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Speaker 2: All right, welcome to Hoopsini. You're at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, everybody, hope all if you guys had a
Speaker 1: great weekend, I got a jampackshow for you today. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do an instant reaction to the Clippers going into
Speaker 1: Miami and beating the heat, talking a little bit about
Speaker 1: the hot streak for the Clippers as well as a
Speaker 1: cold streak for the Miami to have lost eight of
Speaker 1: their last ten games. After that, the Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 1: here's a crazy stat for you. They've lost eighteen games
Speaker 1: involving clutch situations, meaning the score was within five with
Speaker 1: less than five minutes left a big issue for them.
Speaker 2: Over the course of this year.
Speaker 1: They have twenty five losses and eighteen of them have
Speaker 1: involved clutch situations. So we're gonna do a deep dive
Speaker 1: into that after they wasted a sixty point effort from
Speaker 1: Steph Curry in Atlanta against the Hawks. And then after that,
Speaker 1: as we always do, on Monday, we're gonna update our
Speaker 1: power rankings. You guys are the Joe before we get started,
Speaker 1: subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. It mean a
Speaker 1: lot to me if you guys would take a second
Speaker 1: to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under
Speaker 1: Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful for us if you
Speaker 1: guys take a couple of seconds to rate and review
Speaker 1: the podcast, that would mean a lot to me as well.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about our Twitter feed at underscore JSNLT. That's
Speaker 1: where I put film breakdowns in the morning as well
Speaker 1: as show announcements and not least keep dropping mail bag
Speaker 1: questions in the YouTube comments. We're gonna hit a mail
Speaker 1: bag on Wednesday. It looks like this week and got
Speaker 1: a jam packed week. Tomorrow morning, I've got to show
Speaker 1: that we're gonna do going over the five biggest trades
Speaker 1: that I want to see this season. Then we will
Speaker 1: actually be going with Colin Cowhard Tuesday night for the
Speaker 1: first time this season. So obviously, as you guys remember
Speaker 1: last year after the Super Bowl we went pretty regularly
Speaker 1: with Colin. We're gonna be starting that back up again.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be fun. And then we'll be live on
Speaker 1: YouTube right after the trade deadline on Thursday as well,
Speaker 1: reacting to what hopefully will be a more interesting trade
Speaker 1: deadline than what the last couple of weeks have looked
Speaker 1: like ever since the Pascal Siakam trade. So jam packed week, excited,
Speaker 1: But let's get into Clippers heat. So the biggest thing
Speaker 1: that stood out to me from this particular game, and
Speaker 1: it's been something that stood out all season, and this
Speaker 1: is gonna be a theme that I talk about. The
Speaker 1: idea of like basketball characters is a concept that I
Speaker 1: talk about on the show, and to me, that is
Speaker 1: like the little intangible kind of like effort, energy, focused, discipline, competitiveness,
Speaker 1: things that I think bear out over the course of
Speaker 1: an eighty two game season and our typical hallmarks for
Speaker 1: a team that goes on to win an NBA championship.
Speaker 1: If you look back through NBA history. It's like last
Speaker 1: year the Denver Nuggets were the one seed in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference. We talk about teams like the Lakers and
Speaker 1: the Warriors, teams that can have potential to go on
Speaker 1: a playoff run, but like the team that kind of
Speaker 1: wallows around in mediocrity during the regular season typically doesn't win.
Speaker 1: That's just what NBA history tells us. That doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it can't happen. Obviously, it's not impossible. It's just extremely
Speaker 1: unlikely and NBA history tells us typically not right. And
Speaker 1: you can go further back the Warriors. They were right
Speaker 1: up there with the Phoenix Suns at the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: and then Steph Curry hurt his foot and that's why
Speaker 1: they ended up a little bit lower in the standings.
Speaker 1: But they were consistently one of the best teams in
Speaker 1: that regular season. They were forty f nineteen when Steph
Speaker 1: Curry played. The Bucks were a one seed, the Lakers
Speaker 1: were a one seed, the Raptors were two seeds. So
Speaker 1: this is why we look at these trends over the
Speaker 1: course of the regular season. It's important to talk about
Speaker 1: what works in the regular season and what doesn't, what
Speaker 1: translates in those specific kind of like x'es and o's things,
Speaker 1: But in the bigger picture, if you're not actually trying
Speaker 1: to build championship character over eighty two, typically you'll run
Speaker 1: into some trouble. And we're on an extended stretch here
Speaker 1: from the Clippers or they've been the best team in
Speaker 1: the league since November seventeenth. They are thirty and eight.
Speaker 1: That is the best record in the league over that span.
Speaker 1: That's basically ever since they started zero to six right
Speaker 1: after the hard and trade, they have been the best
Speaker 1: team in the league. They're just one game back of
Speaker 1: the number one seed in the Western Conference. They're trending
Speaker 1: heavily in that direction. So this is the Clippers are
Speaker 1: paying their dues, and you can see it like this
Speaker 1: is a random road game against the Miami Heat, a
Speaker 1: tough team to play, well coached, always does the right
Speaker 1: thing right. They're gritty to get games down into the
Speaker 1: mud and try to expose your weaknesses, and it'd be
Speaker 1: so easy to just bring a lackadaisical effort and do
Speaker 1: the bare minimum to try to win that game, or
Speaker 1: maybe punt a game like that. But like, no, I'm
Speaker 1: watching this game and Paul George is like just contending
Speaker 1: on the perimeter against Terry Rogier getting up in his
Speaker 1: business and applying back pressure and disrupting the basketball. He
Speaker 1: was switching on to Bam at a bio and a
Speaker 1: transition crossmatch and getting a stop in the post. I'm
Speaker 1: seeing James Harden wallop Jimmy Butler in a post up
Speaker 1: and stripping him clean underneath the basket. Like from the
Speaker 1: top down, from the Stars, all the way down the roster.
