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Speaker 1: I here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. If both
Speaker 1: of you guys had an incredible weekend, we have a
Speaker 1: jam pack show for you today, our Classic Monday, So
Speaker 1: we will have power rankings at the tail end of
Speaker 1: the show. Off the top, we're gonna be talking about
Speaker 1: a showdown between the Boston Celtics and the Phoenix Suns
Speaker 1: on Saturday night, and then after that the Last Angelis Lakers,
Speaker 1: after really disappointing, kind of somewhat foreseen loss against the
Speaker 1: Sacramento Kings, get back to back huge wins against the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks without Lebron James and then against the Minnesota
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Speaker 1: what is fueling that success as well as what is
Speaker 1: standing in the way of them having any sort of
Speaker 1: legitimate chance to make a deep playoff runt. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk some lakers there in the middle portion of
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Speaker 1: we're gonna get into our power rankings.
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So really fun game
Speaker 1: between the Celtics and the Suns, just as a basketball fan.
Speaker 1: A really fun game to watch because Suns were obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, without Devin Booker. It's just really hard for
Speaker 1: them to go into a matchup against the really staunched
Speaker 1: perimeter defense type of team like Boston. They found their
Speaker 1: advantages like Obviously, Chris Porzingis didn't play, and so they
Speaker 1: were trying to pick on Al Horford as much as
Speaker 1: they could. The Celtics were running a deeper drop coverage
Speaker 1: with Horford and trying to avoid switching him at all costs,
Speaker 1: although Katie got him onto some switches when he could.
Speaker 1: And obviously the Suns have guys who can punish the
Speaker 1: deep drop in a lot of ways. Right we saw
Speaker 1: some Bradley Beal midrange pull up jump shots. Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: was amazing again. Kevin Durant's riding a streak of three
Speaker 1: consecutive thirty five plus point nights. He's been averaging thirty
Speaker 1: eight over that span. Katie's just been insane. He'd hit
Speaker 1: those shots against Denver and has just been riding that
Speaker 1: wave in all that confidence from that game into a
Speaker 1: pretty absurd stretch. But the Celtics weathered it all and
Speaker 1: really was impressed with them. On the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, held this high powered Suns offense to a
Speaker 1: one to ten offensive raigning first, forced a ton of turnovers,
Speaker 1: force fifteen of them got out in transition off of
Speaker 1: those turnovers, scored sixteen points on those fifteen turnovers. I
Speaker 1: really liked that they didn't overreact to the shots that
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant were hitting. For the most part,
Speaker 1: they stayed in single coverage for the most part, they
Speaker 1: trusted their defense off the ball, which is, by the way,
Speaker 1: a big part of how they force turnovers. Again, this
Speaker 1: is a Sun's team that can can get a little
Speaker 1: sloppy making swing passes and skip passes and post entry
Speaker 1: passes and short roll passes and things along those lines,
Speaker 1: and you can capitalize on it. Then on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, the Suns had their own success
Speaker 1: or their own issue in pick and roll defense with
Speaker 1: Drew u Banks specifically, they were just picking him to
Speaker 1: absolute shreads the Celtics were. I think u Banks was
Speaker 1: like a minus twenty in this game. Jalen Brown was
Speaker 1: picking on Bradley Beal in the post, was once again
Speaker 1: being really aggressive. This has been a trend I've noticed
Speaker 1: with Jayalen Brown, Like, this is a guy who takes
Speaker 1: a lot of mid range kind of fadeaway jump shots
Speaker 1: out of the post, and he's very good at them.
Speaker 1: But as I say all the time on the show,
Speaker 1: like the best mid range pull up shooter is going
Speaker 1: to shoot in the mid fifties, you know, high fifties
Speaker 1: on those shots, and that's that's just not nearly as
Speaker 1: efficient as a hook shot or something that's really close
Speaker 1: to the basket. And you know, Jalen Brown like bullied
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal on the left block and did a spin
Speaker 1: move towards the base, but instead of fading into a
Speaker 1: tough right shoulder fade, he spun aggressively created space with
Speaker 1: that right shoulder and took a short, little bank shot
Speaker 1: that he's gonna make seventy seventy five percent of the time.
Speaker 1: Right he had a right handed hook over his left
Speaker 1: shoulder where he bodied Beal into the lane and went
Speaker 1: straight up and down instead of fading like he's gonna
Speaker 1: make that shot eighty eighty five percent of the time.
Speaker 1: That's like another level of efficiency above those fadaways. And
Speaker 1: you want to have him again. Like I said, it's
Speaker 1: an important counter to have. It's an important shot to
Speaker 1: have in the bag, especially against the best defensive players
Speaker 1: in the league when you.
Speaker 2: Need to create shots.
Speaker 1: But I've just I've been so incredibly impressed by Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown in this game, Like he only had three assists.
Speaker 1: He only had three assists in this game, but he
Speaker 1: had some really nice reads. There was a lob pass
Speaker 1: of Luke Cornette as he slipped out of a double
Speaker 1: ball screen like a double drag, where he patiently kind
Speaker 1: of waited for the play to develop, waited for all
Speaker 1: the defensive players to make their kind of like baked
Speaker 1: in reeds, and then Luke Cornett broke open and he
Speaker 1: just hit him with a perfect lob pass. He brought
Speaker 1: physical ball pressure on Bradley Beal just in general, Jan
Speaker 1: Brown continues this stretch of just awesome basketball that he's playing.
Speaker 1: They killed the Suns on the offensive glass. They had
Speaker 1: thirteen offensive rebounds. Again, that's a big one for me.
Speaker 1: That has been kind of a recent trend for the Celtics.
Speaker 1: And just another great paint scoring game. They have sixty
Speaker 1: points in the paint in this matchup. They're averaging fifty
Speaker 1: seven points in the paint over their last seven games.
Speaker 1: That ranks third in the NBA. So we're now on
Speaker 1: like a hefty like half of a month here where
Speaker 1: the Celtics are suddenly like a dominant paint scoring offense.
Speaker 1: And this is a team that for the entire first
Speaker 1: chunk of the season was like, I guess we're at
Speaker 1: what like two thirds of the or about three four
Speaker 1: so the way through the season at this point getting
Speaker 1: close there. This is a ten percent chunk of the
Speaker 1: season here where they've gone from being before that one
Speaker 1: of the worst paint scoring teams in the league to
Speaker 1: a team that's consistently scoring in the paint. So it's
Speaker 1: very clear from the top down that there is an
Speaker 1: effort being made to get these guys to play with
Speaker 1: more physical aggression, to bring that that more diversity to
Speaker 1: their offensive approach instead of just relying on whether or
Speaker 1: not their jump shots are going to go in, and
Speaker 1: that to me is just going to give them more
Speaker 1: margin for error when they get later into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And then Jason Tatum closed the deal in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter Monster fourth quarter hit a three on the right
Speaker 1: wing where the Sons just didn't even match up with him.
