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Speaker 1: responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to hoop tonight. You're

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Speaker 1: at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody. Hope all of you

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Speaker 1: guys are having a great weekend so far. Well, we

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Speaker 1: had what was already a pretty bizarre NBA day around

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Speaker 1: the league for Rive Week or whatever the NBA is

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Speaker 1: branding it. As we had the we had Joelobiide Duck

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Speaker 1: Nikole Jokic on the road at Denver again. We had

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Speaker 1: the Nuggets end up in a weird dog fight with

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Speaker 1: the Sixers down their three best players. We had the

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Speaker 1: Clippers on a tail end of a back to back

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Speaker 1: go into Boston and beat the hell out of the Celtics.

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Speaker 1: And then the end of the night ended up being

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Speaker 1: weirder than all of it, as we had this truly

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Speaker 1: bizarre Lakers Warriors game where the Warriors come out in

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Speaker 1: the third quarter and just blitz the Lakers, and then

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Speaker 1: Ad goes down what looks like a bad injuries. He's

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Speaker 1: limping incredibly slowly back to the locker room. Then the

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Speaker 1: Lakers somehow come all the way back without Anthony Davis.

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Speaker 1: Then Anthony Davis returns to the game. Then we have

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Speaker 1: the Lakers blow the lead right before the end of regulation,

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Speaker 1: and then they do it again in double overtime. We

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Speaker 1: have this weird D'Angelo Russell stretch where he turns the

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Speaker 1: ball over like three times in a row and then

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Speaker 1: takes a pull up transition three that gives Lakers the lead.

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Speaker 1: Then on the final possession, we have Steve Kerr substitute

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Speaker 1: Corey Joseph into the game in double overtime for defensive

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Speaker 1: sub and then to tie it all together, we have

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Speaker 1: Lebron James has been consistently criticized by some specific people

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Speaker 1: that we won't mention here for not wanting to drive

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Speaker 1: the basketball down the stretch of games, and he does so,

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Speaker 1: gets a call, goes a line, knocks down both free throws,

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Speaker 1: and wins. It so just truly bizarre. It was. I

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Speaker 1: had all these different notes that I had written down,

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Speaker 1: and I could go on about this game for like

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Speaker 1: forty five minutes, but it's pretty late, and so I

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Speaker 1: want to kind of focus on some of the big things.

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Speaker 1: So what I'm gonna do instead as I'm gonna give

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Speaker 1: you guys my three biggest takeaways from this particular game,

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Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna talk a little bit about the

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Speaker 1: Celtics and the Clippers, and then after that, I have

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Speaker 1: some thoughts regarding the scoring outbursts we've seen around the

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Speaker 1: league and some of the negative energy directed towards that,

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Speaker 1: which I don't understand and quite frankly, I think is

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Speaker 1: just wrong and a lot of misremembering how NBA history

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Speaker 1: used to look. You guys know the drill before we

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Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel. I

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Speaker 1: mean a lot to me. If you guys would take

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Speaker 1: a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget about our podcast feed. If you're more on

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Speaker 1: the podcast format type of thing, wherever you get your

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Speaker 1: podcasts under Hoops Tonight, It's also very important that we

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Speaker 1: get ratings and reviews there. So if you guys would

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Speaker 1: take a second to go onto the podcast feed and

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Speaker 1: rate it and leave a review, I would really appreciate that.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget about my Twitter feed at underscore JSNLT. That's

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Speaker 1: where I leave the film threads most mornings, and the

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Speaker 1: last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions and

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Speaker 1: the YouTube comments so that we can keep hitting them

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Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk

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Speaker 1: some basketball. So my three biggest takeaways from that completely

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Speaker 1: absurd Lakers Warriors game. Number one, this is why I

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Speaker 1: keep saying invest in Lebron and Steph. There's been a

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Speaker 1: lot of you know, takes flying around the NBA surrounding

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Speaker 1: the Lakers and the Warriors, for the record, and I

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Speaker 1: think you kind of saw that in this game tonight.

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Speaker 1: Both of these teams have been dealing with some stuff

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Speaker 1: in playing some really inconsistent basketball, right. Like the Warriors

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Speaker 1: have had a lot of knights where they've looked particularly

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Speaker 1: good this year. They beat the Celtics this year, right,

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Speaker 1: And like, they've also had a lot of weird circumstances

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Speaker 1: between the Draymond suspension and a lot of lineup stuff

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Speaker 1: going on with Steve Kerr. And then on the Lakers front,

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Speaker 1: they're like the hot cold team of the NBA and

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Speaker 1: they win the nd season tournament. They have all these

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Speaker 1: massive wins. They beat the Clippers twice, they beat the

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Speaker 1: Suns three times, and then they just look awful on

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Speaker 1: other nights. They lose to a Spurs team that had

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Speaker 1: like three wins all season and had lost like a

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Speaker 1: dozen games in a row, and they go in and

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Speaker 1: lose to the Spurs. The Brooklyn Nets lose, you know,

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Speaker 1: they win like two games in a month, and then

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Speaker 1: they go into LA and beat the Lakers. So it's

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Speaker 1: like both of these teams kind of are dealing with

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Speaker 1: seasons that look a lot like that game, where for

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Speaker 1: stretches they look great and then other stretches they don't.

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Speaker 1: But what I've said throughout is that at the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, Lebron James and Steph Curry, in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: are still, at least when you're ranking playoff players, like

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Speaker 1: strictly within the aspect of the NBA playoffs, they're still

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Speaker 1: in that short list of guys that can lead a

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Speaker 1: team to an NBA championship. And so even though even

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Speaker 1: though like I'm not in the interest of trading good

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Speaker 1: players just for the sake of it, I know Jonathan

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Speaker 1: Kaminge's got star potential at a lot of big moments. Again,

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Speaker 1: tonight and another twenty plus. I think that's his sixth

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Speaker 1: consecutive time going for twenty plus. But like, what I

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Speaker 1: keep thinking is like, but that's Steph Curry and once

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Speaker 1: again down the stretch of the game, while Lebron was

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Speaker 1: getting these contributions from Austin Reeves with transition pushes and

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Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell, although he made some mistakes hitting big pull

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Speaker 1: up jump shots, Anthony Davis attacking around the rib, like

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Speaker 1: Steph Curry's out there trying to do everything, and he

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Speaker 1: got a couple of big shots, particularly from Klay Thompson,

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Speaker 1: but other than that, it was a lot of just

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Speaker 1: Steph Curry having to do everything. And I keep thinking, like,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't have to look like this. You can potentially

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Speaker 1: try to reinforce. And so that's what drives that opinion.

