Speaker 1: Come Home, Come Home, Come Home.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, I guess we
Speaker 2: can call it hot and Cold. That's today's episode Hot
Speaker 2: and Cold. We break down some of the hottest teams
Speaker 2: in the NBA right now and talk about teams who
Speaker 2: either are going cold or going to stay cold, the
Speaker 2: Paper Tigers that are going to flame out, most likely
Speaker 2: in the playoffs. And yes, you know who we're talking about.
Speaker 2: Most likely the Utah Jazz is in that mix. So
Speaker 2: go ahead, rock and drop that beat Sunday by perfect Good.
Speaker 1: Rays.
Speaker 2: Like. Somebody recently asked me who are my sleepers? Who
Speaker 2: is my West Coast sleeper for the NBA playoffs? And
Speaker 2: the first team that shockingly came to my mind not
Speaker 2: a team I talk about a ton, Not a team
Speaker 2: that has historically gone very deep into the playoffs, not
Speaker 2: a team that has attracted a ton of free agents.
Speaker 2: But a team that's playing really well right now, and
Speaker 2: a team that is doing all the right things at
Speaker 2: the right time of the year. Dallas Mavericks. The Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 2: It sickens me to even say that, but it's true.
Speaker 2: What a crazy year. If you're a MAVs fan. He
Speaker 2: hasn't gone quite the way that you were hoping when
Speaker 2: you saw Luca play for Team Slovenia, you were hoping
Speaker 2: that maybe this would get him in shape faster, and
Speaker 2: in fact it actually got him out of shape faster
Speaker 2: because he chilled all the way out after the Olympics
Speaker 2: were over, said I ate too much. I hung around
Speaker 2: on the beach too much, and then he was basically
Speaker 2: fat and injured for the majority of the beginning of
Speaker 2: the season. And as Luca goes, the MAVs go. Last
Speaker 2: year ended, of course disastrously. The MAVs should have beaten
Speaker 2: the Clippers, but Kawhi was the robot, so like Fine right,
Speaker 2: they led to the exit of the only coach to
Speaker 2: ever win a championship in Dallas. There was tons of drama.
Speaker 2: Luca hated Rick Carlisle. Luca hated the fact that kristavs
Speaker 2: Porzingis was still a Maverick. Luca hated the fact that
Speaker 2: they got rid of Dennis Smith Junior. There was just
Speaker 2: hit piece after hit piece after hit peace accusations about
Speaker 2: the front office. There was scandals, There was finger pointing.
Speaker 2: There was Luca saying nothing, chirp, chirp, And of course
Speaker 2: that led to Rick Carlisle being offered a one year deal,
Speaker 2: which was pretty much like a prove it deal. He
Speaker 2: said no, Now he's in Indiana. Now we've got Jason Kidd.
Speaker 2: Fast forward and all all of this was then dumped
Speaker 2: into the lap of Jason Kidd, who will, let's face it,
Speaker 2: has had his own share of off the court controversy,
Speaker 2: I might say. So things were starting off a little rocky,
Speaker 2: a little rocky from a reputational standpoint, like, hey, do
Speaker 2: we even want to hire Jason Kidd? You hire a
Speaker 2: first time GM who came from the brand side in
Speaker 2: Nico Harrison. Good dude, but unprecedented. Does he even have
Speaker 2: relationships with the rest of the league. He's been slanging
Speaker 2: shoes for athletes for twenty years. So let's just say
Speaker 2: the expectations were sort of tepid. Right fast forward to today.
Speaker 2: Not only has the team been restructured by shipping out
Speaker 2: Porzingis to Washington for Breton's and Dinwittie, but the entire
Speaker 2: nature of this team has been transformed. So let's get
Speaker 2: into it, because there's a few major things that the
Speaker 2: Maps have done to put themselves into a position to
Speaker 2: do what I would consider to be damage they could
Speaker 2: knock off a really good team in the first round. First,
Speaker 2: Luca is back in shape, Luca's not fat anymore. Luca
Speaker 2: has been able to finish out games strong. He said,
Speaker 2: he's not winded in fourth quarters anymore. That's huge. I
Speaker 2: would say you're superstar, not being winded in fourth quarters,
Speaker 2: completely out of breath, needing the oxygen mask. I would
Speaker 2: say that's huge. Also, the MAVs are the hottest team
Speaker 2: in the West right now. Momentum is big. It has
Speaker 2: everything to do with that defensive intensity. And of course
Speaker 2: Luca's health and we'll call it wellness fat fatness. And
Speaker 2: because he's not fluffy anymore, he's able to defend well,
Speaker 2: he's still kind of fluffy. He's defending at a career
Speaker 2: high point. He even told people, I think it was
Speaker 2: la He yelled at the crowd, I fucking play defense now,
Speaker 2: what's up? Like, okay, Luca. He went from Eliya bil
Speaker 2: where everybody was making fun of him because he was
Speaker 2: slow and like able to get cooked. Even KD said,
Speaker 2: like he kind of plays possum with how quick he is.
