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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Van Duel here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody,
Speaker 1: Although technically I am recording this on Friday night, had
Speaker 1: to work. My wife was out having sushi and hanging
Speaker 1: out and I was working. But if you have to work,
Speaker 1: you'd like to work watching incredibly entertaining basketball games like
Speaker 1: we had across the board tonight. The Lakers shockingly blow
Speaker 1: out the Nuggets with Anthony Davis missing the second half.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be breaking down that game. Kyrie Irving. It's
Speaker 1: the first buzzer beater of his career and an incredibly
Speaker 1: entertaining matchup between the Raptors and the Nets. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get into that game. And then the Orlando Magic have
Speaker 1: won five games in a row, all against teams that
Speaker 1: we considered to be higher level playoff threats, and then
Speaker 1: they top it off with a row would win over
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics, looking like a really interesting young basketball team,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna talk about them as well towards the end.
Speaker 1: You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one
Speaker 1: of these shows and you can't get back over to
Speaker 1: YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So I swear the Lakers are only capable of playing
Speaker 1: weird basketball games. It was a really uneven first half,
Speaker 1: like Anthony Davis picks up his second foul and a
Speaker 1: questionable post stuff call against Nickely Yokich, and then just
Speaker 1: stops playing defense at all whatsoever. Lebron was playing with
Speaker 1: really low energy for the most part, with exception of
Speaker 1: a little burst there. We got going in transition, and
Speaker 1: then I thought Russ played his worst half of the season.
Speaker 1: In the first half. You had four turnovers, He's taking
Speaker 1: all sorts of bad shots. He was kind of riding
Speaker 1: like a five game streak before this to where he
Speaker 1: was playing really poorly, to the point where I was
Speaker 1: completely out on him and I thought he needed to
Speaker 1: go um. So it's kind of a really weird first half.
Speaker 1: Lakers weren't playing any transition defense. Anthony Davis tweaks his
Speaker 1: foot or his ankle. We're not actually sure. We'll find
Speaker 1: out more tomorrow. But fortunately for the Lakers, the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets are one of the worst defensive teams in the league.
Speaker 1: And so after all of that, it was sixty four
Speaker 1: with the Nuggets in front. But then we find out
Speaker 1: that Anthony Davis is going to take the rest of
Speaker 1: the game off, and I was almost certain that Lebron,
Speaker 1: James and Russell Westbrook were just gonna mail in the
Speaker 1: rest of the game. There it's just specifically the matchup
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis out against Nicol Yokich. You're concerned about that.
Speaker 1: Both of them had had pretty rough first halfs and
Speaker 1: the aggregate, when you factor in the way they were
Speaker 1: impacting the game on the defensive end and taking care
Speaker 1: of the basketball and all those different things, it just
Speaker 1: felt like a game that they were going to mail in.
Speaker 1: But when you sub Anthony Davis out of the game,
Speaker 1: you've got to bring another center off the bench, and
Speaker 1: when you Gabriel is still hurt, and Damian Jones had
Speaker 1: a rough season, So it ended up being Thomas Bryant
Speaker 1: and Thomas It came into the game in that second half,
Speaker 1: and I felt like it was trying. He felt like
Speaker 1: he was trying to send a message, you know. And
Speaker 1: you gotta remember he's a veteran minimum contract who was
Speaker 1: pretty young um and because of that partial a cl
Speaker 1: tere in Washington, like his stock had dropped quite a bit.
Speaker 1: He ended up in the with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 1: His career is kind of hanging in the balance a
Speaker 1: little bit. It's very much a contract year in a
Speaker 1: big way for him. As a young player. He's trying
Speaker 1: to prove his spot in the league, and he has
Speaker 1: an opportunity against Nicola Yokich on national television to prove that,
Speaker 1: and he came out and played his damn ass off.
Speaker 1: Was just playing so incredibly hard on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. And you know, it's funny because I thought
Speaker 1: it was infectious, and I thought it really got Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Russell Westbrook to believe and to play hard.
Speaker 1: Because here's the thing. You can't mail it in when
Speaker 1: you're big man is working his ass off. It's like
Speaker 1: there's too many people watching on national TV. The people
Speaker 1: in the arena. Fans are kind of like truth serum
Speaker 1: for for any basqu Vall team, for any professional sports team.
