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Speaker 1: Welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by FanDuel here on the
Speaker 1: volume Happy Monday, everybody. I hope you all had a
Speaker 1: great weekend. Lots and lots and lots of Laker basketball
Speaker 1: over the course of the next couple of weeks, which
Speaker 1: could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending
Speaker 1: on what kind of effort we see out of them.
Speaker 1: But over the course of the last three halves, the
Speaker 1: players on the floor have shown a lot of fight.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm gonna try to go mostly positive
Speaker 1: tonight because I know it can be extremely frustrating after
Speaker 1: a season like this to see another game that is
Speaker 1: seemingly in the grasp of this Laker team slip away.
Speaker 1: But with Lebron being out tonight, we have to be
Speaker 1: realists about just the group of players that the Lakers
Speaker 1: were able to put on the floor tonight. I talked
Speaker 1: a lot after that Warriors game about how well the
Speaker 1: starters played and how when they went to the bench
Speaker 1: when they had to play Taylor Horton, Tucker and Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley and they had to play Carmelo Anthony at center
Speaker 1: and DJ Augustine alongside Russ, that they were going to
Speaker 1: struggle against any team because of the fact that there's
Speaker 1: just nobody on the team that's a big athletic player.
Speaker 1: So when you take Lebron James out of that picture,
Speaker 1: it just becomes even more complicated on that front. We
Speaker 1: are going to break down everything from the Lakers Spurs game.
Speaker 1: I'm going to share my thoughts on Frank Vogel and
Speaker 1: his unwillingness to allow his young players, which also happened
Speaker 1: to be his best players, to play as much as
Speaker 1: they should. We're gonna talk about Lebron's injury and what's
Speaker 1: at stake on that front, and then if you guys,
Speaker 1: stick around for the end. We're going to do our
Speaker 1: latest edition of the Power Rankings, and I will let
Speaker 1: you know who I think is the best team in
Speaker 1: the league right now, who I think has the best
Speaker 1: chance to win the title. Stick around for that. That
Speaker 1: will be fun as well. I wanted to start with Frank,
Speaker 1: you know. So Frank comes out, So I talked a
Speaker 1: lot of in the last game him about how playing
Speaker 1: the young guys big minutes was such a huge deal
Speaker 1: for that team, having the good start that they had
Speaker 1: and just the general effort and focus and energy that
Speaker 1: they came out with and that they were able to
Speaker 1: parlay into a big lead early on against the Warriors.
Speaker 1: And I talked about how Austin Reeves and Milik Monk
Speaker 1: were such a huge part of that. So then Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel comes out after the game and he says, quote,
Speaker 1: I like the combination of Malik Monk and Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: out there together. Interesting. That's something that we had seen
Speaker 1: more in second units throughout the season, but it's been
Speaker 1: a combination that our analytics team has has said has
Speaker 1: really produced. Those guys have some of our best on
Speaker 1: off plus minus stats. Those are those types of things,
Speaker 1: and we decided a couple of games ago to look
Speaker 1: at it in the starting lineup, even though we hadn't
Speaker 1: one yet, which is got to be so incredibly frustrating
Speaker 1: for Laker fans to see, because it's not just an
Speaker 1: analytics thing, it's a basketball thing. You know. Darius Oriano
Speaker 1: from the l f R pod to day was was
Speaker 1: talking about how Austin Reasonableak Monk, even though they've been
Speaker 1: healthy all season, have only played They've played less than
Speaker 1: five minutes together. That's how frustrating that is. Two of
Speaker 1: the Lakers clear best players, obvious great off ball threats
Speaker 1: to put alongside Russ and Lebron simply have not been
Speaker 1: on the floor together enough to get the most out
Speaker 1: of this roster. Like I've said so many times this season,
Speaker 1: this Laker team cannot be distilled down to one flaw.
Speaker 1: I'm critical of Russ, it's not just Russ. I'm critical
Speaker 1: of the Rush trade. It's not just the Rush trade.
