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Speaker 1: to hoop Tonight here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody,
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So getting into our poweranks.
Speaker 1: Remember when it comes to my power rankings, this is
Speaker 1: not intended to be contender rankings. This is not even
Speaker 1: intended to be a look at the entire season. It's
Speaker 1: a combination of what you've accomplished over the course of
Speaker 1: the season and how you've been playing as of late.
Speaker 1: And in this list, especially towards the bottom, when we
Speaker 1: get into that seven, eight, nine, ten, I'm going to
Speaker 1: use it as an opportunity to highlight teams that are
Speaker 1: playing well as of late. This perfect example of this
Speaker 1: here in the early season is my number ten today,
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks. This is a team that started too
Speaker 1: and eight, so they shouldn't be in the ten spot
Speaker 1: by the grand scheme of the league. However, they've won
Speaker 1: six of their last seven. They're playing really good basketball
Speaker 1: as of late. So I want to use our power
Speaker 1: rankings as an opportunity to shine a light on Milwaukee
Speaker 1: and talk a little bit about them. I always just
Speaker 1: have to throw that out there as a disclaimer, because
Speaker 1: it's like with player rankings. Everybody uses different rules with
Speaker 1: their player rankings. Everybody uses different rules even when they're
Speaker 1: ranking teams. Some people don't factor in the playoffs. Some
Speaker 1: people are just talking standings. It gets complicated. So I
Speaker 1: try to give you guys my criteria up front and
Speaker 1: again I'm primarily using the power rankings as an opportunity
Speaker 1: to highlight who's been playing well as of late. Lakers
Speaker 1: fan not in the list today because of the back
Speaker 1: to back losses. You have the sixth best record in
Speaker 1: the league. I understand that that'll put you on this
Speaker 1: list in a lot of different circumstances, but I'm using
Speaker 1: it to shine the light on these other teams. I
Speaker 1: do want to talk a little bit about the Lakers
Speaker 1: in their Magic and Nuggets game, but we're going to
Speaker 1: do that at the very end of today's video. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get it into Milwaukee. So when the Bucks were
Speaker 1: down two and eight, I said that the season wasn't
Speaker 1: even close to being over because of two reasons. The
Speaker 1: East is incredibly weak, so you're always like two good
Speaker 1: weeks from being right back in the mix of things.
Speaker 1: And then they were about to head into a very
Speaker 1: easy stretch of their schedule. And now they've won six
Speaker 1: out of seven since their two and eight start. Now
Speaker 1: now just one game below five hundred, they're already completely
Speaker 1: above the play in, sitting at number six in the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference, and they're just two back in the lost
Speaker 1: column of the Orlando Magic at the three seed in
Speaker 1: the East. That's how quickly things turned around for the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks. Since November twelfth, which is the start of
Speaker 1: this six out of seven stretch, the Milwaukee Bucks are
Speaker 1: ninth in offense, eighth in defense, fifth in net rating.
Speaker 1: They are still struggling on the glass a little bit,
Speaker 1: and they're struggling in transition. But again, one of the
Speaker 1: things that happens when you run into the lighter stretches
Speaker 1: of the schedule, especially for these older, slower teams, Teams
Speaker 1: like Milwaukee. Teams like the Lakers are a good example
Speaker 1: of this, right when you run into some of these teams,
Speaker 1: even though they're not as talented, they're very young and
Speaker 1: athletic and so like. It's not exactly shocking to me
Speaker 1: that they would struggle in transition and on the glass
Speaker 1: and this matchup even though they've been winning the scoreboard battle,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Giannis in this street thirty three points,
Speaker 1: eleven rebounds, and eight assists. How's that for apex superstar play,
Speaker 1: all on sixty one percent from the field. But really
Speaker 1: he's turned it up in terms of his overall level
Speaker 1: of engagement on the defensive end of the floor. He
Speaker 1: was not having a good defensive start to the season,
Speaker 1: either him or Brook. Both of them have been amazing
Speaker 1: in this span and it's still just super scary. When
Speaker 1: the two of them are at their best on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. They compliment each other really well,
Speaker 1: right because Brook is big long as great defense of instincts,
Speaker 1: you can do a lot of work to protect the rim.
Speaker 1: Giannis has the unique ability to cover ground at such
Speaker 1: an insane rate of speed that he can be in
Speaker 1: two places at once. He can help hard somewhere while
Speaker 1: still shutting something down on the other end of the
Speaker 1: play at a big moment, like that in the Rockets
Speaker 1: game last week. Right, So, like those two, getting back
Speaker 1: to that level on defense has gone a long way
Speaker 1: to re anchoring things on that end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Giannis is just playing at an insanely high level right now.
Speaker 1: I'd have him at second in MVP voting if I
Speaker 1: had to send in a vote today. A couple of
Speaker 1: guys who've gotten their shooting going finally that needed to
Speaker 1: get it going, specifically Gary Trent and Brook Lopez. Them
Speaker 1: struggling early in the year was causing their offense to sputter,
Speaker 1: and when your offense is sputtering and you're not guarding
Speaker 1: the way they were to start to year. That's how
Speaker 1: you can start dropping games to bad teams pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: And one of the other things that's helped is they've
Speaker 1: kind of figured out their primary point of attack role,
Speaker 1: at least the best they can do it within this group,
Speaker 1: which is like starting games with Andre Jackson just a
Speaker 1: bigger athlete, right, and then bringing in AJ Green to
Speaker 1: do a lot of work on the ball on the
Speaker 1: best guard of the other team, which is giving them
Speaker 1: at least a higher floor on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the four. Again, Andre is a better athlete than AJ,
Speaker 1: but they've both been bringing both Like Andre's been shooting
Speaker 1: the ball pretty well and AJ has been defending pretty well, right,
Speaker 1: So like the two of them have brought some stability
Speaker 1: to that position. And here's the thing. The Bucks may
Speaker 1: be playing a light schedule, but they're finally playing a
Speaker 1: better brand of basketball and that will carry over when
Speaker 1: you get into the tougher opponents down the line. And again,
Speaker 1: the situation in the standings appears to have brought the
Speaker 1: urgency that they were missing early in the season, and
Speaker 1: now they seem to be back on the right track
Speaker 1: at number nine the New York Knicks, as their super
Speaker 1: weird start to the season continues. They went four in
Speaker 1: a row, including a dominant win in Phoenix, and I
Speaker 1: know they don't have kd or Bradley Beal at that
Speaker 1: point in time, but still a big win on the road.
Speaker 1: Right then they go into Utah, the team that I
Speaker 1: think is the worst team in the Western Conference, and
Speaker 1: suffer one of the worst losses that any NBA team
Speaker 1: has had this year. Utah controlled that game from start
Speaker 1: to finish. The Knicks weren't playing a defense until it
Speaker 1: was too late. That point, they were confident. Colin Sexton
Speaker 1: put them away with a bunch of three point shots
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. They had a rough shooting night
Speaker 1: in that game as well, but it was It was
Speaker 1: an ugly loss for the Knicks, but they have been
Speaker 1: playing good ball as of late. The offense has been
Speaker 1: humming at a super high level. In their last five games.
Speaker 1: They have a one twenty six offensive rating, which is
Speaker 1: obviously off the charts. Og Nanobi has been shooting the
Speaker 1: ball super well and confidently stepping into more complicated shots
Speaker 1: off the bounce, like dribble combinations into shots. He's been
Speaker 1: putting the ball on the floor well against closeouts all year.
Speaker 1: He's converting spot ups at one point one point eight
Speaker 1: points per possession, which is really good. And OG's doing
Speaker 1: some damage in the post. He's personally shooting nine for
Speaker 1: fourteen from the field there and he's run twenty four
Speaker 1: post ups so far this year, getting one point twenty
Speaker 1: nine points per possessions. Basically twice a game or once
Speaker 1: a half, they can go to Og in the block
Speaker 1: and they're getting good production out of that. He's had
Speaker 1: at least twenty four points in five of the last
Speaker 1: eight games. That's a pretty big little scoring stretch there
Speaker 1: from og Ananoby. The defense is still really bad, Like
Speaker 1: even during the four game winning streak, the Knicks were
Speaker 1: giving up one hundred and nineteen points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: And again in that stretch they played Washington, Brooklyn twice,
Speaker 1: and Phoenix without Kevin Durant or Bradley Beal. So the
Speaker 1: defense is just not where it needs to be. Like,
Speaker 1: there are two serious teams, two teams with real ambitions
Speaker 1: this year that are in the bottom ten of defensive rating,
Speaker 1: and it's the Lakers and the Knicks. When I look
Speaker 1: at the Lakers, it makes so much sense to me
Speaker 1: because they're just so unathletic on the perimeter that they're
Speaker 1: just going to be in a lot of situations where
Speaker 1: they're compromising in rotation and they're just going to be struggling. Right.
Speaker 1: They're also a team that tries to outscore people like
Speaker 1: the Knicks, but they have real athleticism issues on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: The Knicks don't. They have a ton of perimeter defense,
Speaker 1: and they've been a good paint defense. This is a
Speaker 1: crazy thing. There's been all this, like all these like
Speaker 1: stats thrown around as like oh, Carl Town's rim defensive
Speaker 1: field goal percentage, which that kind of stuff all has
Speaker 1: flaws anyway, but they've been fine in the paint. They're
Speaker 1: allowing the ninth fewest points in the paint per game.
