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Speaker 1: at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. If all of you
Speaker 1: guys had an incredible weekend, I am so excited to
Speaker 1: get back into our groove this week. We got a
Speaker 1: jam packed show the Dallas Mavericks. We had an unstoppable
Speaker 1: force versus an unmovable object. Last night. The Dallas Mavericks,
Speaker 1: on a six game winning streak, have been red hot
Speaker 1: for a while against a Houston Rockets team at home
Speaker 1: that was on an eleven game winning streak, and the
Speaker 1: Mavericks got a big win. We're gonna break that game
Speaker 1: down from the perspective of both teams. After that, the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City Thunder won a incredibly entertaining back and forth game.
Speaker 1: Late against the New York Knicks, Jalen Brunson looked like
Speaker 1: he won the game, and then Chase stole it back,
Speaker 1: and then Jalen Brunson got a similar look on the
Speaker 1: other end and missed it super entertaining. We're gonna break
Speaker 1: that game down later on in the show, we have
Speaker 1: an interesting quote from Lebron James, who went nine to
Speaker 1: ten from three last night against the Brooklyn Nets, was
Speaker 1: just toying with them late. He had a quote after
Speaker 1: the game about how much longer he's gonna be playing.
Speaker 1: There's some discussion about how much longer Lebron's window is
Speaker 1: in terms of his ability to compete for championships, so
Speaker 1: I want to address that under the frame of the
Speaker 1: question will Lebron ever play in the NBA Finals again?
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that, and then last but not least,
Speaker 1: as we always do on Mondays but didn't last week
Speaker 1: while I was skiing up in Lake tyhe we're gonna
Speaker 1: do an edition of Power Rankings, obvious with two weeks
Speaker 1: worth of new games to get into, so jam Pack
Speaker 1: show you guys are the drop Before we get started
Speaker 1: to subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel, I mean
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Speaker 1: second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't
Speaker 1: forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts
Speaker 1: under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave
Speaker 1: a rating in a review on that feed. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about my Twitter feed I underscore Jason LT. That's where
Speaker 1: I'm putting ShW announcements and film threads. I did a
Speaker 1: long film thread this morning on the first half run
Speaker 1: that Dallas used to go up by twenty one on
Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets. You can find that again on my
Speaker 1: Twitter feed at underscore Jason LT. And last not leaves
Speaker 1: keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We're
Speaker 1: gonna have several mail bags during the week this week.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So the story of
Speaker 1: this Rockets MAVs game was all about Luka Doncic. The
Speaker 1: Houston Rockets have gone small after Alpera and Schagun got hurt,
Speaker 1: and they're basically moving a Men Thompson into the starting
Speaker 1: lineup and he's basically playing center for them. It's just
Speaker 1: this athletic wrecking ball that's doing as much as they
Speaker 1: can and obviously like they don't really have a great
Speaker 1: option to throw in there. Jack Landale in his minutes
Speaker 1: was a huge problem in this game, which will be
Speaker 1: getting into So as a result, you've got lots of
Speaker 1: great perimeter defenders in that group, right like Dylan Brooks
Speaker 1: outstanding perimeter defender, Aman Thompson outstanding perimeter defender, Fred Van
Speaker 1: Vliet outstanding perimeter defender, Jalen excuse me, Jabari Smith Junior
Speaker 1: outstanding perimeter defender. Honestly, Jalen Green is really the only
Speaker 1: weekly link in that group. But they're really good at
Speaker 1: sliding their feet on the perimeter and bothering guards. But
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic is not like other guards in the NBA.
Speaker 1: He's way bigger than all of those guys, and honestly,
Speaker 1: one of the biggest advantages too, is like Luca, he
Speaker 1: one of the things that I think often goes overlooked
Speaker 1: when we talk about Luca's skill set is obviously has
Speaker 1: all this incredible shot making ability, and he does have
Speaker 1: great size, but he uses his brain not just as
Speaker 1: a passer, but he also uses his brain to get
Speaker 1: defenders out of position. I talked about this a lot
Speaker 1: on the show, as it pertains to the way he
Speaker 1: sells his moves, like, for instance, he's not gonna do
Speaker 1: some big sweeping crossover right to left, He's gonna do
Speaker 1: a push cross. He's gonna turn his body entirely to
Speaker 1: the right, entirely, frame his body language like he's going
Speaker 1: one way, and then he's gonna just come across his body.
Speaker 1: He's selling it with his body, not with the basketball necessarily.
Speaker 1: But in addition to that, something that we've never taught,
Speaker 1: haven't talked enough about over the years is how he
Speaker 1: can get defenders out of position with fakes and with
Speaker 1: footwork and about body positioning right. And this becomes a
Speaker 1: much bigger deal when you're going against smaller defenders, because
Speaker 1: especially smaller athletes with long arms and high motor athletes
Speaker 1: that are constantly playing super hard, you want to use
Speaker 1: that aggressiveness against them. And it's he started this game
Speaker 1: just killing them with pump fakes and footwork and getting
Speaker 1: to spots and then just rising up with a little
Speaker 1: shoulder headfake, and one of Houston's perimeter defenders would just
Speaker 1: be two over zealous and jump and get off the
Speaker 1: ground and he'd either just pivot around and get to
Speaker 1: a different spot to take a shot or he'd go
Speaker 1: right back up into them and draw foul. And again,
Speaker 1: like those two elements footwork and pump fis, I want
Speaker 1: to talk about them for just a second. Footwork is
Speaker 1: an incredibly important part of the game of basketball that
Speaker 1: doesn't get discussed enough because it's something that's not as
Speaker 1: you know, exciting as ball handling or shop making or
Speaker 1: athleticism or things along those lines. And footwork. I was
Speaker 1: actually talking about this this morning with my young players
Speaker 1: that I coach on Mondays and Fridays when we do
Speaker 1: skills training. I was so impressed because we have a
Speaker 1: new group coming in right so seniors are out, the
Speaker 1: juniors that are coming up they are going to be
Speaker 1: the seniors next year. And then we have some new
Speaker 1: kids that are joining the program or that have been
Speaker 1: in the program that are joining the varsity elements of
Speaker 1: the program that were freshman and sophomore last year. And
Speaker 1: we're working on some basic footwork concepts, both for like
Speaker 1: movement shooting, also just like off the dribble stuff, just
Speaker 1: basic footwork concepts. A lot of its attacking closeouts too,
Speaker 1: which I think is a super important part of the
Speaker 1: high school game. But I was talking to them about
Speaker 1: how impressed I was that the juniors coming up are
Speaker 1: so sharp with their footwork now and they used to
Speaker 1: be terrible with it, and all of the younger players
Speaker 1: right now are really struggling with it, and I kind
Speaker 1: of use it as an example to talk to the kids, like, look,
Speaker 1: this is what happens. Like in time, these movements do
Speaker 1: become more natural for you. They become the second nature.