Speaker 1: I'm critical of Rob Polinka, I'm critical of Genie Buss,
Speaker 1: having critical of Lebron's effort a lot. But it's not
Speaker 1: any one of those things. It's all of those things,
Speaker 1: and one of the big things has been Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: and his insistence on leaning on Avery Bradley and leaving
Speaker 1: leaning on Trevorresa and DeAndre Jordan's and Dwight Howard and
Speaker 1: all of the older players on this roster that never
Speaker 1: put in the requisite effort to actually get the most
Speaker 1: out of this team. And now, of all times, after
Speaker 1: all these games, Frank wants to start playing Stanley, Stanley
Speaker 1: and Moleague and Austin together. And we're starting to see
Speaker 1: some good results, which is great, but we continue tonight
Speaker 1: again to see a massive fall off when they went
Speaker 1: to the DJ Augustine's and Avery Bradley's and a huge
Speaker 1: part of that is those are not functional basketball lineups.
Speaker 1: You can't win in the NBA, even against the San
Speaker 1: Antonio Spurs if they're walking out with big NBA athletes
Speaker 1: and you're walking out with four tiny guards and Carmelo Anthony.
Speaker 1: It's just not a functional basketball lineup. If you could
Speaker 1: put five Kyrie Irving's out there in their absolute primes,
Speaker 1: and they would have issues because they don't cross the boxes.
Speaker 1: Like I say, when it's a five man basketball lineup
Speaker 1: has a list of responsibilities, and your elite offensive players
Speaker 1: can check some of those responsibilities, but they can't check
Speaker 1: all of them. A lot of those responsibilities have to
Speaker 1: be filled by athletes, by guys that play with motor
Speaker 1: and with energy. They have to be played with guys,
Speaker 1: by guys with physical tools. Those are the things that
Speaker 1: are going to fill those other boxes so that your
Speaker 1: elite offensive players can impact the game, which takes me
Speaker 1: to when you and Gabriel, you look out in the
Speaker 1: open market and you're able to find a discounted athletic
Speaker 1: forward whose six ft nine can jump out of the gym,
Speaker 1: has shown flashes of defensive potential and can shoot the three,
Speaker 1: and he's sitting on the sideline completely unused. That's frustrating.
Speaker 1: That's the same thing as early in the season when
Speaker 1: we were watching the Lakers lose to the Oklahoma City Thunder,
Speaker 1: why Austin Reeves was playing twelve minutes. That's the same
Speaker 1: situation to this point in this at this point in
Speaker 1: the season, dealing with Wine and Gabriel, and that's frustrating
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, even though this
Speaker 1: team doesn't have as much talent as they need to
Speaker 1: really make a run in the West, they definitely are
Speaker 1: better than the product that we've seen on the floor,
Speaker 1: and the reason why we haven't been able to see
Speaker 1: that product materialize has a lot to do with the
Speaker 1: fact that the Lakers best players haven't been on the
Speaker 1: floor too much this season. And that's frustrating. That's on Frank.
Speaker 1: That's something you know. I saw a lot of Warriors
Speaker 1: fans talking after or during the first half of that
Speaker 1: game the other night on Saturday, especially when Lebron was
Speaker 1: kind of dogging it defensively, and I saw Warrior fans
Speaker 1: saying things like, I feel bad for Frank that he
Speaker 1: has to try to make it work with this group.
Speaker 1: No, no no, no, no, don't feel bad for Frank. He
Speaker 1: signs up for this. Frank has options. Frank has had
Speaker 1: opportunity to be better than he has been, and he
Speaker 1: has willingly and purposefully decided not to be. In the
Speaker 1: face of his analytics team. Imagine that every single day
Speaker 1: he's watching the tape, the same tape that we're watching,
Speaker 1: seeing the same things that we're seeing, seeing the young
Speaker 1: guys succeed, while his analytics team is throwing numbers in
Speaker 1: his face. Austin Reeves and Malik Monk when they've played
Speaker 1: together this season are more than ten points positive per
Speaker 1: one possessions. They are really good with those guys on
Speaker 1: the floor, and they always have been, and they haven't
Speaker 1: been utilized properly until this last recent stretch of games.