Speaker 1: Fans are a lot smarter than professional teams think. When
Speaker 1: you'd hear coaches talk and hear players talk, sometimes they
Speaker 1: denigrate fans and pretend like they don't know what they're seeing.
Speaker 1: And look, not everybody is, as you know, in the
Speaker 1: loop as to the extras and os of what's happening
Speaker 1: on the court. But they can see when someone's playing
Speaker 1: hard and when someone is not. And you can't sit
Speaker 1: there and be the guy who's mailing it in while
Speaker 1: the big man is working his ass off and Lebron
Speaker 1: and Russ got swept up in it, and they started
Speaker 1: doing what they do best, which is create quality shots
Speaker 1: for three point shooters, for big guys in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: and for both running the floor in transition. You know
Speaker 1: when you saw there towards the end of the third
Speaker 1: quarter in early fourth, when the Lakers really went on
Speaker 1: their run, you started to see guys knocked down shots.
Speaker 1: You saw Dennis Shrewder hit some corner threes. You saw
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley hit a corner three. You saw Max Christie
Speaker 1: come in and hit a couple of threes. You saw
Speaker 1: Sreeves hit a three. Like when when you have competent
Speaker 1: three point shooting on the floor, it makes shot creators
Speaker 1: like Lebron James and Russell Westbrook, it sends their value
Speaker 1: through the roof, which is precisely why Lakers fans have
Speaker 1: been so irritated with the team building process over the
Speaker 1: last few years. You've got two in Lebron and Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: of the best players of all time at generating wide
Speaker 1: open three point shots, and you had the worst roster
Speaker 1: in the entire league at guys who could convert those
Speaker 1: three point shots. And they still are in that shooting
Speaker 1: performance in the second half is not something they can
Speaker 1: reliably count on. But this is why Lakers fans have
Speaker 1: been preaching that they need to go out and bring
Speaker 1: in professional shooters, because what Lebron, James and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: do best is feed professional shooters. And you saw that
Speaker 1: in that late third fourth quarter. What happens when you
Speaker 1: add competent three point shooting to what they got. Those
Speaker 1: two do what those two shot creators do, and the
Speaker 1: Lakers road that wave to an eighteen point when when
Speaker 1: in a really nice palate cleanser after they're embarrassing loss
Speaker 1: to Boston again, I want a shout out Lebron and Rush.
Speaker 1: So Lebron finished with thirty and thirteen excuse me, finished
Speaker 1: with thirty on thirteen twenty shooting. He's sneaky, been really
Speaker 1: good for about a month and a half now. So
Speaker 1: in his last thirteen games since November six, Lebron is
Speaker 1: now averaging twenty eight point three points per game on
Speaker 1: fifty one point four percent shooting. That's superstar level production,
Speaker 1: like top ten player in the world level production, maybe
Speaker 1: even top five. If you guys remember, during his slump,
Speaker 1: everyone was writing the obituary on him, and what I
Speaker 1: said was. I had seen him in training camp, and
Speaker 1: I had seen him in the early part of the
Speaker 1: season look great physically. My only concern was could he
Speaker 1: stay healthy long enough to get into a rhythm, because
Speaker 1: when you add Lebron's basketball i Q to Lebron's skill set,
Speaker 1: he's automatically going to succeed as long as his body
Speaker 1: is able to move at a certain level. It's got
Speaker 1: to hit a certain level. But then he got sick
Speaker 1: and he was on with the foot thing, and as
Speaker 1: a result, he wasn't getting as much separation, he wasn't
Speaker 1: getting as much downhill pressure, so guys are pushing up
Speaker 1: on his jump shot a little bit. Then his jump
Speaker 1: shots started like was just atrocious to start the year.
Speaker 1: And I told you, guys, if he could just get
Speaker 1: ten fift games in a row where he gets his rhythm.
