Speaker 1: The volume, from the football playoffs to college and pro
Speaker 1: basketball to the rush of hockey. What a time to
Speaker 1: be a sports fan. It's all happening and you can
Speaker 1: get in on all the action of all the sports
Speaker 1: you love at Draft Kings Sportsbook. But so many sports.
Speaker 1: Every day is game day at DraftKings. That means unlimited
Speaker 1: opportunities to place your first bet, and DraftKings makes it easy.
Speaker 1: How easy? Try betting on something simple like picking a
Speaker 1: team to win. Go to the Draft Kings Sportsbook app
Speaker 1: and pick your team and place your bet. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite bets to look at right now is the
Speaker 1: NBA Championship picture. I have three teams in the same tier.
Speaker 1: I have Boston, Oklahoma City, and Cleveland all in the
Speaker 1: same tier. But Boston's at plus two fifty, the Thunder
Speaker 1: at plus two sixty five. The Cavs are at plus
Speaker 1: eleven hundred, So some nice value there to help get
Speaker 1: you started. Here's something special for all new customers. Bet
Speaker 1: five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets.
Speaker 1: Instantly download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app and use code hoops.
Speaker 1: That's code hoops, that's hoops. For new customers, to get
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when you bet
Speaker 1: just five bucks DraftKings the crown is yours. Gamble problem
Speaker 1: called one eight hundred gambler in New York called eight
Speaker 1: seven seven eight Hope and Why or text hope and
Speaker 1: why to four six seven three six nine Connecticut help
Speaker 1: us available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven
Speaker 1: eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 1: Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
Speaker 1: in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction.
Speaker 1: Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms
Speaker 1: and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co slash audio.
Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the volume
Speaker 1: heavy Monday. Everybody off. All of you guys had an
Speaker 1: incredible weekend. We have a jam pack show for you guys.
Speaker 1: There's a ton of pessimism surrounding the Boston Celtics, even
Speaker 1: though they're five and two in their last seven games.
Speaker 1: I want to give my thoughts on that. Some of
Speaker 1: the reality of some of the things they've been struggling with,
Speaker 1: but also why I'm not particularly concerned ad to that
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets have won seven out of nine. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do a little deep dive into them, and the
Speaker 1: resurgence of Russell Westbrook having the most efficient scoring season
Speaker 1: of his career. After that, a little bit about Bradley
Speaker 1: Beale going to the bench for the Phoenix Suns, and
Speaker 1: some stuff that I noticed watching some Suns film over
Speaker 1: the course of the weekend, and then at the tail
Speaker 1: end of the show like we do every Monday, although
Speaker 1: we did not do last Monday because I was out
Speaker 1: of town. Our power rankings going over the top ten
Speaker 1: teams in the league, a bunch of new faces there
Speaker 1: as a couple of red hot teams, the Detroit Pistons,
Speaker 1: the Sacramento Kings, and the Indiana Pacers making appearances. Also
Speaker 1: getting into the rest of the teams in that list
Speaker 1: as well. You guys did the job before we get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't
Speaker 1: miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Underscore JCNLTC. You guys don't miss announcements. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about a podcast feed where you get your podcast O
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review on that front. We also have
Speaker 1: brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
Speaker 1: where we're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you
Speaker 1: guys follow us there, and the last but not least,
Speaker 1: keep dropping mailback questions and the YouTube comments that we
Speaker 1: can keep getting to them throughout the remainder of the season.
Speaker 1: A right, let's talk some basketball. So is there something
Speaker 1: wrong with the Boston Celtics. They've actually won five out
Speaker 1: of seven, but as you zoom out, a couple of
Speaker 1: disappointing losses in there, right, Like you get kind of
Speaker 1: bludgeoned in the second half against Oklahoma City. There's that
Speaker 1: embarrassing loss at home to the Kings without beer and Fox.
Speaker 1: And if you zoom out even further, they're seven and
Speaker 1: six since December nineteenth, so a thirteen game span where
Speaker 1: they're basically playing five hundred basketball. The weird thing is
Speaker 1: is they're actually top five in both offensive rating and
Speaker 1: defensive rating in that span. One of the many reasons
Speaker 1: why I'm not super concerned is that every single time
Speaker 1: Boston kind of comes out and plays pissed off. They
Speaker 1: don't just win, they beat the shit out of people.
Speaker 1: And that's what's influencing those advanced metrics to steal and
Speaker 1: to still appear good despite the seven and six record, Right,
Speaker 1: But again, like that's kind of part of the natural
Speaker 1: pullback that I would have expected to see this year
Speaker 1: with the defending champion. So before we get into any
Speaker 1: more detail about the specific things that Boston struggling with,
Speaker 1: I want to give my take, my take on this
Speaker 1: whole situation. I'm not concerned in the big picture about
Speaker 1: slippage with the Boston Celtics, our Oklahoma City and Cleveland
Speaker 1: legitimate threats to them, yes, But we knew that coming
Speaker 1: in before the season, right, like different teams, Like we
Speaker 1: all knew Oklahoma City would be in that mix, but
Speaker 1: we thought maybe it was going to be in New York,
Speaker 1: Maybe it was going to be a Denver or somebody
Speaker 1: like that, Right, We didn't know who was going to
Speaker 1: be that that was in that mix. But we knew
Speaker 1: that there was going to be more competition with Boston
Speaker 1: this year. We knew that in general, that this was
Speaker 1: a year that they were going to face more adversity
Speaker 1: because I mean, even though they were an extremely dominant
Speaker 1: team last year, they got some favorable matchups on the
Speaker 1: way through the playoff picture, they're probably going to face
Speaker 1: some tougher teams this year. Everyone knew, including Celtics fans,
Speaker 1: this year's probably going to be tougher than it was
Speaker 1: last year. And if you look at teams like Cleveland
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma City, it's impossible for Boston to keep up
Speaker 1: with them in the standings. Why, Like those two teams
Speaker 1: are simply more motivated on a night in, night out basis.
Speaker 1: Right now, Boston knows the ultimate goal. They know what
Speaker 1: they're about to run into when they get to April,
Speaker 1: May and June. They know they probably have a full
Speaker 1: month of two playoff series to get tuned up before
Speaker 1: they even run into a team like at Cleveland should
Speaker 1: they run into them in late May. Right, So, this
Speaker 1: is kind of a natural pullback that you'd come to expect.
Speaker 1: Like Jalen Brown has a Finals MVP Trophy, He's not
Speaker 1: going to be attacking things on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor with the same level of intensity as players
Speaker 1: for the Cleveland Cavaliers that feel like they're on the
Speaker 1: verge of something special. Boston's at a different phase of
Speaker 1: their development, So to be clear, I think most of
Speaker 1: this is just typical regular season malays, and Boston will
Speaker 1: have plenty of time to get right. They'll have probably
Speaker 1: two full series against teams they'll be heavily favored over
Speaker 1: in order to get kind of their habits and principles
Speaker 1: back to where they need it to be. So before
Speaker 1: we go any further, I don't think Boston should be panicking.
Speaker 1: I think they need to have the appropriate amount of
Speaker 1: fear of their opponents, something we've talked about a lot
Speaker 1: over the last couple of weeks. But I still feel
Speaker 1: more or less the same way than I did before
Speaker 1: the season. But let's talk what are the differences between
Speaker 1: the Celtics this year and last year. First, let's take
Speaker 1: a look at the facts. They are shooting the ball
Speaker 1: very well. As a team. They're shooting thirty six point
Speaker 1: two percent from three, that's fifteenth in the NBA. Last year,
Speaker 1: they were thirty eight point eight percent from three, which
Speaker 1: was second in the NBA. Of the eight guys who
Speaker 1: were in their playoff rotation last year, which we remember
Speaker 1: is Derek White, Drew Holliday, Tatum and Brown, Porzingis, Horford, Howser,
Speaker 1: and Pritchard. Those are the eight core guys that carried
Speaker 1: the Celtics to a championship last year. Obviously with some
Speaker 1: spot performances from guys covering for Porzingis or as the
Speaker 1: leads got out of hand at certain parts of games,
Speaker 1: but that was the core eight. Seven of those eight
Speaker 1: guys are down or down year over year, and they're
Speaker 1: three point shooting in. Five of those guys are down significantly.
Speaker 1: Drue Holiday is down eight point six percent year over
Speaker 1: year from three, nowhere near the knockdown guy in the
Speaker 1: corner that he was last year. Jalen Brown down three
Speaker 1: and a half percent. Horford's down five percent, Porzingis two
Speaker 1: point eight percent, Derek White one point seven percent, Tatum
Speaker 1: down one point seven percent, Sam Houser down four point
Speaker 1: eight percent. Prichard's the only guy who's up year over
Speaker 1: year three point shooting compared to last year. As a team,
Speaker 1: they're converting spot up possessions a whole five points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions worse than they did last year. The
Speaker 1: weird thing is is they're taking more threes. They're taking
Speaker 1: seven additional threes per game compared to last year as
Speaker 1: a team, but in terms of unguarded threes percentergy, they're
Speaker 1: only generating one additional unguarded three. They're also generating four
Speaker 1: point eight fewer points in the paint per game and
Speaker 1: taking two additional pull up jump shots per game compared
Speaker 1: to last year. What does all that add up to?