Speaker 1: That's frustrating. The Lakers have to figure out that they
Speaker 1: have to at some point down the stretch if they're
Speaker 1: going to be able to make any sort of noise.
Speaker 1: They have to be able to get those guys in
Speaker 1: the lineup. They have to get when you and Gabriel
Speaker 1: in the lineup, there has to be less of those
Speaker 1: older guys that are limited at this point in their career.
Speaker 1: For those of you who are just joining us, this
Speaker 1: is Lakers Tonight presented by FanDuel. Here on the volume,
Speaker 1: we were just talking about Frank and his unwillingness to
Speaker 1: play the young players. I wanted to talk about Lebron's
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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. So after the game on Saturday, I
Speaker 1: talked about how Lebron was obviously still injured because I
Speaker 1: could tell he didn't have that separation ability. A lot
Speaker 1: of what he was doing was bullyball under the basket,
Speaker 1: just using his strength, using his jump shot, a lot
Speaker 1: of savvy. It was a classic. It was an old
Speaker 1: man fifty six, which is what you would expect from
Speaker 1: an old man scoring fifty six. It was very much
Speaker 1: an old man fifty six from a player like Lebron,
Speaker 1: who has been a really good athlete this year. He
Speaker 1: was shown that he has not experienced that much of
Speaker 1: a decline up until this knee injury. But he showed
Speaker 1: some vertical pop in that game. He had that crazy
Speaker 1: reverse dunk where he went through the lane and the
Speaker 1: half court. Then he had on that Malik Monk Steele,
Speaker 1: he had that awesome alley you there was some weird
Speaker 1: vertical pop there, and I think I said that I
Speaker 1: thought it had something to do with him just getting
Speaker 1: caught up in the energy in the arena and the
Speaker 1: energy of the moment in that game against Golden State,
Speaker 1: and that appears to be true because whatever he put
Speaker 1: his knee through in that game led to him waking
Speaker 1: up this morning with, according to Dave McManaman, significant soreness,
Speaker 1: so much so that this game, which was a winnable
Speaker 1: game that the Lakers needed for the sake of their
Speaker 1: attempt to stay in the play in, he wasn't willing
Speaker 1: to play tonight. And so what that tells us is
Speaker 1: that this knee thing is significant, that he very much
Speaker 1: is hurt, which is something that I've been pointing out
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks now, and that is concerning
Speaker 1: on so many different levels, because even if Lebron has
Speaker 1: had a conversation with his trainer, Mike Mancy has with
Speaker 1: the trainer for the Lakers, and they've done scans, and
Speaker 1: even if they come in and they say, hey, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to make it any worse, so
Speaker 1: you can play on it if you want, it still
Speaker 1: is a risk because of what it does to the
Speaker 1: rest of your body. When you have pain in your
Speaker 1: knee and you're playing through it you compensate in every
Speaker 1: other part of your body absorbing shock, which can lead
Speaker 1: to things like you know, uh, any sort of non
Speaker 1: contact injury. And anytime you're what you're absorbing a lot
Speaker 1: more shock than you're used to on a different part
Speaker 1: of your body. The risk is concerning to me, especially
Speaker 1: when you factor in that this significant soreness that took
Speaker 1: him out of the game tonight was directly tied to
Speaker 1: his best effort in the last couple of weeks in
Speaker 1: a playoff run. What Lebron did last night or two
Speaker 1: nights ago against Golden State is exactly what he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to do every night in the postseason for this
Speaker 1: team to have a chance. So if that type of
Speaker 1: exertion is gonna lead to swelling in pain to the
Speaker 1: point where he can't play, then he's not going to
Speaker 1: be available for a playoff run anyway. So this brings
Speaker 1: us back to what I've been saying since the beginning.
Speaker 1: At a certain point, read the writing on the wall,
Speaker 1: understand the circumstance, understand the situation, and know that you
Speaker 1: are dealing with an injury here and that it's probably
Speaker 1: gonna be something that hampers you from achieve achieving your
Speaker 1: goals for this season anyway, and you have to factor
Speaker 1: in the risk that you're taking by pushing it on
Speaker 1: this front. You there, this is not a complete waste
Speaker 1: of a season. You could always live to fight another day.