Speaker 1: These guys are so so so locked in on the details,
Speaker 1: and I think that kind of stuff matters when you
Speaker 1: look at it juxtapose with some of these other teams
Speaker 1: where it's like this consistent theme of like conserving energy
Speaker 1: and like managing your the regular season and just trying
Speaker 1: to survive it versus attacking it. And NBA history tells
Speaker 1: us it's usually the talented veteran team that attacks the
Speaker 1: regular season that runs away with it at the end
Speaker 1: of the day. And the Clippers, again, they've got some
Speaker 1: question marks. They're not a good defensive, rebounding team. They
Speaker 1: rely heavily on pull up jump shooting. They have some
Speaker 1: of those things that could concern you, but they're doing
Speaker 1: everything they can at least within what's in there under
Speaker 1: their control to maximize themselves within this season, they held
Speaker 1: Miami to just six points from about the ten minute
Speaker 1: mark of the fourth quarter to about the four minute
Speaker 1: mark of the fourth quarter. On the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor, James Harden got his step back three going.
Speaker 1: He had three step back threes, including one going to
Speaker 1: his left, which is one you don't see too often
Speaker 1: from James Harden.
Speaker 2: Two of them were and ones.
Speaker 1: James Harden's actually been the very best pull up shooter
Speaker 1: in the league this year, is getting one point one
Speaker 1: seven points per pull up jump shot. That's a fifty
Speaker 1: nine percent effectivegal percentage. They're twenty nine players in the
Speaker 1: NBA who have locked at least two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots this season. James Harden is in
Speaker 1: first place in this group. So remember that was where
Speaker 1: we saw that right around sixty sixty one percent effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage. That's where we saw Steph Curry and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant last year. Both of those guys are down
Speaker 1: this year. James Harden, up at that fifty nine percent,
Speaker 1: is actually at the highest mark.
Speaker 2: In the league at volume.
Speaker 1: Another big guy who made big, a big offensive contribution
Speaker 1: during that run there at the beginning of the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter was Norman Powell, because the heat actually took briefly
Speaker 1: a lead there. Hey what Heiesmith had a layup that
Speaker 1: put him up by one in the early fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and then the Clippers went on this defensive run and
Speaker 1: James Harden was hitting the step back three, and then
Speaker 1: Norman Powell made a couple of plays out of closeouts
Speaker 1: in the left corner. He had a pull up three
Speaker 1: or a catch and shoot three, i should say, and
Speaker 1: then a wonderable pull up kind of ripping through to
Speaker 1: his right, and next thing you know, they're up by thirteen.
Speaker 1: And just like James Harden has been the best pull
Speaker 1: up shooter in the league, Norman Powell has been the
Speaker 1: very best spot.
Speaker 2: Up player in the league this year.
Speaker 1: He's getting one point three to eight points per possession.
Speaker 1: There are thirty two players in the NBA this year
Speaker 1: that have logged at least two hundred spot up possessions
Speaker 1: and he's first place on that list. And like again,
Speaker 1: there's a big difference between looking at spot up possessions
Speaker 1: versus just catch and shoot shooting.
Speaker 2: A catch and shoot.
Speaker 1: Jump shot is an important part of being able to
Speaker 1: attack a close out, because that's the only thing. If
Speaker 1: you can demonstrate that you can knock that shot down consistently,
Speaker 1: that's what we'll get the defender closing out at you hard.
Speaker 2: But I talk about high level close.
Speaker 1: Out attacking all the time because against the very best
Speaker 1: defenses in the league, they're typically going to take away
Speaker 1: most of your open catch and shoot opportunities, especially for
Speaker 1: your best shooters. And then from there, if you beat
Speaker 1: a close out, So if a guy chases you off
Speaker 1: the line and you rip past him to the right
Speaker 1: or to the left, usually help the defense is going
Speaker 1: to come over and take away anything for you at
Speaker 1: the rim. And so a lot of times that high
Speaker 1: level close out attacking is the ability to make a
Speaker 1: shot that's in between that catch and shoot, the drive
Speaker 1: and kick or the driving layup. And like Norman Powell
Speaker 1: has just been the very best player in the league
Speaker 1: this year at not just hitting those catch and shoot threes,
Speaker 1: but reading that closeout defender and slashing off of it
Speaker 1: and making plays in the middle like one point three
Speaker 1: to eight points per possession. Think about how insane that is.
Speaker 1: That's another level of But like Michael Porter Junior, last
Speaker 1: year was one of the best in the league, and
Speaker 1: he was below one point three, So that goes to
Speaker 1: show you just how insanely good Norman Powell has been
Speaker 1: in those spot up situations this year. But like by
Speaker 1: the time Kawhi got back into the game in the
Speaker 1: middle of the fourth quarter, they were already up thirteen.
Speaker 1: Game was basically over at that point. Miami made a little,
Speaker 1: little kind of fake late run, but they never truly
Speaker 1: threatened and then they get out of Miami with the win,
Speaker 1: and like again, it is a tough balance between conserving
Speaker 1: energy and building good habits, but in my opinion, it
Speaker 1: is better to aggressively attack the regular season. Obviously, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying play hurt. I'm just saying bringing effort and
Speaker 1: energy rather than trying to conserve effort and energy is
Speaker 1: the way to prepare yourself for what is the impossible
Speaker 1: grind of the NBA playoffs to win four times out
Speaker 1: of seven, winning in these two week chunks, beating a
Speaker 1: team four times out of seven, and then turning around
Speaker 1: and doing it again, and then turning around and doing
Speaker 1: it again, and then turning around and doing it again
Speaker 1: against increasingly more difficult opponents. It's a grind. You don't
Speaker 1: get to take your time and load managed during that stretch.