Speaker 1: That's textbook settling, right, like what is the Celtics offensive process?
Speaker 1: The Celtics offensive process is what took off for them
Speaker 1: between the twenty twenty two season and the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four season, where they went from a team that was
Speaker 1: immensely talented that was underachieving to a team that kicked
Speaker 1: everybody's ass and won the trophy. The fundamental thing that
Speaker 1: changed was specifically Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, but also
Speaker 1: Derek Why. Everyone was involved to various extents, but the
Speaker 1: primary shot creators in particular became advantage creators, which formed
Speaker 1: a brand of driving kick basketball, meeting people playing off
Speaker 1: of that advantage and just getting wide open, unguarded catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes and easy attempts at the rim, or
Speaker 1: creating so much space in these iso and post up
Speaker 1: situations where they can bludgeon teams, and by the way,
Speaker 1: like they're still very very good at that. Jason Tatum's
Speaker 1: having one of the best iso seasons in NBA history.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown's having one of the best post up seasons
Speaker 1: in NBA history. Jalen Brown is just getting so incredibly
Speaker 1: good at positional ceiling, like instead of like catching in
Speaker 1: the post just to take a fade away over either shoulder,
Speaker 1: which by the way, he's great at, and he's gonna
Speaker 1: do a lot of that when they get to the postseason.
Speaker 1: He's got really good at like fighting for the types
Speaker 1: of post position that lead to direct layups, so like
Speaker 1: and whenever someone tries to three quarter front or front
Speaker 1: him creating good sea angles for and over the top
Speaker 1: pass making physically aggressive moves towards the basket instead of
Speaker 1: relying on that fadeaway. He's up over like one point
Speaker 1: four points per possession in post ups. Even in the
Speaker 1: catastrophe against the Kings, it was like Kean Ellis Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown bludgeoning him in the post, bludgeoning him in the post,
Speaker 1: bludgeoning him in the post, over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: Like that's there's so much good that they do there.
Speaker 1: But again, the primary like end result of the best
Speaker 1: possessions that Boston generates with their offense are wide open
Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes and easy layups at the basket.
Speaker 1: That's actually the target. These like ISOs in post up
Speaker 1: sequences for Tatum and Brown, you'd actually prefer for them
Speaker 1: to be few and far between. Right. So, like now,
Speaker 1: if we take a simple psychological look at what's happening
Speaker 1: with the Celtics compared to the Thunder and the Calves,
Speaker 1: there's a the level of physical intensity that's not there
Speaker 1: for Boston that's there for the other two teams, again
Speaker 1: to be expected. Oklahoma City, Yeah they were the one
Speaker 1: seed last year, but they were barely the one seed
Speaker 1: this year. They're a runaway one seed that feels like
Speaker 1: they're doing something special. Right, just kick the shit out
Speaker 1: of the Knicks the other night. They're riding high Cleveland.
Speaker 1: They're at a seventy one win pace, even after losing
Speaker 1: to the Pacers last night. Those two teams are on
Speaker 1: trajectories where every regular season game feels like another opportunity
Speaker 1: to add to this special story they're telling. Boston could
Speaker 1: give a shit about any of this. They just want
Speaker 1: to be ready to go in June when they need
Speaker 1: to get the trophy. So that's naturally going to lead
Speaker 1: to like a little bit of a drawback in terms
Speaker 1: of physical aggression. How is that going to manifest? Settling? Right?
Speaker 1: Because it vantaged creation. Actually drawing multiple bodies requires a
Speaker 1: certain amount of physical exertion, whether that's beating your man
Speaker 1: cleanly off the dribble, aggressively fighting for post position so
Speaker 1: that you can get the kinds of inside seals that
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown get that generate those four on threes
Speaker 1: off of the over the top pass from a guy
Speaker 1: like Derek White. There's a physical aggression element to advantage creation.
Speaker 1: And when you're being lazy as a shot creator, you're
Speaker 1: settling for jump shots in a lot of those situations.
Speaker 1: And so the numbers pretty clearly say because points in
Speaker 1: the painter are down, pull up, jump shots are up,
Speaker 1: everyone's three point shooting is down even though the volume
Speaker 1: is up. That screams we're settling. Okay, that's a certain
Speaker 1: amount of like to be expected under the circumstance. The
Speaker 1: question is will they be able to snap out of
Speaker 1: it when the time comes, And I believe they will. Again,
Speaker 1: I think most of This is about Boston with their
Speaker 1: eyes on the prize more being just not very much
Speaker 1: in the moment, whereas Cleveland and Oklahoma City are living
Speaker 1: very much in the moment right now. And so again
Speaker 1: it's just leading to a little bit decline in the
Speaker 1: sharpness for Boston. But I believe that when push comes
Speaker 1: to shove and they get into these serious situations, that
Speaker 1: brand of basketball is still in there. And here's the
Speaker 1: thing we talk about it. It might take them falling
Speaker 1: down into playoff series, like they're gonna almost certainly be
Speaker 1: on the road for the Eastern Conference finals, and then
Speaker 1: if Oklahoma City wins the West, they will almost certainly
Speaker 1: be on the road in the NBA Finals if they
Speaker 1: are to make it to that point, right, So, like
Speaker 1: that's to be expected that you're gonna be playing on
Speaker 1: the road. You split, or they get one, or they
Speaker 1: get both at home, you could be sitting to down
Speaker 1: to one in a series, and Boston very well, it
Speaker 1: may take them getting down two to zero in a
Speaker 1: series before they snap out of it. Obviously, if you
Speaker 1: do that, you play with fire, and anytime you play
Speaker 1: with fire, you could go cold and you get yourself beat.
Speaker 1: Boston is not a runaway championship favorite. They're the slight favorite.
Speaker 1: They are absolutely beatable, but when push comes to shove,
Speaker 1: if they engage themselves, they still have the most versatile
Speaker 1: personnel on both ends of the floor that everybody that
Speaker 1: anybody in this league has. If you go down the line,
Speaker 1: Derek White, Drew Holiday, Tatum, Porzingis Horford all very good defensively, passing, shooting,
Speaker 1: ball handling. All of them can do everything so well
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor that there's just so
Speaker 1: many different configurations that they can win with in terms
Speaker 1: of their style on both ends of the floor. It
Speaker 1: just gives them a lot of versatility when they get
Speaker 1: into the postseason. That still is their trump card. That
Speaker 1: still is the thing that makes them so scary when
Speaker 1: they get into that situation. So I've remained positive. Now.
Speaker 1: One guy I want to say I'm a little tiny
Speaker 1: bit concerned about is Jaylen Brown. I don't particularly like
Speaker 1: the brand of basketball he's been playing as of late.
Speaker 1: For starters, He's been flat out bad on defense for
Speaker 1: long stretches, floating around taking bad gambles. He had a
Speaker 1: really bad gamble off of Keegan Murray and Crunch time
Speaker 1: of the King's game where he gave up a wide
Speaker 1: open three on the right wing. He's had stretches where,
Speaker 1: like almost every bad Celtics defensive stretch starts with Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown kind of doing the bare minimum at the beginning
Speaker 1: of these possessions in his ball pressure situations. That's been
Speaker 1: part of it. I also haven't loved his offensive approach
Speaker 1: as of late. He's had some success, like we talked about,
Speaker 1: he just destroyed Keon Ellison the post to start the
Speaker 1: King's game, but he's been kind of playing a bit
Speaker 1: on an island. What I mean by that is like
Speaker 1: it disrupts the rhythm and flow of the other guys
Speaker 1: on the team, a lot of co opting possessions, dribbling
Speaker 1: the air out of the basketball on ISO's over penetrating,
Speaker 1: turning the ball over again existing on an island instead
Speaker 1: of playing the role that he played last year. And again,
Speaker 1: it's weird because, like then, he'll also have these stretches
Speaker 1: where he's driving and kicking and he's doing some of
Speaker 1: his best playmaking work that I've ever seen him do,
Speaker 1: like mixed in with otherwise frustrating basketball. And again, I
Speaker 1: think most of it has to do with that same
Speaker 1: concept we were talking about earlier. Jalen Brown is a
Speaker 1: Finals MVP. He literally has the Bill Russell Trophy at home. Okay,
Speaker 1: like that's going to change your perspective on these January
Speaker 1: games when you're playing on the most talented roster in
Speaker 1: the league. That's why I'm not particularly concerned. So when
Speaker 1: you combine that with the fact that he's also just
Speaker 1: not shooting the ball well from three. He's just twenty
Speaker 1: seven percent from three in his last thirteen games, that's
Speaker 1: caused for some iffy basketball from Jalen Brown. It's been
Speaker 1: part of the problem for the Celtics as of late.
