Speaker 1: The volume. It's Hoops Tonight presented by FanDuel. The NBA
Speaker 1: season is kicking into gear and there's no better place
Speaker 1: to get in on the action than with FanDuel. The
Speaker 1: app is safe and secure, getting your money out is
Speaker 1: super easy. You can jump into the action at any
Speaker 1: time during the game with live betting and I love
Speaker 1: building those same game parlays and Fanduels now live in Ohio,
Speaker 1: so use promo code Jason T and download the fandel
Speaker 1: app today to start making every moment more twenty one
Speaker 1: plus In select states, gambling problem called one hundred gambler
Speaker 1: or visit FanDuel dot com. Slash r g in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia, and Ohio. Called one
Speaker 1: next Step or text next step to five three three
Speaker 1: four two in Arizona called one eight seven eight nine
Speaker 1: seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Slash
Speaker 1: chat in Connecticut called one hundred nine with it in Indiana.
Speaker 1: Visit k S gambling help dot com in Kansas called
Speaker 1: one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in l
Speaker 1: A visit www dot m d gambling help dot org
Speaker 1: in Maryland, dial one eight seven seven eight Hope and Why,
Speaker 1: or text hope and Why to four six seven three
Speaker 1: six nine in New York, called one five to two
Speaker 1: four seven zero zero in Wyoming, or visit www dot
Speaker 1: one hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Anel here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Everybody, congrats on making it to the weekend.
Speaker 1: Although I'm technically recording this late in the night on Friday,
Speaker 1: we had a jam packed, highly entertaining NBA slate tonight
Speaker 1: and I caught bits and pieces of eight different games tonight,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna be touching on all of them. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be Hawks, Lakers, Calves, Nuggets, Nets, Pelicans, Nick's, Raptors, Hornets, Bucks, Sixers, Bulls, Blazers, Pacers,
Speaker 1: and Heat Sun. So a lot we're gonna get into.
Speaker 1: Just gonna go rapid fire through all those games. You
Speaker 1: guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribed to
Speaker 1: the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more
Speaker 1: of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason
Speaker 1: lt S. You guys don't miss any show announcements and
Speaker 1: if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these
Speaker 1: videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Remember,
Speaker 1: you can find them wherever you get to your podcasts
Speaker 1: under Hoops Tonight. Last, but not least, January is going
Speaker 1: to be a jam packed sports month. Obviously, we got
Speaker 1: the college football National Championship game right around the corner,
Speaker 1: the NFL Playoffs all right around the corner, and then
Speaker 1: college basketball and the NBA are heating up as we
Speaker 1: head towards the tournament and the NBA Playoffs, which I
Speaker 1: love so much. What does that mean? That means lots
Speaker 1: of good games for us to watch? Or better yet,
Speaker 1: how about we go to some of these games? And
Speaker 1: where's the best place to get tickets? I want you
Speaker 1: guys to check out game Time. This is the fastest
Speaker 1: growing ticketing app in the United States. Game Time offers
Speaker 1: amazing last minute deals on tickets to all of your
Speaker 1: favorite NBA, NFL, NHL, and n C Double A teams.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, they sell last minute concert
Speaker 1: tickets and comedy show tickets. So if you're in Texas
Speaker 1: and you want to see the Dallas Mavericks, game Time
Speaker 1: has you covered. If you're in Arizona, and you want
Speaker 1: to see the Suns game Time has You Covered? Or
Speaker 1: if you just want to go see John Mayer serenade
Speaker 1: you on the electric guitar, game Time has You Covered?
Speaker 1: Download the game Time app, Create an account and redeem
Speaker 1: code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms
Speaker 1: apply again. Create an account and enter code Hoops. That's
Speaker 1: h o O p s for twenty dollars off. Download
Speaker 1: game Time Today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So the Lakers win again against
Speaker 1: the Hawks, one thirty to one fourteen. I believe that's
Speaker 1: their fourth consecutive win. Atlanta looked like they were just
Speaker 1: about ready to quit in the first half of this game.