Speaker 1: And so again like actually preparing your body for that
Speaker 1: type of grind over the course of the regular season.
Speaker 1: But above and beyond that, even to just the habits
Speaker 1: and the continuity with your lineups, the discipline to actually
Speaker 1: make the right decision on both ends of the floor
Speaker 1: within your scheme. It is an important part of that.
Speaker 1: And I've just been so impressed by the Clippers this year.
Speaker 1: They've just completely and utterly attacked this regular season since
Speaker 1: the James Harden trade. It especially unusual considering some of
Speaker 1: the older veteran players on that roster. Kuhi's MVP case
Speaker 1: is starting to gain steam again. Like we talked about,
Speaker 1: thirty and eight since November seventeenth, best record in the span.
Speaker 1: Over that span, Kawi's only missed four games all season,
Speaker 1: shooting fifty three percent from the field forty five percent
Speaker 1: from three to eighty nine percent from the line. That's
Speaker 1: sixty four percent in true shooting percentage. That is the
Speaker 1: highest mark of his career. He's also having the best
Speaker 1: defensive season he's had in years. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: he's getting two point six stocks per game that steals
Speaker 1: plus blocks. That's the most he's had in a single
Speaker 1: season on average since he was with the San Antonio Spurs.
Speaker 1: So you're getting a more engaged defensive version of Kui.
Speaker 1: Another big element of having James Harden to help with
Speaker 1: the ball handling load. And then it's showed up in
Speaker 1: the numbers. The Clippers are twelve points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions better when Kawhi is on the floor versus off
Speaker 1: the floor. Now will he win the MVP? It remains
Speaker 1: to be seen. The biggest thing that works against him
Speaker 1: on that front is that the Clippers do have a
Speaker 1: lot of talent, and when you look around and you see,
Speaker 1: you know, James Harden and Paul George on the court,
Speaker 1: a lot of times that can kind of sway voters.
Speaker 1: But Kawhi is playing some of the best basketball of
Speaker 1: his career and very much belongs in that conversation. And
Speaker 1: if they keep winning at this rate, I think he
Speaker 1: has a very good chance to win it. But Zubox
Speaker 1: coming back now, he played came back on a minute's restriction.
Speaker 1: It looked like last night's game. A mere coffee is
Speaker 1: another guy I wanted to shout out just another example
Speaker 1: of like kind of a useful two way wing that
Speaker 1: they have coming off the bench, can really shoot the
Speaker 1: basketball and is a good athlete. It has some good
Speaker 1: length and bring some speed to that perimeter defense core
Speaker 1: that they're already so deep in. Again, their only red
Speaker 1: flag really is that they still struggle with defensive rebounding
Speaker 1: and they just rely really heavily on pull up jump shooting,
Speaker 1: and so that just adds some variance when they get
Speaker 1: to the postseason. On the Miami front, they've now lost
Speaker 1: eight out of ten games. They just cannot score the
Speaker 1: basketball right now. They have a one zero, seven point
Speaker 1: eight offensive rating over this ten game span. That's twenty
Speaker 1: ninth in the NBA. Only the Grizzlies have been worse
Speaker 1: over the last ten games, and that's just bite Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler being awesome. Jimmy Butler shoot fifty eight percent from
Speaker 1: the field in fifty eight percent from three over this span,
Speaker 1: but Jimei Hakkez has been slumping a little bit since
Speaker 1: he came back from his injury. Tyler Harrow has been
Speaker 1: shooting below forty percent over this span. Terry Rose year
Speaker 1: since joining the Heat thirty three percent from the field,
Speaker 1: twenty two percent from three, So like they're just struggling
Speaker 1: outside of that Jimmy Butler position. Bam Adebayo is only
Speaker 1: giving you like sixteen points a game over this span.
Speaker 1: And you know, some of this is to be expected
Speaker 1: because when you add a new kind of ball handler
Speaker 1: into the group, it just disrupts the flow of everybody,
Speaker 1: and so some of that just needs to be sorted out. Like,
Speaker 1: do I think Miami's going to be this bad on
Speaker 1: offense this long? Probably not right, But they're also not
Speaker 1: shooting particularly well, Like as a team, they're shooting just
Speaker 1: thirty four percent from three over this ten game span.
Speaker 1: That's bottom five in the league over that stretch. So
Speaker 1: like a lot of it will turn around. I think
Speaker 1: just as they get a little bit more used to
Speaker 1: playing with each other. There's they've added legitimate offensive firepower here,
Speaker 1: and I do expect this team to be a better
Speaker 1: offer in the long run. That said, over the span,
Speaker 1: they're also twenty second in defense and twenty first in rebounding,
Speaker 1: So a little bit of a slip here, this kind
Speaker 1: of thing can happen, and we see this like like
Speaker 1: we were just talking about it with the Sacramento Kings,
Speaker 1: Like for most of January they were pretty mediocre, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden in the last couple of
Speaker 1: weeks they're kind of snapping back into form. This time
Speaker 1: of year, you see lots of ebbs and flows in teams,
Speaker 1: especially teams that have made it to the playoffs before
Speaker 1: and can struggle a little bit with motivation over the
Speaker 1: course of the regular season. I can never be out
Speaker 1: on the Miami Heat, but they're definitely playing some bad
Speaker 1: basketball right now.
