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Speaker 1: slash Basketball terms. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here
Speaker 1: at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. If all of you
Speaker 1: guys had an incredible weekend, Monday's Power Rankings day, right,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna be updating our weekly power rankings list,
Speaker 1: and then I've got a long mail bag for us
Speaker 1: to go through. We're gonna hit a bunch of teams
Speaker 1: around the league for that. Just to give you guys
Speaker 1: an idea of the schedule for this week. We have
Speaker 1: the n season tournament, right, so we've got quarterfinal tonight
Speaker 1: and Tuesday, semi finals on Thursday, championship on Saturday. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be working at night on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Tonight's
Speaker 1: games I'm covering in the morning, but I'm also working tonight.
Speaker 1: I'm just going on as a guest with some of
Speaker 1: the guys from watch playback sam as FONDII and Mike Weisberg. There,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be doing the Pacer Celtics game. So go
Speaker 1: to my Twitter feed to Underscore Jason LT and you
Speaker 1: guys will find the link to the watch playback link
Speaker 1: to get into that room again during Celtics Pacers. I've
Speaker 1: never actually covered a game during a game, so that
Speaker 1: should be interesting.
Speaker 2: We'll see how it goes. But we'll also have.
Speaker 1: Some videos going on during the week this well this
Speaker 1: week as well, so keep an eye on my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed for announcements the plan on night time shows on Tuesday, Thursday,
Speaker 1: and Saturday for the n season tournament.
Speaker 2: You guys are the Joe.
Speaker 1: Before we get started, subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: It would mean a lot to me if you guys
Speaker 1: would scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about our podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast under
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT
Speaker 1: for show announcements and film sessions. And then, last but
Speaker 1: not least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube
Speaker 1: comments so we can keep hitting them throughout these shows.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball, So our power rankings list.
Speaker 1: We have two teams dropping off that were on the
Speaker 1: list last week. The Dallas Mavericks have lost five out
Speaker 1: of their last seven games, and they are bottom ten
Speaker 1: in both offense and defense over that span. One of
Speaker 1: those wins also was that Lakers game where they kind
Speaker 1: of got schlacked in the fourth quarter and it took
Speaker 1: a Kyrie Irving game winner in the final minute to
Speaker 1: steal that one. So they've run into a tougher part
Speaker 1: of their schedule and they're starting to struggle a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's something to keep an eye on. And then the
Speaker 1: other team I dropped off the list was the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Good times are ahead for them. They got healthy, they
Speaker 1: got cam Bradish back, they got Jared Vanderbilt Bakery Hoatchamuraz
Speaker 1: coming back for the Suns game. They looked a lot
Speaker 1: more athletic and deeper against Houston. I actually thought that
Speaker 1: Houston game was the most impressive they've looked so far
Speaker 1: this season. They're also some encouraging trends right like, the
Speaker 1: Lakers are third in defense over the last ten games,
Speaker 1: but they're still having issues with inconsistent effort and that
Speaker 1: killed them last week. They had two really poor efforts
Speaker 1: on the road in Philly and in Okla, home a city.
Speaker 1: I expect them to be back on the list pretty
Speaker 1: quickly as long as they can stay healthy. But for
Speaker 1: now they are kicked off the top ten. So which
Speaker 1: two teams are gonna replace them? Well, I look at
Speaker 1: this tier in the NBA. I had a hard time
Speaker 1: with this today because there are a lot of teams.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna split today's power rankings into tiers just to
Speaker 1: kind of give you guys an idea of the way
Speaker 1: that I'm seeing the league right now. But I view
Speaker 1: like there's like this top tier of teams that have
Speaker 1: been the most impressive in the league. There's three of
Speaker 1: them there in my opinion so far. Just to again,
Speaker 1: power rankings for me are just regular season I'm not
Speaker 1: talking big picture playoff stuff. I'm just talking like, who's
Speaker 1: been the most impressive during these actual regular season games? Right,
Speaker 1: So I've got like three teams on the top, and
Speaker 1: then I've got like this like very good tier, which
Speaker 1: is like teams that have been playing clearly better more
Speaker 1: often than not this season. And then there's like this
Speaker 1: long list of teams that, like on any given night,
Speaker 1: they look great. And then in the next night, they
Speaker 1: look terrible and it's just been a really up and
Speaker 1: down experience. And the teams on that tier are the
Speaker 1: Lakers and MAVs. Like I just mentioned, the Suns and
Speaker 1: the Knicks. Those two teams have good records, but they've
Speaker 1: horrible schedules. If the Suns and Nicks have combined to
Speaker 1: be only four teams that are five hundred or better
Speaker 1: at this point in the season, the Heat, the Nets,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, the Clippers, the Hawks, the Rockets, the Warriors,
Speaker 1: the Raptors, the Pacers, and the Calves. All of those teams,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, are like all of them are capable
Speaker 1: of taking a leap and going up to that next
Speaker 1: tier or dropping down depending on how things go. They're
Speaker 1: they're just mediocre and with respect to how well they've
Speaker 1: played over this first twenty games of the regular season.
Speaker 1: But the two teams that I ended up bumping up
Speaker 1: are the Pacers and the Calves. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: why Number ten in my power rankings for this week
Speaker 1: is the Indiana Pacers. They have a league leading one
Speaker 1: to twenty four offensive rating a preposterous one twenty eight
Speaker 1: offensive rating over their last twelve games. It's completely absurd
Speaker 1: how rapidly they're scoring points. There are seven to five
Speaker 1: in that span that wins over Milwaukee, Philly, Atlanta, and
Speaker 1: a super impressive win over My Me the other night
Speaker 1: without Tyrese Haliburton hanging one hundred and forty four points
Speaker 1: on the heat and that one just toasting them off
Speaker 1: the dribble non stop and getting whatever they wanted. Tyres
Speaker 1: Haliburton looks like one of the best offensive players in
Speaker 1: the league. We talked a lot about him last week,
Speaker 1: and seven Pacers players over this twelve game span are
Speaker 1: averaging double figures. Now, they're god awful on defense and
Speaker 1: their god awful rebounding team, but they're fun to watch
Speaker 1: and they're really hard to beat, especially at home with
Speaker 1: how high powered their offense is. I have them at
Speaker 1: number ten in this week's power rankings. Number nine the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers. They've won seven of their last ten games,
Speaker 1: including wins over Denver, Philly, Toronto, and Atlanta in that span.
