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Speaker 1: slash Basketball terms. All right, welcome to Hoopsinaight here at
Speaker 1: the volume, Happy Monday, everybody hopeful. If you guys had
Speaker 1: an incredible weekend, we have like a ridiculously packed show today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be hitting on four games from last weekend,
Speaker 1: the Lakers getting a roadwin over the Caves, the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: seventy six Ers getting a roadwin over the Oklahoma City Thunder,
Speaker 1: the Orlando Magic continuing their dominance with a win over
Speaker 1: the Boss Celtics, and the last but out least, the
Speaker 1: very interesting game between the Pelicans and the Clippers that
Speaker 1: took place on Friday night. And then after that, we're
Speaker 1: gonna every Monday from this point forward in the season,
Speaker 1: we are going to do an edition of Power Rankings.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have this week's edition of Power Rankings
Speaker 1: at the tail end of the show. You guys are
Speaker 1: the joke for you get started. Subscribe to our brand
Speaker 1: new YouTube channel would mean a lot to me if
Speaker 1: you guys took a second to scroll down and hit
Speaker 1: that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever
Speaker 1: each your podcast under Hoops Tonight, follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: Underscore Jason lt I'm doing film sessions there every morning,
Speaker 1: as well as posting show announcements. And then, last but
Speaker 1: not least, we will continue our mail bag later this week,
Speaker 1: not today, but we're gonna do plenty of mailbag questions
Speaker 1: throughout the week, so keep dropping mailbag questions in the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So starting
Speaker 1: with Lakers Calves on the road in Cleveland. The Lakers
Speaker 1: are going on a tough road trip here. They played
Speaker 1: in Cleveland on Saturday night. They have the Sixers tonight,
Speaker 1: a little bit of an easier game against the Pistons
Speaker 1: coming up, and then they have to go on the
Speaker 1: road to OKCE. So a big opportunity for us to
Speaker 1: learn more about the Lakers. In the first game went
Speaker 1: extremely well considering a lot of specific factors. Lebron played
Speaker 1: one of his worst games of the season, particularly in
Speaker 1: the second half, made a lot of bad decisions on
Speaker 1: offense and missed a lot of shots, and yet they
Speaker 1: still were able to overcome that and win, thanks in
Speaker 1: large part to Anthony Davis got back on track in
Speaker 1: a big way offensively. You know, Anthony Davis specifically in
Speaker 1: the post this year is flashing a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that is more similar to what he was in the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty season when the Lakers won the championship. It's
Speaker 1: a shot creation piece that's so important with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: for him to be as good as his peers at
Speaker 1: the top of the league, because we talk a lot
Speaker 1: about the offensive fluctuations, but they don't properly factor in
Speaker 1: his defensive consistency. Because even a bad defensive game from
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is still very good compared to the standard
Speaker 1: of a typical NBA drop coverage big right, and so
Speaker 1: he's kind of oscillating between good and great on that end.
Speaker 1: So even though we're talking about some inconsistencies on offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor, he still has been consistently dominant
Speaker 1: on the other end of the floor. However, there's a
Speaker 1: difference between what the guys at the very top of
Speaker 1: the league can do and what AD does, and that
Speaker 1: offensive consistency piece is the one thing that's really missing
Speaker 1: from him being with those guys. The AD that we
Speaker 1: knew in the bubble, the AD that led helped lead
Speaker 1: the Lakers to a championship. That guy is a bona
Speaker 1: fide top tier superstar. He has not been that consistently
Speaker 1: since then. And one of the most important parts to that,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is that half court shot creation piece.
Speaker 1: And specifically, if you guys remember in the Nuggets series
Speaker 1: last year, Jokic put A basically outclassed him as a
Speaker 1: shot maker in the sense that he could make all
Speaker 1: of his little floaters and push shots and hook shots
Speaker 1: and jump shots. Right now, Anthony Davis has more or
Speaker 1: less abandoned his jump shot, but there are a couple
Speaker 1: of specific things that are coming around. He did hit
Speaker 1: a short pocket pass jump shot in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: against the Cavs, the same shot that he missed a
Speaker 1: couple times against Dallas. That's a good sign. He had
Speaker 1: three hook shots that he made in the second half
Speaker 1: of this game, including a huge lefty hook drop stepping
Speaker 1: towards the baseline over the top of Jared Allen. He
Speaker 1: is now twenty for thirty on the season on hook shots.
Speaker 1: That's sixty seven percent. That's Jokic territory. That's a big
Speaker 1: deal because he has such a high release point. And
Speaker 1: I clipped all three of his hooks and post him
Speaker 1: in the in the film thread this morning, and you
Speaker 1: could see the release point. It's super high. It is.
Speaker 1: It's different than Yoka. Jokic is more powerful, but with
Speaker 1: AD's release point, he's capable of getting to that shot
Speaker 1: all the time. And if he can hit it at
Speaker 1: that rate, that's a big deal. And Anthony Davis post
Speaker 1: up this year, including passes, has been worth one point
Speaker 1: one seven points per possession. That is by far his
Speaker 1: best in a Lakers jersey. He's never crested one point
Speaker 1: one in his time wearing a Laker jersey. Now, again,
Speaker 1: we're still in this first fourth of the season, right,
Speaker 1: But so far in the early going in the season
Speaker 1: and him being able to knock down that hook shot,
Speaker 1: he's been really good at making skip passes over double teams.
Speaker 1: Did it multiple times against the Cavs on Saturday Night.
Speaker 1: It's been something he's been good with all season that
Speaker 1: in particular, has allowed Anthony Davis to be a much
Speaker 1: more reliable post up weapon than he's been in years past.
Speaker 1: In a Lakers jersey. Nine players in the league this
Speaker 1: year have logged at least seventy five post ups. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is third on that list. Pascal Siakam is first.
Speaker 1: Obviously the Raptors have been so bad we haven't had
Speaker 1: too much time to talk about them. But he's having
Speaker 1: a good season in the post. And then second is Jokich,
Speaker 1: and then it's a D and then from there's a
Speaker 1: massive dropoff in efficiency and beat his fourth in a
Speaker 1: post up from him, including passes, has been worth just
Speaker 1: one point zero three points per possession. So among the
Speaker 1: high volume guys, there's like three guys ahead of the
Speaker 1: rest of the league, and AD is in that group.
Speaker 1: Why is that important? Why am I harping on that
Speaker 1: specific point? Because that half court shot creation piece. I
Speaker 1: took a look for you guys at three specific flaws
Speaker 1: with this Lakers team that were problematic. One, they did
Speaker 1: not have a backup center that they could play in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. It was a huge problem, especially in the
Speaker 1: lebron on Anthony Davis off minutes this year because of
Speaker 1: the emergence of Christian Wood and Jackson Hayes being a
Speaker 1: better backup center than anybody they had last year. Now,
Speaker 1: the ady off Lebron on lineups have been good and
Speaker 1: they have guys that can play in that spot. That's
Speaker 1: a huge positive trend for the Lakers. Right. The second
Speaker 1: piece was backcourt athleticism in point of attack defense, right,
Speaker 1: which is all kind of part of the same thing. Right,
Speaker 1: Obviously still a problem this year, but you know the
Speaker 1: emergence of Max Christi, who was amazing in that Cavs game,
Speaker 1: the emergence of Cam Reddish this year as a perimeter defender.
Speaker 1: That's helped them within the concept of the regular season.
Speaker 1: I still think they need to make a trade to
Speaker 1: address that specific weakness. But if you guys remember the
Speaker 1: third biggest weakness that I pointed to was there over
Speaker 1: the top shot making, which is late game situations. What
Speaker 1: happened to them every game against Denver, close game in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, Yokichen Murray outshot them most game in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, yo Kitchen Murray outshot Then it happened
Speaker 1: again and again and again in that series, literally all
Speaker 1: four times. And so what they've needed is Lebron to
Speaker 1: be able to knock down jump shots and for Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis to be able to score in static half court
Speaker 1: situations in the post eighties hook shot being as dialed
Speaker 1: in as it is, and Lebron James jump shot being
Speaker 1: as dialed in as it is. Even after last night,
Speaker 1: he's still at right about one point one points per
Speaker 1: jump shot. Those two trends are very positive trends for
Speaker 1: this Lakers team. That's what makes me believe they've If
Speaker 1: that trend continues through the season, that checks the over
Speaker 1: top shot making piece. That's the type of shot making
Speaker 1: they needed to win in twenty twenty, and that would
Speaker 1: work again. The backup center piece is solidified. It's really
Speaker 1: just that perimeter athleticism piece that they're going to have
Speaker 1: to solidify now. Max Christy again is an example of
Speaker 1: a regular season you know, solution for that problem is
Speaker 1: individual defense, not just in this Donovan Mitchell game against Cleveland,
Speaker 1: but also in the gaming inst Stallus. He had several
Speaker 1: very good deal defensive possessions against Kyrie Irving, sliding his feet,
Speaker 1: contesting shots, you know, just doing his job at the
Speaker 1: point of attack to be disruptive. And I thought he
Speaker 1: did an amazing job against Donovan Mitchell, a much better
Speaker 1: job even than he did against Kyrie. It's the unique
Speaker 1: combination of the lateral quickness to stay in front against
Speaker 1: good athletes, top tier athletes, the strength to be able
Speaker 1: to absorb contact in the chest when you do beat
Speaker 1: players to his spot, and then third the length to
Speaker 1: bother a pull up jump shot. There were two pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots from Donovan Mitchell in the crunch time
Speaker 1: portion of this game where he tried to drive by Max.