Speaker 1: They've allowed the sixth fewest made restricted area of field
Speaker 1: goals per game. They allow opponents to shoot just sixty
Speaker 1: five percent in the restricted area, which is solid, that's
Speaker 1: like league average this year. So like it's going wrong
Speaker 1: for them on the perimeter, and that's the confusing part
Speaker 1: to me. With a roster that has three very good
Speaker 1: defenders playing at the two three and four and some
Speaker 1: quick defenders that come in off the bench. So let's
Speaker 1: talk about it in some more detail. They're allowing the
Speaker 1: fourth most made threes per game, the sixth most attempts,
Speaker 1: and the sixth worst percentage that they are allowing two opponents,
Speaker 1: So they're getting slice and diced at the three point line.
Speaker 1: I dug into a bunch of film this morning to
Speaker 1: try to kind of figure out where it's going wrong
Speaker 1: for the Knicks at the three point line. And really,
Speaker 1: there's there's some effort stuff that is always like part
Speaker 1: of every team's defensive film. Like it's the NBA regular season,
Speaker 1: there's day two games. You can cherry pick clips from
Speaker 1: any team around the league to make them look really
Speaker 1: bad just by hunting down the pass essions where they're
Speaker 1: not particularly engaged or locked in, right, Like that's kind
Speaker 1: of the name of the game when it comes to
Speaker 1: the NBA regular season, right, So like some of it
Speaker 1: is that, And yeah, they'll lose shooters in transition from
Speaker 1: time to time, or like a good defender like Josh Harden,
Speaker 1: mckaal bridge is og and ob will lose contain of
Speaker 1: the ball just by not sliding their feet very well.
Speaker 1: And they'll end up in rotation and something bad will happen.
Speaker 1: But that's effort stuff, and I'm not super worried about
Speaker 1: that in the long run. And again, like especially I
Speaker 1: was talking about bad defense, like the East is so
Speaker 1: brutally weak, Like I pulled this up today, I uh,
Speaker 1: the let me pull up the number, because this was
Speaker 1: like legitimately shocking to me. In head to head matchups
Speaker 1: between the East and the Western Conference this year, the
Speaker 1: West is forty four and twenty five. For perspective, that's
Speaker 1: the second highest interconference win percentage in league history. The
Speaker 1: only time another conference dominated the other conference at a
Speaker 1: higher rate than the West is doing to the East
Speaker 1: this year was in nineteen sixty when the Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: won seventy one percent of their games against the West. So,
Speaker 1: like is really weak, and like, these teams in the
Speaker 1: East are playing the vast majority of their schedule against
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference, and so there are a lot of
Speaker 1: stretches where like they're just gonna be bored teams that
Speaker 1: are up at the top part of the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: They're not going to be playing their best basketball all
Speaker 1: the time because they're not gonna be getting challenged all
Speaker 1: the time. So like some of that we have to
Speaker 1: set aside when I'm looking for schematic reasons like personnel
Speaker 1: weaknesses or schematic reasons where I'm seeing things fall apart
Speaker 1: for the Knicks on the perimeter in their defense, there's
Speaker 1: two things that stand out to me. One in general
Speaker 1: and unwillingness to switch. And this is something I've been
Speaker 1: talking about all season, but like in the Jazz Game
Speaker 1: in particular, they would not switch oj Anobi or Michale
Speaker 1: Bridges off of Lori market and unless they absolutely had to,
Speaker 1: And so in a lot of cases their guard would
Speaker 1: just run up set a decent pick and like a
Speaker 1: guy like a Lourie would just fly off of the
Speaker 1: screen because Mikhale or Og would get picked and he'd
Speaker 1: just come off and shoot a three. Or they do
Speaker 1: a lot of inverted action where they would just have
Speaker 1: Lori come up and set the screen and Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: would be guarding like someone like Johnny Jusang or someone
Speaker 1: like Keante George, and he would just dribble off and
Speaker 1: because Og and McHale aren't switching or helping, they would
Speaker 1: just step into wide open threes off the dribble and
Speaker 1: knock it down. There's a little bit of like overhelp
Speaker 1: stuff going on to where guys get sucked into the
Speaker 1: lane too far. So some of this is schematic, Like
Speaker 1: to me, we see so many of these defenses around
Speaker 1: the league between teams like Golden State, Boston and Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Teams have some similar personnel on the perimeter to what
Speaker 1: the Knicks have. And what they do is they do
Speaker 1: a lot of switching and then they trust their guys
Speaker 1: to contain. They'll dig down and recover. They'll occasionally break
Speaker 1: out an aggressive look. They might blitz on occasion to
Speaker 1: try to speed the game up or to try to
Speaker 1: force some turnovers and get out in transition. But they switch,
Speaker 1: they contain, they play passing lanes, and they take away
Speaker 1: those easy drive and kick threes that you can get
Speaker 1: in those situations. And like there's a lot of it's
Speaker 1: a combination of two things. It's the unwillingness to switch,
Speaker 1: and then it's the attacking of the entry points. And
Speaker 1: this is happening with Kat, this is happening with Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunston pretty consistently, teams just getting them involved in the
Speaker 1: screening action. And my thing is like a lot of
Speaker 1: the problem there is they're still not switching. Like, if
Speaker 1: you switch that action, do you give up a mismatch
Speaker 1: and do you have to load up and have to
Speaker 1: plan for it? Sure? Can you possibly end up with
Speaker 1: some problems on the offensive glass, sure, but none of
Speaker 1: that is as bad as letting good shooters walk into
Speaker 1: wide open threes, which has been something that has consistently
Speaker 1: torched the Knicks all season long. And so like my
Speaker 1: thing is, like I would just be a little bit
Speaker 1: more willing to switch, especially when you have that off
Speaker 1: ball speed when you need to help and rotate, you
Speaker 1: have the personnel to be able to do that well.
Speaker 1: And so like closing up some of the automatic openings
Speaker 1: that open up by virtue of them not being willing
Speaker 1: to switch, and then just in general better effort than
Speaker 1: they've been giving, I think we'll go a long way
Speaker 1: towards helping close things up for them on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: But like, again, schematically, this to me feels like a
Speaker 1: team that should play a little bit more on defense,
Speaker 1: like a team like the Warriors, or a team like
Speaker 1: the Calves, or a team like Boston where it's a
Speaker 1: little bit more switching, a little bit more containing instead
Speaker 1: of constantly asking guys to navigate screens, which again they
Speaker 1: can do, and they can do effectively. I think McHale
Speaker 1: bridges and ogn andob well McHale more than og but
Speaker 1: they both have that ability. But it's just a lot
Speaker 1: to ask, and you have the personnel to be able
Speaker 1: to make things a little bit easier on them. Again,
Speaker 1: it's about leveraging the strength of your team. The strength
Speaker 1: of your team is you have really strong and versatial
Speaker 1: defensively at the two through four spots. Lean into that
Speaker 1: as much as possible as you can. Again, the Knicks
Speaker 1: are on the right track, but they still have a
Speaker 1: long way to go at this point. Number eight the
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets. Two in one week gets them to nine
Speaker 1: and six. They're currently holding down the sixth seed in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference. They got revenge on Memphis in a
Speaker 1: game that Michael Porter Junior and Jamal Murray combined for
Speaker 1: fifty one points. They lost to Dallas and Yokic's return
Speaker 1: to zoom in on this game, and it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a little bit of Dallas mixed in with Denver here.
Speaker 1: This is one of those four extra teams that I'm
Speaker 1: hitting today. The Dallas game was a really rough Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray game. He was four for sixteen from the field
Speaker 1: and repeatedly got cooked down the stretch. A couple of
Speaker 1: big driving layups that he gave up to PJ. Washington,
Speaker 1: once where he went right around him, once where he
Speaker 1: went right through him. And then the play that iced
Speaker 1: the game, a possession where Jamal overhelped a little bit
Speaker 1: on a roll and then had to threw a bad
Speaker 1: close out at Najie Marshall and gave him an easy
Speaker 1: driving bank shot that ended up icing that game. Otherwise
Speaker 1: Denver would have had a three in oher week. And
Speaker 1: so let's switch over to Dallas for a second. Here,
Speaker 1: tip of the cap to them. They've been playing some
Speaker 1: decent basketball without Luca. They had seven players in double
Speaker 1: figures in that Denver game, and a lot of the
Speaker 1: stuff that I talked about over the summer is starting
Speaker 1: to come to fruition for them without Luca, which is
Speaker 1: their aggregate ball handling. This is a roster that has
Speaker 1: a lot of offensive skill like Kyrie, can make plays
Speaker 1: with the balls, can make plays with the ball. Kyrie
Speaker 1: can make plays with the ball, can make plays with
Speaker 1: the ball. Clay Clay had a rough game but he
Speaker 1: can make plays. Quinton Grimes can make plays, right, Spencer Dinwood,
Speaker 1: he can make plays. He's shown a lot of really
Speaker 1: high level shot making over this recent stretch. Jayden Hardy
Speaker 1: can make plays. Najie Marshall, who's amazing in the Denver game. So, like,
Speaker 1: they have just a lot of guys that can do
Speaker 1: stuff with the basketball and the dagger possession. And this
Speaker 1: is a set that they've been running primarily with Luca
Speaker 1: off the floor this year, but it's something I'd like
Speaker 1: to see them run more. Is okay? So Dallas is
Speaker 1: up one seventeen to one to fifteen with just under
Speaker 1: a minute left, and they're running that like stuff where
Speaker 1: they throw the ball to Derek Lively at the top
Speaker 1: of the key and they have the guards like kind
Speaker 1: of like screen for each other and then whirl around
Speaker 1: him right. And on this sequence there's multiple guys running
Speaker 1: off of Derek Lively. The first guy runs off, it's
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving and Derek Glive is holding the ball and
Speaker 1: he looks and Kyrie's well guarded. It's not there, right.