Speaker 1: In transition, he had a pull up three on a
Speaker 1: soft switch between Royce O'Neil and Bull Bull. We've talked
Speaker 1: to a lot about the difference between aggressive switching and
Speaker 1: soft switching. Again, aggressive switch as you come off the
Speaker 1: screen and the dude almost like hedges at first and
Speaker 1: then squares up so that you can essentially force the
Speaker 1: guy to almost like face ball pressure immediately when he
Speaker 1: comes off the screen versus a soft switch when you
Speaker 1: hang back. And on this particular play where Tatum hit
Speaker 1: the pull up three, Royce O'Neil's on him. Here comes
Speaker 1: the ball screen. As he comes off the ball screen.
Speaker 1: Bowl Bull is the guy that's supposed to be switching
Speaker 1: onto him, but he just Roy O'Neil kind of ducks
Speaker 1: under and takes the screener, and then Bull Bull hangs
Speaker 1: back in a soft switch, and Tatum found a gap
Speaker 1: in there to rise up and knock down or jump
Speaker 1: or Bull. Bowl got a late contest, but it wasn't enough.
Speaker 2: Tatum knocked it down.
Speaker 1: By the way, Tatum has been shooting the pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot significantly better since January first is something we've
Speaker 1: been talking about on the show. Two hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: two points on two hundred and two hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: three pull up jump shot attempts since January first, it's
Speaker 1: one point zero seven points per shot. So here's the deal. Still,
Speaker 1: should he take as many as he takes, probably not.
Speaker 1: Should he be more physically aggressive, absolutely, but he was
Speaker 1: also a bad pull up shooter for you know, basically
Speaker 1: three years before this stretch and now we haven't extended
Speaker 1: two month and change stretch where he's gone from being
Speaker 1: bad at it to above average. Add it's still not
Speaker 1: as good as you want. Like you the best pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooters in the league are closer to like
Speaker 1: one point one five points per possession. The guys that
Speaker 1: should be hunting that shot as like a huge part
Speaker 1: of their shot diet are in another tier. But he's
Speaker 1: at the very least now an effective pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooter over a substantial sample size, which I think is
Speaker 1: encouraging because again, for all to talk about physical bullying
Speaker 1: and playing in the paint and bringing offensive versatility, they're
Speaker 1: going to need Tatum to hit pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: to win in the playoffs. They're going to need Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown to hit pull up jump shots to win in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. That's never what it was about. It was
Speaker 1: always about balance, And I thought that was a really
Speaker 1: good bounce back game for Boston going into Phoenix against
Speaker 1: the Phoenix team that really wants to continue their momentum
Speaker 1: after the win against Denver against the red hot Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant right, and you go in there and you and
Speaker 1: you control the game, and every single time Boss or
Speaker 1: every single time Phoenix makes a run, like Phoenix made
Speaker 1: a run there in the middle third quarter, Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: hit like a crossover three against in transition against Drew
Speaker 1: Holliday to get it back to three. And then if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, right after that, Drew Holiday made a
Speaker 1: couple of plays himself and they just bounce bouncer right
Speaker 1: back up to nine points like that, Like they just
Speaker 1: they never let it linger in in in range for
Speaker 1: Phoenix to make any real sort of push, and they
Speaker 1: just dif armed them and they got to win. On
Speaker 1: the Suns front. Random role player minutes continue to hurt them,
Speaker 1: I thought again, Drew Eubanks was awful and pick and
Speaker 1: roll defense evenly at a rough stretch in the first half.
Speaker 1: He's minus four and four minutes. Wasn't getting guarded. They
Speaker 1: went with David Roddy in the second half and they
Speaker 1: started ignoring him on the right wing and he got
Speaker 1: two just completely unguarded right wing threes, and both of
Speaker 1: them were like bad misses. He was minus six and
Speaker 1: six minutes. So just not having Devin Booker out there
Speaker 1: has caused them to have to dip into the parts
Speaker 1: of their roster where they can you know, have some
Speaker 1: guys or they can really help off of, you know,
Speaker 1: and that's where it causes some issues. But again, big
Speaker 1: bright side, Devin Booker's coming back and Kevin Durant is
Speaker 1: hooping his ass off thirty five plus and three straight games.
Speaker 1: He's averaging thirty eight points, seven rebounds, and four assists
Speaker 1: in that span, fifty four percent from the field in
Speaker 1: forty five percent from three I just one last note
Speaker 1: on the sun side of thing, on the KD side
Speaker 1: of things, just for the young basketball players out there,
Speaker 1: something that I thought was really interesting and something I
Speaker 1: think that a lot of kids could kind of pick
Speaker 1: up some little, uh, you know, tips and tricks of
Speaker 1: the game from KD. In this case, one of the
Speaker 1: things he was beaten Drew Holliday with in this particular
Speaker 1: game was like quick aggressive rip moves on the catch.
Speaker 1: And so just imagine a situation where like Katie's coming
Speaker 1: off of a dribble hand off and he would like
Speaker 1: step up into where the ball is and as soon
Speaker 1: as he catches it instead of like putting the ball
Speaker 1: on the floor and like trying to mix up off
Speaker 1: the dribble. He'd make his first aggressive change of direction
Speaker 1: move without having to put the ball on the floor
Speaker 1: right away with a rip through. So essentially he would
Speaker 1: like catch the ball squared up this way and then
Speaker 1: he kind of leaned back to create some space and
Speaker 1: he'd aggressively rip through to the right so that when
Speaker 1: he's putting the ball down. When he's putting the ball down,
Speaker 1: it's way on his right side. After he got kind
Speaker 1: of facing towards the left, and he'll do the same
Speaker 1: thing going to the left, or he'll catch it moving
Speaker 1: to the right and then it'll rip through to the left.
Speaker 1: Dwayne Wade used to do this move all the time.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you mind. Heat fans might remember
Speaker 1: back when Dwayne Wade was younger, where he'd come out
Speaker 1: of like the corner and he'd come off like he's
Speaker 1: gonna go on a dribble handoff, and then as soon
Speaker 1: as he catch it, he'd kind of like do a
Speaker 1: high hesitation and then he just rip back to the
Speaker 1: left and extend out and do that push dribble to
Speaker 1: kind of cover some ground. You know, it's funny with
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. We think of him as one of the
Speaker 1: most skilled players in the NBA and all this tough
Speaker 1: shot making. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of that,
Speaker 1: but KD is incredibly fundamentally sound, like little things like that.
Speaker 1: Those rip through moves are just really efficient. Like a
Speaker 1: lot of times, so many young players over dribble these days,
Speaker 1: and like a quick rip through move is a move
Speaker 1: that covers a ton of ground that is easy to control.