Speaker 1: They become a natural part of what you do as
Speaker 1: an athlete. The footwork coming off of a screening action
Speaker 1: for a three off, the catch is go is the
Speaker 1: exact mirror image going on either end of the floor
Speaker 1: right and looks a little different for a righty than
Speaker 1: it does for a lefty. And you know, the easiest
Speaker 1: way for me to put it is footwork is how
Speaker 1: you get two spots right. So once you get to
Speaker 1: the spot, your physicality, your lift, your shot making takes
Speaker 1: over right. But to get to the spot, you need
Speaker 1: a certain footwork. Imagine you're coming off of a ball
Speaker 1: screen to your right hand side, guy's chasing over the top,
Speaker 1: big man sitting a little far back, but you see
Speaker 1: a little opening maybe five feet in front of you
Speaker 1: and five feet off to the right. You need to
Speaker 1: have the ability to do a single push dribble in
Speaker 1: that direction, but to take off with a left right
Speaker 1: takeoff and get great lift to take advantage of that spot,
Speaker 1: because if you stutter step to that spot, or you
Speaker 1: go right left to that spot, it's gonna be janky,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be awkward, You're gonna have to pick up
Speaker 1: your dribble and you're gonna end up passing it out
Speaker 1: from there. The ability to actually get two spots on
Speaker 1: the floor where you can where you can do work
Speaker 1: depends on footwork. For instance, there was a post up
Speaker 1: of from Luca on Jabari Smith. If I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: on the right block, I clipped this possession. You could
Speaker 1: see it in my Twitter feed on the thread that
Speaker 1: I did for this particular game. But the ability to
Speaker 1: as as Luca is backing Jabari Smith down on that
Speaker 1: right block using his right shoulder to kind of create
Speaker 1: a little bit of separation, there is a step through
Speaker 1: footwork element he goes to where he pivots over his
Speaker 1: right shoulder and pump fakes, but he has a really
Speaker 1: wide base and he plants that left foot in a
Speaker 1: way where he can go straight up if he wants,
Speaker 1: but he also can just plant it and pivot back
Speaker 1: the other way or step And in this case he
Speaker 1: actually held his ground in pump faked, and when Jabari
Speaker 1: Smith left his feet, he was already set in his
Speaker 1: footwork to be able to go right back up into
Speaker 1: Jabbari and draw the foul. There is a balance element
Speaker 1: when you get to those spots. That is about having
Speaker 1: your base constantly underneath you. And the only way to
Speaker 1: have your base constantly underneath you is to have the
Speaker 1: appropriate footwork to get to your spots with balance and
Speaker 1: with a good, strong, wide base. And then the second
Speaker 1: element of it is the pump fakes. So obviously the
Speaker 1: easiest way to take advantage of Overzelle's defense off the
Speaker 1: ball is to backcut right, Like if you're on the
Speaker 1: wing and the guy's up and deny he's and he's
Speaker 1: playing the passing lane, all you have to do is
Speaker 1: make it look like you're ready to catch and then
Speaker 1: cut back door, and you could take advantage of over
Speaker 1: Zelli's defense on the perimeter with body movement. But on
Speaker 1: the basketball it's all about fakes. Pump fakes, footwork fakes
Speaker 1: things along those lines. And again like Luca. When he's
Speaker 1: dealing with these guys, he can shoot over them top, right,
Speaker 1: Like he can take difficult shots over the top, but
Speaker 1: he doesn't need to if he can take advantage of
Speaker 1: their over zealous approach to defense by using fakes to
Speaker 1: get them out of position. Luca's first three buckets in
Speaker 1: this game were right at the rim, and all three
Speaker 1: of them were like one hundred percent shots, not like, oh,
Speaker 1: I took a tough little hook shot over the top
Speaker 1: and it may or may not go in. No, no, no.
Speaker 1: He was getting easy layups right under the basket by
Speaker 1: using fakes to get smaller defenders out of position, and
Speaker 1: once they leave their feet, I just might as well
Speaker 1: be a mic and drill at that point, right, Like
Speaker 1: he's just taking an easy layup right underneath the basket.
Speaker 1: So he was killing them in switches again because Houston
Speaker 1: was switching everything with that lineup significant size advantages all
Speaker 1: over the floor, using those footworks, that that footwork in
Speaker 1: those pump fakes to get easy shots around the rim.
Speaker 1: So then Houston brings in Jock Landon and Lucas starts
Speaker 1: picking on him and switches, and Jock is giving him
Speaker 1: space and offering a token contest at the end, but
Speaker 1: Luca just doesn't even see that contest, especially with his eyes,
Speaker 1: and he just started killing him with pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots over the top. Luca took twenty two pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots in this game and made twelve of them.
Speaker 1: He took fifteen pull up threes and made eight of them.
Speaker 1: Yet thirty two total points on twenty two pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot attempts. That's one point four to five points
Speaker 1: her pull up jumper. That's completely absurd, and that doesn't
Speaker 1: even count all the times that he got to the
Speaker 1: foul line by pump faking on one of those shots.
Speaker 1: It's arguably the biggest difference between this year and last
Speaker 1: year with Luca is he's just so much more effective
Speaker 1: with his pull up jump shot game, which has just
Speaker 1: made him that much harder to guard. He's actually shooting
Speaker 1: thirty seven percent on the season on pull up threes. Honestly,
Speaker 1: it was just comical how much better Luca was than
Speaker 1: everybody else on the floor in this game. It kind
Speaker 1: of reminded me of some of the games when Lebron
Speaker 1: James was at his peak and when he was better
Speaker 1: than everybody in the league, where he would just kind
Speaker 1: of mess around, like you'd be in this like dead
Speaker 1: serious NBA game between like two teams are really good
Speaker 1: and Lebron would just be like trying shit. And those
Speaker 1: of you guys who were who were watching the league
Speaker 1: during that phase when Lebron was in his prime, you
Speaker 1: know exactly what I'm talking about. And like Luca like
Speaker 1: purposely banked in a three point shot in this game
Speaker 1: just for fun. Like imagine how unbothered and unthreatened you'd
Speaker 1: have to feel on the road against a team on
Speaker 1: an eleven game winning streak to just be like, dah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to bank in this three in the
Speaker 1: first half, the game was still in question at that point.
Speaker 1: He banked in another jumper in the first half, and
Speaker 1: then in the second half he had this step through
Speaker 1: move where you're like pump faked at the three point line,
Speaker 1: step through with his left foot. Again a footwork element there.
Speaker 1: He just when he's on his base, he always knows
Speaker 1: he can take an additional step to get to his
Speaker 1: spot as long as he landed on that jump stop right.
Speaker 1: So he steps through with his left foot and then
Speaker 1: scoops up underneath and just throws up a scoop shot
Speaker 1: from like twenty feet away from the basket and puts
Speaker 1: it in. Just trying that is absurd. Let alone making
Speaker 1: that shot, the level of confidence that were wires to
Speaker 1: do that in the NBA at all, let alone in
Speaker 1: this important of a game. It completely crazy, because again
Speaker 1: you gotta remember, all these games are must win games
Speaker 1: for the Houston Rockets as they try to get into
Speaker 1: that ten seed. It was just unbelievable. Other mass pitching
Speaker 1: in Kyrie Irving had twenty four points and seven assists
Speaker 1: with only one turnover. PJ Washington hit a couple of
Speaker 1: huge above the break threes during that second quarter run
Speaker 1: when the MAVs went up by twenty one. Honestly, PJ
Speaker 1: Washington's three point shooting is going to be a huge
Speaker 1: swing factor for the MAVs when they get into the postseason.
Speaker 1: This year, Dante Exum five for five from the field.
Speaker 1: He's shooting over sixty percent on unguarded catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots this year. Not effective field goal percentage, not
Speaker 1: weighted for threes, just field goal percentage. Shooting sixty percent
Speaker 1: ninety one percent when you weait it for threes in
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage. He's getting one point eight one
Speaker 1: points per unguarded, catch and shoot, jump shot and the like. Again,
Speaker 1: if you look back at what he did overseas the
Speaker 1: previous two years, this has been a trend that has continued.
