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Speaker 1: see d KNG dot co slash audio. All right, welcome
Speaker 1: to you tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: If all of you guys had an incredible weekend, we
Speaker 1: have a jam packed to show for you guys today.
Speaker 1: Off the top, I'm going to do a deep dive
Speaker 1: into that Houston Rockets first Cleveland Cavaliers game on Saturday,
Speaker 1: showdown of two of the best records in the league.
Speaker 1: And then after that, like we always do on Mondays,
Speaker 1: we are going to do our Power rankings breaking down
Speaker 1: the top ten teams in the league. You guys have
Speaker 1: the drop before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops
Speaker 1: Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys don't
Speaker 1: misshow announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super
Speaker 1: helpful if you leave a rating and a review on
Speaker 1: that front. We also have very new social media feeds
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout
Speaker 1: the year. Make sure you guys follow us there, and
Speaker 1: then keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments
Speaker 1: so that we can get to them in our Friday
Speaker 1: mail bags throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball, and then also before we get
Speaker 1: into Houston Cleveland, I did break down a bunch of
Speaker 1: other games on Saturday Night. I hit Minnesota, Denver, I
Speaker 1: hit Boston, Dallas. I briefly hit on a couple of
Speaker 1: other games too. So I know it says Lakers Warriors reaction,
Speaker 1: but we hit most of the Saturday Night slate in
Speaker 1: that video. So if you're looking for deeper dive breakdowns
Speaker 1: on some of the other games from Saturday. You just
Speaker 1: have to go back and watch that Lakers Live and
Speaker 1: then we have chapters. You can always just skip ahead
Speaker 1: past the Lakers Warrior stuff. All right, let's get into
Speaker 1: Houston Cleveland. I did a long film thread on this
Speaker 1: one on Twitter. It was like thirty forty clips. So
Speaker 1: if you're looking for visual representations of some of the
Speaker 1: things that I'm breaking down today, just go over to
Speaker 1: our Twitter feed, my Twitter feed at underscore json lt
Speaker 1: where I just have all the clips from the game
Speaker 1: in a thread, so you guys can see some of
Speaker 1: those visual representations. The story of this game in the
Speaker 1: early portion had to do with the perimeter defense battle.
Speaker 1: I talk about this battle a lot in the NBA.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of line play in the NFL. I've rooted.
Speaker 1: I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan because my entire extended family
Speaker 1: is from the Dallas Fort Worth area and we go
Speaker 1: out there for Thanksgiving every year. It's been kind of
Speaker 1: like a family tradition and rooting for the Cowboys my
Speaker 1: entire life. You know, I have these like different phases, right,
Speaker 1: and I remember, like in the mid twenty tens. We
Speaker 1: had this huge, massive frontline with a bunch of you know,
Speaker 1: Hall of famers on it, you know, guys like Zach
Speaker 1: Martin and Tyron Smith, right, and they would just shove
Speaker 1: everybody around and whenever we went didn't matter if it
Speaker 1: was on the road at home, we could just run
Speaker 1: over everybody because we had, you know, DeMarco Murray or
Speaker 1: Ezekiel Elliott and just a stacked offensive line that we
Speaker 1: could run all over everybody. And whenever Dak needed to throw,
Speaker 1: he just had all the time in the world because
Speaker 1: we could protect from him, right, And it just makes
Speaker 1: everything easier when you can block at the with your
Speaker 1: offensive line. In the NFL and in the NBA, there's
Speaker 1: a similar kind of push and poll because it can
Speaker 1: go the opposite way, right, Like, if your line doesn't
Speaker 1: block well and you can establish the run, suddenly you
Speaker 1: have to lean on the passing game even more. And
Speaker 1: when you can't protect your quarterback, he's running for his
Speaker 1: life and nobody has any time to get open. And
Speaker 1: it's just kind of like this simple push and poll
Speaker 1: that happens every single snap right in the middle of
Speaker 1: the screen, right in front of you. It's almost the
Speaker 1: easiest thing to kind of like watch in a game
Speaker 1: to see where you can almost just see a push
Speaker 1: when the offensive line's winning, or a push the opposite
Speaker 1: way when the defensive line's winning. And in the NBA,
Speaker 1: there's a very similar battle that happen there at the
Speaker 1: point of attack, whether it's a ball screen or an
Speaker 1: ISO or a post up. If it's an ISO and
Speaker 1: the guy can just cleanly dust him off the dribble
Speaker 1: and get downhill, that's going to be a problem. If
Speaker 1: it's a ball screen and he can cleanly get over
Speaker 1: the top of the screen and get racing downhill, that's
Speaker 1: a problem. If it's a post up and he's just
Speaker 1: going through that guy and getting wherever he wants, that's
Speaker 1: a problem. But if on an ISO you flatten out
Speaker 1: those drives and force more side to side movement, If
Speaker 1: on those ball screens you stay attached over the top
Speaker 1: and prevent him from really getting ahead of steam going downhill,
Speaker 1: or in the post ups, if you can wall up
Speaker 1: a little bit and prevent him from really getting deep
Speaker 1: position in the paint, those things make it easier for
Speaker 1: your defense. On a simple level, If someone's screaming downhill
Speaker 1: with the basketball. Everyone's gonna help instinctually, and that's going
Speaker 1: to open up spray spray out opportunities. Or if people
Speaker 1: don't help in time, that guy's going to score. Right.