Speaker 1: They have the second best defense in the league over
Speaker 1: that span as well. Darius Garland, after getting off to
Speaker 1: a rough start this year's finally starting to get into
Speaker 1: a groove. The main issues with the offense right now
Speaker 1: are their only converting spot up possessions at zero point
Speaker 1: ninety seven points per possession, which ranks twenty sixth in
Speaker 1: the league. And that was literally why they went out
Speaker 1: this summer to get Max Strus and Georgia's kneeing. So
Speaker 1: that's the scouraging And there's still a below average team
Speaker 1: in the short role, which was the major issue they
Speaker 1: had offensively in the postseason last year. So offensively they're
Speaker 1: still just a little too easy to guard, but the
Speaker 1: defense is starting to click. Darius Garland's starting to get
Speaker 1: it going. A lot of encouraging trends there from Cleveland.
Speaker 1: So our next tier, this is the next five teams
Speaker 1: on this list. These are the very good teams. These
Speaker 1: are the teams that are having good regular seasons. They
Speaker 1: look good more often than not, but they haven't quite
Speaker 1: been as dominant as the teams at the top of
Speaker 1: the league. And they're all poised to go on runs
Speaker 1: as long as they can have a stretch of good health,
Speaker 1: which has been an issue for just about every team
Speaker 1: in the league so far.
Speaker 2: Here early in the season.
Speaker 1: Number eight, the Philadelphia seventy six ers, they did just
Speaker 1: drop two games in a row without embeid. But they've
Speaker 1: hit a super difficult phase of their schedule and they've
Speaker 1: actually fared pretty well their last eleven games Indy, Indy, Boston, Atlanta, Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: who's actually kind of feisty, Cleveland, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, the Lakers,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, and the Celtics. So just a ringer of
Speaker 1: an eleven game stretch. They only went five and six,
Speaker 1: but they went five and three when Embiid played over
Speaker 1: that stretch. And what did I tell you guys all
Speaker 1: the time about like the good and bad stretches of teams, Right,
Speaker 1: like the good teams when they face a tough stretch
Speaker 1: of their schedule. If you go five and three, that's
Speaker 1: awesome in my opinion, especially when you're playing a great team,
Speaker 1: a good to great team every single night.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: They are fourth in offense over that span. Special shout
Speaker 1: out to de Anthony Melton. He's always been an excellent
Speaker 1: point of attack defender, but he's giving them consistent scoring
Speaker 1: production over this stretch seventeen points per game on forty
Speaker 1: four percent from three on seven attempts. He kind of
Speaker 1: like reminds me of Contavious calledwell Pope for this team,
Speaker 1: he's less of like an off screen shooter, more of
Speaker 1: like an off the dribble type of guy. But he
Speaker 1: reminds me of KCP in the sense that he's like
Speaker 1: just this really dependable, above average starter that like is
Speaker 1: in my opinion, almost a hallmark of an NBA champion
Speaker 1: type of team. Is you look at it, there's always stars,
Speaker 1: there's guys off the bench that play big roles, but
Speaker 1: they always have like above average starters in those spots,
Speaker 1: like kind of like KCP and Michael Porter Junior Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon last year for the Denver Nuggets, number seven, the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City Thunder, they are ten and three in their
Speaker 1: last thirteen games. Over that span, they beat Atlanta, Cleveland, Phoenix,
Speaker 1: Golden State twice, the Lakers, and the MAVs. They've been
Speaker 1: the best defense in the league over their last thirteen games.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, Like we've been talking about all season,
Speaker 1: all three of the losses over that thirteen game span
Speaker 1: or against bully ball front lines, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventy six ers in Sacramento with Sabonis, who obviously
Speaker 1: plays a power game underneath the basket, they did get
Speaker 1: a win over a power front line and the Lakers
Speaker 1: albeit undermanned at the end of a long road trip,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of the secret sauce for them. They
Speaker 1: have to get out and run against those bigger teams
Speaker 1: as much as possible. They have to be more scrappy
Speaker 1: in the half court, they have to double and rotate
Speaker 1: better than they have been, and they have to rebound
Speaker 1: better than they have been. But I still worry about
Speaker 1: the thunder and the big picture until they really get
Speaker 1: a until they bolster that front line with a real forward,
Speaker 1: and I mean like someone in that six eight to
Speaker 1: six ten range that's a freak athlete that can help
Speaker 1: control the defensive glass and help chet anchor that defensive interior.
Speaker 1: Until they get that, I won't really take them seriously
Speaker 1: as a top tier contender. But in terms of like
Speaker 1: based on matchups, they can beat just about anybody else
Speaker 1: in the league that doesn't have that massive frontline because
Speaker 1: of the huge combination of just relentless ball handling and
Speaker 1: passing and shooting and point of attack defense and athleticism
Speaker 1: and motor and they have an awesome home crowd. They
Speaker 1: basically bring everything to the table except for the ability
Speaker 1: to beat the power frontlines. Around the league. They struggled,
Speaker 1: like chet Holmgren just had a nightmare of a time
Speaker 1: against against Rudy Gobaert in that game against Minnesota. It's
Speaker 1: just clearly a weakness for that particular team. Number six,
Speaker 1: the Orlando Magic. Now they've dropped quite a bit, but
Speaker 1: it's been a weird week. And honestly, all these teams
Speaker 1: are like smashed up on each other, So don't hyper
Speaker 1: focus on who's where in this list, because all of
Speaker 1: them are like this close to each other. And I
Speaker 1: bumped the Magic down just because it's a weird week.
Speaker 1: They've played a couple of games against the Wizards and
Speaker 1: then they just got apps smashed by the Brooklyn Nets
Speaker 1: on the road. McHale Bridges just lit them and lit
Speaker 1: them on fire from the opening tip of that game.