Speaker 1: He's fixed his jumper while he was overseas and he's
Speaker 1: brought it back to the NBA and it's made him
Speaker 1: a very impactful player. And honestly, it gives the MAVs
Speaker 1: all these different options that they can go to, because,
Speaker 1: like you know, I like Derek Jones Junior, he started
Speaker 1: the game guarding Jalen Green did a really nice job,
Speaker 1: had a rough offensive game, but a really good perimeter
Speaker 1: defense game. You can go with a guy like that.
Speaker 1: You can go with the guy like Josh Green, you
Speaker 1: can go the guy like PJ. Washington, you can go
Speaker 1: with the guy like Dante X. And they have all
Speaker 1: these different options that they can go to, and that
Speaker 1: like honestly will allow as long as Jason Kidd plays
Speaker 1: the right buttons based on the matchups and based on
Speaker 1: how guys are playing and honestly can make them better.
Speaker 1: So the MAVs dominate to get a big win. They're
Speaker 1: seventh straight. I want to talk about defense for a second.
Speaker 1: You know, I always talk about defensive personnel and just
Speaker 1: the job that teams do chasing over the top of
Speaker 1: screens or defending and drop coverage, or rotating on the
Speaker 1: weak side, or help and recover situations close outs, all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and that's all important, but most
Speaker 1: of that has to do a defensive talent and execution, right.
Speaker 1: Another half of the defensive equation, honestly, one that we
Speaker 1: talk about way more when we get to the postseason
Speaker 1: and not so much in the regular season. His game plan,
Speaker 1: and you could argue it's every bit as important as
Speaker 1: the stuff with the defensive talent. And I thought Jason
Speaker 1: Kidd had just a really really smart game plan for
Speaker 1: Houston in this game. He put Daniel Gafford on Men
Speaker 1: Thompson to start the game and just had him completely
Speaker 1: ignore him. So when Thompson was setting ball screens, he'd
Speaker 1: be sitting back in a drop Thompson is not involved
Speaker 1: in the play, just sitting right basically right under the basket.
Speaker 1: And that just really gummed up Houston's offense. And then
Speaker 1: when Derek Lively came in and Jock Landale came in,
Speaker 1: they were worried about or not worried about jack Landale's
Speaker 1: ability to score in the short role, and so with
Speaker 1: Derek Lively, they had him blitz and they were blitzing
Speaker 1: ball screens, basically staying home off the ball and jack
Speaker 1: Landale's catching in the middle of the floor. He had
Speaker 1: a couple of buckets in there, but there were based
Speaker 1: on a per possession basis. I think he had like
Speaker 1: maybe four points in the short role at least during
Speaker 1: that first half run and probably had like six or
Speaker 1: seven catches down there. So like it was working out
Speaker 1: to Dallas' advantage just to basically when Gafford's on the floor,
Speaker 1: park his ass underneath the basket. When Derek Liveley's out there,
Speaker 1: be aggressive, dare jack Landel will beat you on the roll,
Speaker 1: and it worked really really well, like Houston's offense was.
Speaker 1: Houston's offense has been really really good over the course
Speaker 1: of this recent win streak that they've been on. They've
Speaker 1: been like up over one one hundred and twenty points
Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions. Is flying up and down the
Speaker 1: floor using their athleticism, knocking down shots, and they just
Speaker 1: completely stalled out Newston's offense with a really smart game
Speaker 1: plan and that's a huge part of it, like identifying
Speaker 1: your opponent's weakness and building your defensive strategy around that.
Speaker 1: That is again every bit is important as defensive personnel
Speaker 1: and being smart with those strategic elements when you get
Speaker 1: to the postseason could be the difference between a long
Speaker 1: playoff run in an early exit. Since February fifth, the
Speaker 1: MAVs are nineteen and six. That is the second best
Speaker 1: record in the league over that span behind the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: the eighth in defense, eleventh in defensive rebounding over that span.
Speaker 1: So again, this is a significant sample size twenty five games,
Speaker 1: more than thirty percent of the season by percentage, and
Speaker 1: they're eleventh in defensive rebounding and eighth in defense. That's
Speaker 1: real two way basketball that the Mavericks are playing. You
Speaker 1: can even make a case, if they move high enough
Speaker 1: in the standings that Luka Dancin should be more seriously
Speaker 1: taken into consideration for the MVP Award. That's the type
Speaker 1: of run that Dallas has been on. I think they
Speaker 1: need to win a few more games here down the stretch,
Speaker 1: but there's every haste to make that he belongs in
Speaker 1: that conversation. Now here's the question, where would I place
Speaker 1: Dallas in light of their recent run among the West hierarchy.
Speaker 1: And you know, I looked at this for a while
Speaker 1: this morning to try to kind of come up with
Speaker 1: the concrete opinion. Here's where I'm at. Obviously, Denver still
Speaker 1: at the top. I still have them in their own tier,
Speaker 1: at least as it pertains to the West. I view
Speaker 1: Boston in their tier, but they're out east right. The
Speaker 1: teams at the bottom of the West that I don't
Speaker 1: take seriously Golden State, I don't think they have a
Speaker 1: real title threat in them. Sacramento I, especially in light
Speaker 1: of their injuries. I didn't view them as a serious
Speaker 1: threat before their injuries. The New Orleans Pelicans, I don't
Speaker 1: think they're good enough on either end of the floor,
Speaker 1: especially defensively on the front line, to win enough games
Speaker 1: in the postseason. And then Houston, if you're gonna include
Speaker 1: them as the eleventh seed, as a threat to the
Speaker 1: tenth seed, those are teams that I view as the
Speaker 1: bottom tier in the West that I don't think have
Speaker 1: a real chance to go on a run. Everybody else
Speaker 1: though they're all really freaking good. Minnesota, they've been one
Speaker 1: of the best teams in the league all year long.
Speaker 1: They're the best defense in the league. No one can
Speaker 1: guard ant like Dallas Minnesota. It's tough. You could make
Speaker 1: the case for either. Right the Clippers. They dominated most
Speaker 1: of the season and they're completely loaded with talent and
Speaker 1: two way players. During the middle third of the season,
Speaker 1: they were the best team in the league. Basically Clippers MAVs.
Speaker 1: You could make the case for either. Right. Phoenix, they're
Speaker 1: probably the best maps with the Denver Nuggets. I think
Speaker 1: they are the team most capable of beating Denver in
Speaker 1: a seven game series. They are completely loaded with talent
Speaker 1: and playing much better basketball here down the stretch of
Speaker 1: the season. Phoenix, Dallas, you could make the case for
Speaker 1: either one of them. Right. Oklahoma City, they're literally the
Speaker 1: number one seed in the West and any pessimism surrounding
Speaker 1: them has to do with size and youth. Right, and
Speaker 1: then the Los Angeles Lakers. Since January seventh, a thirty
Speaker 1: nine game sample size, they have the fifth best record
Speaker 1: in the league. Everyone thinks the Lakers suck because they're
Speaker 1: lower in the standings because they had a rough stretch
Speaker 1: right after the Ncason Tournament where they let their foot
Speaker 1: off the gas and made a bunch of bad lineup
Speaker 1: decisions where they bench their three to their top five
Speaker 1: players for a while. That threw off everyone's calculus with
Speaker 1: the Lakers for half of the season. Recently, they have
Speaker 1: been the fifth best team in the league, So like,
Speaker 1: you got to throw them in there too. Now, I'd
Speaker 1: say the Lakers belong on the bottom of that tier,
Speaker 1: but they're in that tier all those teams. Though you
Speaker 1: could make a case for anyone like there isn't like
Speaker 1: when it comes to trying to slide Dallas in there.