Speaker 1: Tatum has been pretty consistently great and has been kind
Speaker 1: of the foundation that's maintained stability in this stretch. I
Speaker 1: thought he was incredible last night in the Pelicans game,
Speaker 1: pulling that one out. He struggled with turnovers a little
Speaker 1: bit in the Sacramento game, just sloppy. He's throwing the
Speaker 1: ball out of bounds a couple of times, just didn't
Speaker 1: see health defense coming and was just getting surprised by stuff.
Speaker 1: Just kind of a bad game on that front. But again,
Speaker 1: I thought he was amazing in the Pels game and
Speaker 1: so as we kind of zoom out look at the
Speaker 1: big picture for the Celtics, Yeah, the Celtics are not
Speaker 1: as sharp as the thunder and the Cavs are right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're settling a little bit and they're not shooting the
Speaker 1: ball very well. But most of this is to be
Speaker 1: expected because the Celtics are in a different phase of
Speaker 1: their development, in a different phase of their motivational kind
Speaker 1: of outlook heading into this part of the season. As
Speaker 1: long as they clean things up in time for the playoffs,
Speaker 1: I still think they have the most versatile playoff talent
Speaker 1: in the league. All Right, Moving on to Denver, They've
Speaker 1: won three in a row, seven out of nine in
Speaker 1: this nine game span. They're second in offense, eighth in defense.
Speaker 1: Nicole Jokic in this stretches averaging thirty four points, fifteen rebounds,
Speaker 1: and eleven assists. I pulled this stat yesterday. Like, in
Speaker 1: this stretch, Jokic has basically been putting up the same
Speaker 1: numbers as Jimmy Butler and bam Adebayo in their combined
Speaker 1: season averages. This year. Just goes to show you the
Speaker 1: type of statistical, just sheer production that Jokic is putting
Speaker 1: out there. Aaron Gordon came back from his injury in
Speaker 1: a bench roll, kind of like a minute's restriction type
Speaker 1: of deal versus the Mavericks yesterday, and he was awesome.
Speaker 1: Like Dallas really jumped the Nuggets early. And again I
Speaker 1: keep telling everybody, I think Dallas is pretty good. Like
Speaker 1: even with al Kyrie and Luca, I just think they
Speaker 1: have one of the best rosters in the league. So
Speaker 1: much defensive talent, so much additional ball handling. You saw
Speaker 1: what Spencer Dinn, what he can do when he's just
Speaker 1: given the keys to that Dallas offense. It's like he's
Speaker 1: born to play in that offense. But they kind of
Speaker 1: jumped Denver early. But Aaron Gordon was a huge part
Speaker 1: of their comeback. And Russell Westbrook is the main guy
Speaker 1: that I want to talk about today. He's averaging seventeen points,
Speaker 1: eight rebounds, and eight assists on fifty six percent from
Speaker 1: the field. The efficiency for him this year is at
Speaker 1: an all time high. I was surprised to see this
Speaker 1: morning that Russ had never posted an effective field goal percentage. Again,
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage is just your field goal percentage
Speaker 1: with weighted for threes. That's all It is doesn't include
Speaker 1: free throws. It's not tru shooting percentage, just field goals
Speaker 1: waited for threes. He's never posted a season over fifty
Speaker 1: percent in effective field goal percentage is in his entire
Speaker 1: career Before this season, He's at fifty two percent in
Speaker 1: EFFECTI field goal percentage fifty four point three percent in
Speaker 1: true shooting percentage, which is the fourth highest mark of
Speaker 1: his entire career. The big thing that's swinging that in
Speaker 1: his favor is his finishing at the rate. Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: in his last season with the Lakers before getting traded
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty three campaign, in fifty two games,
Speaker 1: he shot fifty one percent at the rim perc energy.
Speaker 1: He's shooting sixty five point two percent at the rim
Speaker 1: this year for the Denver Nuggets. That's again, fourteen percent
Speaker 1: higher than he was his last season with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: ten percent higher than his full season that he had
Speaker 1: with the Lakers. Another big thing that's driving this is
Speaker 1: just his cutting to the basket off of Jokic post ups.
Speaker 1: In particular, he had just ten cuts in those fifty
Speaker 1: two games, and that twenty twenty three season with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: he's had twenty eight cuts in thirty eight games for
Speaker 1: the Nuggets this year. That's makes on cuts so ten
Speaker 1: made baskets in fifty two games last season for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: twenty eight made baskets on cuts in thirty eight games
Speaker 1: with the Nuggets so far this year. One of the
Speaker 1: big reasons why cutting off of post ups is so important,
Speaker 1: and part of this is like what makes Jokic such
Speaker 1: a unique player and how he can kind of breakdown defenses.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a lot of posting up that
Speaker 1: was taking place with the Lakers in particular, but their
Speaker 1: spacing principles weren't very good. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that would happen in particular too is like when Lebron
Speaker 1: would post up, Anthony Davis just wasn't a perimeter threat,
Speaker 1: so it would cousse some like kind of spacing issues
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor that didn't make things
Speaker 1: easier for us. Again, anytime this kind of stuff happens,
Speaker 1: it's always a combination of factors, right, Like, do I
Speaker 1: wish Russ would have cut more? You bet your ass.
Speaker 1: I really wish he would have been a more active
Speaker 1: participant off the ball, moving screening, just trying to be
Speaker 1: a threat when he didn't have the ball in his hand.
Speaker 1: He's definitely doing it more now. Some of that is
Speaker 1: Russ's fault, but some of it is also Mike Malone
Speaker 1: and the Nuggets. They're just a more organized offense, especially
Speaker 1: in post up situations with their motion. A lot of
Speaker 1: Lakers post ups end and guys just kind of standing
Speaker 1: around on the perimeter. Some of that is a team
Speaker 1: wide kind of issue, right, And then the third part
Speaker 1: of it is Jokisch. Like as good as Lebron James
Speaker 1: has been in his late career here with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: I don't think Lebron's had a case to be the
Speaker 1: best player in the world since like maybe that first
Speaker 1: stretch right after they won the title in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: but like he hasn't been at that level really in
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty two or twenty twenty three seasons, Like
Speaker 1: there was a drop off for him. And so like
Speaker 1: Yo Kicch is better, that makes life easier. The Nuggets
Speaker 1: are more organized, That makes life easier. Russ has also
Speaker 1: improved in his participation off the ball cutting, which is
Speaker 1: getting in more of those situations. But again, one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why cutting off of post ups is so
Speaker 1: valuable is because usually the guy being posted up is
Speaker 1: being guarded by a big defender. So if Yo Kicch
Speaker 1: is being guarded by a big rim protector, think of
Speaker 1: it like a gafferd er Lively or something along those lines. Like,
Speaker 1: And there were even stretches where they put centers on
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook in that game yesterday, which I thought was interesting,
Speaker 1: and that was kind of what was causing problems. Russ
Speaker 1: Westbrook got two cuts, easy ones right at the rim
Speaker 1: because they were doubling off of him, Like he passed
Speaker 1: the ball to Yokich and then just cut to the
Speaker 1: front of the rim and be wide open, right, and
Speaker 1: like that's part of the the issue with doubling off
Speaker 1: of the passer is like typically that ends up giving
Speaker 1: up a wing three. But if you cut off of it,
Speaker 1: you can get layups out of it as well. But again,
Speaker 1: if you imagine if you're cutting into the lane in
Speaker 1: a normal circumstances where a rim protector's waiting on you,
Speaker 1: it's just really congested and it can be an issue.
Speaker 1: But if the rim protector is accounted for in the
Speaker 1: post up, then if you cut behind it, you have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to finish where there's less traffic. That's why
Speaker 1: cutting off of post ups is so important. Russ has
Speaker 1: been just doing a really good job of it this year. Also,
Speaker 1: shooting three is a lot better. Russ is hitting thirty
Speaker 1: six percent of his unguarded threes this year perc Entergy,
Speaker 1: one point zero nine points per shot. He was at
Speaker 1: just thirty one percent in twenty twenty three with the
Speaker 1: Lakers zero point nine to three points per shot, thirty
Speaker 1: two percent in his full season with the Lakers in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two zero point nine four points per shot.
Speaker 1: So he's like getting an extra fifteen points per one
Speaker 1: hundred Russell Westbrook spot up possessions when he's unguarded. That's
Speaker 1: a substantial difference. Like, there's two parts to playing basketball
Speaker 1: when your guard like Russell west there's playing on the
Speaker 1: ball and playing off the ball. In this case, let's
Speaker 1: look at it within the context of Jokic playing off
Speaker 1: of Jokic or playing with Jokic. When he's playing off
Speaker 1: of Jokic, meaning when Yokic is posting up, or when
Speaker 1: he's running two man game with a different player on
Speaker 1: the floor, it's about cutting and finishing and hitting wide
Speaker 1: open threes. He's cutting more than ever, finishing better than ever,
Speaker 1: and he's hitting his wide open threes. That is the
Speaker 1: thing that he's doing that is making this work. And
Speaker 1: then playing with Jokic, it's about him bringing downhill force
Speaker 1: in the two man game. When he's attacking in those
Speaker 1: ball screens or in those dribble handoffs, he gets downhill.