Speaker 1: Max took contact in the chest, offered a late contest
Speaker 1: and forced him into misses, which is the best you
Speaker 1: can hope for against the best guards in the league.
Speaker 1: And when you can disrupt their rhythm and take away
Speaker 1: the easy stuff they get, you can get them to
Speaker 1: miss a few pull up jump shots in a row,
Speaker 1: and that can go a long way, right. I thought
Speaker 1: a shot selection was really good in this game. Again,
Speaker 1: offense is a huge part of that role as well.
Speaker 1: He only took two of what I would consider to
Speaker 1: be tough shots, and it was that step jump shot
Speaker 1: over Donovan Mitchell, then the second step back jump shot
Speaker 1: that he took. I want to say, I want to
Speaker 1: say it was over Lavert. I can't remember exactly what was,
Speaker 1: but it was the mid range one, and both of
Speaker 1: them were clock running down situations. That's the thing. Take
Speaker 1: your wide open catch and shoot threes, drive closeouts when
Speaker 1: you can, and then if the ball ends up in
Speaker 1: your hands with five seconds left on the shot clock
Speaker 1: and there isn't time to get the ball somewhere else,
Speaker 1: that's when you start practicing and demonstrating that you have
Speaker 1: the ability to do additional stuff off the bounce. Early
Speaker 1: in the season, I thought he was forcing things a
Speaker 1: little bit on the offensive end of the floor, trying
Speaker 1: to demonstrate what his work was this summer. And I'm
Speaker 1: not debating whether or not that work was there, or
Speaker 1: whether or not he's capable of that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: but it's better to ease into it through rescue possessions
Speaker 1: and then slowly earning cachet with the staff and with
Speaker 1: your teammates to be more aggressive from there, but really
Speaker 1: encouraging game from Max Christy. And again, like it's one
Speaker 1: of those things where I would tell you, like Lakers fans,
Speaker 1: if Max Christi or Cam Reddish is starting for you
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, I think that's a huge problem, not
Speaker 1: because those guys aren't capable, but when you really put
Speaker 1: together what you expect from a veteran player in a
Speaker 1: big spot in a playoff series, and everything we know
Speaker 1: about young players in the playoffs, I'd rather have both
Speaker 1: of them coming off the bench in that type of role.
Speaker 1: As someone who roots for the Lakers, That's just my
Speaker 1: kind of take on the whole situation. So I want
Speaker 1: to be careful about like promoting it as a postseason fix,
Speaker 1: because I don't feel that way. But within the context
Speaker 1: of the regular season, especially when Jared Vanderbilts out, especially
Speaker 1: when Gave Vincent's out, having guys like Max Christy and
Speaker 1: Camp Briddish being able to defend at the point point
Speaker 1: of attack the way they do really helps you in
Speaker 1: the dregs of the regular season. Lakers seven to two
Speaker 1: in their last nine, fourth and defense over that span.
Speaker 1: Fourth and rebounding over that span. That's a big deal
Speaker 1: for how much they struggled on the glass early in
Speaker 1: the season. And more importantly, they're starting to beat some
Speaker 1: good teams. They've won three of their last five against
Speaker 1: winning teams. Both of their losses were on the tail
Speaker 1: ends of back to backs, and one of them was
Speaker 1: the MAVs game where they had a two point lead
Speaker 1: in the final minute, so kind of pointing positively for
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Now, Jared Vanderbilt's coming back. Ry Hot Chimura
Speaker 1: should be back before too long, Gave Vincent should be
Speaker 1: back before too long. A lot of things pointing in
Speaker 1: the right direction for the Lakers. On the Calves, I
Speaker 1: wanted to hit two specific topics. One Mobiley in the
Speaker 1: short role. He was awesome in the second half of
Speaker 1: this game operating out of the short role, making that
Speaker 1: lob pass to Jared Allen. The Lakers did to Mobili
Speaker 1: what every team has done to the Calves since the
Speaker 1: Knicks kind of demonstrated it as a strategy to beat
Speaker 1: them in the playoffs, which is put your best rim
Speaker 1: protector not on Mobiley guarding pick and roll, but put
Speaker 1: him on Allen and basically have him split the difference
Speaker 1: between the two and pray on Evan Mobley's inability to
Speaker 1: make shots over the top. Evan Mobley's a good passer,
Speaker 1: but if you bait him into shots, he can struggle there, right.
Speaker 1: And one of the things he did really well in
Speaker 1: this series at this game, after struggling in the Knicks series,
Speaker 1: was getting the ad to kind of bite one way
Speaker 1: or another and then making reads. There were three buckets
Speaker 1: that he got that he directly generated on the short
Speaker 1: role in the third and fourth quarters of this game.
Speaker 1: One of like one of them was eighty steps up
Speaker 1: lob pass to to Jared Allen for the dunk the
Speaker 1: very next time they ran that action. And again, what
Speaker 1: you're seeing is you're seeing like whoever the foreman is,
Speaker 1: if it's Lebron or if it's you know, Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: or Jackson haz is functioning as the as the five
Speaker 1: next to Adbad's in that dunker spot role. Right on
Speaker 1: those possessions. What they're doing is they're sending the second
Speaker 1: defender up and just banking on Ad getting a stop
Speaker 1: in a one on two situation. And on the next one,
Speaker 1: you know, because Evan Mobley had just thrown that lob
Speaker 1: up to Jared Allen, AD kind of takes a step
Speaker 1: back and that was what allowed Evan Mobley to attack
Speaker 1: his chest and get that and one at the end
Speaker 1: of the game that brought him back within one point.
Speaker 1: I think that got it too, like one twelve, one eleven, right,
Speaker 1: and then again in the final minute after Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: had just scored on Ad By attacking his chest and
Speaker 1: pump faking and getting the and one Ady stepped up
Speaker 1: again and he was able to throw the lob pass
Speaker 1: for the easy dunk to Jared Allen. You guys get
Speaker 1: the drill. That's a specific dynamic that the Caves need
Speaker 1: as many reps for Evan Mobly as possible, because that
Speaker 1: specific dynamic, to me, matters just as much as the
Speaker 1: spot up shooting from the three spot. Right. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: don't forget last year the Calves still had the ability
Speaker 1: to throw Carris Lavert at the three and run Garland
Speaker 1: Mitchell Lavert with Allen and Mobley, and it still wasn't
Speaker 1: enough to get them over the top against the Knicks.
Speaker 1: It's not just about those three guys. It's about the
Speaker 1: offensive dynamic between the two big guys. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: Craig Porter Junior. I familiarized myself with this game for
Speaker 1: the first time while I was out of town for
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving on I think it was like Monday or two.
Speaker 1: I think it was Tuesday night. They played the Sixers,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, and beat them in Philly, and
Speaker 1: that was my first time kind of watching Craig Porter Junior.
Speaker 1: And then this was my second time in this Lakers game,
Speaker 1: and he's been really really good to this in this
Speaker 1: stretch here while they've been dealing with some injuries in
Speaker 1: the backcourt. Sixty three pick and rolls so far that
Speaker 1: Craig Porter Junior has run for the calves, leading to
Speaker 1: eighty three points. That's one point three to two point possession,
Speaker 1: which is insane. He's fourteen for twenty six from the
Speaker 1: field when he personally shoots out of pick and roll.
Speaker 1: He's ten for twenty one on pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: so far this year, and he's shooting seventy percent at
Speaker 1: the rim. And you know, it's weird because, like, if
Speaker 1: I had to describe how he's having this kind of success,
Speaker 1: it's difficult to do. So he's playing like a big
Speaker 1: guard in the sense that he's slow motion, great at
Speaker 1: leveraging his size when he gets angles, great at using
Speaker 1: bumps to generate contact, operating really close to the rim.
Speaker 1: But he's not a particularly big guard. He's like six
Speaker 1: one six y two. He's got like a six to
Speaker 1: four wingspan, and he's a good athlete, like he's a
Speaker 1: good leaper and a pretty quick and good start stop quickness,
Speaker 1: but not like any sort of top tier athlete or
Speaker 1: anything like that. He's out there just methodically getting buckets.