Speaker 1: They're somewhere in there, but it's hard to make a
Speaker 1: case that they're just over all of them. And so
Speaker 1: I kind of land right where I've been for most
Speaker 1: of the last few months. I think all of those
Speaker 1: teams have a chance to make a long playoff run
Speaker 1: and get out of the West. And I think all
Speaker 1: of those teams have a chance to lose in the
Speaker 1: first round. Hell, the Lakers have a chance to lose
Speaker 1: in the play in tournament. So like, so it's Phoenix
Speaker 1: by the way, So like, really, I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: come down to matchups. It's gonna come down to who
Speaker 1: plays who. But here is the most important part. Given
Speaker 1: all these factors, the most important element is going to
Speaker 1: be who's playing the best at the right time. Dallas
Speaker 1: is playing their best basketball right now. That's a huge
Speaker 1: factor there. They can ride that momentum into the postseason.
Speaker 1: That could be the difference maker with that tier. But yea,
Speaker 1: as I look at the West, Denver at the top,
Speaker 1: Golden State, Sacramento, New Orleans at the bottom, and then
Speaker 1: I have Minnesota, the Clippers, Phoenix, ok See, the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and Dallas all in there, jumbled up. They're all any
Speaker 1: one of them could be the one that comes out
Speaker 1: of the West. Any one of them could lose in
Speaker 1: the first round. As good as Dallas has been, you
Speaker 1: can't make a case for them to be definitively above
Speaker 1: Oka see definitively above the Clippers, definitively above Minnesota. There's
Speaker 1: not a definitive case there to make, even in light
Speaker 1: of their recent run. But I do think that them
Speaker 1: getting hot at the right time bodes really well for
Speaker 1: them all right. Moving on to the Oklahoma City Thunder
Speaker 1: versus the New York Knicks. This is a really fun
Speaker 1: back and forth game. The Knicks went up by twelve
Speaker 1: points in the third quarter. At one point they made
Speaker 1: their first five threes. In the third quarters, they went
Speaker 1: on a run. The thunder bench brought them back. Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams just was ridiculous. Had everything going. He was scoring
Speaker 1: at the rim, he was making these like push shots
Speaker 1: in the lane. He had probably the best dunk of
Speaker 1: his career so far, this like transition push where he
Speaker 1: dunked on Dante de Vincenzo and Miles McBride like in
Speaker 1: like a sandwich contest, and he just went up over
Speaker 1: both of them. It was one of the most impressive
Speaker 1: athletic plays of his career to this point. He made
Speaker 1: seven pull up jump shots in this game, all of
Speaker 1: them from two point range. Now, James Harden has recently
Speaker 1: just barely snuck past him in this list, but he's
Speaker 1: still the second best pull up jump shooter in the
Speaker 1: league this year, at a minimum of three hundred attempts,
Speaker 1: getting one point one to one points per pull up jumper.
Speaker 1: Crazy thing is most of them are pull up twos.
Speaker 1: He takes five point one pull up jumpers a game,
Speaker 1: only one point four of them are threes, so the
Speaker 1: vast majority of them are from two point range. He
Speaker 1: shoots forty two percent on those pull up threes, shoots
Speaker 1: well over fifty percent on pull up twos, and that's
Speaker 1: a really high value shot, especially when you get to
Speaker 1: the postseason, because I'm a big believer that there's more
Speaker 1: resiliency in pull up close range shooting than there is
Speaker 1: in pull up long range shooting when you get to
Speaker 1: the later rounds of the postseason. So Jalen Williams starts
Speaker 1: to run shot making, dunking on people, Josh Hart does
Speaker 1: a really nice job just kind of bringing some intense
Speaker 1: full court ball pressure on Jalen Williams, which hinda slowed
Speaker 1: him down just a little bit. And then Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: just went to Josh Gitty, and Josh Gitty was just
Speaker 1: again kind of a similar thing to what we were
Speaker 1: talking about with Houston versus Dallas. New York just plays
Speaker 1: a lot of smaller guards, and Josh Gitty was just
Speaker 1: taking advantage of the small guards by just barreling down
Speaker 1: the lane and spinning over his left shoulder and making
Speaker 1: a little push shots close to the basket. He had
Speaker 1: sixteen points, thirteen rebounds, and twelve assists in this game.
Speaker 1: He also had a couple of huge threes late in
Speaker 1: the game during their second half run when New York
Speaker 1: was leaving him open. Really really impressive night from Josh Gitty.
Speaker 1: Late game was a complete hit show. Both teams were
Speaker 1: missing a bunch of free throws. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: the two teams combined to go thirteen for twenty five
Speaker 1: from the foul line in this game, and so we
Speaker 1: have this like chaotic finish at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson misses the free throw and there's this crazy
Speaker 1: rebound situation. The ball goes out of bounds, stays with
Speaker 1: the Knicks. The Knicks run this really smart action like
Speaker 1: a staggered ball screen where they get Chet Holmgren switched
Speaker 1: down to Jalen Brunson and then set another brush screen
Speaker 1: with Josh with Josh Hart that just allows Brunson to
Speaker 1: get a little bit of an angle on Chet and
Speaker 1: he just gets into Chet's body and extends out and
Speaker 1: makes this really nice left handed hook shot or left
Speaker 1: handed scoop shot excuse me, off the glass that puts
Speaker 1: the Knicks up one only four seconds left. On the
Speaker 1: other end of the floor, Mark Daginal draws up this
Speaker 1: super interesting kind of like decoy action with Jaylen Williams
Speaker 1: and Shay, so everyone else is out at the three
Speaker 1: point line. Jalen Williams and Shay are basically right at
Speaker 1: the left elbow if you're facing the basket, and bounds
Speaker 1: is on the left side of the floor. And essentially
Speaker 1: what they did is they had Jalen Williams fake like
Speaker 1: he was gonna set a pin down for Shay, but
Speaker 1: then Shay turned around and set a back screen for Jalen.
Speaker 1: Jalen rolls to the rim. The Knicks actually defend it
Speaker 1: really well, chasing over the top, and Shay actually breaks
Speaker 1: to the right block and ends up with Miles McBride
Speaker 1: on him with plenty of time, plenty of space on
Speaker 1: the floor, and he just pivots right over his right
Speaker 1: shoulder and takes a right shoulder fade. Sheity didn't even
Speaker 1: really have much going in this game, because Jalen Williams
Speaker 1: is playing so well, and obviously he's coming back from
Speaker 1: an injury. He's a little rusty, but he just gets
Speaker 1: his lift on that right shoulder fade and knocks the
Speaker 1: shot down and puts the thunder back up one they
Speaker 1: go to the other end. It was off of a
Speaker 1: different action, but they more or less, get the exact
Speaker 1: same mirror image. Look for Jalen Brunson. So this time
Speaker 1: it's on the right kind of block extended. But Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson is a left handed shooter, so he pivots over
Speaker 1: his left shoulder, takes the same type of fadeaway shot
Speaker 1: over the same kind of like dominant shoulder on the baseline,
Speaker 1: and it's dead on straight but he leaves it short
Speaker 1: and the Knicks end up losing. So I want to
Speaker 1: go back to Jalen Williams for a second. I want
Speaker 1: to use three plays to demonstrate just how crazy Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams is going to be in this league, just how
Speaker 1: crazy good he's going to be. First, the transition done.
