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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: I presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: weekend so far. We're just gonna briefly touch on four
Speaker 1: games from last night. The Lakers notching a huge road
Speaker 1: win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, locking down the seven seed
Speaker 1: for the time being. The Philadelphia is seventy six ers
Speaker 1: beat the Toronto Rafters, although the Raptors did make it
Speaker 1: close there at the end, they pulled away. But I
Speaker 1: really want to dive in on just all of the
Speaker 1: championship boxes, like those expectations that we have for champions
Speaker 1: and whether or not Philly meets those expectations. I want
Speaker 1: to dive into them a little bit. Then we got
Speaker 1: a preview of our four five first round matchup in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference between the Calves and the Heat. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson notches a career high forty eight points and a
Speaker 1: road win in Cleveland. And last, but not least, I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about Russell Westbrook and
Speaker 1: his time with the Clippers, especially after his thirty six
Speaker 1: point night a couple of games ago against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Speaker 1: You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: this was a really interesting game between the Wolves and
Speaker 1: the Lakers. I actually didn't watch the game live because
Speaker 1: I was at a rehearsal dinner for a wedding that
Speaker 1: I'm going to this weekend, but I kind of saw
Speaker 1: some of the people talking, and you know, Lakers fans
Speaker 1: were very optimistic about how things went, felt like they
Speaker 1: dominated the game, but Timberwolves fans were convinced that, like,
Speaker 1: there was this weird sequence that took place with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis spraining his ankle and a small little run that
Speaker 1: the Lakers went on during that stretch, and how it
Speaker 1: might have changed the game. And then Rudy Gobert effectively
Speaker 1: credited that for what turned the game around. And so
Speaker 1: I was really curious to watch it because it was
Speaker 1: a classic case of like the two fan basis had
Speaker 1: very different impressions on what went down, and so I
Speaker 1: wanted to see the basketball because, you know, I do
Speaker 1: believe that momentum swings can happen in games. We've talked
Speaker 1: a lot about this. I talk about how you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about it during the Mark Cuban thing with
Speaker 1: that weird play in the Warriors Mavericks game where there
Speaker 1: was that inbounds pass or or a misscall here or
Speaker 1: a miscall the players complaining about officiating. I talk about
Speaker 1: all the time, there's like five or six things that
Speaker 1: happen in every single basketball game that are entirely out
Speaker 1: of your control. And what do I always say, Sometimes
Speaker 1: they can all go against you, but you've got to
Speaker 1: find a way to win like that, that's just the reality.
Speaker 1: And so like that, you have to be prepared as
Speaker 1: a basketball team going into a game or going into
Speaker 1: a series, like there's just going to be a bunch
Speaker 1: of shit that's completely out of your control that doesn't
Speaker 1: go your way, and you have to find a way
Speaker 1: to overcome that. That's just part of being a competitor.
Speaker 1: That's part of being a winner. And so I hate
Speaker 1: that excuse process from the start. But I wanted to
Speaker 1: see what happened in the basketball So I was watching
Speaker 1: the game, and you know, it's very back and forth
Speaker 1: for most of the first half. The Lakers take a
Speaker 1: little lead, the Wolves take a little lead, right but
Speaker 1: just in the final few minutes of the first half,
Speaker 1: the Wolves go on a big run. Going into the
Speaker 1: halftime period, Kyle Anders hits a corner three, Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: does this vicious spin move on Anthony Davis in isolation
Speaker 1: for a layup. Anthony Edwards finally get gets going a
Speaker 1: really smart play design from Chris from Chris Finch to
Speaker 1: get him a backdoor cut. They have Carl Towns in
Speaker 1: the left corner and they have Rudy Gobert go set
Speaker 1: a pin down for him, and it looks like Carl
Speaker 1: Toowns is gonna come off that screen that he didn't
Speaker 1: actually end up using it, but Rudy was setting the
Speaker 1: screen like he was gonna go out. So Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: because he has to be there to show out on
Speaker 1: that screen to stop Carltown's from getting that easy catch
Speaker 1: and shoot, he steps out of the lane. Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: just runs a backdoor cut and gets a dunk that
Speaker 1: kind of broke the ice and that I believe that
Speaker 1: was his first basket of the game at that point.
Speaker 1: Then he gets another driving reverse layout before the half. Bam,
Speaker 1: you go into halftime, you're up ten. Complexion of the
Speaker 1: game has completely changed. They kind of go back and
Speaker 1: forth to start the third quarter for a few minutes.
