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Speaker 1: welcome to tonight. You're at the volume heavy Monday. Everybody,

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Speaker 1: Oh bald guys, had a great weekend, got a jam

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Speaker 1: pack show for you Today. We're gonna do two instant

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Speaker 1: reactions off the top to a couple of major showdowns

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Speaker 1: that we had last night, and bolt the East and

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Speaker 1: the West. The Boston Celtics gotta win in Milwaukee against

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Speaker 1: the Bucks once again, just like last time. The Bucks

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Speaker 1: kind of hang around keep it interesting, but it feels

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Speaker 1: like they kind of let go of the rope late

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Speaker 1: and lose control of things, dropping them to two and eight.

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Speaker 1: So we're gonna be breaking that game down from the

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Speaker 1: perspective of both teams. Then Nikole Jokich puts up just

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Speaker 1: another completely absurd stat line last night as the Nuggets

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Speaker 1: improved to seven and three, beating the Dallas Mavericks, who

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Speaker 1: are now five and five and sitting at the eleven

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Speaker 1: seed in the Western Conference. Here through the first ten

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Speaker 1: games of the season. After we break those two games down,

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Speaker 1: like we do every Monday, we're gonna go over this

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Speaker 1: week's power rankings, raking the teams through the first ten

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Speaker 1: games from ten to one. You guys know the dripe

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Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube

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Speaker 1: channels you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter at underscore json lt so you guys

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Speaker 1: review on that front. Don't forget about our show, Instagram

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Speaker 1: feed and Facebook feed and Twitter feed for hoops tonight.

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Speaker 1: We're also releasing much of like reels and stuff like

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Speaker 1: that on those, so make sure you follow there and

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Speaker 1: the last not at least keep dropping mailback questions in

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Speaker 1: the YouTube comments. We're gonna do another long mail bag

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Speaker 1: on Friday this week to make sure you drop your

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Speaker 1: questions there so we can get to them when we

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Speaker 1: get to that point. All right, let's talk some basketball.

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Speaker 1: So first game, Celtics Bucks. Interesting game. The Bucks jumped

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Speaker 1: them early. Kind of reminded me of the games that

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Speaker 1: the Bucks played against the Celtics in Milwaukee last year,

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Speaker 1: where they kind of jump them early and then kind

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Speaker 1: of felt like in last year's games that the Celtics

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Speaker 1: just were just too far behind ever really worked their

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Speaker 1: way back into the game. Giannis was on an absolute tear.

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Speaker 1: You're hitting jump shots. Giannis is shooting forty two percent

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Speaker 1: on jump shots this year, which is actually the best

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Speaker 1: mark of his career. It's in large part because he's

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Speaker 1: cutting way down on the number of threes he's taking.

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Speaker 1: Actually hit a three early in this Boston game, but

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Speaker 1: he's cutting way down on threes. He's only taking zero

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Speaker 1: point seven three point attempts per game, which is his

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Speaker 1: lowest three point volume since twenty fifteen, literally almost a

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Speaker 1: decade ago. But he's taking so many more of him

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Speaker 1: at the elbows, easy hesitating, like sitting in the high

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Speaker 1: hesitation dribble, when the guy's on his heels rising up

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Speaker 1: into that shot at the elbow, And here's the thing,

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Speaker 1: like it's it's just an easier shot for him there, ironically,

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Speaker 1: even though again this is the this is the important detail.

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Speaker 1: A three point shot is worth more than a two

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Speaker 1: point shot, but it doesn't matter if you can't actually

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Speaker 1: make it. Jannis is taking more mid range jumpers than

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Speaker 1: threes this year, but because he's shooting a significantly higher

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Speaker 1: percentage on those twos, he's actually getting more points per

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Speaker 1: jump shot this year than he did in the previous

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Speaker 1: two seasons. He's at zero point eight six points per

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Speaker 1: jump shot this year. He was below zero point eight

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Speaker 1: points per shot in each of the previous two seasons,

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Speaker 1: despite the fact that he was taking more threes. So

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Speaker 1: it's actually kind of like working for him. Over the

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Speaker 1: top shots, Giannis has been more efficient than usual this year.

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Speaker 1: He's on an absolute terror. We're gonna talk more about

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Speaker 1: Gianni's here in a minute. But he jumped them early

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Speaker 1: in this game. I think he had twenty seven points

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Speaker 1: in the first half. Was just crushing the Celtics in

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Speaker 1: the paint. The Bucks ended up going up sixteen to two. Again,

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Speaker 1: it looked like those those games from last year, but

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Speaker 1: then the Celtics settled down. Peyton Pritchard had an incredible

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Speaker 1: first half. He had seventeen points. The big thing. I

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Speaker 1: talked about this in a radio hit in the Bay

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Speaker 1: Area for the for Warriors fans that I did on

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Speaker 1: I was, I think it was on Thursday or Friday

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Speaker 1: last week, and I talked about how the skill development

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Speaker 1: people and the Warriors are very clearly emphasizing the concept

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Speaker 1: of movement shooting. Basically like instead of just focusing on

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Speaker 1: repping out, catch and shoot threes, let's, you know, still

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Speaker 1: work on that, but let's work on the ability to

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Speaker 1: shoot on the move for several different reasons. One like

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Speaker 1: a good spacing shooter can relocate, meaning like when the

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Speaker 1: help defender turns their head and isn't paying attention, you

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Speaker 1: move from one pace to a place to another. Pivotal possession.

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Speaker 1: At the end of this game, where Tatum hits the dagger,

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Speaker 1: three catches Giannis kind of ball watching, slides up the

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Speaker 1: line and ends up taking a three closer to above

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Speaker 1: the break gets a better look there. Right. Relocating means

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Speaker 1: moving while you're shooting right, getting your feet set while

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Speaker 1: you're on the move, but also when you're running action,

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Speaker 1: if you're coming off of a screening action and you're

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Speaker 1: able to if you're a right handed shooter moving to

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Speaker 1: your right, if you're able to plant that left foot

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Speaker 1: and swing that right foot around and square up as

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Speaker 1: you're running and rise up and take a shot, that

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Speaker 1: is what causes teams to have to show on screens,

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Speaker 1: and that is what develops those four on threes when

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Speaker 1: you can start hitting those pocket passes or floating the

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Speaker 1: ball over the top while the screener rolls to the rim.

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Speaker 1: Right like movement, shooting is a vitally important part of

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Speaker 1: being a threat in any sort of screening action. And

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Speaker 1: what did you see from Peyton Pritchard in that first half.

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Speaker 1: He's flying off of screens, getting his feet set, turning

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Speaker 1: on the move and rising up and knocking down shots.

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Speaker 1: That's real value. Obviously, Peyton Pritchard has been incredible this year.

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Speaker 1: He's the face. I believe he's the betting favorite right

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Speaker 1: now to win sixth Man of the Year. He's providing

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Speaker 1: excellent ball pressure. He's providing a lot of hustle plays,

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Speaker 1: but he's also bringing really high level offense. He's been

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Speaker 1: one of the best backup guards in league to start

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Speaker 1: this year. But the Bucks were able to hang onto

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Speaker 1: the rope and kind of stiff arm the Celtics until

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Speaker 1: about one minute left in the first half, and then

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Speaker 1: the Celtics had one of their classic runs. The Bucks

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Speaker 1: got a little sloppy, the Celtics started hitting shots. The

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Speaker 1: Celtics turned a thirteen point deficit into a two point

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Speaker 1: lead in four minutes. It's an insane turnaround in this

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Speaker 1: game turned into kind of like a back and forth

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Speaker 1: second half. Tatum was incredible in the second half. He

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Speaker 1: had twenty three points. He got to the foul line

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Speaker 1: eleven times in that half, and you know, it's interesting.