Speaker 1: And if I had to kind of put a you know,
Speaker 1: cause if you if you go back and look at
Speaker 1: his numbers at which to state he was a seventy
Speaker 1: second percentile pick and roll guys, he's a good pick
Speaker 1: and roll player, but he's blow point for possession. But
Speaker 1: in the college game, it's just more crowded, it's harder
Speaker 1: to score. So that's an important context there. You don't
Speaker 1: have guys just lighting it up and pick and roll
Speaker 1: in college there, but still at that level seventy second
Speaker 1: percent tile fifty percent effective field goal percentage on pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots, at which Tah very good at the
Speaker 1: rim while he was there. So like he's basically just
Speaker 1: a better version of himself. It's so far in these
Speaker 1: small samples in the NBA. Why is that? I don't
Speaker 1: you know. The best way that I could try to
Speaker 1: describe it is to say, I feel like the NBA
Speaker 1: game because of the increase in spacing as virtue of
Speaker 1: just more offensive skill on the court. Right, Like, I've
Speaker 1: been watching a little bit more college basketball this year
Speaker 1: just because the University of Arizona's team has been a
Speaker 1: team that I'm particularly excited about. And every time I
Speaker 1: watch college shops, it's like an iore to deal with
Speaker 1: the just the sheer, Like there's just not anywhere near
Speaker 1: as much ball handling and shooting on the floor as
Speaker 1: you see in the pros, and so it can get
Speaker 1: really kind of like stagnant, and it's like watching a
Speaker 1: rock fight every single game, right, especially with how hard
Speaker 1: the teams are playing on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: But like what I'll end up happening in a lot
Speaker 1: of these cases is like some guys get to the
Speaker 1: next level and that additional spacing and freedom to cook,
Speaker 1: so to speak, actually suits them really well. And I
Speaker 1: think Craig Porter is one of those guys. I think
Speaker 1: he's one of those guys that's like, shit, I got
Speaker 1: all this room, and like I'm getting a good matchup,
Speaker 1: you know, because Donovan's getting getting a better matchup, you know,
Speaker 1: or Darius is getting a better matchup, and like, I
Speaker 1: have this space to work and they're guarding me with
Speaker 1: traditional drop coverages and he's just getting to his spots
Speaker 1: and knocking down shots. It's very old fashioned big guard stuff.
Speaker 1: A lot of like short pull up jump shots, a
Speaker 1: lot of short you know, bankers and floaters and stuff
Speaker 1: along those lines. He's been really really impressive here again.
Speaker 1: Eighty six points on eighty three points on sixty three
Speaker 1: pick and roll so far this season. That's outstanding stuff.
Speaker 1: Calv's got a big bounce back win against Toronto after
Speaker 1: their loss of the Lakers. They're seven to four in
Speaker 1: their last eleven eleventh in defense and offense over that span.
Speaker 1: All right, moving on to our next game. The Celtics
Speaker 1: and the Magic. Bunch of guys missing from this game.
Speaker 1: The Magic were missing Wendell Carter Junior and Marco Foltz.
Speaker 1: The Celtics were without Drew Holliday and the Chris Topsporzingis
Speaker 1: strained his calf muzzle and missed a good portion of
Speaker 1: this game. But the story of this game is that
Speaker 1: the Magic did to the Celtics what they've been doing
Speaker 1: to everyone all season, which is just physically bullying them
Speaker 1: at every level of the game. During the third quarter,
Speaker 1: run a lot of Palo and Franz attacking the smaller
Speaker 1: Celtics guards in cross matches, in transition or just in
Speaker 1: guard guards screens or guard forwards. Screens to get switches,
Speaker 1: and that both of those guys are just so good
Speaker 1: at playing and leveraging their size. Palo's got a little
Speaker 1: bit of that Lebron like full court post up thing
Speaker 1: going on, where he'll just like rip through to one
Speaker 1: side and when he gets cut off, he'll just spin
Speaker 1: back the other way. When he gets cut off, he'll
Speaker 1: just spin back the other way. And he's just so
Speaker 1: damn big and good at protecting the ball, and he's
Speaker 1: got all those little pop shots in the lane. And
Speaker 1: then he's also a pretty good passer for a young
Speaker 1: post player, which is rare to see. And then you know,
Speaker 1: obviously with Franz Vagner, it's a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a perimeter like shot creation type of piece, a little
Speaker 1: bit more perimeter oriented. But both of them were killing
Speaker 1: the Celtics cards and switches and cross matches, and then
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter that both of them were just
Speaker 1: attacking Luke Cornett. The Celtics were doing a ton of
Speaker 1: switching in this particular game, and they were switching Cornett
Speaker 1: onto Palo and Franz at the end of this game,
Speaker 1: thinking oh, size for size, right, But the thing is
Speaker 1: is like Palo's as big as a center and so,
Speaker 1: and Franz has like got a plays really big for
Speaker 1: a perimeter player as well. Not as big as Palo,
Speaker 1: but pretty big as well. And you know, it's like
Speaker 1: Franz has got Cornett on the left side of the
Speaker 1: floor against a switch and he just gets a little
Speaker 1: bit of an angle on the left side, and then
Speaker 1: he just beats him all the way to the rim
Speaker 1: and makes that right handed layup on the left side
Speaker 1: of the rim pallow same kind of thing, just like
Speaker 1: a left or right crossover to get just a little
Speaker 1: bit of separation. And then he's so much he's every
Speaker 1: bit as big as Cornett, so he just goes right
Speaker 1: through him all the way to the basket towards that
Speaker 1: right side. And like that's kind of the unique exciting
Speaker 1: piece of what makes this Magic team so good is
Speaker 1: it's like they are kind of set up to win
Speaker 1: rock fights with their ability to attack matchups, and then
Speaker 1: in the physical areas of the rock fight, they're gonna
Speaker 1: kill you. They're the only team in the league right
Speaker 1: now that's top five in both defense and in rebounding,
Speaker 1: and when you combine that with high level point of
Speaker 1: attack defense and just kind of like a power, downhill
Speaker 1: offensive game. They're just a big pain in the ass
Speaker 1: to play against. That's the phrase I've been using a
Speaker 1: lot this season, and it's just that's what it's like
Speaker 1: watching watching teams deal with Orlando on a night in,
Speaker 1: night out. Basis Mo Wagner was a hero in this game.
Speaker 1: I think he had like twenty seven points. He was
Speaker 1: killing them in the role. He's very good at protecting
Speaker 1: the basketball. When he's doing is like power moves towards
Speaker 1: the basket. So like he'll catch the pass in the
Speaker 1: pocket and you'll see like o shapers set recover back
Speaker 1: in front of him, and he'll just drop that shoulder
Speaker 1: and tuck it far back to protect it. And then
Speaker 1: after he's created that space, he's going right up to
Speaker 1: the rim to finish. He had several buckets in the
Speaker 1: role in this particular game. He's been one of the
Speaker 1: ten best role men in the NBA so far this year,
Speaker 1: one point three to three points per possession, shooting sixty
Speaker 1: four percent out of thirty seven players the log at
Speaker 1: least twenty five rollman possessions. Wagner ranks ninth in efficiency
Speaker 1: right now. Hit a couple of huge threes in this
Speaker 1: game as well, a big one in the corner in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. He just brings like another layer because
Speaker 1: he's another guy who just plays with a lot of
Speaker 1: straight line power and he's coming off the bench for
Speaker 1: this group right Cole Anthony and pick and Roll, I've
Speaker 1: been really impressed with him. The Magic are doing a
Speaker 1: lot of similar stuff that you're seeing around the league.
Speaker 1: One of those sets that everyone in the league is
Speaker 1: running right now that the Kings in particular are just
Speaker 1: absolutely killing everybody with this set. But like teams are
Speaker 1: just coming up and setting like a bracket screen, they
Speaker 1: starting like a horn set. They'll have shooters in the
Speaker 1: corners and they'll have you know, your primary ball handler
Speaker 1: up top, and they'll basically come up and screen both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball handler way far away from the basket,
Speaker 1: like thirty thirty five feet away, And what they'll do
Speaker 1: is they'll have one of the role men roll in
Speaker 1: the other guy pop and essentially it just generates confusion
Speaker 1: in the pick and roll coverage because it's three man actions.
Speaker 1: Three men action in particular are just harder to defend
Speaker 1: because they're always coming from different angles. You don't know
Speaker 1: who's popping you don't know who's rolling all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, right, And Cole Anthony had a lot of
Speaker 1: success in Pick and Roll, not just that, but also
Speaker 1: Spain pick and Roll. There was a possession where I
Speaker 1: clipped this and put it in the film thread where
Speaker 1: Caleb Houston set a perfect backscreen on Al Horford, which
Speaker 1: put Jason Tatum in this awkward position where he's guarding
Speaker 1: Caleb Houston. And so now Horford's out as the screen
Speaker 1: roll the roller defender. So now Tatum's back and he
Speaker 1: like is like a I don't know what I'm gonna do,
Speaker 1: And so he ends up recovering to the big man
Speaker 1: and leaves a wide open lane for Cole Anthony to
Speaker 1: go to the basket and get a bucket on Peyton Pritchard.
Speaker 1: Just in general, Cole Anthony brings kind of like a
Speaker 1: out of all the backcourt guys, including Markel Foltz, he's
Speaker 1: their best like live dribble shot creator, and so in
Speaker 1: a lot of cases he ends up being the guy
Speaker 1: they lean on a lot to create offense and slow
Speaker 1: down half court environments. And he's done a really nice
Speaker 1: job there this year. Caleb Houston plus fifteen and nine
Speaker 1: minutes without taking a single shot. Excellent at the point
Speaker 1: of attack at a big steal that led to a
Speaker 1: runout lay up. At the end of this game, attacking
Speaker 1: the glass, he had a big offensive rebound at the
Speaker 1: end of this game. I thought that was a good
Speaker 1: shift for him. Orlando has won seven games in a
Speaker 1: row now at twelve and five, they now have the
Speaker 1: third best record in basketball. They are twelfth in offense,
Speaker 1: fourth and defense, and seventh in rebounding. Over this seven
Speaker 1: game stretch, they are six and four against teams that
Speaker 1: are five hundred are better. They are five and three
Speaker 1: on the road, and over the stretch they beat the
Speaker 1: They have beat just over the course of the season,
Speaker 1: They've beat the Celtics, the Nuggets, the Lakers, and the Bucks.