Speaker 1: The second guy that comes off was Quintin Grimes. And
Speaker 1: when Quentin Grimes comes off, Jokic ends up because Derek
Speaker 1: Glivey actually pitches the ball to Derek, Jokic has to
Speaker 1: show high. So Yoki shows high and now there's two
Speaker 1: on the ball. And as there's two on the ball,
Speaker 1: this one Lively rolls on. And when Lively rolls, that's
Speaker 1: what drags Jamal Murray just barely into the lane to
Speaker 1: throw a little bit of extra help on that Lively role, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, was a mistake. But as I talk
Speaker 1: about you run offense to get the defense to make mistake,
Speaker 1: that's literally the reason why you do it. So because
Speaker 1: Jamal helps a little bit on that role, Naje kind
Speaker 1: of relocates over to the top of the key Quintin
Speaker 1: pitches it to him. Then that's what gives Najie Marshall
Speaker 1: the opportunity to attack the closeout where he drives and
Speaker 1: he hits the little bank shot high off the glass.
Speaker 1: So again it's like there's multiple threats weaponizing the passing
Speaker 1: ability of Derek Lively to get great shots. Again, the
Speaker 1: ball and player movement for this team has been really
Speaker 1: good for the Luca injury. When Luca comes back, he
Speaker 1: needs to play in that style at least some of
Speaker 1: the time, because this needs to be a punch that
Speaker 1: you have. Yes, you want to be able to go, oh,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna spam Luca double drag or or spain
Speaker 1: pick and roll or whatever it is you want to
Speaker 1: do to really leverage Luca's slow down, surgical offensive skill.
Speaker 1: But you also want to be able to have this punch,
Speaker 1: the punch that they've been riding to some pretty impressive
Speaker 1: wins without look of this year, which is the everyone's
Speaker 1: eating kind of look, right, and I think that that's
Speaker 1: been really encouraging. But back over to Dallas or Denver,
Speaker 1: excuse me, so on the tail end of the back
Speaker 1: to back, Denver gets back on track with a dominant
Speaker 1: win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Nicole Jokicz just kicked
Speaker 1: the living shit out of Anthony Davis in this game,
Speaker 1: which was a big reversal from the dynamic that took
Speaker 1: place in the first round last year, where Lebron and
Speaker 1: Ad kind of went toe to toe with Jokich and
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray. The Lakers completely fell apart right before halftime
Speaker 1: and never recovered. I'm going to do a Laker segment
Speaker 1: at the tail end of the show, and we'll talk
Speaker 1: some more about that game, because it was a lot
Speaker 1: of good Denver, but it was also like just a
Speaker 1: really weird stretch of basketball. So we'll get into that
Speaker 1: when we talk Lakers at the tail end of the show.
Speaker 1: But the short version is is that the Nuggets just
Speaker 1: have an insane mental advantage over the Lakers. Are loaded
Speaker 1: with super confident and talented offensive players. Again, they're fourth
Speaker 1: in offense on the season. They just played a magic
Speaker 1: team two nights earlier that is much much better defensively
Speaker 1: than Denver is, and they hung a one to twenty
Speaker 1: offensive rating on them, Like that's how good the Laker
Speaker 1: offense is. And Denver had them looking despondent in the
Speaker 1: third quarter. Not a single one of them looked confident,
Speaker 1: not a single one of them was in rhythm. It
Speaker 1: was actually crazy what they did to them. And that
Speaker 1: is the mental dynamic ap play. When you make a
Speaker 1: team play uncharacteristic basketball, that's when the mental aspect starts
Speaker 1: to feed into things. Right. There are physical advantages, like
Speaker 1: actual talent advantages, which are obviously part of the deal here,
Speaker 1: but those physical and talented advantages have manifested so many
Speaker 1: times in this matchup over the last three years that
Speaker 1: it's really starting to sit and affect the confidence of
Speaker 1: the Lakers in this matchup. And I thought that was
Speaker 1: really fascinating because again, that's the same Lakers team that
Speaker 1: diced up the Orlando Magic, a very very very good
Speaker 1: top tier defense in this league two nights earlier, and
Speaker 1: they had fifteen points over a fifteen minute span over
Speaker 1: the second, third, and fourth quarters in the Denver game. Like,
Speaker 1: that's the type of mental advantage that Denver has in
Speaker 1: this matchup. Russell Westbrook had his way with the unathletic
Speaker 1: Laker guards had a big time revenge game in that one.
Speaker 1: It was just a complete and total outclassing. And so
Speaker 1: everything is looking pretty good for the Nuggets overall. My
Speaker 1: only concern with them is the Jamal Murray piece. Now,
Speaker 1: unathletic guards all around the league are struggling in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways this year as the game has changed
Speaker 1: and become more fast and more spread out, both in
Speaker 1: transition and in the half court. But like Denver beats Dallas,
Speaker 1: if Jamal doesn't just get repeatedly cooked in space at
Speaker 1: the tail end of that game, and like it wasn't
Speaker 1: just Kyrie cooking him, it was guys like PJ. Washington
Speaker 1: going right around him or threw him bench guards like
Speaker 1: Naji Marshall, and then on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: he just hasn't been good enough offensively to make up
Speaker 1: for it. Right, Like, he had less than fifteen points
Speaker 1: in a game this season more times then he's had
Speaker 1: twenty or more points. Again, he's had more games where
Speaker 1: he had fifteen or fewer points than he had twenty
Speaker 1: or more. That's not the same Jamal Murray that they
Speaker 1: won the championship with. He shot forty percent from the
Speaker 1: field or worse in half of his games this season.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing, Like Jokic is playing at a
Speaker 1: level that is somewhat rare in NBA history. He's dominant
Speaker 1: every single night. So like he's got to get it
Speaker 1: together and he's got to meet Jokic as close to
Speaker 1: the level that he's capable of getting to as possible,
Speaker 1: because it's just with Yoki's playing at this level, you
Speaker 1: have a legit chance to get another trophy and they're
Speaker 1: gonna need more out of Jamal to get to that point.
Speaker 1: One last Nuggets shout out the athletes Christian Brown and
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson in addition to making shots and defending and
Speaker 1: rebounding and doing all the things that they do at
Speaker 1: such a high level to help his team win, you
Speaker 1: can also literally see Jokic gaining trust in them. I
Speaker 1: watched the Nuggets, I've watched the Denver or the Dallas
Speaker 1: game in particular. I was really impressed by like some
Speaker 1: of these possessions where Yokic was in deep, like had
Speaker 1: the ball getting over to his left shoulder to where
Speaker 1: he could go to that hook that he makes sixty
Speaker 1: five seventy percent of the time, and like could have
Speaker 1: shot it, but saw a defender like leaning pretty far
Speaker 1: in off of Peyton Watson or Christian Brown and like
Speaker 1: made the kickout pass. That's trust, right, because if the
Speaker 1: roles are reversed and that's a player that Jokic doesn't trust,
Speaker 1: he's gonna try to shoot over that, right. That's a
Speaker 1: shot that he feels like he can get to. And
Speaker 1: I just I've seen like it just a gaining momentum
Speaker 1: in the partnership between Jokic and Peyton Watson and Christian Brown.
Speaker 1: They just look like they're starting to get that sort
Speaker 1: of basketball chemistry and Yokic is starting to trust them.
Speaker 1: On a high level. So like that that I think
Speaker 1: is encouraging on the Denver front. Number seven, the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers. How about a four and ah week. They've
Speaker 1: won five in a row overall, They're now to eleven
Speaker 1: and seven. They are the five seed out in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference against legitimately tough schedule. They beat the Warriors.
Speaker 1: They they're the only team to beat the Orlando Magic
Speaker 1: since November sixth, and they beat the Kinks. They're second
Speaker 1: in defense and second in rebounding over this stretch, no
Speaker 1: surprise with the absurd amount of defensive talent and athleticism
Speaker 1: that they have. And the crazy thing is James Harden
Speaker 1: still hasn't really got it going. And like some of
Speaker 1: it is the personnel they're playing right, Like, the Clippers
Speaker 1: are playing a lot of defensive minded groups, and that's
Speaker 1: going to make it easier for teams to load up
Speaker 1: on James Harden. He's not going to have some majestically
Speaker 1: you know, efficient season this year, but I do think
Speaker 1: he's capable of playing harder, or excuse me, capable of
Speaker 1: playing better than he has to this point in the season.