Speaker 2: He tries to be slow on purpose. And now he's
Speaker 2: a plus defender right now, since December thirty first, when
Speaker 2: the MAVs started their tear Luca has a defensive rating
Speaker 2: of one hundred and four point five and an offensive
Speaker 2: rating of one hundred and twelve. That is an eight
Speaker 2: and a half net rating, and he was a negative
Speaker 2: fourteen when he was fat. That's a big turnaround, I'd say,
Speaker 2: And because he's not a defensive liability anymore, the team
Speaker 2: defense is all the way up, as they say. A
Speaker 2: lot of this, though, falls on a couple of players,
Speaker 2: Reggie Bullock, who they poached from the Knicks, and Maxi Kleba.
Speaker 2: Reggie Bullock has a defensive rating of one hundred and
Speaker 2: eight point six and Maxi Kleiba has a defensive rating
Speaker 2: of one hundred and six as well. But the team
Speaker 2: defense is the reason to me that the Dallas is
Speaker 2: so dangerous. Mavericks, by the numbers will get into some
Speaker 2: nerd shit really fast. Number two in NBA in opponents
Speaker 2: points per game one hundred and three point seven. Number
Speaker 2: one in the NBA right now in opponents points in
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter, twenty four points they're allowing in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter. That's ridiculous. That is absolutely absurd. Number two
Speaker 2: in defending the three they're only giving up just shy
Speaker 2: of eleven threes per game. They're number six in opponent
Speaker 2: free throws per game at fifteen point one. They don't
Speaker 2: foul a lot, and that is because they're able to
Speaker 2: play defense and stay out of the bonus in a
Speaker 2: place where that leads to less fourth quarter points per game.
Speaker 2: Number two in opponents offensive rebounds per game at nine
Speaker 2: point four. They're number one in the NBA in blocks
Speaker 2: per game at just SHIA four. They're number three in
Speaker 2: the NBA it steals per game at just shia seven.
Speaker 2: So what does this all mean to me? It means
Speaker 2: that Jason Kidd has installed not only an incredibly active
Speaker 2: defense that challenges a lot of shots hence the blocks,
Speaker 2: presses the ball beyond the three point line, hence the
Speaker 2: three point defense blocking out like a stone wall, which
Speaker 2: is why the other teams aren't getting any rebounds and
Speaker 2: doing it all while not fouling, which means that fourth
Speaker 2: quarter points come at a premium. Given the fact, like
Speaker 2: I said, that they're not in the bonus these opposing teams,
Speaker 2: they're basically able to have greater cushion in the fourth
Speaker 2: quarter to amp out the amp up the defensive intensity
Speaker 2: while not worrying about teams going to the free throw line. Shesh.
Speaker 2: Second thing about the MAVs is that they have decided
Speaker 2: we're building around Luca and we're okay with just one star.
Speaker 2: We're okay with just one star. Probably the only team
Speaker 2: with one star that could actually contend right now is
Speaker 2: the MAVs. And that meant get rid of the unicorn,
Speaker 2: give up that experiment. He is no star and not
Speaker 2: going to be a star here, so ship them all
Speaker 2: the way out. Here's what became apparent to Jason Kidd.
Speaker 2: He felt that Kevin kristavs Porzingis was in the way,
Speaker 2: and then the opportunity arose to get two contracts that
Speaker 2: are movable for one big inflative contract. So they pulled
Speaker 2: the trigger and he did that knowing full well what
Speaker 2: the ceiling could be on a one star team. The
Speaker 2: MAVs did it with Dirk Noavisky. They won it with
Speaker 2: one star and a bunch of role players like himself.
Speaker 2: They brought in Davis Breton's and Spencer Dinwiddie. They got
Speaker 2: a system that works for both players, and it shows
Speaker 2: the new starting lineup of Luca, Dorian Finney, Smith, Reggie Bullock,
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunston, and Dwight Poweller checked this number NERD shit
Speaker 2: nerdshit Alert Alert, open your eyes. Plus fifty one in
Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy three minutes. That starting lineup is
Speaker 2: a plus fifty one in a hun in seventy three minutes,
Speaker 2: And of course that means that they are winning a
Speaker 2: lot of basketball games. Dimwitty said recently on a quote
Speaker 2: that this team knows what they need to do. Brunston
Speaker 2: knows how he fits with Luca on the court and
Speaker 2: knows how to lead when Luca is resting. They both
Speaker 2: know how to work together synergistically to be able to
Speaker 2: lift up that superstar a single superstar and a bunch
Speaker 2: of really good role players. And although they don't have
Speaker 2: a super high race, super highly rated offense, they are
Speaker 2: number three in the NBA in the least amount of turnovers,
Speaker 2: they're number seven in the league and assist the turnover ratio,
Speaker 2: So they're super efficient on offense because Jalen Brunston is
Speaker 2: one of the best point guards in the league. And
Speaker 2: we've talked about this before at not turning the ball
Speaker 2: over and being able to assist at a high rate
Speaker 2: he's only at He's averaging only one point seventy three
Speaker 2: turnovers per game on set on thirty two minutes a game.