Speaker 1: I saw him move well enough early in the year
Speaker 1: that I expected him to turn his season around. And
Speaker 1: that's exactly what's happened. Twenty eight point three points per
Speaker 1: game on fifty one percent shooting over shooting in a
Speaker 1: thirteen game span. That superstar level production that's still in
Speaker 1: there for Lebron. He just had a banged up start
Speaker 1: to the year. Part of that's him being old, and
Speaker 1: that might be the thing that eventually knocks him back
Speaker 1: off of this level of play at some point during
Speaker 1: the season. But if he stays healthy and he's going
Speaker 1: to be this good, and if a d stays healthy
Speaker 1: and he's gonna be as good as he's been, you
Speaker 1: absolutely have to invest in this team because those two
Speaker 1: together are two damn good looking at Russell Westbrook, you
Speaker 1: know that again, Like he I thought, he played the
Speaker 1: best three game starts of his career, not his career,
Speaker 1: but if his Lakers career a few weeks ago. That
Speaker 1: game against the Blazers where he was like four or
Speaker 1: four teen, but he did an amazing job creating shots
Speaker 1: and playing defense and competing on the glass. And then
Speaker 1: he had the amazing game against the Milwaukee Bucks where
Speaker 1: he made the huge play at the end of the
Speaker 1: game diving on the floor for the loose ball. Then
Speaker 1: he had another really nice game in Washington on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Then since then he had played five games and had
Speaker 1: been horrifically bad. He was minus fifty one in his
Speaker 1: minutes and the Lakers were like plus six team when
Speaker 1: he was off. The floor was going right back to
Speaker 1: everything that had screwed him up in a previous year,
Speaker 1: right like poor shots, election, turning the basketball over, making
Speaker 1: sloppy decisions on the defensive end of the floor, or
Speaker 1: just straight up going space case on total possessions. It
Speaker 1: was really bad. But and then then we got into
Speaker 1: the first half of this game, and it was more
Speaker 1: of the same. Four turnovers in the first half, took
Speaker 1: an early clock pull up three, it took another early
Speaker 1: clock bank shot which he actually made. He was sloppy
Speaker 1: around the rim. It just was a really, really ugly half.
Speaker 1: It looked like things were trending in a really bad
Speaker 1: direction for us. But in that second half, he did
Speaker 1: his job. He pushed the pace in transition, zero turnovers
Speaker 1: after four turnovers in the first half. He was selective
Speaker 1: about when he shot the basketball. He created open shots
Speaker 1: for his teammates, they converted him, and everything took off
Speaker 1: from there. And then one of the biggest things, you know,
Speaker 1: I talked about Russ. It's I've never just said, you know,
Speaker 1: Russ's terrible at everything. It's always just been the balance
Speaker 1: of his good impact versus his bad impact. And one
Speaker 1: of the things that he's been good at most of
Speaker 1: the year is his size and athleticism is a big
Speaker 1: factor on physical confrontations on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: That's you know, isolation defense in certain situations when he
Speaker 1: comes over and help or double teams, and most importantly
Speaker 1: contested rebound situations. The Lakers have to, because of their
Speaker 1: lack of perimeter size, compete on the defensive glass harder
Speaker 1: than just about any team in the league to make
Speaker 1: up for their lack of size, and Russ has just
Speaker 1: done an amazing job this entire season of securing defensive
Speaker 1: rebounds to push the pace in transition, he was amazing
Speaker 1: on the glass again tonight. If I could bottle up
Speaker 1: that second half. And by the way, it wasn't like
Speaker 1: I mean, he had a triple double, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: like he was putting up massive numbers. It just the
Speaker 1: just the the tame decision making and doing his job.
Speaker 1: If I could bottle that up and get it every night,
Speaker 1: I would never want to trade Russell Westberk because that's
Speaker 1: a winning basketball player. But it's just too inconsistent and
Speaker 1: the bat has outweighed the good this year, which is
Speaker 1: precisely why on the scoreboard they've been so much better
Speaker 1: when he's off the floor in the aggregate this season.
Speaker 1: But again, kudos A Russ for a great second half,
Speaker 1: and I hope sincerely, because I like, I love watching
Speaker 1: him when he's playing like that, I hope sincerely that
Speaker 1: he's able to keep that up quickly on the Nuggets
Speaker 1: Nicula Yokers completely fell apart after that yet an and
Speaker 1: one against Thomas Bryant where he was posting up at
Speaker 1: like kind of the just about the free throw line
Speaker 1: spun back, uh did a drop step into Thomas Bryant's chest,
Speaker 1: got called for foul, which I didn't think it was
Speaker 1: even a good call, But he went to like a
Speaker 1: fade away off of that and he knocked it down
Speaker 1: and from there he just completely fell apart. Like it
Speaker 1: was one of the worst quarter and a half of
Speaker 1: basketball have seen him play. Him and Jamal Murray were
Speaker 1: way too careless with the basketball tonight. They combined for
Speaker 1: ten turnovers, which just led to that Lakers transition avalanche.