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Speaker 1: This season has been a very interesting Jason Tatum season,

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Speaker 1: and I think it should be kind of scary to

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Speaker 1: a lot of people around the league because he's still

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Speaker 1: not really hitting his touch shots at the level that

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Speaker 1: I think he's going to over the course of this season,

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Speaker 1: like Tatum is shooting only thirty seven percent on jump shots,

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Speaker 1: and he's shooting only fifty seven percent on layups, and

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Speaker 1: yet he's still, despite that, is averaging thirty one points

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Speaker 1: per game on sixty three percent true shooting. So couple

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Speaker 1: of different angles to get into their okay. First of all,

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Speaker 1: how is he this efficient despite the fact that his

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Speaker 1: touch shooting hasn't been as good as he's capable of doing,

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Speaker 1: or at least as good as I think he's going

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Speaker 1: to in the long run of the season. First of all,

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Speaker 1: huge increase in his three point rate. Last year forty

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Speaker 1: three percent of his field goal attempts for threes, forty

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Speaker 1: three percent this year fifty seven percent. So he's gone

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Speaker 1: from taking less than half of his shots as threes

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Speaker 1: to more than half of his shots are threes. A

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Speaker 1: significant increase in his three point volume. And then, secondly,

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Speaker 1: a massive increase in his free throw rate how often

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Speaker 1: he's getting to the foul line a career high nine

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Speaker 1: free throw attempts per game. The way you calculate free

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Speaker 1: throw rate is it's just the number of free throw

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Speaker 1: attempts per field goal attempt. Last year he was getting

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Speaker 1: zero point three to five free throws per field goal attempt.

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Speaker 1: This year it's zero point four to four free throws

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Speaker 1: per field goal attempt, So massive increases on both fronts

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Speaker 1: in three point volume and in free throw percentage. And

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Speaker 1: this is why everyone harps on the ability to get

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Speaker 1: to the line and the ability to make volume threes

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Speaker 1: as one of the foundational elements to efficient scoring, because again,

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Speaker 1: like I think Tatum's going to shoot better. I think

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Speaker 1: Tatum's going to probably get closer to sixty sixty two

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Speaker 1: to sixty three percent on layups over the course of

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Speaker 1: the season. I think He's going to get closer to

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Speaker 1: forty percent on jump shots over the course of the season.

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Speaker 1: But you can buy yourself a lot of leeway in

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Speaker 1: the large sample if you just take the right kinds

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Speaker 1: of shots and if you're able to draw fouls by

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Speaker 1: getting defenders out of position. Like this is crazy. Tatum

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Speaker 1: had twenty three points in the second half despite going

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Speaker 1: five to fourteen from the field. That is a great

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Speaker 1: example of how you can manufacture efficiency through the right

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Speaker 1: approach on the offensive end of the four. He got

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Speaker 1: to the foul line eleven times in the second half

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Speaker 1: of that game, but again he got eight threes up

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Speaker 1: and he got eleven foul shots. That's going to make

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Speaker 1: up for a five to fourteen five for fourteen day

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Speaker 1: of the week. He also hit the dagger in this game.

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Speaker 1: Really beautiful possession of Celtics basketball. So it's like a

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Speaker 1: horn set, if I remember correctly, his horn set. Jalen

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Speaker 1: Brown's at the top of the key with Torrian Prince

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Speaker 1: on him, and Derek White's on the left elbow, Drew

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Speaker 1: Holidays on the right elbow on the right elbow, and

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Speaker 1: Jalen just wants to drive. So Derek White just kind

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Speaker 1: of clears out to the dunker spot on the left side,

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Speaker 1: and as he clears out, there's a little driving lane

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Speaker 1: that opens up on the left side, and Jalen Brown

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Speaker 1: just rips through hard and tries to get dribble penetration

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Speaker 1: on Torrian Prince. And again this is a classic example

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Speaker 1: of breaking down the defense in phases rather than trying

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Speaker 1: to hit the home run right. So like Jalen Brown

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Speaker 1: drives to the left, doesn't shatter the defense right, It's

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Speaker 1: not like he just blew by Torreum Prince. Tory Prince

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Speaker 1: is riding him like flattening out the drive right and

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Speaker 1: then as a result of him making that move, Damian Lillard,

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Speaker 1: who's guarding Derek White, steps up and just kind of

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Speaker 1: walls up on Jalen Brown. When he walls up on

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Speaker 1: Jaylen Brown, that leaves Derek White wide open in the

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Speaker 1: dunker spot. When they throw the ball out to Derek

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Speaker 1: White in the dunker spot, Al Horford's man who's on

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Speaker 1: the in the right corner slides down to help. So

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Speaker 1: now Derek White throws a swing pass out to Al

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Speaker 1: Horford in the right corner. Al Horford swing pass up

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Speaker 1: the wing to Drew Holiday. Drew Holliday now has a closeout.

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Speaker 1: So all of that so the drive from from Jalen

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Speaker 1: Brown to the drop off to Derek White, to the

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Speaker 1: kickout pass to Al Horford to the swing pass, all

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Speaker 1: of that is. All it did was generate one close out,

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Speaker 1: a close out for Drew Holliday. But Drew Holliday beat

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Speaker 1: the close out, and when he beat the close out,

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Speaker 1: he drew Jannis' attention. Jannis was staring at Drew. That

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Speaker 1: allowed Jason Tatum to relocate up to the top of

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Speaker 1: the to the wing. Kickout pass knocks down the three.

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Speaker 1: Now the game is basically over, so again, it's like

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Speaker 1: breaking down the defense and phases, even a limited defense

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Speaker 1: like Milwaukee on a key possession at the end of

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Speaker 1: a game, they are locked in. They're trying really hard, right,

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Speaker 1: so stop trying to hit the home run and just

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Speaker 1: play methodical Boston Celtics basket. That's what they did. Jalen

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Speaker 1: Brown did his job. He created the initial advantage. Drew

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Speaker 1: Holliday and Al Horford did their job proper spacing, quick

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Speaker 1: decisions on swing passes. Drew Holliday did his job attacking

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Speaker 1: a closeout. Jason Tatum did his job relocating when he

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Speaker 1: saw the help defender took his eye off of him.

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Speaker 1: And then the final job, which is knocking down the

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Speaker 1: open shot. That is Boston Celtics basketball advantage, creation, advantage,

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Speaker 1: extending play, finishing with great spacing principles, guards in the

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Speaker 1: dunker spot, guys making quick decisions. That is the quintessential

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Speaker 1: offensive style that Boston runs that has led them to

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Speaker 1: a championship and a whole lot of success over the

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Speaker 1: course of the last couple of seasons. I also thought

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Speaker 1: the Celtics just did a great job on Damian Lillard.

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Speaker 1: They held him to fourteen points on four for fifteen shooting.

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Speaker 1: They have the combination of speed and length right so

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Speaker 1: Dame can't be too fast to give too many issues

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Speaker 1: to their perimeter players. And then they they when Dame

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Speaker 1: goes to his pull up jump shot game, they have

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Speaker 1: the length to really close that gap and make him

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Speaker 1: uncomfortable some of those pull up jump shots. Again, Dame

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Speaker 1: had some bad misses in this one, and bad misses,

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Speaker 1: to me are more likely to be a result of

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Speaker 1: quality defense than anything that the offensive player is doing

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Speaker 1: on the Bucks front. Two silver linings if you're looking,

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Speaker 1: if you're a Bucks fan and you're just looking for

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Speaker 1: something to make you feel better about where you're at

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Speaker 1: sitting here two and eight. Number one, Giannis is playing

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Speaker 1: some of the best basketball of his career. We talked

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Speaker 1: about his jump shot earlier. I won't go into that again,

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Speaker 1: but he's averaging thirty two points, thirteen rebounds, and five

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Speaker 1: assists sixty one percent from the field. His command of

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Speaker 1: the game on offense is at an all time high.

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Speaker 1: His passing is better than ever, his assistant turnover ratio

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Speaker 1: is higher than ever. He had a couple of these,

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Speaker 1: like ridiculous left handed whip passes yesterday there was one

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Speaker 1: in a ball screen that he whipped a left handed

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Speaker 1: pass that went all the way to the weakside corner you.