Speaker 1: So on this play, Precious a Chewa is in the
Speaker 1: front court. He's trying to knock around an offensive rebound.
Speaker 1: I can't remember who it was with somebody on the
Speaker 1: Knicks misses the three. On the tap out, Jalen Williams
Speaker 1: is dribbling the ball up the right side of the
Speaker 1: floor and you can see him look to his left
Speaker 1: and identify that Precious is trailing to play. He looks
Speaker 1: up the floor and he sees Miles McBride is right
Speaker 1: in front of him, has stopped the ball. The other
Speaker 1: three guys, the other three knicks are all kind of
Speaker 1: flaring out to shooters. No, Nick actually just runs to
Speaker 1: the rim, which is always like, it's basketball, it's rim,
Speaker 1: basketball shooters. It's like an order of operations when it
Speaker 1: comes to to transition defense, and a lot of coaches
Speaker 1: teach stopping the basketball first because if you stop the
Speaker 1: basketball first, that buys time for other guys to get
Speaker 1: back if you can make him turn or change direction
Speaker 1: or something like that. But either way, basketball always comes
Speaker 1: before wing shooters. But he identifies he looks up the floor.
Speaker 1: He's precious to chew a trail and the play looks
Speaker 1: up the floor, sees Miles McBride in front of him,
Speaker 1: but sees everyone else kind of splaying out to the
Speaker 1: three point line and behind the half court line, like
Speaker 1: ten feet behind the back court line. Jalen Williams goes,
Speaker 1: fuck it, I'm going for it, and he just like
Speaker 1: hits the Jets bodies Miles McBride shoves him off, rises
Speaker 1: up it just and just throws it down. There's a
Speaker 1: token contest off the side from Dante DiVincenzo but he
Speaker 1: has absolutely no chance. Just a ridiculous athletic play. And
Speaker 1: again it's the recognition of what's happening on the floor.
Speaker 1: It's the size advantage, just as the ball handler with
Speaker 1: his size, strength and athletic tools, and then the incredible
Speaker 1: straight line force in athleticism that he brings to the table.
Speaker 1: Second play a fourth quarter hesitation pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: on Alec Burks. This actually might have been in the
Speaker 1: third quarter. I can't remember exactly what it was, but
Speaker 1: he gets Alec Burks in isolation at the top of
Speaker 1: the key and he's kind of working mixing off the dribble,
Speaker 1: and he hits him with a hard between the legs
Speaker 1: dribble step back, and when he makes the move, Alec
Speaker 1: Burks like stutter steps back and like lands with his
Speaker 1: heel all the way back on the foul line. And
Speaker 1: so Jalen Williams is realized, like, oh, like, he can't
Speaker 1: guard me without being way back on his heels. So
Speaker 1: he knows he's gonna have an easy pull up jumper.
Speaker 1: So he gets the ball back into his left hand
Speaker 1: and takes a hesitation dribble, just a high hesitation dribble,
Speaker 1: just to kind of reset his rhythm and then he
Speaker 1: rises straight up and down and knocks down the jump shot.
Speaker 1: What this demonstrates to me, in order to guard Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams because of his crazy downhill force, which is what
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, you have to be on your heels.
Speaker 1: You have to be constantly looking to give ground back
Speaker 1: into the right or back into the left. If you
Speaker 1: play up on him, he's just gonna go right around you.
Speaker 1: And so he gets these really high quality pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots, and that's a big part of why the
Speaker 1: shooting stats look the way that they do. Obviously, he's
Speaker 1: a great shooter, but he's also just getting awesome looks
Speaker 1: because of his incredible athletic tools that he brings to
Speaker 1: the table. He is literally, as a second year player,
Speaker 1: the second best pull up jump shooter in the entire
Speaker 1: league minimum of three hundred attempts, and James Harden is
Speaker 1: like right there, and he's been above him at various
Speaker 1: points during the season. Last play one two to ninety six,
Speaker 1: just under five minutes left, and he thunder run a
Speaker 1: Spain pick and roll, which is basically you just have
Speaker 1: a shooter underneath the basket that relocates to the top
Speaker 1: of the key as you're running your ball screen and
Speaker 1: the shooter in this case is shake Yalds Alexander. The
Speaker 1: ball handler in this case is Jalen Williams. The screen
Speaker 1: setter in this case is Aaron Wiggins. Josh Hart is
Speaker 1: on on Jalen Williams. Jalen Brunson is guarding Aaron Wiggins
Speaker 1: right and then I want to say Miles McBride was
Speaker 1: on was on shake kills Alexander. So as Wiggins goes
Speaker 1: up and sets the screen, Jalen Williams comes off hard
Speaker 1: to his right hand side and brings two to the ball.
Speaker 1: He brings Josh Hart trailing the play and Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: comes over. Basically it amounts to a trap, okay. So
Speaker 1: in this case, Aaron Wiggins is a roll into the
Speaker 1: basket and this is the beautiful part of the play
Speaker 1: design with shake Yealds Alexander. Miles McBride is in position
Speaker 1: to help. He's underneath the basket. He's there to help
Speaker 1: in case that role man comes down unguarded like Aaron
Speaker 1: Wiggins was coming down, but the plate is has Shay
Speaker 1: gillis Alexander flashing to the top of the key, but
Speaker 1: you can see Miles McBride identify it and he kind
Speaker 1: of stays back to help on Aaron Wiggins. And if
Speaker 1: you watch Jalen Williams, he gives a head fake, he
Speaker 1: looks with his entire body at Shay and when he
Speaker 1: does that, Miles McBride lunges towards Shay. Aaron Wiggins slips
Speaker 1: behind him. Jalen Williams hits him with the with the
Speaker 1: pass right and stride so that you can slip inside
Speaker 1: and make the right handed layup on the glass. And
Speaker 1: the most important part there is again the floor recognition,
Speaker 1: but also that high level pick and roll playmaking to
Speaker 1: be able to manipulate the defense with your eyes. And
Speaker 1: again like he had I think seven or eight assists
Speaker 1: in this game with just one turnover. Like this has
Speaker 1: been a consistent theme with Jalen Williams, is like he's
Speaker 1: way advanced as a playmaker for a guy his age.
Speaker 1: I legitimately think this kid is not just really good,
Speaker 1: not just star potential. I think Jalen Williams has legitimate
Speaker 1: potential to become a top ten player in this league.
Speaker 1: There just aren't that many prospects that come through the
Speaker 1: NBA that have this combination of real downhill athletic force,
Speaker 1: outstanding to deadly pull up jump shooting, and high level playmaking.
Speaker 1: How many guys? How many guys can you like genuinely
Speaker 1: say that about in the league. There's just not that many.
Speaker 1: It's hard to even find a comp you talk about
Speaker 1: a guy like Jaylen Brown, and Jaylen Brown, obviously this
Speaker 1: phase of his career, is a much better player than
Speaker 1: Jaylen Williams. But like Jalen Brown, if you're talking about
Speaker 1: his strengths and weaknesses, like outstanding downhill athletic force, good
Speaker 1: pull up shooter, mediocre to bad playmaker. Right, talk about
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler, it's like outstanding downhill force and it's like
Speaker 1: good pull up shooter, you know, great playmaker. Right, There's
Speaker 1: we haven't really seen a prospect that can bring all
Speaker 1: three at an extremely high level to the now. Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams has a long way to go to get to
Speaker 1: that point, but I really do think he has that potential.
Speaker 1: I think he can be like a better version of
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler, a Jimmy Butler that's a more consistent jump shooter.