Speaker 1: More importantly, the entire Denver Nuggets roster once again just
Speaker 1: put in an embarrassing defensive effort. They simply cannot compete
Speaker 1: for an NBA championship if they're going to be a
Speaker 1: bottom five defense, and well, right now, I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: there bottom two defense or bottom three defense. It's just
Speaker 1: not possible. Throughout NBA history, we've just never seen anything
Speaker 1: like it. They have the personnel to be much better
Speaker 1: than they are. They just have to be committed to
Speaker 1: the work, and they just simply aren't because they've been sitting,
Speaker 1: you know, well above five hundred just by outscoring teams.
Speaker 1: But when you actually look at it closely, they're bad
Speaker 1: against good teams, and they're good against bad teams, which
Speaker 1: is precisely the kind of thing that will get you
Speaker 1: beat in the postseason. All right, moving on the Nets Raptors,
Speaker 1: so super entertaining game. Kyrie Irving just tossed friend Fred
Speaker 1: van Fred Vanvley decide with that pullback dribble for a
Speaker 1: game winner, his first buzzer beater of his career. All
Speaker 1: the highlight is gonna be surrounding that Kyrie game winner,
Speaker 1: as it should. It was nasty, it was ridiculous, it
Speaker 1: was entertaining, it was everything. But I thought Kyrie was
Speaker 1: magnificent that entire fourth quarter, and I wanted to take
Speaker 1: some time to highlight just how effective he was, particularly
Speaker 1: in all of the pivotal possessions at the end of
Speaker 1: the game. So first of all, he had seven made
Speaker 1: field goals in the fourth quarter. Every variety. It's some
Speaker 1: pull up twos against Fred Vanvleety, had a step back
Speaker 1: jumper with his foot on the line against Scottie Barnes.
Speaker 1: They've ran an aftertime outplay where he backcut from the
Speaker 1: elbow and caught the ball and just elevated in the air,
Speaker 1: took the contact and hung and then finished with his
Speaker 1: right hand. You know, Kyrie Irving is an incredible athlete.
Speaker 1: That's something that commonly gets you know, kind of looked
Speaker 1: over with him because he doesn't dunk the basketball often,
Speaker 1: but that's where the hanging time comes from. He's an
Speaker 1: incredible athlete. You guys can find this on YouTube, but
Speaker 1: there's a pre draft video of Kyrie Irving doing a
Speaker 1: workout before the draft, and he's running from the three
Speaker 1: point line on the base line to the three point
Speaker 1: line on the other base or the other three point
Speaker 1: line along the same base line, and he's got a
Speaker 1: guy just passing in the basketball and he's just elevating
Speaker 1: and dunking with his left hand and then elevating and
Speaker 1: dunking with his right hand, left hand, right hand, just
Speaker 1: ten times in a row, and he's getting way above
Speaker 1: the rim. It's a great example of how like NBA
Speaker 1: athleticism is so much greater than people even realize. You know,
Speaker 1: I I'm six six with six ten wingspan, and I
Speaker 1: can dunk the basketball really, really well. And I have
Speaker 1: people come up to me and gym's and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: why didn't you try to play? They don't understand that
Speaker 1: I am a good athlete and NBA athletes are way way,
Speaker 1: way more athletic than me. Like, there's there's just an
Speaker 1: entire other level to this, and Kyrie Irving is a
Speaker 1: great example of that. Doesn't ever dunk the basketball, doesn't
Speaker 1: ever do your crazy athleticism type things that we grow
Speaker 1: accustomed to seeing. But if you put him in a
Speaker 1: gym by himself, he's putting his elbow above the rim.
Speaker 1: So that's why you gotta remember that the level of
Speaker 1: athleticism we're dealing with at the NBA level is just insane.
