do think that that's been an interesting kind

1015
00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:47,600
Speaker 1: of subplot in this last year and a half for

1016
00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder Number two the Cleveland Cavaliers two

1017
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:53,680
Speaker 1: in one week. They lost in the Boston Showdown, then

1018
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:55,600
Speaker 1: they got back on track with two wins against easy

1019
00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:58,319
Speaker 1: opponents in Toronto and New Orleans. Those two teams have

1020
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:00,800
Speaker 1: eight wins combined, so nice little get back games for Cleveland.

1021
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:03,360
Speaker 1: Ty Jerome was insane in both games. How about fifty

1022
00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:06,120
Speaker 1: five points in the two game set for ty Jerome

1023
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:08,480
Speaker 1: as he continues to make his case as maybe the

1024
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:10,799
Speaker 1: best backup point guard in the league. I didn't think

1025
00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:13,759
Speaker 1: the Celtics game was as encouraging of a loss as

1026
00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:16,840
Speaker 1: many Celtics fans thought. I thought Boston basically controlled that

1027
00:48:17,040 --> 00:48:20,680
Speaker 1: entire game. Like anytime Cleveland threatened to take a lead,

1028
00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:23,640
Speaker 1: it just felt like Boston was able to immediately regain control.

1029
00:48:23,960 --> 00:48:26,279
Speaker 1: I thought they had more advantages. I thought the entry

1030
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,839
Speaker 1: points that we discussed with Cleveland were that we anticipated

1031
00:48:29,880 --> 00:48:32,880
Speaker 1: coming into this matchup, were all real problems that the

1032
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:35,200
Speaker 1: Cavs didn't really have great answers for now. That's not

1033
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:37,400
Speaker 1: to say that Cleveland is fraudulent or anything like that.

1034
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 1: I think they're still easily the second best team in

1035
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:41,200
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference. At this point, I just thought it

1036
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:43,320
Speaker 1: was clear that Boston was at a level above them.

1037
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 1: Cleveland does have some tougher matchups in December. They have

1038
00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:50,400
Speaker 1: Boston again on the first. I think Cleveland will probably

1039
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:53,640
Speaker 1: get that one, Denver on the fifth, Denver again on

1040
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:56,160
Speaker 1: the twenty seventh, Then they have Milwaukee later in the month,

1041
00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:58,880
Speaker 1: and at the end of this month they have Golden

1042
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:02,360
Speaker 1: State and the Lakers. Some tougher games for Cleveland coming

1043
00:49:02,440 --> 00:49:04,400
Speaker 1: up in the month of December where we'll see them

1044
00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 1: push a little bit. Number one back on top, very

1045
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:10,640
Speaker 1: much in a look like the champion type of week.

1046
00:49:10,719 --> 00:49:13,360
Speaker 1: The Boston Celtics, who went three and zero wins over

1047
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:16,960
Speaker 1: the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. We talked

1048
00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:18,600
Speaker 1: about the Cavs game earlier. I won't get into it.

1049
00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:21,160
Speaker 1: The Minnesota game really crazy, Like Jalen Brown just comes

1050
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:23,759
Speaker 1: out going absolutely berserk. It's five straight threes to start

1051
00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 1: the game. It's funny. The Timberwolves announcers were like complaining

1052
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:31,760
Speaker 1: the color commentator I'm not sure his name was saying like, literally,

1053
00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:33,560
Speaker 1: I would give him that shot. He kept like quoting

1054
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 1: his percentages he's shooting, you know, twenty five percent on

1055
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,600
Speaker 1: these all over the course of this season. Literally said

1056
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:42,879
Speaker 1: the phrase literally I would give him that shot end quote.

1057
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:45,200
Speaker 1: And when I heard that, I'm like, he's Jalen Brown.