Speaker 1: And when you do flatten those drives out, when you
Speaker 1: do flatten those post ups out, when you do flatten
Speaker 1: those ball screens out, all of a sudden people have
Speaker 1: more ability to stay home off the ball, which prevents
Speaker 1: you and getting into rotation. It is a simple push
Speaker 1: and pull in basketball games that determines a lot of
Speaker 1: what happens on any given possession. And Houston has a
Speaker 1: couple of wins here against Cleveland and some of this
Speaker 1: with Cleveland too. I want to emphasize this before we
Speaker 1: get into it. This is a really tough matchup for Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Houston is just so much bigger and more athletic on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, and then, to make matters worse, even though
Speaker 1: Jared Allen and Evan Mobley are both excellent defensive players,
Speaker 1: Shenghuin gives them issues. Just his ability to use physical
Speaker 1: leverage against them to get to his spots and his
Speaker 1: ability to kind of shoot over the top of them
Speaker 1: has caused problems. And so it's a tough matchup, and
Speaker 1: for the record, I don't think Cleveland's going to face
Speaker 1: a team with the same level of athletic in position
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference that Houston brings to the table,
Speaker 1: but it is worth talking about because it is an
Speaker 1: important part of their matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder,
Speaker 1: which if they were to make it to the finals,
Speaker 1: is the type of team that they might have to face, right, So,
Speaker 1: like I want it before we get any further into
Speaker 1: this game, I want to say, like Cleveland, Houston's a
Speaker 1: really tough matchup for Cleveland that they probably won't have
Speaker 1: to see in the postseason. But Houston really dominated that
Speaker 1: point of attack battle over the first three and a
Speaker 1: half quarters of this game. Their athletes were just straight
Speaker 1: beating Cleveland perimeter guys off the dribble. In ISO, both
Speaker 1: MOBILEI and Allen, you know, we talk about ball contain
Speaker 1: as like on the ball as the guy guarding the
Speaker 1: ball being the main guy who's responsible, But in ball screens,
Speaker 1: containing the ball is also on the big man, right.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you are showing up at the
Speaker 1: level as the big man or sitting back in a drop.
Speaker 1: You have to keep the ball in front of you.
Speaker 1: The worst thing that or the thing you want to
Speaker 1: give up if you have to give something up, is
Speaker 1: a little mid range jump shot, right. Ideally you want
Speaker 1: them taking a contested floater, contested mid range jump shot
Speaker 1: with somebody kind of contesting from behind and you containing
Speaker 1: the ball. If you're up at the level and you
Speaker 1: let the guy drive around you, or if you're sitting
Speaker 1: in a drop and the guy drives around you, that's
Speaker 1: like the worst mistake you can make as a pick
Speaker 1: and roll big man defender, even though it's technically not
Speaker 1: your matchup. It's a two on two possession. Any ball
Speaker 1: screen is two on two. There were multiple possessions where
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley and Jared Allen were getting beat by ball
Speaker 1: handlers coming off of ball screens. If you show at
Speaker 1: the level and they hit the pocket pass, there's a
Speaker 1: four on three, right. But if your big man gets
Speaker 1: beat off the dribble, now it's a five on three
Speaker 1: because the big and the guard guarding the ball handler
Speaker 1: are both behind the ball. Now it is very, very
Speaker 1: compromising to your defense. Evan and Mobley and Jared Allen
Speaker 1: had rough defensive games all around, like Shane Gun was
Speaker 1: torching them both over and over again in the post.
Speaker 1: And that's just another way you can lose the point
Speaker 1: of attack battle, like we talked about earlier. So they
Speaker 1: were really dominating on that end, and then on the
Speaker 1: other end, with the exception of Darius Garland, who continues
Speaker 1: to demonstrate remarkable ability to get to his spots regardless
Speaker 1: of the types of defenders that were in front of him,
Speaker 1: and he was a bright spot in that Houston game
Speaker 1: on Saturday night. Every Cleveland player was having their drives
Speaker 1: flattened out, their ball screens smothered. The Rockets were really
Speaker 1: in ball screens king in on Donovan Mitchell like like
Speaker 1: overplaying him and ignoring guys on kickout situations, which was
Speaker 1: really smart because Donovan Mitchell is going through a phase
Speaker 1: right now where he's kind of like forcing the issue
Speaker 1: and taking a lot of bad shots and missing some
Speaker 1: of those kickout reads. And you know, I cooked probably
Speaker 1: a half dozen examples of Donovan Mitchell missing kickout reads
Speaker 1: and taking like really tough mid range jump shots in
Speaker 1: the middle of the paint. But the main difference there
Speaker 1: is like instead of Donovan Mitchell getting flying downhill off
Speaker 1: of those ball screens, he's slowly getting downhill against an
Speaker 1: elite defender and operating in that short to mid range
Speaker 1: smothered and that's an advantageous situation for the Houston Rockets.
Speaker 1: And so as a result, the Rockets were just getting
Speaker 1: better shots, particularly around the rim. They only took twenty
Speaker 1: eight threes, and they shot well on them. They made
Speaker 1: thirteen of them, but they made thirty two two's in
Speaker 1: this game, and they got to the line almost fifty times.
Speaker 1: Cleveland was constantly hacking their athletes under the rim when
Speaker 1: their defense was compromised, just consistently getting into disadvantageous situations
Speaker 1: because they were losing that point of attack battle. So
Speaker 1: Houston ended up having one of their best half court
Speaker 1: offense games of the season. And again it was a
Speaker 1: lot of good Houston and a lot of bad Cleveland.
Speaker 1: The good Houston starts with the men. Thompson, who was
Speaker 1: absolutely unbelievable in this game. He had twenty three points,
Speaker 1: fourteen rebounds in tennisis to go with two blocks, helped
Speaker 1: in a dozen different ways his off fall spacing, like
Speaker 1: cutting out of the corner on ball screens. He caught
Speaker 1: a lot cutting along the baseline from Fred van Vliet
Speaker 1: on a play where Jared Allen was guarding him and
Speaker 1: stepped over in low man help cutting along the baseline.
Speaker 1: This was big in crunch time. They were posting shangon
Speaker 1: on that left block and men Thompson was just kind
Speaker 1: of hawking along that baseline, trying to find an opening
Speaker 1: to either catch a pass as a cutter or to
Speaker 1: score as an offensive rebounder. And Kenny Atkinson made what
Speaker 1: I thought was a strategic mistake at the end of
Speaker 1: this game. Instead of closing with Jared Allen, he closed
Speaker 1: with George Niang. I think the idea there was for shooting,
Speaker 1: and Niang did hit a big three on the left wing.
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, it wasn't like all that,
Speaker 1: but they were getting absolutely fried along that back line
Speaker 1: by a men Thompson, in large part because Kniang was
Speaker 1: guarding him and just doing a really poor job of it.
Speaker 1: And then even when they did get stops, Thompson would
Speaker 1: just go get the offensive rebound over Kniang. So, like
Speaker 1: I thought, going with Allen was probably a better option there,
Speaker 1: but it is what it is. Avan Thompson was doing
Speaker 1: a lot of damage as a cutter along the baseline.
Speaker 1: He also got a couple of buckets and self creation situations.