Speaker 1: But then in crunch time, every single big play on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, so the Raptors get
Speaker 1: it back to one or nine, one oh eight, and
Speaker 1: he ISOs Malik Ei Flynn from the from the top
Speaker 1: of the key just kind of gets him on his
Speaker 1: right hip, takes a hard dribble to get to the
Speaker 1: free throw line, elevates and knocks the shotdown. Now they're
Speaker 1: back up three. Then the Raptors go on a four
Speaker 1: point run to take the lead one twelve to one eleven.
Speaker 1: Kyrie gets the inbounds pass, catches the Raptors sleeping in transition,
Speaker 1: gets Fred VanVleet stuck on his left shoulder, works all
Speaker 1: the way down the lane and hits another acrobatic hang
Speaker 1: time finish with his right hand. Then the Raptors go
Speaker 1: down and take the lead again. Katie gets doubled. It's one.
Speaker 1: They run like a you know that classic one three
Speaker 1: pick and roll with Kyrie and Katie. Katie gets doubled.
Speaker 1: Katie throws an awful pass to Kyrie. In the short
Speaker 1: roll that's contested Maliki fel And and Fred van Leader
Speaker 1: like sandwiching him somehow rises up and and just gets
Speaker 1: the rebound and gets the pass and Uh in that
Speaker 1: traffic orients himself beats Fred VanVleet to the middle of
Speaker 1: the floor, draws the help from Scotty Barns and kicks out.
Speaker 1: You know, Watt Nabby in the left corner knocks down
Speaker 1: the three. Just just an incredible basketball play that just
Speaker 1: goes down as an assist in the box score, but
Speaker 1: really was impactful to the end of that game. Then
Speaker 1: the Raptors tied on two free throws from Scottie Barnes,
Speaker 1: gets Friend Vleet in isolation after they take a foul
Speaker 1: with like three and a half seconds left and just
Speaker 1: takes two hard dribbles to his right, snatch back Fred
Speaker 1: van Vleet shuffles one step too far and he sticks
Speaker 1: to three. You know, Kyrie has been a whirlwind of
Speaker 1: drama ever since he came to Brooklyn. He's been He
Speaker 1: was a whirlwind of drama in Boston, and he was
Speaker 1: kind of dramatic there that last year in Cleveland. But
Speaker 1: teams keep having him in their rotation to you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: teams are leaning on him as secondary shot creators. That's
Speaker 1: why because when when it comes down to it, when Kyrie,
Speaker 1: when Kyrie Irving is healthy and engaged, when it comes
Speaker 1: to set situations against elite defenses, he's still one of
Speaker 1: the ten best guys in the entire league at creating shots.
Speaker 1: That's what he does better than just about everybody else
Speaker 1: in the entire world. And as long as he can
Speaker 1: do that, there will always be NBA teams. I think
Speaker 1: the Kyrie Irving experience is worth it. Kevin Ryan was
Speaker 1: also incredible. The Raptors were doubling him basically the entire game.
Speaker 1: He had twenty eight points on just fifteen shots. And
Speaker 1: I don't even know how he does that, because, like,
Speaker 1: rhythm is such a delicate thing in basketball. You see
Speaker 1: guy get in foul trouble, rhythm just goes to hell.
Speaker 1: You know, guy doesn't get the normal touches he usually gets,
Speaker 1: his rhythm goes to hell and he can't make shots anymore.
Speaker 1: For him to take fifteen shots in a game where
Speaker 1: he had all those touches, where he's navigating those double teams,
Speaker 1: and to make ten of them resulting in twenty eight points,
Speaker 1: it's alien behavior. I don't understand. I really just don't
Speaker 1: know how he doesn't that. His ability to put the
Speaker 1: ball in the basket efficiently is unparalleled in NBA history.
Speaker 1: You know, there are guys that will have higher true
Speaker 1: shooting percentages, like a guy like Steph Curry, but it's
Speaker 1: because he's taken a ton of threes when it comes
Speaker 1: to just straight up on a shot by shot basis,
Speaker 1: the ability to put the ball in the basket with
Speaker 1: difficult shot making. I don't I don't know that anybody's
Speaker 1: ever been better than Katie. Fred VanVleet played a second
Speaker 1: great game in a row thirty nine. UM. The Raptors
Speaker 1: really controlled the first half of that game, so it's
Speaker 1: kind of encouraging to see friend Fred starting to play
Speaker 1: pretty well because he had been having a like a
Speaker 1: mess season up to that point. UM. The Raptors took
Speaker 1: a big lead in that first half, but then in
Speaker 1: that third quarter, the Nets just locked in on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, held in its twenty two points.