1058
00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:50,040
Speaker 1: Why are you You're gonna give Jalen Brown wide open

1059
00:49:50,080 --> 00:49:53,040
Speaker 1: shots just because he's struggled a little bit to start

1060
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 1: this season. Like that was one insane to me, and

1061
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:59,120
Speaker 1: two like a complete lack of understanding of the fact that,

1062
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:03,200
Speaker 1: like basketball doesn't just come down to read the basketball

1063
00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:06,560
Speaker 1: reference page, Like Jalen Brown's a good shooter, he's just

1064
00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:09,960
Speaker 1: not shooting well, and so if you let him get going,

1065
00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:11,960
Speaker 1: he can still get going at any given time. And

1066
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:14,040
Speaker 1: for the record, I like some of the threes he

1067
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:16,239
Speaker 1: hit were pretty heavily contested too, so like some of

1068
00:50:16,280 --> 00:50:17,960
Speaker 1: it is like Jalen Brown just made shots. But I

1069
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:20,319
Speaker 1: just thought it was funny when the Wolves announcers were

1070
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:22,360
Speaker 1: going off about that, because I'm like, he's Jalen Brown.

1071
00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:25,719
Speaker 1: You're not ignoring Jared Vanderbilt up there, you know what

1072
00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:28,560
Speaker 1: I mean. But Minnesota battle for most of the first half.

1073
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:31,600
Speaker 1: Boston had a really dominant stretch to start the third quarter.

1074
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:34,160
Speaker 1: On both ends of the floor. They completely locked down

1075
00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:36,319
Speaker 1: Minnesota's offense. They held him to just two points in

1076
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:40,160
Speaker 1: a nearly six minute span covering the last minute of

1077
00:50:40,200 --> 00:50:42,000
Speaker 1: the second quarter. In the first few minutes of the

1078
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:44,440
Speaker 1: third quarter, Tatum went off in that span. He scored

1079
00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:46,800
Speaker 1: assisted on four threes. In the early third quarter, the

1080
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:49,640
Speaker 1: Celtics got super hot. They ended up going up by nineteen.

1081
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:52,160
Speaker 1: Then Minnesota kind of grinded their way back into it.

1082
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards continues to shoot the damn seams off the basketball.

1083
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,359
Speaker 1: He hit six threes in this game. He had a

1084
00:50:57,400 --> 00:50:59,560
Speaker 1: wide open look with just under a minute or just

1085
00:50:59,640 --> 00:51:02,120
Speaker 1: over a minute left that would have given Minnesota the lead,

1086
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:05,200
Speaker 1: and he missed it. But he's at one point nine

1087
00:51:05,600 --> 00:51:08,560
Speaker 1: points per jump shot on two hundred and twenty nine

1088
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:11,040
Speaker 1: attempts to start the year, one point one to three

1089
00:51:11,160 --> 00:51:13,360
Speaker 1: points per pull up jump shot at one hundred and

1090
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:15,239
Speaker 1: seventy one attempts to start the year. He's just going

1091
00:51:15,320 --> 00:51:18,040
Speaker 1: to be outrageously good in the long run because of

1092
00:51:18,040 --> 00:51:20,960
Speaker 1: how good of a jump shooter he's made himself. But overall,

1093
00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:23,719
Speaker 1: I came away feeling really good about Boston after that game.

1094
00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:26,239
Speaker 1: I thought the third quarter was a great example of

1095
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:28,440
Speaker 1: the fact that they can still be downright stifling on

1096
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:30,200
Speaker 1: defense when they need to be or when they want

1097
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,840
Speaker 1: to be. Even without Porzingis, I thought that they played great.

1098
00:51:34,640 --> 00:51:37,840
Speaker 1: I thought they played like really mature, grown up offense

1099
00:51:37,880 --> 00:51:40,359
Speaker 1: down the stretch, Like they found the matchup they liked,

1100
00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:42,839
Speaker 1: which was Nikkeil Alexander Walker, and they just kept going

1101
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 1: to Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum down on the block

1102
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:48,000
Speaker 1: against Nikile Alexander Walker and got a couple of key

1103
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:50,960
Speaker 1: buckets there. Now, Minnesota put them in some tough spots

1104
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:53,480
Speaker 1: too in crunch time big, but they're very good defense,

1105
00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:55,520
Speaker 1: Like Minnesota hasn't defended super well to start this year,

1106
00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:57,759
Speaker 1: but they still have a nasty defensive punch when they

1107
00:51:57,800 --> 00:51:59,919
Speaker 1: want to. And they got some big stops and forced

1108
00:52:00,120 --> 00:52:02,840
Speaker 1: bad misses, and honestly, that's kind of like how games

1109
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:06,279
Speaker 1: like that go. Like they're super physical and ugly because

1110
00:52:06,280 --> 00:52:08,319
Speaker 1: there's so many good perimeter defenders on the floor. And