Speaker 1: We'll get to them here in just a second. Then
Speaker 1: the Lakers kind of came out in that third quarter,
Speaker 1: didn't play a whole lot of defense. Atlanta kind of
Speaker 1: got back into it. I think they got as close
Speaker 1: as ten, but they were never truly threatened. Thomas Bryant
Speaker 1: was a monster again, nineteen points and thirteen rebounds. I
Speaker 1: wanted to shout out Dennis Schroeder, Patrick Beverley, and Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook because we talked about them briefly in our last show,
Speaker 1: but the job that those three are doing on the
Speaker 1: perimeter is massively alleviating the concerns of losing Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: as a rim protector, all three of them, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to shout out specifically Russ tonight. We had one
Speaker 1: of his best games as a Laker uh in this
Speaker 1: particular game, just violently chasing over the top of screens
Speaker 1: and bothering guys like Trey Young and Boyan Bogdanovich and
Speaker 1: and Gen bogged on Bogdanovitch and dejont Murray as they
Speaker 1: were coming over the top of these screens. Again, this
Speaker 1: is a steady pick and roll offense that Atlanta runs,
Speaker 1: and these guys love to feel comfortable in that mid range.
Speaker 1: And you kind of saw the field of that game
Speaker 1: early on first few possessions, Degen Murray was comfortable coming
Speaker 1: off and he was hitting those shots. Then they got
Speaker 1: a little bit better with that back pressure and they
Speaker 1: started to force some misses. All three of those guys
Speaker 1: also hit massive shots on the on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor from three, so big time game from
Speaker 1: the Lakers backcourt. Kendrick Nunn used the Trey Young assignment
Speaker 1: to finally break out of his slump. He had a
Speaker 1: season high twenty three, and then Lebron was great again
Speaker 1: seven in ten um. You know. There there, we all
Speaker 1: have our basketball philosophies, like our core basketball philosophies, and
Speaker 1: one of those of you guys who have been listening
Speaker 1: to the show for a long time have heard me
Speaker 1: kind of break down my specific philosophies. And one of
Speaker 1: the ones that I feel very passionately about is slotting.
Speaker 1: You know, if you ask me, like, how is it
Speaker 1: that this Lakers supporting cast that is so undermanned, particularly
Speaker 1: on the wing. And then we find out that Lonnie
Speaker 1: Walkers out for at least two weeks, and we find
Speaker 1: out that Austin Reeves is out for at least two weeks,
Speaker 1: and Troy Brown Jr. Just had a quad strain he'll
Speaker 1: probably be out for a little while. And they're still winning.
Speaker 1: And the reason why is because of what Lebron James
Speaker 1: brings to the table as a superstar. Obviously, in other settings,
Speaker 1: like you catch the heat in a game without Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d not bringing their best effort, you get
Speaker 1: a win. This Atlanta Hawks team kind of has the
Speaker 1: vibe of a quitting basketball team, So it buys you
Speaker 1: a little extra margin for error there. But over the
Speaker 1: course of this stretch without Anthony Davis their seven and
Speaker 1: five and they have some impressive wins, including beating that
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets team that is so incredibly good. And so
Speaker 1: what I wanted to drive home here is that point
Speaker 1: about slotting. When you have a superstar, a true superstar
Speaker 1: like Lebron James, he removes so many responsibilities from the
Speaker 1: table by generating quality shots and then the stuff he
Speaker 1: does on the defensive end of the floor, particularly grabbing
Speaker 1: contesting contested rebounds, which is something Lebron has been fantastic
Speaker 1: at over the course of this season, or just general
Speaker 1: back line help. When you take all that stuff off
Speaker 1: the table, that creates small, achievable roles that even limited
Speaker 1: players that aren't as good as other role players around
Speaker 1: the league can thrive and succeed in those roles. And
Speaker 1: the Lakers have two of those guys. Between Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis. You're seeing the benefits of slotting right here.
Speaker 1: With one superstar, you can imagine what it looks like
Speaker 1: when Lebron and Ad are together playing at that level
Speaker 1: I know we haven't seen a lot of it over
Speaker 1: the last two years, but in the two years before that,
Speaker 1: we did see it, and you saw the way that
Speaker 1: trickled down the roster to achievable roles for role players.