Speaker 2: Luca averaged like five turnovers a game, So if they
Speaker 2: didn't have Luke on the team, they would be probably
Speaker 2: number one in the league at assist the turnover ratio period.
Speaker 2: And of course, another big turning point for this team
Speaker 2: is getting Spencer Dinwitty, who the Wizards did not want,
Speaker 2: who the Wizard's thought was a cultural issue. Who the
Speaker 2: Wizard's thought was clashing with the rest of the squad
Speaker 2: and Bradbeiale in particular, because he wanted to be a star.
Speaker 2: But listen, Dinwitty on a good team understands he is
Speaker 2: no star. He understands he's a good off the bench guy,
Speaker 2: and he's fitting in perfectly eighteen two and six in
Speaker 2: his first few weeks. But what's even more important is
Speaker 2: how he functions when Lucas off the floor, which we've
Speaker 2: seen as well. We'll get to that in a second,
Speaker 2: and that is shocking. The whole fit with Dallas is
Speaker 2: probably shocking to a lot of Wizards fans. Dinwitty I
Speaker 2: thought he was a cancer. A lot of people in
Speaker 2: Washington thought he was the locker room problem. But now
Speaker 2: that he's out in Dallas. By the way, Dinwitty had
Speaker 2: thirty six two and seven leading a Lucalis MAVs team
Speaker 2: thirty six two and seven. Wow to come from. That's
Speaker 2: a low assist number, though, isn't it. He was be
Speaker 2: was hoopin'. He let the world know after the fact
Speaker 2: after they played the Kings how he was feeling about
Speaker 2: playing in Washington. This is what Dinwoodie said. When the
Speaker 2: road changed in Washington and they wanted me to pass more.
Speaker 2: They felt like I was scoring a lot, and I
Speaker 2: did that. I took my foot off the gas scoring
Speaker 2: scoring wise, because that's what they felt. Well, the team
Speaker 2: needed to get Kuzma and KCP involved and those guy shots.
Speaker 2: I said, look, I already got paid. I don't care
Speaker 2: if this is about y'all trying to get the shots
Speaker 2: y'all need whatever, But to be bashed on the way
Speaker 2: out of the door hurt my feelings. For sure. I
Speaker 2: think I'm human. Of course, the I think I'm human
Speaker 2: part just solidifies to me who Dinwoody is. But that
Speaker 2: is another story and another topic for another day. Because
Speaker 2: when someone says I think I'm human, he's he's questioning
Speaker 2: all of his reality at all times. It's something that's
Speaker 2: definitely get off the weed. Spencer. Anyway, when asked about
Speaker 2: the different the biggest difference between the two teams, Spencer said,
Speaker 2: not to be the dead horse, but Dallas's commitment to
Speaker 2: the collective and of the winning games is all that
Speaker 2: matters to them. Yikes, that is damning. That is damning
Speaker 2: in terms of how the Wizards were operating while he
Speaker 2: was there in his opinion, and of course the NBA
Speaker 2: being the NBA. The Wizards responded and wes Unseld Junior
Speaker 2: decided I'm going to go into deflection mode and said, well,
Speaker 2: we're not gonna get into the accuracy of that statement. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's one of those classic coach speak where it's like
Speaker 2: he's definitely calling Spencer Dinwiddie a liar without saying he's
Speaker 2: a liar, because it's like, well, I'm just not gonna
Speaker 2: get into the accuracy or by the way, Spencer Dinwiddy
Speaker 2: could be totally telling the truth, and that's like the
Speaker 2: biggest deflection because he doesn't even want to say whether
Speaker 2: he's gonna question the validity or not, because if he did,
Speaker 2: he might have to lie on the record. Classic stuff.
Speaker 2: Then we have Kyle Kuzma, who then was also asked
Speaker 2: about Spencer Dinwiddie's comments NBA dramas my favorite thing in
Speaker 2: the world, and he goes, I'm sure if you go
Speaker 2: back to tidbits, I know I always said I wanted
Speaker 2: him to be aggressive. I know Beale always said he
Speaker 2: wanted Spence to be aggressive. So I'm just gonna leave
Speaker 2: it at that. We're past that, honestly, We're focused on
Speaker 2: the guys that are here. If you go back to tidbits,
Speaker 2: that's such a funny word, tidbits. Here's the thing that's true.
Speaker 2: Spencer was pissed because he was getting buckets, his role
Speaker 2: was asked to change. He didn't want to be a
Speaker 2: six man when he was being paid to be a starter.