Speaker 1: And by the way, that's not something that That's not
Speaker 1: something that I believe to be hyperbole. He has the
Speaker 1: character for it, he has the work ethic for it,
Speaker 1: He is the athletic gifts for it. The touch is
Speaker 1: clearly there, the playmaking is clearly there. He's doing it
Speaker 1: in a smaller role too, playing alongside all this talent.
Speaker 1: Like you could make a case if he's playing and
Speaker 1: if you've swapped him for Jalen Green right now and
Speaker 1: he's playing in Houston, he's probably averaging twenty five points
Speaker 1: a game right now, Like a lot of it in
Speaker 1: the box score. Stuff has a lot to do with
Speaker 1: just what a circumstance is. But I just I continue
Speaker 1: to be completely, an utterly blown away by how good
Speaker 1: this kid is right now and how good he's capable of.
Speaker 1: Being excited to watch him in the postseason. He's going
Speaker 1: to be a kid I'm excited to watch develop over
Speaker 1: the coming years. All right, Lebron's post game quotes. So
Speaker 1: Lakers get a big win against the Brooklyn that's bouncing
Speaker 1: back from a tough loss on the road against Indiana,
Speaker 1: and he hits nine threes in the game. Couple are
Speaker 1: really tough off the dribble ones a drifting kind of
Speaker 1: like fade away in the left corner and then a
Speaker 1: step back on the right wing to get his eighth
Speaker 1: and nine threes of the game. He had forty something
Speaker 1: in the in the game. Just he's averaging something crazy
Speaker 1: like twenty five twenty five points per game on sixty
Speaker 1: three percent true shooting, which is just completely outrageous for
Speaker 1: a thirty nine year old guy. But he had a
Speaker 1: quote after the game. He was asked about how much
Speaker 1: longer if he was like playing, he says, not very long.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna play another twenty one years, that's for
Speaker 1: damn sure, but not very long. I don't know when
Speaker 1: that door will close as far as when I'll retire,
Speaker 1: but I don't have much time left. And so the
Speaker 1: question that we posed today is will Lebron ever play
Speaker 1: in an NBA Finals again? Now here's the thing. Of course,
Speaker 1: it's a possibility. I saw Stephen A. Smith say either
Speaker 1: this morning. I saw it on Twitter this morning, but
Speaker 1: he said that he thought that this was Lebron's last
Speaker 1: chance this year with the Lakers. I disagree with that, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, he might fall off a cliff next year.
Speaker 1: But I mean, here's the thing. You can try to
Speaker 1: get ahead of the Lebron decline thing. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to be that guy. I feel like the people who
Speaker 1: have been trying to get ahead of that just keep
Speaker 1: getting proven wrong every single year. Maybe it happens next year,
Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't. But here's the deal. The Lakers have
Speaker 1: access to three first round draft picks when they get
Speaker 1: to the draft this year. As long as they improve
Speaker 1: the roster with whatever they do this offseason more than
Speaker 1: Lebron declines, it's a net improvement for the Lakers. So
Speaker 1: of course they're still going to be in the hunt.
Speaker 1: I think they need a coaching change. They need to
Speaker 1: be as healthy next year as they are this year.
Speaker 1: Lebron needs to avoid any sort of severe injury. But
Speaker 1: whatever decline Lebron experiences, as long as as long as
Speaker 1: they improve the roster around that, he's very much going
Speaker 1: to be in the mix still. So I don't think
Speaker 1: this is his last chance. Per se. That said, do
Speaker 1: I think Lebron will ever play in the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: again as a likelihood, Like if I had to apply
Speaker 1: a percentage chance to it, it's going to be below
Speaker 1: fifty percent. And the main reason why is I don't
Speaker 1: think this team is good enough defensively to win the
Speaker 1: play in tournament and to win three rounds, all without
Speaker 1: home court advantage, all against really good teams. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: count them out. I would for the record, I'd put
Speaker 1: below fifty percent chance to make the finals for literally
Speaker 1: every team in the West except for the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: But like, it is somewhat unlikely that they get through
Speaker 1: it this year, And as for the offseason, I don't
Speaker 1: trust the Lakers' front office or ownership group to make
Speaker 1: the necessary tweaks to the roster to push them over
Speaker 1: the top. So to me, it's more likely than not
Speaker 1: that we don't get to see another finals appearance from Lebron,
Speaker 1: which is kind of a bummer because, like, honestly, I
Speaker 1: thought they should have been more aggressive at the deadline
Speaker 1: this year. Here, they've been the fifth best team in
Speaker 1: the league over the last thirty nine games since January
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, and they've been like we're gonna go over
Speaker 1: some numbers when we get to the power rankings, but like,
Speaker 1: they've been the second best a three point shooting team
Speaker 1: over that span. They've been the second by percentage, they've
Speaker 1: been the second best point in the paint team over
Speaker 1: that span, Like, they have a lot of really good
Speaker 1: things that they bring to the table. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, to put it simply, I don't think the
Speaker 1: Lakers are that far off. I think it's about specific
Speaker 1: weaknesses with them, not talent deficiencies. I don't think the
Speaker 1: Lakers have a talent issue. They have a roster balance issue.
Speaker 1: They have a shit ton of offensive skill in every
Speaker 1: single position group, and they don't have anybody who can
Speaker 1: guard on the perimeter. They have like zero top tier
Speaker 1: athlete types that play at the one or the two,
Speaker 1: and that's been the or at the three for that matter,
Speaker 1: because the Jared Vanderbilt injury. So like, I really don't
Speaker 1: think they need that much to really enter into those conversations.
Speaker 1: But I just don't trust this particular franchise to do it. Again.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this on the show before, but like,
Speaker 1: to me, incompetence trickles from the top down. This is
Speaker 1: the same owner that let Alex Cruso walk like there's
Speaker 1: there's not a GM in the league that wouldn't have
Speaker 1: gotten on hands and knees and begged for Genie Bus
Speaker 1: to keep Alex Crusoe because he's so obviously such a
Speaker 1: monumentally important piece to winning basketball games, and Genie Bus
Speaker 1: just let him off, right. I don't need to get
Speaker 1: into it. But if you go down, if you go
Speaker 1: down from the top of the organization, you see the
Speaker 1: incompetence come through, whether it's the medical staff and their
Speaker 1: incapability to keep people and fans updated on just what's
Speaker 1: happening with the players on the roster, whether it's like
Speaker 1: Typo's on a damn statue, whether it's hiring someone like
Speaker 1: Magic Johnson who clearly was not interested in doing the job.
Speaker 1: Regardless of what we want to point the flashlight at.
Speaker 1: From the top down, there's been incompetence and so like
Speaker 1: to me, when you weigh the realities of their predicament
Speaker 1: this season against what they need to achieve this offseason,
Speaker 1: with whether or not the leadership is capable of executing that,
Speaker 1: I don't have great optimistic feelings about their ability to
Speaker 1: get there. So again, I'm not righting Lebron off. No,
Speaker 1: I don't think this is their last chance, but I
Speaker 1: personally would be surprised if I got to watch Lebron
Speaker 1: James play in the NBA Finals again. All Right, moving
Speaker 1: on to our Power Rankings. The one drop off from
Speaker 1: our two weeks ago list are the Cleveland Cavaliers. They
Speaker 1: are three and five since our last rankings on March eighteenth.
Speaker 1: They lost to Miami twice, they lost to Minnesota, they
Speaker 1: lost to Denver, and they have a really bad loss
Speaker 1: to Charlotte, bottom ten in both offense and defense over
Speaker 1: that span, So we're dropping the Cavs for now number ten. Gasp.