Speaker 1: It protects the basketball because as you're doing the rip
Speaker 1: you have two hands on the ball. So even if
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday gets in there, reaches and attacks the basketball,
Speaker 1: if you're holding it strong and do a strong rip
Speaker 1: through move, you can get through that first reach and
Speaker 1: cover ground with that first dribble. Another big one that
Speaker 1: Kd's great at is setting his man up for screens,
Speaker 1: like he won't just run off the screen. He's great
Speaker 1: at like getting up into the defender's body, pushing him
Speaker 1: down to where like the block is, and then giving
Speaker 1: him like a little shove before he cuts off the
Speaker 1: screen and cuts shoulder to shoulder with the player and
Speaker 1: curls immediately to try to create a better screening angle.
Speaker 1: Like Kevin Durant is incredibly fundamentally sound. And again, like
Speaker 1: when you get to the higher levels of basketball, it's
Speaker 1: not just them learning how to do more advanced shit,
Speaker 1: it's them being incredibly fundamentally sound. And then the advanced
Speaker 1: shit is what kind of pushes them over the top
Speaker 1: into like specific things like rescue possessions, Oh, three to
Speaker 1: two to one on the shot clock, I need to
Speaker 1: make a play, or like you know, I'm in a
Speaker 1: heat check here and I'm already in rhythm, and now
Speaker 1: I'm going to more of my advanced stuff. Like again,
Speaker 1: the game of basketball is best played when it's made easy,
Speaker 1: and it's the best basketball players in the world aren't
Speaker 1: the guys that can do all the hard shit. They're
Speaker 1: the guys that relentlessly target and get all the low
Speaker 1: hanging fruit in basketball.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I Mean, we talked about it a lot with Jokic, right,
Speaker 1: But like even kd A is a top shot maker,
Speaker 1: he's a guy that has incredibly sound fundamentals, and that's
Speaker 1: something that carries him to a lot of his offensive success.
Speaker 1: A bright moving out to the Los Angeles Lakers, it's
Speaker 1: a really interesting stretch here to start the month of March,
Speaker 1: because they played a bunch of good teams in a row,
Speaker 1: all at home, and I was somewhat kind of optimistic
Speaker 1: going it. They ended up going three and two, which
Speaker 1: was somewhat disappointing, but giving the competition was really good.
Speaker 1: I was hoping, as a fan of the team, something
Speaker 1: closer to four and one, mainly because the Lakers were
Speaker 1: a really good home team coming into this stretch. They
Speaker 1: were twenty one and nine at home and now they're
Speaker 1: twenty four and eleven, which is one of the better
Speaker 1: home records in the league.
Speaker 2: This is a team that.
Speaker 1: Has always been good at home, and so I was
Speaker 1: kind of hoping for something a little better. But they
Speaker 1: bounced back, right. You lose to that Denver team that's
Speaker 1: obviously a really tough matchup for them. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk more about the matchups in a minute, get a
Speaker 1: huge win over the Thunder. Then you have that really
Speaker 1: disappointing ass kicking at the hand of the Kings, but
Speaker 1: you bounce back by beating the Bucks without Lebron and
Speaker 1: then beating the Minnesota Timberwolves allbit shorthanded on Sunday, So
Speaker 1: like a couple of big wins and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden it's three and two with wins against the Wolves,
Speaker 1: the Thunder, and the Bucks all really really impressive. So
Speaker 1: starting with the Bucks game, Ad bounced back from the
Speaker 1: King's disaster by putting up twenty two and thirteen with
Speaker 1: two blocks. Austin Reeves eighteen five and seven, another well
Speaker 1: rounded performance from him. Ruyhatchamurns Dinwood. He both make two
Speaker 1: massive defensive plays at the end of the game. Ruey
Speaker 1: Hachimura on the play before the final play, there's a
Speaker 1: possession where they run a Damianis pick and roll. He
Speaker 1: tags the roller on Giannis then gets out of the
Speaker 1: lane back to his man in the corner, but he
Speaker 1: switches with Cam Reddish and has Cam reddis guard the
Speaker 1: cornerman and he guards Giannis as the low man so
Speaker 1: that he can help on the drive. So they had
Speaker 1: been so Ad switches like he does a lot at
Speaker 1: the end. A lot of times the Lakers, they'll switch
Speaker 1: with Ad at the very end of the game. So
Speaker 1: it's like, last few possessions, you don't want to do
Speaker 1: this for the whole game. Let's just throw Ad on
Speaker 1: the ball for these last Like famously Game four against
Speaker 1: the Warriors last year, they were running all these coverages
Speaker 1: in pick and roll, these like high drop coverages where
Speaker 1: Adi's coming up to the level and then dropping back.
Speaker 1: But then final two possessions, ad just switches on to
Speaker 1: Steph and gets stopped. So same type of thing switches
Speaker 1: on to Dame and Ady does a good job taking
Speaker 1: away the pull jumper, Like Dame kind of beats him
Speaker 1: to the left hand side off the dribble, but he's
Speaker 1: a little off balance. He's gonna have throw up a
Speaker 1: really difficult scoop shot. But instead of Cam reddish in
Speaker 1: help because Ruy hatcha Mura saw that play developing and
Speaker 1: understood like, okay, now that the shooter's in the corner
Speaker 1: and Yannis is in the dunker spot, it's actually because
Speaker 1: of the switch, because cam Rad has switched off of
Speaker 1: Dame and switched on to Jannis on the ball screen.
Speaker 1: Now it's more important to get Cam off into the
Speaker 1: corner and have Ruy take Janis so that he can
Speaker 1: be the guy that steps up to help right that
Speaker 1: first defender, that lowman, the guy guarding the guy in
Speaker 1: the dunker spot, is the first line of defense after
Speaker 1: the ball handler gets beat, and so Ruy's just a
Speaker 1: bigger better athlete than Cam. He makes that smart switch.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, he jumps up and gets a
Speaker 1: great contest on Dame's shot, dam ends up missing it,
Speaker 1: and then to Darvinham's credit again like Darvin Haam has
Speaker 1: not been, in my opinion, one of the best coaches
Speaker 1: in the league this year, but he's had his moments again,
Speaker 1: Like I'm a big believer in the show. Like we
Speaker 1: don't just shine the light on the negative. We want
Speaker 1: to call it the negative and the positive. We want
Speaker 1: to try to give as well rounded a coverage as
Speaker 1: we can. And one of the things that Darvin is
Speaker 1: on this late possession, he brought Jackson Hayes into the
Speaker 1: game just for a defensive sub. They weren't using him
Speaker 1: outside of that. They brought him in for the big
Speaker 1: possession of the game. He had two timeouts left at
Speaker 1: this point, the Lakers were down by one. All you
Speaker 1: got to do is get a stop and you use
Speaker 1: a timeout, you go down, you get a bucket. Then
Speaker 1: you just have to get one more stop. And if
Speaker 1: you go down and you don't get a stop or
Speaker 1: you don't get a bucket, you have an extra timeout
Speaker 1: if you should need it. Right, So, Darvin Ham takes
Speaker 1: a timeout, gets Jackson Hayes on the floor Jackson Hayes's
Speaker 1: weak side, and when Ruy goes up for the block,
Speaker 1: ad is trailing the play and Rui's going in for
Speaker 1: the block, so both of them are basically effectively occupied
Speaker 1: by Dame. So Giannis is under the basket by himself,
Speaker 1: basically to clean up the offensive glass. But Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: comes crashing in from the wing and he tips it
Speaker 1: and it ends up in Anthony Davis's hands. So huge
Speaker 1: defensive play from Ruy. Obviously, big adjustment from Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: to bring Jackson Hayes in as a defensive stubf. He
Speaker 1: also brought Cam Reddish in on that specific possession. They
Speaker 1: call timeout. They go down to the other end. D'Angelo Russell,
Speaker 1: who is the hero the game, scores twenty one points
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, hit several huge threes off the
Speaker 1: dribble and off the catch, but h's the game winner
Speaker 1: on Dame. Interesting play starts to play. He's got Malik
Speaker 1: Beasley on him, calls Spencer Dinwoody to come up and
Speaker 1: set the screen. Spencer Dinwoody sets a good screen and
Speaker 1: drags the screen out so he actually tried to roll
Speaker 1: in the direction Malik was in.