1111
00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:10,600
Speaker 1: Ant made six threes in the game, and his last

1112
00:52:10,600 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 1: two threes like barely graze the front of the rim

1113
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:16,200
Speaker 1: because it's everyone's tired. It's hard to hit shots in

1114
00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:18,200
Speaker 1: a game like that, right, especially down the stretch. And

1115
00:52:18,239 --> 00:52:20,239
Speaker 1: like Tatum, Matt's some bad misses in crunch time too,

1116
00:52:20,280 --> 00:52:22,239
Speaker 1: that's kind of just how it goes. But Boston made

1117
00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:24,759
Speaker 1: more plays when they needed to and anyway, I just

1118
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:27,239
Speaker 1: think this week had a lot of great examples of

1119
00:52:27,280 --> 00:52:29,560
Speaker 1: what separates Boston from the rest of the league. They

1120
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:33,440
Speaker 1: play great basketball on both ends more frequently than everyone

1121
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:35,960
Speaker 1: else does. It really is that simple. And then allegedly

1122
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:38,600
Speaker 1: they're getting Chris hops porzingis back tonight, so another exciting

1123
00:52:38,640 --> 00:52:41,800
Speaker 1: sign for Celtics fans. And that's it for the Power rankings.

1124
00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:43,440
Speaker 1: Before we get out here, I want to talk Lakers

1125
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:46,040
Speaker 1: for just a couple of minutes. This segment is more

1126
00:52:46,080 --> 00:52:49,719
Speaker 1: directed towards Laker fans because I want to bring some

1127
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:54,040
Speaker 1: positivity because I've seen on Twitter it's very gloom and

1128
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:56,440
Speaker 1: doom for Laker fans right now, and I can understand

1129
00:52:56,480 --> 00:52:59,080
Speaker 1: why you would feel that way. Like the Thursday Saturday

1130
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:03,560
Speaker 1: set between Orlando knowing Denver was an absolute disaster, right Like,

1131
00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:07,040
Speaker 1: you play well enough to beat Orlando, but ad misses

1132
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:09,000
Speaker 1: three free throws in the final minute, so you lose.

1133
00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:12,880
Speaker 1: That's a catastrophe. Right Then in the Denver game, Dalton

1134
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:14,840
Speaker 1: connect gets a dunk with two minutes left in the

1135
00:53:14,880 --> 00:53:17,880
Speaker 1: first half and you're up by ten on the Denver Nuggets,

1136
00:53:18,680 --> 00:53:22,360
Speaker 1: and then your entire team simultaneously enters a funk and

1137
00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:26,759
Speaker 1: they cannot score. The Lakers scored fifteen points total over

1138
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:29,560
Speaker 1: a fifteen minute span between the second, third, and fourth quarters,

1139
00:53:30,040 --> 00:53:31,960
Speaker 1: and then you end up getting blown out like literally

1140
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:34,719
Speaker 1: a thirty five point turnaround in the same game. So look,

1141
00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:38,000
Speaker 1: I get it. Losses are losses under any circumstances, and

1142
00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:40,960
Speaker 1: these two were particularly bad. But here's why I'm not

1143
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:44,160
Speaker 1: getting too worked up about it. First of all, I

1144
00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:46,040
Speaker 1: thought the Orlando game was actually a night where the

1145
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:48,799
Speaker 1: Lakers showed a lot of heart. Those of you guys

1146
00:53:48,800 --> 00:53:50,919
Speaker 1: who listened to the mailbag on Friday, I told you guys,

1147
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:53,280
Speaker 1: I was worried about that game before it started. Orlando

1148
00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:55,960
Speaker 1: is a tough matchup for the Lakers because they have big,

1149
00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:59,200
Speaker 1: physical guards that always give issues to guys like Dlo

1150
00:53:59,239 --> 00:54:01,840
Speaker 1: and Austin, and they're huge on the front line to

1151
00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:04,440
Speaker 1: confront the lebron ad problem. And in general, they're just

1152
00:54:04,520 --> 00:54:06,560
Speaker 1: really young and fast and they run really hard, which

1153
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:08,400
Speaker 1: is the kind of thing that has given the older,

1154
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:12,080
Speaker 1: slower Lakers issues. Right, and the Lakers were down both

1155
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:15,160
Speaker 1: of their forwards, like Ruey Hatchamura and Jared Vanderbilt were out.