Speaker 1: Kyrie and Katie did their thing on the other end,
Speaker 1: and they kind of took to control the game from there.
Speaker 1: You know, when you look at the Nets roster and
Speaker 1: you see Ben Simmons, and you see Nick Clackson, you
Speaker 1: see Kevin Duran, you see Royce O'Neil, and you see
Speaker 1: all those guys, they actually have a lot of defensive talent,
Speaker 1: which is kind of you know, why what made the
Speaker 1: Steve Nash things so lame, Like the Nets players were
Speaker 1: literally just not playing hard for him because they wanted
Speaker 1: to get their coach fired, which, by the way, it
Speaker 1: was why I condoned the firing. Sometimes players tune out
Speaker 1: their coaches and you just need to have a change
Speaker 1: of a voice. One last thing with the Raptors that
Speaker 1: I wanted to hit before we move on. Scotty Barnes
Speaker 1: was just ridiculous in that fourth quarter is attacking the
Speaker 1: rim orly Let's Lee went at Katie twice, including dunking
Speaker 1: on him, and then just went right up into his
Speaker 1: face and started talking ship. Then they switched Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: on and Ben Simmons pressuring him out the half court
Speaker 1: just He's really good at protecting the basketball with his
Speaker 1: back turned, which is like imperative for bigger players because
Speaker 1: shorter players, they're so low to the ground they can
Speaker 1: protect the basketball with their handle right, but taller players
Speaker 1: the ball has to travel further to the grounds. You
Speaker 1: have to learn to protect the ball with your body,
Speaker 1: and Scotty Varnes does an incredible job of that. Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons is pressuring him, trying to reach he leans a
Speaker 1: little bit too far to the right. Scotty spins back
Speaker 1: the other way, goes all the way to the room
Speaker 1: and gets an and one. He had another huge clutch
Speaker 1: basket again in isolation against you to want Nabby where
Speaker 1: you to play great defense, contain him all the way
Speaker 1: to the room, and he just hung over the top
Speaker 1: of him and knocked down a bank shot. Then he
Speaker 1: drives to the basket, gets fouled, and makes two clutch
Speaker 1: free throws to tie the game with eight seconds left.
Speaker 1: He's one of the most exciting young players in the league,
Speaker 1: and I just love the confidence too, to step to
Speaker 1: one of the best players in NBA history and then
Speaker 1: to back it up in a big setting like that
Speaker 1: against a really good team. I mean, obviously the Raptors
Speaker 1: have had a really disappointing season. There's some encouragement to
Speaker 1: take from tonight with Fred VanVleet getting better and uh
Speaker 1: and Scotty Barnes obviously having that moment um. But you know,
Speaker 1: even if this season doesn't work out the way you
Speaker 1: hope it does, Scotty Barnes is one hell of a
Speaker 1: prospect to have in the chamber. There's a fun game
Speaker 1: between two teams made working on Friday night. Fund I
Speaker 1: would argue it was better than the sushi my wife had,
Speaker 1: but that's up for her to decide. I suppose alright,
Speaker 1: Magic Celtics. So the Orlandic Magic have won five games
Speaker 1: in a row and all against good teams. They beat
Speaker 1: the Clippers, they beat the Raptors twice, they beat the Hawks,
Speaker 1: and now they have their signature win on the road
Speaker 1: in Boston against the Celtics. You know this team, and
Speaker 1: I'm only gonna talk about it for a couple of
Speaker 1: minutes tonight because so I did a huge deep dive
Speaker 1: on the Memphis Grizzlies that you can find on our
Speaker 1: YouTube channel right now. Uh did about twenty five minutes
Speaker 1: really diving into that team. I plan on doing something
Speaker 1: similar with the Orlando Magic at some point over the
Speaker 1: course of the next couple of weeks, where I'll dive
Speaker 1: deeper into them, but I want to just briefly touch
Speaker 1: on them right now. The story of this team being
Speaker 1: good is about perimeter size. You know, I've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about how in the modern NBA, as bigger players
Speaker 1: have become proficient as ball handlers and shooters, perimeter size
Speaker 1: is more important than ever because if you have big
Speaker 1: guys that can do that stuff and the other guy
Speaker 1: has short guys that do that stuff. They're just gonna
Speaker 1: be shooting over the top of them all game long.