Speaker 2: That's a great way to kind of force a switch.
Speaker 2: If you don't.
Speaker 1: Hold that contact, then they can probably just chase over
Speaker 1: the top or get through it. Right, he holds the screen,
Speaker 1: gets Malik off of him. Dame is now on del
Speaker 1: Delo then brings brook Lopez up into the action, and
Speaker 1: Dame wants to switch, but Brooke is like, no, man,
Speaker 1: you gotta get back. So Brook points back to the
Speaker 1: Dame to get back to de Lo. When he gets back,
Speaker 1: Delo takes an advanced dribble while Dame is recovering, and
Speaker 1: that gets him on his backside. And now here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Like Austin and dil he talks about on the show,
Speaker 1: they're not particularly big or they're not particularly fast guards,
Speaker 1: but they are decently sized, like what six ' five
Speaker 1: and has a decent amount of muscle mass to him.
Speaker 1: So once he got Dame pinned on his backside, there's
Speaker 1: really nothing Dame can do to bother him.
Speaker 2: At that point.
Speaker 1: Thend LO just kind of works his way methodically inside,
Speaker 1: finds that sweet spot where he has some room to
Speaker 1: get the floater over. Brook Lopez takes and makes the floater,
Speaker 1: puts the Lakers up one and then down on the
Speaker 1: other end of the floor, Spencer Dinwoodie with the biggest
Speaker 1: defensive play of the game times Dame Lillard's step back
Speaker 1: jump shot perfectly meets him at the summit summit and
Speaker 1: gets the block. So massive win for the Lakers without
Speaker 1: Lebron James, and then following that up last night against
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves, Lebron came back.
Speaker 2: He was great.
Speaker 1: He's been bringing a ton of downhill rim pressure in
Speaker 1: off ball situations, which continues to be a theme, or
Speaker 1: I should say outside of half court initiation situation, so
Speaker 1: pushing in transition is obviously a big one, but also
Speaker 1: close out situations. He's been so good cutting to the rim,
Speaker 1: catching and ripping and going to the room. Even in
Speaker 1: the Kings game, he beat a close out at the
Speaker 1: top of the key and dunked I think on Alex
Speaker 1: Lanner if I remember correctly, in the middle of the floor.
Speaker 1: That another driving dunk attacking a close out off of
Speaker 1: an ad double team. Last night, the eighty draws second
Speaker 1: defender passed I think was Austin Reeves. One passed away,
Speaker 1: Austin swings to Lebron Lebron pump fakes, beats his man
Speaker 1: off the dribble, rises up and dunks it like he's
Speaker 1: just finding those little angles to attack in like a
Speaker 1: downhill situation out of advantages, which there's so many of
Speaker 1: him in this offense, which we're about to get to
Speaker 1: in a few minutes. But Lebron was great. He at
Speaker 1: twenty nine points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Remember before
Speaker 1: that again, twenty nine to eight to nine. Before that
Speaker 1: starts to sound common for you, only four players in
Speaker 1: the NBA this year are averaging at least twenty five points,
Speaker 1: six rebounds and six assists. It's Luka Doncic, Johannison, Tenna Kompo,
Speaker 1: Nicole Jokic, and Lebron James. So like as crazy like,
Speaker 1: I don't think he's had as good a regular season
Speaker 1: as the numbers would say, just simply because he's been
Speaker 1: saving a lot of energy on the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball throughout this year, which is totally to be expected.
Speaker 1: But on the offensive end of the floor, he's been
Speaker 1: producing at like a top six or seven level in
Speaker 1: the league. He still play at that level on that end,
Speaker 1: and when he engages himself defensively he can actually compete
Speaker 1: like one of the best playoff players in the league,
Speaker 1: which is just gonna be a question of whether or
Speaker 1: not he can stay healthy enough to do that in
Speaker 1: the postseason. And then Anthony Davis, the Wolves front line
Speaker 1: was injured. Obviously, Carl Towns went down with his meniscus
Speaker 1: injury last week, but Rudy Gobert was out for this one.
Speaker 1: Eighty just obliterated the Wolves front line, killed Nasri, killed
Speaker 1: Luca garz A ten offensive rebounds. Seemingly, anytime the Lakers
Speaker 1: missed a shot in the second half, eighty was cleaning
Speaker 1: it up. Finished with twenty seven points, twenty seven rebounds,
Speaker 1: five assists, seven steals, and three blocks, first player ever
Speaker 1: in NBA history to record those numbers in a game,
Speaker 1: the fourteenth ten steals plus blocks game of AD's career,
Speaker 1: which Draymond is second among active players with four. When
Speaker 1: Minyam is also tied for second, he already has four.
Speaker 1: That'll be a record he probably breaks. But Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: has been basically the best blocks and steels guy of
Speaker 1: the among active NBA players by a mile. But the
Speaker 1: Lakers ended up winning this game with defense. We talked
Speaker 1: about Ad earlier with the seven steals and three blocks.
Speaker 1: Torrian Prints made three mass only scored six points in
Speaker 1: this game, but he made three massive defensive plays in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter run. I actually clipped all three of
Speaker 1: them and put him into a Twitter video, so you
Speaker 1: can find that on my Twitter feed at underscore Jason lt.
Speaker 1: But there's a skip pass to the weak side where
Speaker 1: there was a wide open shooter in the corner and
Speaker 1: the wing, and Torrion did a textbook passing lane close out.
Speaker 1: So this is what you teach young players to do.