Speaker 1: This is why I've been hammering home the idea of
Speaker 1: the Lakers trying to go after a legit tall wing
Speaker 1: like a Kyle Kuzma or a boy On Vigdanovitch, because
Speaker 1: that even further slots some of the role players into
Speaker 1: even smaller roles. And you're seeing right now, I mean
Speaker 1: the Lakers, guys, this is insane. The Lakers are now
Speaker 1: two games back of the six seed, two games back
Speaker 1: from being out of the Plan two. That's how good
Speaker 1: of a position there in. Despite the horrific start to
Speaker 1: the season, I truly believe that with Lebron playing at
Speaker 1: this level, and with Anthony Davis coming back and hopefully
Speaker 1: getting back to the level he was at before, that
Speaker 1: this team is one legit move away, one legit wing
Speaker 1: away from being a legit contender in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: There you know again, I would say that the only
Speaker 1: duo in the league that is certainly better than Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis in terms of consistency and availability
Speaker 1: is Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum, and I would argue
Speaker 1: and Lebron and A d are available, they're actually better
Speaker 1: than those guys. That's the advantage the Lakers have over
Speaker 1: the rest of the league. They're big disadvantage is the
Speaker 1: supporting players, particularly on the wing when you actually look
Speaker 1: at the roster because of Thomas Bryant coming out as
Speaker 1: such a viable weapon for the Lakers. They're great at center,
Speaker 1: they're great at the power forward with Lebron's minutes, and
Speaker 1: they're pretty solid in the back court because of how
Speaker 1: well Dennis Schroeder's playing. Patrick Beverley is starting to hit shot,
Speaker 1: so is defensive presence is starting to be more noticeable.
Speaker 1: And then Austin Reeves and Lonnie Walker. Those are two
Speaker 1: decent shooting guards in this league. So the area of
Speaker 1: weakness is the wing. That's the one spot on the
Speaker 1: roster that desperately needs attention, and if they address that,
Speaker 1: suddenly this is a well rounded basketball team that will
Speaker 1: have to potentially the two best players on the floor
Speaker 1: in most playoff series against against everybody but a handful
Speaker 1: of teams around the league. There's real reason for optimism there.
Speaker 1: And then lastly on the Hawks. You know, we've been talking.
Speaker 1: This has been a theme of the show over the
Speaker 1: last couple of the last couple of weeks. You either
Speaker 1: fight for your season or you don't. And Atlanta looks
Speaker 1: like a team that's not fighting for their season. I
Speaker 1: would not be surprised, um if we hear about Nate
Speaker 1: McMillan either stepping down or being fired in the next
Speaker 1: couple of days. They need a new voice in the
Speaker 1: locker room. They're not even coming out with an intensity
Speaker 1: like they believe they can win games. All right. Moving
Speaker 1: on to Cleveland Denver, We're gonna start to kind of
Speaker 1: move a little quicker here. Denver wins one oh eight.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell missed this game, Ya gets finished with and ten.
Speaker 1: He's averaging twelve and ten in his last fifteen games.
Speaker 1: Denver is playing very much like the best team in
Speaker 1: the league right now. They're twelve and three in their
Speaker 1: last fifteen games. They completely embarrassed the Clippers last night,
Speaker 1: like one of the most embarrassing beat downs I can
Speaker 1: remember seeing from a real Marquee matchup of two you know,
Speaker 1: heavyweights in in any conference, at one point the Nuggets
Speaker 1: for beating the Clippers eight four to forty one, and
Speaker 1: in one note on the Clippers, they lost again tonight
Speaker 1: to Minnesota. Kawai and Paul George left the game at
Speaker 1: halftime in that Denver game and then skipped the back
Speaker 1: end of the back to back against Minnesota tonight. Those
Speaker 1: guys are just never available. I don't even know what
Speaker 1: to make of it. It makes them extremely difficult to evaluate,
Speaker 1: which is precisely why I dropped the Clippers off of
Speaker 1: my top tier of contenders. Uh, Denver's racking up some
Speaker 1: impressive wins. Just in the last ten games. They've beat
Speaker 1: the Calves, the Clippers, the Celtics, the Heat, the Kings,
Speaker 1: the Sons, the Blazers, and the Grizzlies. That's all super
Speaker 1: impress us have wins. I don't necessarily trust their defense enough.