Speaker 1: He had a straight iso in the right corner in
Speaker 1: the second half on Evan Mobley where he drove at
Speaker 1: him and then spun off of him and shot a
Speaker 1: little floater in the lane. It reminded me of John Morant,
Speaker 1: and like, this is one of the things that's made
Speaker 1: Amen Thompson a really effective offensive player on the ball,
Speaker 1: even though he doesn't have much of anything in terms
Speaker 1: of a jump shot, And it's a combination of factors
Speaker 1: his high strength and speed, which is the physical aggression
Speaker 1: piece or the physical talent piece. You need to get
Speaker 1: tear spots, handles the ball well so he can get
Speaker 1: to the middle of the floor then kind of like
Speaker 1: John Moran. This is what reminds me of John Morant.
Speaker 1: Once he gets into the middle of the floor, he
Speaker 1: can just pop off of the ground and elevate over
Speaker 1: whoever's there and just shoot like these little short mini
Speaker 1: floater jump shot hook type of shots. Right, and he's
Speaker 1: shooting forty five percent this year on shots that are
Speaker 1: in the paint but outside of the restricted area. So
Speaker 1: even though again he doesn't have this amazing touch out
Speaker 1: at the three point line, he does have nice touch
Speaker 1: in and around the basket where and because of that
Speaker 1: pop off the ground ability he has, he can just
Speaker 1: kind of jump over people and make little shots. He
Speaker 1: scored a couple of buckets like that. His transition pushes
Speaker 1: were effective again in this game. He was even the
Speaker 1: key to beating Cleveland's zone. If you guys remember when
Speaker 1: Houston beat Cleveland back in Houston, the Cavs ran it's
Speaker 1: on his own to get back into that game, and
Speaker 1: it worked in that particular game. But on Saturday they
Speaker 1: tried it and it didn't work. You could tell ema
Speaker 1: Udoka was on top of that. They were prepped. They
Speaker 1: wanted to play through a men Thompson in the middle
Speaker 1: of the floor, and they scored easily against it. A
Speaker 1: bunch of times. They ran over forty possessions of zone.
Speaker 1: If I'm remembering my math right, They ran over forty
Speaker 1: possessions of zone down in Houston and it worked. That
Speaker 1: held them well below a point per possession. They ran
Speaker 1: only seven possessions of zone in Cleveland before they bailed
Speaker 1: on it, in large part because they were getting something
Speaker 1: crazy like one point four points per possession, just killing it.
Speaker 1: And it started with the men Thompson. They got the
Speaker 1: ball to a Men Thompson in the middle of the floor.
Speaker 1: Simple decisions from there, catch turn, big man, steps up,
Speaker 1: drop off to Steven Adams. Steven Adams gets a bucket.
Speaker 1: They throw the ball to Steven Adams on the block.
Speaker 1: He gets a double from the wing, easy kickoff pass
Speaker 1: to Fred van Vliet. He makes a three back to
Speaker 1: a Men Thompson in the middle of the floor. The
Speaker 1: entire defense shifts over to the right side when he
Speaker 1: catches it, spins back over his shoulder and throws it
Speaker 1: to Fred van Vliet on the perimeter. Forces a rotation
Speaker 1: from the left wing, easy extra passaitary Easton. He's driving
Speaker 1: and he's dunking it, and it was all like again,
Speaker 1: Steven Adams two, but a Men Thompson in the middle
Speaker 1: of the floor. In his processing speed, and honestly, this
Speaker 1: is something that has been really amazing to me about
Speaker 1: Amen Thompson in his early career development, his processing speed
Speaker 1: is off the charts for a young player. He just
Speaker 1: can very quickly pick up what's happening around him and
Speaker 1: where the opportunities are. There was a play that wasn't
Speaker 1: even in the zone. It was a It was a
Speaker 1: kind of a dunker spot catch that he had on
Speaker 1: the left side in the dunker spot and he catches
Speaker 1: a lob all goes way up in the air, catches
Speaker 1: it and sees Jaron Allen dropped down right underneath the
Speaker 1: basket and he just one times it in mid air
Speaker 1: right to alprinshangun right in front of the room, who
Speaker 1: shoots like a little floater and he makes it. He
Speaker 1: just has excellent instincts at quickly picking up where teams
Speaker 1: are trying to ignore him and helping off of him
Speaker 1: so that he can make that next pass to break
Speaker 1: that defense down. He was a big part of them
Speaker 1: breaking down the zone and then the offensive class. He
Speaker 1: had four offensive rebounds in this game. He's just a
Speaker 1: ball hawk, like every time it looks like there's a
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty ball, it always ends up going to
Speaker 1: a men's Thompson. There was a huge play late in
Speaker 1: this game. It's one twenty four to one to twenty four.
Speaker 1: Shane gun is posting up on Evan Mobley, and when
Speaker 1: he's posting up on Evan Mobley, Amn Thompson is kind
Speaker 1: of hawking along the baseline like we talked about, and
Speaker 1: even though Mobley had really struggled with Shangun for most
Speaker 1: of the night. Does a good job on this possession,
Speaker 1: walls him up, gets a stop, and as a result,
Speaker 1: Mobley has to like get rid of the basketball, so
Speaker 1: or excuse me, Shanggoon has to get rid of the basketball.
Speaker 1: And so he just throws a pass right to George's
Speaker 1: Knieing and Kniing's right there. He's got his hands ready
Speaker 1: for the ball. Amn Thompson is behind him. A Men
Speaker 1: Thompson got the basketball. He just went through Kniang and
Speaker 1: kept the ball live. Houston kept possession. By the time
Speaker 1: Cleveland got the ball back, they were down one twenty
Speaker 1: seven to one twenty four. It literally turned. It literally
Speaker 1: turned what could have been a stop going the other
Speaker 1: way with Cleveland a chance to take the lead into
Speaker 1: a three point lead for Houston in crunch time, which
Speaker 1: was insurmountable at that point with Cleveland struggling to generate offense.
Speaker 1: It was a It was a huge play in that game.
Speaker 1: And then on defense and Men Thompson is just an
Speaker 1: absolute menace. Did an excellent job on Donovan Mitchell all night.