Speaker 1: And that's encouraging. The formula is working. They have six
Speaker 1: players averaging double figures during the win streak. James is
Speaker 1: making enough plays, and Norm Powell continues to hit just
Speaker 1: like every single big shot that the team needs him
Speaker 1: to hit in big moments at the end of games.
Speaker 1: I've been right about some things to start this year,
Speaker 1: and I've been wrong about others, obviously, but this is
Speaker 1: a team that I was right about, and it's starting
Speaker 1: to like cement my basketball worldview as it pertains to
Speaker 1: perimeter athleticism being the best foundational strength for an NBA
Speaker 1: basketball team to have. Moving on number six, the Houston
Speaker 1: Rockets two and two week, they lost a heartbreaker to
Speaker 1: Milwaukee in a game where you got to see kind
Speaker 1: of the best and worst of the Rockets on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor right like incredible defense, so basically
Speaker 1: the only team that has made Gianna's struggle as of late.
Speaker 1: They were forcing turnovers, they were getting out in transition.
Speaker 1: In that matchup, Fred van Vliet had some stretches of
Speaker 1: really surgical half court offense, but they just had too
Speaker 1: many stretches where their offense bogged down and at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the game, Milwaukee just found a matchup
Speaker 1: that they liked and it was a speed matchup. They
Speaker 1: liked Damian Lizard against Stillon Brooks, and he was able
Speaker 1: to beat him off the dribble twice, once to draw
Speaker 1: foul and once they had the layup that ended up
Speaker 1: winning the game. Then ended up being what went south
Speaker 1: for the Rockets, but they got back on track by
Speaker 1: putting Tyres Halliburton and Ben matherin in jail as they
Speaker 1: blew out the Pacers, and then they split a baseball
Speaker 1: series with Portland. And by the way, Portland is feisty.
Speaker 1: They've won four games against teams that are five hundred
Speaker 1: or better. For perspective, that's the same as Cleveland. Cleveland
Speaker 1: has four wins against teams that are five hundred better,
Speaker 1: so does Portland, and Boston only has three. So like
Speaker 1: Portland's feisty, they've proven that they can beat good teams
Speaker 1: on any given night. And that's a good Rockets team.
Speaker 1: Like a good Rockets team, that's been a big problem
Speaker 1: around the league. And against seven and three against teams
Speaker 1: that are five hundred are better this year are the
Speaker 1: Houston Rockets. That was a big time win for the
Speaker 1: Portland Trailblazers. But anyway, the Rockets are sitting at twelve
Speaker 1: and six. They're third in the Western Conference seven and
Speaker 1: three against teams that are five hundred are better fifteenth
Speaker 1: in offense, second in defense, fourth in net rating. I
Speaker 1: basically look at them as like a better deeper version
Speaker 1: of the Los Angeles Clippers, who, by the way, the
Speaker 1: Rockets beat twice in a row earlier this season. Number
Speaker 1: five the Orlando Magic. They've won eight out of nine,
Speaker 1: some really nice wins against the Pacers and against the Suns,
Speaker 1: and then stole a game against the Lakers on Thursday.
Speaker 1: Got some help from Anthony Davis and that one who
Speaker 1: like this is crazy. I was at a friends giving
Speaker 1: thing that night, and I had been kind of monitoring
Speaker 1: the game, and when Lebron got the rebound and the
Speaker 1: kick ahead pass to a d and the final minute
Speaker 1: for the dunk, I was like, Oh, this game's over,
Speaker 1: and I like put my phone away and started just
Speaker 1: like enjoying the night. And then I get a text
Speaker 1: message from Logan Swam, our head of content here at
Speaker 1: the Volume, who's also a diehard Lakers fan, and he's like,
Speaker 1: worst loss of the or of the Lebron ad era,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, what, how did they lose? How did
Speaker 1: they lose that game, that's not possible, Like they won
Speaker 1: that game. I watched it, you know, and then go
Speaker 1: check my phone and ad misses three free throws in
Speaker 1: the final minute as Franz Wagner hits a dagger step
Speaker 1: back three over Cam Reddish at the top of the
Speaker 1: key in the magic of eight out of nine, and
Speaker 1: that seemed to like send the Lakers into a little
Speaker 1: bit of a spiral too, which we're going to get
Speaker 1: into them later. But the formula for Orlando has been defense.
Speaker 1: In Franz Wagner right, they have a one o two
Speaker 1: defensive rating in this eight game stretch, which is even
Speaker 1: better than they were earlier in the season. Jalen Suggs
Speaker 1: is like he's like a lockdown corner. It's like Patrick's certain,
Speaker 1: like you just put him on the other team's best
Speaker 1: guard and he just takes him out of the game.
Speaker 1: He like annihilated Austin Reeve in that Thursday night game,
Speaker 1: and that like here's the thing, Like the Lakers have
Speaker 1: some issues with athletic guards, but like Austin usually finds
Speaker 1: a way to at least be pretty good even against
Speaker 1: athletic mismatches. And Jalen Suggs just literally removed him from
Speaker 1: the game, had him complaining at the refs all night.
Speaker 1: It was just a really impressive performance from Jalen Suggs.
Speaker 1: They had a really nice offensive night. Two shot the
Speaker 1: three well and then was overpowering guards to get to
Speaker 1: spots in the short and mid range as well. And
Speaker 1: then as a unit, they just have so much size
Speaker 1: in athleticism, which helps them navigate the Lebron and Ad issue,
Speaker 1: but just other big front lines around the league. And
Speaker 1: then Franz Wagner has just been playing at a superstar
Speaker 1: level during this eight game stretch twenty nine seven and
Speaker 1: seven over an eight game stretch on fifty nine percent
Speaker 1: true shooting. That's not just good, that's special. That's like
Speaker 1: at the top tier of forward, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: like multifaceted, you know, Swiss Army knife type of forward
Speaker 1: play that you get out of this league. That's really
Speaker 1: really good stuff there from Franz. He's kicking teams apart
Speaker 1: and pick and roll. I talked about this last week,
Speaker 1: but like really likes to work around that like elbow
Speaker 1: area where like he'll snake the ball screen and kind
Speaker 1: of work in that area and wait for someone to
Speaker 1: just kind of come in too far and he'll throw
Speaker 1: kickout passes. He can score in the mid range. He's
Speaker 1: been picking on switches with his size and his ability
Speaker 1: to shoot over the top. Is just a really nice
Speaker 1: shot creation season for him. So far, he's run three
Speaker 1: hundred and ten pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups
Speaker 1: including passes, and he's generated three hundred and nineteen points.
Speaker 1: That's one point zero three points per possession. And again
Speaker 1: on a team where without Palo he's clearly at the
Speaker 1: top of the scouting report, doesn't have a reliable number
Speaker 1: two and isn't exactly surrounded by a ton of offensive talent,
Speaker 1: so like a high volume to be generating shots the
Speaker 1: way that he has this year is really impressive. Like, guys,
Speaker 1: Moe Wagner is the second leading Magic score over the
Speaker 1: course of this eight game stretch, So like that's really
Speaker 1: really high level play from the Orlando Magic and Franz
Speaker 1: is hooping looks super confident when he's in control of
Speaker 1: the game. I've been really impressed by them over the
Speaker 1: course the last couple of weeks. Number four, the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors, they've had a two and two week. They
Speaker 1: lost to the Clippers in a game that looks just
Speaker 1: like the last time the Warriors played the Clippers, like
Speaker 1: all of the Warriors guards other than staff struggled, and
Speaker 1: They're offense sputtered and ended up being a loss. They
Speaker 1: got back on track with two wins against Atlanta in
Speaker 1: New Orleans. Andrew Wiggins was awesome in those two games.
Speaker 1: He had fifty seven points in the two games. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Andrew here in just a second. But
Speaker 1: then they're up ten going into the fourth quarter in
Speaker 1: San Antonio and Victor win Minyama happened just completely dominated
Speaker 1: the game on both ends. He had multiple out of
Speaker 1: area blocks where he's seeming like somebody looked like they
Speaker 1: were open and he just like Moses Moody had one
Speaker 1: where it looked like he got an offensive rebound put
Speaker 1: back and he just turned over his left shoulder to
Speaker 1: shoot a hook and Victor was like behind the backboard
Speaker 1: and he just and like it looked like he was
Speaker 1: out of balance and he just kind of like came
Speaker 1: up and swallowed the shot up and threw it out
Speaker 1: to Stephan Castle. He had another one where Lindy Waters
Speaker 1: was driving and it looked like Victor was on the
Speaker 1: weak side and it looked like he was out of
Speaker 1: the play. He just came flying in and swatted Lindy
Speaker 1: Waters off the glass. Lindy missed two easy kickout reads
Speaker 1: in the in crunch time. That was one thing that
Speaker 1: I that stood out to me where I was like,
Speaker 1: when when the defense is really overplaying those drives, that's
Speaker 1: where you got to take those kickouts when they're available.