Speaker 1: I think there's still twenty second in defense or something
Speaker 1: like that. I don't trust their defense enough to put
Speaker 1: them in the top tier of contenders, but I'd have
Speaker 1: them at the top of that second tier, right below
Speaker 1: the top tier of contenders. All right, Moving on to
Speaker 1: Brooklyn and the New Orleans Pelicans. This was a super
Speaker 1: fun game I watched most of this one. The Pelicans
Speaker 1: were without Zion and brandon Ingram, but they really battled
Speaker 1: in this game. And both Katie and Kyrie had uncharacteristic
Speaker 1: bad shooting nights. I'm pretty high shot quality, like they
Speaker 1: were missing some easy looks. You know. Katie I think
Speaker 1: started over five and four of his first five shots
Speaker 1: that he missed were pretty damn good looks that you
Speaker 1: are accustomed to seeing Kad knocked down. So between the
Speaker 1: competing Pelicans at home and Katie and Kyrie kind of
Speaker 1: having a rough night, you ended up having a close game.
Speaker 1: Nagi Marshall was really good in this game, kind of
Speaker 1: stepping into a more aggressive role. He at twenty three points.
Speaker 1: You know, with what I do for a living, like
Speaker 1: I I'm always watching these games, and I'm watching them
Speaker 1: on a clip by clip basis, and I'm really diving
Speaker 1: in to try to see specifics about like how one
Speaker 1: guy does chasing over screens, or how one guy does
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts, or how one big does and pick and
Speaker 1: roll coverage, And I'm always trying to evaluate players, and
Speaker 1: Nagy Marshall is one of those guys. All season when
Speaker 1: I've watched the Pelicans, where I've always felt like he's
Speaker 1: had a little bit more in his dribble package than
Speaker 1: what he's needed to do with the Pelicans on a
Speaker 1: game by game basis. You know, we have roles that
Speaker 1: stack up on a basketball court, and when you're playing
Speaker 1: for a team like the Pelicans, and it's like Brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram's out there, and Zion Williamson's out there, and ce
Speaker 1: J McCollums out there, and Jose Alvarado's out there, like
Speaker 1: they have a lot of ball handling, and so you're
Speaker 1: not gonna get a lot of on ball touches if
Speaker 1: you're in a supporting role on that team. But a
Speaker 1: lot of guys in the NBA slot into rolls like that,
Speaker 1: despite having skill sets that go above and beyond. And
Speaker 1: one of the things I know is actually tweeted out
Speaker 1: a clip the other day from a different Pelicans game
Speaker 1: where Nagy Marshall hit Dylan Brooks with a double crossover
Speaker 1: and like buckled him over at a rain the possession
Speaker 1: at the top of the key, just to beat some
Speaker 1: ball pressure. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, WHOA,
Speaker 1: That's a highly advanced dribble move from a guy that
Speaker 1: we think of is just kind of like a dirty
Speaker 1: work role player on the wing. And you saw tonight
Speaker 1: what it looks like when you have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: fill in in a more aggressive role. Brandon Ingram's out,
Speaker 1: Zion's out. You need somebody that's going to be more aggressive,
Speaker 1: and Nasei Marshall stepped right up into that role. In
Speaker 1: the second half, though, the Nets really just locked in
Speaker 1: on defense. They held the Pelicans at just thirty eight points,
Speaker 1: and then Kyrie, after a rough shooting night, made a
Speaker 1: bunch of big players in the fourth quarter, including hitting
Speaker 1: the dagger on a on a swing pass from KD
Speaker 1: at the top of the key, and the Nets are
Speaker 1: back on track. There now seventeen and two in their
Speaker 1: last nineteen games, all right, Moving on to the Knicks
Speaker 1: and the Raptors. The Knicks win one twelve to one
Speaker 1: oh eight. Julius Randall came out guns blazing from three
Speaker 1: in the first quarter of this game. He cooled off
Speaker 1: a bit, but he finished with thirty two and eleven.