Speaker 2: All right, let's move on to the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: So the Warriors waste an absolute heater from Steph Curry
Speaker 1: losing in Atlanta in overtime. Steph had sixty points. He
Speaker 1: was just absolutely barbecuing Dejhonte Murray down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game was killing him and picking roll was killing him.
Speaker 1: In iso there after he got going, stopped calling for
Speaker 1: the ball screen and basically just dribbled up into like
Speaker 1: a high hesitation. It would just if Deonte was giving
Speaker 1: him space, he'd step back. If he wasn't, he would
Speaker 1: just go right him. He was scoring at the rim,
Speaker 1: he was scoring from three. Did the shot he had
Speaker 1: that should have been the go ahead shot in the
Speaker 1: final minute was like a floater after he split a
Speaker 1: ball screen with de Jon de Marty. He was unbelievable
Speaker 1: down the stretch of this game. And he's fully back
Speaker 1: and form now. His last five games, Steph thirty nine
Speaker 1: points per game, fifty three percent from the field and
Speaker 1: forty six percent from three, has not missed a free throw.
Speaker 1: So Steph, whatever slumpy was in there in the middle
Speaker 1: of the season seems to be coming out the other
Speaker 1: side of that. But the Warrior still lost that game.
Speaker 1: Why is that for two reasons they couldn't get a stop.
Speaker 1: They had a one seventy one defensive rating in seven
Speaker 1: minutes of clutch basketball against Atlanta, they were really struggling
Speaker 1: with Trey Young in ball screens. They tried guarding him
Speaker 1: straight up, just with like a traditional coverage. Jonathan Camingo
Speaker 1: was struggling with screen navigation. He lost Trey Young for three.
Speaker 1: Then they started blitzing the ball screen. Trey was like
Speaker 1: just dribbling around the blitzer and getting downhill into the
Speaker 1: lane and making floaters. Then they started trying doubling him
Speaker 1: at half court, and they just made quick reads out
Speaker 1: of it on the back end to get baskets. In
Speaker 1: those four on threes, Raymond Green in particular was kind
Speaker 1: of struggling splitting the difference between Trey's floater and getting
Speaker 1: back to anyaka conglu at the basket, and he actually
Speaker 1: lost him on layups a couple of times and then
Speaker 1: also gave up a couple offensive rebounds. So like that
Speaker 1: to me is less on Draymond and more on the
Speaker 1: perimeter defense. When your screen defender is constantly having to
Speaker 1: navigate two places at once, you're putting him in no
Speaker 1: man's land, and that's just a really difficult place to
Speaker 1: play defense. And one of the biggest issues the for
Speaker 1: the Warriors right now is they're really really struggling to
Speaker 1: contain the ball. This is a big part of why,
Speaker 1: you know, Steve Kurrz talked about Gary Payton the second
Speaker 1: and how like he specifically is one of the most
Speaker 1: important elements coming back post trade deadline is because they
Speaker 1: just need a guard that can actually stay in front
Speaker 1: of some of these guys. It's like, you go with
Speaker 1: Brandon Pazemski, he's just not quite athletic enough, right. You
Speaker 1: go with Andrew Wiggins, it comes with all these offensive
Speaker 1: limitations that he's been showing as of late, and so
Speaker 1: having Gary Payton back could go along to help them there.
Speaker 1: But they just really really struggled defensively against Atlanta. And
Speaker 1: that's a bigger picture issue that we'll get to in
Speaker 1: a second. But the second reason that they fell apart
Speaker 1: against Atlanta, and this is something I've been talking about
Speaker 1: all season, nobody aside from Steph can contribute offensively for
Speaker 1: them inside of these moments. You probably thought watching that
Speaker 1: game that the Warrior offense was great down the stretch,
Speaker 1: right because Steph was hitting all those damn shots. Nope,
Speaker 1: they had a one hundred offensive rating in seven clutch
Speaker 1: minutes and a big part of that is they went
Speaker 1: cold in overtime. But again, when you're relying on one
Speaker 1: guy to score and no one else can when that
Speaker 1: guy finally starts missing shots or the defense starts to
Speaker 1: get the ball out of his hands, if you can't
Speaker 1: capitalize on the back end, you're going to struggle. And
Speaker 1: like if you look at Jus like again, that game
Speaker 1: is a perfect juxtaposition with Trey and it's Trey's killing
Speaker 1: you and pick and roll. But then boy and Bogdanovitch
Speaker 1: just like or Bogdan Bogdanovitch just like hits a really
Speaker 1: nice step back jump going to his right along the baseline,
Speaker 1: right in Draymond's face, perfectly defended, just knocks down the shot.
Speaker 1: De Jontay Murray got his revenge after Steph cooked him
Speaker 1: because tied the game in regulation with the pull up
Speaker 1: jump jumper. Hit a few more pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: in overtime. You're getting significant offensive contribution alongside Trey Young.
Speaker 1: That just makes it that much easier. Basketball is all
Speaker 1: about versatility, not predictability. It's not about being amazing at
Speaker 1: one thing. You've got to be able to win in
Speaker 1: different ways. You have to be able to defend in
Speaker 1: different ways with different coverages, and you have to be
Speaker 1: able to score in different ways. Because it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if the Steph Draymond ballscreen is getting you a few
Speaker 1: step back threes with a few minutes left in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, if they make an adjustment and they start
Speaker 1: to chase him off of that shot, you got to
Speaker 1: have something else you can go to at that point.
Speaker 1: The Warriors have now lost eighteen games involving clutch situations.