Speaker 1: After two thousand nineteen, Lebron was dragged through the mud.
Speaker 1: He famously had that play. I can't even remember who
Speaker 1: it was, that small forward, the European small forward from
Speaker 1: the Knicks, who blocked him on his game winning shot.
Speaker 1: You know, he looked, he looked really bad. He was
Speaker 1: bringing a glass of wine court side. He looked like
Speaker 1: it was very much nearing the end in two thousand nineteen.
Speaker 1: But he lived to fight another day, and the next
Speaker 1: season he was in my opinion, the m v P.
Speaker 1: I thought he got robbed. I don't think your honest
Speaker 1: deserved it. I thought Lebron deserved the VP. He also won,
Speaker 1: or excuse me, he also won a finals MVP that year.
Speaker 1: He lived to fight another day, and the same thing
Speaker 1: can take place here. Yes, you're gonna be older, but
Speaker 1: hopefully if you play your cards right this summer and
Speaker 1: you actually build the roster to your strengths and weaknesses,
Speaker 1: and if Anthony Davis can stay healthy, maybe it will
Speaker 1: be an easier season from me for you on a
Speaker 1: workload front. You can next season capitalize on the little
Speaker 1: victories from this season, finding Austin Reeves, finding Stanley Johnson
Speaker 1: in a weird way, Rob Polinka. Not cashing in the
Speaker 1: chips is an accidentally smart move because of the fact
Speaker 1: that this season is a lost cause you still have
Speaker 1: those assets, rebuild this summer, live to fight another day, Lebron,
Speaker 1: It's not worth risking this season when there's not a
Speaker 1: real achievable goal. In my opinion, that's something that I
Speaker 1: hope that he pays attention to. A couple other quick
Speaker 1: um Laker notes, Taylan's going through a little bit of
Speaker 1: a slump here, and I think it has to do
Speaker 1: a lot with him just having the classic young person
Speaker 1: conundrum of forcing it when he's struggling. I talked about
Speaker 1: in our YouTube video, the special we did on the
Speaker 1: Young Players. I talked about how he had been making
Speaker 1: progress as a playmaker. Well, he's kind of slumped a
Speaker 1: little bit since then, and like all young players do,
Speaker 1: he's reacted to that by forcing things. And there were
Speaker 1: a lot of moments tonight where I thought he had
Speaker 1: easy reads available to his teammates where he could have
Speaker 1: kept the ball moving to generate higher quality shots, but
Speaker 1: he just kept trying to pound his head through that
Speaker 1: wall to try to break out of his little offensive
Speaker 1: slump that he's been And he made a lot of
Speaker 1: shots tonight, but it reflected negatively in the plus minus,
Speaker 1: and I think it was a big product to the
Speaker 1: fact that the ball was sticking with him and it
Speaker 1: was causing some problems with the overall flow of their
Speaker 1: options offense. Malik Monk is also experiencing a little bit
Speaker 1: of a slump coming into tonight. He was averaging thirteen
Speaker 1: points on twelve shots in his last twelve games, shooting
Speaker 1: about forty from the field and about thirty three percent
Speaker 1: from three. He's missing a lot of stuff right at
Speaker 1: the rim. He's getting a little too creative and too
Speaker 1: crazy with some of his scoop shots and double pump
Speaker 1: paying time type of shots. He's actually having a lot
Speaker 1: more success when he just elevates and tries to finish
Speaker 1: as high as he possibly can. That's been something that's
Speaker 1: been part of the reason why the Lakers have struggled
Speaker 1: so much. They need under their current situation, with their
Speaker 1: limited talent, they desperately need Malik Monk to be a
Speaker 1: really good offensive player, and he hasn't been. Now silver
Speaker 1: lining there, If he finishes the season this way, the
Speaker 1: Lakers might be able to retain him at a discount.