Speaker 1: Toronto had several stretches where they sped the game up
Speaker 1: and got out in transition and got it close. They
Speaker 1: had a nineteen to three fast breakpoint advantage. You kind
Speaker 1: of see as over the season we start to really
Speaker 1: familiarize ourselves with these teams. There's a consistent way that
Speaker 1: these that each team likes to win. And then there's
Speaker 1: a consistent weakness that most of these teams have. And
Speaker 1: for Toronto it's always when they can get up and down,
Speaker 1: they can thrive, but when they get trapped in a
Speaker 1: half court, they can really struggle to score. And that's
Speaker 1: what happened. Every single time they got the game close,
Speaker 1: the Knicks would strangle the pace again, keep them in
Speaker 1: the half court and close the deal. The Knicks have
Speaker 1: won four straight. I cursed them unfortunately during their eight
Speaker 1: game winning streak right at the end, I did back
Speaker 1: to back deep dive videos on them, and then they
Speaker 1: immediately lost five straight. But so like, but then they've
Speaker 1: won four straight since. So it's been this weird stretch
Speaker 1: where they won eight in a row, then they lost
Speaker 1: five in a row, then they won four in a row.
Speaker 1: Complete roller coaster. But still, like I said in our
Speaker 1: deep dive breakdowns, it's the good teams that give them trouble.
Speaker 1: They're fifteen and five against below five hundred teams and
Speaker 1: seven and third team against teams that are five hundred
Speaker 1: are better. At the end of the day, they just
Speaker 1: don't have the top tier shot creators to consistently score
Speaker 1: in the half court against the best teams in the league.
Speaker 1: All Right, moving on to Charlotte Milwaukee. Charlotte came in
Speaker 1: and hung uh fifty one points on the Bucks in
Speaker 1: the first quarter and just completely blew them out in
Speaker 1: their own building in Milwaukee. Terry Rosier, LaMelo Ball, and
Speaker 1: PJ Washington combined for eighteen made threes and eighty six points.
Speaker 1: And all I have to say about this game, because
Speaker 1: I didn't see much of it, is this just happens sometimes.
Speaker 1: You know. I have been watching the NBA for a
Speaker 1: long time, and one of the things that I've consistently
Speaker 1: seen over the years is right around from mid December
Speaker 1: to the All Star break, which I believe is mid February.
Speaker 1: But during that two month period, there's this heavy malaise
Speaker 1: that kind of sets in across the league because that
Speaker 1: initial excitement of the first month of basketball passes. You know,
Speaker 1: during that first month, everyone's playing hard every night because
Speaker 1: everyone thinks they're gonna make up deep playoff run, and
Speaker 1: everyone's so excited but then you get to the point
Speaker 1: where you've played games and everyone just kind of falls
Speaker 1: into that funk and you start to see some truly
Speaker 1: bizarre outcomes. And you know, in the modern n b A,
Speaker 1: I remember at the beginning of the season when I
Speaker 1: called it an unforgiving league. Like Terry Roziero LaMelo Ball
Speaker 1: are two really skilled guards, and so if you come
Speaker 1: into a game and you don't bring it defensively and
Speaker 1: they get going from three like you can get your
Speaker 1: butt kicked. And that's what happened. I mean, the Bucks
Speaker 1: basically had everyone in their rotation available except for Chris Middleton.
Speaker 1: They had won three of their last four games coming
Speaker 1: in Janice was averaging thirty nine and fifteen in his
Speaker 1: last eight games, and he just had nine points tonight.
Speaker 1: So again, don't try to make any sense of it.
Speaker 1: We'll see a half dozen more games like this before
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, where you're like one in the world.
Speaker 1: The Detroit Pistons went into you know, Golden State and
Speaker 1: beat the Warriors. You know, you're gonna see stuff like
Speaker 1: that just NonStop over the course of the next month
Speaker 1: or a month and a half or so until we
Speaker 1: get to the UH to the All Star Break. So
Speaker 1: for the Bucks, you just gotta kind of flush it
Speaker 1: away and move on. Alright, Bulls Sixers? How about the
Speaker 1: Bulls man on one sixteen in Philly over the Sixers.