Speaker 2: That was pretty evident and said multiple times around the team.
Speaker 2: Because Spencer Dinwiddie believes that his skill set is on
Speaker 2: the same level as Kyrie Irving, he didn't want to
Speaker 2: be relegated on a team like the Wizards, which frankly
Speaker 2: makes a lot of sense given when he was scoring
Speaker 2: a lot the Wizards were winning, and when he was
Speaker 2: not scoring a lot. The Wizards were losing, so I
Speaker 2: get all that probably a better scorer than the rest
Speaker 2: of the Wizard's roster outside of maybe maybe Coups, maybe Beale,
Speaker 2: probably Beale, but not in the fourth quarter for sure
Speaker 2: or not. He's not a point guard, but he's not
Speaker 2: quite as shooting guard. So the fit was weird. The
Speaker 2: role was strange, and truthfully, the biggest criticism that I've
Speaker 2: heard about the Wizards is all about Wes Unsell Junior.
Speaker 2: A lot of players I heard find his offense to
Speaker 2: be quite confusing, and they are what was it, what
Speaker 2: did he say? I'm not going to get into and
Speaker 2: they're not going to get into the accuracy of whether
Speaker 2: he can coach or not. They're not going to get
Speaker 2: into the accuracy of whether his shit makes any damn
Speaker 2: sense at all, but they're questioning whether it is the case.
Speaker 2: Jason kidd though, who has done this a time or two,
Speaker 2: is making shit very simple in Dallas, and that's how
Speaker 2: you get guys like Spencer Dinwiddie to not worry about
Speaker 2: all the noise and focus on like six plays, which
Speaker 2: is what happened when Spencer Dinwood he ended up leading
Speaker 2: the ship when Luca was out, they gave him six
Speaker 2: plays to run and they kept it super duper simple.
Speaker 2: And this is what Spencer told the Dallas Morning News
Speaker 2: coach Kid one of the greatest point guards of all time.
Speaker 2: He simplifies everything and make sure it's streamlined and what
Speaker 2: it needs to be. Processing information and a lot of
Speaker 2: information is hard. Making it more complex than it needs
Speaker 2: to be makes it even worse, like it makes the
Speaker 2: goal almost unachievable and unattainable. That's what we strive to
Speaker 2: do here is make complex shit sound as simple as
Speaker 2: it possibly can. And sometimes it takes a very high
Speaker 2: brain processor in order to make things that are complex simple.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to get into the accuracy of the
Speaker 2: processing speed of west Unseld Junior at this time. He
Speaker 2: probably summed up what's happening in Washington as well as
Speaker 2: anyone when Spencer didn when he said this, I think, well,
Speaker 2: Washington's kind of in flux. You're looking at their roster.
Speaker 2: They were trying to get Beal to sign the Supermax.
Speaker 2: They still are. They've got a bunch of young guys
Speaker 2: like Denny Ruey that they need to develop. Then you've
Speaker 2: got guys that came from the Lakers that wanted expanded roles.
Speaker 2: They all all wanted to be the guy. You got
Speaker 2: a first time head coach. So you've got all these
Speaker 2: different dynamics going on where people are trying to establish
Speaker 2: themselves in whatever roles or positions they may want to
Speaker 2: be in the league for the next five to ten years.
Speaker 2: With that being said, all those balls in the air,
Speaker 2: hard juggling process, tough to do for any coach, any organization.
Speaker 2: The amount of ricochet shots being said in that paragraph.
Speaker 2: Everyone is powermongering, everyone is fighting for an expanded role.
Speaker 2: No one was willing to sacrifice. And you have a
Speaker 2: new head coach who doesn't know how to manage egos
Speaker 2: and that shit is disastrous. Then you've got Bradley Beale
Speaker 2: that goes down with the season ending injury, has surgery
Speaker 2: and it's night Night sleep mask. But I'm looking forward
Speaker 2: to see what then, what he does. I'm looking forward
Speaker 2: to being on the lookout for the MAVs and if
Speaker 2: you're a MAVs fan, there's a lot to be excited about.
Speaker 2: And on top of that, the schedule. Let's talk about
Speaker 2: the schedule here for another second. Very favorable power rankings
Speaker 2: show that there are only four teams that the MAVs
Speaker 2: are not favored against for the remainder of the schedule.