Speaker 1: He at thirty three points, but it was on eleven
Speaker 1: for twenty seven from the field, and Mitchell generally looked
Speaker 1: out of control for most of the game. Men Thompson
Speaker 1: is one of the most incredible examples of a legit
Speaker 1: two way perimeter role player in the sense that he's
Speaker 1: genuinely awesome on both ends of the floor. But what
Speaker 1: makes him unique is he can't shoot the ball to
Speaker 1: save his life. And it's just super unique to have
Speaker 1: a player that's like a legit offensive weapon as a
Speaker 1: perimeter player, but that can't shoot. It's just unique. And
Speaker 1: it's because of his remarkable ability to provide off ball
Speaker 1: scoring as a vertical spacing threat underneath the ram and
Speaker 1: the dunker spot, and as a cutter and as a rebounder,
Speaker 1: his on ball pop as a short range score like
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, the John Mourant stuff, and his
Speaker 1: lightning quick processing speed as a passer, and when you
Speaker 1: combine that with him just being an outstanding defensive player
Speaker 1: like he had to play against Evan Mobley and straight
Speaker 1: a straight post up defense where he just popped up
Speaker 1: off the ground and just blocked him on a straight
Speaker 1: vertical jump. He's just an incredibly impressive athlete and already
Speaker 1: such a dominant player despite being pretty raw. Still can't
Speaker 1: even imagine how good he's gonna be in the long run,
Speaker 1: So shout out to him, me and Thompson. Shane gun
Speaker 1: was also fantastic in this game. He's just torching Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley and Jared Allen all night long. In every which way.
Speaker 1: He wins the physicality battle with those guys, which I
Speaker 1: think is interesting, Like he basically just throws them around,
Speaker 1: seems to catch them off guard, which is crazy because
Speaker 1: you think if you watch Shane Goun enough times, you
Speaker 1: know he's coming with that chicken wing. You know he's
Speaker 1: trying to deep seal under the basket when you're not
Speaker 1: paying attention. Like it's all on tape. There as a
Speaker 1: thing I'm almost certain is on the scouting report, but
Speaker 1: Allen and Mobley both just really struggle with them with him,
Speaker 1: and again, like it's actually kind of weird because Houston
Speaker 1: is a top ten offense, which is something I don't
Speaker 1: think a lot of people realize. They're ninth in offensive
Speaker 1: rating on the season, but they're actually twenty fourth and
Speaker 1: half court offensive rating. Most of their success on offense
Speaker 1: comes in transition. That's typically been a weakness for them
Speaker 1: as a team on the season, they have a ninety
Speaker 1: three offensive rating in the half court, but they notched
Speaker 1: a one to seventeen offensive rating in the half court
Speaker 1: in this win against Cleveland, so one of the most
Speaker 1: impressive half court offense games of the year. A couple
Speaker 1: other shoutouts. Dylan Brooks had some really impressive shot making
Speaker 1: in the first half at like a step bag jump shot,
Speaker 1: hit a turn around fade away over Garland on the
Speaker 1: left block over his right shoulder, hit a catch I
Speaker 1: think two catch and shoot threes if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: at least one, so that was an important part of
Speaker 1: the early part of the game. Jalen Green, you know,
Speaker 1: he plays on an island sometimes. I think that's his
Speaker 1: biggest weakness as an offensive player right now. He kind
Speaker 1: of just feels like he's playing one on one a lot.
Speaker 1: But he hit some important shots in this game, and
Speaker 1: he tends to hit some important shots for this team.
Speaker 1: He had five threes in this game, two really tough
Speaker 1: threes during that late third quarter run when they stretched
Speaker 1: the lead up to nineteen. I thought those were big shots.
Speaker 1: Steven Adams just doing a ton of damage on the glass,
Speaker 1: and then again as a folkrium in the zone He's
Speaker 1: a big part of their breaking the zone. Their bench
Speaker 1: group with him and the athletes, and there was different
Speaker 1: variations of it. There's one with like jay Shon Tate
Speaker 1: and Cam Whitmore. There was one with like a Men
Speaker 1: Thompson and Tarry Easton if I remember correctly, But like
Speaker 1: that group is just tough because like a lot of times,
Speaker 1: like the Cavs would over box out Steven Adams, which
Speaker 1: would then leave those athletes opportunities to crash and get
Speaker 1: to the basketball. And then Fred's three point shooting. There
Speaker 1: were several offensive sequences for Houston where the ball ended
Speaker 1: up in Fred's hands to finish the play and they
Speaker 1: needed him to knock down to catch and shoot three
Speaker 1: and he ended up making six of them in this game.
Speaker 1: So Houston Rockets playing some really really impressive basketball. They
Speaker 1: are the best team in the league this year against
Speaker 1: the best teams in the league. They have fourteen wins
Speaker 1: against teams that are in the top ten in point differential,
Speaker 1: which no other team in the league has, and they've
Speaker 1: won seventy eight percent of their games against teams in
Speaker 1: the top ten in point differential. They are fifth in
Speaker 1: offensive rating against teams in the top ten in point differential,
Speaker 1: in third in defense in those games. So like Houston,
Speaker 1: you know, say what you want, and you know, obviously
Speaker 1: I'm still not super high on them as like a
Speaker 1: championship contender because of my concerns with their ball handling
Speaker 1: in the postse but it's hard to deny that they're
Speaker 1: having an incredibly impressive regular season. On the Cleveland front,
Speaker 1: we got to start with defense. They have a one
Speaker 1: twenty four defensive rating in the five losses during this
Speaker 1: three and five stretch. There's slippage everywhere. Mobiley and Allen
Speaker 1: were brutally bad in that Rockets game, getting beat by
Speaker 1: guards at the point of attack in ball screens, which
Speaker 1: like literally cannot happen. We talked about that earlier. If
Speaker 1: you have one job as the big in a ball screen,
Speaker 1: don't let the guard drive past you, like, make him
Speaker 1: hit something over the top, right, But they were getting
Speaker 1: beat in the post by Shangon, They were losing battles
Speaker 1: for rebounds. The two of those guys just have to
Speaker 1: be better. And then their perimeter defense. They stepped it
Speaker 1: up in crunch times, specifically Donovan Mitchell started flying around
Speaker 1: and really competing. But they were losing contained on the
Speaker 1: ball all night long. Their rotations weren't good, guys not
Speaker 1: making extra efforts, sloppiness, Like there were several possessions where
Speaker 1: they were rotating to the wrong spots. There's a bad
Speaker 1: one where like they rushed two guys to the left corner,
Speaker 1: ended up leaving Fred van Vliet wide open on the
Speaker 1: left wing. It's like, just communicate and rotate the way
Speaker 1: you did to start the year. And then their team rebounding.