Speaker 1: When there's a skip pass and there's two shooters. You
Speaker 1: don't close out to the shooter. You close out to
Speaker 1: the passing lane because if you do that well, you
Speaker 1: might be able to bait the guy that's the shooter
Speaker 1: into thinking you're closing out at him and his automatic
Speaker 1: reaction is to throw a swing pass and you might
Speaker 1: get him to throw it right to you if you
Speaker 1: close out to the passing lane. So if the pass
Speaker 1: goes to the wing, you're closing out between the wing
Speaker 1: and the corner opened up towards the shooter with your
Speaker 1: hand in the passing lane, and then if he shoots,
Speaker 1: you respond with the late contest. If the pass goes
Speaker 1: to the corner, it's the exact opposite. You close out
Speaker 1: to the passing lane and you the difference. He ended
Speaker 1: up the pass ended up going to the corner, He
Speaker 1: jumped the passing link, got a deflection, they ran out
Speaker 1: the other end. I think it was Austin Reeves got
Speaker 1: a layup on this particular one. Then there was a
Speaker 1: dribble handoff action that the Wolves ran that got Mike
Speaker 1: Conley going downhill off the out of the top of
Speaker 1: the key, and Torrian Prince came over and helped walled
Speaker 1: up Mike Conley and got a stop, and then a
Speaker 1: couple possessions later, he blocked Jaden McDaniels at the rim
Speaker 1: in a transition possession. All three of those plays from
Speaker 1: Torrian Prince led to runouts the other way that the
Speaker 1: Lakers scored on. So like just huge swings in the
Speaker 1: game for Torrian Prince. Only six points scored, but all
Speaker 1: three of those essentially amounted to pick sixes that helped
Speaker 1: the Lakers build their fourth quarter lead. Again, just like
Speaker 1: I was talking about Darvin Ham, Do I agree with
Speaker 1: how often Torrian Prince has played this year?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Do I think he's been utilized in a way that
Speaker 1: doesn't accentuate his strength sometimes, yes, but he's a good
Speaker 1: basketball player, and especially when he's in a role like this,
Speaker 1: where he's playing in the mid to low twenties and minutes,
Speaker 1: he can be deeply impactful. And he was deeply impactful
Speaker 1: in that defensive run for the Lakers down the stretch
Speaker 1: against the Timberwolves. A couple of huge wins. Now the
Speaker 1: Lakers are really starting to pick up some steam. I
Speaker 1: talked a lot about how I wanted to see if
Speaker 1: the Lakers were gonna have any sort of legitimate chance
Speaker 1: to get anything done. I wanted to see like a
Speaker 1: twenty five game span where they were like eighteen and
Speaker 1: seven or seventeen and eight, something along those lines. Right,
Speaker 1: we're not quite there, but we're heading in that direction.
Speaker 1: They are twelve and five since the start of February.
Speaker 1: That's a really dominant stretch, just not a long enough span.
Speaker 1: I want to see them again. You've got some big
Speaker 1: games on the rise, and they play the Kings on
Speaker 1: Wednesday night, they play the Warriors on Saturday night, Like
Speaker 1: those are getting a couple of wins there would put
Speaker 1: you at fourteen and five now we're talking about a
Speaker 1: more serious, longer stretch, right, But in that twelve and
Speaker 1: five stretch starts since or twelve and five stretch since
Speaker 1: the start of February, they have the fifth best record
Speaker 1: in the NBA over that span, the second best offense
Speaker 1: in the league over that span, wins over the Celtics,
Speaker 1: the Knicks, Pulikins, the Clippers, the Thunder, the Bucks, and
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves. Eight or seven really quality wins over that span.
Speaker 1: When you extend it back to January seventh, the larger sample,
Speaker 1: Now this is a thirty game sample size. This is
Speaker 1: about forty percent of the season. In that span, they
Speaker 1: are nineteen and eleven. That is the seventh best record
Speaker 1: in the league. In addition to the wins I just mentioned,
Speaker 1: we're adding wins there to the against the Clippers again,
Speaker 1: the Thunder again, the Mavericks, and the Warriors. So like
Speaker 1: eleven quality wins in a nineteen and eleven stretch. This
Speaker 1: is this is a good stretch of basketball that the
Speaker 1: Lakers are playing. Now let's talk about what specifically is
Speaker 1: working for them. Here's some metrics since January seventh. So
Speaker 1: again these are all since in their last thirty games
Speaker 1: they're just demolishing teams in the paint. Fifty six point
Speaker 1: five points in the paint per one hundred possessions. That's
Speaker 1: first in the NBA over that span, and when you
Speaker 1: factor in that doesn't include free throws, like this is
Speaker 1: also the team that is number one in free throw rate.
Speaker 1: I think they're the number one in free throw attempts
Speaker 1: allowed if I'm not mistaken, but I think they're still
Speaker 1: top ten in free throw rate during that time. I
Speaker 1: can't remember the exact numbers, but they're getting to the
Speaker 1: foul line a lot, is my point. And so to
Speaker 1: be the number one points in the paint team while
Speaker 1: also being a team that's getting to the foul line
Speaker 1: a lot, they're getting a lot of easy, replicable baskets
Speaker 1: right around the basket. That is super, super encouraging as
Speaker 1: it pertains to the postseason. They're sixth in offensive rating
Speaker 1: overall since January seventh, so again second since February, first
Speaker 1: in the smaller sample seventh since or excuse me, sixth
Speaker 1: since January seventh. Really is their five out offense kicking
Speaker 1: at high gear there's sixth, and assists over that span
Speaker 1: fifth in the assist to turnover ratio over that span.
Speaker 1: Everyone's involved. We've talked about it before, but every guy
Speaker 1: in this lineup can both initiate offense and finished plays.
Speaker 1: In terms of initiating, Anthony Davis can initiate through the
Speaker 1: post and through ISO, Lebron can do it through post,
Speaker 1: ISO and in pick and roll, Austin and DL do
Speaker 1: it through pick and roll, and then Ruey can do
Speaker 1: it through the ISO, through ISO and through the post.
Speaker 1: But all five of those guys can also play off
Speaker 1: the ball, Like Ruey is shooting forty five percent from
Speaker 1: three since January seven. That's a big part of him
Speaker 1: working off ball in their five out system. Also, we
Speaker 1: talked about Ruey initiating offense in the post. Rui's been
Speaker 1: a great post up player this year. He's averaging one
Speaker 1: point one to four points per posted up possession, including passes.
Speaker 1: That rings ninth out of fifty seven players to run
Speaker 1: at least seventy post ups this year. So like in
Speaker 1: their five out offense, when they get a mismatch for Rui,
Speaker 1: they throw it down to him on the block and
Speaker 1: he's consistently generating quality shots. He's personally shooting fifty four
Speaker 1: percent in those situations. But he's also shooting forty five
Speaker 1: percent from three during this stretch since January seventh, which
Speaker 1: has been a huge part of him working both on
Speaker 1: and off the ball. Obviously, we know d Lo is
Speaker 1: a dead eye shooter, also a guy who can cut
Speaker 1: and attack closeouts extremely well. He's a big release voul
Speaker 1: for them. Whenever double teams come, he just kind of
Speaker 1: flashes to the middle of the floor and makes plays.