Speaker 1: When he gets downhill, he engages Jokic's defender as a
Speaker 1: drop coverage big. When he engages Yokic's defender as a
Speaker 1: drop coverage big, he can pop the ball back to
Speaker 1: Jokic as he's trailing the play in the middle of
Speaker 1: the paint. That's where he gets to his floaters. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, Jokic just hit ten floaters this
Speaker 1: year directly off of Russ passes in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: It's been a big part of their success in the
Speaker 1: two man game. The easiest way that I could describe
Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook experience, I did not enjoy rooting for
Speaker 1: Russ when he was a Laker. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: be critical, I'm not trying to be unfair. I'm telling
Speaker 1: you guys, how it literally felt like when I was
Speaker 1: watching the Lakers rooting for him. I wanted Russ to
Speaker 1: succeed and and it just was bad. He just wasn't
Speaker 1: the same player. And there was it was, it was.
Speaker 1: There were positive moments. I don't want to pretend like
Speaker 1: it was all bad. Russ did have good games when
Speaker 1: he was with the Lakers, but it just felt like
Speaker 1: more bad than good. And it wasn't a fun experience.
Speaker 1: And I'm not alone in that. If you ask us
Speaker 1: other Laker fans, the vast majority of them will tell
Speaker 1: you that rooting for Russell Westbrook was kind of a chore.
Speaker 1: I really have had fun watching Russ this year. I've
Speaker 1: enjoyed watching him play basketball. I've enjoyed like watching him
Speaker 1: kind of experience a little bit of a renaissance, and like,
Speaker 1: if there's anything to be said here, one of the
Speaker 1: things that I think is really interesting about competitors in
Speaker 1: general is like I always am interested to see how
Speaker 1: you respond to the down times, how you respond to losing,
Speaker 1: how you respond to things going poorly right, Like, just
Speaker 1: as a Lebron fan, one of my favorite things about
Speaker 1: his career is just his ability to bounce back, Like
Speaker 1: kind of had a rough season in the Western Conference
Speaker 1: finals year, he had broken. He had that issue with
Speaker 1: his foot, if you remember correctly, couldn't make a jump
Speaker 1: shot to save his life. Kept saying after the season, like, Man,
Speaker 1: the Lakers need Lebron to hit jump shots. Man went
Speaker 1: into the gym that summer, worked his tail off and
Speaker 1: came back as one of the best jump shooters in
Speaker 1: the league as a thirty nine year old. Like, that's
Speaker 1: what has made Lebron as great as he's been in
Speaker 1: his career. It's been an unwillingness to accept playing poorly
Speaker 1: and a desire to become that kind of like weakness
Speaker 1: free basketball player, if that makes sense. It's been a
Speaker 1: rough go for us as of late in the last
Speaker 1: few years. It's been a mix of bad and good.
Speaker 1: It's been a lot of slander. A lot of it's
Speaker 1: come from me, some of it most of it deserved
Speaker 1: because of the way he was playing right. But the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is is like as those times
Speaker 1: were going poorly, Russ had two options. He could either
Speaker 1: blame everybody else and pout on his way out of
Speaker 1: the league, or he could adapt and try to make
Speaker 1: better of it. Now, in his press conference comments, he's
Speaker 1: still done a good amount of blame shifting. But in
Speaker 1: terms of his work, in terms of his work behind
Speaker 1: the scenes and what he's doing on the court, it
Speaker 1: is clear that he's addressed some of his weaknesses. Teams
Speaker 1: were leaving wide open. He needed to knock down shots.
Speaker 1: He's been knocking down shots. He needed to do more
Speaker 1: work as an off ball scorer because he's not going
Speaker 1: to operate on ball as much as he used to.
Speaker 1: He's done that work and he's become a better off
Speaker 1: ball scorer and he's made himself a better basketball player
Speaker 1: as a result. And again, the easiest way that I
Speaker 1: can quantify it is I enjoy watching Russell Westbrook play basketball. Now.
Speaker 1: One't like that a few years ago in the past.
Speaker 1: Peynon Watson was great yesterday too. He's plus thirty and
Speaker 1: thirty three minutes, played a lot with Aaron Gordon on
Speaker 1: his minutes restriction, had a gigantic corner three and crunch
Speaker 1: time on a kickout. A lot of big shots this
Speaker 1: year in big spots. Another play too, by the way,
Speaker 1: on that play, Russell Westbrook cut into the lane and
Speaker 1: when he cut into the lane, he didn't get the ball,
Speaker 1: but Klay Thompson, who was guarding Peyton Watson came in
Speaker 1: to kind of help on Russell Westbrook's cut, which is
Speaker 1: what made the skip pass open. Again, like positive returns
Speaker 1: that don't show up in the box score, Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: being active as a cutter creating that open corner three
Speaker 1: for Peyton Watson. The Nuggets are last guy I want
Speaker 1: to shout out Michael Porter Junior. He had a rough
Speaker 1: shooting game, but he had a couple of huge offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: including a clutch put back at the end of that one,
Speaker 1: And in this nine game stretch he's been great. He's
Speaker 1: at twenty points per game on fifty two percent from
Speaker 1: the field and forty three percent from three. The Nuggets
Speaker 1: are a weird team because they haven't really looked dominant
Speaker 1: at any point this season, like even last night they
Speaker 1: were down big to the MAVs without Kyrie and Luca.
Speaker 1: Albeit again I think that's a good roster. There's some
Speaker 1: weird first half second half splits, like they're nineteenth and
Speaker 1: first half net rating getting outscored by three point two
Speaker 1: points per one hundred possessions. They're second in second half
Speaker 1: net rating blowing teams out. They're outscoring teams by eleven
Speaker 1: points per one hundred possessions, second only to the Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City Thunder and second halves of games, and they're fourth
Speaker 1: in clutch net rating with a one to twenty six
Speaker 1: offensive rating. And that's what makes them so hard to quit.
Speaker 1: They seem to be digging themselves in a bunch of
Speaker 1: holes and like not really looking like a super sharp
Speaker 1: team every single night. But then they just kind of
Speaker 1: figure it out and at the tail end of games,
Speaker 1: they lean on the stuff that's been working for them
Speaker 1: for years and they just keep getting wins. And that's
Speaker 1: why I can't ever write this team off. It's just
Speaker 1: it's the Jokic factor. It's the continuity factor. You still
Speaker 1: see Jamal Murray coming off of an action late in
Speaker 1: a game and it just feels like that SHOT's going
Speaker 1: in Aaron Gordon. It just continues to do damage on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. Like, you just can't quit
Speaker 1: these guys because they're capable of beating anybody, even if
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like they're at any sort of world
Speaker 1: beater at this point in time. So like again, Nuggets
Speaker 1: starting to turn the corner a little bit, still missing
Speaker 1: that like signature stretch this season, but it very well
Speaker 1: could take place here in the next couple of weeks
Speaker 1: really quickly on the Suns. A lot of talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, just in general pessimism surrounding the Suns. I've
Speaker 1: talked about this before, but like like everyone was out
Speaker 1: on the Lakers, including myself, after that ugly stretch in Miami. Right,
Speaker 1: and they've kind of bounced back a little bit, although
Speaker 1: they took a couple of bad losses on a road
Speaker 1: trip recently. It feels like they haven't played in ages
Speaker 1: because of the the fires in Los Angeles, right, But
Speaker 1: like the Lakers were down big, the season's not over
Speaker 1: for them. The Warriors have been down big at various
Speaker 1: points this season. I still think they're just in the
Speaker 1: mix like anybody else. Sacramento, oh man, the season's over.
Speaker 1: That was such a terrible loss that they had. I
Speaker 1: think it was to the Jazz at the end of
Speaker 1: that losing streak. Bam, they want seven in a row.
Speaker 1: They're right back in the mix. The like like there
Speaker 1: there's a Minnesota Timberwolve, so another team this year that
Speaker 1: got off to a really bad start, but they've had
Speaker 1: at various points looked very good. So like part of
Speaker 1: it is like the Western Conference and just some of
Speaker 1: the realities of how these teams that are in that
Speaker 1: I think. I think Dallas and Denver are clearly a
Speaker 1: level above. Like if you look at OKAC number one,
Speaker 1: and then you have your two young athletic teams right
Speaker 1: so Houston and Memphis, but then you've got Denver in Dallas.