Speaker 2: They might even progress to a four seed and get
Speaker 2: home court against the Jazz. There's a possibility that's going
Speaker 2: to be four or five Jazz and MAVs. It just
Speaker 2: depends on who's going to get home court advantage. MAVs
Speaker 2: have won seven of nine clutch games, defined as a
Speaker 2: game within five points within five minutes, and the big
Speaker 2: criticism of Luca over the course of his tenure has
Speaker 2: been that the MAVs have sucked in the clutch. But
Speaker 2: since he returned January first, the Mavericks are eleven to
Speaker 2: five and clutch games with a net rating of plus
Speaker 2: four point three. Nerd shit. The Mavericks are twelve and
Speaker 2: both offensive and defensive rating during that time span during
Speaker 2: those critical clutch moments, and the numbers have only improved
Speaker 2: with Spence, Sir Dinwitty and Davis Burton's Mavericks are now
Speaker 2: five and one since they've acquired those two in clutch
Speaker 2: games and they have a net rating during that time
Speaker 2: period of plus seventy two point seven. Small sample size,
Speaker 2: but pretty incredible. And now that Rick Carlisle is gone
Speaker 2: and the stench of him is gone. Lucas actually dunking
Speaker 2: on people, Lucas happy, he's smiling, he's laughing and joking
Speaker 2: in his postgame pressers. He likes this team even more
Speaker 2: so now that christavs Porzingis is fucking gone. All the
Speaker 2: shit he didn't want on the team gone, all the
Speaker 2: players that help him become better here. Does that mean
Speaker 2: they're going to make it to the finals. Probably not,
Speaker 2: but they could upset somebody. And it shows Luca, like
Speaker 2: I said, skying for dunks, brunts and shooting seventy percent
Speaker 2: from the field, and Dinwitty might have just found himself
Speaker 2: a long term home. Man I promise, come on and
Speaker 2: when it all falls down, man I promise, I'm so
Speaker 2: self conscious, that's why you aren't. We see me with
Speaker 2: at least one of our time. Man I promise. These
Speaker 2: teams right now are so self conscious they have no
Speaker 2: idea why they're at the top of the standing. Oh boy,
Speaker 2: when the playoffs are coming six weeks away, it is
Speaker 2: not too early to point out that there are some
Speaker 2: fan bases that feel good, some fan bases that feel
Speaker 2: kind of shook. But there are teams that are paper
Speaker 2: tigers right now. And if you're a fan of any
Speaker 2: of those four teams, you got real reasons to stress.
Speaker 2: Let's start with Chicago. The Bulls have relied on Demorrow
Speaker 2: time and time and time again to bail them out.
Speaker 2: And the world might think, is that a good thing?
Speaker 2: Don't you have a fourth quarter scoring option? When Zach
Speaker 2: Lavine and all these boys get back healthy, they're gonna
Speaker 2: be a force. This has happened thirty times a year.
Speaker 2: But it appears that this team has real trouble against
Speaker 2: good teams. The Bulls allow more shots at the room
Speaker 2: than any other team in the league, according to Cleaning
Speaker 2: the Glass. More concerning, though, the Bulls are three to
Speaker 2: ten this season against the top five East contenders. Worse,
Speaker 2: they are not only winless against Miami, Philly and Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: they haven't even beaten any of the top three teams
Speaker 2: in the West either. They are ah win thirteen against
Speaker 2: the top six teams in the league, the Sixers, Bucks, Heat, Grizzlies, Warriors, Suns.
Speaker 2: And if you're saying, well, these are tight contested battles,
Speaker 2: you know it's a chess match, it's a boxing meat ring. No,
Speaker 2: they've lost these games by an average of twelve point
Speaker 2: eight points. They're getting absolutely stomped by the good teams
Speaker 2: in the West and the good teams in the East.
Speaker 2: So if you're a Bulls fan and if you're lucky
Speaker 2: enough to get out of the second round, is going
Speaker 2: to be a beast for you. I don't I think this.
Speaker 2: They're upset city. They are one of the teams you
Speaker 2: should be absolutely scared about. Will they be better with
Speaker 2: Patrick Williams? Fuck it, I don't know, Alex Cruso. You know,
Speaker 2: Zach Lavine is his knee right, he keeps getting platelet
Speaker 2: replacement therapy, which is literally spinning his plasma inside of
Speaker 2: his knee and reinjecting it. That shit hurts. That's not
Speaker 2: a healthy knee. That's not a healthy knee. So Bulls
Speaker 2: Paper Tiger won everyone's darling Number two Paper Tiger Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 2: And it's not because they're like they have organizational issues
Speaker 2: besides just the fact that they're owner's a piece of shit.