Speaker 1: There was a like a wide open Angrew Wiggins on
Speaker 1: one of them that he overlooked. It just there's little
Speaker 1: a couple of bad decisions there down the stretch, but
Speaker 1: Victor was incredible on defense and then on offense. He
Speaker 1: was driving to the rim and getting layups. He had
Speaker 1: a driving feed to Julian Champagne cutting out of the
Speaker 1: right corner that was just such an incredible feel and
Speaker 1: touch pass, like he threw it like way before it
Speaker 1: was even a time for him to jump. It just
Speaker 1: kind of like landed perfectly in the spot for Julian
Speaker 1: just to go up and dunk it easy. It was
Speaker 1: just such a pass that demonstrates Victor's feel for the game.
Speaker 1: And then he got a shotgoing, which was funny because
Speaker 1: to start the fourth quarter he had like a couple
Speaker 1: of really bad misses from three, like one where he
Speaker 1: damn near put a hole in the backboard and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh man, Like, Victor's really at a rhythm. And then
Speaker 1: he gets an easy, little like eighteen footer at the
Speaker 1: right l out of a ball screen with Chris Paul
Speaker 1: there where he's wide open and it's a super easy
Speaker 1: up and down in rhythm, knocks it down and it
Speaker 1: was like the floodgates open. And then suddenly he was
Speaker 1: just hitting every three that he took and just completely
Speaker 1: dominate the game down the stretch. And then he also
Speaker 1: got a major contribution out of Stefan Castle, who is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite guys coming out of the draft,
Speaker 1: and he continues to just look look amazing. He had
Speaker 1: a huge driving finish against Kavan Looney on a switch.
Speaker 1: I clipped this play and put it on my Twitter feed,
Speaker 1: where again he does a sweeping crossover, but it's not
Speaker 1: the dribble that impresses me. He takes a hard There's
Speaker 1: there's two plays down the stretch that game that I
Speaker 1: would look at if you're a Spurs fan. It's the
Speaker 1: left to right crossover on Kevon Looney and then it's
Speaker 1: the play where he drove by Draymond Green at the
Speaker 1: top of the key and drew a foul, and both
Speaker 1: of them started out of a high hesitation in the
Speaker 1: left hand and you could tell like it actually came
Speaker 1: out of order, like the Looney crossover was actually before
Speaker 1: the Draymond play. But it's interesting because they set each
Speaker 1: other up in their own way so like and the
Speaker 1: Draymond play sits in a high hesitation and then just
Speaker 1: launches himself forward going left and he comes to almost
Speaker 1: a complete stop in the hesitation, and then the first
Speaker 1: step is lightning quick, and Draymond has no choice but
Speaker 1: to just wrap him up and foul him basically right.
Speaker 1: And then on the Looney play, it's the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: He launches himself on a left drive out of the
Speaker 1: high hesitation and then right on his left foot plants,
Speaker 1: he whips it across back to the right, and now
Speaker 1: he's going to the right and he doests loony and
Speaker 1: if you watch Loony, Looney does like a full two
Speaker 1: foot hop over to cut off that left hand drive,
Speaker 1: and like that's what makes again, it's the simple concept, right,
Speaker 1: It's the most of the best scores in the world
Speaker 1: don't have like seventeen different moves that they use all
Speaker 1: the time, like most of the best scores in the world.
Speaker 1: It's like move countermove, Like I have a right shoulder fade,
Speaker 1: left shoulder fade, which everyone you overplay, I'm going the
Speaker 1: other way and if you ever play the jumper, I'm
Speaker 1: stepping through right or like in this case, like the
Speaker 1: Stefan Castle just gets a nasty high hesitation jumps. And
Speaker 1: by the way, he had a huge three at the
Speaker 1: top of the key down the stretch in this game.
Speaker 1: But if he can get into high hesitation and he
Speaker 1: can shoot, and he can throw a hard drive to
Speaker 1: the left and then he has a nasty crossover to
Speaker 1: the right, Like that's literally all it takes. As long
Speaker 1: as all three are real threats, that's all it takes.
Speaker 1: You don't need anything more than that. Everything else is
Speaker 1: just fluff, right, And I think he also did an
Speaker 1: incredible job on Steph Curry all night long. That was
Speaker 1: the weird thing about the Spurs game, Like Steph just
Speaker 1: couldn't make a shot all night long. But Stefan Castle
Speaker 1: just just really, really, really impressive start to this season
Speaker 1: for a rookie and quick note on the Spurs before
Speaker 1: we move on back to the Warriors. I mean, Stefan
Speaker 1: Castle's rise so quickly in the early phase of his
Speaker 1: career just gives the Spurs such an interesting core, which
Speaker 1: is not how I felt coming into the season. At first.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, you have Victor, you have Devin Vessel,
Speaker 1: not really sure what he's going to be, right, and
Speaker 1: then Jeremy sohon Right, like is this really clunky fit
Speaker 1: because like really inconsistent shooter and decision maker. Right, but
Speaker 1: he's like the very good defensive player and has like
Speaker 1: a knack for scoring the ball, even at least he's
Speaker 1: shown it this year, even though like he can be
Speaker 1: limited in some other offensive ways. So like it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a really weird forward. And then like a
Speaker 1: guard that we just don't know what he is, but
Speaker 1: like Stefan Castle is so obviously very good. Like I
Speaker 1: can already tell what Steph Castle's going to be. He's
Speaker 1: going to be a very good guard defender that can
Speaker 1: shoot and score off the bounce like that. That's like automatic,
Speaker 1: great foundational guard. I think Spurs fans should be like
Speaker 1: incredibly excited about Stefan Castle because now I look at
Speaker 1: it as like Victor and Steph and then we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens with Devin Vessel and Jeremy Sohan, but because
Speaker 1: they're kind of like teared down, because I know what
Speaker 1: Stefan Castle's going to be and I know how well
Speaker 1: that works in the modern NBA, Like, it just makes
Speaker 1: me feel infinitely more confident about this group moving forward.
Speaker 1: And I mean, like the arena was on fire in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter when Steph Castle and Victor wimen Yama
Speaker 1: took that game over. It was an unreal energy and
Speaker 1: you can really feel the momentum gaining with this the
Speaker 1: San Antonio Spurs back to the Warriors. Though you blew
Speaker 1: a game on the road, it happens Steph had a
Speaker 1: really bad game. You didn't get much from anybody not
Speaker 1: named Wiggins, which has become a recurring theme. So I
Speaker 1: want to talk about Wiggins for a second. This is
Speaker 1: where we're gonna go positive for the Warriors. That was Wiggins'
Speaker 1: fourth straight twenty point game. He never did it more
Speaker 1: than two times in a row last year. In fact,
Speaker 1: the last time Andrew Wiggins played in four consecutive games
Speaker 1: and scored at least twenty points in all of them.
Speaker 1: Was May of twenty twenty one in the COVID season,
Speaker 1: towards the tail end of the regular season. And again,
Speaker 1: that was a year when there was like a lot
Speaker 1: of roster issues with the Warriors and he had to
Speaker 1: be more aggressive. Right He's over sixty percent true shooting
Speaker 1: for the first time ever. He's having the best three
Speaker 1: point shooting season of his career. He's having the best
Speaker 1: free throw shooting season of his career. His touch is
Speaker 1: just at a better spot where it's than it's ever been,
Speaker 1: all while providing excellent defense on the perimeter. I think
Speaker 1: he's out playing many of his peers at his position
Speaker 1: around the league. And again, like I talked about this
Speaker 1: a little bit in the mailbag on Friday, Like I uh,
Speaker 1: when I talk about potential trades for the Warriors, it's
Speaker 1: not about now. This is not a Warriors team that's
Speaker 1: looking to make a trade right now. I think they'd
Speaker 1: be stupid too. This is a team that should not
Speaker 1: make a single trade until maybe early February, maybe not
Speaker 1: at all, But when they get to February, you make
Speaker 1: that call. But if Andrew Wiggins is going to play
Speaker 1: like one of the better forwards in the league. Then
Speaker 1: you just got the guy that you would hunt in
Speaker 1: the trade market anyway. Right, this is what I said
Speaker 1: they needed. They needed a reliable twenty plus point per
Speaker 1: game efficient score at the forward position. If Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: becomes that or regains that footing in this league, it's
Speaker 1: not just about him being untradeable. It's just there's no
Speaker 1: reason to make a trade anymore because Andrew Wiggins has
Speaker 1: become the guy that you needed in that support role.
Speaker 1: I mean, here's the thing. You'll lose in that game
Speaker 1: because Steph is bad. And like for the vast majority,
Speaker 1: the only team in the league that can really afford
Speaker 1: consistently for their best player to have a bad game
Speaker 1: is the Boston Celtics because they have so much talent.
Speaker 1: But like most of the teams in the league are
Speaker 1: in a struggle with their best player struggles. And that's
Speaker 1: all that happened in San Antonio last night. But like,
Speaker 1: really really impressive stretch of basketball from Andrew Wiggins. The
Speaker 1: schedule for the Warriors is getting a little intense, though.