Speaker 1: But on film, and this is what's so funny about
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert with that postgame comment, I was really interested
Speaker 1: to see if it was the Laker d that turned
Speaker 1: the tide of the game or if it was just
Speaker 1: some random sequence that turned the tide of the game.
Speaker 1: And it was the Lakers defense. They got stops on
Speaker 1: five of the previous six possessions before Anthony Davis tweaked
Speaker 1: his ankle. That ended up being the defensive wave that
Speaker 1: carried them through the rest of the game. The Lakers
Speaker 1: had a defensive rating in the second half of this
Speaker 1: game of eighty five point two, which is off the
Speaker 1: charge good. So the real story of the second half
Speaker 1: of this game is the Lakers just completely locked down Minnesota.
Speaker 1: It came down to a couple of specific schematic things.
Speaker 1: But if I had to attribute it to one, I
Speaker 1: would say Ruby Hatchamura and his ability to guard Carl
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns, because one of the predicaments that the Lakers
Speaker 1: were put in is that when Carltowns and Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: were both on the court, they'd put Anthony Davis on
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert so that he could linger around the paint, right,
Speaker 1: But that ended up putting Jared Vanderbilt on Carltowns. And
Speaker 1: the problem there is Jared Vanderbilt is a very good
Speaker 1: perimeter defender, but Carltowns is by far the biggest player
Speaker 1: they've given him as an assignment to guard at this
Speaker 1: point in the season, and he's just too big and
Speaker 1: too strong and shoots the ball too well. Had twenty.
Speaker 1: I think in the first half they were having all
Speaker 1: sorts of problems guarding Carl Towns, But as soon as
Speaker 1: they figured out that they could they could put Ruey
Speaker 1: Hotcha Mura on Carltowns and hold their own defensively there.
Speaker 1: That allowed Anthony Davis to remain around the basket for
Speaker 1: the rest of the game. Because early in that second
Speaker 1: half they sub Carl Towns out, they have Kyle Anderson
Speaker 1: in the game, that's when the run starts. The run
Speaker 1: begins with Anthony Davis protecting the rim, guarding on the
Speaker 1: perimeter really well with guys like Jared Vanderbilt in Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder and just getting into the basketball. Then when Carl
Speaker 1: Towns came back in the game and Rudy Gobert left
Speaker 1: the game, they were able to slide Anthony Davis over
Speaker 1: onto Kyle Anderson, a player they want to concede three
Speaker 1: point shots too. That was only possible because Ruey hotcher
Speaker 1: Mura was able to hold his own in that Carl
Speaker 1: Towns matchup. I tuck a about the different types of
Speaker 1: forwards in the NBA. We have our wirery, lanky athletic forwards,
Speaker 1: and then we have our bigger, stronger, more power forwards.
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt's more in the middle, to be honest, because
Speaker 1: he's taller, like a bigger forward, and he does have
Speaker 1: good muscle mass, but he does have a little bit
Speaker 1: of a higher center of gravity and he's not going
Speaker 1: to hold up against really really strong post players. We
Speaker 1: even saw him struggle a little bit with Julius Randall
Speaker 1: in a matchup a little while back. If you guys remember,
Speaker 1: the only real lanky athlete that the Lakers have is
Speaker 1: a guy like Troy Brown junior who's a bit undersized, right,
Speaker 1: So that's kind of like their one position that they
Speaker 1: don't have, you know, your stereotypical type of athlete there.