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Speaker 1: And I'm not saying I'm not saying I've changed my

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Speaker 1: mind or anything like that as it pertains to Jonathan Kaminga,

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying, this is what makes it complicated. He

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Speaker 1: just had forty six three and seven Steph did he

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Speaker 1: was cooking Anthony Davis in switches, just absolutely barbecuing him

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Speaker 1: down the stretch of that game. Now, to AD's defense,

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Speaker 1: he's the little hobbled with that hip injury that he had.

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Speaker 1: But even with that hip injury, he's one of the

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Speaker 1: best defensive players in the world. And Steph was cooking him.

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Speaker 1: So that's why I keep saying, like, oh, you have

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Speaker 1: one of those guys. You can't win the title without

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Speaker 1: one of those guys. So who gives a shit about

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Speaker 1: some first round draft pick in a few years, You know,

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Speaker 1: who gives a shit about what a guy can be

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Speaker 1: when you have this right now? Like there are look

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Speaker 1: at it. Look around the league and look at how

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Speaker 1: many teams have absolutely no chance to win the title

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Speaker 1: because they don't have one of those guys, but they

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Speaker 1: have a bunch of interesting young talent. Right There are

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Speaker 1: a lot of teams like that out there in the NBA.

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Speaker 1: That's what makes this complicated. Same thing with Lebron, Like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I get it, this team has a weird basketball character.

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Speaker 1: They've gone up and down all year. But you have

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Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis on your team. That that

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Speaker 1: is such an incredible foundation within the NBA playoffs to

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Speaker 1: make a playoff runt. That that is why I keep saying, like,

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Speaker 1: you gotta go all in with these guys. You gotta

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Speaker 1: try to make something happen. These are the unique talents

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Speaker 1: that are capable of getting you to the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

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Speaker 1: They've won eight of them since twenty fifteen. Guys, it

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Speaker 1: is two, they've won eight of them. Like like that,

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Speaker 1: that is why I feel this way about these two guys.

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Speaker 1: Lebron James thirty six points, twenty rebounds and twelve assists,

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Speaker 1: completely absurd, the over the top shot making once again

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Speaker 1: in overtime and in double overtime, just like confidently stepping

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Speaker 1: into these tough pull up jump shots. There's another one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons why, Like, as the Lakers have been

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Speaker 1: kind of up and down all year, I've been like, hmm,

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Speaker 1: Like Anthony Davis looks bat better than he has since

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty. I know he's not making all the same

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Speaker 1: pull up jump shots, but his passing is just at

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Speaker 1: a complete other level from what it used to be.

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Speaker 1: And so just as like an offensive folkrum, he's just

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Speaker 1: so much more versatile. And then I look at Lebron

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Speaker 1: James and I'm like, he's clearly better than he was

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Speaker 1: last year, and he's just stepping into these jump shots

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Speaker 1: was so that was a huge problem last year. Over

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Speaker 1: the top shot making and the lack thereof for the

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Speaker 1: Lakers was literally why they lost last year. They battled

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Speaker 1: the Nuggets close every single game, and then at the end,

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Speaker 1: Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic made shots when Lebron James

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Speaker 1: could it and when Anthony Davis could it, and so like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's something got to work out, and we're gonna talk

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Speaker 1: about it in a minute as we talk about the Lakers.

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Speaker 1: But like, the bottom line is is like I think

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Speaker 1: this version of Lebron is worth investing it. And like

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Speaker 1: down the stretch of that game, driving to the basket,

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Speaker 1: drawing a foul, confidently going to the line and making

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Speaker 1: both like he's in He's just in that type of

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Speaker 1: position where he looks he looks key, eat up and

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Speaker 1: ready for this type of run, and I just think

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Speaker 1: that's worth investing. In My second biggest takeaway, you can

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Speaker 1: see what the Lakers are supposed to look like. We've

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Speaker 1: been dealing with this issue with the Lakers starting lineup

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Speaker 1: forever and one of the main reasons why is I've

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Speaker 1: kept saying is like, even as the offense has looked great,

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Speaker 1: and the Laker offense has taken leaps and bounds over

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Speaker 1: the course of the last month, which is super encouraging

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Speaker 1: for their big picture potential. But what I kept saying is,

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Speaker 1: you can't play Lebron or excuse me, Torrian Prince, Austin

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Speaker 1: Reeves and D'angela Russell is your one, two three against

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Speaker 1: serious basketball teams. And the main reason why is they're

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Speaker 1: just way too slow and unathletic at those three spots.

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Speaker 1: And in the very perimeter oriented league, that's vitally important

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Speaker 1: that speed, in that athleticism, that power and force from

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Speaker 1: the perimeter. And so one of the things I've been

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Speaker 1: talking about is we've been talking about different versions of

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Speaker 1: how to build a starting lineup. If you're going to

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Speaker 1: play Austin Reeves and d'angela Russell, you you have to

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Speaker 1: play Jared Vanderbilt. If you're going to play Torrian Prince

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Speaker 1: at the three, you have to play one of your

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Speaker 1: athletic guys like a Max Christy or Cam Reddish at

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Speaker 1: the two, strictly because you need to have somebody to

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Speaker 1: throw out of Steph Curry or out of Jamal Murray

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Speaker 1: at a Shay Gilders Alexander Austin Reeves got the Steph

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Speaker 1: Curry matchup before this at the beginning of this game,

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Speaker 1: before Jared Vanderbilt entered, and like he was getting cooked.

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Speaker 1: That's not an Austin problem, that's the lineup problem. Like

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Speaker 1: Torrian would have got cooked too. Like that's the thing.

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Speaker 1: Like when you're structuring these lineups. I always talk about this,

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Speaker 1: like you gotta have the responsibilities of a basketball team fulfilled.

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Speaker 1: On the basketball court. You have to have somebody that

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Speaker 1: can guard at the point of attack. You have to

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Speaker 1: have somebody that can protect the rim. You have to

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Speaker 1: have somebody that can take that low man role that

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Speaker 1: can help under the basket and in defensive rebounding situations.