Speaker 1: Austin obviously is an excellent off ball player, great at
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts, and then Lebron has been He's always been
Speaker 1: underrated as an off ball player just because he's had
Speaker 1: some teams that he's been on where he's had to
Speaker 1: be on be on the ball so much. But one
Speaker 1: point two to three points per catch and shoot jump shot,
Speaker 1: he's been one of the best catch and shoot players
Speaker 1: in the league this year. That ranks twentieth out of
Speaker 1: seventy nine players this year to log at least two
Speaker 1: hundred catch and shoot jump shots, so he's been an
Speaker 1: upper fourth catch and shoot guy among guys that reached
Speaker 1: that specific volume. A cutoff, He's made eighty two shots
Speaker 1: this year on cuts and rolls to the rim on
Speaker 1: sixty seven percent shooting. It's a huge chunk of his
Speaker 1: offense now and then, so with Lebron being so great
Speaker 1: off the ball, we also have Anthony Davis as the hub.
Speaker 1: He's one of only three players in the league this
Speaker 1: year to log at least two hundred and fifty roll
Speaker 1: man possessions and still get over one point one points
Speaker 1: per possession on them. It's just him, Miles Turner and
Speaker 1: Elpur and Shane Goon that are the three high volume,
Speaker 1: efficient role man guys. He's personally shooting fifty six percent
Speaker 1: on rolls to the rim in fifty eight percent on floaters,
Speaker 1: which is a big part of what's making that work.
Speaker 1: So again, like the defense, the offense is just absolutely humming.
Speaker 1: Everyone can score, everyone can pass. Ruey doesn't pass super well,
Speaker 1: but he could score out of the post and he
Speaker 1: can knock down the threes, so it's working right. The
Speaker 1: offense is absolutely humming, second best over the last seventeen
Speaker 1: games and sixth best over the last thirty games. But
Speaker 1: that has come at the expense of their defense and
Speaker 1: their rebounding. They have not been a good defensive and
Speaker 1: rebounding team over the stretch. They've been bottom ten in
Speaker 1: both categories that is where if there's because like that,
Speaker 1: that's the next step here, right nineteen to eleven over
Speaker 1: thirty game span, twelve and five over seventeen game span,
Speaker 1: tons of quality wins, But we know they can't beat
Speaker 1: Denver right now, and we might not even find out
Speaker 1: if they can't get through the postseason, if they can't
Speaker 1: get into the postseason through the play in and then
Speaker 1: teams like with a ton of guard speed in particular,
Speaker 1: so like they struggled a little bit against Golden State
Speaker 1: with it, but really badly against Sacramento. They're starting to
Speaker 1: expose their lack of perimeter defense. And so again, how
Speaker 1: do we connect this what's working for the Lakers now
Speaker 1: with the gaping holes that will inevitably get them beat
Speaker 1: in the postseason involving the rebounding and perimeter defense piece.
Speaker 1: And the answer to all of that is Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: since January seventh, So that span that I'm talking about
Speaker 1: because I talk about the Lakers season in thirds, right,
Speaker 1: they go what fifteen to nine through the N Season
Speaker 1: tournament win counting the win in the tournament game, right,
Speaker 1: so fifteen to nine you win the N Season Tournament
Speaker 1: back to back to back big wins against the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: the Suns, and the Pacers. Right, they finally they actually
Speaker 1: slow down that Pacers team, really defensive minded team. Then
Speaker 1: they go three and ten in the thirteen games after
Speaker 1: the Ncason Tournament, completely let go of the rope. Some
Speaker 1: really bad losses to bad teams. That was when Darvin
Speaker 1: was fucking around with the lineup too much, all sorts
Speaker 1: of issues there. Then we get to this recent stretch
Speaker 1: where they've been really good. So if I have a
Speaker 1: nineteen and eleven and a fifteen and nine sandwiching this
Speaker 1: bad stretch, there is like some really good basketball in
Speaker 1: there from the Lakers. So how do you connect that
Speaker 1: with the blatant issues that they have with teams like
Speaker 1: Denver and Sacramento teams that well, with Denver, it's a
Speaker 1: bunch of things that caused the Lakers problem. But with
Speaker 1: Sacramento in particular speed guards. Well, what if you put
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt in there at the three. Now you have
Speaker 1: a defender to throw out a deer and fox, so
Speaker 1: that you kind of only have to figure out what
Speaker 1: you're doing with the Malik Monk spot, right, which is
Speaker 1: like a little bit easier to handle than deeron Fox obviously,
Speaker 1: and just in general, like Denver, that's the guy you're
Speaker 1: putting on Jamal Murray. And again, one of the issues
Speaker 1: in the postseason last year, the Lakers were running a
Speaker 1: four out one in offense, a lot of high volume
Speaker 1: pick and roll and post up stuff with clear side,
Speaker 1: you know, really brute force type of offense. So Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt was just standing in the corner, just spotting up
Speaker 1: most of the time, which was a huge problem when
Speaker 1: teams would ignore him. In the five out offense, Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt would operate as a screener and roller more frequently,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers demonstrated in that late January stretch that
Speaker 1: they can succeed offensively with Jared Vanderbilt on the floor.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, Jared Vanderbilt is the second
Speaker 1: best net rating guy since January seventh, behind Spencer Dinwiddie.
Speaker 1: They're outscoring teams by over eight points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions with Jared Vanderbilt on the floor, and they have
Speaker 1: been very good defensively one oh eight point two defensive
Speaker 1: rating in that span. That's really good. So again, if
Speaker 1: they can connect the defensive element, that they've shown, not
Speaker 1: just at the beginning of the year, but even in
Speaker 1: this January stretch with Jared Vanderbilt on the floor, with
Speaker 1: the offensive success that they're having, and Jared Vanderbilt can
Speaker 1: properly slot everybody better, and Jared Vanderbilt is a great
Speaker 1: rebounder who's vitally important to the Lakers on that side
Speaker 1: of the floor or that element of the game. That's
Speaker 1: where the playoff the pathway towards some sort of playoff successes.
Speaker 1: They need to connect to the success they're having right now,
Speaker 1: especially on the offensive end to the floor with what
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt brings to the table. If he can come
Speaker 1: back and he can get to that level that he
Speaker 1: was at before the injury as a perimeter defender and
Speaker 1: where he was fitting offensively, that's a Lakers path if
Speaker 1: there's again I feel really comfortable about where I have
Speaker 1: him in my contender rankings.
Speaker 2: I have him eighth.
Speaker 1: I believe feel really comfortable about that. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's too high. I don't think it's too low. The chance, though,
Speaker 1: the ability to capitalize on that and turn that into
Speaker 1: Alari O'Brian trophy will It will depend on Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: coming back anchoring their perimeter defense and their defensive rebounding.
Speaker 1: Lebron and AD have to play at an absolute superstar level,
Speaker 1: like bona Fide top six or seven player in the
Speaker 1: world level on both ends of the floor for four rounds,
Speaker 1: and I think they need to catch some matchup lucks.