Speaker 1: I wanted to go over this because I just think
Speaker 1: this is fascinating. This is one of the toughest stretches
Speaker 1: of schedule, extended stretches of schedule that I've seen for
Speaker 1: an NBA team, emphasized by a couple of tough Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference opponents and just an incredibly stacked West. But they
Speaker 1: have an easy one against Brooklyn at home is their
Speaker 1: next game. But after that home for OKC at Phoenix,
Speaker 1: who will have Kadie and Bradley Beilback at Denver Houston,
Speaker 1: who is both really good and a team that matches
Speaker 1: up physically with Golden State. Well, Minnesota, Minnesota again, then Memphis,
Speaker 1: then Minnesota again in Memphis. That's a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: from now, so they could be healthier and have more
Speaker 1: guys in the lineup right then Indiana, then the Lakers,
Speaker 1: then the Clippers, then the Suns again, then the Calves,
Speaker 1: then the Sixers, and that's like roughly a month from now,
Speaker 1: so they could be healthier then the Grizzlies, than the
Speaker 1: Kings and the Heat. So like there, the Warriors are
Speaker 1: heading into basically a month plus of like playing a
Speaker 1: good team every single night. And so we're gonna learn
Speaker 1: a lot about the Warriors over this stretch and just
Speaker 1: how capable this roster is of shouldering the load that
Speaker 1: they're gonna need to shoulder in order to get what
Speaker 1: they want to get done this year. Number three, They'laoma
Speaker 1: City Thunder one in one week. They haven't played since
Speaker 1: the twentieth, which is weird. They only had two games
Speaker 1: last week. They lost at San Antonio, really bad loss,
Speaker 1: no victor women Yama. In that game, they completely lost
Speaker 1: control of the game over a matter of minutes. In
Speaker 1: the early third quarter. The Spurs were playing through Zach
Speaker 1: Collins in the post, just posting up smaller Thunder players
Speaker 1: and he was either just going through them or drawing
Speaker 1: a second defender and dropping off for a guy underneath
Speaker 1: the rim. And then they just had like a really
Speaker 1: bad stretch of shot selection from Jalen Williams and Shay
Speaker 1: Gilders Alexander. They went down by sixteen in like kind
Speaker 1: of the mid third, and then they were chasing their
Speaker 1: tail the rest of the game, never regained control. They
Speaker 1: actually went down by twenty one in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: So lost in San Antonio, really bad loss for the Thunder,
Speaker 1: But then they bounced back with a win against Portland.
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams had thirty in that one. Jalen Williams has
Speaker 1: been hooping, by the way, in his last six games,
Speaker 1: he's averaging twenty six points, seven rebounds, and six assists
Speaker 1: on fifty five percent from the field, forty percent from three,
Speaker 1: and one hundred percent from the line. Very good basketball
Speaker 1: from Jalen Williams. But I want to zero in on
Speaker 1: the shot selection piece for a second, because the Thunder
Speaker 1: are underachieving on offense. That goes to say that. That
Speaker 1: goes without saying. They're twelfth in offense right now, which
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense given the type of personnel that
Speaker 1: they have, especially with them having played small as much
Speaker 1: as they have, which in theory should open things up
Speaker 1: for your spacing and you're driving kick game, right. But
Speaker 1: I want to zero in on this for a second
Speaker 1: because the Thunder are awesome. They're gonna win plenty of games.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna be a team that struggles in the standings.
Speaker 1: They're tied for the one seed in the West despite
Speaker 1: chat Holmer and getting hurt and some pretty rough injury
Speaker 1: luck down the roster, right, So this is not like
Speaker 1: a gloom and doom Thunder tick. But what Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: is going through actually reminds me in a lot of
Speaker 1: ways of what the Celtics went through a few years back,
Speaker 1: And there are some other parallels there too, Like they
Speaker 1: have enormous amounts of talent, specifically a few guys that
Speaker 1: are still just barely scratching the surface of what they're
Speaker 1: capable of, but in like kind of like a situation
Speaker 1: where their best player is mature for his age, Like
Speaker 1: Tatum and Shay both kind of remind me of each
Speaker 1: other in the sense that, like they're in their mid twenties,
Speaker 1: but they carry themselves like guys in their thirties. It
Speaker 1: like they just act like grown adults and they don't
Speaker 1: make a lot of like kind of the immature mistakes
Speaker 1: that younger stars around the league make, right, and so
Speaker 1: like there's some parallels there, but it extends. I'm more
Speaker 1: referring to the shot selection piece. To be clear, before
Speaker 1: we get into this, every team goes through stretches where
Speaker 1: they take bad shots. It's part of the game. The
Speaker 1: game is about rhythm. You're constantly like chasing a good
Speaker 1: rhythm or when you're in a bad rhythm, trying to
Speaker 1: get it back right. You're trying to extend a good
Speaker 1: rhythm or get out of a bad rhythm right like
Speaker 1: that's part of the game. The best teams are just
Speaker 1: able to identify when they're in bad rhythm. Hey guys,
Speaker 1: we're taking bad shots. Let's refocus. Let's get this figured out. Right,
Speaker 1: The good teams quickly regain control compared to the bad teams.
Speaker 1: The Celtics used to be a team that would win
Speaker 1: plenty of games, but with bad process, their talent was
Speaker 1: the enemy of their success sometimes, right, Like, great players
Speaker 1: have an issue where they can just get a decent
Speaker 1: shot whenever they want, Right, Like, you're staring down a
Speaker 1: defensive player and you're Jason Tatum, Like he can just
Speaker 1: do a pound dribble between his legs and get a
Speaker 1: pretty decent look at a twenty five foot or off
Speaker 1: the bounce. Jalen Brown can wherever he is on the
Speaker 1: floor just elevate and shoot because he's one of the
Speaker 1: best athletes in the league. Derek White needs very little
Speaker 1: space to get a shot off. They had this problem
Speaker 1: early on where their talent was the enemy of their
Speaker 1: success because like, it takes patience and maturity to turn
Speaker 1: down those shots and only take them when you absolutely
Speaker 1: have to, because you're working as hard as you can
Speaker 1: to generate great shots right. That's the situation that Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City is in now, because like they're at this point
Speaker 1: now where they are just taking the shot that makes
Speaker 1: the most sense within that immediate moment for that talented player.
Speaker 1: In that run against the Spurs, the U when they
Speaker 1: lost control of that game, Jalen Williams like really tough,
Speaker 1: contested sixteen footer along the baseline early in the shot clock,
Speaker 1: like lou Dort contested catch and shoot three on the
Speaker 1: right wing, when like they didn't even try to run
Speaker 1: any action. It was just like a kickout and he
Speaker 1: just shot it. Like there's just these too many possessions
Speaker 1: in a row where they just don't hunt the great
Speaker 1: shots that they're capable of getting with the talent that
Speaker 1: they have. What happened with Boston over the course of
Speaker 1: the last few years, you could see a shift in
Speaker 1: their maturity. It wasn't just the influx of Drew Holliday
Speaker 1: and chrisops Porzingis. Yeah, those guys are awesome and they help,
Speaker 1: but Porzingis missed most of the playoffs last year, and
Speaker 1: Drew is better than Marcus Smart, but Marcus Smart is
Speaker 1: also really good. It was a modest upgrade of Marcus Smart.
Speaker 1: The biggest change in the Boston Celtics over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years is their ability to manage the flow
Speaker 1: of basketball games, to identify when they're taking bad shots,
Speaker 1: when they're in bad rhythm and they need to lock
Speaker 1: in and execute at a higher level, identifying like, guys,
Speaker 1: we're bullshitting right now, we need to get it together.
Speaker 1: They've just gotten so much better at making the ugly
Speaker 1: stretches fewer, shorter, and further between. Like that is where
Speaker 1: things turned around for the Boston Celtics. So okay, see
Speaker 1: to me, feels like where Boston was a few years
Speaker 1: ago in the sense that they have a tendency to
Speaker 1: lose control of games as decision makers, and they struggle
Speaker 1: to settle down and execute from time to time, and
Speaker 1: again it won't show in the standings. They're too talented
Speaker 1: to drop a bunch of games. It didn't even show
Speaker 1: in the offensive rating for the Celtics back in the
Speaker 1: day like it's actually showing for Oklahoma City, which means
Speaker 1: they're maybe even further behind in that regard. But like
Speaker 1: the court, at its core, the strength of the Thunder
Speaker 1: is their aggregate offensive talent. They can space you out
Speaker 1: and pick you apart for great shots. That is their strength,
Speaker 1: and at a certain point they will need to get
Speaker 1: better at that specific process. Maybe it'll be this year,
Speaker 1: maybe it won't be this year. But if it's not
Speaker 1: this year, then they have the potential to get beat
Speaker 1: team that isn't as talented as they are in an
Speaker 1: earlier playoff round than they would like. They were more
Speaker 1: talented than the Dallas Mavericks last year. They were just
Speaker 1: younger and less mature. And remember the big thing that
Speaker 1: I talked about in that series was rim decisions. They
Speaker 1: kept driving into the paint and challenging Dallas's rim protectors
Speaker 1: instead of making the kickout passes that were available in
Speaker 1: chasing down those great shots. What does that remind you of?