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Speaker 1: Torrian Prince was minus twenty two in this game and

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Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt was plus thirty. It's not that hard to

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Speaker 1: figure out. Like when Jared Vanderbilt is out there next

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Speaker 1: to Austin Reeves and D'Angelo Russell, there is a better

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Speaker 1: fulfilling of the basketball responsibilities. Torrian Prince is a bad

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Speaker 1: defensive rebounder. Jared Vanderbilt is an excellent defensive rebounder. Torrian

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Speaker 1: Prince is an average point of attack defender. Jared Vanderbilt

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Speaker 1: is an excellent point of attack defender Torrian Prince. His

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Speaker 1: motor runs hot and cold. Jared Vanderbilt's motor is going

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Speaker 1: one hundred percent one hundred percent of the time. And

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Speaker 1: so just from a simple concept of lineup construction, if

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Speaker 1: you're gonna play the two skill guards, you gotta play

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Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt, end of story. It's just what you have

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Speaker 1: to do. And like it was so bizarre because like

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Speaker 1: Darvin Ham has been galaxy braining the starting lineup all

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Speaker 1: season long, and when this lineup was a lineup that

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Speaker 1: worked at least during the regular season all year. I

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Speaker 1: have concerns about that lineup in the playoffs. I've talked

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Speaker 1: about them all year. But like with with this from

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Speaker 1: the standpoint of the regular season, that's just the way

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Speaker 1: you have to construct lineups. You know, last game, there

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Speaker 1: was a run in the final couple of minutes of

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Speaker 1: the first half where they went with Vanderbilt, D'Angelo Russell

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Speaker 1: and Austin Reeves, and they promptly went on a run.

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Speaker 1: And then they went into the second half and Darbenham

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Speaker 1: didn't play them at all in the second half, like

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Speaker 1: he he was out there, he watched it happen, he

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Speaker 1: watched it work, and then he didn't do it. And and

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Speaker 1: then in this particular game, like they go out to

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Speaker 1: start the game, it's an issue. They go out to

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Speaker 1: start the second half, it's a massive issue. They call

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Speaker 1: a time out early second half and they stay with

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Speaker 1: Torrean prints and the lead grows, Like, you know, it's funny.

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Speaker 1: I tweeted this earlier. Talked a lot about potential Laker trades.

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Speaker 1: They're one of the most common refrains that is that

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Speaker 1: I've come across in my conversations with people behind the

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Speaker 1: scenes about the Lakers trade deadline across the board is like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: but what if Darvin ham just plays Torrian Prince thirty

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Speaker 1: minutes that anyway, Like, Torrian Prince is a good bench wing,

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Speaker 1: he could shoot the ball, he's really offensively skilled. He's

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Speaker 1: just not a great athlete, and so you need him

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Speaker 1: playing against lower level NBA players on the perimeter. But

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Speaker 1: like the like, it just doesn't matter if they trade

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Speaker 1: for Jjonte Murray, if they trade for a Dorian Finney Smith,

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Speaker 1: doesn't matter if those guys aren't actually on the floor, Like,

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Speaker 1: and that's where the issue is, Like There are better

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Speaker 1: guys Ruey Hatchramura, Jared Vanderbilt. There are better players than

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Speaker 1: Torrian Prince right now that are buried behind him on

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Speaker 1: the bench. And so I thought tonight was just a

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Speaker 1: resounding example, a fifty two point swing between those two guys.

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Speaker 1: I thought that was a resounding I shouldn't say fifty

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Speaker 1: two points on what was it plus thirty three to

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Speaker 1: minus twenty whatever it was, but just a completely a

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Speaker 1: completely flipped dynamic in the basketball game based on the

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Speaker 1: diff between having a high motor athlete that can slot

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Speaker 1: everybody properly. So now Austin Reeves isn't chasing Steph around,

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Speaker 1: He's chasing Clay around. It just slots everything properly and

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Speaker 1: makes everything make more sense. So that's my second biggest takeaway.

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Speaker 1: You can see what the Lakers are supposed to look like.

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Speaker 1: And that, by the way, is why I keep talking

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Speaker 1: about how getting a version of Vando that is a

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Speaker 1: high motor athlete that can defend on the perimeter and

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Speaker 1: also be a plus offensive player is the dream outcome.

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Speaker 1: That's why I keep saying, even though I like the

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Speaker 1: Dejonte Murray trade idea, but that's why I prefer the

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Speaker 1: Bruce Brown one. That what you're seeing Bruce Brown is

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Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt at the two guard position, and that having

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Speaker 1: him there actually makes a Jared a Torreon Prince more

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Speaker 1: feasible at the three because he'll be playing in more

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Speaker 1: achievable defensive assignments. Because as a lineup, you'll still hold

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Speaker 1: up better at the point of attack because of Bruce Brown,

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Speaker 1: because then Torrean's offensive strengths can kind of rise to

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Speaker 1: this surface. I'm not even sure I'd probably still try

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Speaker 1: to play if it were. If it were up to me,

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Speaker 1: I'd probably still play Ruey at the three. But my

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Speaker 1: point is is like, if Darvin is just obsessed with

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Speaker 1: playing Torrian Prince at the three, you gotta have some

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Speaker 1: other type of athlete out there. I thought tonight was

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Speaker 1: a great example of that. My third biggest takeaway you

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Speaker 1: can see what the Warriors are supposed to look like.

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Speaker 1: I put three things down three a list of three

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Speaker 1: keys for the Warriors to look like the Warriors. Number one,

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Speaker 1: Steph has to play like a superstar a lot of

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Speaker 1: the time. Over the course of these struggles. Steph is

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Speaker 1: not the season He's been down across the board by

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Speaker 1: almost any measure, And I don't blame him necessarily for

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Speaker 1: that because it's been a shit show for lack of

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Speaker 1: a better term, He's playing at with a lot of

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Speaker 1: young players, I'm sure, just in terms of his own

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Speaker 1: belief in the team's ability success to succeed, he's had

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Speaker 1: some struggles there. But like what you saw tonight, because

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Speaker 1: here's the thing, Like, I know the Lakers, don't I

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Speaker 1: know the Lakers have a lot of pessimism outside of

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Speaker 1: the Laker fan base, but I actually think they're a

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Speaker 1: really good team when they try hard. And the Warriors

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Speaker 1: held up really well against them tonight and very easily

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Speaker 1: could have won that game if a couple of different

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Speaker 1: things go differently, And like a big part of that

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Speaker 1: is just having Steph Curry playing like Steph Curry number two.

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Speaker 1: They have to defend. This is something that Steve Kerr

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Speaker 1: talked about in the fourth quarter interview. I tweeted about

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Speaker 1: it in the third quarter, Andrew Wiggins on the ball.

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Speaker 1: They switched Andrew Wiggins onto D'Angelo Russell at some point

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Speaker 1: in the first half. I can't remember exactly when, but

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Speaker 1: they switched him on to Dangela Russell in the first half,

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Speaker 1: and he just started ball pressuring the hell out of

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Speaker 1: d Lo and causing the Laker offense to stall. And

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Speaker 1: then on the backside of it, Draymond Green just blowing

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Speaker 1: up these roles and drives from Anthony Davis and Lebron James,

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Speaker 1: and the Lakers are like something like nineteenth or twenty

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Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, according to Cleaning the Glass and

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Speaker 1: transition defense. But they're a good half court defense. Even

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Speaker 1: with their trash effort all year. There's still eleventh and

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Speaker 1: half court defense this year according to Cleaning the Glass.