1156
00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:18,360
Speaker 1: So like, the entire roster is basically guards, limited centers,

1157
00:54:18,360 --> 00:54:20,919
Speaker 1: and Lebron and Ad that is basically what you're going

1158
00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:24,120
Speaker 1: to war with in a very very physical matchup, and

1159
00:54:24,239 --> 00:54:26,719
Speaker 1: Lebron and Ad just stepped up to that challenge and

1160
00:54:26,760 --> 00:54:30,480
Speaker 1: they kicked ass They had seventy points, nineteen rebounds, and

1161
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:33,520
Speaker 1: nine assists in four blocks between the two of them.

1162
00:54:33,760 --> 00:54:36,520
Speaker 1: They both just made a huge play after huge play

1163
00:54:36,520 --> 00:54:38,520
Speaker 1: down the stretch to put themselves into position to win,

1164
00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:41,279
Speaker 1: and then Ad misses three free throws in the final

1165
00:54:41,320 --> 00:54:44,040
Speaker 1: minute and you lose. Like it really fucking sucks, I

1166
00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:47,960
Speaker 1: get it, But they played some pretty good basketball against

1167
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:50,200
Speaker 1: a Magic team that is a bad matchup for them

1168
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:52,799
Speaker 1: while being down both of their forwards, and they did

1169
00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:55,120
Speaker 1: play well enough to win that game. So like, I

1170
00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:58,960
Speaker 1: actually left that game feeling better about the team. There

1171
00:54:58,960 --> 00:55:01,960
Speaker 1: are still some problems, right, Like Austin Reeves was a

1172
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:03,880
Speaker 1: disaster in that game. He was just three for twelve,

1173
00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:05,880
Speaker 1: but that's kind of what Jalen Suggs can do to

1174
00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:09,160
Speaker 1: opposing guards. And also Austin usually finds a way to

1175
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:11,600
Speaker 1: at least be pretty good even against the athletic team.

1176
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:13,720
Speaker 1: So like I thought, it was like fifty percent Suggs

1177
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:16,839
Speaker 1: is awesome and fifty percent Austin just had a bad night.

1178
00:55:17,680 --> 00:55:20,480
Speaker 1: Delo was really bad in that game, but he's always

1179
00:55:20,520 --> 00:55:23,480
Speaker 1: really bad against big athletic teams. It's like clockwork every

1180
00:55:23,520 --> 00:55:26,880
Speaker 1: single time he struggles defensively on the glass and he

1181
00:55:26,880 --> 00:55:29,560
Speaker 1: can't shoot. I remember it was like early last year.

1182
00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:31,920
Speaker 1: Petezeis from Laker Film pointed this out, and I thought

1183
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:33,759
Speaker 1: it was really fascinating. He talked about how like in

1184
00:55:33,880 --> 00:55:39,520
Speaker 1: super athletic games, Delo tends to have bad misses from three,

1185
00:55:40,120 --> 00:55:42,000
Speaker 1: Like he has kind of like a smooth rhythm on

1186
00:55:42,040 --> 00:55:44,440
Speaker 1: his jump shot, and when he's playing against a team

1187
00:55:44,440 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 1: where he doesn't feel rushed, he can shoot the ball

1188
00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:48,719
Speaker 1: pretty well, though he's shot poorly all year this year,

1189
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,479
Speaker 1: But when he runs into athletic teams, like he starts

1190
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:53,960
Speaker 1: rushing things a little bit, and he will have awful

1191
00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:56,080
Speaker 1: misses for a really good shooter. And like he had

1192
00:55:56,080 --> 00:55:57,400
Speaker 1: an air ball in the Orlando game, he had a

1193
00:55:57,440 --> 00:55:59,440
Speaker 1: couple other shots that like barely grazed the side of

1194
00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:01,680
Speaker 1: the rim, like de Lo fell apart. But the point

1195
00:56:01,719 --> 00:56:04,680
Speaker 1: is we already knew that about d LO. So, like

1196
00:56:05,760 --> 00:56:08,520
Speaker 1: I was discouraged about the loss obviously, Like I told

1197
00:56:08,520 --> 00:56:10,560
Speaker 1: you guys, I even turned the game off. I was like,

1198
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:12,359
Speaker 1: Lakers got this one. I'm done. And then I got