Speaker 1: So it's a very very thin window, but the window
Speaker 1: is there, and I do think it's worth mentioning and
Speaker 1: acknowledging for this Laker team. Big, big, big, big game
Speaker 1: on Wednesday against Sacramento. Anthony Davis got kind of embarrassed
Speaker 1: by Demana Sabonis, so that's going to be a big
Speaker 1: one for AD to potentially get some revenge in. And
Speaker 1: if they can win that game, and if they can
Speaker 1: beat Golden State on Saturday, I think I think that
Speaker 1: is the will be a good hallmark for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: They can handle some perimeter speed stuff, that'll be a
Speaker 1: good hallmark for the Lakers. And if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the particulars, but had some encouraging injury
Speaker 1: updates on Jared Vanderbilt and gave Vincent today as well.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to our power rankings before
Speaker 1: we get out of here for the day. So two
Speaker 1: teams dropped out from last week, the Heat and the Magic.
Speaker 1: The Heat lost three straight games to the MAVs, the Thunder,
Speaker 1: and the Wizards, and then the Magic lost back to
Speaker 1: back games against the Knicks and the Pacers, so they're
Speaker 1: out for right now. New in at number ten is
Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns. Massively impressed by their win against the
Speaker 1: Nuggets in Denver. Really showed that they can defend when
Speaker 1: they want to. Nurkic is a good, big, physical body
Speaker 1: to be able to show to throw out Nicole Jokic.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of length off the ball when
Speaker 1: Kevin duran is defending the way that he has. They
Speaker 1: were flying around in rotation. I thought Bradley Beal digging
Speaker 1: down off KCP and playing passing lanes and playing the
Speaker 1: role man was really impactful for them defensively.
Speaker 2: And then they.
Speaker 1: Showed that they can get to their over the top
Speaker 1: shot stuff easier than some other teams can against Denver,
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant really got going there down the stretch. Again,
Speaker 1: I would still pick Denver over Phoenix in the series,
Speaker 1: but I thought that was a really encouraging win.
Speaker 2: And then even in.
Speaker 1: The Celtics game, Like, they really ran into some shortcomings
Speaker 1: personnel wise with Devin Booker out, but there were some
Speaker 1: really encouraging moments there. And Kevin Durant is just on
Speaker 1: an absolute heater three straight thirty five plus point games,
Speaker 1: averaging thirty eight points per game over his last three games.
Speaker 1: So Phoenix on the up and up. Number nine New
Speaker 1: Orleans Pelicans.
Speaker 2: They had an.
Speaker 1: Undefeated road trip out East, which has them riding a
Speaker 1: four game winning streak. They have a one toh one
Speaker 1: defensive rating in that span over those four games. They
Speaker 1: actually have the best defense in the league over the
Speaker 1: last fifteen games, really shutting teams down in the paint,
Speaker 1: just forty five point nine points in the paint allowed
Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions, which is best in the league.
Speaker 1: Zion and Brandon Ingher are both hooping right now. They're
Speaker 1: both averaging like twenty one and seven efficiently. But every
Speaker 1: single time I believe in the Pelicans, they immediately fall apart,
Speaker 1: So hopefully this will be something that they can actually sustain.
Speaker 1: Number eight the New York Knicks. They had another one
Speaker 1: in two week. They lost a rock fight to the
Speaker 1: seventy six ers throwback style game both teams in the seventies.
Speaker 1: But they had a big win against the Red Hot
Speaker 1: Magic on Friday, and most importantly, in that game, Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson more or less looked like himself, which was encouraging
Speaker 1: after the knee contusion that he had still just floating
Speaker 1: the ship while all these guys are out with injury.
Speaker 1: Number seven the Cleveland Cavaliers a two and two week
Speaker 1: two really impressive wins against the Celtics and the Timberwolves.
Speaker 1: Big comeback against the Celtics fueled by Dean Wade shooting
Speaker 1: a clutch win overtime win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but
Speaker 1: then two ugly losses against the Hawks and the Nets.
Speaker 1: They finally got their defense back on track, which was
Speaker 1: an issue a few weeks ago, but now they're having
Speaker 1: major issues on offense. They had just a one oh
Speaker 1: nine offensive rating last week. They really need to get
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell back to tie all of this together. Number
Speaker 1: six the Minnesota Timberwolves also a two and two week
Speaker 1: big win over the Pacers. Red Hot Lake game shot
Speaker 1: making from from Anthony Edwards made three straight pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots at the end of the game might calmly
Speaker 1: made a big one two, so they finally made some
Speaker 1: shots late and closed out a game, but then they
Speaker 1: lost another clutch game to the Cavs, and then they
Speaker 1: lost to the Lakers last night. Still experimenting with lineups
Speaker 1: since Carl Towns went out, They've tried Kyle Anderson the
Speaker 1: first couple of games that came. With the boatload of issues,
Speaker 1: they obviously would go bear out. They brought Naz red
Speaker 1: in at the center spot, but they ended up going
Speaker 1: smaller with Nikkeile Alexander Walker against the Lakers, and that
Speaker 1: might be another option they could go with. Is if
Speaker 1: they don't want to start Nas next to Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: just go with Nikkeile Alexander Walker against especially against speed teams.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you want to do that against
Speaker 1: the Lakers necessarily, but against speedier teams like because that
Speaker 1: was obviously a big issue, but they just were so
Speaker 1: shorthanded with both Gobert and cat out. But like against
Speaker 1: teams like the Lakers, I'd probably go with Gobert at
Speaker 1: center and Naz Reid, but I don't hate the idea
Speaker 1: of using Nikhil Alexander Walker, especially against speed teams. Again,
Speaker 1: a lot of times in situations like this, I can
Speaker 1: sympathize with this problem with the Lakers because of their
Speaker 1: issues at the three spot. Like I want them to
Speaker 1: play Ruie not because he's a natural fit at the three,
Speaker 1: but just because he's their fifth best player. And at
Speaker 1: this point, you're better off just playing your best basketball
Speaker 1: if you don't have a clear obvious positional fit, play
Speaker 1: your best players. And that's the thing is, like nas
Speaker 1: Reid to me, playing next to Rudy Gobert might be
Speaker 1: a little bit of an issue, but he's just a
Speaker 1: really good basketball player, and so having him out there
Speaker 1: might just be a better option than some of the others.
Speaker 1: And at the other the best player in your perimeter
Speaker 1: core that doesn't start is probably Nikil Alexander Walker, and
Speaker 1: so that's why I'd go with him if you wanted
Speaker 1: to lean more towards into a more perimeter oriented team.
Speaker 2: Number five.
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Bulls in an absolute
Speaker 1: dogfight that went to overtime, but their stars had to
Speaker 1: play big minutes, so they ended up having to essentially
Speaker 1: against the Milwaukee Bucks yesterday, a really weird schedule game
Speaker 1: two where the tip off was like on a Sunday afternoon,
Speaker 1: less than twenty four hours after the last game ended,
Speaker 1: So that led to a two and two week. They
Speaker 1: also blew the first Milwaukee game and a game that
Speaker 1: Giannis was out. That was the game that they blew late.