Speaker 1: And I still really like Malik Monk, especially if you
Speaker 1: can surround him with good basketball players. He's some one
Speaker 1: that would be great to have back in the Laker
Speaker 1: jersey next year, and this slump kind of helps him
Speaker 1: on that front. I also wanted to give last little
Speaker 1: Laker not I wanted to give a little bit of
Speaker 1: a shout out to Russell Westbrook. He was really really
Speaker 1: bad right after the All Start break, but the last
Speaker 1: couple of games he's starting to round back into that
Speaker 1: being a role player guard, not forcing things too much.
Speaker 1: He's generating high qual there. In that third quarter, he
Speaker 1: had a stretch at the start of the third quarter
Speaker 1: where he was getting into the paint and spraying out
Speaker 1: to shooters. That's when he's at his best again. It's
Speaker 1: all up and down with Russ. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: like the Warriors game. He was really good for the
Speaker 1: most part, but then it's crunch time and he throws
Speaker 1: the ball away twice and takes a one legged fade
Speaker 1: away early in the shot clock, and you're like, come on, man,
Speaker 1: like you've gotta you've got to stay on target here,
Speaker 1: stay on task. But I want to shout him out.
Speaker 1: He's been playing a little bit better as of late,
Speaker 1: which at least is something that the Lakers can attempt
Speaker 1: to bottle up and try to package into some good
Speaker 1: basketball the rest of the season. All right, that's all
Speaker 1: I had on the Lakers. Let's talk about are power rankings.
Speaker 1: So if you guys remember, um, last I think it
Speaker 1: was two or three weeks ago, we had the Sons
Speaker 1: at number one. We're gonna start at number ten. Just
Speaker 1: so you guys know, all the stats that I quote
Speaker 1: are before tonight. Because NBA dot Com does not update
Speaker 1: their numbers fast enough. I'm gonna go through this quickly.
Speaker 1: Let's go number ten, the New Orleans Pelicans. This is
Speaker 1: our big surprise appearance. They have the second best net
Speaker 1: rating in basketball over the last fifteen games. A lot
Speaker 1: of this has to do with their defense taking massive
Speaker 1: leaps brandon Ingram's playing the best defense he's played since
Speaker 1: he was with the Lakers, and c J. Mccollin just
Speaker 1: gives that extra offensive creation piece that they needed. Him
Speaker 1: and Brandon Ingram actually have a really nice give and take.
Speaker 1: They just beat the Nuggets, the Raptors, and the Suns.
Speaker 1: Those are all really quality wins. And then they utterly
Speaker 1: demolished the Utah Jazz after they had just one nine
Speaker 1: out of ten, some really quality wins in there. And
Speaker 1: then the prospect of Zion potentially return earning before the
Speaker 1: end of the season gives them that extra little bit
Speaker 1: of matchup flexibility that makes them at least a puncher's
Speaker 1: chance to win a playoff series. When you're lining up
Speaker 1: to guard the Pelicans and you've got to put a
Speaker 1: big wing on on Brandon Ingram and you've got to
Speaker 1: put a strong wing on Zion, chances are C. J.
Speaker 1: McCollum is gonna end up with some undersized, under athletic
Speaker 1: guard and he's gonna have guys that he can attack.
Speaker 1: That is all of a sudden, out of nowhere, become
Speaker 1: a very interesting basketball team. Number nine the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: Precipitous drop off. They've lost four straight, eight out of ten.
Speaker 1: Their defense has completely fallen apart. We talked about this
Speaker 1: the other day since Draymond dropped off. Since Draymond went down,
Speaker 1: they had a stretch where they defended okay, but all
Speaker 1: of that perimeter defense that was carrying them over that
Speaker 1: stretch has fallen off, and as a result, their defense
Speaker 1: has fallen off. Steph's decline has utterly chopped the legs
Speaker 1: out of their offense, and if to meet like the
Speaker 1: Warriors went from a team that I thought of as
Speaker 1: a bona fide top tier title contender to a team
Speaker 1: that very easily could lose in the first round, I'm
Speaker 1: deeply concerned about them. Steph doesn't look like a top
Speaker 1: five player anymore. They're a team that I'd be really
Speaker 1: worried about if I was a fan of Number eight,
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets. There twenty and eight since January seven.