Speaker 1: And my theory there is like they had played three
Speaker 1: straight bad teams, Like they had won nine games in
Speaker 1: a row, but their last three wins were against Charlotte
Speaker 1: and Washington twice. And I'm a big believer and like,
Speaker 1: sometimes what will happen is you play against bad teams
Speaker 1: and you form bad habits, and then you go play
Speaker 1: a good team and you get smacked because you're just
Speaker 1: not quite quite ready for that speed. So yeah, like
Speaker 1: I bumped them down just because of the week schedule
Speaker 1: week and them taking that bad loss to Brooklyn. But
Speaker 1: they're every bit as good as all the teams in
Speaker 1: this tier. It's just they're all smashed up on each
Speaker 1: other and we're splitting hairs. At this point, they are
Speaker 1: still second in the Eastern Conference. We're gonna find out
Speaker 1: a lot about the Orlando Magic in the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks or in the next couple of weeks. This
Speaker 1: is their upcoming schedule, Calves Pistons, Calves Celtic Celtics, Heat
Speaker 1: Bucks Pacers. They come home for the Sixers and the Knicks.
Speaker 1: Then they go on a four game West Coast road
Speaker 1: trip where they play the Suns, the Warriors, the Kings,
Speaker 1: and the Nuggets. So the end of by like mid January,
Speaker 1: mid late January, we're gonna have a much better idea
Speaker 1: of just how real of a threat the Magic are
Speaker 1: for a potential playoff run. Number five, the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray came back from one game and then immediately
Speaker 1: tweaked his ankle and missed the next two. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of a bummer because without Jamal Murray, they just
Speaker 1: don't really quite have the overall offensive firepower that they
Speaker 1: need to match up with everything else they bring to
Speaker 1: the table. Right despite that, they've won four out of five.
Speaker 1: They beat the Clippers, of the Rockets and the Suns
Speaker 1: and Reggie Jackson again just a pro man. And like
Speaker 1: last year, the fit was weird, but this year, like
Speaker 1: I think, just having a full training camp and getting
Speaker 1: all these reps with Jokic. As Jamal Murray's been out
Speaker 1: in this five game span, He's averaging twenty two points
Speaker 1: and seven assists per game on sixty three percent from
Speaker 1: the field and fifty four percent from three, And I
Speaker 1: like that they're taking it slow with Jamal. The only
Speaker 1: thing that's going to be a downside there is if
Speaker 1: he keeps missing time like this, he's not gonna make
Speaker 1: the All Star team, which I know is one of
Speaker 1: his goals this year. But I still think the Nuggets
Speaker 1: are far and away the best championship contender in the
Speaker 1: field right now. I shouldn't say far and away, but
Speaker 1: I think they're clearly, undiscernibly better than Boston and everyone
Speaker 1: else behind them at that point. Number four, the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 1: They've won nine out of eleven. They took a tough
Speaker 1: loss in Chicago where Caruso hit this like drifting three
Speaker 1: going to his right that sent it to ot, but
Speaker 1: they did bounce back and beat Atlanta the other night.
Speaker 1: They're up to twelfth in defense and tenth in defensive
Speaker 1: rebounding over that eleven game span, two encouraging trends after
Speaker 1: their week start to the season. In both of those categories.
Speaker 1: They have some quality wins in there too, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas,
Speaker 1: and Toronto. They're like signature win yet, but they have
Speaker 1: some equality wins in there. And Giannis has started playing
Speaker 1: like an MVP again. Thirty one points, twelve rebounds and
Speaker 1: six assists on sixty three percent shooting and three stocks
Speaker 1: per game, three blocks and steals per game over the
Speaker 1: last eleven something to keep an eye on with the Bucks.
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton still has not logged a single twenty point
Speaker 1: game this season, obviously operating under a minutes restriction, but
Speaker 1: in my opinion, him getting back to more or less
Speaker 1: what he was in twenty twenty is basically a requirement
Speaker 1: for this team to be able to win a title.
Speaker 1: So the last three teams on this list, these are
Speaker 1: the teams that have been clearly a level above the
Speaker 1: rest of the field in my opinion this year. One
Speaker 1: of the teams might not be as obvious in terms
Speaker 1: of their record, but their very best player missed a
Speaker 1: bunch of time with an ankle injury, and they have
Speaker 1: arguably the most impressive list of quality victories this year.
Speaker 1: So I lumped them up with this group. But all
Speaker 1: three of these teams, in my opinion, have demonstrated dominance
Speaker 1: over the course of this regular season in a sense
Speaker 1: that it's just on a night in, night out basis,
Speaker 1: you just feel like they're getting a great punch from them,
Speaker 1: and you feel like they can beat anybody, and you
Speaker 1: feel like they have the top end firepower to outplay
Speaker 1: any stars in the league. Number three the Sacramento Kinks. Now,
Speaker 1: they took this weird loss of the Clippers. They had
Speaker 1: this wild comeback win. Malik Monks hits a game winner
Speaker 1: against the Warriors. It was like this kind of frenetic comeback. Right,
Speaker 1: they had play the Clippers the very next night and
Speaker 1: they ended up losing that game, a Clippers team that's
Speaker 1: been pretty bad since the Hard and Trade, Right, So
Speaker 1: I don't overlook too much of that. I should I
Speaker 1: should say that I don't look too much into that.
Speaker 1: But they did bounce back. They beat Denver and then
Speaker 1: they beat Minnesota the previous Friday, so they have a
Speaker 1: couple of really quality wins. Sandwiching that they're seven and
Speaker 1: two this year against teams that are five hundred or better,
Speaker 1: which is awesome. And the crazy part is they're doing
Speaker 1: it with the dirty work. They are up to fifteenth
Speaker 1: in defense over their last twelve games. That doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like the Sacramento Kings does it first in defensive rebounding
Speaker 1: over that span. So they're just cleaning up all of
Speaker 1: the dirty work right now, and then Deeron Fox is
Speaker 1: still out playing most of the stars in the league.