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Lakers are cracking into our power rankings
Speaker 1: for the first time in forever. Six and one since
Speaker 1: our last rankings, including yet another win over the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: Bucks in Milwaukee without Lebron. Since January seventh, a thirty
Speaker 1: nine game sample size, the Lakers are twenty five and fourteen.
Speaker 1: That is the fifth best record in all of basketball
Speaker 1: during that span. Again, over a sample size of almost
Speaker 1: half the season. They are fifth in offensive rating over
Speaker 1: the span, second in three point percentage. Over that span.
Speaker 1: They're shooting over forty percent from three as a team.
Speaker 1: Since January seventh, they are second in points in the
Speaker 1: paint per one hundred possession over that span. So a
Speaker 1: really nice combination of accurate perimeter shooting in interior dominance.
Speaker 1: But here's the most encouraging stat in the justification for
Speaker 1: why I have the Lakers at tenth in the power
Speaker 1: rankings according to Cleaning the Glass against the top ten
Speaker 1: teams in the NBA in point differential, they have seventeen wins,
Speaker 1: which is the most in the league. They have a
Speaker 1: fifty five percent win percentage, which is the fifth best
Speaker 1: in the league, and they have a plus one point
Speaker 1: five point differential per one hundred possessions, which is the
Speaker 1: fifth best mark in the league. The Lakers have been
Speaker 1: one of the very best teams in the league this
Speaker 1: year at beating the good teams in addition to playing
Speaker 1: really really good basketball. Outside of a brief stretch they
Speaker 1: were fifteen to nine including the n season Tournament win.
Speaker 1: They are twenty five and fourteen since January seventh, which
Speaker 1: is the fifth best record in the league over that span.
Speaker 1: There's a three and ten strech in the middle, which
Speaker 1: was right when everyone relaxed after winning the tournament and
Speaker 1: obviously when Darvin ham was tweaking with the lineup and
Speaker 1: taking the three of their top five players out. I
Speaker 1: am again do I think the Lakers are a legitimate
Speaker 1: championship contender Like the teams at the top of the
Speaker 1: league now, but we're gonna give them a shout out
Speaker 1: here for how good they've been playing over the course
Speaker 1: the last couple of months. At nine, the New Orleans Pelicans.
Speaker 1: They're losing to the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, and
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics since our last rankings, so they're dropping
Speaker 1: a bit. Obviously, brandon Ingram got hurt, and that plays
Speaker 1: a role here. The offense has really fallen off. They're
Speaker 1: twenty first in offense over their last six games, and
Speaker 1: their defense hasn't been as good either. They're down to
Speaker 1: ninth and that span. Here's the thing. I really wanted
Speaker 1: to drop the Pels too, But like when you look
Speaker 1: through the rest of the league, the league is so
Speaker 1: good and everyone's kicking the shit out of everyone, there
Speaker 1: is not a team that I could reasonably put above
Speaker 1: New Orleans for now, even though I know that relative
Speaker 1: to most people, I'm lower on New Orleans, there's not
Speaker 1: even a team that I could res in noably put
Speaker 1: above them, because everyone's kind of hovering around five hundred
Speaker 1: because everyone's really good and everyone can beat everyone, and
Speaker 1: it's making for some bunky results. At number eight, the
Speaker 1: New York Knicks, so mixed results since our last rankings
Speaker 1: are four and three. Had a nice road win over
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors, but they lost through the Denver Nuggets,
Speaker 1: and the San Antonio Spurs obviously lost a complete heartbreak
Speaker 1: to the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday. Concerning stat with the Knicks,
Speaker 1: they're just five and seventeen this year in that same
Speaker 1: list the top ten point differential teams on cleaning the glass,
Speaker 1: they are just five and seventeen against those teams. Obviously,
Speaker 1: injuries that played a role. I think like when it
Speaker 1: comes to the upper level teams, execution and effort and
Speaker 1: coaching and all those things can only carry you so
Speaker 1: far when you run into superior talent. And here's the
Speaker 1: thing Jalen Brunson has had to do. A ton. A
Speaker 1: lot of guys are being asked to do more than usual,
Speaker 1: and just getting back your best players will go a
Speaker 1: long way to helping that. And here's the silver lining.
Speaker 1: They are thirty nine and thirteen against everyone else, which
Speaker 1: means they're building the habits and the consistency in the
Speaker 1: basketball culture to where if they add in the talent,
Speaker 1: they should be able to push over the top number seven.
Speaker 1: The Milwaukee Bucks also mixed results three and three since
Speaker 1: our last rankings, one in three against the quality opponents
Speaker 1: they faced, though they had a nice win against Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: but then the loss of the Celtics, loss of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: loss of the Pelicans. We can zoom out. Now take
Speaker 1: a look at the Doc experience. Doc Rivers has been
Speaker 1: the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks for twenty eight games.
Speaker 1: In those twenty eight games, the Bucks are fifteen to thirteen.
Speaker 1: That is the sixteenth best record in the league over
Speaker 1: that span. If you guys remember, I talked a lot
Speaker 1: about goals for the Bucks under Doc Rivers. I wanted
Speaker 1: to see an offensive rating at one twenty because I
Speaker 1: thought they needed to be a truly elite offense to win.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to see a defensive rating at one
Speaker 1: point fifteen, which I thought was a good mark to
Speaker 1: demonstrate a good enough defense to get the job done
Speaker 1: in the postseason provided that their offense was elite. Here's
Speaker 1: where they're at since Doc went joined the team. Fifteen
Speaker 1: point one offensive rating. That's sixteenth in the league over
Speaker 1: that's fan so they've been very mediocre on offense. But
Speaker 1: here's a silver lining. One twelve point six defensive rating
Speaker 1: over a twenty eight game sample size, eleventh best in
Speaker 1: the league. So for what's that, roughly thirty thirty five
Speaker 1: percent of the season, they've been a top eleven defense.
Speaker 1: That's real, that's not something to completely ignore. Overall, they've
Speaker 1: they've struggled against some specific matchups, particularly guard heavy offenses.
Speaker 1: It's why they've struggled with the Lakers for instance, right,
Speaker 1: But overall they've been really good on that end of
Speaker 1: the floor. And again, the offense just hasn't come around.
Speaker 1: But if the offense comes around, that's where it could
Speaker 1: really take off. And I think, honestly, it's been a
Speaker 1: little bit of break rhythm with Giannis's hamstring injury and
Speaker 1: I think like and obviously with Chris Middleton being in
Speaker 1: and out of the lineup all year, So there's some
Speaker 1: factors there. They're really good offensively to start the season.
Speaker 1: I do believe that that offense is still in there,
Speaker 1: but they got to get to that point in order
Speaker 1: to capitalize in how good they've been defensively. Number six,
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Clippers. They're going against an easier part
Speaker 1: of their schedule and they're getting back on track As
Speaker 1: a result, they're five and two in their last seven
Speaker 1: since our last rankings. They got the Blazers twice and
Speaker 1: the Hornets once. Some easy ones in there. They split
Speaker 1: a home at home with the Philadelphia seventy six ers.