Speaker 1: This is just part of the way the game of
Speaker 1: basketball has changed over the last few decades is big
Speaker 1: guys are practicing ball handling and shooting a lot more
Speaker 1: as they're growing up. Between the Wagner brothers and Pala Bankara,
Speaker 1: they've got three bow Bowl two. Bow Bowl is another
Speaker 1: guy that's like this. But the thing with bow Bowl
Speaker 1: and I've I've been a little pessimistic about him, and
Speaker 1: I know that's kind of raining on the parade, but
Speaker 1: he uh, some of it is kind of like fast
Speaker 1: and loose, open court basketball where he can succeed. But
Speaker 1: then when he plays against a really good defense that
Speaker 1: attacks his handle. Boston really attacked his handle tonight and
Speaker 1: kind of exposed him as someone that can't put the
Speaker 1: ball on the floor in traffic. But between the Wagner
Speaker 1: Brothers and Pala Bancaro, they just have huge players that
Speaker 1: are all six ten and bigger, that can all dribble
Speaker 1: and shoot, and as a result, they're like they're bigger
Speaker 1: than even the prototypical NBA wing, Like they're bigger than
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown, and so as a result, you know,
Speaker 1: when those guys that haven't going the way they did tonight,
Speaker 1: they can bully a good NBA team, and they bullied
Speaker 1: Boston tonight, specifically on the glass. They attacked the basket relentlessly,
Speaker 1: got to the free throw line a bunch. And then
Speaker 1: the last guy I wanted to shout out was Franz Wagner.
Speaker 1: So you know, he spamed pick and roll most of
Speaker 1: the night tonight and did a really nice job making reads.
Speaker 1: I talked about this when we talked about the Magic
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago. But Franz Wagner, he's a twenty
Speaker 1: one year old six ten wing who's run over three
Speaker 1: pick and rolls this year, and it's scoring zero point
Speaker 1: nine eight points per possession and pick and roll, which
Speaker 1: is really good. So think about how I'm saying that
Speaker 1: is a twenty one year old six ten wing who
Speaker 1: is a high volume pick and roll player who's scoring
Speaker 1: at an above average or generating points on an above
Speaker 1: average rate including passes in pick and roll. That's really
Speaker 1: exciting because I've got Pala Moncarro, who's the walk king
Speaker 1: mismatch that can bully just about any player in the
Speaker 1: league and Franz Wagner the shot creator. That's a natural,
Speaker 1: you know, complimentary set of skill sets. Franz. You know
Speaker 1: we always think of um Moe Wagner is like a shooter, right,
Speaker 1: but he did it all power play today, just bullying
Speaker 1: his way to the basket, getting offensive rebounds, finishing in
Speaker 1: the short role and attacking and transition making defensive plays
Speaker 1: as well. And then again if bull bull even amounts
Speaker 1: to anything, and if they can get Jonathan Isaac back.
Speaker 1: There are versions of the because like you know, they
Speaker 1: played a lot of Mobama tonight. Mo Bamba was really
Speaker 1: really good as well. But there's a version of this
Speaker 1: where you put in a front like Jonathan Isaac as well,
Speaker 1: and you can go like real small ball, five outswitch
Speaker 1: everything ridiculous, like a much more skilled version of what
Speaker 1: the Toronto Raptors have. They're very exciting team. And again
Speaker 1: they were the worst team in the league there for
Speaker 1: a while. I think there were five and twenty at
Speaker 1: one point. Now they're ten and twenty. They beat five
Speaker 1: good teams in a row. Obviously, I I young teams
Speaker 1: just struggle to replicate success, so I don't expect them
Speaker 1: to make a playoff run or anything this year. But
Speaker 1: what they're showing you is what this could look like
Speaker 1: in a couple of years when it all comes together.
Speaker 1: And again, we will do a deeper dive on the
Speaker 1: magic later on. Alright, guess that is all I have
Speaker 1: for tonight. Is always, I sincerely appreciate your support. I'm
Speaker 1: going to take the next couple of days off, but
Speaker 1: we will be back on Monday with the show as always.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, guys, and I'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: The volume