Speaker 1: On any given night, the Kings are actually nine and
Speaker 1: four when Deeron Fox plays. That's kind of what I
Speaker 1: meant like there. They have seven losses, but three of
Speaker 1: those losses were when Deeron Fox didn't play, So I
Speaker 1: think that that specifically is It's kind of like when
Speaker 1: the the Sixers dropped three games over their last eleven
Speaker 1: when Embiid didn't play like he. Deeron Fox is on
Speaker 1: that caliber now, where when he's out, like it's just
Speaker 1: a significant loss to that particular team. Number two, the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolves. They had a disappointing loss in an n
Speaker 1: season turn games of the Kings. But again, like the
Speaker 1: Kings have been doing that this year, just like going
Speaker 1: in on the road to really good teams and just
Speaker 1: kicking their ass. It's been kind of one of their
Speaker 1: part of their brand this year, so to speak. But
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves, they bounced back and went four straight after that,
Speaker 1: most impressively beating the Thunder the other night in the
Speaker 1: game where Rudy Gobaert did an absolute number on chet
Speaker 1: Holmgren held himTo like six for twenty, shooting a couple
Speaker 1: of wild defensive possessions there, getting a lot of contributions
Speaker 1: from guys down the roster, nos Reed and Troy Brown
Speaker 1: Junior both a big shots in that game. This team
Speaker 1: has a lot of like down the roster consistency in
Speaker 1: terms of effort and execution, Like they were able to
Speaker 1: beat Charlotte the other night without Anthony Edwards, same type
Speaker 1: of deal. Like this team is still the best defense
Speaker 1: in basketball, and you can just tell from the from
Speaker 1: the top down. From day one of training camp, They've
Speaker 1: been just so locked in on all of those details.
Speaker 1: It extends down the roster. They've been a juggernaut so
Speaker 1: far this year, and it's just a great example of
Speaker 1: how defense still wins in the NBA. The two best
Speaker 1: teams in the leg League have been the Celtics and
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves. The two best defenses in the league have
Speaker 1: been the Celtics and the Timberwolves. And I don't think
Speaker 1: that's a coincidence in my opinion. Still, it is the
Speaker 1: best way to win regular season games in the NBA
Speaker 1: because your effort travels. It's the most consistent thing. In
Speaker 1: like you, it is way easier to be a consistent
Speaker 1: defense than a consistent offense because consistent offense depends on
Speaker 1: shot results so much. But defense is an effort and
Speaker 1: effort and communication and focus thing, and as long as
Speaker 1: you bring those pieces every single night, you can win
Speaker 1: in the in the NBA regular season. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: on the strength of that defense and the leap from
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards contributions down the bench, Carl Towns has been
Speaker 1: a like a revelation this year in the sense that
Speaker 1: I thought he was kind of the odd man out,
Speaker 1: the guy that would probably end up getting traded at
Speaker 1: the deadline, and he's been so good and help defense,
Speaker 1: and so good on the defensive glass, and so efficient
Speaker 1: on offense playing next to Anthony Edwards that like now
Speaker 1: it just looks like he's a natural fit there. And
Speaker 1: so a lot of really exciting things from the Timberwolves
Speaker 1: here early in the season. I have them at number
Speaker 1: two in the power rankings and then number one. The
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics. Another undefeated week, three to zero since Chris
Speaker 1: Porzingis went down with his caff injury, which is encouraging,
Speaker 1: And there was a report that came out today that
Speaker 1: he's planning on playing in the semi finals should the
Speaker 1: Celtics beat the Pacers tonight.
Speaker 2: So that's good.
Speaker 1: The Celtics are now the second most This is a
Speaker 1: crazy stat that I came across this morning, and let
Speaker 1: me just frame it like this. Actually, last year the
Speaker 1: Celtics were twenty first and points generated out of the
Speaker 1: post per game. They generated just four and a half
Speaker 1: points per game out of the post.
Speaker 2: Last year.
Speaker 1: They were also sixteenth in the NBA in efficiency. So
Speaker 1: they were twenty first in volume, sixteenth in efficiency. There's
Speaker 1: your frame from last year. This year they are second
Speaker 1: in producing points out of the post per game, second
Speaker 1: only to Denver, and they are second in efficiency, scoring
Speaker 1: one point one five points per posed up including passes.
Speaker 1: Big part of it has been Chris Porzingis obviously coming in.
Speaker 1: He's just been ridiculously good out of the post this year.
Speaker 1: Forty kristops for Zingi's post ups have led to sixty
Speaker 1: eight points. That's one point seven points per possession. That
Speaker 1: was one of the big things coming over from Washington
Speaker 1: is he had a great year last year beating switches
Speaker 1: in particular in the post. But just just Boston needed
Speaker 1: somebody like that that when they switched Tatum, pick and
Speaker 1: rolls another option that they could go to to beat switches,
Speaker 1: and that's what Porzingis has brought to them. And then
Speaker 1: Tatum as well. Tatum has been about twice as productive
Speaker 1: in terms of volume compared to last year producing points
Speaker 1: out of the post, and so between that they've added
Speaker 1: a legitimate post top attack to their game and something
Speaker 1: that really wasn't a part of their offense in years past.
Speaker 1: So the Boston Celtics two weeks in a row at
Speaker 1: number one. All right, moving on to our mailbag. First question, Jason,
Speaker 1: You're always so good at looking at the big picture
Speaker 1: stuff with basketball, not overreacting to individual games. I was
Speaker 1: wondering if there ever was a if there was ever
Speaker 1: a time where you would overreact to big losses like
Speaker 1: the Lakers just had, and if so, how you learn
Speaker 1: to be more patient. This is coming from a Warriors
Speaker 1: fan who has who was devastated after the King's loss,
Speaker 1: but is now over the moon after the Clippers win.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing. I when I was younger, I
Speaker 1: had the same feeling, like I remember when I was
Speaker 1: like a teenager, late teenager, like I would overreact to
Speaker 1: every single win and loss, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of been like a steady decline from there.
Speaker 1: It really, you know, it's funny because I had this,
Speaker 1: like I have this like somebody pitched this theory to
Speaker 1: me the other day and I found it was really interesting.
Speaker 1: A theory having to do with age. Essentially, like every
Speaker 1: year of your life is a smaller amount of your
Speaker 1: life proportionally as you get older, And so that's why
Speaker 1: it feels like time goes by faster, because like if
Speaker 1: you're twenty and a year goes by, it's roughly what
Speaker 1: five percent of your life, right, But if you're forty
Speaker 1: and a year goes by, it's two and a half
Speaker 1: percent of your life, right, And so essentially it just
Speaker 1: feels like it goes by faster. And that's kind of
Speaker 1: like the thing that's happened to me over the years
Speaker 1: with the NBA is like at the more NBA seasons
Speaker 1: that I've covered, the more NBA seasons that I've followed
Speaker 1: very closely as a fan, the more things I've seen,
Speaker 1: and it all just starts to feel small by perspective.