Speaker 1: They're allowing an offensive rebound on thirty four point five
Speaker 1: percent of their opponent's misses in those five losses. That's
Speaker 1: really really bad. And then on offense, they have a
Speaker 1: one fifteen offensive rating in the five losses, which is
Speaker 1: not terrible, but it's not great either, and it's down
Speaker 1: significantly from where they were earlier in the year. I
Speaker 1: think most of it comes down to Donovan Mitchell. He's
Speaker 1: really starting to regress back to what he looked like
Speaker 1: in years past, where he just tries to solve all
Speaker 1: of his problems by forcing up shots. He's missing way
Speaker 1: too many kickout reads in ball screens that are preventing
Speaker 1: Cleveland from getting into their driving kick attack. Remember in
Speaker 1: my thread on Twitter, there's probably at least a half
Speaker 1: dozen examples of him shooting a really tough mid range
Speaker 1: shot in traffic when there's just an obvious kickout read too.
Speaker 1: Like there's a couple where Evan Mobley's in the corner.
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley shooting over fifty percent on corner threes, you
Speaker 1: have to throw that kickout pass. Ti Jerome is shooting
Speaker 1: over fifty percent on unguarded catch and shoot threes. You
Speaker 1: need to kick that out to Ti Jerome when he's
Speaker 1: standing there wide open, Like, these are basic decisions that
Speaker 1: he has to be better at, and like he's been
Speaker 1: brutally inefficient in the mid range in these five losses.
Speaker 1: In the five losses, seven for twenty three in the
Speaker 1: paint non restricted area, that zero point six to one
Speaker 1: points per shot, four for eleven on twos outside of
Speaker 1: the paint zero points seven three points per shot. Many
Speaker 1: of them are smothered, many of them there are easy
Speaker 1: kickout reads available, so Donovan, like, again, the calves are
Speaker 1: at their best when the ball is popping around, and
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell is picking his spots when to be aggressive.
Speaker 1: Another easy way to put it. Before this eight game stretch,
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell was attempting eighteen shots per game and the
Speaker 1: Calves were thirty one and four. In this eight game stretch,
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell's taking twenty two point three shots per game
Speaker 1: and the calves are three and five. They need to
Speaker 1: get his volume back down. It's not helping their offense
Speaker 1: at all whatsoever, and Mitchell is starting to look like
Speaker 1: he's getting out of rhythm as a result. As a team,
Speaker 1: they've cooled off shooting the basketball a little bit, only
Speaker 1: slightly in catch and shoot situations. They started the year
Speaker 1: shooting forty one percent from three on catch and shoots.
Speaker 1: They're down to thirty nine percent in their last eight games.
Speaker 1: The pull up jump shooting is where it's really falling
Speaker 1: off a cliff. They shot thirty nine percent on pull
Speaker 1: up threes in the first chunk of the season before
Speaker 1: this eight game stretch. That's an absurd number. In the
Speaker 1: last eight games, are down to thirty two point seven
Speaker 1: percent on pull up threes, which, again, I don't think
Speaker 1: they'll be that bad. I think they'll probably I think
Speaker 1: they're a good pull up shooting team. I think they'll
Speaker 1: be in the thirty six thirty seven percent. But some
Speaker 1: of that hot shooting that they relied on in the
Speaker 1: early part of the season is not there anymore. They're
Speaker 1: also not running as much in transition. This was something
Speaker 1: that concerned me a little bit. If you remember the
Speaker 1: early part of the season, forcing turnovers and getting out
Speaker 1: in transition was just a huge part of Cleveland's success.
Speaker 1: They had sixteen fast break points per game in the
Speaker 1: stretch before this eight game stretch, thirteenth in the NBA.
Speaker 1: In that spin, the last eight games just ten point
Speaker 1: six fast break points per game. That's twenty eighth in
Speaker 1: the NBA. So they went from like a legit upper
Speaker 1: half transition team to a one of the worst transition
Speaker 1: teams in the league in this recent stretch forcing turnovers.
Speaker 1: To start the year, they had over twenty points per
Speaker 1: game off of turnovers, which ranked second in the NBA.
Speaker 1: In the last eight games, only sixteen points off turnovers,
Speaker 1: which ranks twentieth in the NBA. In the early part
Speaker 1: of the season, they were seventh in the number of
Speaker 1: turnovers they forced per game, down to sixteenth in the
Speaker 1: last eight games. So how to get back on track?
Speaker 1: Simply put, they just got to get back to doing
Speaker 1: the things that made them great in the first place,
Speaker 1: Get back to defending as a unit, both on the
Speaker 1: perimeter and on the back line. That will help you
Speaker 1: get back to forcing turnovers, which should engage your transition attack,
Speaker 1: pushing transition as much as possible to get easy shots.
Speaker 1: And then when you're in the half court, trust the pass,
Speaker 1: get the ball and player movement back. Get Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: back to playing more as a tip of a spear
Speaker 1: type of ceiling raising offensive player instead of kind of
Speaker 1: forcing the issue as much as he has been, and
Speaker 1: you will get back on track at that point. Lowells
Speaker 1: are a natural part of the eighty two game regular season,
Speaker 1: and the calves of very definitely avoid them to this point.
Speaker 1: Avoided them to this point, but they've hit their first one.
Speaker 1: This is where it's about resilience and demonstrate that that's
Speaker 1: not who you are and how you started the year
Speaker 1: is who you really are. On our power rankings list
Speaker 1: and remember all of our odds are provided by our
Speaker 1: partner Draft Kings. Number ten the Los Angeles the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers. Another game from that jam packed Rivals week
Speaker 1: slate on Saturday night was a showdown between the Clippers
Speaker 1: and they and the Bucks. The run and dunk man
Speaker 1: versus the bag man, and the bagman on wins this round.
Speaker 1: He did unspeakable things to Gary Tran Junior and many
Speaker 1: other Bucks defenders in this game. In this game, he
Speaker 1: went for forty points and nine assists with just one turnover.
Speaker 1: Had everything going. The step back three was going, the
Speaker 1: drives were going, he was getting to the foul line
Speaker 1: a ton. Just absolutely torched them, but they very much
Speaker 1: won the game. With the usual Clippers identity of being
Speaker 1: an insanely athletic perimeter team that swarms on defense, that
Speaker 1: forces you to rush things and make mistakes, and that
Speaker 1: will torch you on the other end by beating you
Speaker 1: to offensive rebounds, the Clippers ran away with this one
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. It was a close game. Milwaukee
Speaker 1: actually had a lead in the early fourth, but they
Speaker 1: force five turnovers, all swarming. Like Dame tries behind the
Speaker 1: back durable, but right when he goes to behind the
Speaker 1: back durable, a mere coffee jumps him and forces a turnover.