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Speaker 1: So like, if you want to attack the Lakers, get

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Speaker 1: out and run as much as you can. And when

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Speaker 1: they went on that third quarter run, it was a

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Speaker 1: steady diet of Wiggins and Draymond kind of defensive playmaking

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Speaker 1: leading to these runout opportunities for the Warriors to avoid

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Speaker 1: the Laker half court defense, because in the Laker half

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Speaker 1: court defense, they had a hard time getting anything unless

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Speaker 1: Steph Curry was going off. So like, again, like the Warriors,

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Speaker 1: we forget a lot of times when we talk about

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Speaker 1: the Warriors historically, we go we emphasize things like, oh,

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Speaker 1: it's the Splash Brothers, Oh it's Kevin Durant. Oh, it's

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Speaker 1: the death lineup this or that They won with defense

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Speaker 1: first and foremost. They were an excellent defensive team every

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Speaker 1: year they won the title. The Warriors were thirtieth in

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Speaker 1: defensive raiding in January before tonight. Now, obviously Draymond was

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Speaker 1: out for most of that, but that's my point that

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Speaker 1: has to be the driving force of this team's success

359
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Speaker 1: is if you get stuck in the half court, it's

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Speaker 1: going to be a lot of Steph Curry facing multiple

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Speaker 1: defenders and hedges and traps trying to make something happen.

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Speaker 1: And he's a freaking magician and so he's going to

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Speaker 1: make some stuff happen. But it's just a really difficult

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Speaker 1: way to win if you're not getting out into the

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Speaker 1: flow that you can get into off of your defense.

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Speaker 1: And then third, you have to get offensive support for Steph.

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Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, it was Jordan Poole, it was

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Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins, it was Klay Thompson, and Jordan Poole kind

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Speaker 1: of fell off and then you traded him. And Andrew

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Speaker 1: Wiggins and Klay Thompson have been really really hot and

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Speaker 1: cold since the title. Wiggins mostly cold, But I thought

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Speaker 1: you saw it tonight and a big part of how

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Speaker 1: they were able to compete like this was getting that

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Speaker 1: type of scoring support. You got twenty points each from Kaminga,

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Speaker 1: from Wiggins and from Klay Thompson. And I think Johnathan

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Speaker 1: Kamena kind of sliding into that Jordan Poole role as

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Speaker 1: like the young guy that kind of gives them microwave

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Speaker 1: scoring has gone a long way to helping them in

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Speaker 1: that regard. But you have to have all three of

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Speaker 1: those things to win. You have to have Steph playing

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Speaker 1: like a star, you have to defend, and you have

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Speaker 1: to get some kind of scoring support. You did get

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Speaker 1: all three of those today and you had a good

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Speaker 1: chance to beat a really good team, especially a really

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Speaker 1: good team that the Warriors match up poorly with as

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Speaker 1: we saw at the end of the regular season last

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Speaker 1: year and in the playoffs. A couple other quick things

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Speaker 1: the starting lineup. When you're in a predicament like what

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Speaker 1: the Warriors are in right now, which is your a

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Speaker 1: couple of games out of the play in tournament, you

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Speaker 1: can't afford to bs around. So, for instance, the one

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Speaker 1: of the big reasons the Warriors lost to the Kings

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Speaker 1: the other night is they started the game with Dario

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Speaker 1: Sarich and Kevan Looney on the floor, and I was

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Speaker 1: talking with Samus FONDII from light years after that game.

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Speaker 1: We did postgame show that night and that I was

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Speaker 1: telling him, I'm like, that's the slowest front court for

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Speaker 1: a serious basketball team that I can remember seeing in

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Speaker 1: almost a decade. We gotta go way back to like

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Speaker 1: old school Eastern Conference teams to try to find bitam

401
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:16,959
Speaker 1: Gasol type stuff, like you know, the Ilgauskis and goodin right, Like,

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Speaker 1: you gotta go way back to find that type of

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Speaker 1: slow footed front court because it just doesn't work in

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Speaker 1: the modern NBA with the way teams can spread you out.

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Speaker 1: And the Kings are like a five out basketball team

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Speaker 1: that plays a wing at the four and a kind

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Speaker 1: of more of a perimeter oriented kind of skill big

408
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Speaker 1: and Demonici bonus and like they got ran in the

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Speaker 1: first shift of both halves of that game. You can't

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Speaker 1: afford to kind of spot teams points with foolishness at

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Speaker 1: this point. And that's on Steve curR And to his credit,

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Speaker 1: finally tonight he goes with the Wiggins cominga Draymond starting lineup, which,

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Speaker 1: if to put it simply, that's your five best players.

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Speaker 1: That's your five best players. How do you not start

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Speaker 1: the game with your five best players. Gotta have him

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Speaker 1: out there. And I think this is, in a weird way,

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Speaker 1: even in a loss, a sign of a positive progression.

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Speaker 1: The defense looked better for stretches tonight, even though they

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Speaker 1: got cooked in other stretches. You started the right lineup,

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Speaker 1: you got Steph kind of at a higher level than

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Speaker 1: he's been at in a long time, and you got

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Speaker 1: some offensive support off of him, not even just from

423
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Speaker 1: coming last thing. On the Warriors, they've lost seventeen games

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Speaker 1: in clutch situations. That's what the game is within five

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Speaker 1: or less than five minutes left. That is the second

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Speaker 1: worst mark in the NBA. That is despite the fact

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Speaker 1: that Steph has been completely outrageously good in the clutch.

428
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:41,679
Speaker 1: I looked up the numbers the other day because one

429
00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:43,440
Speaker 1: of the callers on the on the Light Years pod

430
00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:45,959
Speaker 1: came on and was saying that Steph was struggling at

431
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:47,320
Speaker 1: the end of games. And I looked him up and

432
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,600
Speaker 1: he's like fifty forty ninety. It's like fifty to fifty

433
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,800
Speaker 1: ninety or something like that. In shooting percentages in clutch situation.