Speaker 1: Those are the teams that are clearly not as talented
Speaker 1: as like the top tier talented teams in the league,
Speaker 1: but they're right below that tier still with a lot
Speaker 1: of talent and led by APEX superstars that are capable
Speaker 1: of beating anybody in a playoff series. So like Denver
Speaker 1: and Dallas are like a level above. And once you
Speaker 1: get to that next tier like Lakers, Clippers, Timberwolves, Sons, Kings, Warriors, Spurs,
Speaker 1: like all the teams in that group I kind of
Speaker 1: think are more or less in the same tier. They're
Speaker 1: kind of in the right order. Like, yeah, I'd put
Speaker 1: the Lakers and Clippers and Wolves towards the upper end
Speaker 1: of that tier, and I'd put the Suns and the
Speaker 1: Kings and the Spurs and those guys in the lower
Speaker 1: end of that tier. But they're all really close and
Speaker 1: they're gonna jump up and down week to week based
Speaker 1: on when they're winning games, and like based on their schedule,
Speaker 1: based on injuries, based on when they decide they want
Speaker 1: to play some better basketball, right, And like, as I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the Suns, everybody was burying them, I'm like,
Speaker 1: look at their schedule coming up. Look at their schedule
Speaker 1: coming up. They're gonna bounce back. They've already won three
Speaker 1: games in a row. Bradley Beal's coming off the bench
Speaker 1: for them now, I think for five games. I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk just briefly about the Bradley Beal thing because
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember which game it was that I
Speaker 1: watched that they won the other day. It was the
Speaker 1: I think it was the first game that it came
Speaker 1: off the bench. I can't remember which game it was
Speaker 1: that I watched. I did a whole film session on
Speaker 1: ed on my Twitter feed. I clipped like twenty five
Speaker 1: clips from this game. But the big thing that stood
Speaker 1: out to me with Bradley Beal is something that first
Speaker 1: started to pop on the numbers and then was something
Speaker 1: that stood out to me pretty starkly on film, which
Speaker 1: is he's just a really bad off ball defender, Like
Speaker 1: a really, really bad off ball defender. So the Sun's
Speaker 1: defense is six points worse per one hundred possessions when
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal is on the floor versus one he's off.
Speaker 1: And the main thing that I noticed is like just
Speaker 1: consistently ending up in like closeout situations, consistently ending up
Speaker 1: in situations where guys are running right around him for
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds because he's standing upright and not paying attention
Speaker 1: off the ball. This is kind of like a thing
Speaker 1: that happens with a lot of like primary ball handler
Speaker 1: types that are guards that transition into smaller roles. This
Speaker 1: is the same sort of thing that Russell Westbrook used
Speaker 1: to struggle with really bad. It's when you're an on
Speaker 1: ball guard that has a high usage rate the way
Speaker 1: that Russell Westbrook did most of his career, the way
Speaker 1: that Bradley Beal did for most of his career in Washington,
Speaker 1: you end up saving energy on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, and as a team you kind of prepare
Speaker 1: for it. The coaching staff prepares for it. They account
Speaker 1: for it with the other players that are on the floor.
Speaker 1: It's kind of an understanding like we're not gonna get
Speaker 1: as much on the defensive end from this guy because
Speaker 1: he's carrying everything for us on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. The problem is, is it beads. It breeds
Speaker 1: really bad habits when you get into a situation where
Speaker 1: suddenly you're playing a smaller role and that offensive load
Speaker 1: is just not as big as it used to be.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing is, like, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's like you can't afford to have Bradley Beal standing
Speaker 1: around off ball, leaving shooters, ending up in bad closeout situations,
Speaker 1: giving up offensive rebounds when he's not the folk point
Speaker 1: of your offense. Now, it's like you need him to
Speaker 1: do role player stuff. And like you know, in the
Speaker 1: game that I'm I'm speaking, it's absolutely killing me that
Speaker 1: I can't remember which game it was that I was
Speaker 1: covering after I spent all that time watching the film.
Speaker 1: It was the Atlanta Hawks. It was the Hawks game
Speaker 1: the other night. So in the Hawks game in particular,
Speaker 1: like brad Beil was awesome on the offensive end consistently,
Speaker 1: it was one of the guys that was generating separation,
Speaker 1: generating quality shots for the Suns. He's important for their
Speaker 1: rim pressure. There's so much that Bradley Beal does good
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor, but he undercuts
Speaker 1: it with a lack of attention to detail on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. And like, one of the
Speaker 1: things we're seeing with the Sons is like when they
Speaker 1: start to anchor Kevin Durant Bradley or Kevin Durant and
Speaker 1: Devin Booker with role player talent, they're having more success
Speaker 1: when it's also a guitar, when it's Ryan Dunn, when
Speaker 1: it's Grayson Allen out there with those two guys, they're
Speaker 1: kicking everybody's butt because why Grayson Allen is just going
Speaker 1: to do his job on defense. Meaning like Grayson Allen's
Speaker 1: entire career, just like every other role player, it's been
Speaker 1: like I'm sure as hell better do my job on
Speaker 1: this defensive possession off the ball, or my ass is
Speaker 1: gonna be sitting on the bench, right, Like that's gonna
Speaker 1: lead to a certain level of attention to detail over
Speaker 1: the course of his career. That's not gonna be there
Speaker 1: for a ball dominant guard, right And then Ryan Dunnanoso
Speaker 1: guitar are literally professional athletes. They're professional Let's just be big,
Speaker 1: tall and fast and be wrecking balls on that end
Speaker 1: of the floor. Also, he's doing a really good job
Speaker 1: as a roleman. As of late they're anchoring Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: Devin Booker with role player talent and having more success
Speaker 1: that way. Part of the thing that's helped turn them
Speaker 1: around as of late two is Devin Booker is just
Speaker 1: playing a lot better after he had been slumping pretty bad.
Speaker 1: And then still every time I watch, including in the
Speaker 1: Hawks game, just every time they need to really leverage
Speaker 1: themselves defensively, Kevin Durant can just step up and make
Speaker 1: all the big defensive plays that they need to make.
Speaker 1: And then last night in the win, it was just
Speaker 1: the elbow post ups with KD just drawing that just
Speaker 1: shooting over the top, drawing that extra defender that ends
Speaker 1: up getting the defense in rotation that ended up in
Speaker 1: that corner three for Royce O'Neil that ice the game.
Speaker 1: But so I'm not ready, like everyone just in general,
Speaker 1: this tier of teams, this Lakers, Clippers, Wolves, Spurs, Suns, Kings,
Speaker 1: all the teams in that group, Like none of them
Speaker 1: should be written off entirely after a bad week or two,
Speaker 1: but none of them should be taken seriously after a
Speaker 1: good week or two. Either. The only way any of
Speaker 1: those teams I'm going to take seriously is if they
Speaker 1: can separate themselves from that tier. And the only way
Speaker 1: they're going to separate that selves from that tier in
Speaker 1: the standings is by winning games. And the only way
Speaker 1: they're gonna do that is by either improving the roster
Speaker 1: improving their attention to detail. Are both for most of
Speaker 1: those teams, right, So, like again, the Bradley Beal thing
Speaker 1: mostly came down to off ball defense in my opinion,
Speaker 1: it's also allowing him to come into the game and
Speaker 1: just look to be aggressive, which is easier for him
Speaker 1: with his offensive rhythm. But again, like with this team,
Speaker 1: just like anybody else in that Western Conference, let's try
Speaker 1: not to overreact to any one or two week sample
Speaker 1: as we wait to see if there's any team in
Speaker 1: that group that can separate. All right, let's get into
Speaker 1: our power rankings before we get out of here for
Speaker 1: the day. Again, all of our odds are provided by
Speaker 1: our partner Draft Kings number ten the Detroit Pistons six
Speaker 1: and one since our last power rankings nine and two.
Speaker 1: In their last eleven games, several quality wins. They beat
Speaker 1: the Wolves, the Kings, the Lakers, and the Suns in
Speaker 1: that span eighth in offense, twelfth in defense, sixth in
Speaker 1: net rating. On the offensive end of the four kad
Speaker 1: Is averaging twenty five points, five remounds and nine assists
Speaker 1: on fifty six percent through shooting in that span. Had
Speaker 1: seventeen assists against the Rafters the other night. Just did
Speaker 1: a great job hunting his spot up guys again, Malik
Speaker 1: Beasley and Tim Hardaway Junior just bring like green light
Speaker 1: spot up shooting, like any space spot up shooting. Those
Speaker 1: guys went eleven for thirteen from three against the Raptors,
Speaker 1: in large part because Kage just kept hunting them whenever
Speaker 1: he could get a chance to get them a look,
Speaker 1: even a big shot late in the game, a clutch shot,
Speaker 1: just a dribble handoff to Malik Beasley at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, where Kage just threw the handoff, threw
Speaker 1: a little shoulder in there, got Moleik enough space for
Speaker 1: him to knock down that shot. Doing a lot of
Speaker 1: work just methodically in ball screens getting into the middle
Speaker 1: of the floor. One of the things that makes Kay
Speaker 1: Cunningham so difficult to guard is his short range shot making.