Speaker 1: Although they did not have Joel Embiid, Zach Levine was
Speaker 1: awesome in this game, eleven for thirteen from three, finished
Speaker 1: with forty one. The Bulls have now won seven out
Speaker 1: of ten games, and some impressive wins in that stretch.
Speaker 1: They beat the Heat, they beat the Knicks back when
Speaker 1: they were red hot. They beat the Milwaukee Bucks in
Speaker 1: that crazy comeback game. They beat the next bust their
Speaker 1: twelve game winning streak, and now they beat the Sixers.
Speaker 1: They're now just this recent run to save their season,
Speaker 1: so to speak, has put them just three and a
Speaker 1: half games out of the six seeds, so not entirely lost.
Speaker 1: The one guy I wanted to specifically shout out here
Speaker 1: was Patrick Williams. He had eighteen against an Idea two
Speaker 1: nights ago in Brooklyn. He's made at least two threes
Speaker 1: and four of the last five games for the Bulls.
Speaker 1: He kind of brings that three and D element that
Speaker 1: they so desperately need because this is a team that
Speaker 1: doesn't have a lot of shooting, and that their stars
Speaker 1: don't really like to play defense, and so having a
Speaker 1: guy that's kind of thriving in that role so vitally
Speaker 1: important to them. But the big thing that I've noticed
Speaker 1: in the last few games, and something that I've been
Speaker 1: keeping my eye on with Patrick Williams ever since this summer,
Speaker 1: is the stuff that he's able to do off the dribble.
Speaker 1: And again, it's not you know, high level creation, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's all low volume. But this is a guy
Speaker 1: that has clearly put in a lot of time over
Speaker 1: the offseason to build out his ball handling and shooting,
Speaker 1: and you could see it. I noticed it a lot
Speaker 1: in the summer workouts in some of the videos he
Speaker 1: was sharing. There's real fluidity in his ability to dribble
Speaker 1: the basketball, which only comes through relentless hard work. So
Speaker 1: it's cool to see him have a couple of big
Speaker 1: scoring games. Again, we'll see if any of this last.
Speaker 1: For Chicago. Nothing is super encouraging, Like they're still twenty
Speaker 1: second in defense over this ten game stretch, so they're
Speaker 1: basically just outscoring teams their fourth and offense, and their
Speaker 1: stars are super hot, especially from UH with their jump shots.
Speaker 1: So you know it's I don't want to rain on
Speaker 1: the parade, but obviously they're gonna need to defend better
Speaker 1: to have any chance of having consistent success. But here's
Speaker 1: the glass half full way of looking at it. Winning
Speaker 1: games leads to buy in, and you've won seven out
Speaker 1: of ten. When you guys have buy in, guys get
Speaker 1: committed to all of the details, because that's part of
Speaker 1: what buying entails, is doing what the coaching staff asks
Speaker 1: you to do. And when you have buy in and
Speaker 1: then you have commitment to details, that's when the defense
Speaker 1: could follow. And if the defense follows with the way
Speaker 1: they're scoring the ball, they could really go on a run. Alright. Portland, Indiana,
Speaker 1: the Pacers won one o eight to ninety nine. This
Speaker 1: was tied at late and then aaron Nie Smith broke
Speaker 1: the tie UH and then Buddy He'll picked off Anthony
Speaker 1: Simon's for a pick six that put him up four,
Speaker 1: and then Terris Aliberton hit a step back three that
Speaker 1: was basically the dagger. The Pacers closed this game on
Speaker 1: a nine oh run. What I wanted to focus on
Speaker 1: with the Pacers is their four guard lineup, So Tonight
Speaker 1: they closed with Haliburton Healed, Andrew Nemhard, Miles Turner and
Speaker 1: aaron Nie Smith. Against the Sixers, they went with a
Speaker 1: similar lineup, but they swapped out Ni Smith for Ben Matherin.