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Speaker 1: And another one where he drove on the baseline and

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Speaker 1: like jumped and left his feet and had to make

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Speaker 1: a decision in mid air and just whipped a left

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Speaker 1: handed pass to the top of the key to Bobby Portis.

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Speaker 1: That was like right in the shooting pocket. His over

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Speaker 1: the top shooting is better than ever. You're shooting forty

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Speaker 1: two percent on jumpers, that's highest by far in his career,

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Speaker 1: fifty six percent on hooks so far, although I'd like

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Speaker 1: to see him take higher volume, but that's up about

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Speaker 1: ten percent from where he was last year. Giannis is hooping.

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Speaker 1: And if you're looking for a second silver lining, if

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Speaker 1: you're a Bucks fan, their schedule lightens up in a

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Speaker 1: big waight. Now your home for Toronto and Detroit, then

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Speaker 1: you're at Charlotte, Then you're home for Houston, Chicago, Indiana

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Speaker 1: and Charlotte again. Then you're at Miami, then you're home

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Speaker 1: for Washington, at Detroit, and home for Atlanta. So like,

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Speaker 1: if you're a serious team, if you're a Milwaukee Bucks fan,

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Speaker 1: if you're a serious team, you should go no worse

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Speaker 1: than seven and four in that stretch. Now you're looking

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Speaker 1: at nine and twelve on December fifth, which should put

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Speaker 1: you back in the Eastern Conference playing picture, and with

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Speaker 1: a couple more good weeks after that, you could be

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Speaker 1: sitting in a much better position. Right, And they're capable

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Speaker 1: of doing even better than seven and four. They're capable

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Speaker 1: of going nine and two in that stretch. They go

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Speaker 1: nine to two in that stretch. Now you're back over

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Speaker 1: five hundred. You're eleven and ten on December fifth, Right, So,

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Speaker 1: like all it takes is a couple of weeks of

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Speaker 1: serious basketball here against a limited stretch of your schedule,

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Speaker 1: and things should work out. One last note I wanted

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Speaker 1: to hit on this game. This was a concept that

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Speaker 1: I I wanted to mention earlier when we were talking

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Speaker 1: about the final play. Not the final play, but the

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Speaker 1: dagger three that Jason Tatum hit on the left side

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Speaker 1: of the floor. You know, I tweeted out an example

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Speaker 1: of that play the video, So if you want to

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Speaker 1: see the video, you can actually just go to my

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Speaker 1: Twitter feed and you'll see it there. But on that play,

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Speaker 1: a lot of Bucks fans were commenting underneath it or

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Speaker 1: quoting it and saying things like, oh, Joannis just took

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Speaker 1: Johnny's just made a mistake. He was watching the ball

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Speaker 1: too much and he lost Jason Tatum. And what I

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Speaker 1: When I see stuff like that, I think people are

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Speaker 1: missing the point. Like when an elite defense or any

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Speaker 1: defense is like engaged, locked in and in really putting

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Speaker 1: the attention to detail that is necessary to cover action.

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Speaker 1: You can cover action. They're big. Like every action that

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Speaker 1: any team runs there is a there is like a

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Speaker 1: plan for it. Pro professional basketball teams have plans for action.

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Speaker 1: They know what to do. He supposed to watch man

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Speaker 1: in ball and position himself in between so that he

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Speaker 1: can be in better position to close out or to

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Speaker 1: force some more of a looping pass in the in

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Speaker 1: the like when that skip pass is actually made. Teams

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Speaker 1: know what to do helping out of the strong side

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Speaker 1: quarter versus the weak side corner. Teams know what to

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Speaker 1: do when they're dealing with the ball screen at the

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Speaker 1: top of the key versus on the sides. Teams know

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Speaker 1: what to do with double drag. Teams know what to

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Speaker 1: do with stack. They have a plaan for everything. The

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Speaker 1: point is is the more organized offense you run, the

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Speaker 1: more action you run in each possession, the more times

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Speaker 1: you get the ball going side to side, the more

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Speaker 1: potential there is for mistakes. Milwaukee did everything right on

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Speaker 1: that possession except for one thing. Johannis got caught ball watching,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't until the you know, fifth or sixth

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Speaker 1: touch or fifth or sixth play of that singular possession.

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Speaker 1: So like by virtue, like again, that's what I mean

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Speaker 1: when I say, like you break these defenses down in waves,

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Speaker 1: Like it's all about just playing offense and executing until

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Speaker 1: they make a mistake. And then when they make a mistake,

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Speaker 1: that's when you can capitalize on it and make something

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Speaker 1: good happen. Right, And so, like, I think it's just

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Speaker 1: an interesting kind of example of like of understanding why

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Speaker 1: we run action. You don't run action. That's why a

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Speaker 1: lot of times at the end of games, running action

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Speaker 1: doesn't work as well, and it becomes more about individual

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Speaker 1: shot making because there are fewer mistakes. But you should

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Speaker 1: still try to run action because what if they do

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Speaker 1: make a mistake. Right, And again, for a team like Boston,

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Speaker 1: the action is usually pretty simple at the beginning of

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Speaker 1: the possession and then it comes to driving kick. But

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Speaker 1: even just simply within the realm of driving kick. If

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Speaker 1: you close out properly, you funnel in the right direction,

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Speaker 1: your help side's good, and your rotations are good. You

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Speaker 1: can contain drive and kick too. But Boston, you know,

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Speaker 1: when they get into their to their bag with their

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Speaker 1: driving kick stuff, it's just so many interchanges. It's just

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Speaker 1: really difficult to not make mistakes. And that's what happened

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Speaker 1: to Gianness, who's one of the best defenders in the

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Speaker 1: league last night. At the tail end of that Bucks game.

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Speaker 1: Moving on to Maps, Nuggets, wild finished to this one.

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Speaker 1: The Dallas entire fourth quarter offense was basically just Kyrie

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Speaker 1: Irving hitting tough, contested jump shots. He was unreal. He

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Speaker 1: hit a deep three to break a Denver zone possession

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Speaker 1: early in the corner. Early in the quarter, he had

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Speaker 1: three additional threes. He hit two tough contested mid rangers

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Speaker 1: over Peyton Watson like a jab step from the elbow,

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Speaker 1: and then this ridiculous turnaround bank shot that reminded me

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Speaker 1: of the shots that Kyrie was hitting over Klay Thompson

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Speaker 1: in the twenty sixteen finals. Just unbelievable. Kyrie had sixteen

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Speaker 1: of Dallas's twenty six points, in the fourth quarter. Luca

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Speaker 1: still just isn't playing up to his standard. He hit

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Speaker 1: a big catch and shoot three late in this one

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Speaker 1: that he was two for five with two turnovers in

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Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Luca's numbers are way down across the board.

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Speaker 1: He's averaging twenty eight points per game this year. It

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Speaker 1: was thirty four points a game last year. Averaging eight

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Speaker 1: rebounds a game this year. It was nine rebounds last year.

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Speaker 1: He's averaging eight assisp game this year. It was ten

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Speaker 1: assists per game last year. His steals and blocks are

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Speaker 1: both down. He's shooting forty one percent from the field.

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Speaker 1: He shot forty nine percent from the field last year,

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Speaker 1: thirty three percent from three. He shot thirty eight percent

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Speaker 1: from three last year. He's getting to the foul line less.

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Speaker 1: He's making a lower percentage when he gets to the

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Speaker 1: foul line. His shot creation data is like abysmal by

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Speaker 1: Lucas standards. He's run two hundred and seventy two pick

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Speaker 1: and rolls, ISOs and post ups that have generated just

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty one points including passes. That's just

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Speaker 1: zero point nine to two points per possession. Last year

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Speaker 1: he was at one point one zero points per half

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Speaker 1: court creation, possession, including passes. So like, if you're a

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Speaker 1: MAVs fan and you're looking for a silver lining from

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Speaker 1: this five and five start that has Dallas sitting in

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Speaker 1: the eleven seed out West, it's the simple fact that

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Speaker 1: Luca is basically guaranteed to play much much better than

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Speaker 1: this in the long run. There's other elements to PJ.