Speaker 1: That's the second most in the entire league, only the Pistons, Spurs,
Speaker 1: and Raptors are behind them all having lost nineteen games
Speaker 1: in clutch time. They have a one to six teen
Speaker 1: offensive rating that's very mediocre, and they have a one
Speaker 1: fifteen defensive rating that's very mediocre. And again, this is
Speaker 1: the concerning part. This is despite Steph Curry being amazing
Speaker 1: in clutch situations, think about this. This is crazy. If
Speaker 1: you take Steph Curry's scoring in clutch situations and you
Speaker 1: extrapolated out to a per thirty six metric, meaning if
Speaker 1: you basically looked at the way he's playing in crunch
Speaker 1: time and turned it into a player who plays thirty
Speaker 1: six minutes a game, He's scoring at a rate of
Speaker 1: fifty points per thirty six. He's literally like Wilt Chamberlain
Speaker 1: in terms of box score production at the end of
Speaker 1: these games. Think about how insane that is. He has
Speaker 1: forty seven made field goals in clutch time this year.
Speaker 1: Second place is Mikale Bridges at thirty five. Is twelve
Speaker 1: more made field goals in clutch time than anybody else
Speaker 1: in the league. He's shooting fifty two percent from the
Speaker 1: field in those situations, forty nine percent from three, ninety
Speaker 1: seven percent from the line, and only one war year
Speaker 1: has given him double digit clutch made field goals and
Speaker 1: support this year Klay Thompson, He's made twelve out of
Speaker 1: forty one shots. That's twenty nine percent from the field.
Speaker 1: It's become their biggest issue this season. They constantly end
Speaker 1: up in close games and they can't guard and they
Speaker 1: can't give Stephan any support. And like zoom out a
Speaker 1: little bit, Like think about how frustrating this season has
Speaker 1: been for Warriors fans. You have twenty five losses. Eighteen
Speaker 1: of those twenty five losses were in crunch time? Am
Speaker 1: I right about the twenty five? It might even be
Speaker 1: twenty six? I'm gonna double check real quick. Yeah, twenty
Speaker 1: five losses, eighteen of them have been in crunch time. So, like,
Speaker 1: imagine just thinking in the perspective of the standings right now,
Speaker 1: you're six games back of the Suns to be out
Speaker 1: of the play in. Like if instead of losing eighteen
Speaker 1: of those games, you lost fifteen of those games, You're
Speaker 1: now three games closer to your three games out of
Speaker 1: being out of the playan, see how big of a
Speaker 1: difference that can make. It's a significant issue, And like
Speaker 1: it's a defense and rebounding issue. Too, Like we've talked
Speaker 1: about they give up an offensive rebound on thirty nine
Speaker 1: percent of their opponent's missus in clutch situations, thirty nine percent.
Speaker 1: Like if that means if they get ten stops in
Speaker 1: a five minute stretch, they're giving up four offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: And like Kurrs started to go small at the end
Speaker 1: of these games, like he's used to be that he
Speaker 1: kind of go with Wiggins, and now he's kind of
Speaker 1: going Brandon Pazemski a lot in these situations. And I
Speaker 1: get it, like his Wiggins has been struggling so much offensively,
Speaker 1: although he started to get it going there for a while.
Speaker 1: I had a rough game against Atlanta, But like my
Speaker 1: thing is, like it's not like you're leaning on Pozemski
Speaker 1: offensively much anyway, So like, why not just give yourself
Speaker 1: a bigger physical profile, Why not put Wiggins out there
Speaker 1: just to give yourself a better chance to hold up physically.
Speaker 1: I continue to say that I would lean into Steph
Speaker 1: Clay Wiggins and Kaminga and Draymond and one of the
Speaker 1: things too. Jonathan Kamena this year seven for thirteen in
Speaker 1: crunch time, so like he hasn't really had much opportunity,
Speaker 1: but he's scored when he has been given that opportunity.
Speaker 1: He drew a foul and a post up down the
Speaker 1: stretch against Atlanta. I would be looking to try to
Speaker 1: get somebody else involved a little bit more frequently so
Speaker 1: that when Steph kind of cools off or when they
Speaker 1: take the ball out of his hands, someone else has
Speaker 1: an is an option available for them to go to.
Speaker 1: All right, moving on to our power rankings, So much
Speaker 1: more positive this week compared to last week, Like most
Speaker 1: of the top teams lost one game but then won
Speaker 1: the rest of their games. We did have two teams
Speaker 1: dropping out. The Philadelphia seventy six ers, they've lost five
Speaker 1: out of six. Also big picture trends here. After their
Speaker 1: eight and one start, they're just twenty two and seventeen
Speaker 1: for the season. They're just ten and eleven against teams
Speaker 1: that are five hundred or better. So, like a lot
Speaker 1: of it has been easy schedule for them in terms
Speaker 1: of where they're at in the standing, they have a
Speaker 1: really tough schedule down the stretch this season. And now
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid is out for an undetermined amount of time
Speaker 1: due to knee surgery. So obviously, like we were already
Speaker 1: starting to see some of these trends form, and now
Speaker 1: they're in a really tough spot with where they're at
Speaker 1: with the remaining schedule and with Joel Embiid missing at
Speaker 1: least but at least a month of that, if not longer.
Speaker 1: Now on the Joel Embiid injury front, sounds like it's
Speaker 1: going to depend entirely on how.
Speaker 2: The surgery goes.
Speaker 1: Like it looks like he could be back in time
Speaker 1: for the playoffs or he could be done for the season.