Speaker 1: So of the six teams that I started the year
Speaker 1: with as top tier contenders, they've played five games against
Speaker 1: them and they've beat They've gone four to one of
Speaker 1: those games, and the one they lost was to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: which they avenged when the Lakers went to Orlando and
Speaker 1: beat them. And like I said, twelfth in offense, fourth
Speaker 1: and defense, seventh and rebounding over this seven game span.
Speaker 1: But they are the only team in the NBA for
Speaker 1: the whole season that has top five in both rebounding
Speaker 1: and defense. They are four real. They are not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: They've arguably been the most impressive team so far in
Speaker 1: this regular season in terms of winning relative to what
Speaker 1: their strength of schedules has put in front of them.
Speaker 1: The Celtics this game got away from them quickly. They
Speaker 1: were up twelve early in the third quarter. Orlando really
Speaker 1: took advantage of their front line with Porzingis out, Like
Speaker 1: we talked about, really attacking Al Horford and and Luke
Speaker 1: Cornette in space. It's a bad matchup without Porzingis and
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday because it's such a physically imposing team. Shot
Speaker 1: selection did become an issue in that third quarter run.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of the same stuff I've been talking
Speaker 1: about all season. Like Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum both
Speaker 1: took a couple of really tough pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: Like Jaylen Brown like barely grazed the front of the
Speaker 1: rim on one. Jayson Tatum took like a really tough
Speaker 1: right shoulder fade away Derek White and it's the whole team,
Speaker 1: but like a lot of these guys, they just get
Speaker 1: they're just too quick to take that type of three right,
Speaker 1: Like there was a play where, you know, Derek White
Speaker 1: comes flying off a screen along the right wing and
Speaker 1: rises up off the catch and knocks down the three,
Speaker 1: and it's tough shot, like really a tough shot. And
Speaker 1: on the very next possession, he just jacks up a
Speaker 1: transition pull up three on the left wing because he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm hot now, So it's like I'm just gonna take this.
Speaker 1: And it's like there should literally never be a possession
Speaker 1: where Derek White just runs up the floor and takes
Speaker 1: a transition three in the first five seconds when you've
Speaker 1: got Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown on the floor. It's
Speaker 1: just you can get a better shot. It's one thing
Speaker 1: like if you've made several in a row, you made
Speaker 1: one really tough movement three. He kind of going to
Speaker 1: his right on the right wing, and then it's like showtime.
Speaker 1: I'm going for this. Al Horford has been you know,
Speaker 1: he's been better this year on his pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: but or on his spot up jump shots, but he's
Speaker 1: still zero point nine to six points per jumper. And
Speaker 1: that dude in that second half against Orlando, if he
Speaker 1: saw this much space, he was rising up and firing
Speaker 1: early in the shot clock. It's a lot of like
Speaker 1: taking good shots and not hunting great shots, and that
Speaker 1: specifically kind of calm pounds because then it gets like
Speaker 1: when you have turnovers and quick shots that just feeds
Speaker 1: the offensive rhythm. For Orlando, the best way to disrupt
Speaker 1: rhythm in your opponent is to slowly execute on offense
Speaker 1: because if they have to, if they have to defend
Speaker 1: for twenty seconds, that will disrupt their offensive rhythm. If
Speaker 1: they defend for eight seconds and get a long rebound
Speaker 1: or a turnover off of a quick three or a
Speaker 1: bad pass, they're running down the other end with their
Speaker 1: athleticism and they're feeling themselves and they're playing on that energy.
Speaker 1: And so again, like it's a nitpicky thing with the Celtics,
Speaker 1: but it is a reality. Despite all that, though, they've
Speaker 1: still won eight out of ten and they still have
Speaker 1: the best record in the league. And yeah, so if
Speaker 1: the Celtics are still amazing, and they're gonna be really
Speaker 1: high on my power rankings, as you guys will see
Speaker 1: very soon. All right, moving on to sixers Thunder, I
Speaker 1: thought the biggest thing that stood out to me on
Speaker 1: film in this game was just the impact of Phillies
Speaker 1: perimeter size against Oklahoma City. Now again, you gotta think
Speaker 1: because shape lit them up in the first half, but
Speaker 1: they held Shade a three for eleven shooting in this
Speaker 1: second half of this game, And a big part of
Speaker 1: it was like a steady diet of big bodies. It's
Speaker 1: like Robert Covington's guarding him, Nick Batoom's guarding him. Both
Speaker 1: those guys are six eight, right, Like you've got Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris guarding him in a lot of possessions. He's six
Speaker 1: to eight and strong. You've got like d Anthony Meltin
Speaker 1: is like the one smaller guy that he's going against,
Speaker 1: and d Anthony Melton is a good athlete with decent
Speaker 1: length for the backcourt position, right, And so one of
Speaker 1: the things you see, you'll see like Shae is a
Speaker 1: guy that loves to get to spots kind of in
Speaker 1: that short to mid range and take little shots over
Speaker 1: the top, which he can really kill undersized guards with.
Speaker 1: But against bigger wings, it's a little tougher for him
Speaker 1: to get those shots off. And I thought they did
Speaker 1: a really nice job of defending Shay at the point
Speaker 1: of attack, forcing him into these tougher kind of contested
Speaker 1: step backs. He wasn't making the tough ones. And the
Speaker 1: dead giveaway that he was having an effect on him
Speaker 1: is he started pump faking a lot and started trying
Speaker 1: to foulgrift a lot, which is a dead giveaway that
Speaker 1: he's starting to get frustrated in terms of just trying
Speaker 1: to generate his own shot. But it was a really
Speaker 1: good defensive effort from Philly forcing him to three for
Speaker 1: eleven shooting. Again, that's that's the way you have to
Speaker 1: beat Glahoma City because you got to keep them out
Speaker 1: of rotation. As soon as Shay starts drawing multiple defenders,
Speaker 1: you're screwed. Because every other guy on the floor is
Speaker 1: such a good ball handler, shooter and passer that like
Speaker 1: they can drive and kick you to death. So like
Speaker 1: it is vitally important to contain the ball against Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City to keep them out of rotation, because a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys, you know, are not as good when
Speaker 1: they're facing a set defense, When everyone's looking at them
Speaker 1: and the help defense is loaded up, it gets harder.
Speaker 1: But those guys, when they have an advantage, can really
Speaker 1: kill you. And so I thought that was the kind
Speaker 1: of the genesis of their third quarter defensive run that
Speaker 1: they went on Tyres max He poured in another twenty
Speaker 1: eight points. He's up to twenty six, five and seven
Speaker 1: on fifty nine percent true shooting this season. He's one
Speaker 1: of only eight players in the league averaging over six
Speaker 1: assists per game and fewer than two turnovers. Now a
Speaker 1: little trivia here for you guys. Eight players over six
Speaker 1: assists less than two turnovers. Take a guess. It's Daron Fox,
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brogden, D'Angelo Russell, Dennis Schroeder, Fred van Vliet. Shout
Speaker 1: out Fred van Vliet. Nine assists and one point six
Speaker 1: turnovers per game this year, Spencer Dinwoodie, and Chris Paul.
Speaker 1: Those are the eight or the seven, with Tyrese Maxi
Speaker 1: making eight. The only two on that list that are
Speaker 1: averaging over twenty points per game are Dearn Fox and
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxi. So Tyre's Maxie is one of only two
Speaker 1: players in the NBA averaging at least twenty points, at
Speaker 1: least six assists, and fewer than two turnovers. Really high
Speaker 1: level half court basketball from him. He had this. I
Speaker 1: clipped this play and put it in my thread, But
Speaker 1: he hit this like really tough pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: going to his right against lou Dort, hesitation on the
Speaker 1: left side, that dribbled through the legs, hard explosive move
Speaker 1: to the right, left right takeoff against lou Dort, who's
Speaker 1: been one of the best perimeter defenders in the league
Speaker 1: this year, and just rose up over the top of
Speaker 1: him and knocked it down. And so I wanted to
Speaker 1: pull up his ISO numbers one point one points per
Speaker 1: possession in ISO. That's up from zero point eight three
Speaker 1: last year. So in this big test of how Tyrese
Speaker 1: MAXI can handle being slotted as like your primary perimeter initiate,
Speaker 1: he's basically knocking it out of the park in another
Speaker 1: like wild finish and pick and roll where he got
Speaker 1: lou dorton trailing position and he had shake gild justs
Speaker 1: Alexander come help from the baseline side and chet from
Speaker 1: the top side. He was completely sandwiched, took contact, flipped
Speaker 1: all the way over on the other side of the rim,
Speaker 1: and scooped it in with his left hand. I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is this is RIDICULOUSI there's like only a handful
Speaker 1: of players in the league that can do this right
Speaker 1: and That's what kind of gets me excited because we
Speaker 1: talked about the perimeter defense and Batoum and Covington have
Speaker 1: played a significant role in that so far, and they've
Speaker 1: really beefed up some of their role player depth. And
Speaker 1: now what gets really exciting is, like you upgrade one
Speaker 1: starter position at the deadline. Now, Maxine Embiid is enough,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? I'm not sure if it's
Speaker 1: going to be enough as currently constructed. And we've seen
Speaker 1: that they've struggled a little bit in a recent schedule.