434
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:55,680
Speaker 1: So the bottom line is is you're just not getting

435
00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:59,439
Speaker 1: enough support outside of Steph Curry in clutch situation. That's

436
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:03,160
Speaker 1: been one of their gest issues to this point. But yeah, again,

437
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:04,880
Speaker 1: I could go on about that game for like forty

438
00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:07,760
Speaker 1: five minutes, but I think I think for right now,

439
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,520
Speaker 1: that's enough from that completely wild game. We know what

440
00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:13,119
Speaker 1: the Warriors are supposed to look like, we know what

441
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:16,000
Speaker 1: the Lakers are supposed to look like. And man, Steph

442
00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:20,159
Speaker 1: Curry and Lebron James, Like, there's a reason why I

443
00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:22,600
Speaker 1: think there's an emotional attachment. There's a reason why I

444
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:24,960
Speaker 1: think so many people are like, hey, man, let's give

445
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 1: it one more shot. And it's because they can do

446
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,520
Speaker 1: stuff like that. All right, Two more topics before we

447
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 1: get out of here. Clippers Celtics. So I've kind of

448
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,040
Speaker 1: talked in my contender tiers and stuff about these like

449
00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:41,680
Speaker 1: different archetypes of teams, right, and specifically among the contenders

450
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:48,240
Speaker 1: to me, there's two archetypes. There's the big traditional playoff teams. Right.

451
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,439
Speaker 1: These teams have huge front courts. They kind of like

452
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:54,199
Speaker 1: play like a rock fight style of basketball, right, Like

453
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: this is your Milwaukee Bucks. This is kind of Philly

454
00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 1: kind of falls into this this mold as well. This

455
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 1: is the Denver Nuggets, This is the Minnesota Timberwolves, this

456
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,240
Speaker 1: is the Los Angeles Lakers. Right, these big, bruising front

457
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 1: lines that are built more around the traditional basketball build. Right,

458
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 1: and then we have like these perimeter oriented teams. These

459
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 1: are the teams that, like, they don't really have excellent

460
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:21,399
Speaker 1: rim protection, but they just have a boatload of guys

461
00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:26,639
Speaker 1: that are that are you know, multi level scores, that

462
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:30,080
Speaker 1: can mix people up off the dribble, that can attack closeouts,

463
00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,960
Speaker 1: that can play driving kick basketball. And they're typically a

464
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 1: little more thin, and they're typically smaller, but they're typically

465
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot more skilled. And generally speaking, like,

466
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: either team can beat the other if they exploit their advantage,

467
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:46,880
Speaker 1: if they control Like again, styles make fights, but it's

468
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:50,080
Speaker 1: whichever style wins the fight, right, Like, it doesn't really

469
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:52,160
Speaker 1: like the quickness for size, Well, if the big guy

470
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:54,680
Speaker 1: weaponizes this size more than the quick guy can weaponize

471
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:57,560
Speaker 1: his quickness, the big guy's gonna win or vice versa. Right,

472
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:00,199
Speaker 1: But like, this was an interesting example of the two

473
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 1: top teams that I have in that perimeter oriented archet type.

474
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:06,800
Speaker 1: I did my I kind of redid my contender rankings

475
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:09,919
Speaker 1: last weekend with the Nerd Sage guys, and I had

476
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 1: the Nuggets at won, the Celtics at two, the Bucks

477
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,080
Speaker 1: at three, and I had the Clippers at four. And

478
00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:18,120
Speaker 1: so this is the two teams in that top four

479
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: that are of that archetype competing against each other. And

480
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:24,440
Speaker 1: then again like the Clippers too, like they they've won

481
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,119
Speaker 1: a lot of games, but a lot of the there

482
00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 1: have been some games where like Kawi has been out

483
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:32,439
Speaker 1: for major matchups against against kind of like higher profile teams.

484
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: This was a good example of an opportunity for them

485
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 1: to add just another layer of legitimacy to their success.

486
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:41,640
Speaker 1: And it could not have come at a worse time

487
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:43,880
Speaker 1: because they just played it back to back in Toronto.

488
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:46,280
Speaker 1: The night before, I texted my buddy law Murray, who

489
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 1: covers the Clippers for the Athletic, and I'm like, are

490
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:50,479
Speaker 1: they all playing tonight? And They're like, He told me

491
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 1: that Paul George was coming off of kind of like

492
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,560
Speaker 1: an ankle issue and that he was questionable for the

493
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,400
Speaker 1: Toronto game and that he ended up still playing. And

494
00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: I was like, man, like, that's so lame that this

495
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:02,879
Speaker 1: game is going to be kind of like a little

496
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:05,200
Speaker 1: bit clouded by the back to back thing. We also

497
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:08,560
Speaker 1: have chrisps Porzingis out with the with the ankle injury,

498
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,680
Speaker 1: right and that for the record, that's the one big

499
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,720
Speaker 1: difference between the Celtics and those other kind of perimeter

500
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 1: oriented teams is they have chrisops Porzingis. He's the one

501
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:22,439
Speaker 1: thing that kind of like changes everything about what about

502
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 1: what that team does. It's the it's the true difference maker,

503
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 1: and it's one of the big reasons why I have

504
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:30,680
Speaker 1: them in my top tier of contenders alongside Denver. It's

505
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 1: not the same Boston team from years past. It's that

506
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 1: Boston team with a legit stretch big. He's their second

507
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:42,480
Speaker 1: best on off guy on the team. And that became

508
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:45,959
Speaker 1: a big theme in this particular game the Clippers, particularly

509
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 1: in that third quarter run. We're relentlessly attacking Al Horford

510
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,720
Speaker 1: in pick and roll. He's just a little too slow,

511
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:56,320
Speaker 1: just a little too small. And it's not a shot

512
00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,280
Speaker 1: at Al Horford, it's just the phase of his career

513
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: that he's in right like, and it just goes to

514
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 1: show you how different the Celtics look when Porzingis is

515
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 1: not out there. Just how important he is. And for

516
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,520
Speaker 1: the record, like that's the case with all these teams,

517
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 1: right Like, if Denver loses one of their starters, I

518
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 1: think that fundamentally changes their title chances in a big way.

519
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:19,679
Speaker 1: Regardless of which starter it is. Same thing goes for Milwaukee,

520
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:23,440
Speaker 1: same thing goes for Boston, same thing goes for the Clippers,

521
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:25,919
Speaker 1: the Lakers, all these teams. Nobody in this field is

522
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 1: good enough to be able to afford losing an important player.