Speaker 1: And in a lot of ways, it kind of simplifies
Speaker 1: their deadline strategy because it looked for a while there
Speaker 1: like they might need to be a little bit more
Speaker 1: aggressive to try to bring in some firepower. But now
Speaker 1: there's no need to overpay or to like kind of
Speaker 1: rush that process. You can kind of take your time
Speaker 1: with it. Give the keys to Tyrese Maxi. Let him
Speaker 1: run the show here down the stretch of the season.
Speaker 1: See what he's got there, see find out more about
Speaker 1: his development over the course of this stretch. When he
Speaker 1: doesn't have a pick and roll partner the likes of
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid, it's gonna be a hard challenge for him.
Speaker 1: But you're gonna find out a lot more about him
Speaker 1: and what he can mean for you as a foundational piece,
Speaker 1: whether or not he's good enough to be your second
Speaker 1: best player. If you're better served for him to be
Speaker 1: your third best player, you can learn a lot. In hell,
Speaker 1: if you find a good deal around this deadline, you
Speaker 1: could jump on it, but you don't have to be
Speaker 1: the desperate team, and that could give them some flexibility.
Speaker 1: I personally hope Joel Embie can come back because I
Speaker 1: want to see him overcome this playoff challenge that he's
Speaker 1: been dealing with. At this phase of his career, I
Speaker 1: think he has the potential to be the best player
Speaker 1: in the world, So I'm hoping that he gets a
Speaker 1: good outcome from his knee surgery and that he can
Speaker 1: come back and make a run before the end of
Speaker 1: the season. But this does simplify some of the urgency
Speaker 1: surrounding Philly because it's no longer just like a kind
Speaker 1: of like a clear runway into the playoffs like you
Speaker 1: would hope for in a season like this. And then
Speaker 1: the other team that's dropping out for me is the
Speaker 1: Indiana Pacers. They've lost eight of their last thirteen games.
Speaker 1: They've lost three in a row against good teams this week.
Speaker 1: The offense has been mediocre, the defense has been bad,
Speaker 1: the rebounding has been worse. Will dive a little bit
Speaker 1: more into the Pacers here in the next couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: but the upside there. They've had one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: seven sessions with Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam on the
Speaker 1: floor together, and in those possessions they are outscoring teams
Speaker 1: by sixteen points for one hundred possessions of one to
Speaker 1: twenty eight offensive rating, which is like insane off the
Speaker 1: charge good in a one thirteen defensive rating, which is
Speaker 1: perfectly fine. It's not great, but it's better than what
Speaker 1: they've been most of this season. So, without any further ado,
Speaker 1: let's get to our power rankings. Number ten the Sacramento Kings.
Speaker 1: They finally seem to have gotten over their January slump.
Speaker 1: They've won six out of seven games, mostly on the road.
Speaker 1: They're also ninth in defense over that span and tenth
Speaker 1: in defensive rebounding. There's been a pretty consistent theme this
Speaker 1: year that when the Sacramento Kings actually commit to the
Speaker 1: defensive end.
Speaker 2: They win. It's literally that simple.
Speaker 1: As a matter of factor's stat for you, when the
Speaker 1: Kings have held their opponents to one hundred and ten
Speaker 1: or fewer points this year, they are eleven and three,
Speaker 1: and then they are eighteen and sixteen in all of
Speaker 1: their other games. So that's a trend to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on the rest of the way, very very much,
Speaker 1: something that I'm sure Mike Brown has been preaching to
Speaker 1: them throughout the season. Number nine the Milwaukee Bucks. So
Speaker 1: after losing to the Jazz last night, Bucks are now
Speaker 1: one in three since Stock Rivers became their head coach.
Speaker 1: But it's been the offense that's failed them. I actually
Speaker 1: think their defense statistically it's been right where it was
Speaker 1: before the coaching change, right around a one to sixteen
Speaker 1: defensive rating. But on tape I actually am seeing some strides,
Speaker 1: especially from the guards and just overall commitment. I just
Speaker 1: think they ran into some bad matchups like Denver's the
Speaker 1: defending champion. Utah and Portland are super young and have
Speaker 1: super fast guards, which are like specific matchup issues. For Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: it's the offense that has failed them over this span.
Speaker 1: They have typically or they're around a one to twenty
Speaker 1: offensive rating there and a one fourteen since stock Rivers
Speaker 1: took over Dame was five for eighteen again last night.
Speaker 1: He just continues to just put these really putrid shooting
Speaker 1: nights up, and so I'm not really worried about their
Speaker 1: offense in the long run. So I think this is
Speaker 1: more of just like a brief stretch of offensive slumping
Speaker 1: alongside with some bad matchups that have kind of paused
Speaker 1: that one in three start under Doc River. I tend
Speaker 1: to agree with Giannis. I know it's not pretty, but
Speaker 1: I do think better times are on the horizon for
Speaker 1: the Bucks. Number eight the Phoenix Suns rejoining our power rankings.
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal had forty three last night in a win
Speaker 1: against the Washington Wizards. He's been in the lineup for
Speaker 1: twenty straight games now and the Suns are fourteen and
Speaker 1: six in those games, and they actually won a game
Speaker 1: against Houston right before that, So they're fifteen and six
Speaker 1: in their last twenty one games, fifth best record in
Speaker 1: the league over that span. That's a fourth of the season.
Speaker 1: That's a hefty chunk of games. They are also second
Speaker 1: in offensive rating over that span and fourteenth in defense,
Speaker 1: pretty respectable. Their defensive rebounding is still a little bit
Speaker 1: of a struggle for them. I think they're twenty third
Speaker 1: over that span. Devin Booker also fully back to his
Speaker 1: superstar form last thirteen games, thirty two points, five rebounds,
Speaker 1: and six assists, fifty four percent from the field, forty
Speaker 1: percent from three, and eighty seven percent from the line.