Speaker 1: Do you guys remember that Celtics Bucks series in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. That entire series hinged back and forth on
Speaker 1: the Celtics foolishly challenging Brook Lopez at the rim instead
Speaker 1: of making the right decision when they got there. This
Speaker 1: is all part of that process of growing up as
Speaker 1: a basketball team and growing up as a basketball player,
Speaker 1: and I do think that that's been an interesting kind
Speaker 1: of subplot in this last year and a half for
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder Number two the Cleveland Cavaliers two
Speaker 1: in one week. They lost in the Boston Showdown, then
Speaker 1: they got back on track with two wins against easy
Speaker 1: opponents in Toronto and New Orleans. Those two teams have
Speaker 1: eight wins combined, so nice little get back games for Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Ty Jerome was insane in both games. How about fifty
Speaker 1: five points in the two game set for ty Jerome
Speaker 1: as he continues to make his case as maybe the
Speaker 1: best backup point guard in the league. I didn't think
Speaker 1: the Celtics game was as encouraging of a loss as
Speaker 1: many Celtics fans thought. I thought Boston basically controlled that
Speaker 1: entire game. Like anytime Cleveland threatened to take a lead,
Speaker 1: it just felt like Boston was able to immediately regain control.
Speaker 1: I thought they had more advantages. I thought the entry
Speaker 1: points that we discussed with Cleveland were that we anticipated
Speaker 1: coming into this matchup, were all real problems that the
Speaker 1: Cavs didn't really have great answers for now. That's not
Speaker 1: to say that Cleveland is fraudulent or anything like that.
Speaker 1: I think they're still easily the second best team in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference. At this point, I just thought it
Speaker 1: was clear that Boston was at a level above them.
Speaker 1: Cleveland does have some tougher matchups in December. They have
Speaker 1: Boston again on the first. I think Cleveland will probably
Speaker 1: get that one, Denver on the fifth, Denver again on
Speaker 1: the twenty seventh, Then they have Milwaukee later in the month,
Speaker 1: and at the end of this month they have Golden
Speaker 1: State and the Lakers. Some tougher games for Cleveland coming
Speaker 1: up in the month of December where we'll see them
Speaker 1: push a little bit. Number one back on top, very
Speaker 1: much in a look like the champion type of week.
Speaker 1: The Boston Celtics, who went three and zero wins over
Speaker 1: the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. We talked
Speaker 1: about the Cavs game earlier. I won't get into it.
Speaker 1: The Minnesota game really crazy, Like Jalen Brown just comes
Speaker 1: out going absolutely berserk. It's five straight threes to start
Speaker 1: the game. It's funny. The Timberwolves announcers were like complaining
Speaker 1: the color commentator I'm not sure his name was saying like, literally,
Speaker 1: I would give him that shot. He kept like quoting
Speaker 1: his percentages he's shooting, you know, twenty five percent on
Speaker 1: these all over the course of this season. Literally said
Speaker 1: the phrase literally I would give him that shot end quote.
Speaker 1: And when I heard that, I'm like, he's Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: Why are you You're gonna give Jalen Brown wide open
Speaker 1: shots just because he's struggled a little bit to start
Speaker 1: this season. Like that was one insane to me, and
Speaker 1: two like a complete lack of understanding of the fact that,
Speaker 1: like basketball doesn't just come down to read the basketball
Speaker 1: reference page, Like Jalen Brown's a good shooter, he's just
Speaker 1: not shooting well, and so if you let him get going,
Speaker 1: he can still get going at any given time. And
Speaker 1: for the record, I like some of the threes he
Speaker 1: hit were pretty heavily contested too, so like some of
Speaker 1: it is like Jalen Brown just made shots. But I
Speaker 1: just thought it was funny when the Wolves announcers were
Speaker 1: going off about that, because I'm like, he's Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: You're not ignoring Jared Vanderbilt up there, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But Minnesota battle for most of the first half.
Speaker 1: Boston had a really dominant stretch to start the third quarter.
Speaker 1: On both ends of the floor. They completely locked down
Speaker 1: Minnesota's offense. They held him to just two points in
Speaker 1: a nearly six minute span covering the last minute of
Speaker 1: the second quarter. In the first few minutes of the
Speaker 1: third quarter, Tatum went off in that span. He scored
Speaker 1: assisted on four threes. In the early third quarter, the
Speaker 1: Celtics got super hot. They ended up going up by nineteen.
Speaker 1: Then Minnesota kind of grinded their way back into it.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards continues to shoot the damn seams off the basketball.
Speaker 1: He hit six threes in this game. He had a
Speaker 1: wide open look with just under a minute or just
Speaker 1: over a minute left that would have given Minnesota the lead,
Speaker 1: and he missed it. But he's at one point nine
Speaker 1: points per jump shot on two hundred and twenty nine
Speaker 1: attempts to start the year, one point one to three
Speaker 1: points per pull up jump shot at one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy one attempts to start the year. He's just going
Speaker 1: to be outrageously good in the long run because of
Speaker 1: how good of a jump shooter he's made himself. But overall,
Speaker 1: I came away feeling really good about Boston after that game.
Speaker 1: I thought the third quarter was a great example of
Speaker 1: the fact that they can still be downright stifling on
Speaker 1: defense when they need to be or when they want
Speaker 1: to be. Even without Porzingis, I thought that they played great.
Speaker 1: I thought they played like really mature, grown up offense
Speaker 1: down the stretch, Like they found the matchup they liked,
Speaker 1: which was Nikkeil Alexander Walker, and they just kept going
Speaker 1: to Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum down on the block
Speaker 1: against Nikile Alexander Walker and got a couple of key
Speaker 1: buckets there. Now, Minnesota put them in some tough spots
Speaker 1: too in crunch time big, but they're very good defense,
Speaker 1: Like Minnesota hasn't defended super well to start this year,
Speaker 1: but they still have a nasty defensive punch when they
Speaker 1: want to. And they got some big stops and forced
Speaker 1: bad misses, and honestly, that's kind of like how games
Speaker 1: like that go. Like they're super physical and ugly because
Speaker 1: there's so many good perimeter defenders on the floor. And
Speaker 1: Ant made six threes in the game, and his last
Speaker 1: two threes like barely graze the front of the rim
Speaker 1: because it's everyone's tired. It's hard to hit shots in
Speaker 1: a game like that, right, especially down the stretch. And
Speaker 1: like Tatum, Matt's some bad misses in crunch time too,
Speaker 1: that's kind of just how it goes. But Boston made
Speaker 1: more plays when they needed to and anyway, I just
Speaker 1: think this week had a lot of great examples of
Speaker 1: what separates Boston from the rest of the league. They
Speaker 1: play great basketball on both ends more frequently than everyone
Speaker 1: else does. It really is that simple. And then allegedly
Speaker 1: they're getting Chris hops porzingis back tonight, so another exciting
Speaker 1: sign for Celtics fans. And that's it for the Power rankings.
Speaker 1: Before we get out here, I want to talk Lakers
Speaker 1: for just a couple of minutes. This segment is more
Speaker 1: directed towards Laker fans because I want to bring some
Speaker 1: positivity because I've seen on Twitter it's very gloom and
Speaker 1: doom for Laker fans right now, and I can understand
Speaker 1: why you would feel that way. Like the Thursday Saturday
Speaker 1: set between Orlando knowing Denver was an absolute disaster, right Like,
Speaker 1: you play well enough to beat Orlando, but ad misses
Speaker 1: three free throws in the final minute, so you lose.
Speaker 1: That's a catastrophe. Right Then in the Denver game, Dalton
Speaker 1: connect gets a dunk with two minutes left in the
Speaker 1: first half and you're up by ten on the Denver Nuggets,
Speaker 1: and then your entire team simultaneously enters a funk and
Speaker 1: they cannot score. The Lakers scored fifteen points total over
Speaker 1: a fifteen minute span between the second, third, and fourth quarters,
Speaker 1: and then you end up getting blown out like literally
Speaker 1: a thirty five point turnaround in the same game. So look,
Speaker 1: I get it. Losses are losses under any circumstances, and
Speaker 1: these two were particularly bad. But here's why I'm not
Speaker 1: getting too worked up about it. First of all, I
Speaker 1: thought the Orlando game was actually a night where the
Speaker 1: Lakers showed a lot of heart. Those of you guys
Speaker 1: who listened to the mailbag on Friday, I told you guys,
Speaker 1: I was worried about that game before it started. Orlando
Speaker 1: is a tough matchup for the Lakers because they have big,
Speaker 1: physical guards that always give issues to guys like Dlo
Speaker 1: and Austin, and they're huge on the front line to
Speaker 1: confront the lebron ad problem. And in general, they're just
Speaker 1: really young and fast and they run really hard, which
Speaker 1: is the kind of thing that has given the older,
Speaker 1: slower Lakers issues. Right, and the Lakers were down both
Speaker 1: of their forwards, like Ruey Hatchamura and Jared Vanderbilt were out.
Speaker 1: So like, the entire roster is basically guards, limited centers,
Speaker 1: and Lebron and Ad that is basically what you're going
Speaker 1: to war with in a very very physical matchup, and
Speaker 1: Lebron and Ad just stepped up to that challenge and
Speaker 1: they kicked ass They had seventy points, nineteen rebounds, and
Speaker 1: nine assists in four blocks between the two of them.