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Speaker 1: Washington's hurt. You got the the Derek Lively injury, you

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Speaker 1: have Klay Thompson still incorporating into the offense. There's there's

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of Naji marshallized like, there's other elements

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Speaker 1: at play, But the main thing is is that your guy,

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Speaker 1: your guy, Luca, who when he's at his best is

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Speaker 1: at least at the same tier as the top players

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Speaker 1: in the league, is playing more like just another star

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Speaker 1: right now. And as long as that's the case, it's

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Speaker 1: going to be really tough to hang in a really

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Speaker 1: really difficult Western Conference. So if you're, again, if you're

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Speaker 1: a MAVs fan and you're looking for silver lining, I

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Speaker 1: think it's basically a guarantee that Luca is going to

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Speaker 1: play much much much better in the long run. Clearly,

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Speaker 1: that calf injury in training camp or contusion or whatever

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Speaker 1: it was he had in training camp just kind of

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Speaker 1: slowed down his start into the season, and it's affecting

429
00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:40,399
Speaker 1: the team, and I think in the long run that

430
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:42,720
Speaker 1: will level out. But the Nuggets come out on top

431
00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:45,879
Speaker 1: of this one due to yet another Yokic masterpiece. He

432
00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:48,240
Speaker 1: had eleven points in the fourth quarter. He scored multiple

433
00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:50,879
Speaker 1: times on Gafford. One of the things I thought was

434
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,480
Speaker 1: fascinating is they went to Jokic in the post against

435
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:56,440
Speaker 1: Gafford and the first time and it was like a

436
00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:59,560
Speaker 1: textbook repost. Right So like Michael Porter Junior is one

437
00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,760
Speaker 1: pass away and Michael Porter Junior's man digs way down,

438
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:05,159
Speaker 1: and so what is a repost? All that is is like,

439
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:07,000
Speaker 1: oh they're digging down, throw the pass back out, but

440
00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,040
Speaker 1: instead of just jacking up a three right away, just repost.

441
00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:12,960
Speaker 1: So like Jokic throws the pass out. As he throws

442
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,760
Speaker 1: the pass out, mpj's man hard closes out back to

443
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:21,159
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior. Jokic then gets deeper post position. Michael

444
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:23,720
Speaker 1: Porter Junior makes the pass again. Now the double team

445
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,439
Speaker 1: is too far away and Jokic is right underneath the

446
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:28,360
Speaker 1: basket and he's able to go to a quick one

447
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,360
Speaker 1: on one move, gets to an easy hook shot right

448
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:32,359
Speaker 1: at the rit well. They post him up again on

449
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:35,280
Speaker 1: the next possession and Gafford actually gets Jokic to miss

450
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:37,000
Speaker 1: a shot. And so one of the things Mike Malone

451
00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:38,679
Speaker 1: did that I thought was really smart is they go

452
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:41,280
Speaker 1: back to Jokic against Gafford, but this time they do

453
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:43,960
Speaker 1: it more in a driving situation. So they have Peyton

454
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:46,080
Speaker 1: Watson just kind of set like a brush screen around

455
00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:48,520
Speaker 1: the left elbow, and Yokic just cuts to the ball

456
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,320
Speaker 1: right at the elbow and catches and then immediately goes downhill.

457
00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:54,800
Speaker 1: When he goes downhill, he takes those long, lumbering steps,

458
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:57,280
Speaker 1: waits to find his little opening and makes a layup.

459
00:21:57,359 --> 00:21:58,840
Speaker 1: I think he actually missed the first light, but he

460
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:00,800
Speaker 1: tapped it in. But it was kind of interesting because

461
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:03,760
Speaker 1: like they wanted to get him more momentum going downhill,

462
00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:05,879
Speaker 1: so instead of just posting him, they got him more

463
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:07,600
Speaker 1: on like a flash cut towards the elbow so that

464
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: he could quick look to drive. But he got a

465
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:11,000
Speaker 1: couple of buckets there. He had a huge pick and

466
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:13,280
Speaker 1: pop three. His shooting has been insane this year. We're

467
00:22:13,280 --> 00:22:14,560
Speaker 1: going to talk about that in a minute when we

468
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:17,040
Speaker 1: get big picture on Jokic. He also had a huge

469
00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:18,919
Speaker 1: steal in pick and roll against Luca where he got

470
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:21,600
Speaker 1: his hands down, ran the floor Christian Brown Missi lay up,

471
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:23,200
Speaker 1: but he got an offensive rebound and put back. That

472
00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:25,000
Speaker 1: was a huge sequence in the end of this game

473
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:27,640
Speaker 1: that put Denver up by two. And then Denver got

474
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,520
Speaker 1: two key stops down the tail end of this game.

475
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,560
Speaker 1: And again like Kyrie had been hitting these crazy contested

476
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:35,639
Speaker 1: jump shots right like he had two on Peyton wattson

477
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:37,640
Speaker 1: that jab step around the elbow and then the turnaround

478
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:39,760
Speaker 1: left shoulder fade away that he banked in off the glass,

479
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:46,160
Speaker 1: incredibly difficult high Like Kyrie is a specialist at making those,

480
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:49,639
Speaker 1: but it's an incredibly difficult shot and you really can't

481
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:52,800
Speaker 1: do any better than that, and it's easy to get discouraged,

482
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:55,639
Speaker 1: but you have to remember those are tough shots and

483
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,119
Speaker 1: what were you getting on the other end. Jokic lamps

484
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:02,320
Speaker 1: so like then after those two shots that Kyrie made,

485
00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:06,200
Speaker 1: the next three attempts that Dallas took were all heavily

486
00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:10,440
Speaker 1: contested jump shots. Kyrie heavily contested jump shot over Peyton

487
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,960
Speaker 1: Watson on the left wing finally misses one Luka Doncic

488
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,199
Speaker 1: heavily contested deep three. I wasn't that contested, but it

489
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 1: was really deep. It was like a twenty eight to

490
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:20,840
Speaker 1: twenty nine footer from the top of the key. That's

491
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:23,600
Speaker 1: a low percentage shot. And then Kyrie's last shot against

492
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,800
Speaker 1: Christian Brown, that's a low percented shot. That's a smothered

493
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 1: three along the left wing. Now we know Kyrie can

494
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:31,879
Speaker 1: make those, right, we know Luca can make that shot.

495
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 1: But by the way, they got five of them down

496
00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:35,760
Speaker 1: the tail end of the game and they made too

497
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:40,200
Speaker 1: So they shot forty percent on these really difficult ISO

498
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,920
Speaker 1: jump shots. That's what you expect, right, The best ISO

499
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:46,600
Speaker 1: jump shooters in the world are gonna make about forty

500
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:50,960
Speaker 1: percent of these tough, heavily contested one on one jump shots.

501
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: There are rare examples of guys like Kawhi and kd

502
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,200
Speaker 1: who can shoot in that like fifty five percent range

503
00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:00,640
Speaker 1: around the elbow, but like those are generally speaking shots,

504
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:02,560
Speaker 1: especially when you get out to the three point line

505
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,760
Speaker 1: like Kyrie's last two shots were, they're just lower percentage

506
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:08,720
Speaker 1: shots and so really like you could get discouraged while

507
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 1: Kyrie's making these shots. But if you zoom out for

508
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:14,720
Speaker 1: a second, it's like Denver had one tough shot in there.

509
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,760
Speaker 1: There was a really nice floater that Michael Porter Junior

510
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:19,400
Speaker 1: made when he drove a close out on the right wing.