Speaker 1: But Ruby had Chamura. He struggled a little bit with
Speaker 1: some perimeter matchups this year, but he is big and strong,
Speaker 1: and he is a much lower center of gravity with
Speaker 1: much stronger legs than Jared Vanderbilt. That gives him the
Speaker 1: ability to hold up under more physical forwards in the NBA,
Speaker 1: So Rui had Chamurra ends up actually being a really
Speaker 1: good matchup for a guy like Carl Town's in a
Speaker 1: way that you wouldn't expect, even though Jared Vanderbilt's a
Speaker 1: better vender overall. Right, and then you saw the slotting
Speaker 1: start to take place from there. They actually went with
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt and Ruy Hotchmer at the same time. At
Speaker 1: one point, Now you've got Jared Vanderbilt being able to
Speaker 1: slot over onto Anthony Edwards. Why because Anthony Davis can
Speaker 1: stay on Kyle Anderson, Ruey hodcher Mura's on Carl Towns,
Speaker 1: and then you've got Jared Vanderbilt freed up for a
Speaker 1: perimeter assignment. There, then you're able to slide Dennis Schroeder
Speaker 1: over onto Mike Conley, who had been red hot in
Speaker 1: the whole game. The two big matchup problems that cause
Speaker 1: the Lakers issues in this game were Carl Town's, particularly
Speaker 1: in the first half, and then Mike Conley throughout the
Speaker 1: game with his shot making just that ridiculous floater that
Speaker 1: he never misses and his pull up three that he's
Speaker 1: been hitting at a high clip since coming to the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolves. So you saw the matchups kind of start
Speaker 1: to slot into place and then suddenly they couldn't score.
Speaker 1: And the other big thing with Ruey hotcher Mura is
Speaker 1: when they were running Kyle Anderson ball screens with Carl Towns,
Speaker 1: they were able to just switch that and the switching ability,
Speaker 1: and there were a couple possessions where Ruey actually switched
Speaker 1: on to Rudy Gobert in fronted the post and pushed
Speaker 1: him out of the lane. Like it just it was
Speaker 1: a stifling defensive effort triggered by outstanding point of attack
Speaker 1: defense from guys like Jared Vanderbilt and Dennis Schroeder, and
Speaker 1: then on the back line the switchability of guys like
Speaker 1: Ruy Hatchermer and Anthony Davis. You even got like even Lebron.
Speaker 1: Lebron had a nightmare offensive game in this game, but
Speaker 1: he was engaged defensively. I talked a lot about how
Speaker 1: as soon as Lebron came back, they don't need MVP Lebron.
Speaker 1: They just don't. They have so much backcourt skill and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis playing at such a high level they don't
Speaker 1: need him to They will need him to to beat
Speaker 1: like a team like Boston or Milwaukee, there's no doubt
Speaker 1: they're gonna need superstar Lebron. But he's got plenty of
Speaker 1: time to get his rhythm back. Jade McDaniels did a
Speaker 1: number on him yesterday. He still doesn't quite have the
Speaker 1: lift that he needs and doesn't quite have his rhythm
Speaker 1: and his shot and his handle dialed in right to
Speaker 1: be the dominant score in the against those really, really
Speaker 1: good defensive teams. But he's got time, and we know
Speaker 1: he's capable of that, just look at what he's done
Speaker 1: during other stretches of the season. But I thought, you
Speaker 1: know again, don't let don't get confused by the narrative.
Speaker 1: It was a weird sequence, like, yeah, Anthony Davis fell down,
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert said he could have dunked on him. Go
Speaker 1: watch the three play. That's absurd. First of all, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is laying on the ground in front of the basket.
Speaker 1: Technically he's in his way. It's not like he can
Speaker 1: just step on him right, so he doesn't have his
Speaker 1: steps right to be able to dunk. And when you
Speaker 1: and Gabriel's literally sitting in help, like if if Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis wasn't standing there, when Yan's gonna run over and
Speaker 1: jump with verticality, and Rudy Goberts is not a very
Speaker 1: good finisher around the rim, that probably turns into a
Speaker 1: hook shot that he probably missed. Either way, the ball
Speaker 1: got worked around and Mike Conley shot a wide open
Speaker 1: three on that possession. One of their best shooters, who's
Speaker 1: shooting really well that game, shot a wide open three.
Speaker 1: He just missed it. Then they didn't get matched up
Speaker 1: in transition and left Angela Russell opened for a layup
Speaker 1: on a push ahead pass from Lebron And it wasn't
Speaker 1: just about the Anthony Davis injury. They were killing him
Speaker 1: with those push ahead passes the entire game. Ruby Hotchamura
Speaker 1: got a backdoor lobbed, I should say in the second half.