Speaker 1: They both just made a huge play after huge play
Speaker 1: down the stretch to put themselves into position to win,
Speaker 1: and then Ad misses three free throws in the final
Speaker 1: minute and you lose. Like it really fucking sucks, I
Speaker 1: get it, But they played some pretty good basketball against
Speaker 1: a Magic team that is a bad matchup for them
Speaker 1: while being down both of their forwards, and they did
Speaker 1: play well enough to win that game. So like, I
Speaker 1: actually left that game feeling better about the team. There
Speaker 1: are still some problems, right, Like Austin Reeves was a
Speaker 1: disaster in that game. He was just three for twelve,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of what Jalen Suggs can do to
Speaker 1: opposing guards. And also Austin usually finds a way to
Speaker 1: at least be pretty good even against the athletic team.
Speaker 1: So like I thought, it was like fifty percent Suggs
Speaker 1: is awesome and fifty percent Austin just had a bad night.
Speaker 1: Delo was really bad in that game, but he's always
Speaker 1: really bad against big athletic teams. It's like clockwork every
Speaker 1: single time he struggles defensively on the glass and he
Speaker 1: can't shoot. I remember it was like early last year.
Speaker 1: Petezeis from Laker Film pointed this out, and I thought
Speaker 1: it was really fascinating. He talked about how like in
Speaker 1: super athletic games, Delo tends to have bad misses from three,
Speaker 1: Like he has kind of like a smooth rhythm on
Speaker 1: his jump shot, and when he's playing against a team
Speaker 1: where he doesn't feel rushed, he can shoot the ball
Speaker 1: pretty well, though he's shot poorly all year this year,
Speaker 1: But when he runs into athletic teams, like he starts
Speaker 1: rushing things a little bit, and he will have awful
Speaker 1: misses for a really good shooter. And like he had
Speaker 1: an air ball in the Orlando game, he had a
Speaker 1: couple other shots that like barely grazed the side of
Speaker 1: the rim, like de Lo fell apart. But the point
Speaker 1: is we already knew that about d LO. So, like
Speaker 1: I was discouraged about the loss obviously, Like I told
Speaker 1: you guys, I even turned the game off. I was like,
Speaker 1: Lakers got this one. I'm done. And then I got
Speaker 1: a text message from my boss who's a Lakers fan,
Speaker 1: and he's like, that was the worst loss ever and
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. Right, So, like it's discouraging, But
Speaker 1: it was a night where I actually ended up being
Speaker 1: more encouraged about the Lakers in the big picture because
Speaker 1: Lebron and ad were able to meet the challenge and
Speaker 1: they played well enough to be to beat a team
Speaker 1: that most teams are losing to right now. Right the
Speaker 1: Denver game, was it indicative of a mental advantage that
Speaker 1: the Nuggets have over the Lakers. Yeah, will the Lakers
Speaker 1: need to overcome that in order to ever truly compete
Speaker 1: with Denver in a playoff series, for sure, But that
Speaker 1: singular regular season game was just weird in my opinion,
Speaker 1: Like basketball is all about rhythm and flow. The highs
Speaker 1: are like the balls popping around. Everything just feels natural
Speaker 1: and smooth, are making shots, They're always in the right spot.
Speaker 1: It just there's just like a rhythm and flow when
Speaker 1: the offense is really clicking, right, and then what do
Speaker 1: the lows look like? Like spacing gets a little funky
Speaker 1: because guys aren't making the right raids. When they're moving,
Speaker 1: you'll start batching like passes, like like how many times
Speaker 1: on that third quarter stretch did you see Like the
Speaker 1: Lakers botched like regular like swing passes, not even for turnovers,
Speaker 1: just like throw a bad pass and the guy has
Speaker 1: to like fumble it around and regain control before they
Speaker 1: can get back into the offense. Like you're sloppy with
Speaker 1: the ball, you're sloppy with your spacing. No one can
Speaker 1: make a shot. Everyone looks lifeless, and it like that's
Speaker 1: what the low looks like. Right, But there's a spectrum, right,
Speaker 1: there's a spectrum of rhythm with the absolute peak and
Speaker 1: then the absolute basement, right, And we saw both in
Speaker 1: the last week, like the the Memphis game in the
Speaker 1: second half, or no is the Pelicans game in the
Speaker 1: second half like and again different level defense, but like
Speaker 1: they they were in that second half, they were just
Speaker 1: peaking on the offensive end of the floor. And then
Speaker 1: the Denver game they completely fall apart, and oh yeah,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans are a bad defense. They played against the
Speaker 1: Orlando Magic, who are a much much, much better defense
Speaker 1: than the Denver Nuggets, and they hung a one to
Speaker 1: twenty offensive rating on them, Like the Lakers can score
Speaker 1: against elite defenses too. That's not an issue. The point
Speaker 1: is there's a spectrum, and what you saw in the
Speaker 1: second half of that Denver game, in the final minute
Speaker 1: or two of the second quarter, what you saw was
Speaker 1: the absolute bottom of that spectrum. That was potentially the
Speaker 1: worst offensive rhythm I've seen the Lakers have in the
Speaker 1: Lebron and ad era relative to the talent that was
Speaker 1: on the floor. There have been some stretches where the
Speaker 1: Laker offense looked really bad, but they were decimated by
Speaker 1: injuries or much more limited rosters. This is a really
Speaker 1: good group of offensive players that the Lakers have, that
Speaker 1: are all super confident, and again two nights earlier, just
Speaker 1: hung a one to twenty on a better defense and
Speaker 1: they just fell apart. They completely lost their rhythm and
Speaker 1: flow and they got discouraged. And yet even with the
Speaker 1: mental advantage that Denver has, there was also just like
Speaker 1: that was the worst end of that spectrum that you
Speaker 1: can see. It happens. It's part of the game. It's
Speaker 1: a particularly bad example of it, but it's just part
Speaker 1: of the game. Even looking at the Lebron and Ad element, Like,
Speaker 1: guess what, Like Lebron and AD they're capable of playing
Speaker 1: a lot better against Denver, how do we know? We
Speaker 1: just saw them do it in a more intense context
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Lebron and AD were both awful in
Speaker 1: the Denver game. It happens, So just scrap it at Like, yes,
Speaker 1: they have to figure out the Denver matchup, there's no
Speaker 1: doubt about that. But like we already knew that. We
Speaker 1: knew that coming in. It was a bad night. So like,
Speaker 1: I'm not as low about these two particular games from
Speaker 1: over the weekend as a lot of other Laker fans are.
Speaker 1: In the big picture, do the Lakers have personnel issues? Yes,
Speaker 1: they are not athletic enough on the perimeter. It's killing
Speaker 1: them on defense and in transition and on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: It's something they'll need to fix. They need to turn
Speaker 1: d Lo and gave Prefer into bigger, better, more skilled athletes.
Speaker 1: It will probably take at least one of their first
Speaker 1: round picks, if not both of them. But we already
Speaker 1: knew that. We knew that in training camp. The Lakers
Speaker 1: have a different problem, yes, but we already knew that.
Speaker 1: And these were all problems that we knew wouldn't actually
Speaker 1: get solved until we get closer to February anyway, And
Speaker 1: in the meantime, you're ten and six, you have the
Speaker 1: sixth best record in the entire NBA. You're fine, This
Speaker 1: sky's not falling, Okay, everything is on track. What did
Speaker 1: I say from the start of the year, You just
Speaker 1: need to win five out of eight, five out of eight,
Speaker 1: five out of eight. That's gonna keep you afloat in
Speaker 1: the standings. They've won five out of eight twice. Now,
Speaker 1: gonna be fun a week though for the Lakers. They
Speaker 1: have Phoenix on the road tomorrow night. We're gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be covering that game. It'll either be live on
Speaker 1: YouTube or go up the next morning, but I will
Speaker 1: be working that night to cover that game. Then they
Speaker 1: go on the road to San Antonio, who continues to
Speaker 1: be super feisty, and they played a tough game there
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. And then Oklahoma City in
Speaker 1: LA on Thursday, So got a chance to re establish
Speaker 1: yourself if you go two and one in that group,
Speaker 1: like if you if you go three and oh, you're in.
Speaker 1: But if you go two and one in that group
Speaker 1: of games, then you re establish yourself as one of
Speaker 1: the really good teams in the league and you're in
Speaker 1: good shape. So I'm not as gloom and doom on
Speaker 1: the Lakers as many Lakers fans are. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: It's all I have for today. Is always as sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Quick scheduling note,
Speaker 1: I'm going tomorrow morning with just a couple game breakdowns
Speaker 1: and some film like I always do. Then tomorrow night
Speaker 1: I'm covering Suns, Lakers, and a bunch of other NCS
Speaker 1: and tournament games that will either go up that night
Speaker 1: or the following morning. But I'm also recording a I'm
Speaker 1: either going to do a mail bagger. I'm having Sam
Speaker 1: Vicini on and that's going to run on Friday. Then
Speaker 1: we're gonna be taking obviously Thursday off for Thanksgiving, So
Speaker 1: that gives you a little scheduling up date for the
Speaker 1: rest of the week. But as always, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys for supporting me. They'll see you next time. The volume.
Speaker 1: What's up guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.