1199
00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:14,279
Speaker 1: a text message from my boss who's a Lakers fan,

1200
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:16,840
Speaker 1: and he's like, that was the worst loss ever and

1201
00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:20,279
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. Right, So, like it's discouraging, But

1202
00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:21,799
Speaker 1: it was a night where I actually ended up being

1203
00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:24,359
Speaker 1: more encouraged about the Lakers in the big picture because

1204
00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:26,160
Speaker 1: Lebron and ad were able to meet the challenge and

1205
00:56:26,160 --> 00:56:28,520
Speaker 1: they played well enough to be to beat a team

1206
00:56:28,520 --> 00:56:31,440
Speaker 1: that most teams are losing to right now. Right the

1207
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:35,200
Speaker 1: Denver game, was it indicative of a mental advantage that

1208
00:56:35,239 --> 00:56:38,480
Speaker 1: the Nuggets have over the Lakers. Yeah, will the Lakers

1209
00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 1: need to overcome that in order to ever truly compete

1210
00:56:41,560 --> 00:56:45,759
Speaker 1: with Denver in a playoff series, for sure, But that

1211
00:56:46,120 --> 00:56:50,560
Speaker 1: singular regular season game was just weird in my opinion,

1212
00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:54,480
Speaker 1: Like basketball is all about rhythm and flow. The highs

1213
00:56:54,520 --> 00:56:58,640
Speaker 1: are like the balls popping around. Everything just feels natural

1214
00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:02,760
Speaker 1: and smooth, are making shots, They're always in the right spot.

1215
00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:06,120
Speaker 1: It just there's just like a rhythm and flow when

1216
00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:09,000
Speaker 1: the offense is really clicking, right, and then what do

1217
00:57:09,080 --> 00:57:11,760
Speaker 1: the lows look like? Like spacing gets a little funky

1218
00:57:11,760 --> 00:57:13,880
Speaker 1: because guys aren't making the right raids. When they're moving,

1219
00:57:14,600 --> 00:57:17,440
Speaker 1: you'll start batching like passes, like like how many times

1220
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:19,160
Speaker 1: on that third quarter stretch did you see Like the

1221
00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:23,560
Speaker 1: Lakers botched like regular like swing passes, not even for turnovers,

1222
00:57:23,600 --> 00:57:25,680
Speaker 1: just like throw a bad pass and the guy has

1223
00:57:25,680 --> 00:57:27,960
Speaker 1: to like fumble it around and regain control before they

1224
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:30,440
Speaker 1: can get back into the offense. Like you're sloppy with

1225
00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:32,640
Speaker 1: the ball, you're sloppy with your spacing. No one can

1226
00:57:32,680 --> 00:57:36,400
Speaker 1: make a shot. Everyone looks lifeless, and it like that's

1227
00:57:36,400 --> 00:57:39,320
Speaker 1: what the low looks like. Right, But there's a spectrum, right,

1228
00:57:39,360 --> 00:57:43,760
Speaker 1: there's a spectrum of rhythm with the absolute peak and

1229
00:57:43,800 --> 00:57:47,560
Speaker 1: then the absolute basement, right, And we saw both in

1230
00:57:47,640 --> 00:57:50,400
Speaker 1: the last week, like the the Memphis game in the

1231
00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:52,120
Speaker 1: second half, or no is the Pelicans game in the

1232
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:54,480
Speaker 1: second half like and again different level defense, but like

1233
00:57:54,960 --> 00:57:57,800
Speaker 1: they they were in that second half, they were just

1234
00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:00,360
Speaker 1: peaking on the offensive end of the floor. And then

1235
00:58:00,400 --> 00:58:03,040
Speaker 1: the Denver game they completely fall apart, and oh yeah,

1236
00:58:03,040 --> 00:58:05,000
Speaker 1: the Pelicans are a bad defense. They played against the

1237
00:58:05,120 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 1: Orlando Magic, who are a much much, much better defense

1238
00:58:08,640 --> 00:58:10,960
Speaker 1: than the Denver Nuggets, and they hung a one to

1239
00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:13,400
Speaker 1: twenty offensive rating on them, Like the Lakers can score

1240
00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:16,040
Speaker 1: against elite defenses too. That's not an issue. The point

1241
00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:19,480
Speaker 1: is there's a spectrum, and what you saw in the