Speaker 1: He's shooting forty seven for ninety four on jump shots
Speaker 1: that are inside of seventeen feet. That's fifty percent. So
Speaker 1: he's hitting half of his jump shots that are inside
Speaker 1: of seventeen feet. He's also fifty seven percent on floaters,
Speaker 1: fifty three percent on hooks. This is the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that I've been talking about a lot with Jokic.
Speaker 1: This is like kind of a baby version of it,
Speaker 1: that's more of like a perimeter version of it, because
Speaker 1: Yoka just percentages on those shots are all like sixty
Speaker 1: seventy percent, right. But this is what causes k to
Speaker 1: be a very reliable bull shot creator in these types
Speaker 1: of situations. Kaid's score percentage. Remember score percentage is just
Speaker 1: a percentage of possessions that end in points, Okay. Caid's
Speaker 1: score percentage on post ups is fifty six percent. A
Speaker 1: Caid post up, if you ran one hundred of them,
Speaker 1: they're going to score at least one point on fifty
Speaker 1: six percent of them. That's the reliability that comes from
Speaker 1: short range shot making. Short range shot making is going
Speaker 1: to have shooting percentages that are higher than fifty percent,
Speaker 1: which is going to be less you know, dependent on
Speaker 1: the variance that can come into the equation when it
Speaker 1: comes to any sort of jump shooting type of situation, right,
Speaker 1: that's a huge part of it. The CAD just brings
Speaker 1: that physicality to Bias. Harris doubles down on the physicality,
Speaker 1: had a big driving layup at the end of that
Speaker 1: Toronto Raptors game. Tobias has basically been fifty to forty
Speaker 1: ninety in this stretch and it adds to the physicality
Speaker 1: that the front line brings. Jalen Duran he actually ran
Speaker 1: an inverted ball screen the other day where he I
Speaker 1: think it was in the Warriors game where he got
Speaker 1: a screen from Cad and just went right downhill and
Speaker 1: dunked it with his right hand. But it's just the
Speaker 1: Isaiah Stewart brings that level of physicality. Jalen Durham brings
Speaker 1: that level of physicality. You've got the athleticism of Ron
Speaker 1: Holland and Aasar Thompson that comes into the equation. It's
Speaker 1: layers of athleticism in every phase of the game. But
Speaker 1: the shock creation in particular of Caid but also with
Speaker 1: Tobias just hunting these smaller guards, and that's part of
Speaker 1: it too. I was talking with a buddy of mine
Speaker 1: earlier today. I saw the Warriors start Dennis Schroeder on CAD.
Speaker 1: I wonder if teams need to start bigger defenders on
Speaker 1: CAD because of how easily he's getting to where he
Speaker 1: wants to on the floor. But yeah, again, things starting
Speaker 1: to turn around for the Pistons. They're also top five
Speaker 1: and rebounding during the stretch, playing some really good basketball.
Speaker 1: Tough schedule coming up though right now. If you want
Speaker 1: to bet on the Pistons, there plus ten thousand to
Speaker 1: win the title and plus six thousand to win the East.
Speaker 1: Number nine. The Sacramento Kinks seven game win streak, seventh
Speaker 1: in offense, third in defense. They're grabbing fifty four point
Speaker 1: four percent of available rebounds on the stretch, bludgeoning teams
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor on the glass. So
Speaker 1: Bonus had twenty eight points against Boston, or excuse me,
Speaker 1: twenty eight rebounds against Boston the other night, Trey Lyles
Speaker 1: had five offensive rebounds in the same game, so thirteen
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds just between those two guys did a ton
Speaker 1: of damage. So Bonus was just thrown around Porzingis and
Speaker 1: Horford in that game. A lot of high quality wins
Speaker 1: in the seven game stretch, all seven wins Dallas, Philly, Memphis,
Speaker 1: Golden State, Miami, Boston, Chicago. Those are all really impressive wins.
Speaker 1: The Boston game in particular, super impressive. No Deer and
Speaker 1: Fox in that one. They competed throughout, kept the game
Speaker 1: close with their defense and the rebounding, and then they
Speaker 1: went on a crazy run to start the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: So Joe Mizzoula ends up putting Chris tops Porzingis on
Speaker 1: Devin Carter to start the fourth quarter. All game long,
Speaker 1: they house or excuse me, all game long, Missoula put
Speaker 1: centers on to Devin Carter to try to make him
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and just you know, see if he's willing and
Speaker 1: able to make them pay with over the top shooting,
Speaker 1: and he hit a three on Cornette early when they
Speaker 1: put a center on him, and then to start the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter back to back bombs over Porzingis that forced
Speaker 1: them to switch the action. So then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Prichard was on Devin Carter. They ran the exact same
Speaker 1: action with Trey Lyles pick and popping to the top
Speaker 1: of the key. Porzingis didn't want to help because he
Speaker 1: was worried about the pick and pop, so Devin Carter
Speaker 1: just went right around him and I think it was
Speaker 1: an and one, but it might have just been a layup,
Speaker 1: but he gets a layup, So Devin Carter eight quick
Speaker 1: points to start the fourth quarter. Keegan Murray hit three
Speaker 1: huge threes. He was beating nail help and low man
Speaker 1: help all night long with like long above the break
Speaker 1: threes on the wing. Demarta rose in two just brought
Speaker 1: the game home with the shot making. He was having
Speaker 1: a brutal shooting night, like especially in that second quarter,
Speaker 1: was like he couldn't hit a shot to save his life.
Speaker 1: But he had twelve points in the fourth quarter. He
Speaker 1: hit a couple threes as well, some really tough contested
Speaker 1: shots that ended up helping to carry things home for
Speaker 1: the Kings in their big upset win. So Bonus was
Speaker 1: doing a ton of damage to Porzingis and Hordford, not
Speaker 1: just on the glass but also picking and popping. He
Speaker 1: had three threes in the game, two pick and pop
Speaker 1: threes early and then also hit a big clutch three.
Speaker 1: I think it was on an offensive rebound kickback. Just
Speaker 1: an absolutely monster road win to legitimize the King's win streak.
Speaker 1: The win string has mostly been about the Kings winning
Speaker 1: on the margins though, Like they're forcing sixteen point one
Speaker 1: turnovers per game that's third in the league, twenty one
Speaker 1: points per points off of turnovers per game that's third
Speaker 1: in the league. Fourteen offensive rebounds per game in that span,
Speaker 1: that's third in the league. Sixteen point four check a
Speaker 1: second chance points per game in that span, that's third
Speaker 1: in the league. Then on the opposite end, they're top
Speaker 1: ten in opponent points off of turnovers, top ten and
Speaker 1: opponent second chance points, top ten and opponents fast break points,
Speaker 1: and top ten and opponent's points in the paint, So
Speaker 1: they're taking away the easy stuff in the paint. They're
Speaker 1: turning their opponents over and getting out in transition while
Speaker 1: not turning the ball over themselves and keeping their opponents
Speaker 1: out of transition, while doing a ton of damage on
Speaker 1: the offensive glass while not letting the opponent do a
Speaker 1: ton of damage on the offensive glass. That's it. That'll
Speaker 1: go a long way towards turning things around. Just destroying
Speaker 1: teams on the margins the way that they have in
Speaker 1: this span, and then the offense was finally clicking with
Speaker 1: all the talent that they have in this roster. Darren
Speaker 1: Fox is averaging an efficient twenty nine in the seven
Speaker 1: game win streak, although he's been out for some of
Speaker 1: the games, and the Malik Monk Demartin Rosen both over
Speaker 1: twenty points per game, so bonus in this span twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen and seven on sixty percent from the field fifty
Speaker 1: nine percent from three time and time again is hitting
Speaker 1: big three point shots at the end of games. The
Speaker 1: Kings of the latest Western Conference team that looked completely
Speaker 1: dead in the water but then successfully resuscitated their season
Speaker 1: and why I'm pretty much unwilling to write anybody off
Speaker 1: at this point. They are plus nine thousand to win
Speaker 1: the title, plus thirty five hundred to win the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: Number eight the Indiana Pacers, winners of six in a row,
Speaker 1: twelve of their last fifteen. They are now all the
Speaker 1: way up to fifth in the Eastern Conference, and last
Speaker 1: night they pulled off one of the most impressive wins
Speaker 1: of the season, just dominating the Cavs in Cleveland in
Speaker 1: the second half, shutting down their offense. They outscored the
Speaker 1: cast sixty eight to forty in the second half and
Speaker 1: did it almost entirely with ball pressure. In the third quarter,
Speaker 1: they just started pressuring the hell out of Cleveland in
Speaker 1: the back court and playing those kick ahead passing lanes
Speaker 1: that Cleveland lives on a lot of the time, and
Speaker 1: it just completely discombobulated the Calves. They had seven turnovers