Speaker 1: I think they've lost four out of six if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, against some tougher teams, and a big part
Speaker 1: of that is they need just that little bit more firepower.
Speaker 1: But it's not because Tyree's Maxie isn't capable of it.
Speaker 1: It's just going against the best team in the league,
Speaker 1: you just need to have another guy, right Like who's
Speaker 1: the Who's the Austin Reeves to the Lebron and ad
Speaker 1: in this situation? Right Like who's the KCP or the
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior to the Joki Cha Murray. Who's that third,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of firepower piece in this lineup? And
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris is having a really good season, but I'm
Speaker 1: not sure he's necessarily that guy. I think I think
Speaker 1: they need just one additional really damn good player that
Speaker 1: can either slot between Tobias and Embiid or slot between
Speaker 1: Tyres and Tobias that like, and just kind of push
Speaker 1: them over the top in that sense, because right now,
Speaker 1: it's kind of similar to what i'd say with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: where it's like where it's like, Okay, if you're playing
Speaker 1: next Christy in the spot in the regular season, that's fine,
Speaker 1: but not sure if I love that for the postseason.
Speaker 1: That's kind of how I feel about how they've been
Speaker 1: randomly trying, Like they'll try Covington in the starting lineup,
Speaker 1: they'll try Bomb in the starting lineup. It's like, which
Speaker 1: of these guys do you really feel comfortable about in
Speaker 1: a playoff series starting against a really really good team,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so, but the important
Speaker 1: part to get to that point is MAXI needed to
Speaker 1: demonstrate that he could be a perimeter initiator at the
Speaker 1: top level, and he's demonstrated that, and so now it
Speaker 1: actually looks worth it to kind of go all in
Speaker 1: with this roster. And I think it's something they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to do anyway, just based on the fact that
Speaker 1: Embiid's kind of getting a little restless in general with
Speaker 1: the UH, with some of the issues that they've had
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years retaining talent. All right,
Speaker 1: onto the Thunder. So my theory so far this season
Speaker 1: about their struggles against big teams. I've talked to you
Speaker 1: guys about this, the few times they've talked Thunder. They're
Speaker 1: really really good in every single way except for their
Speaker 1: one of the very worst defensive rebounding teams in the league,
Speaker 1: and in general have struggled really bad against size. And
Speaker 1: so they were out rebounding in this game forty nine
Speaker 1: to thirty eight. They gave up seventeen offensive rebounds, they
Speaker 1: gave up twenty one second chance points. They fouled the
Speaker 1: shit out of him Bead a million times, send him
Speaker 1: to the foul line twenty one times. And so I
Speaker 1: want to I want to take a look back at
Speaker 1: their schedule to see if my theory kind of bears fruit.
Speaker 1: So these are the teams that I put on their
Speaker 1: schedule that I would list as either like normal sized
Speaker 1: or small, but certainly not like physically imposing huge and
Speaker 1: that's Chicago, Portland, Golden State, San Antonio, Phoenix, Sacramento, Atlanta, Cleveland,
Speaker 1: and Detroit. Cleveland's got two centers, but they're both kind
Speaker 1: of thin, so they're not super physically imposing, and they're
Speaker 1: not very physically imposing in the back court. So like,
Speaker 1: there are a couple teams on there that have some
Speaker 1: big guys, like Golden State with Loony Andraymond can be
Speaker 1: physically imposing, but overall as a team, they're pretty small.
Speaker 1: I would still put those teams all as I just
Speaker 1: wouldn't classify any of those teams as like really big. Right.
Speaker 1: And then the three really big teams they played are
Speaker 1: the Nuggets, the Pelicans, and the Sixers, right, Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: and nicolea Jokic, Zion Williamson and Jonas Valentiunas and then
Speaker 1: Joel freaking Embiid, Right, and these this how those games went.
Speaker 1: They got in the Nuggets game, the Nuggets shot sixty percent,
Speaker 1: they scored seventy two points in the paint, and absolutely
Speaker 1: demolished the thunder in Oklahoma City. Against the Pelicans, they
Speaker 1: gave up twenty two offensive rebounds and lost at home
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City, Right, Sixers game, gave up six seventeen
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds. Since of this sent the Sixers to the
Speaker 1: line forty five times, gave twenty one second chance points,
Speaker 1: and lost at home. And so like it's not nothing,
Speaker 1: it's something worth focusing on. I don't even really necessarily
Speaker 1: think it's a short term problem because I don't think
Speaker 1: this team has winner go home, you know, or winner
Speaker 1: winner fail type of expectations this year, but in the
Speaker 1: coming years. You know, that's kind of what I see
Speaker 1: is the major need of this team. Because Chet has
Speaker 1: been awesome. He was incredible again in this game, thirty
Speaker 1: three points on twenty one shots, second time in the
Speaker 1: last four games that he's had at least thirty points.
Speaker 1: He had five threes. He was beaten help from the
Speaker 1: wing with above the break shots, He's beaten switches with
Speaker 1: you know, good strong moves to get closer to the basket.
Speaker 1: Chet's awesome, but like he's gonna get bigger, but no
Speaker 1: matter what, like you can't just march out a bunch
Speaker 1: of a bunch of smaller players next to him. And
Speaker 1: again like Josh Giddy's six's eight, but he's not super
Speaker 1: physically imposing, right, like Jalen Williams is basically playing the
Speaker 1: four for you right now when he's healthy, and Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams is sixty six, right, So like at a certain point,
Speaker 1: you need to have like that Aaron Gordon archetype, that
Speaker 1: that big six nine six ' ten forward that slots
Speaker 1: next to Chet in a bunch of different ways, right,
Speaker 1: because that's what would allow you to potentially put him
Speaker 1: on pick and roll ball screens so that you can
Speaker 1: keep Chet as the low man in a lot of
Speaker 1: situations or run him as the low man next to Chet.
Speaker 1: That's what allows you to have extra size and athleticism
Speaker 1: on the back line, cleaning up the glass and cleaning
Speaker 1: up and help situations when Chet gets pulled away from
Speaker 1: the rim. These are all important elements to defensive rebounding
Speaker 1: and protecting the rim. And they just don't really have
Speaker 1: that archetype of player. And I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: coincidence that they've literally been eleven and two against the
Speaker 1: rest of their schedule, dominant against the rest of their schedule,
Speaker 1: and then the three times they played truly massive front lines,
Speaker 1: they've gotten handled and really struggled in kind of similar ways.
Speaker 1: In all three of those games, something to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on in the big picture. Again, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's necessarily a problem for this year. They are not desperate.
Speaker 1: They don't need to move everything to try to make
Speaker 1: it happen, although you know, with how many assets they have,
Speaker 1: I would argue it's probably worth doing anyway. But it's
Speaker 1: just something to keep an eye on in the coming years.
Speaker 1: All Right, our last game before we get to our
Speaker 1: power rankings. Pelicans Clippers. Now, both of these teams have
Speaker 1: since played played an additional game. The Pelicans lost to
Speaker 1: the Jazz, and the Clippers had an impressive win against
Speaker 1: the MAVs. But my wife was working on Saturday and
Speaker 1: I covered. I did a deep dive of this game,
Speaker 1: did a bunch of film, and I've learned a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff about all teams. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: him a little bit. So Pelicans have won five out
Speaker 1: of seven, even including the Jazz loss. Their top ten
Speaker 1: in offense and defense and rebounding during that span. There
Speaker 1: are sixth in defense over that span. And this is
Speaker 1: where I want to get into this because CJ. McCollum,
Speaker 1: as Sham's Shrania reported today, should be coming back soon
Speaker 1: and one of the big you know catalysts of this
Speaker 1: particular run that the Pelicans have been on is dice
Speaker 1: and Daniels has taken CJ. Mccollins' starting position and there's
Speaker 1: sixth then defense over the seven game span, in large
Speaker 1: part because of what he can do at the point
Speaker 1: of attack. He's kind of similar to that Max Christy
Speaker 1: archetype is in that like six six sixty seven range,
Speaker 1: good strength, outstanding lateral quickness, really good motor, excellent navigating screens,
Speaker 1: all the stuff that you look for in a point
Speaker 1: of attack defender. And he just did an unbelievable job
Speaker 1: on James Harden in this game, just fighting over the
Speaker 1: top of screens to making things difficult for him and
Speaker 1: pick and roll. The few times that he ended up
Speaker 1: having to io him at the end of a shot clock,
Speaker 1: he couldn't even get separation against him and was forcing
Speaker 1: pretty ugly misses from him. He was just amazing in
Speaker 1: this particular game at the point of attack. What's super
Speaker 1: interesting about that is because he's been so good, it's
Speaker 1: created an easy role on the back line for your
Speaker 1: help defenders and brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson. Because when
Speaker 1: there's good ball pressure, it's much harder for the ball
Speaker 1: handler to pick you apart. It makes those skip passes tougher,
Speaker 1: it makes those pocket passes tougher, right, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's creating a job that two guys that have been
Speaker 1: pretty bad help defenders over the course of the last
Speaker 1: couple of seasons have been playing really good help defense
Speaker 1: as of late. I clipped a bunch of examples of
Speaker 1: this in my Pelicans Clippers thread. Zion Williamson just in
Speaker 1: the second half of this game blew up three pick
Speaker 1: and rolls as the lowman just by reading plays well,
Speaker 1: kind of splitting the difference between the roller and the
Speaker 1: weakside corner and getting deflections with his athleticism. A couple
Speaker 1: of them led to runouts the other way. It was
Speaker 1: one of the best help defense games I've ever watched
Speaker 1: Zion Williamson play, which is saying it's significant for a
Speaker 1: player who has been a pretty bad defensive player, brandon Ingram.