Speaker 1: Ruey hotch Amerra got a backdoor lob dunk from Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves in transition because nobody picked him up. That was
Speaker 1: after the ad injury, after the game had already returned
Speaker 1: to its normal flow. There was a play where Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis got a deep seal in transition with nobody around
Speaker 1: him against a smaller defender. He just happened to smoke
Speaker 1: a layup, but the Lakers were beating them in transition
Speaker 1: consistently as an issue there in that second half, I
Speaker 1: just don't buy that. And then Jade McDaniels comes down
Speaker 1: the floor after the d'angela Russell layup, and a d
Speaker 1: is still writhing on the floor and he's just dribbling
Speaker 1: like super careless with the basketball, and when you and
Speaker 1: Gabriel just comes up and picks him clean, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was. There's no doubt it was a
Speaker 1: weird sequence. I also wouldn't be surprised if the weirdness
Speaker 1: of Anthony Davis writhing around in pain on the ground
Speaker 1: had some sort of brief mental disruption to the Timberwolves.
Speaker 1: But like I said, that's going to happen in a
Speaker 1: basketball game. You've got to find a way to regain control.
Speaker 1: There were still eighteen plus minutes left in the game,
Speaker 1: and the reality was is you couldn't score in The
Speaker 1: Lakers started to demonstrate that before the injury, and then
Speaker 1: they resoundingly demonstrated it down the stretch, and then Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis just took them home in the post. And it
Speaker 1: was crazy because just NonStop again like, first it was
Speaker 1: against Gobert earlier in the fourth quarter, and then Gobert
Speaker 1: comes off the floor and it's against Carltowns, and he's
Speaker 1: just surrounded by so much offensive skill with this new
Speaker 1: Laker lineup that they're leaving him on an island. And
Speaker 1: he just took Carltowns to school. And what was crazy
Speaker 1: is it wasn't even jumpers, like he hit a little
Speaker 1: fade away on the baseline, but for the most part
Speaker 1: he was in the damn lane, just hitting him with
Speaker 1: pivots and fakes and spins and hookshots and just making
Speaker 1: every single one of them. It was a clinic of
Speaker 1: post work against Carltown's. In a little bit against Gobert
Speaker 1: as well. He continues his tour of dominance with thirty
Speaker 1: eight points and seventeen rebounds with two blocks, and his
Speaker 1: Steel Lakers are fourteen and seven since the deadline, despite
Speaker 1: Lebron missing most of that stretch. They also lost that
Speaker 1: Houston game with Anthony Davis resting and giving up seventy
Speaker 1: something paint points. We'll get to see if I was
Speaker 1: right about a d changing that matchup here on Sunday
Speaker 1: when the Lakers go to Houston. Then you had that
Speaker 1: heartbreak against Dallas, So they've had some a little bit
Speaker 1: of bad luck. And they're still fourteen and seven since
Speaker 1: the deadline, which is the sixth best record in the
Speaker 1: league during that span. They also have the very best defense,
Speaker 1: and they're the fourth best rebounding team over that span.
Speaker 1: So best defense, fourth best rebounding team. They're physically beating
Speaker 1: the hell out of teams, and that's mostly without Lebron.
Speaker 1: With Lebron is just a forced multiplier in that regard
Speaker 1: with what he can do generating attention around the post,
Speaker 1: Like defensively at this phase of his career, is still
Speaker 1: a pretty good help defender, Like he's just going to
Speaker 1: exacerbate that problem for teams and so, and that sort
Speaker 1: of physical dominance is something that I always look at
Speaker 1: for teams in a potential playoff run. Now they are
Speaker 1: nineteenth and offense over this span, but again that's where
Speaker 1: Lebron getting back to his ceiling offensively at some point
Speaker 1: in the next couple of weeks will be the thing
Speaker 1: that can push them over the edge offensively as well.
Speaker 1: And here's the other thing too. One of the I
Speaker 1: always talk about how in NBA history, you gotta be
Speaker 1: a top ten defense in order to have a real
Speaker 1: chance to win a championship. That's just unless you have
Speaker 1: an otherworldly talent advantage, you got to be a top
Speaker 1: ten defense. Here's what's crazy. The Lakers are now basically
Speaker 1: in a virtual tie for tenth place in defense for
Speaker 1: the entire season, So even that goal of getting into
Speaker 1: the top ten is very much within reach if they
Speaker 1: put together even just one more good defensive night. They
Speaker 1: now have sole possession of the seven seed. Now, Minnesota
Speaker 1: does have a tiebreaker over them, so they got to
Speaker 1: make sure that they stay one game ahead of Minnesota
Speaker 1: in the lost column. They are one game back of
Speaker 1: both Golden State and the Clippers, but they only have
Speaker 1: the tiebreaker against Golden State. They do not have the
Speaker 1: tiebreaker against the Clippers. Obviously, three way ties, the tiebreaker
Speaker 1: gets way more convoluted, so everything's still up in the air.