1242
00:58:19,480 --> 00:58:22,200
Speaker 1: second half of that Denver game, in the final minute

1243
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:25,160
Speaker 1: or two of the second quarter, what you saw was

1244
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:30,760
Speaker 1: the absolute bottom of that spectrum. That was potentially the

1245
00:58:30,800 --> 00:58:34,360
Speaker 1: worst offensive rhythm I've seen the Lakers have in the

1246
00:58:34,400 --> 00:58:37,200
Speaker 1: Lebron and ad era relative to the talent that was

1247
00:58:37,240 --> 00:58:38,920
Speaker 1: on the floor. There have been some stretches where the

1248
00:58:38,960 --> 00:58:41,920
Speaker 1: Laker offense looked really bad, but they were decimated by

1249
00:58:41,960 --> 00:58:46,040
Speaker 1: injuries or much more limited rosters. This is a really

1250
00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:49,000
Speaker 1: good group of offensive players that the Lakers have, that

1251
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:52,040
Speaker 1: are all super confident, and again two nights earlier, just

1252
00:58:52,120 --> 00:58:54,560
Speaker 1: hung a one to twenty on a better defense and

1253
00:58:54,600 --> 00:58:57,600
Speaker 1: they just fell apart. They completely lost their rhythm and

1254
00:58:57,600 --> 00:59:00,680
Speaker 1: flow and they got discouraged. And yet even with the

1255
00:59:00,720 --> 00:59:04,160
Speaker 1: mental advantage that Denver has, there was also just like

1256
00:59:04,280 --> 00:59:07,200
Speaker 1: that was the worst end of that spectrum that you

1257
00:59:07,240 --> 00:59:10,760
Speaker 1: can see. It happens. It's part of the game. It's

1258
00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:13,840
Speaker 1: a particularly bad example of it, but it's just part

1259
00:59:13,840 --> 00:59:16,640
Speaker 1: of the game. Even looking at the Lebron and Ad element, Like,

1260
00:59:16,880 --> 00:59:20,840
Speaker 1: guess what, Like Lebron and AD they're capable of playing

1261
00:59:21,120 --> 00:59:23,520
Speaker 1: a lot better against Denver, how do we know? We

1262
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:26,240
Speaker 1: just saw them do it in a more intense context

1263
00:59:26,280 --> 00:59:29,160
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Lebron and AD were both awful in

1264
00:59:29,200 --> 00:59:34,160
Speaker 1: the Denver game. It happens, So just scrap it at Like, yes,

1265
00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:37,120
Speaker 1: they have to figure out the Denver matchup, there's no

1266
00:59:37,160 --> 00:59:39,560
Speaker 1: doubt about that. But like we already knew that. We

1267
00:59:39,600 --> 00:59:42,200
Speaker 1: knew that coming in. It was a bad night. So like,

1268
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:44,840
Speaker 1: I'm not as low about these two particular games from

1269
00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:47,040
Speaker 1: over the weekend as a lot of other Laker fans are.

1270
00:59:47,480 --> 00:59:51,000
Speaker 1: In the big picture, do the Lakers have personnel issues? Yes,

1271
00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:53,280
Speaker 1: they are not athletic enough on the perimeter. It's killing

1272
00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:56,080
Speaker 1: them on defense and in transition and on the offensive glass.

1273
00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:58,440
Speaker 1: It's something they'll need to fix. They need to turn

1274
00:59:58,560 --> 01:00:03,040
Speaker 1: d Lo and gave Prefer into bigger, better, more skilled athletes.

1275
01:00:03,080 --> 01:00:05,240
Speaker 1: It will probably take at least one of their first

1276
01:00:05,320 --> 01:00:07,480
Speaker 1: round picks, if not both of them. But we already

1277
01:00:07,560 --> 01:00:09,760
Speaker 1: knew that. We knew that in training camp. The Lakers

1278
01:00:09,800 --> 01:00:11,760
Speaker 1: have a different problem, yes, but we already knew that.