Speaker 1: They have the second best offense in the league during
Speaker 1: that span, including ninth and defense. For them to be
Speaker 1: twenty and eight with Yokich in the group of guys
Speaker 1: that they have is absolutely insane. Yo Yoki is the
Speaker 1: runaway m v P in my opinion. I just think
Speaker 1: he's been better than embeat. I think his team has
Speaker 1: more talent and beat us had much more defensive talent
Speaker 1: to work with as much as I like em Beat,
Speaker 1: and I thought he was close to him at one point.
Speaker 1: I think Yoki is pulling away. I think he deserves
Speaker 1: to win the m v P. Gotta give him around applause.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they can win a playoff series
Speaker 1: because they don't have enough offensive creation outside of Yokich,
Speaker 1: but I have them at number eight right now, number
Speaker 1: seven the Milwaukee Bucks. This team is there's something going
Speaker 1: on with these guys, and I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: They're fifteen and twelve since January three, there eighteenth and
Speaker 1: defense during that span there wealth in defense overall for
Speaker 1: the season. As you guys know, long standing philosophy with
Speaker 1: basketball in the NBA, you don't win a title unless
Speaker 1: you have unbelievable talent advantage or a top ten defense.
Speaker 1: The Bucks have neither. Maybe they're just an example of
Speaker 1: a team that's going through some malays and maybe they'll
Speaker 1: kick it into high gear in the postseason. But every
Speaker 1: little hallmark and indicator that we look at his basketball
Speaker 1: fans tells us that this team can't win the title.
Speaker 1: I'm really concerned. I still think they're a title threat,
Speaker 1: but we can't not be concerned at this point. Number
Speaker 1: six the Miami Heat. They are twelve and two in
Speaker 1: their last four teen games now Kyle Lowry's out. They've
Speaker 1: had massive health issues all season long. They deserve a
Speaker 1: ton of credit for how how consistent they've been despite
Speaker 1: having guys in and out of the lineup all season.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Misses a bunch of time, Bam miss is a
Speaker 1: bunch of time, Kyle Lowry business a bunch of time.
Speaker 1: They've had a bunch of issues on that front. Still,
Speaker 1: they are going to be the number one overall seed
Speaker 1: and all likelihood, not number one overall, number one in
Speaker 1: the East and all likelihood, which is really impressive on
Speaker 1: their part. That said, I have them at six because
Speaker 1: their offensive creation continues to concern me in a playoff
Speaker 1: series with the way these teams zone up now, especially
Speaker 1: there are a lot of teams are using like matchup
Speaker 1: zones now to where guys are guarding guys, but they're
Speaker 1: kind of in charge of specific spots on the floor.
Speaker 1: It makes it a little easier teams for teams to
Speaker 1: functionally double team. And when you have Jimmy Butler on
Speaker 1: the floor, who's not a good three point shooter p J.
Speaker 1: Tucker on the floor in bam at a Baio, who
Speaker 1: I laid out last week is one of the worst
Speaker 1: perimeter shooting bigs that we have in the league. It's
Speaker 1: an issue, and I worry about them, and against a
Speaker 1: really athletic team struggling to score their team that I
Speaker 1: think could lose to somebody like a Philadelphia for instance.
Speaker 1: Number five the Memphis Grizzlies. They're on a little bit
Speaker 1: of a slept right now. Their defense in particular has
Speaker 1: been slipping there at a one hundred and eleven point
Speaker 1: one defensive writing in their last six games. They lost
Speaker 1: to Minnesota, they lost that game to Boston, and then
Speaker 1: they had an embarrassing loss to Houston the other day.
Speaker 1: They it's their young team. Consistency is the hallmark of veterans,
Speaker 1: so it's something they have to figure out. This is
Speaker 1: just a little lull for them. I still think they're
Speaker 1: dangerous playoff team, but they're on the down slide right now.