Speaker 1: But they do control their own destiny, and they're heading
Speaker 1: into an easier stretch of their schedule. They play the
Speaker 1: Rockets in the Jazz next three of their last five
Speaker 1: games against the Rockets and the Jazz, and then they've
Speaker 1: got a couple of tough matchups against the Clippers and
Speaker 1: the Suns. But the Lakers are in a good position
Speaker 1: to potentially end up getting either that home court for
Speaker 1: the first round of the play in tournament or to
Speaker 1: miss the play in tournament entirely. They're they're in a
Speaker 1: good spot right now. Good time to be a Lakers fan,
Speaker 1: all right. I want to talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the Raptors Sixers game. Not so much about the game,
Speaker 1: but I want to focus on the Sixers. The Sixers
Speaker 1: really blew them out in this game. They had seventy
Speaker 1: seven in the first half. The Raptors kind of grinded
Speaker 1: back and got it close. They got back to within
Speaker 1: two on a Fred van Vleet pull up three in
Speaker 1: the middle of the fourth quarter, but then immediately the
Speaker 1: Sixers won on a run and be got a bucket. PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker hit a corner three, James Harden had a driving layup.
Speaker 1: James Harden was fantastic in this game, in his second
Speaker 1: game returning from that achilles sore neus. We talked a
Speaker 1: lot about, you know, Harden having like a revenge campaign
Speaker 1: this season, and he's had some injuries that have banged
Speaker 1: him up. Obviously the foot injury earlier on and then
Speaker 1: the achilles injury more recently, but really for the most
Speaker 1: part this season, I think James Harden has had an
Speaker 1: excellent season both as a score and a playmaker, doing
Speaker 1: exactly as much as this team needs him to do
Speaker 1: to have a chance to win a championship. Most importantly,
Speaker 1: Harden's legs looked explosive. He talked about how at one
Speaker 1: point he was in excruciating pain and that achilles and
Speaker 1: that was causing him problems getting lift and pushing off.
Speaker 1: He looked spry in this game and the big, the
Speaker 1: big driving layup he had that basically was the dagger
Speaker 1: against the Raptors. At the end of this game. It
Speaker 1: was he was against og and an Obi and Yaka
Speaker 1: Peurtle was guarding Joel Embiad and he kept calling for
Speaker 1: that and bead ball screen. He's trying to get switched
Speaker 1: on to Peartles so he can get his switch, but
Speaker 1: they og and Obi was just doing a really nice
Speaker 1: job of fighting through the screen, and Nick Nurse, as
Speaker 1: he always does, was like ridiculously overaggressively doubling and beat
Speaker 1: out of the high post. So Harden just pulled it
Speaker 1: out and he's like, oh shit, Like I guess I
Speaker 1: got a score and an obi and he hit him
Speaker 1: with a move and a counter move and got all
Speaker 1: the way to the rim and made a left handed layup,
Speaker 1: and on that counter move, he was engaged physically with Og,
Speaker 1: and Og was playing very physical, and so for him
Speaker 1: to be able to shed Og like that and maintain
Speaker 1: his leg strength to get the necessary lift to get
Speaker 1: up to the rim, I think is a really good
Speaker 1: sign for him physically. But I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: the Sixers in their championship boxes because I always talk
Speaker 1: about these things that are like mandatory, right, and the
Speaker 1: Sixers more and more I look at them above and
Speaker 1: beyond the things that we don't even really have a
Speaker 1: measurable way of accounting for, like, oh, James Harden's playoff performance,
Speaker 1: or Joel Embiat's playoff performance, or Doc Rivers playoff performance
Speaker 1: like which again, those it's I'm not saying they're not concerns,
Speaker 1: but it's just it's really hard to quantify those things
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of things. And like, if they
Speaker 1: have figured it out, like we're not, the only way
Speaker 1: we're gonna find out is they're just gonna go beat
Speaker 1: everybody in the playoffs, right, So It's hard to really
Speaker 1: plan for that, so to speak. It's just kind of
Speaker 1: a wild card that you have to account for. But
Speaker 1: if we set those aside, they check everything else. I
Speaker 1: always talk you need to have elite rim protection. They
Speaker 1: do Joel Embiat, especially in this last half of the season,
Speaker 1: his rim protection has been off the charge good. You
Speaker 1: need to have guys who can take high leverage, perimeter assignments.