Speaker 2: But like, outside of that awesome, they've been in insanely
Speaker 2: exciting and having the talent all over the roster organically
Speaker 2: that you could only dream of. Their win total was
Speaker 2: like twenty seven and a half, and they blew past
Speaker 2: it by the All Star break. So they're pretty steadily
Speaker 2: in the top four until the East. In the East,
Speaker 2: until a recent run of really injuries. Every team has
Speaker 2: bad stretches. I mean someone like the Trailblazers stretched that
Speaker 2: over an entire season. So like, we've been this way
Speaker 2: all year, but this is like the thing that's been
Speaker 2: very troubling. The Calves are in the last three weeks
Speaker 2: suddenly gone from number one defense in the league or
Speaker 2: number two defense, depending on what metric you're using and
Speaker 2: what time premi you're using. But they've gone from being
Speaker 2: one of the toughest defenses in the league to suddenly
Speaker 2: allowing one hundred and fifteen point eight points per one
Speaker 2: hundred possessions, which is now twenty ninth in league, which
Speaker 2: is Trailblazer's territory before that stretch started. They're the number
Speaker 2: three d ranked in the entire NBA. Yuck. Why has
Speaker 2: this happened? Well, besides injuries. JB. Bickerstaff, the coach, thinks
Speaker 2: it's because they just got too comfortable, But I think
Speaker 2: the truth is much harder to fix. This team is
Speaker 2: just way too banged up. They just are and that
Speaker 2: sucks because that monster line that they've been running out
Speaker 2: has been super fun. But the injuries have been way
Speaker 2: too hard to deal with. I'm not talking about just
Speaker 2: Sexton and Rubio. This team was twenty and fourteen with
Speaker 2: Rubio and sixteen and fifteen without them. Markanen has missed
Speaker 2: twenty one games. Garlands missed thirteen games, Cheddy Osmond has
Speaker 2: missed twelve games. Kevin Love, Jared Allen, and Evan Mobley
Speaker 2: have all missed eight games. Karris Lavert has missed six
Speaker 2: out of a possible ten games since being traded, and
Speaker 2: now the latest, the worst blow all star Jared Allen
Speaker 2: has now a fractured finger and it's down indefinitely. This
Speaker 2: is rot roll land, this is paper tiger land. The
Speaker 2: Cavs now face a very hard, very long stretch without him,
Speaker 2: and they are not the same team without either of them.
Speaker 2: They're five and twelve when either Evan or Jared Allen
Speaker 2: are not playing. They're thirty two and fifteen when they
Speaker 2: both play, which would put them as that percentage of
Speaker 2: when percentage would put them as the number one seed
Speaker 2: in the East. Just terrible, terrible luck all around, and
Speaker 2: I was super stoked to see this team maybe like
Speaker 2: knock off somebody, they get all the home court advantage,
Speaker 2: they get an eight seed, like that would be cool.
Speaker 2: I'd like to see that, you know, like take out
Speaker 2: a power I don't know, maybe like face the Nets
Speaker 2: in the first round. It's like Kyrie goes back to Cleveland,
Speaker 2: burning stage. We'd love to see that. But I don't
Speaker 2: think that that's happening. I think that they are going
Speaker 2: to end up in the playoffs and probably be barbecue chicken,
Speaker 2: like very easy meat to feast off of for whoever
Speaker 2: ends up getting them in the first round. Third paper
Speaker 2: tiger team, the Utah Jazz. Yeah, of course, they're just
Speaker 2: like paper Tiger all year, every year, like pretty much,
Speaker 2: that's what they do. They just throw water on them.
Speaker 2: They just just collapse. As Nate Robinson said to me once,
Speaker 2: trash trash utah, trash utah. I've been predicting their playoff
Speaker 2: failures for a very long time. I said that they
Speaker 2: were the most overrated team in the NBA going into
Speaker 2: the playoffs last year. That happened to be the case.
Speaker 2: I also predicted it preseason. This year. They've had some
Speaker 2: good runs. They looked exciting for the first twenty games
Speaker 2: they saw maybe they were gonna be the number one seed.
Speaker 2: Now they're not even able to get the one seed.
Speaker 2: They're not even able to do what they did last
Speaker 2: year in the regular season, be a regular season team.
Speaker 2: Zach Low just broke down the Jazz on his pod
Speaker 2: and said pretty much what I've been saying. They've done
Speaker 2: nothing to address the issues systemically on the roster. They
Speaker 2: cannot defend on the perimeter. We've discussed this millions of times.
Speaker 2: They are too slow and too old and not athletic
Speaker 2: enough on the wing to basically be able to handle
Speaker 2: these guys like the Clippers, right, And you might be
Speaker 2: saying Trista, but they're saying playing so much better now
Speaker 2: Spider's back. They went one and seven when he was
Speaker 2: out and Rudy was hurt too. An know, they're eight
Speaker 2: and two in their last ten. And to that, I say,
Speaker 2: it's the two losses, those two losses that you look
Speaker 2: in and you say, well, that's troubling. They lost to
Speaker 2: the Clippers by five, a team that one hundred percent
Speaker 2: has their number. They got their doors blown off by
Speaker 2: the Pelicans this weekend by thirty what thirty four points
Speaker 2: in a game where Donovan Mitchell praised Herb Jones as
Speaker 2: an absolute problem walking him down, and Herb only had
Speaker 2: two points. Spider told Pell's coach Willie Green that Herbs
Speaker 2: herbs instincts are incredible, said he's one of the very
Speaker 2: few rookies that he has to plan for, like Davion
Speaker 2: Mitchell and Sacramento. So losses like these underscore how unsettled
Speaker 2: the Jazz can get against teams that are very athletic,
Speaker 2: can run their small and they're able to move, switch everything,
Speaker 2: be able to pass the ball around. The Pelicans blow
Speaker 2: out was their second loss to New Orleans this year,
Speaker 2: so this is not an anomaly. They've lost to Memphis twice,
Speaker 2: another young athletic team. They've lost Minnesota on their own
Speaker 2: home floor this year, after Minnesota beat them twice last year.