Speaker 2: Number seven.
Speaker 1: The Oklahoma City Thunder had bad loss in Detroit, and
Speaker 1: then they dropped a tough one to Minnesota where Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards and car Towns kind of just out executed them
Speaker 1: down the stretch and their offense stalled against a very
Speaker 1: very good Minnesota defense. But they did get back on
Speaker 1: track against the Nuggets without Yokis are actually three and one
Speaker 1: against the Nuggets this year, and then they beat Charlotte
Speaker 1: in Toronto as well. The Toronto game in particular was
Speaker 1: encouraging because chet Holmgrin, Josh Giddy, and Lou dort all
Speaker 1: kind of got back on track after they'd been slumping
Speaker 1: for a little while. And chet in particular has been
Speaker 1: on track for about three games now. He sit ten
Speaker 1: threes in his last three games, savaging just under twenty
Speaker 1: points per game, nine blocks over that span, and double
Speaker 1: digit plus minus in all three of those games. In
Speaker 1: terms of the positive. So Chet seems to be getting
Speaker 1: it back together, got over that little slump that he
Speaker 1: was dealing with there in January. Number six, the Cleveland
Speaker 1: Cavaliers undefeated week lighter stretch of their schedule, but they
Speaker 1: did on Monday notch a big win against the Clippers,
Speaker 1: really really good defensive effort, really contained Paul George Well,
Speaker 1: really contained James Hardenwell got out in transition. We did
Speaker 1: a whole deep dive not just on that game, but
Speaker 1: on everything going on the Cavs with Carter Rodriguez from
Speaker 1: the Chase Down podcast last week on Wednesday, went for
Speaker 1: like forty five minutes.
Speaker 2: It was a long pod.
Speaker 1: We did a lot of deep dive analysis on the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers to make sure you check that out. A
Speaker 1: little bit further back on our feet. Number five the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolves, So Chris Finch got on them the other
Speaker 1: night after losing to Orlando, talking about forming some bad
Speaker 1: habits and behaving like a five hundred team. And if
Speaker 1: you zoom out there, like it's actually kind of funny
Speaker 1: because actually look at this as like classic coaching, just
Speaker 1: like really good motivational coaching, trying to like just stay
Speaker 1: on his team, because you gotta think like Minnesota has
Speaker 1: been outstanding all season, and they have some specific things
Speaker 1: that bode really well for them for the postseason. They
Speaker 1: have a huge frontline, they're an elite defensive team. They've
Speaker 1: got a Tier one superstar in or at least a
Speaker 1: guy who could be a Tier one superstar, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards that can is pretty much unguardable in terms of
Speaker 1: getting to his spots, primarily decision making and settling. For him,
Speaker 1: he's got a little bit of the Jason Tatum itis
Speaker 1: where it's like he is the best athlete on the
Speaker 1: floor but just takes a million pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: and he's not particularly efficient with them. But like, really
Speaker 1: it's been it's been mostly good, and I think what
Speaker 1: happens is you end up in a stretch like this
Speaker 1: where it's late January, early February. You drop a couple
Speaker 1: of games you shouldn't have lost, right, Like they lost
Speaker 1: to Charlotte that shouldn't happen, Losing to Orlando at home
Speaker 1: probably shouldn't happen, Losing to San Antonio probably shouldn't happen.
Speaker 2: But they've been really, really good.
Speaker 1: They were really good against a tough schedule for a
Speaker 1: month before that. This is just classic coaching. Gotta stay
Speaker 1: on top of your guys, got to keep them motivated,
Speaker 1: make them feel like they're in danger even when they're not.
Speaker 1: And that's the best way to get a group to
Speaker 1: kind of do what the Clippers are doing, which is
Speaker 1: just attack every single regular season game to make to
Speaker 1: maintain their habits. One concern their offense kind of fell
Speaker 1: apart again late in the game against Orlando. Now like
Speaker 1: part of that's Orlando has this ridiculous defensive punch, and
Speaker 1: when they really lock in, they can be tough to
Speaker 1: score on, but zoom out. One of my biggest concerns
Speaker 1: for the Timberwolves all season has been their late execution.
Speaker 1: They are twenty seventh in fourth quarter offensive rating this season.
Speaker 1: It's been a major point of concern for me in
Speaker 1: terms of their playoff potential. Number four the New York
Speaker 1: Knicks injuries ended their nine game winning streak against the
Speaker 1: Los Angeleslikers, who actually been playing some decent basketball as
Speaker 1: of late. Julius Randall heard his shoulder, then Oji had
Speaker 1: Anobi had some elbow inflammation. Actually have a funny story
Speaker 1: about this. When I was living in Charlotte, so this
Speaker 1: would have been like twenty seventeen. I'll never forget. We
Speaker 1: played in like a men's league game and the game
Speaker 1: went fine, there was no issue. But I woke up
Speaker 1: the next morning and I went to the gym to
Speaker 1: go shooting, and I start my shooting workout, just going
Speaker 1: around the world, just like shooting from block to block
Speaker 1: to the foul line. It's just a way to kind
Speaker 1: of like warm up my elbow, and like I went
Speaker 1: to shoot from the elbow in my I just felt
Speaker 1: this like excruciating pain in my right elbow and it
Speaker 1: ended up turning into this huge deal. I had to
Speaker 1: wear like a brace for a while. It was like
Speaker 1: really bad inflammation. I think it might have actually been
Speaker 1: tennis elbow, but like it was gnarly, and it like
Speaker 1: straight up made me stop playing basketball for like a.