Speaker 1: D Anthony Melton can take higher level ball handler like
Speaker 1: perimeter ball handler, like guard, high pick and roll assignments. PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker can guard all of your big forwards that you're
Speaker 1: gonna need to have guarded in the Eastern Conference. Even
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris like having PJ. Tucker and Tobias Harris's options
Speaker 1: to throw at you know, Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: for instance. That's that's that's real weapon. That's a real
Speaker 1: weapon have. Especially with Joel Embiid on the back line.
Speaker 1: You can't just attack James Harden on a switch because
Speaker 1: of his ability to guard in the post right. So
Speaker 1: they have a lot of matchup versatility. Defensively, I really
Speaker 1: like that they are the very best spot up team
Speaker 1: in the league. So if you do what Nick Nurse did,
Speaker 1: and you just double team the shit out of Joel Embiid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he might have some turnovers and he had five turnovers
Speaker 1: in this game, but if he can make that first
Speaker 1: pass out and have James Harden make that second read,
Speaker 1: there's just so much skill on the back side of
Speaker 1: the floor, like PJ. Tucker was hitting his corner three
Speaker 1: in this game. De Anthony Melton driving blows outs and
Speaker 1: cutting off of extra passes and stuff. They just have
Speaker 1: so much skill off the ball that they're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to score. And then they most importantly, they have
Speaker 1: two elite shot creators, but it goes beyond what they
Speaker 1: do individually. Yes, James Harden and Joel and beat two superstars.
Speaker 1: That gives you the ability to create shots. But it's
Speaker 1: because they can create shots in both specific defensive environments
Speaker 1: that I'm so optimistic they can. If you're in a
Speaker 1: traditional drop coverage, they can pick you to part a
Speaker 1: pick to pieces with pick and roll, just straight up
Speaker 1: James Harden with the ball and beat sets the screen,
Speaker 1: rolls down to the free throw line, pocket pass go
Speaker 1: to work, help out of the weak side you're kicking
Speaker 1: to shooters. They can play that way, but both of
Speaker 1: them can beat switches. So if it turns into a
Speaker 1: thing where all of a sudden you can't run drop
Speaker 1: coverage anymore, or you're going up against a team like
Speaker 1: the Rafters that has all these forwards and they start switching.
Speaker 1: James Harden is beating some of the best perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: in the league to the basket still to these days,
Speaker 1: to this day, and Joel Embi has been just an
Speaker 1: absolute monster in isolation all season long, and so they can.
Speaker 1: They have a versatility of offensive approach. I think that
Speaker 1: makes them extremely dangerous. So I mean again, I still
Speaker 1: have them comfortably third behind the Bucks and the Celtics
Speaker 1: in the conference, but I think as a group they
Speaker 1: are right there with them, and I absolutely think they
Speaker 1: have a chance to come out of the conference. All right,
Speaker 1: So we got our preview of the four five matchup
Speaker 1: between the Knicks and Calves last night. It was interesting
Speaker 1: because both teams were really red hot in this game.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell came out red hot in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: but then the Calves cool off and Jalen Brunson just
Speaker 1: never cooled off. And it started in the first half
Speaker 1: with like this clinic of just short rains, little pump
Speaker 1: fake pull up twos and pump fake floaters and pump
Speaker 1: fake hook shots in the lane. Everything was defended extremely well.