Speaker 1: And beyond that, we've just seen so many trends of
Speaker 1: the regular season games not mattering all that much in
Speaker 1: both directions, with like teams like Sacramento and Memphis last
Speaker 1: year winning a ton of regular season games and then
Speaker 1: going out soft in the relatively soft i should say,
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and then teams like ter older veteran
Speaker 1: teams struggling in the regular season and then succeeding when
Speaker 1: they get to the playoffs. I do think it's tough
Speaker 1: because there is a lot of NBA history that shows
Speaker 1: that you'd rather be dominant, and a lot of times
Speaker 1: it is a dominant regular season team that ends up
Speaker 1: winning the title. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like I think, especially in this day and age, with
Speaker 1: load management and how much more you know, cautious teams
Speaker 1: are with injuries. It's more important to look at like
Speaker 1: if you see a night where your team is fully
Speaker 1: healthy and they're playing hard and everyone's kind of in
Speaker 1: a rhythm, but like they still get beat by a
Speaker 1: better team, and there are specific trends you see on
Speaker 1: the court, like, oh, they really struggle with this, or
Speaker 1: they really struggle with that, make them mental note of it.
Speaker 1: But like specific regular season results, it's like who cares? Like,
Speaker 1: I guarantee you there are a lot of Warriors fans
Speaker 1: that are freaking out about this. Clippers lost the other night.
Speaker 1: I watched that entire game and I was hanging out
Speaker 1: at my parents' house. Actually I went to go see
Speaker 1: them on Sunday and or on I guess it was Saturday,
Speaker 1: and I sat down and watched that game, and like,
Speaker 1: I thought, the Warriors played great. You know what happened?
Speaker 1: Like the Clippers, for all of their issues, they have
Speaker 1: some really good players and so they are capable of
Speaker 1: going on runs and like they just made tough shot
Speaker 1: after tough shot at the end of that game, and
Speaker 1: they got big stops. And you know, like I thought,
Speaker 1: the look Draymond Green got out of the corner is
Speaker 1: not a bad look. Kawhi Leonard's one of the best
Speaker 1: individual defenders in the world. It's not easy to get
Speaker 1: separation against him. And in terms of what happened with
Speaker 1: Steph on that possession, and so, like, my thing is,
Speaker 1: like the Warriors have played a lot of good basketball
Speaker 1: in the last week, between going up big on the
Speaker 1: Kings and going up being on the Clippers and getting
Speaker 1: the big win over the.
Speaker 2: Clippers a few days before.
Speaker 1: Like, it's been a lot of good with some bad,
Speaker 1: And so I don't think it makes a ton of
Speaker 1: sense to overreact to to singular results like that when
Speaker 1: obviously we already knew that the Warriors needed to make
Speaker 1: some sort of trade at the deadline to upgrade at
Speaker 1: that forward spot. It's been something we've been talking about
Speaker 1: ever since the Lakers series, Right, So, like, what really
Speaker 1: have we seen this year from the Warriors that is
Speaker 1: deeply concerning? Right, Like, Draymond's better than he was last year.
Speaker 1: Steph is Steph, like Clay Thompson's been an issue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's something that if although he's been playing better
Speaker 1: as of late, but if that becomes an issue in
Speaker 1: the long run, yeah, like maybe it's something they'll have
Speaker 1: to do something about. But I even think that bringing
Speaker 1: in that type of forward slots Klay Thompson better and
Speaker 1: makes that sort of thing easier. Pazemski's been incredible. It
Speaker 1: has been a godsend for that team. So like again,
Speaker 1: I just I don't really think it's worth it yet
Speaker 1: to have any sort of sweeping declaration about any team,
Speaker 1: right and in general, like you here the expression cooler
Speaker 1: heads prevail. That's kind of the way that I feel
Speaker 1: like we should all act as fans during the NBA
Speaker 1: regular seas, like after a big win, talk yourself down
Speaker 1: from it, after a big loss, talk yourself up from it.
Speaker 1: Try to stay even keel because that eighty two can
Speaker 1: be ridiculous. Schedule losses are a huge part of it.
Speaker 1: There were so many schedule losses last week, like the
Speaker 1: the Clippers beat the shit out of the Kings one
Speaker 1: night after they had this super emotional comeback win versus
Speaker 1: the Warriors, that the Lakers got slacked on the tail
Speaker 1: end of a back to back in Oklahoma City, the
Speaker 1: I think it ended up being the Warriors beating the
Speaker 1: Clippers on the second night of a back to back.
Speaker 2: Like the schedule plays a big role.
Speaker 1: There's so many different things that can manipulate regular season results,
Speaker 1: and so in general, just try to pay attention to
Speaker 1: the basketball and pay attention to specific trends taking place
Speaker 1: on the court. Next question, Thanks for all your analysis
Speaker 1: on games and teams. I believe that Wemby is the
Speaker 1: real deal. What do you think is the next step
Speaker 1: in the Spurs process. A couple of things They absolutely
Speaker 1: have to have to have to get higher quality ball handling.
Speaker 1: All of the ball with san Antonio this year has
Speaker 1: been has left a lot to be desired. As a fan,
Speaker 1: It's been really hard to watch san Antonio because of
Speaker 1: their process. They are fourth in turnovers excuse me, they
Speaker 1: have the fourth most turnovers per one hundre possessions. They
Speaker 1: have the sixth worst pick and roll offense in the
Speaker 1: league right now, and they are the fourth worst spot
Speaker 1: up team in the league. So ball handling is a
Speaker 1: big part of it. Just decision making, getting Wemby in
Speaker 1: better spots and getting everybody in better spots, and then
Speaker 1: off ball shooting obviously, is a big part of just
Speaker 1: the spacing going on around there. But I think that's
Speaker 1: gonna be something that they target after this offseason, this
Speaker 1: particular offseason, because this year in particular has been a nightmare.
Speaker 2: Next question.