523
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: But I thought you saw it tonight just exactly how

524
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:36,439
Speaker 1: important Chris hops Porzingis is like Al Horford actually this

525
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,399
Speaker 1: season that has a negative on off rating for the Celtics,

526
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:41,400
Speaker 1: And it just goes to show you the difference between

527
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:43,000
Speaker 1: those two and what they can do. First of all,

528
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:45,359
Speaker 1: Porzingis is a type of pick and pop player that

529
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:49,120
Speaker 1: actually draws attention from the defense. There are a lot

530
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:51,320
Speaker 1: of like pick and pop bigs that teams will concede

531
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: jumpers too. Al Horford is one of those guys. When

532
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 1: Al Harvard picks and pops, you just kind of lived

533
00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: with the results. Porzingis between his ability to actually attack

534
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:04,239
Speaker 1: mismatches in the post successfully and his skill just as

535
00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: a pick and pop big just kind of fundamentally changes

536
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 1: their defense, and because of the difference in size between

537
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:12,400
Speaker 1: him and a typical perimeter player, it's going to lead

538
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,640
Speaker 1: to more traditional coverages, meaning they won't switch, which will

539
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:19,359
Speaker 1: force an over the top, you know, pursuit from a player.

540
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:21,160
Speaker 1: That was one of the big themes in this game

541
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:25,639
Speaker 1: was the Clippers switching stagnated a lot of the screening

542
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:30,440
Speaker 1: actions that Boston was running, which specifically baits Boston into

543
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:33,840
Speaker 1: their worst tendencies, which is when they get to that point,

544
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:35,640
Speaker 1: they have a tendency to take a lot of really

545
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 1: tough either quick catch and shoot threes that aren't that open,

546
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:41,719
Speaker 1: or tough pull up jump shots. They lack the kind

547
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 1: of discipline to be like they're switching. We got to

548
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,240
Speaker 1: find the smallest guy. We got to get rim pressure

549
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 1: to try to get the defense into rotation so that

550
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:53,280
Speaker 1: we can play driving kick basketball, right. Porzingis because of

551
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 1: the difference in size, you're not gonna switch that most

552
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:58,120
Speaker 1: of the time. It's gonna be more like what the

553
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:02,560
Speaker 1: Clippers were doing with the with actions that involved Horford.

554
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 1: They're running a drop, they're they're they're chasing over the top, right,

555
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 1: And so that's that kind of goes to show you

556
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 1: with porzingis he just gives you the ability to make

557
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:15,760
Speaker 1: the Clippers play a different type of defense, right, But

558
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:17,600
Speaker 1: like that went a long way in this particular game,

559
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:20,160
Speaker 1: porzingis being out attacking Horford and picking Roll as much

560
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:23,960
Speaker 1: as they did the switching to stagnate Boston And then honestly, like,

561
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: if you really start to get down to it, I

562
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:28,880
Speaker 1: think that the Celtics are the most talented team in

563
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:32,520
Speaker 1: the league. I think that's pretty clear. And I think

564
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: the Celtics down the roster are more talented than the

565
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 1: Clippers are. But if you look at the top guys,

566
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: it's like, is Kawhi Leonard better than Jason Tatum, Yeah,

567
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 1: he just is. He just is. Is Paul George better

568
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:50,280
Speaker 1: than Jaylen Brown? Yeah? I think so. And it just

569
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 1: goes to show you, like, especially in higher leverage environments,

570
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:55,640
Speaker 1: the top guys matter more. That's been one of the

571
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 1: biggest problems for the Celtics over the years. It's like

572
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 1: just Tatum runs into Steph and then kind of stalls out.

573
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 1: Tatum runs into Jimmy Butler and then kind of stalls out.

574
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 1: And like, specifically in a playoff environment, whoever has the

575
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: best player on the floor does actually matter quite a bit,

576
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:10,960
Speaker 1: and it's one of the biggest question marks surrounding the

577
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 1: Celtics in general. Will they have the best player in

578
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,640
Speaker 1: a series against the Bucks, No, they won't. Will they

579
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: have the best player in a series against the Sixers? Yeah,

580
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:22,520
Speaker 1: Tatum's out played Joe Ellenbiid pretty consistently. I think we

581
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: can state down unequivocally. Would Jason Tatum be the best

582
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 1: player in a series against the Miami Heat, Like, it's

583
00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,040
Speaker 1: a toss up. Some years he out plays Jimmy Butler,

584
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 1: some years he doesn't. Say he gets out of the

585
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: conference and goes into the West. Is he the best

586
00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: player in a series with Denver? No? Is he the

587
00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 1: best player in a series with the Clippers? No? Is

588
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:41,480
Speaker 1: he the best player in a series with the Lakers?

589
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:43,880
Speaker 1: I don't know. Like, I think Tatum is a better

590
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:46,640
Speaker 1: regular season player than both Lebron and ad but in

591
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 1: a playoff setting, I think you may very well take

592
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 1: both of them, right, So, like it just goes to

593
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,240
Speaker 1: show you, like how that can how they can play

594
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 1: a bigger role down the line in a game like this.

595
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:01,360
Speaker 1: It like Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are just better

596
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:05,040
Speaker 1: two way basketball players than Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown,

597
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 1: and that goes a long way towards that dynamic. The

598
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 1: Clippers have arguably been the best team in the league

599
00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 1: after the hard and Trade, not by record, but just

600
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:17,160
Speaker 1: in terms of the amount of impressive wins that they've

601
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:19,720
Speaker 1: been putting up. This Daniel Tye signing has been a

602
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:22,800
Speaker 1: home run. Like obviously he came in as a result

603
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 1: of an injury, but like his ability to pick and

604
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 1: pop once again, the same kind of concept that we

605
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 1: talked about earlier involving the coverages. Like his ability to

606
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 1: pick and pop just opens things up in terms of

607
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:35,920
Speaker 1: the driving lanes, especially with James Harden in pick and roll.

608
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 1: But when I was watching that game today, like I thought,

609
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 1: it was a textbook example of two teams that play

610
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,840
Speaker 1: a similar style. But the Clippers are disciplined and deliberate

611
00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: about getting the right shots in the Celtics are not. Now,

612
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:54,840
Speaker 1: before we go too negative on the Celtics, because I'm

613
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: not changing my contender ranking based on this particular game.

614
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 1: Pordingis being out is a huge dealt him to win

615
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:02,960
Speaker 1: the title. They just do. He is the difference maker

616
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 1: between the Celtics and these other teams at the top

617
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 1: of the league. Boston was also really sloppy. They were

618
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: really sloppy and transition defense that kept getting beat down

619
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 1: the floor. They were turning the basketball over. I thought

620
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 1: also like it was a textbook example of a game

621
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:18,800
Speaker 1: where the scoreboard doesn't really properly reflect the difference between

622
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:21,080
Speaker 1: the two teams, because I thought the Celtics kind of

623
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: lost spirit a little bit, and a lot of times

624
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 1: when that happens, it can be a landslide. When one

625
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 1: team is playing with confidence and another team is playing

626
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,160
Speaker 1: utterly without it. It can the gap can build pretty

627
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 1: wide and then like you could play again in the

628
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 1: confidence dynamic, can you know, flip and then it could

629
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:41,320
Speaker 1: be completely different, right, But yeah, really really interesting game.