511
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:21,400
Speaker 1: It was a tougher shot, but even then I would

512
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:22,879
Speaker 1: argue that was an easier shot than any of the

513
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:25,480
Speaker 1: shots that Dallas was getting. But other than that, Michael

514
00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:28,680
Speaker 1: Porter Junior shot, Like, it's a lot of Jokic right

515
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:31,359
Speaker 1: at the rim. And so if I zoom out in

516
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:34,600
Speaker 1: a clutch time situation and one team is getting Jokic

517
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:36,960
Speaker 1: at the rim again and again and again, and the

518
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 1: other team is, like, Kyrie is taking these incredibly difficult

519
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: off the dribble jump shots like in the larger As

520
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:45,320
Speaker 1: soon as you kind of zoom out a little bit,

521
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,400
Speaker 1: it's gonna work in your favor. And yeah, Kyrie made too,

522
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: But after that they missed their last three. Denver got

523
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 1: shots right at the rim and one tough shot for

524
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:56,240
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior shot out to Mike, and then you

525
00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:57,879
Speaker 1: end up getting a win, right. So it's kind of

526
00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:00,919
Speaker 1: an interesting example of like trusting the process, right, Like

527
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,200
Speaker 1: you trust the process, you force them to take tough,

528
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,479
Speaker 1: contested shots. That's what you want. You get closer shots

529
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:09,520
Speaker 1: at the rim that are more reliable, you end up

530
00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:11,880
Speaker 1: getting a win. Young guys keep stepping up for Denver.

531
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,200
Speaker 1: Christian Brown just continues to show wonderful chemistry with Nicole Jokic.

532
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 1: He had nine points in the third quarter. Christian Brown

533
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: is averaging sixteen points a game on sixty seven percent

534
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:22,600
Speaker 1: you shooting. Here's a crazy stat for you. If you

535
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:27,160
Speaker 1: took KCPS points per game last year in Denver and

536
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: you added it to kcp's points per game in Orlando

537
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,680
Speaker 1: this year, he's at seventeen points per game. Christian Brown's

538
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:35,760
Speaker 1: giving you sixteen points per game on sixty seven percent

539
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:38,399
Speaker 1: through shooting this year. Massive win for the front office.

540
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,600
Speaker 1: Clearly just a shoe and fit at that two spot

541
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:44,440
Speaker 1: in Payne Watson. Here's the thing. He's not Aaron Gordon.

542
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:48,639
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon is just a lot more defensively versatile, brings

543
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,720
Speaker 1: a post up element as a better cutter, finisher around

544
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 1: the rim, better rebounder. Right. But Payne Watson is a

545
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 1: very good functional athlete. And one of the things that

546
00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,159
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson has been bringing is he's been shooting the

547
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:01,360
Speaker 1: ball pretty well. He's hit eight threes in the last

548
00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:03,959
Speaker 1: four games. He's shooting sixty three percent on corner threes

549
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,080
Speaker 1: so far this year, shooting thirty nine percent on three overall.

550
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 1: So like he's not Aaron Gordon, but but through his

551
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:11,879
Speaker 1: shooting ability, he's closing the gap a little bit and

552
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,440
Speaker 1: allowing Denver to be functional while giving Aaron Gordon the

553
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,719
Speaker 1: opportunity to get healthy. Julian Strather again, like it's not

554
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,399
Speaker 1: like really popping in a major box score way yet,

555
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,000
Speaker 1: but it's just making plays. It's like, oh, here's this

556
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: huge driving layup against the Toronto Raptors, or like last

557
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 1: night it's like, wow, did he just block Klay Thompson

558
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:34,120
Speaker 1: on a closeout on a wing three on the right side.

559
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:37,399
Speaker 1: He had another big help side block against I think

560
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:40,479
Speaker 1: it was Dwight Powell in the first half. Providing just

561
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,879
Speaker 1: key buckets and key spots. Like again, it's he's not

562
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 1: providing the same type of impact that Christian Brown and

563
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,919
Speaker 1: Payton Watson are, but he's providing some pretty decent impact.

564
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,439
Speaker 1: He's making some plays. He's getting better again. He was

565
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: a Strather was like an absolute disaster on defense to

566
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:56,360
Speaker 1: start the year, and he's been a little bit better.

567
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:57,840
Speaker 1: Hey had, Like, like there was a close out on

568
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 1: Jayden Hardy in the third quarter where like Jade Hardy's

569
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 1: aeron the third recorder closes out, forces him to drive,

570
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: beats him to the spot, forces him into like a

571
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 1: tough contested shot around the kind of short corner area

572
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 1: and he misses it. And I was like, hey, like,

573
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 1: you've got some real length and athleticism here, Like these

574
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:15,360
Speaker 1: are real tools. It just just through hard work, good coaching,

575
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 1: and better attention to detail, he can become a functional defender.

576
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:20,280
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. The young guys are playing better.

577
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:22,119
Speaker 1: Denver's won five in a row. Throw up to the

578
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 1: four spot in the conference. Nikole Jokich is the clear

579
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: MVP choice to meet through the first ten games of

580
00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 1: the season. He had thirty seven points, eighteen rebounds, and

581
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:34,159
Speaker 1: fifteen assists last night on only twenty one shots. That

582
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 1: is absolutely outrageous. I didn't even watch the game last night.

583
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:42,040
Speaker 1: I watched it this morning. I that is an outrageous

584
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:45,560
Speaker 1: stat line. I can't believe what I'm looking at. For

585
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 1: the season, He's averaging thirty points, fourteen rebounds on twelve

586
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: assists on sixty seven percent true shooting and per cleaning

587
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 1: the glass. This is insane. The Nuggets are forty four

588
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,879
Speaker 1: points better per one hundred possessions when Nikolejokic is on

589
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 1: the floor versus one he's off the big thing again, Like,

590
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 1: I've been keyed in on this for the last several years,

591
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,320
Speaker 1: but the jump shot is such an important part of

592
00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:11,480
Speaker 1: what makes NICOLEA. Jokic the like the just the far

593
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:13,880
Speaker 1: and away best player in the world. Like even when

594
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:16,040
Speaker 1: he's not shooting well, like last year, when teams are

595
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:18,639
Speaker 1: able to just concede picking pop threes to him the

596
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:20,879
Speaker 1: way that like Team USA did in the semi final

597
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:23,000
Speaker 1: game or the way that Minnesota did in the conference

598
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,120
Speaker 1: semi finals. When he's that player, I still think he's

599
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 1: the best player in the league. But in that point,

600
00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:29,399
Speaker 1: I think it's up for debate. I think Giannis and

601
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: Luca and Schay are closer to him at that point,

602
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:34,479
Speaker 1: and you could understand why players from other teams are

603
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:37,160
Speaker 1: fans from other teams might feel like those guys are better,

604
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: even though I think Jokic is better. But when Jokic

605
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 1: is shooting the three the way that he's shooting it

606
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 1: this year, or the way that he shot it in

607
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:46,680
Speaker 1: the title year. It unlocks an entirely different part of

608
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: his game, the spacing element in terms of like literally

609
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: guys have to chase him off the line now. And

610
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 1: not only is he going to hit shots. He had

611
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:54,840
Speaker 1: a huge pick and pop three last night. He was

612
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: three for three on those threes. On the season, he's

613
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 1: getting one point five to three points per shot. That's insane.

614
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:05,080
Speaker 1: But beyond the actual making of the shots, he's drawing

615
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 1: closeouts again in the conference finals or conference semis. Last

616
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: year in the Team USA game in the semis, it

617
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 1: was like, oh, Yo kich is popping go ahead shoot

618
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:16,040
Speaker 1: it will let you because he wasn't making him. But

619
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 1: like a huge part of Yokich's game is when he

620
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 1: gets a tiny bit of leverage on you. He's so

621
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: strong and he's so good at using that leverage to

622
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:27,080
Speaker 1: get an angle that like when he draws a close out,

623
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:30,360
Speaker 1: he gets great dribble penetration. When he gets dribble penetration,

624
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:34,480
Speaker 1: he starts lumbering downhill. When he's lumbering downhill, he's either

625
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: going to get to the basket for something easy or

626
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 1: he's the best passer in the league. So like that's

627
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 1: that that is the piece that separates him. When yokich

628
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:46,920
Speaker 1: is shooting and drawing closeouts and making plays driving to

629
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 1: the basket because of the drible penetration he gets from

630
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,719
Speaker 1: the from the threat of his shot, it takes him

631
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:55,960
Speaker 1: from the best player in the league to far and

632
00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:58,479
Speaker 1: away the best player in the league. No one's even close.