Speaker 1: Like the Cavs defended they lost him a couple times
Speaker 1: in the second half on peel off switches where like
Speaker 1: they were hedging onto Jalen Brunson and then the hedging
Speaker 1: defender would leave to go back to his man, but
Speaker 1: the original on ball defender wouldn't get back into the
Speaker 1: play and Jalen would end up wide open. There were
Speaker 1: a couple of defensive mistakes, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: the Cavs defended Jalen Brunson extremely well, and he just
Speaker 1: made everything. And that goes back to what I've been
Speaker 1: talking about forever with the Knicks is if Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: and Julius Randall do that, which is a superstar type
Speaker 1: of behavior, the ability to knock down consistently tough shots
Speaker 1: against good defense, that raises their ceiling to a level
Speaker 1: that I don't think a lot of people expected from
Speaker 1: the Knicks. And by the way, this is not just
Speaker 1: a one game sample size. Jalen Brunson is shooting fifty
Speaker 1: two percent on floaters this year. There are six players
Speaker 1: that have taken two hundred floaters, Trey Young, Josh Kiddy,
Speaker 1: John Morant, Tias Jones and Trey Jones, and Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson's fifty two percent is best in the league,
Speaker 1: so he is the best volume floaters shooter in the
Speaker 1: league by far. Right now, he's also shooting forty nine
Speaker 1: percent on short jumpers inside of seventeen feet, which is
Speaker 1: obviously excellent. And then he's having a really good three
Speaker 1: point shooting season two forty two percent from three this year,
Speaker 1: about thirty eight and a half percent or so on
Speaker 1: pull up three, so it's not flukey that he's shooting
Speaker 1: as well as he has. And it was all the
Speaker 1: short stuff early, but then there in the second half
Speaker 1: it was the pull up threes, and it seemed like
Speaker 1: every single time the Calves started to make a run,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson was there to knock down a huge three
Speaker 1: to stem the tide. And again, it's gonna look very
Speaker 1: different in the playoff series. I'll be really interested to
Speaker 1: see how the matchups work out, because not only I
Speaker 1: mean the Calves were missing Jared Allen and Isaac a
Speaker 1: Cooro obviously, and Lamar Stevens ended up drawing that Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson matchup. To start, I liked Lamar Stevens better on
Speaker 1: bigger forwards, and I like Isaac Accorro more on the
Speaker 1: quicker guards, So obviously that's a slightly better matchup. But
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get any sympathy from the Nicks. They
Speaker 1: didn't have Julius Randall, and that changes matchups a lot.
Speaker 1: And like, I know, the easy answers like, oh, we're
Speaker 1: gonna put Evan Mobley on Julius Randall, but in a
Speaker 1: physical playoff environment, I wonder if he might be a
Speaker 1: little too thin there. That's gonna be an interesting matchup.
Speaker 1: I would love to see how Evan Mobley can hold
Speaker 1: up against Julius Randall, because if he doesn't hold up
Speaker 1: on Julius Randall, they're gonna have to go as someone
Speaker 1: like Lamar Stevens, and Lamar Stevens will have to guard
Speaker 1: Julius Randall, which will end up putting, you know, Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson in a position where you have to guard him
Speaker 1: with one of the guards, and that's just gonna be
Speaker 1: barbecue chicken at that point. So it's gonna be really
Speaker 1: interesting to see how the matchups shake out, and obviously
Speaker 1: it's gonna look very different than it did in this
Speaker 1: particular game. But one thing was apparent from this game,
Speaker 1: even with Lamar Stevens on the ball, Jalen Brunson looked
Speaker 1: very comfortable getting to his spots and getting to the
Speaker 1: shots that he likes to take. All Right, lastly, before
Speaker 1: we get out of her, Russ versus the Grizzlies. So
Speaker 1: I had a bunch of people in the comments asking
Speaker 1: why didn't I talk about Russ in his thirty six
Speaker 1: point game the other night. The short version is is
Speaker 1: the the Grizzlies sat everybody like, yeah, John Morant played, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Xavier Tilman played. John Morant's trying to get back in shape, right,
Speaker 1: Dylan Brooks played, But they sat Desmond Baine, and most importantly,
Speaker 1: they sat Jaren Jackson Jr. Who has been arguably the
Speaker 1: best room protector in the NBA this year. And the
Speaker 1: thing with Jaron reason we've talked about this. I think
Speaker 1: John Rand's a better player overall, and he represents the
Speaker 1: Grizzlies ceiling, but I think Jaron Jackson's the most valuable
Speaker 1: player to the Grizzlies that he is the foundational piece
Speaker 1: to everything they do defensively. That's why the Grizzlies are
Speaker 1: better with him on the Like his on off numbers
Speaker 1: are better than anybody else on the team. Jaron Jackson's
Speaker 1: vitally important and so honestly, like it just wasn't a
Speaker 1: game to really learn anything because you were just basically
Speaker 1: watching a shell of the Memphis Grizzlies go against the Clippers.
Speaker 1: Right that said, Russ did play really well, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about how well Russ has played with the Clippers.