Speaker 1: Gary Trent Junior in transition has like an easy layup
Speaker 1: and goes with it behind the back dribble that could
Speaker 1: have shed off Kevin Porter Junior for a layup, but
Speaker 1: he just rushes it and fumbles the ball away and
Speaker 1: turns it over. Jhannas slips out of a screen, has
Speaker 1: an over the top passing angle, pass comes over the top,
Speaker 1: but they're swarming from the weak side, and he just
Speaker 1: fumbles the ball away and it leads to a turnover.
Speaker 1: Like that's all bred by that activity. We talked about
Speaker 1: this with Minnesota and Denver, when when you have that
Speaker 1: type of athleticism on the perimeter, just forces teams to rush,
Speaker 1: and when they rush, they make mistakes. The Clippers scored
Speaker 1: seven points on runouts from those turnovers as well. They
Speaker 1: have three offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter as well,
Speaker 1: which all ended in buckets. Terrence Man got a excuse
Speaker 1: me a mere coffee, got an easy put back over
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton where he just bodied him and grabbed the ball.
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Junior kind of slipped out of his screen
Speaker 1: and remembered that when you slip, the guard needs to
Speaker 1: get inside position to box out. Dame didn't even bother,
Speaker 1: so dere Jones got inside position on Dame just got
Speaker 1: an easy rebound for a put back. Just a physical
Speaker 1: mismatch on the perimeter between these two teams, and then
Speaker 1: Kawhi had his best game since coming back eighteen points.
Speaker 1: He had these three contact finishes through brook Lopez that
Speaker 1: I thought were all good signs of his growing confidence
Speaker 1: in his body. A spin move where he spun into
Speaker 1: his body and got a lay up. Another one where
Speaker 1: he like dropped that shoulder and dislodged him and made
Speaker 1: like a little short post move. That's a big sign
Speaker 1: of him getting his strength back. Then a crazy play
Speaker 1: where he did like this behind the back table into
Speaker 1: a baseline drive and then went up and under and
Speaker 1: finished with his left hand, also in contact with brook Lopez.
Speaker 1: I thought those were all kind of like exciting demonstrations
Speaker 1: that Kawhi is starting to get his legs back underneath him.
Speaker 1: The Clippers have won six out of eight. They have
Speaker 1: the best defense in the league in that span, the
Speaker 1: only defense in the league to hold opponents to under
Speaker 1: one hundred points per one hundred possessions in that eight
Speaker 1: game span. Hard not to get at least a little
Speaker 1: excited about the Clippers with how well they're playing on
Speaker 1: defense and the potential of this offense anchored by Kawhi,
Speaker 1: James Harden, and Norman Powell. However, as it always is
Speaker 1: with the Clippers, it's just about whether or not they
Speaker 1: can stay healthy, and you would be insane to not
Speaker 1: be a little skeptical about that. Clippers right now are
Speaker 1: plus twenty five hundred to win the NBA title on DraftKings,
Speaker 1: plus thirteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number nine
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks. Yes, I know the Clippers just beat
Speaker 1: them head to head, but the Bucks had won five
Speaker 1: straight before that, in eight of nine. I think they're
Speaker 1: just a little bit better right now, so I gave
Speaker 1: them the nod for this week. Just a lot of
Speaker 1: good and bad in that Clippers loss. Like Giannis looked
Speaker 1: great again. I think he had like thirty six and thirteen.
Speaker 1: Continues to play like an MVP. Gary Trent Junior is
Speaker 1: really starting to get going, specifically with his three point shot.
Speaker 1: In his last thirteen games, Gary Trde Junior is shooting
Speaker 1: fifty seven percent from three on five point two attempts
Speaker 1: per game. So really exciting stuff there. But the same
Speaker 1: issues that have consistently plagued this team rose to the
Speaker 1: surface in that fourth quarter when they lost control against
Speaker 1: the Clippers, mainly just their perimeter guys not competing like
Speaker 1: specifically guys like Gary Trent, Chris Middleton, Damian Lillard, just
Speaker 1: getting badly torched at the point of attack, badly beat
Speaker 1: on the glass just time and time again. But overall,
Speaker 1: the Bucks have been playing really well. As we said,
Speaker 1: they had won eight of nine before that. Giannis in
Speaker 1: that nine game span has averaged twenty nine points, thirteen
Speaker 1: rebounds and six assists as he tries to stay attached
Speaker 1: to Shay and Nikole Jokic and the MVP race. The
Speaker 1: Bucks right now plus twenty five hundred to win the title,
Speaker 1: plus one thousand to win the Eastern Conference. Number eight
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers. They've won five out of six
Speaker 1: and what has probably been their most impressive stretch of
Speaker 1: the season, peaking with that wired to wire dominating performance
Speaker 1: against the Boston Celtics last week that really demonstrated the
Speaker 1: upside of this team on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: In this six game span, the Lakers are sixth in
Speaker 1: defensive rating. I talked a little bit in the Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Show about the influx of defensive talent. You trade
Speaker 1: out a guy like D'Angelo Russell, you bring in a
Speaker 1: guy like Dorian Finney Smith, and you get a guy
Speaker 1: like Jared Vanderbilt back from injury. You just bring in
Speaker 1: two really good defensive players, and it slots everybody else
Speaker 1: in more achievable defensive roles, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you just have more lineups with more good defensive players
Speaker 1: that are in more achievable roles, which is just gonna
Speaker 1: lead to better defense. Well, guess what, in the last
Speaker 1: six games, the Lakers are sixth in defensive riting some
Speaker 1: really impressive defensive stretches during that stretch during that time,
Speaker 1: including that win against the Celtics. That's a benefit of
Speaker 1: bringing in defensive talent the way that they have through
Speaker 1: just getting healthy in that trade for Dorrian Finny Smith.