630
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:43,719
Speaker 1: Shout with the Clippers. That was how many times have

631
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 1: you seen teams in the NBA this year be like, oh,

632
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 1: running back to back on the road against a really

633
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 1: good team, ask or it, let's just go home, you know,

634
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 1: let's just let's float through this game and get out

635
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 1: of here. And that's not what happened. They showed up

636
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 1: and they kicked the Celtics ass. I thought it was

637
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 1: really impressive all right before we get out of here,

638
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:01,200
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk for a minute about these scoring

639
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 1: bursts around the NBA. So I actually watched the end

640
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:08,320
Speaker 1: of that Mavericks Hawks game last night. It was hilarious

641
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:12,240
Speaker 1: as Luca was just torching the Hawks in single coverage

642
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 1: and the Hawks were putting forth one of the more

643
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 1: embarrassing defensive efforts I've ever seen. And then suddenly when

644
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 1: Luca gets into these like mid sixties, the Hawks are like, Okay,

645
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,320
Speaker 1: now we're gonna play defense. So like they're sitting in

646
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,880
Speaker 1: a stance and they're making extra rotations and they're doing

647
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 1: all this stuff, and I'm like, I'm like, okay, this

648
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: is kind of embarrassing. Like when it came to winning

649
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 1: the game, you weren't overly interested in competing, But now

650
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 1: that it's about stopping Luca from getting a record, now

651
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:40,800
Speaker 1: you're all, you know, deeply invested. But it wasn't just

652
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: that we had Devin Booker go for sixty plus. I

653
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 1: saw a stat that was completely bonkers. I can't remember

654
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:49,600
Speaker 1: the exact number, but it was like twenty three times

655
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 1: Devin Booker's made six threes in a game and not

656
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,600
Speaker 1: made a seventh, Like that's legitimately crazy, Like think about that,

657
00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:58,960
Speaker 1: Like that would have been weird after the tenth time

658
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 1: and it's up in twenty plus times. And then he

659
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 1: ended up missing a tough pull up three at the

660
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 1: buzzer in the loss of the Pacers. But like we

661
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:11,960
Speaker 1: also had a seventy piece from Joel embiid if what

662
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,359
Speaker 1: was that like a week ago or so. But here's

663
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 1: the thing. What was bothering me the most as we

664
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:21,120
Speaker 1: were watching that was everyone talking about how scoring is

665
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:25,399
Speaker 1: overinflated in the NBA, and you know, people talking about

666
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:27,600
Speaker 1: how it's bad television and all this different stuff, a

667
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 1: lot of like negative stuff, which is weird to me

668
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:34,240
Speaker 1: because like my first instinct is to say, how about

669
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 1: we just have some fun. It's January. It's January. We

670
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 1: are halfway through this thing, not even halfway when you

671
00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:44,800
Speaker 1: factor in the playoffs, Like can we just have some fun?

672
00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 1: Can we just sit there and enjoy it? I enjoyed

673
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:51,000
Speaker 1: watching that game last night, Like the second piece of

674
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,719
Speaker 1: it is so much of this, so much of this

675
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: revisionist history as it pertains to what NBA basketball used

676
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,359
Speaker 1: to be, like drives me crazy. And I've been dealing

677
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:03,880
Speaker 1: with this my entire life, because obviously I grew up

678
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 1: around the game, and over the years, I've played with

679
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,560
Speaker 1: a lot of older basketball players, you know, just you know,

680
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: like just that pick up runs. I'd be chatting with

681
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,359
Speaker 1: them on the sideline and we'd talk NBA hoops, and

682
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 1: a consistent thing is like, oh, these guys back then

683
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 1: were way better, you know, the officiating was, it was

684
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:25,799
Speaker 1: more pure for the game, like the ball movement was better.

685
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:27,759
Speaker 1: That this was better, like everything used to be better,

686
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:30,000
Speaker 1: which fundamentally I just disagree with. I mean, you don't

687
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:33,439
Speaker 1: have to look around very hard to find out that

688
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 1: all professional sports are evolving in a positive way, right, Like,

689
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:40,239
Speaker 1: like do you remember what NFL offenses used to look

690
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 1: like like fifteen years ago, and then you look at

691
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:44,960
Speaker 1: it today and the different packages they use and the

692
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:48,480
Speaker 1: different like motion concepts and shovel passes and all this,

693
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:51,239
Speaker 1: like the route concepts and all these like like like

694
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 1: incredibly complex ways that NFL offenses can work, right, And

695
00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 1: you've got guys like Shanahan and McVeigh out there that

696
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 1: are like trained sendentally that are transcendent offensive mines that

697
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,439
Speaker 1: are that are changing the game as we know it. Right,

698
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:08,480
Speaker 1: you watch Major League Baseball, and it used to be

699
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:10,000
Speaker 1: like when I got through one hundred miles an hour

700
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 1: is a big deal. And now like every team has

701
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 1: like four relievers that can throw one hundred miles an hour,

702
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 1: and like two of them have a nasty two seamer

703
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 1: that dives off to the right like twelve inches and

704
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:21,520
Speaker 1: nobody can hit it, you know what I mean, Like

705
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:25,239
Speaker 1: like like big shock, We've worked on biomechanics and we

706
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:27,920
Speaker 1: know how to pitch better now than we used to. Like,

707
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:33,279
Speaker 1: and then NBA offenses, like everything about guarding in the

708
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 1: NBA right now is so much more difficult than it

709
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 1: used to be. Dors Burke was doing a bit about

710
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:40,359
Speaker 1: it in the first half of the Lakers Warriors game tonight, Like,

711
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:44,480
Speaker 1: to start with, the sheer amount of offensive skill on

712
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 1: the floor is way, way, way above what it used

713
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:51,120
Speaker 1: to be. And this is something that slowly took place,

714
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:54,000
Speaker 1: especially as a result of guys like Steph Curry and

715
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard in that in that mid twenty tens stretch

716
00:36:58,000 --> 00:36:59,960
Speaker 1: when they were kind of like changing the way guards

717
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,440
Speaker 1: played between Luca or Luca. Of well, Luca's later, but

718
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,359
Speaker 1: like Lebron bringing in kind of heliocentric basketball. But when

719
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:10,040
Speaker 1: Lebron came into the league, he was running along the

720
00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:14,040
Speaker 1: baseline off off of floppy action, which is like just

721
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:16,799
Speaker 1: running off of baseline screens as like a two guard

722
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:21,000
Speaker 1: looking for catch and shoot jump shots. That's now Luca

723
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:23,960
Speaker 1: gets drafted and it's like, here's the keys to the offense, Luca.