Speaker 1: just in the third quarter that led to twelve Pacers points,
Speaker 1: and then in the half court when they did get
Speaker 1: up the floor, they just looked kind of sped up
Speaker 1: and out of control. The Pacers ended up grabbing that
Speaker 1: game by the reins and never let go. In the streak,
Speaker 1: the Pacers are third in offense, eighth in defense, eighth
Speaker 1: in rebounding, and you don't need to look too much
Speaker 1: further than that. Like a lot of things are going
Speaker 1: right for Indy, like Siakam's playing great, Andrew Nemhard being
Speaker 1: back has helped a lot, Like they're sixteen and eight
Speaker 1: when he plays this year, in five and ten when
Speaker 1: he doesn't, so when he was injured for that amount
Speaker 1: of time, it really hurt things. Jars Walker's become one
Speaker 1: of my favorite young role players to watch. It's really
Speaker 1: starting to blossom into a useful ford. He had a
Speaker 1: couple of huge poke away steals. He'll get aggressive from
Speaker 1: behind on steels like he gets beat or if he's
Speaker 1: in chase like trail position on anything, he just starts
Speaker 1: swiping at the basketball with his long arms. He had
Speaker 1: a couple of big poke way steels in the second
Speaker 1: halfingains Cleveland. He's been a high steels guy per minute
Speaker 1: all season and really all of his career, shooting forty
Speaker 1: percent from three. Run some legit action, like he had
Speaker 1: a ball screen in the third quarter with Thomas Bryant,
Speaker 1: whre he put his defender in jail and brought over
Speaker 1: the rim protector and dropped it off to Thomas got
Speaker 1: an easy bucket. All the pick and roll reps that
Speaker 1: I've watched with Jaris Walker this year, he's just done
Speaker 1: a really nice job of using his size, like using
Speaker 1: all that means there is like if a ball screen
Speaker 1: comes and the guy chases over the top, if you
Speaker 1: run it right, like where if you actually make shoulder
Speaker 1: to shoulder contact and time everything properly and set your
Speaker 1: man up for the screen, you're gonna get him in
Speaker 1: trail position. Once he's in trail position, if you're bigger,
Speaker 1: then you can just methodically work to whatever spot you
Speaker 1: want by just kind of reverse post ups. We talked
Speaker 1: about that with Luca in the Timberwolve series. It's like
Speaker 1: a reverse post up because as you come over the screen,
Speaker 1: the defender gets on your backside and then you're kind
Speaker 1: of just posting him but forward, like you're ceiling him
Speaker 1: behind you while you methodically work your way forward to
Speaker 1: try to either bring a help defender over so you
Speaker 1: can throw a pass, or if they sag back, that's
Speaker 1: when you can go to your short range shot making,
Speaker 1: which by the way, is pretty good at the shot making.
Speaker 1: Piece two. He's actually run sixty three ISO's pick and
Speaker 1: rolls and post ups this year, including passes that have
Speaker 1: led to sixty four points, So that's over a point
Speaker 1: per possession for a second year forward who is, you know,
Speaker 1: a role player type of prospect. Like, it's really really
Speaker 1: impressive stuff from him. So again, terres Walker's great, Nemhart's
Speaker 1: back playing great, Sachem's playing great, Halliburton's been really good
Speaker 1: as of late up until the injury, which we'll talk
Speaker 1: about in a minute. All that's good, and all that's great,
Speaker 1: but the main thing that's driving this turnaround for the
Speaker 1: Pacers is their defense and rebounding. Before this fifteen game
Speaker 1: stretch where they've won twelve out of fifteen, they are
Speaker 1: twenty fourth in defense, twenty seventh and rebounding. In the
Speaker 1: time of the fifteen game stretch, where they're twelve and three,
Speaker 1: eighth in defense, eighth and rebounding. That's really it, Like
Speaker 1: they have to compete on the margins to give themselves
Speaker 1: a chance, especially when you're as undersized as they can
Speaker 1: be on the perimeter, Like you've got to leverage yourself
Speaker 1: athletically on both ends of the floor, running up and
Speaker 1: down the floor at that pace that makes the pacer
Speaker 1: so good. By pressuring the ball by trying to force turnovers.
Speaker 1: They don't really force a ton of turnovers, but that
Speaker 1: was a big part of how they beat Cleveland, and
Speaker 1: in the last few games they've been forcing more turnovers,
Speaker 1: which has helped things. Again, like by ball pressuring, you
Speaker 1: can discombobulate your opponent and cause it to be more
Speaker 1: of an up and down type of game, and an
Speaker 1: up and down type of game is going to favor
Speaker 1: the Pacers more often than not. One big bummer, though,
Speaker 1: tyres Alliburton had been looking a bit more like himself.
Speaker 1: He in this stretch, this fifteen game stretch was averaging
Speaker 1: nineteen points and ten rebounds on forty nine percent from
Speaker 1: the field forty one percent from three to eighty eight
Speaker 1: percent from the line. But then he left at halftime
Speaker 1: with hamstring tightness, and obviously, with everything that we know
Speaker 1: about Tyres Alliburton's history, that's obviously super concerning. So hopefully
Speaker 1: we get some good news on that front sooner than later.
Speaker 1: Pacers right now plus ten thousand to win the title,
Speaker 1: plus three thousand to win the Eastern Conference. Number seven
Speaker 1: the Memphis Grizzlies. They've dropped three out of five. They
Speaker 1: still have the six best record in basketball, though in
Speaker 1: spite of that, it's kind of an un even stretch,
Speaker 1: really impressive win in Minnesota against the Timberwolves where they
Speaker 1: were playing one of those top ten defenses that Taylor
Speaker 1: Jenkins has been talking a lot about, and they not
Speaker 1: only lit him up but also got a big win.
Speaker 1: Jaron Jackson was incredible all night, and then John Morant
Speaker 1: ended up stealing the game with two crazy crunch time buckets,
Speaker 1: including this impossible kind of like leaning floater fadeaway thing
Speaker 1: that he hit over Ant that ended up winning the game.
Speaker 1: But that was after a disappointing game against Houston where
Speaker 1: their offense really sputtered. They turned the ball over a
Speaker 1: ton Taylor Houston just butchered them in transition off of it.
Speaker 1: And again, like Taylor Jenkins before that game, had said
Speaker 1: that he viewed these two games in particular as important
Speaker 1: tests because they were against top ten defenses. And again
Speaker 1: they failed the first test, but then they passed it.
Speaker 1: In the Minnesota game. They had a one to twenty
Speaker 1: five offensive rating in that one. Minnesota's currently sitting sixth
Speaker 1: in defense, So I wanted to look at that top
Speaker 1: ten defens's piece since Taylor Jenkins was kind of concerned
Speaker 1: about it. So what did the numbers say about Memphis
Speaker 1: versus top ten defenses. They've played nine such games this season.
Speaker 1: They have a one to twelve offensive rating in those
Speaker 1: games that actually ranks ninth in the NBA. It's not bad, right,
Speaker 1: So their offense has been fine, but they're three and
Speaker 1: six in those games, and a good part of it
Speaker 1: has been bad possessions that end in transition runouts. And
Speaker 1: this was something that I didn't even realize up until
Speaker 1: this point. But Memphis lets defenses get our offenses get
Speaker 1: out and transition seventeen point two percent of their possessions
Speaker 1: according to Cleaning the Last, which ranks twenty sixth in
Speaker 1: the NBA. So like they can get beat in transition
Speaker 1: is what happened in that Houston game in particular, and
Speaker 1: it's one of the things that's happening to them against
Speaker 1: these better defenses when they start to turn the ball
Speaker 1: over and give up live ball situations where they can
Speaker 1: get compromised. The Grizzlies are also six and ten in
Speaker 1: clutch games this year and have only posted a one
Speaker 1: oh six point one offensive rating in forty seven clutch
Speaker 1: minutes this year. That to me comes down to teams
Speaker 1: packing the paint. Again. Memphis generates by far the most
Speaker 1: spot up attempts in the league, in large part because
Speaker 1: of John Morant. They generate thirty five point four spot
Speaker 1: up opportunities per game. Denver, as a comparison, only generates
Speaker 1: twenty point three. Just to give you guys some perspective there,
Speaker 1: but Memphis only converts spot at possessions at one point
Speaker 1: zero four points per possession, which ranks nineteenth in the NBA.
Speaker 1: They're shooting sixteen percent five for thirty one on threes
Speaker 1: in the clutch, which ranks dead last in the NBA,
Speaker 1: So again that's part of the things, that's part of
Speaker 1: the thing that's been causing some issues for them on offense.
Speaker 1: Just something to keep an eye on Memphis right now.
Speaker 1: Plus twenty eight hundred to win the title, plus eleven
Speaker 1: hundred to win the Western Conference. Number six the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: We hit them in the opening segments today, So if
Speaker 1: you want more Denver Nuggets analysis, if you're checking this
Speaker 1: out on the Power Rankings breakout clip, just go to
Speaker 1: our full episode. They are plus thirteen hundred to win
Speaker 1: the title, plus five point fifty to win the West.