Speaker 1: And then in this stretch, Lebron James and Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: have really been stepping up their rim pressure. Lebron specifically
Speaker 1: in that Boston and Golden State game. Austin has been
Speaker 1: doing this for a while, but like you got to
Speaker 1: have downhill rim pressure to create easier opportunities for some
Speaker 1: of these flawed offensive players that they have, and those
Speaker 1: guys have just done that work. And then Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: who had been in a bit of a funk in
Speaker 1: the previous month or two, had just was absolutely amazing
Speaker 1: against Boston and Golden State and looking better physically than
Speaker 1: he has since the beginning of since the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season, so really encouraging stuff on that front. The
Speaker 1: Lakers are in a really good spot to make an
Speaker 1: all in type of trade. Lebron and ad are both
Speaker 1: engaged in playing really well. The roster is mostly healthy
Speaker 1: at this point, and they have the assets to get
Speaker 1: some legitimate talent upgrades. I think of them as like again,
Speaker 1: I think that Dallas roster is better, but you need
Speaker 1: to think like Dallas did last year. This is a
Speaker 1: team that's in the middle of the West. But if
Speaker 1: they bring in a couple of high level role players,
Speaker 1: just like Dallas did last year with PJ. Washington and
Speaker 1: Daniel Gafford, that could be the thing that gets them
Speaker 1: in position to go on a run. That is the
Speaker 1: path the Los Angeles Lakers right now. Plus thirty five
Speaker 1: hundred to win the title, big long shot there. Plus
Speaker 1: sixteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number seven, the
Speaker 1: New York Knicks the very jekylin hide of late. They're
Speaker 1: six and six in their last twelve games, and in
Speaker 1: their wins they score the shit out of the basketball,
Speaker 1: and they defend pretty well in their six losses, can't
Speaker 1: make threes to save their life, and they post a
Speaker 1: one to twenty three defensive rating. On the defensive end,
Speaker 1: it's been consistent all season. Every time I watch the Knicks,
Speaker 1: teams relentlessly go at Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns,
Speaker 1: and again, there are coverages that Thibodeau has for them
Speaker 1: to protect those guys, and they just don't execute it
Speaker 1: very well. Sometimes you'll see Jalen Brunson go to throw
Speaker 1: a hedge and just not contain the ball or not
Speaker 1: sprint back in rotation. Same sort of thing with Karl
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns. There's a level of commitment with those guys
Speaker 1: that's inconsistent on the defensive end, and when they mail
Speaker 1: it in, it just gets really really hard from them.
Speaker 1: They end up in rotation and teams spray around on
Speaker 1: them and pick them apart, and then on offense, it
Speaker 1: literally comes down to three point shooting. This is a
Speaker 1: crazy staff for you guys. In wins for the Knicks
Speaker 1: this year, Jalen Brunson forty five percent from three, Carl
Speaker 1: Towns forty four percent from three, Mikail Bridges forty percent
Speaker 1: from three, ogn Andobi thirty seven percent from three, Josh
Speaker 1: Hart thirty nine percent from three in losses, Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: twenty nine percent from three, Karl Anthony Towns forty one percent.
Speaker 1: Still hot, but still down three percent from the wins.
Speaker 1: McHale Bridges twenty nine percent, oj Nanobi thirty two percent,
Speaker 1: Josh Hart thirty one percent. It's like, literally, every time
Speaker 1: I watch the Knicks, it's just about which team I'm getting.
Speaker 1: When they guard and they knock down shots, they can
Speaker 1: beat anybody. But when they don't guard, when they go
Speaker 1: cold from the perimeter, things seem to fall apart for them.
Speaker 1: Right now, the Knicks are plus eight fifty to win
Speaker 1: the title, plus four hundred to win the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: The Denver Nuggets at number six, got smashed by the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves on Saturday. The Wolves just have Denver's number. They've
Speaker 1: now won four in a row against Denver, dating back
Speaker 1: to last year's Western Conference semi final series. They just
Speaker 1: have a big issue on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: When Denver has the ball on offense, Minnesota is just
Speaker 1: so physical that they have several players that seem to
Speaker 1: struggle in that setting. I've seen Jamal Murray was good
Speaker 1: in the Saturday game, but he struggled really bad at
Speaker 1: times in that second round series last year. Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior seems to really struggle in that setting. In Jokic
Speaker 1: can get a little sloppy with the basketball. You had
Speaker 1: seven turnovers, and then when you go to the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, they just can't stop Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: and Julius Randall from getting wherever they want. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter how much they load up and can just run
Speaker 1: around their slower guys, especially guys like Nikola Jokic, and
Speaker 1: they just don't. Denver just doesn't have the rim protection
Speaker 1: to really cause problems from Minnesota in the half court,
Speaker 1: so they get lit up on that end as well.
Speaker 1: It's just a bad matchup. Not really much they can
Speaker 1: do about it at this point. They just got to
Speaker 1: hope they avoid them when they get to the postseason.
Speaker 1: But Denver had one eight out of nine before that.
Speaker 1: The offense was just absolutely crushing everyone, really nice give
Speaker 1: and take from their perimeter players like there's a it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a who's got it tonight kind of
Speaker 1: attitude between guys like Jamal Murray Russell Westbrook and Julian
Speaker 1: Strawther and a little bit of Mike coeh Porter Junior too,
Speaker 1: and they do a really nice job of just kind
Speaker 1: of like feeling which guy has it going that night
Speaker 1: and playing through them more. And then nikol Jokiic is
Speaker 1: just playing at that goat offensive level that makes everything easier.
Speaker 1: And then up until the Minnesota game, nikol Jokic had
Speaker 1: been defending at a really high level, getting a lot
Speaker 1: more deflections and steals in ball screens than he had
Speaker 1: been getting earlier in the season. The Nuggets right now
Speaker 1: plus fourteen to win the title, plus six point fifty
Speaker 1: to win the Western Conference. Number five the Memphis Grizzlies.
Speaker 1: They're in a very easy part of their schedule right now.
Speaker 1: They've had six straight wins, but five of those six
Speaker 1: wins were against teams that are in the bottom five
Speaker 1: of either conference, So just capitalizing on an easy stretch
Speaker 1: of their schedule. But a really impressive win against Minnesota
Speaker 1: in there a game where they came back from behind
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. Jaron Jackson just kicked the shit
Speaker 1: out of Julius Randall in that fourth quarter. He's playing
Speaker 1: insanely well as of late, in his last thirteen games,
Speaker 1: he's averaging twenty six points per game on fifty one
Speaker 1: percent from the field and thirty five percent from three
Speaker 1: really really high level hoops Fromjaron Jaron Jackson. Memphis Grizzlies
Speaker 1: right right now, plus twenty five hundred to win the title,
Speaker 1: plus one thousand to win the Western Conference. Number four
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics. They've been in a weird funk for
Speaker 1: a while. They're just thirteen and ten in their last
Speaker 1: twenty three games, really good offensive rating and defensive rating
Speaker 1: in that stretch because they've just had some incredibly dominant
Speaker 1: wins in there that kind of mess up the data.