724
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:26,840
Speaker 1: We're gonna put two shooters in the weak side corner

725
00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 1: or in the in the two corners. We're gonna put

726
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:31,600
Speaker 1: another shooter on the weak side wing, and we're gonna

727
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:34,880
Speaker 1: have a rim runner for you, and we're just gonna

728
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 1: construct an offense around around your strengths. It's just different now.

729
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:45,280
Speaker 1: It used to be that you had big, bruising power

730
00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:48,480
Speaker 1: forwards that were primarily in the game just to beat

731
00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 1: the hell out of people. And now it's like Harrison

732
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:56,280
Speaker 1: Barnes plays the four. Right now, it's like Pascal Siaka

733
00:37:56,280 --> 00:38:00,560
Speaker 1: plays the four. It's just different now, Jonathan Kamingez four,

734
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:04,439
Speaker 1: you're getting high powered offensive players at at least four

735
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:06,920
Speaker 1: position groups. And then now we're seeing the rise of

736
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: these offensive full crime centers from the perimeter. Sa Bonus

737
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis and Nicole Jokic and Joel Embiid and

738
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:19,400
Speaker 1: like it is, you know, it is just it is

739
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,320
Speaker 1: so much harder now. And then to top it all off,

740
00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:25,279
Speaker 1: you give anybody any space these days and they're hitting

741
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:27,520
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot. In your grill, you die

742
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:30,239
Speaker 1: on a screen for a second. The dude's rising from

743
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:34,040
Speaker 1: twenty seven feet and hitting a tough pull up jump shot.

744
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:38,560
Speaker 1: It is just objectively harder than it used to be.

745
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:42,560
Speaker 1: And then when defenses get into rotation, when one guy

746
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:44,920
Speaker 1: gets beat off the dribble, it just turns into this

747
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:48,719
Speaker 1: chaos situation and everyone can shoot. So you're trying to

748
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:50,400
Speaker 1: chase a guy off the line and you're trying to

749
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 1: do all this stuff, like it is just hard to

750
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:57,680
Speaker 1: play defense now. So between how difficult it is to guard,

751
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:00,759
Speaker 1: between the way offenses are set up to actually accentuate

752
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,360
Speaker 1: your best player strengths because guess what, we're just better

753
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,560
Speaker 1: at it now. Well, you're better at coaching NBA offense

754
00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:10,959
Speaker 1: now than we used to be. And then the last

755
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:15,799
Speaker 1: piece of it that I wanted to hit, like when

756
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:19,000
Speaker 1: it comes to these scoring totals, this is kind of

757
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:22,359
Speaker 1: what January basketball can be. Like. Sometimes I don't see

758
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,879
Speaker 1: dudes putting up seventy in the playoffs. Schematically, they'll take

759
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:31,479
Speaker 1: it away if a guy like look at the Lakers

760
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 1: Warriors series last year. Look at all the defensive adjustments

761
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:37,120
Speaker 1: that took place, just simply because the Lakers were struggling

762
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:39,359
Speaker 1: to guard Steph Curry and pick and roll. Every single

763
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:41,880
Speaker 1: adjustment for both teams was like the Lakers trying to

764
00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:43,839
Speaker 1: figure out how to deal with Steph the Warriors trying

765
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 1: to figure out how to deal with Anthony Davis. And

766
00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:48,160
Speaker 1: you're all making these adjustments, and you would never let

767
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:51,920
Speaker 1: a guy just torch you for sixty sixty five points.

768
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 1: This is January basketball. Joel Embiid did it, wasn't it

769
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:59,520
Speaker 1: against the San Antonio Spurs. The Luca did it against

770
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:02,800
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Hawks. Devin Booker did it against one of

771
00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:05,320
Speaker 1: the worst defensive teams in the league in the Indiana Pacers.

772
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:08,400
Speaker 1: Like a big part of this is just January hoops,

773
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 1: like good scores going off against bad defensive teams that

774
00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:14,719
Speaker 1: don't have a lot to play for, which, by the way,

775
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 1: also happened twenty years ago. This is not a new trend.

776
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:24,319
Speaker 1: This has been a consistent theme throughout NBA history. So

777
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:25,960
Speaker 1: like to kind of put a bow on it, Like,

778
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: how about when this happens, we just sit back and

779
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:33,319
Speaker 1: be basketball fans instead of trying to rewrite NBA history. Like,

780
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: I have my issues with the NBA. I don't like

781
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:39,360
Speaker 1: the way it's officiated like that. I think officiating is

782
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:41,239
Speaker 1: a massive problem in the NBA. Just at the end

783
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,200
Speaker 1: of regulation, there were like three atrocious bad calls in

784
00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:47,840
Speaker 1: that Lakers Warriors game. That Anthony Davis rebound foul is

785
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:51,920
Speaker 1: really bad. The inadvertent whistle Draymond Green clubs Anthony Davis

786
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:54,160
Speaker 1: in the face, a clear flagrant doesn't it doesn't get

787
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:57,120
Speaker 1: called for it, Like like officiating in the NBA is

788
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:02,239
Speaker 1: just a it's just it's in a domination. But like

789
00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:07,200
Speaker 1: as a matter of the game, the players, the coaching,

790
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:11,680
Speaker 1: the schemes, everything's getting better. It's always getting better. So

791
00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:14,960
Speaker 1: stop being the angry old man on your front porch

792
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: talking about how basketball is not the same anymore. Because

793
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:20,239
Speaker 1: I promise you, if you go back fifteen years and

794
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:24,000
Speaker 1: just pick five random January games, they're gonna be ugly

795
00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:28,759
Speaker 1: as all hell. Like I promise you, it wasn't utopia

796
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:31,719
Speaker 1: basketball back then. All right, I'm off my soapbox, all right, guys,

797
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:33,360
Speaker 1: we're gonna get out of here for tonight. As always,

798
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:35,880
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We

799
00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:38,800
Speaker 1: will be back on Monday to do our power rankings

800
00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:40,960
Speaker 1: and some game breakdowns. I will see you guys then,

801
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:44,240
Speaker 1: enjoy your Sunday, enjoy the title games over at the NFL.

802
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:12,240
Speaker 1: The volume