Speaker 2: The blueprint for the Jazz to the blueprint to beat
Speaker 2: the Jazz is just be more athletic and skilled in
Speaker 2: them like Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert all very
Speaker 2: good pieces, but they just can't athletically hang. The question
Speaker 2: that I have for Jazz fans is this, if they
Speaker 2: couldn't hang last year with these athletic teams. What exactly
Speaker 2: has changed this year that makes you think that they
Speaker 2: can go to the finals, Because I just heard today
Speaker 2: on some NBA show that like maybe it was a podcast,
Speaker 2: that they might blow up the entire roster if they
Speaker 2: don't go to the Western Conference finals this year or
Speaker 2: to the finals like alert alert. Let me just say
Speaker 2: this very very clearly, like Steven, they would say, we
Speaker 2: get all that, like we get all that, they're not
Speaker 2: going to the finals this year. They're not. There is
Speaker 2: going to be organizational change. They are going to have
Speaker 2: to blow everything up. They tried to get Nikile Alexander
Speaker 2: Walker from the Portland thought that would be some rotation player.
Speaker 2: He hasn't even played, like, he has not sniffed any minutes.
Speaker 2: This team is not good. Joe Ingles tore his ACL
Speaker 2: he's out. You don't even have that shooter anymore. The
Speaker 2: team without Joe Ingles is not even as good as
Speaker 2: last year's disappointment. Right now, they're staring a four or
Speaker 2: five matchup with the Mavericks. They might get bounced out
Speaker 2: of the first round. And I tell you what, even
Speaker 2: if they go up up three to one, I don't
Speaker 2: put it past the MAVs because it's happened twice before.
Speaker 2: Utah lost to the Nuggets. Utah lost to the Clippers
Speaker 2: when it looked like they had the series in hand.
Speaker 2: Anyone who thinks that the Jazz can survive a seven
Speaker 2: game series or a game seven against the best defense
Speaker 2: in the league. In twenty twenty two, they hold a
Speaker 2: one and a half point game one and a half
Speaker 2: game lead for home court. Gross can you imagine Dallas
Speaker 2: Game seven in Dallas fast long? At what? No? Come on? Now?
Speaker 2: They could be a five seed when the playoffs come around,
Speaker 2: and that is a big yikes. I mean, let's just
Speaker 2: say this, like, the Jazz are cooked. The Jazz are
Speaker 2: the team that's been cooked for a long time now.
Speaker 2: They're not even a paper tiger. They're just like paper.
Speaker 2: They're just paper. Finally filed under things that you hate
Speaker 2: to see Trista Creek being right, just only in March
Speaker 2: instead of in October. The team that I thought could
Speaker 2: definitely disappoint ended up going nine to one their first
Speaker 2: ten games. The things, though, that I said could happen,
Speaker 2: are now happening. Yes, folks, could the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 2: and number two seed in the West actually be a
Speaker 2: potential paper tiger. Yes, because things have gone off the
Speaker 2: rails in the Bay in a way that not anybody,
Speaker 2: not just anybody, could predict, only me, only me. Following
Speaker 2: their stellar start to the season, they went twenty six
Speaker 2: and six out of the blocks. People were talking about
Speaker 2: seventy wins, myself included, even I became prisoner of the moment.
Speaker 2: Stay firm, Little Trista, stay firm, Stand tall in your beliefs.
Speaker 2: Don't let them bully you online. But listen. They have
Speaker 2: only won two of their last ten games, in their
Speaker 2: last twenty seven, They're just fourteen and thirteen. This is
Speaker 2: not a good team right now. All Star quote unquote
Speaker 2: All Star forward Andrew Wiggins is averaging fourteen four and
Speaker 2: three in the last ten, down from seventeen a game
Speaker 2: before this. Jordan Poole fourteen four and three as well,
Speaker 2: down from eighteen a game before this. Steph Curry is
Speaker 2: in the worst shooting slump of his entire career. Draymond Green,
Speaker 2: his return still up in the air, has a bulging
Speaker 2: disc in his back. That shit does not just go away.
Speaker 2: James Wiseman, where is he? He's a ghost somehow, traveling
Speaker 2: with the team not seeing him. His return probably not imminent.
Speaker 2: Jordan Poole looks like a little deer in headlights right now.
Speaker 2: His ego and his confidence is shot. Now with the
Speaker 2: return of Klay Thompson, He's basically getting benched for Moses Moody.