Speaker 1: As a fan of the show, I've heard you talk
Speaker 1: many times about how you believe young players can't be
Speaker 1: winning pieces coming to the later rounds of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I agree with this take, but as a Warriors fan,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping Brandon Pizemski can be an exception in a
Speaker 1: limited role. Do you think this has some merit? Those
Speaker 1: are just my fan bias kicking in. Thanks love the show.
Speaker 1: Off the bench, I think it's totally fine. It's like
Speaker 1: I've been talking about this with Lakers fans, like can
Speaker 1: Cam Reddish or Max Christy contribute for the Lakers in
Speaker 1: the playoffs? Maybe off the bench, but I think if
Speaker 1: they're starting for you, if you're leaning on them for
Speaker 1: thirty something minutes a night, that's where it can become
Speaker 1: an issue. And so I think for a guy like
Speaker 1: Poziemski is clearly in a bench role, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's ridiculous to think that he can contribute in smaller minutes.
Speaker 1: So like Christian Brown can contributed in smaller minutes for
Speaker 1: the Nuggets last year in the postseason, right, So, like, again,
Speaker 1: this is all.
Speaker 2: To me.
Speaker 1: In those bench rolls, it's not as big of a deal.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm more talking about like starting lineup or
Speaker 1: like sixth man heavy heavy usage. Like that's where I
Speaker 1: start to worry about a player's age in the late
Speaker 1: rounds of the playoffs. Next question, why is Victor not
Speaker 1: the defensive player of the year so far? He's the
Speaker 1: league leader in stocks historic and absurd block rate, and
Speaker 1: he's asked to guard one through five. Teams are literally
Speaker 1: avoiding taking shots around him in the spurs of zero
Speaker 1: capable defenders with him.
Speaker 2: It's really as simple.
Speaker 1: They haven't won enough games, and the defensive rating with
Speaker 1: him on the floor hasn't been that great. I think
Speaker 1: it's like right around like one fifteen or something like that,
Speaker 1: which is like good considering the personnel around him, but
Speaker 1: not that great, right, And that has literally nothing to
Speaker 1: do with Victor. It's just to me that award kind
Speaker 1: of associates or generally gets kind of directed towards a
Speaker 1: winning player and a winning situation. So I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a problem because Victor is gonna get I'm sure
Speaker 1: Victor will wins several of them in his career. I
Speaker 1: just don't think he's gonna get him this year. Next question,
Speaker 1: do you think the Lakers should have Lebron run point?
Speaker 1: So the whole expression like run point or this team
Speaker 1: needs a point guard to me, doesn't really mean anything.
Speaker 1: It's just there's offensive initiators and playmaking finishers, right or
Speaker 1: play finishers, I should say, right, And so every team
Speaker 1: has multiple of them, right, And like right now, I
Speaker 1: do think it's a little convoluted with the Lakers between
Speaker 1: d Loo and Austin and Lebron and Anthony Davis. But
Speaker 1: I do think they're gonna end up consolidating that by
Speaker 1: getting rid of Dangel Russell at the deadline, which will
Speaker 1: simplify that process to Austin, Lebron and Anthony Davis. And
Speaker 1: you know, if there is a player that comes back
Speaker 1: in that deal, like let's say it's a Jeremy Grant
Speaker 1: or a Lourie markin In or somebody like that, if
Speaker 1: they end up getting a player like that that can score,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be scoring more in like ISOPO situations rather
Speaker 1: than pick and roll, so I think it actually will
Speaker 1: fit in more cleanly with the way that that team plays.
Speaker 1: And so again, like, do I think Lebron should take
Speaker 1: more control over the offense? I mean yeah, but I
Speaker 1: feel like he has, especially in crunch time, and he's
Speaker 1: been awesome in those situations. So like, to me, given
Speaker 1: what the regular season is, you're just trying to get
Speaker 1: through the eighty two games, I honestly think the way
Speaker 1: they've been doing things is fine from the same point
Speaker 1: of like a delineation of responsibilities, understanding that you have
Speaker 1: all these guards and like you have to play the
Speaker 1: Angelo Russell until whatever time comes in the future where
Speaker 1: you decide to trade him. Right, My only concern really
Speaker 1: has just been offensive organization. Like we talked about this
Speaker 1: at length, so I won't get into it right now,
Speaker 1: but stuff like the five out offense versus cleared side
Speaker 1: post ups and cleared side ISOs and that sort of
Speaker 1: thing I did notice in the Rockets game. If you
Speaker 1: guys remember, I did a breakdown after the Thunder game
Speaker 1: about different things the Lakers should be doing in the post,
Speaker 1: specifically cleared side post ups for ad on the left
Speaker 1: side of the floor. We can get to his right hand,
Speaker 1: and Ran I want to say, I can't remember the
Speaker 1: exact number of post ups, but they were one point
Speaker 1: five points per possession against the Rockets when ad posted
Speaker 1: up on the left block where he could get to
Speaker 1: his right hand, and then it was zero point eight
Speaker 1: points per possession on center and right block post ups,
Speaker 1: which I thought was a strong indicator of that theory.
Speaker 1: It's just easier for Anthony Davis to read the floor
Speaker 1: and to get to his strong hand from the left side.
Speaker 1: And then Lebron ran I think six or no. He
Speaker 1: ran eight post ups in that game and either scored,
Speaker 1: passed to his score, or drew fallen. Six of his
Speaker 1: eight post ups, most of them out of that left block,
Speaker 1: where he's most successful. So I thought that was an
Speaker 1: encouraging sign for the Lakers as well.
Speaker 2: Next question.
Speaker 1: For some reason, Tyler has a reputation as a good coach.
Speaker 1: Is that really justified? What has he done to earn it?
Speaker 1: If the Clippers flow is so bad on offense relative
Speaker 1: to their skill, wouldn't it be good to have a
Speaker 1: coach do something about that?
Speaker 2: Dido defense?
Speaker 1: Do I agree with everything Tyler's done, not particularly like
Speaker 1: he's a little oh so Here's the thing. Tyler's reputation
Speaker 1: or Tyler's brand I should say as a coach is.
Speaker 2: He's big on he he's big on.
Speaker 1: Switching, defense, small lineups, and he has excellent spacing principles,
Speaker 1: meaning like he is probably one of the better top
Speaker 1: two or three driving kick coaches in the league. What
Speaker 1: I mean by that is like he's just he empowers
Speaker 1: his players to work in a spread floor and beat
Speaker 1: people off the dribble and play kind of freely from there.