Speaker 1: Settling has been the main issue for them losses, just
Speaker 1: specifically Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum just attacking mismatches by
Speaker 1: shooting over the top instead of being physically aggressive downhill
Speaker 1: to compromise the defense so they can get their kickout
Speaker 1: so they can get their driving kick game going, which
Speaker 1: again is when Boston is at their best when they're
Speaker 1: driving and kicking the ball around. But I did think
Speaker 1: their win against Dallas is one of their most impressive
Speaker 1: wins as of late. Jalen Brown demonstrated a ton more
Speaker 1: physical aggression and was just living in the paint right
Speaker 1: in front of the rim. Was getting some of those
Speaker 1: driving kicks to Chris hops porzingis that we know that
Speaker 1: he has when he's playing his best basketball. They got
Speaker 1: back to moving the ball around. Out of their forty
Speaker 1: four makes, they had thirty three assists. That's a strong
Speaker 1: indicator of the Celtics getting into their driving kick game.
Speaker 1: And then they just really clamped down on Dallas's offense,
Speaker 1: like we all know that they're capable of on defense,
Speaker 1: and they looked like the Celtics again. They have looked
Speaker 1: a little tired even in that early stretch against Dallas.
Speaker 1: They play every other day until the All Star Break,
Speaker 1: but at that point they do finally get arrest and
Speaker 1: I think the All Star break is going to be
Speaker 1: really good for the Celtics before they kind of kick
Speaker 1: it into gear for the home stretch. They're now plus
Speaker 1: two thirty five to win the title, plus one zho
Speaker 1: five to win the Eastern Conference. Number three the Houston Rockets.
Speaker 1: We talked a bunch about them at the top of
Speaker 1: today's show, so I'm not going to get too much deeper,
Speaker 1: but they just continue to rack up incredibly impressive wins
Speaker 1: with their latest two wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers. I
Speaker 1: talked about this in the earlier part of the show,
Speaker 1: but they've been the best team in the league this
Speaker 1: year against the best teams in the league. Against teams
Speaker 1: that have top ten point differentials, Houston's won fourteen times,
Speaker 1: which is which stands alone, is the most in the league,
Speaker 1: seventy eight percent win percentage, which is also the highest
Speaker 1: percentage in the league, fifth in offensive rating and third
Speaker 1: in defensive rating against teams in the top ten in
Speaker 1: point differential. Again, I have concerns about their offense in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, but it's hard to deny that they're not
Speaker 1: having just an incredible regular season and a men Thompson
Speaker 1: is going to be an absolute star. He's still so raw,
Speaker 1: but he's already just bludgeoning teams on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor with his athleticism. It's crazy to think of
Speaker 1: what he could be in the long run. The Rockets
Speaker 1: right now plus five thousand to win the NBA title,
Speaker 1: plus sixteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number two
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Cavaliers. We also hit them at the top
Speaker 1: of the show, so I'm not going to get too
Speaker 1: deep into them here, but they've lost five out of eight,
Speaker 1: lost their identity in a bunch of ways. They've got
Speaker 1: to get it back. They got to get back to
Speaker 1: defending as a unit, both on the perimeter and on
Speaker 1: the interior, so that they can start forcing turnovers again,
Speaker 1: so that they can start getting back out in transition,
Speaker 1: and then when they get stuck in the half court,
Speaker 1: they need to trust the pass. Mainly talking about Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell there has had some some of his worst floor
Speaker 1: game as of late in the last few weeks. Once
Speaker 1: they get that ball in player movement back, I think
Speaker 1: they'll get back on track, especially if they get their
Speaker 1: defense going again. The Cavs right now plus nine to
Speaker 1: fifty to win the title, plus three seventy to win
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference and number one the Oklahoma City Thunder
Speaker 1: has been a really weird stretch of their schedule. Their
Speaker 1: last five games, They've played three bad teams that they beat,
Speaker 1: and then they play the Dallas Mavericks twice, who they
Speaker 1: lost to, and Dallas is a bad matchup for them
Speaker 1: in general, but especially when they don't have their bigs
Speaker 1: Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren right in the latest loss
Speaker 1: to Dallas, the one, the second one, they really struggled
Speaker 1: with this like bizarre zone look that Jason Kidd used
Speaker 1: where he just took the top two guys in the
Speaker 1: zone and just doubled Shay, Like as soon as he
Speaker 1: crossed half court, they were going after him to get
Speaker 1: the ball out of his hands, and it just kind
Speaker 1: of discombobulated the thunder and they fell apart. But it
Speaker 1: feels very matchup related, and this is something that I
Speaker 1: think we need to keep in mind as we look
Speaker 1: at Oklahoma City struggling with Dallas, as we look at
Speaker 1: teams like the Lakers struggling with teams like the Clippers,
Speaker 1: as we look at teams like the Nuggets struggling with
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves. Like, when you look at that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: it's just a reminder of what I talked about last year.
Speaker 1: Going into the postseason. A lot of this Western Conference
Speaker 1: is going to come down to matchups. Catching teams that
Speaker 1: you match up well against versus and avoiding teams that
Speaker 1: you match up poorly against could literally be the difference
Speaker 1: between losing in the first round and going to the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals. So like, let's keep that in mind as
Speaker 1: we are looking at our playoff field for the West.
Speaker 1: As we get closer, matchups are going to play a
Speaker 1: huge role in how this whole thing ends up. The
Speaker 1: Thunder right now plus two to seventy to win the title,
Speaker 1: plus one to twenty five to win the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: And as always, our ads our odds, excuse me, are
Speaker 1: from our partner, Draft Kings. All right, guys, it's all
Speaker 1: I have for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I hope
Speaker 1: you have a good rest of your evening. We'll be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with some more game reactions. I'll see you
Speaker 1: guys then the volume. What's up guys, As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It
Speaker 1: would actually be really helpful for us if you guys
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Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
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