Speaker 1: It's a different kind of style because he's got more
Speaker 1: length lengthen you know, ability to kind of bother shooters, right.
Speaker 1: But he what he does is a really good job
Speaker 1: of is when the pass gets to the role man
Speaker 1: and he's the low man. Again, when I'm describing these
Speaker 1: health defense possessions, we're talking about the guy who's not
Speaker 1: in the pick and roll, but on the backside. So
Speaker 1: the ball handler's coming off of a screen, the screen
Speaker 1: defenders up high, they're bringing valent Chuna is pretty up
Speaker 1: high to the level of the screen because of how good
Speaker 1: they've been in their health defense as of late. And
Speaker 1: so what ends up happening is whether that's b I
Speaker 1: or Zion or both, on the backside, they're basically dropping
Speaker 1: down and having to kind of like quart or like
Speaker 1: play kind of strong safety, free safety, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it against multiple offensive threats, the roleman coming
Speaker 1: down the lane, the shooter in the corner, the shooter
Speaker 1: on the wing, and a lot of times you need
Speaker 1: to kind of split the difference. B I does a
Speaker 1: really good job of this, or like the roleman will
Speaker 1: have the ball and he'll kind of like split the
Speaker 1: difference between both guys and kind of prey on their hesitancies,
Speaker 1: especially against the Clippers team that had some guys that
Speaker 1: you know, don't necessarily like to take catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots, right, and if you can do that, that
Speaker 1: stops the chain reaction, right, Like if you if you
Speaker 1: can get a shooter to hesitate, that buys you time
Speaker 1: to recover out of that kind of situation. And then
Speaker 1: he just has longer arms than Zion, so you can
Speaker 1: like bother that pocket pack. Like there's a play at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the game where the pocket pass came
Speaker 1: into Zubac and be I like come down and just
Speaker 1: swipes down to the basketball, which causes Zubac to like
Speaker 1: kind of fumble it a little bit. Then as soon
Speaker 1: as he swipes down, he recovers out to the corner.
Speaker 1: Zubac throws the pass to the shooter in the corner.
Speaker 1: Bi's already there because he bought himself time to rotate
Speaker 1: by disrupting the pocket pass. And that's the key disruption
Speaker 1: at the point of attack. Disruption in the pocket make
Speaker 1: easier rotations. And that's where like Dyson, Daniels and just
Speaker 1: all three of these guys kind of working in concert.
Speaker 1: Herb Jones obviously is the best perimeter defender on the team,
Speaker 1: but we already know that about him, so we're focusing
Speaker 1: on things that we're learning about the team, right, But
Speaker 1: like that kind of dynamic all those guys, if all
Speaker 1: three do their job. That goes a long way towards
Speaker 1: defending those actions without giving up wide open threes. But
Speaker 1: it requires every single step of that chain working. I
Speaker 1: think that that specific combination of Dyson Daniels at the
Speaker 1: point of attack with Zion and Bi doing a really
Speaker 1: good job and help has been the catalyst behind their
Speaker 1: really strong defense over the seven game stretch. Zion was
Speaker 1: really good in this game offensively. PJ. Tucker got couple
Speaker 1: of stops on him and then he kind of figured
Speaker 1: him out. The thing that Zion does that that's kind
Speaker 1: of underrated is he's really sharp with his offhand ball handling,
Speaker 1: and so when he gets in traffic, he can hit
Speaker 1: these hard in and out dribbles and hard spin move
Speaker 1: dribbles with his offhand, which frees up the ability for
Speaker 1: him to quick gather and shoot his little left handed
Speaker 1: floater in the lane when he gets cut off to
Speaker 1: his spot, and when he spit, he can spin really
Speaker 1: hard out of the right hand, which just sets up
Speaker 1: that hard left handed move towards the basket right and
Speaker 1: he absolutely killed the Clippers down the stretch of this game.
Speaker 1: Herb Jones what made three massive offensive plays down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this Clipper game, hit a huge pull up
Speaker 1: three over PJ Tucker came off of a guard guard screen.
Speaker 1: There's a switch, PJ Tucker switches on to him, plays
Speaker 1: way too far back and he just like confidently steps
Speaker 1: into a pull up jump shot knocks it down second
Speaker 1: time that season this season that he's made a pull
Speaker 1: up three. Then after that there was a play where
Speaker 1: he ends up running a ball screen with Jonas and
Speaker 1: he's on the left wing and he's got the ball
Speaker 1: and PJ is icing the ball screen right. So a
Speaker 1: lot of most teams will ice side pick and rolls,
Speaker 1: And what that means is essentially, if the ball handler's
Speaker 1: on the left wing and the screeners trying to get
Speaker 1: him towards the middle, the on ball defender role basically
Speaker 1: jump high side and force him to reject the screen.
Speaker 1: And then you'll see the big man drop further back
Speaker 1: into the lane and they're basically conceding anything to the
Speaker 1: role man to contain the ball handler. Now, should you
Speaker 1: do that to Herb Jones? Probably not, but it's in
Speaker 1: the scheme right, and Herb make Herb. I should say
Speaker 1: I was corrected by Pelicans fans that I keep messing
Speaker 1: that up. Herb identifies that Pj's doing that, waits for
Speaker 1: PJ to jump to the high side, hits him with
Speaker 1: like a hard fake towards the screen, gets downhill. Zubak
Speaker 1: is there, but he just goes a long step into
Speaker 1: his chest and then finishes outside with his left hand.
Speaker 1: It's like a really high level move in pick and
Speaker 1: roll to get a bucket in crunch time of a
Speaker 1: highly contested game. And then lastly, on that left wing,
Speaker 1: there was a play where PJ Tucker or excuse me,
Speaker 1: Paul George got kind of sucked in in nail help
Speaker 1: and he made him pay with that above the break
Speaker 1: three on the left wing. It was really impressive fourth
Speaker 1: quarter offensively from Herb Jones. Jordan Hawkins over the weekend,
Speaker 1: including the Jazz game, scored eight more points flying off
Speaker 1: of off ball screens. He is now an off ball
Speaker 1: screen shot attempt for Jordan Howkins. So just imagine him
Speaker 1: flying off of some off you know the week side,
Speaker 1: you know, wide pin down or something, either taking a
Speaker 1: pull up three or curling around it. On those shot attempts,
Speaker 1: he's getting one point three to five points per possession,
Speaker 1: shooting sixty six percent in effective field goal percentage. Twenty
Speaker 1: three players in the NBA this year have logged at
Speaker 1: least twenty possessions off of screens in his one point
Speaker 1: three to five points per possession ranks third Anthony Ewards' first,
Speaker 1: steph Curry's second, and it's Jordan Hawkins. So that movement
Speaker 1: shooter piece that they invested in in the draft is
Speaker 1: really working out for them so far this season. On
Speaker 1: the Clippers front, a couple of specific things that stood
Speaker 1: out to me on film, catch and shoot guys just
Speaker 1: being a little hesitant in this with the stars. So
Speaker 1: like there's this concept of like advantage creation and play finishing, right.
Speaker 1: I always talk about the list of responsibilities that a
Speaker 1: basketball team has to fulfill on a basketball court, and like,
Speaker 1: if you it doesn't do any good if one guy
Speaker 1: creates the advantage and then let's say Kawhi makes a
Speaker 1: move and draws multiple defenders and makes a kickout pass
Speaker 1: to James Harden who's standing wide open on the on
Speaker 1: the left wing. If he doesn't shoot that shot and
Speaker 1: instead waits for the defender to close out and then
Speaker 1: he decides to initiate offense, that completely is a waste
Speaker 1: of everybody's time and effort, because what's the point of
Speaker 1: advantage creating an advantage if the next guy is just
Speaker 1: gonna wait for the defense to rotate so that he
Speaker 1: can create an advantage. Everybody in this system is going
Speaker 1: to be in more play finishing possessions than they're used
Speaker 1: to because you've got all these shot creators, so everyone's
Speaker 1: gonna have to get better at operating more off the ball.
Speaker 1: And there were way too many possessions. And it's weird
Speaker 1: because I'd argue that Kawhi and h and James Harden
Speaker 1: are probably your two best, you know, catch and shoot guys,
Speaker 1: and they're they are the hesitant ones among the stars.