Speaker 1: They're just seven and seven in their last fourteen games,
Speaker 1: seventeenth in offense and twenty third in defense over that span.
Speaker 1: So the Clippers hitting a little bit of a mid
Speaker 1: season speed bump.
Speaker 2: Number four.
Speaker 1: The Milwaukee Bucks one and two so far on their
Speaker 1: West coast road trip. Their defense is not traveled with them.
Speaker 1: They have a one to twenty three defensive rating in
Speaker 1: the three games. Big part of that is all three
Speaker 1: teams they played. Our teams that kind of specialize in
Speaker 1: beating drop coverage, right, Like you even against the Clippers
Speaker 1: with James Harden, like he can just get into the
Speaker 1: lane and make plays as a passer, but they really
Speaker 1: struggled against the Laker guards. The Laker guards were just
Speaker 1: getting wherever they wanted. Again, like teams that like teams
Speaker 1: that thrive in that like kind of mid range, kind
Speaker 1: of shifty guard type of offense, they're going to have
Speaker 1: success against the Bucks with the deep drop coverage that
Speaker 1: they run big silver lining though for the Bucks. I
Speaker 1: thought in the Lakers game in particular, we saw some
Speaker 1: of the best Dame Giannis pick and roll reps that
Speaker 1: I've seen this season. There's specific timing stuff that they're
Speaker 1: starting to figure out, or like timing the role of
Speaker 1: the screen is so pivotal, right because you want to
Speaker 1: hold the screen long enough to get the defender to
Speaker 1: get caught up on you so that the ball handler
Speaker 1: can get some separation, but not so much, especially when
Speaker 1: they're blitzing, that you're not available when the pass comes,
Speaker 1: and so timing is so absolutely critical. But they're really
Speaker 1: starting to get their one two down with that, where
Speaker 1: like Dame is coming off and throwing the pass right
Speaker 1: as Giannis is turning and hitting him in stride. They're
Speaker 1: really starting to get high quality role opportunities out of that.
Speaker 1: They're starting to clear the side more, I would imagine,
Speaker 1: is another thing that Doc Rivers is brought in. They're
Speaker 1: starting again that's just where you don't have a defender
Speaker 1: in the corner so that when Giannis rolls, he sees
Speaker 1: the entire floor in front of him instead of having
Speaker 1: to account for something that's kind of behind him to
Speaker 1: his left or behind.
Speaker 2: Him to his right right.
Speaker 1: So like that clear side thing I think just kind
Speaker 1: of simplifies that process. Giannis is making some really nice
Speaker 1: rolls reads out of the role as well. I like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of encouraging stuff on the Damianis pick
Speaker 1: and roll front that I think is enough to again,
Speaker 1: this is tough. The Western Conference is tough. I've been
Speaker 1: talking about this throughout the season. I want to say,
Speaker 1: the Bucks are just thirteen and ten against the West
Speaker 1: and the Celtics are just, if I'm not mistaken, sixteen
Speaker 1: and seven. So like, for as dominant as those two
Speaker 1: teams again been against the East, the bottom of the
Speaker 1: East is so weak. You can really rack up wins
Speaker 1: against the bottom of that conference. The Western Conference is tough.
Speaker 1: It's not easy to get wins on a West coast trip,
Speaker 1: and it's more important, like again to just look at
Speaker 1: in the bigger picture. You need to get your defense
Speaker 1: where it needs to get. But you also need to
Speaker 1: have the Damianis pick and roll humming at the absolute
Speaker 1: peak level, and they're getting closer to that every single day.
Speaker 1: Number Three, the Yokahoma City Thunder really tough loss in
Speaker 1: that matchup with the Lakers just a really bad matchup
Speaker 1: for them. Lebron and ad just eat up their front
Speaker 1: line every single time they play. But then they went
Speaker 1: into an easier stretch of their schedule. They got two
Speaker 1: easy wins against Portland in Memphis, and then Shay just
Speaker 1: went absolutely crazy in a big win against the Miami Heat.
Speaker 1: They are ten to two in their last twelve games,
Speaker 1: so they've moved up to three in our power rankings.
Speaker 1: Number two the Boston Celtics back to back losses for
Speaker 1: the first time since November. They blew their lead against
Speaker 1: Cleveland where they could make a jump shot for nine
Speaker 1: minutes and struggled to score in the paint, and then
Speaker 1: they lost to Denver, which we've broken down in excruciating
Speaker 1: detail on the show over the past week. But they
Speaker 1: did bounce back with an impressive win against the Suns
Speaker 1: on Saturday. In case you missed it, we broke that
Speaker 1: game down at the top of this show, so you
Speaker 1: want to if you're watching the breakout clip, you want
Speaker 1: to go watch the full episode for the detail breakdown
Speaker 1: of their win against the Against the Suns, they have
Speaker 1: been the third best points in the paint for one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions team in the last seven games. Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: is absolutely hooping, playing the best basketball of his career.
Speaker 1: In Jason Tatum pull up jump shot coming around since
Speaker 1: January first one point zero seven excuse me, points per
Speaker 1: pull up jumper number one umber one for the first
Speaker 1: time in what seems like two months. The Denver Nuggets
Speaker 1: obviously a tough loss to Phoenix. I was weirdly impressed
Speaker 1: by Denver in that game because Phoenix like punched him
Speaker 1: in the mouth and was really out playing them for
Speaker 1: like two and a half quarters. But Denver hit the
Speaker 1: jets there in the middle of that third quarter, and
Speaker 1: Phoenix was just holding on for dear life, and they
Speaker 1: worked their way all the way back into the game,
Speaker 1: and then Phoenix made a short little run to get
Speaker 1: it back up to a nine point lead, and then
Speaker 1: Denver just executed like the most perfect twelve oho run
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, But Kad made a huge pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot to send it to OT and then he
Speaker 1: made a few more in OT and they just kind
Speaker 1: of lost to a KD shot making performance. So like
Speaker 1: a lot of encouraging nugget stuff out of that, And
Speaker 1: I also thought it was Nicole Yoakis was one of
Speaker 1: his worst games of the season, but he bounced back
Speaker 1: and they were magnificent against Boston. Their half court execution
Speaker 1: was unbelievable. I really think, I really think they have
Speaker 1: some room for improvement in that matchup to a really
Speaker 1: encouraging week for Denver. Again, I still think they're the
Speaker 1: best team in the league, and after the winn against
Speaker 1: Boston and with Boston coming off two losses, I thought
Speaker 1: they deserved the top spot for this week.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, that is all we have for today.
Speaker 1: Is always I sincerely appreciate you guys for beating the
Speaker 1: show or for uh for supporting the show. Tomorrow, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have a couple of instant reactions as well as
Speaker 1: a mailback, so make sure you guys drop some mailback
Speaker 1: questions and I'll see you guys.
Speaker 2: Then the volume