Speaker 1: That's why I have them down at five. Number four
Speaker 1: right now I have is the Dallas Mavericks. They're twenty
Speaker 1: four and eight since December, elite on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. Luca's peaking. He looks fantastic. They've added another
Speaker 1: shot creator and spencer Dinwiddie to take some of the
Speaker 1: pressure on Luca to create every shot, and now they're
Speaker 1: getting stops. That's what they weren't able to get against
Speaker 1: the Clippers the last couple of years. That instantly makes
Speaker 1: them so much more dangerous in a playoff series. I
Speaker 1: have them at number four, number three. I have the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventies six or is there five? And oh Swi Harden.
Speaker 1: Since the trade, they've been amazing on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. They have some decent wins too. They beat Chicago,
Speaker 1: they beat Cleveland, they beat Minnesota in Minnesota, which is
Speaker 1: not easy to do. This formula of James Harden and
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid plus defense very much seems to work. My
Speaker 1: only concern with them continues to be will they get
Speaker 1: the foul calls that they need in a playoff series.
Speaker 1: I don't know, will guys like em beating Harden, who
Speaker 1: can be a little bit one dimensional. Will they struggle
Speaker 1: against game planning in a playoff series. That remains to
Speaker 1: be seen. That's why I have them at three and
Speaker 1: not higher on this list. But they very much look
Speaker 1: like a top tier title contender at this point. Number
Speaker 1: two I have dropped for the first time. The Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 1: There are three and three since the CP three injury.
Speaker 1: I still think they're my favorite to win the title overall,
Speaker 1: but I have to put them at number two because
Speaker 1: of our eventual Number one, who you'll hear in a second.
Speaker 1: But they're just starting to show that little bit of
Speaker 1: the cracks in the armor really tied to injury. But
Speaker 1: when CP three is your best player, I'm gonna bring
Speaker 1: up injury because that's been a story in his career.
Speaker 1: That's something that has happened in the past. It will
Speaker 1: continue to be a threat with them moving forward. Number
Speaker 1: one absolutely deserving Number one. The Boston Celtics. They're twenty
Speaker 1: one and six since January eight. Their net rating in
Speaker 1: that span is plus twelve point eight. That is five
Speaker 1: point two points better then the second place team during
Speaker 1: that stretch. They are utterly dominant. They just ripped off
Speaker 1: three in a row against the Atlanta Hawks, the Memphis Grizzlies,
Speaker 1: and the Brooklyn Nets. He went toe to toe Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum went totete with Kevin Durant on Sunday. I watched
Speaker 1: that game. It was unbelievable. The most interesting thing to
Speaker 1: me about that team is the way their defense and
Speaker 1: athleticism gives Tatum and Brown a chance. Again, is Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant better than Jayson Tatum. No, But if Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: gets to go down and attack Kyrie Irving and gets
Speaker 1: to go down and attack Seth Curry and gets to
Speaker 1: go down and attack limited defensive players and switches, but
Speaker 1: you are going down and you have to take your
Speaker 1: pick between Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown, Marcus Smart, al Horford.
Speaker 1: You know that they're they're They're defense and athleticism is
Speaker 1: off the charts on all five positions in these lineups.
Speaker 1: Robert Williams has been amazing in their switching scheme. They
Speaker 1: in that game, Tatum was able to succeed because he
Speaker 1: was attacking weaker defensive matchups NonStop, while k D had
Speaker 1: to go down and pick from another big, strong athlete
Speaker 1: that can move their feet. And like I said, you
Speaker 1: don't need to be better than the top guys in
Speaker 1: the league if your defense is so good that abides
Speaker 1: you margin for error. Their defense is so good that
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown just might be enough. They've been far
Speaker 1: and away the best team in the league over the
Speaker 1: course of the last two months. They absolutely deserve to
Speaker 1: be number one right now, and they are a bona
Speaker 1: fide championship contender. That's all I got for tonight, guys.
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys come to hang out as always.
Speaker 1: We will be back for the Laker game on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your support and we'll see you in a
Speaker 1: couple of days. The volume