Speaker 1: Paul George is a good shooter, but him and Russ
Speaker 1: are definitely the third and fourth best catch and shoot
Speaker 1: guys on the team. And literally they're like hunting shots
Speaker 1: and being super aggressive and that just doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: I mean, PG it does, but for us, it doesn't
Speaker 1: make any sense. You need James Harden and Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: to be aggressively hunting their catch and shoot opportunities because
Speaker 1: they're great shooters. And if I can get a wide
Speaker 1: open catch and shoot three even a kind of open
Speaker 1: catch and shoot three for James Harden or Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: That's about as good a shot as you can get
Speaker 1: on a point per possession basis, and they have to
Speaker 1: be more willing to take those shots. Clipped a bunch
Speaker 1: of examples in my thread of that game of plays
Speaker 1: where they generated an advantage and then it just James
Speaker 1: Harden was just pump fake at a ghost and then
Speaker 1: the advantage is gone. And it's just like that to me,
Speaker 1: is because the Clippers are fifth in defense right now.
Speaker 1: They had another defensive masterpiece against Dallas the other day.
Speaker 1: All of their switchable defenders. It's making it a pain
Speaker 1: in the ass for other teams to score a lot
Speaker 1: of really positive things there. But the offensive end is
Speaker 1: not living up to what it should be for all
Speaker 1: the offensive talent that they have, and a big part
Speaker 1: of that right now is hesitancy from the stars and
Speaker 1: catch and shoot situations. Paul George attacking the room. Well,
Speaker 1: his rim finishing and attempts are up, but and that's
Speaker 1: important for the record, and I like it when Paul
Speaker 1: George is driving, but he's making some poor rim decisions.
Speaker 1: There were two plays in the second half of this
Speaker 1: game where he tried to dunk on everybody, and like,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, those are cool highlight plays. And
Speaker 1: when you have an opportunity to dunk on someone in
Speaker 1: a pickup game, go for it, man. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying you don't ever do it in an NBA game,
Speaker 1: of course you do. It's an important part of that,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like physical aggression that you want
Speaker 1: to play with as a basketball player. But on both
Speaker 1: of these plays, he miss wide open shooters, and they
Speaker 1: they were dunks that were extremely high degree of difficulty,
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't PG over Birdman, Like I am so
Speaker 1: far above the rim and he's completely hopeless and I'm
Speaker 1: just punching it on his head. That's not what these were.
Speaker 1: These were like in traffic, multiple bodies, full ex extension,
Speaker 1: barely getting to the rim, trying for like the supreme
Speaker 1: highlight dunk while shooters are open. And that's the rim
Speaker 1: decision thing, especially with this team. It's one of those
Speaker 1: things where you don't want to fall into the Celtics
Speaker 1: problem where poor three point shot selection and poor rim
Speaker 1: decisions can make a great offensive team into one that
Speaker 1: is capable of these long extended droughts, and a big
Speaker 1: part of that for the Clippers right now is like
Speaker 1: everyone just needs to make better rim decisions. Right everyone
Speaker 1: needs to be hunting those wide open catch and shoot
Speaker 1: opportunities and taking them when they're there. Russ, you know,
Speaker 1: he had a really good bounce back game against Dallas
Speaker 1: the other night, and this Pelicans game, he's really bad.
Speaker 1: He's struggling with the minutes restriction. He's shooting just fifty
Speaker 1: five points six. I shouldn't say minutes restriction, with his
Speaker 1: minutes getting cut down as a result of him going
Speaker 1: to the bench, but a couple of specific things that
Speaker 1: keeps shouting to me off of film. He's still missing
Speaker 1: so many layups fifty five point six percent in the
Speaker 1: restricted area out of seventy six players to attempt at
Speaker 1: least four per game. He's ranked sixty seventh inefficiency. A
Speaker 1: bunch of key layups that he missed in the second
Speaker 1: half of this game, and it always ends in floor
Speaker 1: balance issues. When a guard smokes a layup, it fucks
Speaker 1: up your transition defense, which can cause all sorts of
Speaker 1: problems with the team running the other way. That's why
Speaker 1: these can be such damaging turnovers. And then there was
Speaker 1: a stretch of this game where the Pels were basically
Speaker 1: because the Clippers ran PJ. Tucker and Russell Westbrook at
Speaker 1: the same time, and that is a very interesting defensive lineup,
Speaker 1: especially when you're switching everything. But the Pells were basically
Speaker 1: just ignoring both of them and it was causing a
Speaker 1: lot of problems for them offensively. That's been kind of
Speaker 1: one of the subplots of the season. It's like the
Speaker 1: spacing hasn't been as good as it could be because
Speaker 1: teams are willing to concede threes to Terrence Man, they're
Speaker 1: willing to concede threes to Russell Westbrook, They're willing to
Speaker 1: concede threes to PJ. Tucker. Obviously, you don't have to
Speaker 1: guard Zubaca on the perimeter, and if you close out
Speaker 1: short on Kwi or PG or excuse me, KOI or
Speaker 1: James Harden, they'll probably pump fake at you and look
Speaker 1: to try to generate some sort of pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: So like, there's a lot of ways that you can
Speaker 1: slow down the Clippers offense just by kind of gumming
Speaker 1: things up in the paint and ignoring hesitant shooters. Right,
Speaker 1: something to keep an eye on for them offensively moving forward.
Speaker 1: They did bounce back against Dallas, though again I watched
Speaker 1: this game. What was it on Saturday or Sunday night?
Speaker 1: I think it was Saturday night. This is the perfect
Speaker 1: matchup for them, and by the way it's shown in
Speaker 1: the standings over the last few years when Kawhi is
Speaker 1: available to play for the Clippers against Luca and the MAVs,
Speaker 1: the Clippers are nine in two and obviously they've won
Speaker 1: both playoff series against them, So this is a matchup
Speaker 1: they've always dominated. And it's not hard to figure out.
Speaker 1: They can switch everything. They have switchable defenders. They actually
Speaker 1: have with Russ and PJ. Tucker. They have like this
Speaker 1: and Terrence Man. They can be like super switchy. And
Speaker 1: there are versions of it where it's like it's Kawhi
Speaker 1: and it's Paul George, and it's PJ. Tucker, and it's
Speaker 1: James Harden and Terrence Man, and it's like James Harden
Speaker 1: is the one guy you want to attack there, but
Speaker 1: like the one thing he holds up pretty well against
Speaker 1: is a power player, right, And so it turns into
Speaker 1: one of these things where it kind of plays into
Speaker 1: Dallas's weaknesses. Which you can see the shot attempts. Look
Speaker 1: at Dallas's shot attempts in that game. Luca twenty seven
Speaker 1: shot attempts, Kyrie twenty two, and Tim Hardaway fourteen. No
Speaker 1: other player on the MAVs attempted more than five shots.
Speaker 1: The ball's not popping around. It's not classic beautiful MAVs
Speaker 1: offensive basketball. They just switch and force yout to iso
Speaker 1: and that's how you get forty nine shot attemps out
Speaker 1: of Luca and Kyrie, except for all of them are
Speaker 1: against good perimeter defenders, and so they're gonna make some shots.
Speaker 1: You know, Kyrie made half of shots, Luca not quite half,
Speaker 1: but like in terms of a points per possession basis,
Speaker 1: they're not very efficient. And that's how you end up
Speaker 1: pretty quickly being stuck in a bad offensive game like that.
Speaker 1: And again, Clippers fifth in defense this year, and specifically,
Speaker 1: the reason why this matchup is good for the Clippers
Speaker 1: is Dallas doesn't have the physical size to make the
Speaker 1: Clippers pay for being as small as they are. As
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot about, the Clippers small lineup is
Speaker 1: a little smaller than it used to be. By getting
Speaker 1: rid of all their six to eight guys, and so
Speaker 1: as a result, like you can actually beat them up
Speaker 1: on the glass and cause some problems for them with
Speaker 1: their lack of size, but Dallas is kind of incapable
Speaker 1: of inflicting that. So if they can bait Dallas into
Speaker 1: their worst offensive tendencies and then on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor be able to consistently matchhip attack against
Speaker 1: their weak perimeter defenders while not getting beat up in
Speaker 1: the physicality areas of the game, it's just really hard
Speaker 1: for Dallas to win that specific matchup. And I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we saw Russell Westbrook attacking Luka Doncic and
Speaker 1: making all those plays and talking all that shit, and
Speaker 1: obviously Russ is very performative with that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And I mean it's classic Russ to play like really
Speaker 1: poorly for like two weeks and then have a good
Speaker 1: sequence and then talk a bunch of shit. That's just
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook in a nutshell that said, like, He's right,
Speaker 1: that's the way you beat them. You have to consistently
Speaker 1: attack Luca, try to fatigue him, attack the weak perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders wherever you can switch and stagnate, stay home off
Speaker 1: ball to stop them from getting the easy kickouts for
Speaker 1: threes and force them their primary shot creators into tough
Speaker 1: shots and you can beat them that way. And that
Speaker 1: was how the Clippers beat them the other night. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on to our power rankings. So this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a little different than what we did the
Speaker 1: first time because I want to do power rankings every
Speaker 1: single week and I'm just gonna rip through them. We're
Speaker 1: not gonna do long blurbs. We're just going to update
Speaker 1: the rankings with a quick readthrough of the ten teams
Speaker 1: at the beginning of every week on Monday. So and again,
Speaker 1: this is my power rankings are more regular season focused.