Speaker 1: It's brute force, but in a way that I think
Speaker 1: makes sense for the personnel that they have. The problem
Speaker 1: is as they've gotten really small in this time post
Speaker 1: hard and Trade. It's all the switching and the going small,
Speaker 1: like taking Zubac out of the lineup has put them
Speaker 1: into some precarious situations. The numbers haven't updated since the
Speaker 1: last game, but I haven't checked the updated numbers, I
Speaker 1: should say, but they were giving up an offensive rebound
Speaker 1: on almost half of opponent shot attempts in crunch time
Speaker 1: since the hard and Trade. That's like a huge problem
Speaker 1: in my opinion. So some of this thing is like
Speaker 1: a couple things is tightly responsible for the offensive issues
Speaker 1: that they're having since the Hard and Trade. In my opinion, no,
Speaker 1: just because it's just hard for a bunch of stars
Speaker 1: to learn how to play together. Also, there's so many
Speaker 1: egos in that room that they're gonna kind of do
Speaker 1: their own thing in a lot of ways there, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: I try not to blame too much of that on
Speaker 1: the coach. It's like when Lakers fans blame Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: for offensive organization when it was a Lebron Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis team, and I wanted to be like, like,
Speaker 1: you think Frank is telling Lebron how to play offense?
Speaker 1: Like those dudes are figuring it out on their own.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what I think is happening with
Speaker 1: the Clippers. But that said, some of their defensive principles
Speaker 1: and some of their lineup decisions that they've had post
Speaker 1: the Hard and Trade don't really match with the personnel.
Speaker 1: But we just have to see how it goes in
Speaker 1: the long run, because to me, the hallmark of a
Speaker 1: coach is how he responds to changes in personnel, you know,
Speaker 1: because that's the thing is every coach has like their
Speaker 1: kind of overarching belief system, right, But then you change
Speaker 1: personnel around that, and so like you kind of can't
Speaker 1: just inflict your belief on the personnel. You have to
Speaker 1: tweak your you know, kind of beliefs in system to
Speaker 1: your personnel, if that makes sense. Next question, how do
Speaker 1: you beat Denver? Also, do you think any roster in
Speaker 1: the league consistently beat Denver in a series? As a
Speaker 1: Celtics fan watching the Nuggets, I just can't seem to
Speaker 1: find a way Denver loses if they're healthy. So Denver's
Speaker 1: the best team in my opinion, which means like there
Speaker 1: is no team that can consistently beat them in a series.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, there's two different ways to beat them.
Speaker 1: And if I was like trying to construct a basketball
Speaker 1: team to beat Denver, there's two different routes that I
Speaker 1: would look at. One is like spread them the hell
Speaker 1: out with five guys that can all dribble, shoot and
Speaker 1: pass and drive and kick them to death, so you
Speaker 1: can take advantage of some of their limited defensive personnel.
Speaker 1: Team like Boston comes to mind as a team that
Speaker 1: could do that. Also, they just have a lot of
Speaker 1: rotation athleticism to be able to kind of fly around
Speaker 1: as they're working around the Jokic problem on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: The other two teams I look at are Miami and
Speaker 1: the Lakers. And the reason why I look at these
Speaker 1: particular teams is Anthony Davis and Bamana bio in theory,
Speaker 1: if they are surrounded by the appropriate amount of athleticism,
Speaker 1: can can give Jokic and Murray problems, right, And the
Speaker 1: Lakers had no success with that last year. That was
Speaker 1: a big problem for them. But I think like for
Speaker 1: both of those teams, for both Miami and the Lakers,
Speaker 1: they need to make a trade to kind of successfully
Speaker 1: unleash that. I like with Miami, the Jimmy Butler bam
Speaker 1: at a bio combination and their ability to guard the
Speaker 1: Jokich Murray two man game. If you guys remember in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals in Game two, those two guys did
Speaker 1: an amazing job and did a good job slowing down
Speaker 1: Denver in that win. Right, And so with Miami, they
Speaker 1: need more offensive firepower, So they'd need to make a
Speaker 1: trade to bring in enough firepower to outscore Denver on
Speaker 1: the other end, Right, for the Lakers, it's that one more.
Speaker 1: It's the guy that's like because the problem is with
Speaker 1: Ruy Hachi Mura, with Jared Vanderbilt, with Torrian Prince, all
Speaker 1: those guys, Max Christy, Cam Reddish, they all have gaping flaws.
Speaker 1: And with respect to their ability to be in the
Speaker 1: starting lineup right, like Cam Reddish, Jared Vanderbilt, and Max Christi,
Speaker 1: it's can they be consistent enough offensively right?
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 1: Ruya Mura and Tourian Princes are they athlete to kind
Speaker 1: of contend on the perimeter defensively right? Like Rue's a
Speaker 1: good help defender, good rebounder, good post up defender, good
Speaker 1: ISO defender, but he really struggles to navigate screens right.
Speaker 1: And so all those guys kind of have flaws. If
Speaker 1: they could bring in a Jeremy Grant or one of
Speaker 1: the Toronto Raptors forwards, or a Lori Markenen or a
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith, a real dynamic, starter caliber forward that's
Speaker 1: next to Lebron James and Anthony Davis, I think they'd
Speaker 1: have a better chance. But specifically the Lebron A d
Speaker 1: front line and the Bam Jimmy frontline I think are
Speaker 1: two front lines that, if they were surrounded by enough talent,
Speaker 1: could give Jokic and Murray some issues, but I'd put
Speaker 1: the Celtics at that top of that list for right
Speaker 1: now with their ability to spread them out and drive
Speaker 1: and kick them to death. Next question, what I don't
Speaker 1: understand is that it took a small sample size of
Speaker 1: good basketball for Austin Reeves to get hyped into a
Speaker 1: big contract. How come a small sample size of bad
Speaker 1: basketball isn't enough for someone to change their minds. He
Speaker 1: had a decent playoffs and a couple of good FEBA games,
Speaker 1: Yet people act as though he's been awesome for years
Speaker 1: and is just slumping for a few games. We've seen
Speaker 1: players in the past have a good season or two.