Speaker 1: Number five Houston Rockets a really impressive win in Memphis
Speaker 1: for their third straight win. The other night, Shan Gun
Speaker 1: was just absolutely frying every single Grizzlies big. They had
Speaker 1: brought in their third string center Brandon Clark midway through
Speaker 1: the first quarter, just trying something to get it like
Speaker 1: Jay Huff couldn't handle and Zacchiet he couldn't handle. It
Speaker 1: was just a problem really, Like it was one of
Speaker 1: those things too where Shane Gun part of the issue too.
Speaker 1: And I'm confused about this as it pertains two opponents.
Speaker 1: Everyone's biting on Shanegun's pump fake in the middle of
Speaker 1: the lane every single time, when, like the numbers say,
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily a super efficient shot for him, But
Speaker 1: he was just getting those guys just by showing them
Speaker 1: the ball and then going right around him, getting wherever
Speaker 1: he wants. Even did some damage Jared Jackson in that
Speaker 1: game as well. But the more impressive part of that
Speaker 1: game was Houston's defense, which just completely discombobulated Memphis offense.
Speaker 1: They had thirty one points off of turnovers in that one.
Speaker 1: And then one of the big stories that I've been
Speaker 1: talking about all year is like Jalen Green and Fred
Speaker 1: Van Vliet, when they produce offensively, this team looks like
Speaker 1: a championship contender. When they don't produce offensively, they look
Speaker 1: like a mediocre team. In the Memphis game, those guys
Speaker 1: gave you forty nine points, the Wizard's game forty eight points,
Speaker 1: the Lakers game forty eight points. So you're averaging forty
Speaker 1: eight points between those three consistent or those two guys
Speaker 1: consistently over the last three games. That's been the swing
Speaker 1: factor their offense. When the Rockets score at least one
Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen points this year, they're seventeen to one
Speaker 1: That's the main key for them, and that's why they
Speaker 1: seem like such a prime candidate for that type of superstar.
Speaker 1: Trade is like, get somebody who can consistently bring in
Speaker 1: that type of production. You could have a very dangerous
Speaker 1: team here. Rockets are plus fifty five hundred to win
Speaker 1: the title, plus eighteen hundred to win the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: Number four the New York Knicks, they had lost four
Speaker 1: out of five before the win over the Bucks yesterday,
Speaker 1: just completely let go of the defensive rope again. As
Speaker 1: of late in the four losses, they had a one
Speaker 1: to twenty two defensive rating. The thunder game in particular,
Speaker 1: was gnarly in that second quarter stretch, like or it
Speaker 1: was actually late first quarter when it started, Shay was
Speaker 1: just dribbling up at Michale Bridges and just going right
Speaker 1: around him every single time and just getting right to
Speaker 1: the rim or getting great separation on his step back.
Speaker 1: It was honestly pretty embarrassing what Shae did to those guys.
Speaker 1: The Knicks did get back on track though, with the
Speaker 1: win over the Milwaukee Bucks yesterday. Brunson lit them up
Speaker 1: right out the gates in the first quarter. He finished
Speaker 1: with forty four, did a ton of damage to Brook
Speaker 1: Lopez in space. Was not a good defensive game for Brooke.
Speaker 1: But the Knicks are not going anywhere if they can't
Speaker 1: get some more consistent effort on the defensive end. Again,
Speaker 1: a one to twenty two defensive ready, that's just them
Speaker 1: letting go of the rope again and again. They're gonna
Speaker 1: compete with Boston. That has to be their calling card
Speaker 1: in a real way. The Knicks are plus nine hundred
Speaker 1: to win the title right now, plus four hundred to
Speaker 1: win the conference. Number three the Boston Celtics. We also
Speaker 1: hit them in our opening segment tonight, so again if
Speaker 1: you want to see more Celtic stuff, just go to
Speaker 1: our full episode. They're plus two to fifty to win
Speaker 1: the title, plus one ten to win the conference. Number
Speaker 1: two the Oklahoma City Thunder. We talked about Shay cooking
Speaker 1: Mchal Bridges earlier, but on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: the Thunder did a great job switching and containing the
Speaker 1: ball against the Knicks. Only allowed nine unguarded catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jump shots all game. Remember that's a team that
Speaker 1: allowed just three wide open or unguarded catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots against the Calves in that law or excuse me,
Speaker 1: in the second half of the Celtics game when they
Speaker 1: beat the Celtics, so like, we know that they can
Speaker 1: really strangle the life out of you and take away
Speaker 1: those open spot up opportunities. That's a Knicks team that
Speaker 1: has been picking people apart. Again, only nine unguarded catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots allowed in that game, two blowout
Speaker 1: wins to bounce back the Thunder from their loss in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: We did a deep dive on both of the Thunder
Speaker 1: games last week. We did Thunder Celtics and Thunder Calves
Speaker 1: in a lot of detail. If you haven't seen those
Speaker 1: videos yet, make sure you go back into our feed.
Speaker 1: We did a bunch of analysis there. The Thunder right
Speaker 1: now plus two sixty five to win the title, plus
Speaker 1: one thirty to win the Western Conference. In the last,
Speaker 1: but not least number one, the Cleveland Cavaliers dropped a
Speaker 1: game to the Pacers that we talked about earlier in
Speaker 1: the Pacers segment. So I won't get too much further
Speaker 1: into that, but one other thing I wanted to point out.
Speaker 1: I don't think ball pressure is going to stifle their
Speaker 1: offense the way it did against Indy. That said, we
Speaker 1: have talked a lot about Cleveland's shooting. They generated thirteen
Speaker 1: catch and shoot jump shots in the second half and
Speaker 1: made just one of them in that game against the Pacers.
Speaker 1: Six of them were unguarded, they were one for six.
Speaker 1: Seven of them were guarded, they went zero for seven.
Speaker 1: Sam Merril and Dean Wade in particular, got some pretty
Speaker 1: good looks that they just didn't hit. And obviously making
Speaker 1: shots is a huge part of what makes the Cavs
Speaker 1: so good, so it was just interesting to see what
Speaker 1: it looks like when they don't make shots. Although it's
Speaker 1: not something I'm concerned about in the big picture, I
Speaker 1: do have one last Cavs bit. They're plus eleven hundred
Speaker 1: to win the title despite Boston being at plus two
Speaker 1: to fifty in Oklahoma City being at plus two sixty five.
Speaker 1: I think that's absurd. I think they're very clearly on
Speaker 1: the same tier. They've beat them both once this year already,
Speaker 1: the record that they have, they're at a seventy one
Speaker 1: win pace. Guys, that's not something to overthink. Now. The
Speaker 1: case for why the odds are different is Cleveland would
Speaker 1: theoretically have to beat Boston and then also beat Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: but the same could be said for Boston, they would
Speaker 1: have to beat Cleveland and then beat Oklahoma City. And
Speaker 1: I obviously think I think people are overlooking the middle
Speaker 1: of the West too, Like Denver's gonna be an issue,
Speaker 1: Dallas is going to be an issue, Memphis is gonna
Speaker 1: be an issue, Like I think Oklahoma City's gonna a
Speaker 1: harder time getting out of the West than it would
Speaker 1: appear at this point in time, because I think everyone
Speaker 1: over or underrates that middle tier in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: So the point is is, like I just don't understand
Speaker 1: the gap in the odds. If I was ranking the contender,
Speaker 1: I'd have Boston one, I'd have Cleveland two, and i'd
Speaker 1: have OKC three. But if you're giving me plus two
Speaker 1: fifty for Boston plus two sixty five or Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: and plus eleven hundred for Cleveland, that's just an excellent
Speaker 1: opportunity in terms of the betting price there. And like
Speaker 1: I think the issue there is everyone is just underrating
Speaker 1: Cleveland's talent. We all have preconceived notions of Darius Garland
Speaker 1: and Evin Mobley about the players they used to be,
Speaker 1: and the truth is they're just better basketball players now,
Speaker 1: and we need to recalibrate the way that we look
Speaker 1: at that team there. I think that that's just an
Speaker 1: insane number there to get the Calves at plus eleven
Speaker 1: hundred to win the title. Again, all of our odds
Speaker 1: are provided provided by our partner, DraftKings. That's all I
Speaker 1: have for today, guys is always sincerely appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: for rocking with me and supporting the show. We'll be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with more game reaction. Probably get into it. We're
Speaker 1: gonna start shifting gears into some trade deadline stuff here
Speaker 1: as as of the next few weeks too, so keep
Speaker 1: an eye on that. Again. I appreciate you, guys, and
Speaker 1: I'll see you tomorrow the volume. What's up guys? As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: It would actually be really helpful for us if you
Speaker 1: guys would take a second and leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
Speaker 1: but if you could take a minute to do that,
Speaker 1: I'd really appreciate it.