Speaker 1: The contender rankings, that's playoff focused. This is power rankings.
Speaker 1: We're just looking at who's playing the best basketball right now.
Speaker 1: Number ten the Los Angeles Lakers, their first appearance in
Speaker 1: the Power rankings this season. They have the fifth best
Speaker 1: net rating in the league since our last addition of
Speaker 1: power rankings two weeks ago. Today. They are also up
Speaker 1: to ninth in defensive rating. On the season. Since November tenth,
Speaker 1: which was about two and a half weeks ago, the
Speaker 1: Lakers have not lost a game unless it was on
Speaker 1: the tail end of a back to back, including quality
Speaker 1: wins over the Houston Rockets, and then two quality wins
Speaker 1: on the road versus the Phoenix Suns and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 1: They are coming into a couple of tough games right now.
Speaker 1: They have Philly tonight on the road, Detroit on the road,
Speaker 1: and then Oklahoma City on the road. If they can
Speaker 1: get back on that from that road trip at three
Speaker 1: to one, which means that they can get one of
Speaker 1: the Philly OKC games, I think that's a huge win
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. My guess is that they lose to
Speaker 1: Philly tonight and then they beat Oklahoma City, who struggles
Speaker 1: against really big teams, which I think the Lakers will
Speaker 1: be able to inflict on them. Number ten, excuse me,
Speaker 1: Number nine the Dallas Mavericks. We wanted to see how
Speaker 1: they'd fare against a tougher stretch of their schedule, and
Speaker 1: it hasn't gone well. They did have a nice win
Speaker 1: against the Lakers in La on the butt. They were
Speaker 1: on the tail end of a back to back and
Speaker 1: it required a game winner from Kyrie late. And they've
Speaker 1: lost four out of six overall. They got destroyed by
Speaker 1: the Clippers, destroyed by the Kings. They lost at home
Speaker 1: to the Bucks, and they got destroyed by New Orleans.
Speaker 1: But despite all that, they still have the ninth best
Speaker 1: record in basketball and they are the fourth best offense
Speaker 1: in the league right now. Number eight the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaker 1: They're a really good team with one fatal flaw. They're
Speaker 1: too small on the front line to contend with huge,
Speaker 1: physical teams. That said, they are eleven and two against
Speaker 1: teams that I don't consider to be particularly big on
Speaker 1: the front line, They've been dominant and basically every facet
Speaker 1: of the game except for the defensive, rebounding piece, and
Speaker 1: on the scoreboard against those particularly big teams. They are
Speaker 1: one of only three teams in the NBA right now
Speaker 1: that are top ten in both offense and defense, though
Speaker 1: the other two teams are ahead of them on this list.
Speaker 1: Number seven, the Philadelphia seventy six Ers a little bit
Speaker 1: of mixed results in this stretch of their schedule. All
Speaker 1: these teams that are in this section of the power rankings,
Speaker 1: it's been a mixed bag over the last couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: but all of them are playing tough stretches of their
Speaker 1: schedule and playing good teams. That's to be expected in
Speaker 1: the league this deep but in this stretch for the
Speaker 1: field for the Sixers, they beat the Thunder in Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: they beat the Hawks in Atlanta, and they beat the Pacers.
Speaker 1: Impressive wins, but they also lost to Minnesota, lost to Cleveland,
Speaker 1: lost to Boston, and lost to Indiana in the nd
Speaker 1: season tournament game on the second night of that the
Speaker 1: two game and three nights set. They are the third
Speaker 1: best offense in the league right now, and the defense
Speaker 1: is starting to take some strides and I'm really enjoying
Speaker 1: what I'm seeing from their big perimeter defenders, and then
Speaker 1: Tyres Maxie obviously looks incredible. Number six. The Denver Nuggets,
Speaker 1: they're just floating the ship right now with Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: out with injury, and they've faced a particularly tough part
Speaker 1: of their schedule. In this recent stretch. They've been on
Speaker 1: a five game road trip where they went one in four,
Speaker 1: again mostly against good teams. All all four of the
Speaker 1: losses against good teams, and again without Jamal Murray. It's
Speaker 1: just tough to win those games. But still eleven and six,
Speaker 1: still one of just three teams in the league that
Speaker 1: are top ten in both offense and defense. It is
Speaker 1: the Thunder and the Nuggets, and then the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: who are further up on the list. They're still the
Speaker 1: defending champs and Jamal Murray is on track to return
Speaker 1: very soon. Number five the Milwaukee Bucks. They're seven to
Speaker 1: one since our last set of power rankings, but they're
Speaker 1: not playing great basketball right now. If you go through
Speaker 1: their last ten games, they barely beat Portland, came back
Speaker 1: from down twenty four in that game, barely beat Washington,
Speaker 1: then they got soundly beat by Boston. Then they beat Washington,
Speaker 1: beat Dallas. That's a good win, Dallas good team. But
Speaker 1: then they beat Charlotte bad team, beat Toronto bad team,
Speaker 1: beat Chicago bad team. Then they lost to Orlando and
Speaker 1: lost to Indiana, both good teams. Over the last ten games.
Speaker 1: It's been a lot of bad teams and then basically
Speaker 1: three losses one in three against the good teams that
Speaker 1: they faced over the last ten over their last ten games.
Speaker 1: That said, still seven to one since our last rankings,
Speaker 1: and I mean really just a fortunate team in the
Speaker 1: sense that they're not playing very good basketball right now
Speaker 1: in the defensive end, and they're still figuring some things
Speaker 1: out from a chemistry standpoint. But because the league kind
Speaker 1: of front loaded their schedule with an easier stretch of
Speaker 1: games that gives them time to figure things out and
Speaker 1: then hopefully they'll have it together when they get to
Speaker 1: the tougher stretch of their schedule, and they have been
Speaker 1: one of the very best offenses in the league so
Speaker 1: far this season. Number four Sacramento Kings. They've won seven
Speaker 1: of their last nine games. They're ninth in offense, tenth
Speaker 1: in defense. Over that span, they blew out the Wolves
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, they blew out the MAVs in Dallas, they
Speaker 1: blew out the Lakers in LA, and they beat the
Speaker 1: Calves in thunder at home. They have been probably the
Speaker 1: most impressive team other than Orlando over the course of
Speaker 1: the last two weeks if we look just strictly within
Speaker 1: that two week window. They did have two road losses
Speaker 1: against New Orleans. Just had a hell of a time
Speaker 1: stopping Zion Williams and they're just not really equipped on
Speaker 1: the front line to deal with him. Number three the
Speaker 1: Orlando Magic. They've won seven in a rows and serve
Speaker 1: five and five start. They're six and four against winning teams,
Speaker 1: four and one against my top tier contenders. Again, like
Speaker 1: my top tier contenders were the Nuggets, the Celtics, the Bucks,
Speaker 1: the Lakers, the Suns, the Warriors, and now Minnesota have
Speaker 1: added to that list, and they've gone four and one
Speaker 1: in those games. Their one loss was to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and they turned around and beat them revenge style at home.
Speaker 1: So they've been really, really impressive to start the season.
Speaker 1: They are also the only team in the league in
Speaker 1: the top five in both defense and rebounding. They have
Speaker 1: been the most physically imposing team in the league so
Speaker 1: far in the regular season. Number two the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaker 1: They took a bad loss at home to Sacramento, but
Speaker 1: Sacramento has done that to a few teams this year.
Speaker 1: Like I said, Sacramento's just been on this run where
Speaker 1: they're just kind of beating the shit out of good
Speaker 1: teams every once in a while. I think they they've
Speaker 1: been running that bracket pick and roll that I've been
Speaker 1: talking about, where they put Darren Fox like thirty feet
Speaker 1: from the backs. Two guys come up and set ball
Speaker 1: screens on either side, and like Harrison Barnes is usually
Speaker 1: in there as the guy who can pop and shoot,
Speaker 1: and it's just really freaking difficult to guard and teams
Speaker 1: haven't really figured out how to stop it yet. But yeah,
Speaker 1: So the Timberwolves took a bad loss at home to Sacramento,
Speaker 1: but they've been the most impressive team in the West
Speaker 1: so far. They surrounded that Sacramento game by coming right back,
Speaker 1: and they won three games right before that against good teams.
Speaker 1: They beat Philly, they beat the Knicks, and they beat
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, and then after the loss of the Kings,
Speaker 1: they got back on track against Memphis. Like I said,
Speaker 1: most impressive team in the Western Conference so far this season.
Speaker 1: And then to me, the easy number one at this
Speaker 1: point is the Boston Celtics. They have the best record
Speaker 1: in the league. They have a league leading nine wins
Speaker 1: against teams that are five hundred are better. They have
Speaker 1: the best net rating in basketball. They have despite playing
Speaker 1: the second toughest schedule. I think they're a clear cut
Speaker 1: number one at this point in the season. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. As always, as
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We have
Speaker 1: our check in with Yovann Bouha on the Lakers tomorrow,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna be doing that and then do a
Speaker 1: separate video that's covering the rest of the league. But
Speaker 1: we'll have two shows coming out for you guys tomorrow
Speaker 1: and back to our normal routine for the rest of
Speaker 1: the week. I'll see you guys. Then the volume