Speaker 1: They did lose an ugly one at home to the
Speaker 1: Indiana Pacers in that span. But on Friday Night and
Speaker 1: one of their most impressive wins in recent months, they
Speaker 1: went to Orlando and got in this rock fight, this
Speaker 1: really fun rock fight of a basketball game, and just
Speaker 1: through really high level defense and really high level shot making,
Speaker 1: the Clippers got to win one hundred and ninety seven
Speaker 1: on the road, and they looked more or less like
Speaker 1: the Clippers, and I thought that was a really encouraging
Speaker 1: game for them. It's still in there. They just need
Speaker 1: to recapture it before they get to April. We've seen
Speaker 1: teams like Denver last year kind of run into similar
Speaker 1: stretches where they dominate and then they let their foot
Speaker 1: off the gas at the end and somehow they get
Speaker 1: it going in time for the postseason. That's got to
Speaker 1: be the mold for the Clippers. Number five. The Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 1: Not going to talk too much about them because We
Speaker 1: just did a whole deep dive on them again, Mavericks fans.
Speaker 1: Earlier on the feed, we did a deep dive on
Speaker 1: Dallas for Shuston and just how Luke has been dominating
Speaker 1: and how good they've been defensively, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: You can find that on our YouTube feed. But brief synopsis,
Speaker 1: Dallas has been the second best team in the league
Speaker 1: since February fifth, and they're doing it on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. Some really encouraging stuff there. They've been
Speaker 1: a good defensive, rebounding and defensive rating over that span.
Speaker 1: Number four Minnesota Timberwolves. They're five and two in their
Speaker 1: last seven games since our last rankings, including some really
Speaker 1: impressive wins. They went into Denver and man handled the
Speaker 1: Nuggets the other night, albeit without Jamal Murray. Since Carl
Speaker 1: Towns went down, they started playing way better after they
Speaker 1: put nas Reed in the starting lineup. They're now eight
Speaker 1: and four in those games, sixteenth in offense, sixth in defense,
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards averaging twenty six points, seven rebounds, and six assists.
Speaker 1: I advocated for starting nas Reid because I thought it
Speaker 1: was the best option for Minnesota under the circumstances. I
Speaker 1: like Nikill Alexander Walker for particular matchups, but I just figured,
Speaker 1: especially in the regular season, it makes sense to lean
Speaker 1: into nos Reed. Really interesting comments from Anthony Edwards about
Speaker 1: how nas Reed and his ball reversal has helped him
Speaker 1: with his shot selection. So this is a similar thing
Speaker 1: I've seen with the Lakers, for instance, with Jackson Hayes.
Speaker 1: The dude catches on the wing and he just are
Speaker 1: above the break and he just naturally is part of
Speaker 1: his basketball kind of character. He just kind of flows
Speaker 1: into a dribble handoff on the other end of the floor.
Speaker 1: It helps get the action going from side to side.
Speaker 1: And Anthony Ewards talked about how naz Reid doing that
Speaker 1: for the Timberwolves has helped him kind of like feel
Speaker 1: more about feel more aware of the offensive flow and
Speaker 1: less dribbling the ball up to four and shooting and
Speaker 1: more running some action and then maybe shooting if the
Speaker 1: ball makes its way back to him. And I thought
Speaker 1: that that was really interesting and a good indicator of
Speaker 1: the fit with nos Reed in the starting lineup number three,
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're five and two since our
Speaker 1: last rankings. They beat the Suns, the Knicks, and the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Pelicans in that span held up pretty well
Speaker 1: without shake Kids Alexander all things considered, now he's back
Speaker 1: in the lineup, really just shined the light on how
Speaker 1: great Jalen Williams is going to be again. We did
Speaker 1: a deep dive on the thunder in an earlier segment today.
Speaker 1: You can find that on our YouTube feed. Number two
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets five and two since the last rankings
Speaker 1: on March eighteenth, two and oho with Jamal Murray in
Speaker 1: the lineup, but in the five games without him, they
Speaker 1: went three and two. Reggie Jackson just wasn't playing well
Speaker 1: in the first four games in that set, and that
Speaker 1: was really leading to some mixed offensive results. But Reggie
Speaker 1: Jackson broke out in a big way against the Cleveland
Speaker 1: Cavaliers and they looked awesome again. Big time win at
Speaker 1: home over a really good team. Number One the Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics five and two since our last rankings. Couple of
Speaker 1: impressive wins in there against the Milwaukee Bucks and the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Pelicans did have a couple of really ugly
Speaker 1: losses in Atlanta. The first game the Guards sat out
Speaker 1: and they went really cold, less than one point per
Speaker 1: jump shot. Lost a game that blew a big lead
Speaker 1: in that game, and then the other I think it
Speaker 1: was two nights later, they played full full strength against
Speaker 1: or it might have been a back to back, I
Speaker 1: can't remember exactly, but they went into Atlanta full strength
Speaker 1: minus Al Horford and they lost an overtime dogfight to
Speaker 1: de Jonte Murray, who had forty four including the game
Speaker 1: winner in that game. Jump shooting was more or less
Speaker 1: the issue in both games. They took one hundred and
Speaker 1: one jump shots in both games and only got one
Speaker 1: hundred and seven points. And again, that's more or less
Speaker 1: the thing with if there's one rub on Boston, it's like,
Speaker 1: if they go cold with their jump shooting, you can
Speaker 1: beat them, right and that that's been a consistent theme
Speaker 1: throughout the season. That's not a hot take, that's just
Speaker 1: a statistical fact. At this point this season, they've taken
Speaker 1: six thousand, six hundred and sixty seven field goal attempts.
Speaker 1: Three seven hundred and forty four of them have been
Speaker 1: jump shots. That's fifty six percent of their field goal attempts,
Speaker 1: most in the league. So they just have a certain
Speaker 1: amount of you know, they have a certain amount of
Speaker 1: like their fate just kind of tied up in jump
Speaker 1: shot results, just kind of the reality of the Celtics.
Speaker 1: But again, I don't want to highlight the Atlanta wins
Speaker 1: or losses without making sure we highlight that they got
Speaker 1: big wins over the Bucks and the Pelicans in that span,
Speaker 1: although the Bucks sat out some guys. One last though
Speaker 1: on that front, I watched both of the Atlanta games,
Speaker 1: and the one thing that bothers me still is like,
Speaker 1: at the end of these games, they don't really have
Speaker 1: a bully ball option that they can go to to
Speaker 1: get a really good look close to the basket. And
Speaker 1: so that's the thing, Like, is Boston a better basketball
Speaker 1: team than Atlanta. Yeah, but if they get into a
Speaker 1: mid range jump shooting contest with Dejonte Murray over a
Speaker 1: small sample size, Dejonte can get hot and make them
Speaker 1: and beat them, right, And so like, as long as
Speaker 1: the Celtics more or less have been a good clutch
Speaker 1: team for most of the season, I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: like pretend like that success hasn't been there. But we
Speaker 1: have seen from time to time they can go cold,
Speaker 1: and when they go cold, they struggle to find alternative
Speaker 1: methods of offense. But still at this point, five and
Speaker 1: two in their last seven games, number one in our
Speaker 1: power rankings. All Right, guys, that is all we have
Speaker 1: for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow. Should be a
Speaker 1: fun one. We got a big game tonight between the
Speaker 1: Pelicans and the Suns, and then I plan on doing
Speaker 1: a little breakdown of Iowa versus LSU. That should be fun. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I don't profess to be as well connected with women's
Speaker 1: soups as I am with the NBA. That's obvious and
Speaker 1: goes without saying, but I'm a huge basketball fan. I
Speaker 1: view tonight as musty television, and whatever basketball thoughts I
Speaker 1: have from the game, I'll share with you guys in
Speaker 1: tomorrow's show. Also plan on doing a mail back tomorrow
Speaker 1: to make sure you guys get those into the YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, see you tomorrow. The volume