633
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:02,040
Speaker 1: Thirty points, it's fourteen rebounds and twelve assists on sixty

634
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: seven percent through shooting. He's off to arguably the best

635
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:07,600
Speaker 1: offensive start in the history of the league, albe it

636
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 1: in only ten games. It's unbelievable stuff that we're seeing

637
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 1: from NIKOLEA. Jokic, And like, again, like this is a team,

638
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: but when you look at how Jamal Murray started the year,

639
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:19,280
Speaker 1: when you look at how Michael Porter Junior started the year,

640
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:20,920
Speaker 1: when you look at the Aaron Gordon injury, when you

641
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: look at all the young guys they're relying on, Jokic

642
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:27,880
Speaker 1: has literally just scaled up his own greatness and now

643
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: they're seven to three in two weeks. They completely turned

644
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 1: their season around. Unbelievable stuff from Nicole Yokic. I can't

645
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 1: I literally can't say enough. All right, let's move on

646
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 1: to our power rankings. So again, once again, this is

647
00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: for the because this is not a representation of how

648
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: I viewed the tender list. To be clear, I have

649
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:03,080
Speaker 1: to say that every single week because there are a

650
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: lot of people that jump on that weren't there the

651
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: first time. But basically, the power rankings are intended to

652
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: be just who's playing the best basketball within the regular season,

653
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: with a special emphasis on recency. Although here in the

654
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:16,800
Speaker 1: early part of the season, I'm kind of looking at

655
00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:18,400
Speaker 1: the big picture because we're not even a month into

656
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,160
Speaker 1: this thing, all right. Number ten, the Los Angeles Lakers

657
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:24,080
Speaker 1: throw off to a six and four start. They are

658
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 1: the fifth best offense in the league, but they are

659
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 1: the fifth worst defense in the league. It's been a

660
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 1: tale of two teams this year. The Lakers are five

661
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 1: and zero at home and they are one in four

662
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 1: on the road. And that's because, in my opinion, their

663
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 1: main weakness is perimeter athleticism. Their transition defense has been

664
00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:43,560
Speaker 1: bad all around, but it's been especially bad on the road.

665
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:46,320
Speaker 1: It seems to me as though when they're at home

666
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: they can ride the crowd to play hard enough to

667
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:54,719
Speaker 1: compensate for some of their perimeter athleticism issues, But when

668
00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 1: they're on the road, it just feels like they're It

669
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 1: just feels like the other teams are runaway freight train

670
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 1: right now, here's the same start to demonstrate that, yes,

671
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 1: the Lakers are the fifth worst defense in the league,

672
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:08,720
Speaker 1: but they're actually the thirteenth best half court defense. It

673
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:12,400
Speaker 1: is strictly off in transition where they're getting killed. I

674
00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:14,960
Speaker 1: expect them to continue to have pretty wild home road

675
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 1: splits until either Jared Vanderbilt comes back bringing some athleticism

676
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 1: or if they make some sort of trade just because

677
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:25,239
Speaker 1: they're so unathletic on the perimeter and they need to

678
00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:26,840
Speaker 1: have some more juice in that department. But I think

679
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 1: we'll see some pretty hefty home road splits with them

680
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 1: this season. But off to a good start for the Lakers, again,

681
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: with the schedule that they played to get to be

682
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,000
Speaker 1: off to six and four start is impressive. Number nine

683
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 1: the Memphis Grizzlies. They won three in a row to

684
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,040
Speaker 1: get to seven and four despite being without Desmond Baine

685
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 1: and Marcus Martin for a while and without John Morant

686
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 1: for the last two games, Jared Jackson has been hooping

687
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:49,880
Speaker 1: his ass off, providing the volume scoring that they've needed.

688
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 1: Scottie Pippen Junior has slotted in nicely in jaws absent

689
00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 1: at the point guard's body at a triple double the

690
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 1: other night. Really has been one of the better backup

691
00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 1: guards in the league to start the year. This year.

692
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 1: Jalen Wells again is just just shooting the seams off

693
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 1: the basketball, just really aggressive catch and shoot three point shooting.

694
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:08,640
Speaker 1: Jay huff is s hoooping. He had a nice revenge

695
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 1: game against the Lakers the other day, a run in

696
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 1: the third quarter that was outrageous. They're just super deep

697
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:15,280
Speaker 1: with a lot of quality young talent. The only reason

698
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 1: I don't have Memphis higher on this list is they've

699
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:20,160
Speaker 1: played a favorable schedule. Of their seven wins, only one

700
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:21,960
Speaker 1: of them is against a team that has a record

701
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: over five hundred so far. Number eight the Minnesota Timberwolves.

702
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 1: They dropped the game to the Miami Heat last night

703
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 1: in classic Heat fashion. It's funny. I saw the final score,

704
00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 1: and I think it was like ninety eight to ninety

705
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:35,160
Speaker 1: four or something. It was a really low final score.

706
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 1: Right as soon as I saw that, I didn't even

707
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:38,920
Speaker 1: watch the game last night. As soon as I saw that,

708
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,320
Speaker 1: I was like, bet you the Heat ran a ton

709
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 1: of zone. As soon as I saw that, I was like,

710
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 1: this just looks like Eric Spolstra janked up this game

711
00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 1: with like a bunch of defensive scheming. And so then

712
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:52,680
Speaker 1: when I went back and checked on it this morning,

713
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 1: the Heat ran eighteen possessions of zone in the fourth quarter,

714
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: completely wigged out Minnesota's offense. Was up by eight with

715
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:03,800
Speaker 1: four minutes left, and blew a Minnesota bade two crucial

716
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 1: mistakes late. Conley drove baseline against the zone and shoveled

717
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:09,600
Speaker 1: a pass to Julius Randall cutting down the middle, but

718
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:11,600
Speaker 1: he put too much juice on it and the pass

719
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 1: one threw his hands and Miami went out and got

720
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:16,759
Speaker 1: a bucket on it. And then on the final possession,

721
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:19,880
Speaker 1: when they were up by two and they just needed

722
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 1: to contain on the inbound, they somehow, I honest to God,

723
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:25,359
Speaker 1: don't know what the hell they were doing. They lost

724
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:28,399
Speaker 1: Nikola Jovich in the front court with no help as

725
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,319
Speaker 1: they were trying to deny on the inbounds, and he

726
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 1: got a layup with an and one, and suddenly Miami

727
00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:35,920
Speaker 1: gets out of there with a win. So definitely a

728
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: classic kind of Miami Heat. Eric Spolsterfest to get a

729
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,719
Speaker 1: win there on the road in Minnesota, but Minnesota had

730
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:44,479
Speaker 1: won six out of eight before that. They have wins

731
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,200
Speaker 1: against Denver in there, wins against Sacramento in there. Their

732
00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:50,120
Speaker 1: top ten in both offense and defense to start the year.

733
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:52,319
Speaker 1: Their eighth in offense and eighth in defense. An It's

734
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:54,359
Speaker 1: jump shot, this has been the big thing, you know.