1279
01:00:12,040 --> 01:00:15,080
Speaker 1: And these were all problems that we knew wouldn't actually

1280
01:00:15,120 --> 01:00:19,200
Speaker 1: get solved until we get closer to February anyway, And

1281
01:00:19,280 --> 01:00:21,480
Speaker 1: in the meantime, you're ten and six, you have the

1282
01:00:21,560 --> 01:00:24,600
Speaker 1: sixth best record in the entire NBA. You're fine, This

1283
01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:28,960
Speaker 1: sky's not falling, Okay, everything is on track. What did

1284
01:00:28,960 --> 01:00:30,000
Speaker 1: I say from the start of the year, You just

1285
01:00:30,040 --> 01:00:31,760
Speaker 1: need to win five out of eight, five out of eight,

1286
01:00:31,840 --> 01:00:33,680
Speaker 1: five out of eight. That's gonna keep you afloat in

1287
01:00:33,680 --> 01:00:36,360
Speaker 1: the standings. They've won five out of eight twice. Now,

1288
01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:38,160
Speaker 1: gonna be fun a week though for the Lakers. They

1289
01:00:38,160 --> 01:00:40,520
Speaker 1: have Phoenix on the road tomorrow night. We're gonna I'm

1290
01:00:40,560 --> 01:00:42,920
Speaker 1: gonna be covering that game. It'll either be live on

1291
01:00:42,960 --> 01:00:44,680
Speaker 1: YouTube or go up the next morning, but I will

1292
01:00:44,680 --> 01:00:46,800
Speaker 1: be working that night to cover that game. Then they

1293
01:00:46,800 --> 01:00:48,600
Speaker 1: go on the road to San Antonio, who continues to

1294
01:00:48,600 --> 01:00:50,360
Speaker 1: be super feisty, and they played a tough game there

1295
01:00:50,600 --> 01:00:52,840
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. And then Oklahoma City in

1296
01:00:53,040 --> 01:00:55,920
Speaker 1: LA on Thursday, So got a chance to re establish

1297
01:00:56,000 --> 01:00:57,560
Speaker 1: yourself if you go two and one in that group,

1298
01:00:57,600 --> 01:00:59,880
Speaker 1: like if you if you go three and oh, you're in.

1299
01:01:00,320 --> 01:01:01,720
Speaker 1: But if you go two and one in that group

1300
01:01:01,800 --> 01:01:04,240
Speaker 1: of games, then you re establish yourself as one of

1301
01:01:04,280 --> 01:01:06,000
Speaker 1: the really good teams in the league and you're in

1302
01:01:06,040 --> 01:01:08,160
Speaker 1: good shape. So I'm not as gloom and doom on

1303
01:01:08,200 --> 01:01:10,720
Speaker 1: the Lakers as many Lakers fans are. All right, guys,

1304
01:01:10,720 --> 01:01:12,280
Speaker 1: It's all I have for today. Is always as sincerely

1305
01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:14,640
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Quick scheduling note,

1306
01:01:14,680 --> 01:01:17,120
Speaker 1: I'm going tomorrow morning with just a couple game breakdowns

1307
01:01:17,120 --> 01:01:20,120
Speaker 1: and some film like I always do. Then tomorrow night

1308
01:01:20,200 --> 01:01:22,520
Speaker 1: I'm covering Suns, Lakers, and a bunch of other NCS

1309
01:01:22,520 --> 01:01:24,400
Speaker 1: and tournament games that will either go up that night

1310
01:01:24,480 --> 01:01:28,840
Speaker 1: or the following morning. But I'm also recording a I'm

1311
01:01:28,920 --> 01:01:30,840
Speaker 1: either going to do a mail bagger. I'm having Sam

1312
01:01:30,920 --> 01:01:33,520
Speaker 1: Vicini on and that's going to run on Friday. Then

1313
01:01:33,520 --> 01:01:36,280
Speaker 1: we're gonna be taking obviously Thursday off for Thanksgiving, So

1314
01:01:36,280 --> 01:01:37,640
Speaker 1: that gives you a little scheduling up date for the

1315
01:01:37,680 --> 01:01:39,000
Speaker 1: rest of the week. But as always, I appreciate you

1316
01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:43,720
Speaker 1: guys for supporting me. They'll see you next time. The volume.

1317
01:01:44,440 --> 01:01:46,800
Speaker 1: What's up guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening

1318
01:01:46,880 --> 01:01:49,680
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really

1319
01:01:49,720 --> 01:01:51,600
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second

1320
01:01:51,720 --> 01:01:54,360
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I

1321
01:01:54,360 --> 01:01:56,160
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take

1322
01:01:56,160 --> 01:01:58,520
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.