Speaker 1: If given the opportunity, tons of players would do it.
Speaker 2: Wow. I disagree with this.
Speaker 1: If given the opportunity, tons of players could do what
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves does, but they don't have the opportunity. He's
Speaker 1: average at best, and he's not better than D'Angelo Russell.
Speaker 1: What are we even talking about?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: I don't think I could possibly disagree more with this comment. Uh,
Speaker 1: let me just this is all I'm gonna do for
Speaker 1: this segment. I'm just gonna give you guys the real
Speaker 1: sample sizes here. Twenty seven regular season games. Twenty seven
Speaker 1: regular season games after Russell Westbrook was traded away from
Speaker 1: the Lakers, Austin averaged seventeen points and five assists on
Speaker 1: over seventy percent true shooting. Sixteen playoff games, Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: averaged seventeen points and five assists on over sixty percent
Speaker 1: true shooting, and he had eight to twenty point games.
Speaker 1: He played thirteen games with FIBA alongside a ton of
Speaker 1: talent and averaged thirteen points per game on seventy seven
Speaker 1: percent true shooting, seventy eight percent, an effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage on catch and shoot jumpers, sixty one percent an
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers, and seventy
Speaker 1: three percent at the rim. That's how good he was
Speaker 1: at FIBA, Guys, that is a fifty six game sample
Speaker 1: size of him being awesome, not like good, not even
Speaker 1: like great, like awesome. That's awesome contribution in like high
Speaker 1: leverage games. That's like a playoff run in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Right the end of that regular season last year, every
Speaker 1: game was wildly important because they were trying to scrap
Speaker 1: and claw their way into a playoff spot and then
Speaker 1: literally for the World Cup of Basketball. Like it doesn't
Speaker 1: get much more high leverage than that. And for fifty
Speaker 1: six games he was awesome, and you guys are ready
Speaker 1: to call him a bum because he's been playing at
Speaker 1: a slightly lower level for twenty one regular season games.
Speaker 1: Twenty one, twenty one to fifty six. That's the comparison
Speaker 1: of sample size. That's barely a third of the sample
Speaker 1: sizes of him being awesome. And this twenty one regular
Speaker 1: season game sample fourteen points, five rebounds, five assists on
Speaker 1: fifty eight percent through shooting, which is good.
Speaker 2: It's certainly not as good as he used to be,
Speaker 2: but he's good.
Speaker 1: So like again, the like Austin Reeves for a long
Speaker 1: extended period in high leverage games was awesome. So I
Speaker 1: am not going to jump off the Austin Reeves bandwagon
Speaker 1: after twenty one regular season games when the Lakers were
Speaker 1: down most of their athleticism, which was a big part
Speaker 1: of why they were losing and made everything harder on
Speaker 1: everybody else, all of a sudden, Austin is getting slotted
Speaker 1: on more difficult perimeter defense assignments, right, all of a sudden.
Speaker 1: Just in general, the team doesn't have as much downhill
Speaker 1: rim pressure without the athleticism, which makes it harder on
Speaker 1: the perimeter initiators. In general, it's been a weird season,
Speaker 1: and he's still been pretty good. But like, yeah, stop
Speaker 1: saying he was barely good last year. Stop saying he
Speaker 1: only did it for a few games. He did it
Speaker 1: for fifty six games. He was awesome in a bunch
Speaker 1: of different circumstances, and for two years before that, he
Speaker 1: was a quality role player working primarily off the ball
Speaker 1: like this is not in my opinion, it's far more
Speaker 1: ridiculous to overreact to the twenty one regular season games
Speaker 1: this year. Last question, Hi, Jason, how come the Timberwolves
Speaker 1: are better this year than last year? Last year they
Speaker 1: had a stagnant offense, no spacing. Now they're cooking or
Speaker 1: wasn't any offseason moves? So what's different? A couple things.
Speaker 1: First of all, I thought the Timberwolves were one of
Speaker 1: the better teams down the stretch of the regular season
Speaker 1: last year. I was super impressed by their defense and physicality,
Speaker 1: how hard they played. They had kind of like a
Speaker 1: weird offense in the sense that like it's a little clunky,
Speaker 1: it's the spacing is tough. But at the same time
Speaker 1: they have a lot of different guys in attack matchups
Speaker 1: in different ways, and so a couple things they've ridden
Speaker 1: that defensive wave into the season. I predicted they'd be
Speaker 1: a top five defense this year. They ended up being
Speaker 1: the best defense this year. So it's just been a
Speaker 1: kind of like a more dynamic version of that. Right,
Speaker 1: and then Anthony Everargs has gone up a level, starting
Speaker 1: from that awesome playoff series against the Nuggets where I
Speaker 1: thought he played really well being the best player on
Speaker 1: the team at Foeba, and then coming into this season,
Speaker 1: his playmaking has gone up a level, his career high
Speaker 1: twenty six points per game. So just Anthony Everards going
Speaker 1: up a level. Carltown's buying in defensively and on the glass,
Speaker 1: which has helped anchor that lineup and made it so
Speaker 1: that that lineup makes more sense. Right in general, the
Speaker 1: whole team committing to the defensive end from day one
Speaker 1: of training camp. Those are kind of like the three
Speaker 1: things that are driving it in my opinion. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: it's all I have for today. My picks for tonight.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with the Celtics to beat the Pacers
Speaker 1: on the road. The Pelicans have had the King's number.
Speaker 1: The Kings have won what ten of their last thirteen games,
Speaker 1: I think if I remember correctly, and two of those
Speaker 1: three losses were against the Pelicans, two games in New
Speaker 1: Orleans where Zion Williamson slice and dice them.
Speaker 2: So a couple things.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with the Kings just because I think
Speaker 1: this third time through they should be able to schematically
Speaker 1: adjust for the Zion Williamson problem. And then at home
Speaker 1: in a high leverage game like this, I just think
Speaker 1: they're the better team and I think they'll get it done.
Speaker 1: So Kings to beat the Pelicans and the Celtics to
Speaker 1: beat the Pacers. That's all I have for today, guys.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow morning to break down those two games.
Speaker 1: Don't forget. Also tonight watch playback for Indiana Boston. You
Speaker 1: can find that link on my Twitter meeting. The volume