Speaker 1: I just didn't think it was worth covering as a
Speaker 1: result of all those guys missing. And here's the thing,
Speaker 1: Jaron Jackson came back last night, and suddenly Russ went
Speaker 1: from going for thirty six to scoring four points on
Speaker 1: two for eight shooting. You know, because now you had
Speaker 1: rim protection, real perimeter defense on the floor. It's just
Speaker 1: a whole other battle at that point. But like, let's
Speaker 1: be clear, the Russ has been excellent with the Clippers
Speaker 1: in the aggregate. He's done everything that they've needed him
Speaker 1: to do. That thirty six the other night, that was
Speaker 1: kind of more just a vintage throwback moment. It was
Speaker 1: a cool moment. There was that awesome photo coming from
Speaker 1: the rafters of him laying on the ground screaming. That
Speaker 1: was cool. He was red hot from three, was getting
Speaker 1: to the rim. That was an awesome game, just as
Speaker 1: a moment for a basketball fan to remember what it
Speaker 1: was like when Russ was at his peak. But that's
Speaker 1: not what's going to happen with the Clippers. That's not
Speaker 1: what they need from him, and it's just not reliable.
Speaker 1: I mean, as you saw in what happened in the
Speaker 1: next game. What really is impressive to me about rust
Speaker 1: with this time and the Clipper with the Clippers is
Speaker 1: just doing everything he did for the Lakers in a
Speaker 1: system that makes more sense for him. Pushing the pace
Speaker 1: to generate easy shots before the team can set their
Speaker 1: half court defense, applying rim pressure. We've talked about this
Speaker 1: a million times, but it generates so many positive residual
Speaker 1: effects for your team when you've got a guy that's
Speaker 1: consistently pressuring the rim point of attack defense, which is
Speaker 1: something that he's actually been better at this year than
Speaker 1: he's been in recent seasons. I was talking to some
Speaker 1: Clipper fans the other day who said they actually think
Speaker 1: he's their best card defender right now, which is a
Speaker 1: significant asset to have on the team, and his efficiency
Speaker 1: has ticked up in large part because he's actually surrounded
Speaker 1: by shooting. It actually makes sense for him to play
Speaker 1: in a team with this style as opposed to what
Speaker 1: he did with the Lakers. For example, rushtot forty one
Speaker 1: point seven percent with the Lakers this year, He's shooting
Speaker 1: forty eight point two percent with the Clippers. Here's how
Speaker 1: crazy the fit is from the standpoint of efficiency with
Speaker 1: the spacing that the Clippers provide. If he keeps this
Speaker 1: level of efficiency where he's at right now through the
Speaker 1: end of the season, which was a decent chance, this
Speaker 1: will be the first time in Russell Westbrook's entire career
Speaker 1: that he has notched for a single team in one
Speaker 1: season an effective field goal percentage above fifty percent. That's
Speaker 1: how much of a natural fit this has been with
Speaker 1: the Clippers. He is more efficient now than he has
Speaker 1: ever been. That's significant. But, like I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to cover the Clippers super closely simply because without
Speaker 1: Paul George they have no ceiling. Without Paul George, they're
Speaker 1: just like any of those other teams. In the play
Speaker 1: and other than the Lakers, who don't actually have the
Speaker 1: talent necessary to get the job done. Kauhai is a
Speaker 1: player that I believe in. But the Clippers, we've learned
Speaker 1: this season their lack of rim protection and their lack
Speaker 1: of perimeter speed. They've got a lot of wings, but
Speaker 1: they don't have a lot of speed on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Has made them a little bit vulnerable to specific types
Speaker 1: of matchups, and they don't have the top end star
Speaker 1: power to compensate for that without Paul George. Now, maybe
Speaker 1: Paul George comes back, and if he comes back in
Speaker 1: the first round of the playoffs and he looks like
Speaker 1: Paul George, we can reevaluate the Clippers at that point.
Speaker 1: But that knee injury looked pretty narrowly and him getting
Speaker 1: reevaluated in three weeks doesn't bode well for him getting
Speaker 1: back onto the floor anytime soon. So love us is
Speaker 1: fit with the Clippers. I think he should stay there
Speaker 1: into the future as well. I'm proud of us and
Speaker 1: happy for us that he's found this spot that's working
Speaker 1: out well for him, But it doesn't change the calculus
Speaker 1: for the Clippers at all whatsoever. All Right, guys, That
Speaker 1: is all I have for tonight. We will be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Warriors Nuggets. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys and I will see you back
Speaker 1: the volume