Speaker 2: Couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: So like when I saw that, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I hope OG's not dealing with what I had back
Speaker 1: when I was in Charlotte, because that like legit messed
Speaker 1: with my jump shot for like the better part of
Speaker 1: like six months to a year.
Speaker 2: So I'm hopeful that they just get.
Speaker 1: In front of that and just let his elbow whatever
Speaker 1: that inflammation is, subside, because it's more important for him
Speaker 1: to be ready to go for the postseason. I think
Speaker 1: we've already seen enough from this stretch since og And and
Speaker 1: Obi joined the team to know that they've got a
Speaker 1: real physical imposition that they can bring to the table,
Speaker 1: that they are a real playoff threat. So there's no
Speaker 1: reason to force it back. Take your time, get healthy.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson last ten games, by the way, thirty three
Speaker 1: points per game, four rebounds, and seven assists on fifty
Speaker 1: two thirty seven eighty four splits. So Jalen Brunston playing
Speaker 1: at a superstar level right now. He's phenomenal. In that
Speaker 1: Lakers game, was drawing crazy double teams the only way
Speaker 1: the Lakers one was basically just a gimmick defense Chase
Speaker 1: getting the ball out of his hands. As obviously New
Speaker 1: York was playing with lesser players, but he was incredible
Speaker 1: down the stretch of the Indiana Pacers game as well.
Speaker 1: Kind of insane how much of a hit Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: was as a free agent signing and how it changed
Speaker 1: really the fortunes of that franchise. Number three, the Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics couple hard fought wins against the Pelicans and Pacers,
Speaker 1: and then they drop a game to the Lakers without
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis, and offense has been the
Speaker 1: main issue in their losses. A one to oh five
Speaker 1: offensive rating against Milwaukee, a ninety nine offensive rating against
Speaker 1: the Clippers, a one to oh nine offensive rating against
Speaker 1: the Lakers. And the big thing here is they've just
Speaker 1: leaned into variants. They're attaching the fate of their season
Speaker 1: to variants. They attempt forty three threes for one hundred possessions,
Speaker 1: that is by far the most in the league. And
Speaker 1: when they go in, they beat the hell out of you,
Speaker 1: and when they're not going in, they can be beat
Speaker 1: and it's a little I just would like to see
Speaker 1: them add a little bit more variety to the way
Speaker 1: that they attack instead of leaning so heavily on driving
Speaker 1: kick basketball and just hunting three point shots whenever they can,
Speaker 1: just because I think it would give them a little
Speaker 1: bit more offensive resilience. And I would look at some
Speaker 1: of these down offensive games, especially against quality opponents, as
Speaker 1: part of the concern there, because it's very clear that
Speaker 1: shooting is contagious for Boston when they lose their confidence,
Speaker 1: when teams can kind of get them into one of
Speaker 1: those rough shooting nights, they kind of sulk and it
Speaker 1: almost gets worse for them from there, And like having
Speaker 1: another punch you can go to is actually a great
Speaker 1: way to mitigate a rough shooting night if you can
Speaker 1: lean into a different offensive identity, whether it's heavy heavy
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum in the post, or whether it's a you
Speaker 1: know of going to Porzingis in the post, or leaning
Speaker 1: more to pick and pop basketball with Porzingis, to try
Speaker 1: to get more advantage situations like getting out of just
Speaker 1: leaning on just driving kick threes and tough transition threes.
Speaker 1: Making it so that you have less variance could go
Speaker 1: a long way towards helping them have a little bit
Speaker 1: more resilience in those matchups. Number two, the Denver Nuggets
Speaker 1: dropped a game to Oklahoma City without Jokich, but they
Speaker 1: had an undefeated week outside of that. Another classic crunch
Speaker 1: time game against Milwaukee, they completely out executed them down
Speaker 1: the stretch, despite Doc Rivers throwing some pretty smart defensive
Speaker 1: coverages at them to try to mitigate their advantages. The
Speaker 1: Nuggets now have the best clutch net rating in the league.
Speaker 1: They're outscoring opponents by twenty three points for one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions when the game is within five with less than
Speaker 1: five minutes left. Specifically on the defensive end, they have
Speaker 1: been the very best clutch defense in the league this
Speaker 1: year and then last but not least number one the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Clippers. They dropped a tough game on the
Speaker 1: road to that red hot Cavs team like we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier, but they bounced back and one of the
Speaker 1: rest of their games. The Clippers, in my opinion this
Speaker 1: season to this point here at February fifth, have showed
Speaker 1: the best combination of talent and basketball character that I've
Speaker 1: seen this year. What that means is actual firepower on
Speaker 1: the roster and commitment to the details from start to
Speaker 1: finish this season. And I'm not just talking about like
Speaker 1: playing hard. I'm even talking about playing smart, leaning into
Speaker 1: their strengths, practicing the things that will lead them home
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. I've been I've been
Speaker 1: so incredibly impressed by the Clippers. It's it's it's starting
Speaker 1: to look like kind of a like it's starting to
Speaker 1: look like it's their year in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: and At this point, I think they belong at number
Speaker 1: one in the power rankings. I'm like this close to
Speaker 1: moving them into that top tier of contenders with Boston
Speaker 1: and h and Denver. It's it's just been, it's just
Speaker 1: been a hell of a year for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Speaker 1: All Right, guys, that is all I have for today.
Speaker 1: Like I said, we'll be back tomorrow with our five
Speaker 1: the five trades that I most want to see this year,
Speaker 1: and then we're also going to have a show with
Speaker 1: Colin Coward tomorrow evening, and then don't forget the trade
Speaker 1: deadline reaction on Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you guys, and we will see
Speaker 2: you then.
Speaker 1: The volume