735
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:57,279
Speaker 1: I put it as the fifth best player in the

736
00:34:57,320 --> 00:34:59,640
Speaker 1: world coming into the season. A lot of people disagreed

737
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 1: with me. My main the main foundation of that opinion

738
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:05,759
Speaker 1: was I think Ant's jump shot is real. I thought

739
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:08,479
Speaker 1: we had a large sample in last year's playoffs into

740
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:11,239
Speaker 1: Team USA this summer. We're on one hundred and forty

741
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:14,319
Speaker 1: two attempts to start this year, and Ant's getting one

742
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 1: point twenty five points per jump shot. He's an apex

743
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:21,840
Speaker 1: athlete that is adding an apex jump shot to his game. Again. Obviously,

744
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 1: the zone caused some problems from Minnesota last night, but

745
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:26,280
Speaker 1: I think Ants off to an incredible star. Julius Randall

746
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 1: is also averaging a very efficient twenty one points per

747
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 1: game to start the year. I think Minnesota is only

748
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:33,640
Speaker 1: going to go up from here. Number seven the Los

749
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,359
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers. They won four to a row, including wins

750
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:40,320
Speaker 1: against Dallas and Sacramento, and they are fourth in defense. Again,

751
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 1: as I said before the season, one of the reasons

752
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 1: why I was so high on the Clippers, not as

753
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:46,279
Speaker 1: like a championship threat, but as just a team that

754
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:48,400
Speaker 1: would win a lot of regular season games is that

755
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:51,720
Speaker 1: they are just loaded with a lot of perimeter speed,

756
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 1: specifically guys that can guard multiple positions, and I thought

757
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: that would give them such a high defensive floor that

758
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:01,200
Speaker 1: James Harden would be able to at least do enough

759
00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 1: offensively to win some games and for them to be

760
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 1: six and four without getting anything from Kawhi Leonard. To

761
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:07,799
Speaker 1: this point, I think they have three wins against teams

762
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:10,920
Speaker 1: that are five hundred are better already. Like, even if

763
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,800
Speaker 1: you were to say to me, oh, this Norman Powell

764
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 1: stretch is unsustainable, and Norman Pale's playing really well. He's

765
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 1: averaging twenty six points per game on sixty seven percent

766
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:21,200
Speaker 1: sure shooting. He's probably gonna be a pretty significant trade

767
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,520
Speaker 1: target at some point this season. But even if you

768
00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:25,319
Speaker 1: were to tell me that that's not sustainable, I feel

769
00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:27,960
Speaker 1: like James Harden hasn't been nearly as good as he's

770
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:30,120
Speaker 1: capable of. And so even if Norman Powell kind of

771
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:31,799
Speaker 1: comes back down to earth a little bit, James Harden

772
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:34,840
Speaker 1: should continue to get better. Kawhi Leonard will eventually rejoin

773
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:36,719
Speaker 1: this team. Got a lot of young guys playing well,

774
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:39,359
Speaker 1: a mere coffee over the win streak, shooting fifty nine

775
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,319
Speaker 1: percent from three on four point three attempts per game.

776
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:45,799
Speaker 1: Like this was a team that I've like every year.

777
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:47,840
Speaker 1: I kind of get like key to keyed in on

778
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 1: different basketball concepts that I think are really driving the league.

779
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:53,279
Speaker 1: And anybody who's been listening to my show to start

780
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:56,439
Speaker 1: this year or even extending back into the playoffs last year,

781
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:58,879
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with the concept of perimeter speed. I think

782
00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:00,960
Speaker 1: you have to be fast on the premier. Like look

783
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,319
Speaker 1: at the top defenses in the league. If you look

784
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 1: at the top like seven or eight defenses in the league,

785
00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:08,359
Speaker 1: it's like, I think I listed them down here. Yeah,

786
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:12,359
Speaker 1: Like if you're Oklahoma City, Orlando, Golden State, the Los

787
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers, the Grizzlies, the Celtics, the Rockets, the Timberwolves,

788
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,960
Speaker 1: all super fast. Okahoma City just a ton of fast

789
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:23,720
Speaker 1: dudes on the perimeter. Orlando Jalen Suggs, you know, Contavious Callwell, Pope,

790
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 1: you're looking at like they just have like they're just

791
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 1: so they're so damn fast. Anthony black is fast that

792
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:34,879
Speaker 1: they're just uh, they're just fast, right. The Golden State

793
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 1: Warriors just waves and waves of guards, the Clippers, waves

794
00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:41,760
Speaker 1: and waves of speed, the Grizzlies, waves and waves of speed,

795
00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:44,360
Speaker 1: the Celtics, waves and waves of speed, the Rockets, just

796
00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:48,480
Speaker 1: so many young athletic players, the Timberwolves, so many young

797
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,880
Speaker 1: athletic players. It's just you have to be fast on

798
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:55,520
Speaker 1: the perimeter to guard these modern NBA offenses. And it

799
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:57,480
Speaker 1: just I think, I think it's been one of the

800
00:37:57,480 --> 00:37:59,879
Speaker 1: biggest lessons I've learned about the pro game here over

801
00:37:59,880 --> 00:38:02,160
Speaker 1: the course the last couple of years. But yeah, that

802
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:04,239
Speaker 1: was why going into the season I was so high

803
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 1: on the Clippers. Right now I have them at number seven,

804
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,760
Speaker 1: number six. The Denver Nuggets, they completely stabilize their season

805
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 1: in two weeks. They won five in a row. They're

806
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,000
Speaker 1: now seven to three, up to the four seed in

807
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 1: the Western Conference. They're sixth in offense, eighteenth in defense.

808
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,560
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic has an absolute stranglehold on the best player

809
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 1: in the World Title. The young players are starting to pop.

810
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:25,400
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson, Christian Brown, and Julian Straw. The are all

811
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: playing good basketball. They're starting to look more and more

812
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:29,640
Speaker 1: like the team that I thought they would look like

813
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 1: before the season. Number five, the Oklahoma City Thunder. They've

814
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:35,720
Speaker 1: lost two of their last three to Golden State and Denver,

815
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:38,040
Speaker 1: although they did lose chet Holmger into a hip injury

816
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:40,560
Speaker 1: early in the Warriors game. The next few months are

817
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:42,400
Speaker 1: going to come down to their small ball looks. This

818
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:44,440
Speaker 1: is going to be really interesting with Isaiah Hartenstein and

819
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 1: chet Holmger in both out. But this year they've run

820
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:51,280
Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy nine possessions without either of chet Obviously,

821
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 1: Hartenstein's missed the entire year, but with Chet and with

822
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 1: their bigs off the floor, they're actually plus twelve per

823
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:01,319
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions and three hundred and seventy nine possessions.

824
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:03,359
Speaker 1: And again, Golden State's a really bad matchup for them

825
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 1: in that context because they have the speed to really

826
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,720
Speaker 1: contain on the perimeter and so, like, I'm not overly

827
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:11,319
Speaker 1: keyed in on that game from last night, but we're

828
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 1: gonna see a much larger sample size now of Oklahoma

829
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,000
Speaker 1: City and their small ball looks, and this does leave

830
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:18,880
Speaker 1: the door cracked open for a Western Conference team to

831
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:20,879
Speaker 1: take the one seed from them if someone plays well

832
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:23,600
Speaker 1: well enough here over the next couple of months. Number

833
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:26,880
Speaker 1: four the Boston Celtics. And again, before you Celtics fans

834
00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:29,680
Speaker 1: freak out, obviously, I think that the Celtics are the

835
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,640
Speaker 1: clear championship favorite to this point in the season. The

836
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:35,400
Speaker 1: only reason I have them down at four is because

837
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:38,160
Speaker 1: they're nine to zero against teams that are below five hundred,

838
00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:39,840
Speaker 1: and they are zero and two against teams that are

839
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 1: five hundred or better. Do I think that's a real

840
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,880
Speaker 1: representation of the Celtics and what they're capable of. No,

841
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,880
Speaker 1: I just think that's small sample size noise. But for

842
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 1: the purpose of these weekly lists, I'm going to give

843
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 1: some other teams the nod in these power rankings for

844
00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 1: contender rankings. To me, the Celtics are basically in cement

845
00:39:57,560 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 1: at number one, and I don't know what I'd see

846
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 1: this year that would change my mind. They would have

847
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 1: to be a very large sample size of another team

848
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:06,160
Speaker 1: looking like a better basketball team. They dropped a game

849
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,000
Speaker 1: to Golden State last week without Jalen Brown. But they

850
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:10,920
Speaker 1: did have an impressive come from behind win against the

851
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 1: Bucks yesterday. We covered that game at the beginning part

852
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,399
Speaker 1: of the show. Peyton Richard Pritchard looks like the clear

853
00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:17,720
Speaker 1: sixth man of the year. I helped them bring back

854
00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:20,640
Speaker 1: come back from a deficit in the first half yesterday

855
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:23,120
Speaker 1: with seventeen first half points. Tatum is having another one

856
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:25,359
Speaker 1: of his classic seasons where he's up over thirty points

857
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,279
Speaker 1: a game on over sixty percentury shooting. They're getting really

858
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:31,680
Speaker 1: good production at animus Quoita, like a legit backup center

859
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:33,880
Speaker 1: prospect who continues to get a lot of trust in

860
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 1: a lot of minutes from Joe Miszula. Celtics are fine.