Speaker 2: Moses Mody, the guy Otto Porter, the guy that looks
Speaker 2: like well the still he's disappeared. All those players we
Speaker 2: thought were giving the Warrior significant benefits like be a,
Speaker 2: be a Why you acting like a He's now out
Speaker 2: of the picture. Come on now, Iguidala nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2: Klay Thompson still struggling, he's rusty, shooting forty one percent
Speaker 2: from the field in his return. And here is the
Speaker 2: real problem. Without Draymond, their defensive rating has fallen from
Speaker 2: one oh one point nine top five in the NBA
Speaker 2: with drey on the floor, to one hundred and eleven
Speaker 2: point seven without him nineteenth in the NBA. The defensive
Speaker 2: raiding has fallen from top five to nineteenth in the
Speaker 2: time period that Draymond has been gone, and Draymond has
Speaker 2: missed twenty six consecutive games. Not only has the defense collapsed,
Speaker 2: but the offense was twenty second in the league in
Speaker 2: January after being number one. They're keeph in February in
Speaker 2: the offense with no dre to be the playmaker in
Speaker 2: the middle, and NBC Moni Pool summed it up best.
Speaker 2: Despite their impressive record, the Warriors are vulnerable to most.
Speaker 2: Any team that competes hard enough and long enough to
Speaker 2: expose the worst of the Warriors, wait for them to
Speaker 2: anesthetize date, particularly at home, as the Mavericks did on Sunday,
Speaker 2: and then go take what you want. The word is out.
Speaker 2: Jump The Warriors jump them hard, push them to the
Speaker 2: kind of anxious moments that lead to mental errors, which
Speaker 2: are more likely with experimental rotations in play. With Green
Speaker 2: and Iguidala out of the picture. They are fresh meat
Speaker 2: in prison. Hey girl, what's your names? Come over here,
Speaker 2: Come over here. They got their fresh They got their
Speaker 2: fresh prison prison Guarbond and everybody in prison looks around
Speaker 2: like this person is easy work. They don't even know
Speaker 2: what's coming. Jason Kid even talked about this same exact
Speaker 2: thing after a huge comeback win against Golden State. He
Speaker 2: said this, the guys just kept believing that if we
Speaker 2: could get three stops, we felt that the crowd kind
Speaker 2: of gets out of the game. The energy wasn't there,
Speaker 2: so we just slowly felt if we just stayed around
Speaker 2: watching the last game that they played in Denver when
Speaker 2: they gave up a huge lead as well, it was
Speaker 2: very similar double team. Curry pressure the Warriors to make
Speaker 2: bad shots and wait for them to fold, like the
Speaker 2: cheap suit to suit right folding chair, cheap cheap suit.
Speaker 2: And you know what that sounds like an early exit.
Speaker 2: It sounds like me shooting out crow. Other people eating
Speaker 2: said crow. Tell me I'm wrong. The Warriors. We gotta
Speaker 2: get back to this brock. We gotta get back to
Speaker 2: my prediction when I said that they would be potentially
Speaker 2: very vulnerable with all these little role players and Steph
Speaker 2: Curry having his shoulder all the burden. Who knows what
Speaker 2: plays really going to look like. Listen, if Jaymond comes
Speaker 2: back fully, fully, fully, fully healthy, he looks like the
Speaker 2: player that he was. All bets off the table. But
Speaker 2: I am not banking on that, and neither should you.
Speaker 2: This is exactly how the Memphis Grizzlies beat Golden State
Speaker 2: last year. Blitz Steph forced him to turn the ball
Speaker 2: over with his loose ass handle in the playoffs, which
Speaker 2: he has force other guys like Wiggins in high pressure
Speaker 2: moments to shoot the ball, and they and he will
Speaker 2: never make those fourth quarter playoff. Wiggins is maybe the
Speaker 2: worst basketball player I've ever seen. He's I think I
Speaker 2: tweeted about it endlessly during that game and the play
Speaker 2: in against the Warriors or against the Memphis Grizzlies when
Speaker 2: they bounced them out. They didn't even make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: They gave up a huge lead to the Lakers because
Speaker 2: the Lakers did the exact same thing to Steph as
Speaker 2: I'm giving you the blueprint for now, and the Grizzlies
Speaker 2: would almost certainly see the Warriors in the second how
Speaker 2: second round if somehow they managed to win, they could
Speaker 2: probably get bounced in the first round, depending on who
Speaker 2: they end up facing. If that doesn't make Golden State
Speaker 2: fans nervous, I don't know what will, except for the
Speaker 2: fact that I'm going to be annoying as fucks when
Speaker 2: I'm right. That's all the time that we have for
Speaker 2: the heat Check. We'll be back Wednesday with a new
Speaker 2: episode Wednesday and night, most likely. Do not forget to download, subscribe,
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Speaker 2: heat Check and Tristan Criek on TikTok. We will sleep