861
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:39,040
Speaker 1: Just have them down at four for the purposes of

862
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 1: this list. Number three the Golden State Warriors. They got

863
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:44,840
Speaker 1: smacked by the Calves, but the Calves are the NBA's

864
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:47,319
Speaker 1: great enigma right now. We'll get more to them in

865
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:49,320
Speaker 1: a minute. They went four to one on the road trip,

866
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:51,839
Speaker 1: and yes, I know that Chet and Jalen Brown were

867
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:55,120
Speaker 1: out for Boston and Oklahoma City, but I thought the

868
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:57,960
Speaker 1: road trip was a nice proof of concept for what

869
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,600
Speaker 1: this Warriors team build is, which is like waves and

870
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:03,239
Speaker 1: waves of speed like we were talking about earlier with

871
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:06,319
Speaker 1: the Clippers, Like you just have to be fast and

872
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:09,640
Speaker 1: able to cover ground on the perimeter to pressure the basketball,

873
00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 1: to make teams uncomfortable. And then they have all sorts

874
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:14,680
Speaker 1: of guys that can come off of screening actions looking

875
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 1: to score, which has allowed their offense to function at

876
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:18,719
Speaker 1: a really high level. And then the final piece of

877
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:20,920
Speaker 1: it all was Steph. Right, I talked about it going

878
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:23,200
Speaker 1: into the season. Steph didn't look like a top ten

879
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:26,279
Speaker 1: player to end last year, but my prediction was that

880
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,400
Speaker 1: he would return to that level this year because I

881
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:30,680
Speaker 1: thought it was just a slump to end last year,

882
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 1: and two games against two elite defenses in big time

883
00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:39,799
Speaker 1: road situations at Oklahoma City in Boston, he had thirty six,

884
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,239
Speaker 1: five and seven against Oklahoma City twenty seven to seven

885
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 1: and nine against Boston. That's two high leverage games where

886
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 1: Steph played like an absolute top tier superstar. And so

887
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,040
Speaker 1: if you piece that together with this team with all

888
00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:55,719
Speaker 1: this depth, with their rock solid foundation in terms of

889
00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:57,399
Speaker 1: their scheme on both ends of the floor, well who

890
00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,839
Speaker 1: they have at the head coach, they have a deal

891
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:01,520
Speaker 1: to make at some point this season if they want

892
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:03,600
Speaker 1: to bring a legitimate number two next to Steph. Hard

893
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:06,160
Speaker 1: not to be just incredibly excited if you're a Golden

894
00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:09,000
Speaker 1: State Warriors fan number two. The Phoenix Suns KD is

895
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 1: out for a bit and they dropped a game to

896
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:13,160
Speaker 1: the Kings in overtime last night. But they're eight and two.

897
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:14,960
Speaker 1: They're tied for the one seed in the West, and

898
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:17,240
Speaker 1: even though they haven't been dominating games start to finish,

899
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,480
Speaker 1: they've been methodically walking teams down at the end of games.

900
00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:22,920
Speaker 1: Kdi has been the driving force on both ends of

901
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:25,800
Speaker 1: the floor. The Suns are thirteenth and offense, thirteenth in defense,

902
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:28,520
Speaker 1: but they're seven to one in clutch games. Elite on

903
00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:30,840
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor, same sort of thing. Kadi

904
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:34,160
Speaker 1: just flying around protecting the rim in rotation, defending on

905
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 1: They consistently will put him on the ball and end

906
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 1: game situations when they need to if there's a specific

907
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:41,680
Speaker 1: guy that has it going. And then he's just walking

908
00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:44,680
Speaker 1: teams down at the end of game, at the end

909
00:42:44,719 --> 00:42:47,880
Speaker 1: of games with ball screen action with one of the

910
00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:50,239
Speaker 1: Sun's guards to get a smaller defender on him, and

911
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:52,280
Speaker 1: then just going to the elbow and he's just getting

912
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:55,920
Speaker 1: easy shots all night long, making good passing reads out

913
00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:58,160
Speaker 1: of it. Son's been playing great basketball to start the year,

914
00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:00,680
Speaker 1: and the number one the Cleveland Cavaliers, the biggest surprise

915
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,200
Speaker 1: of the NBA this season, just beat the living shit

916
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:05,279
Speaker 1: out of a good Warriors team the other night. We

917
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:08,719
Speaker 1: talked about the key factors earlier last week, like the

918
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:11,040
Speaker 1: fact that they're switching more, which is forcing more turnovers.

919
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:13,160
Speaker 1: They're getting out and running in transition more, there's a

920
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:15,759
Speaker 1: lot more mobilely on the ball. But to take it

921
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,040
Speaker 1: to an even simpler level, it felt like last year

922
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:20,040
Speaker 1: that Donovan Mitchell and Jared Allen were the only, like,

923
00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:22,840
Speaker 1: really rock solid guys in the starting lineup, and it

924
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 1: felt like Darius Garland and Evan Mobley was like any

925
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,040
Speaker 1: given night, you didn't know what you were getting. Sometimes

926
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:29,680
Speaker 1: Darius looked great, sometimes he looked terrible. Sometimes Evan looked great,

927
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:32,520
Speaker 1: sometimes he looked terrible. This year just feels like both

928
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 1: of those guys have been way more consistently great, and

929
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 1: so they went from having two guys who were consistently

930
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:39,680
Speaker 1: great in their starting lineup to four guys who are

931
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 1: consistently great in their starting lineup, and it just made

932
00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:44,920
Speaker 1: them feel like they're a different tier of team than

933
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:47,840
Speaker 1: they were last year on Wednesday. I'm recording it on Tuesday,

934
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:50,759
Speaker 1: but we're airing it on Wednesday. Carter Rodriguez, half of

935
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,960
Speaker 1: the Chase Down podcast that covers the Cleveland Cavaliers, is

936
00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:55,399
Speaker 1: coming on the show. We're going to do a deep

937
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 1: dive in the Cleveland Cavaliers, looking forward to a Carter's

938
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:02,080
Speaker 1: I am still a little skeptical about Cleveland within the

939
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:05,280
Speaker 1: championship context, and I really just want to get Carter's

940
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,239
Speaker 1: opinion and just have him, obviously as someone who's very

941
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 1: very very closely following that team through every single possession

942
00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:12,959
Speaker 1: this year, just kind of get his take on things,

943
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:15,040
Speaker 1: so you guys can look forward to that on Wednesday.

944
00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:16,880
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today

945
00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 1: is always that sincerely appreciate you for suporting the show.

946
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with a bunch of game reactions

947
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:23,000
Speaker 1: and a bunch of film. I'll see you guys then

948
00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:29,400
Speaker 1: the volume. What's up? Guys? As always, I appreciate you

949
00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:32,400
Speaker 1: for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually

950
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:34,319
Speaker 1: be really helpful for us if you guys would take

951
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:37,480
Speaker 1: a second and leave a rating and a review. As always,

952
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:39,160
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could

953
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.