Speaker 1: But they've been doing a lot and and the Smith
Speaker 1: is a little bit bigger, he's like six ft five,
Speaker 1: But they've they've been doing a lot of this over
Speaker 1: the course the last few weeks where it's like four
Speaker 1: guards in Miles Turner, and it's fun to watch because
Speaker 1: they have tons and tons of speed and they're competing
Speaker 1: on defense, so they're getting up into all handlers and pressuring,
Speaker 1: switching a lot of screens, but at the same time
Speaker 1: flying around in rotation with all the foot speed they have.
Speaker 1: And then they have Myles Turner protecting the rim. And
Speaker 1: then on the other end of the floor, it's so
Speaker 1: much ball handling and shooting with the four guards, and
Speaker 1: then Myles Turner is a guy that can knock down
Speaker 1: shots and make plays off the dribble. So they just
Speaker 1: have a really unselfish you know, move the ball around
Speaker 1: that extra drive and kicked that extra pass to get
Speaker 1: high quality shots. They're honestly, really really fun to watch.
Speaker 1: And Pacers fans should be very excited. UM. Wanted to
Speaker 1: go through some line up data with you guys really quick.
Speaker 1: So when they have uh, Buddy Healed, Ben mathurin excuse me,
Speaker 1: Buddy held Uh, Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew m Hard, Miles Turner
Speaker 1: and aaron Nie Smith. That lineup they closed with tonight,
Speaker 1: not great so far this season minus ten net and
Speaker 1: four possessions, but they went They went really well tonight,
Speaker 1: so we'll see how that. Excuse the data a little
Speaker 1: bit and then uh to in the Sixers game, they
Speaker 1: closed with mathin that lineup, So Tyrus Halliburton, Buddy yield
Speaker 1: In Jr. Nemhard, Ben math Any, Miles Turner. That's that
Speaker 1: group is plus fourteen net in two and eight possessions.
Speaker 1: So the four guard lineups, particularly with Ben math and
Speaker 1: are really working. UM, and it's just a really fun
Speaker 1: to watch Brandon basketball. They're becoming they're becoming one of
Speaker 1: my favorite league past teams. All right. Lastly, before we
Speaker 1: get out of her, Miami Phoenix, Miami wins one for
Speaker 1: one oh four to nineties six. This was my bet
Speaker 1: of the week for Fandel. For those of guys who
Speaker 1: listened on the podcast feed where you see the vandel Ads.
Speaker 1: Miami was favored by one and a half, but they
Speaker 1: had just lost a disappointing game to the Lakers. And
Speaker 1: the Suns really can't score without Devin Booker, so I
Speaker 1: had a feeling that he would win, which they did. Um,
Speaker 1: the Sun's this stuff with them not being able to
Speaker 1: score without Booker is pretty insane. This was their third
Speaker 1: straight game where they failed to score a hundred points. UM.
Speaker 1: They're averaging just one oh four point five points in
Speaker 1: their last six games, which is dead last in the NBA,
Speaker 1: and their schedule doesn't get any easier from here. This
Speaker 1: is crazy. Check out check this out. Next eight games Calves, Warriors, Nuggets,
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves is the easiest game in the stretch, and
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves have won three games in a row because
Speaker 1: they're starting to defend like crazy and Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 1: getting going. Then they play the Grizzlies, Then they play
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets, then they play that Pacers team we
Speaker 1: just talked about. Then they play the Memphis Grizzlies again.
Speaker 1: So you know they're already on a what's that a
Speaker 1: five game losing streak, a thirteen game losing streak is
Speaker 1: legitimately on the table here, Like they're gonna be underdogs
Speaker 1: in all eight of those games. Now, I expect them
Speaker 1: to win one or two of them. But things are
Speaker 1: looking really bleak for Phoenix, and I expect them to
Speaker 1: consider completely blowing things up at the deadline. I mean,
Speaker 1: they've got some stuff to to really cling to. Like,
Speaker 1: I really like Devin Booker, you know, Michail Bridges is
Speaker 1: a great foundational piece. I like Cam Johnson a lot.
Speaker 1: Deandreton needs to go because he doesn't even like being there,
Speaker 1: and their defense as a team has fallen off a
Speaker 1: cliff as well, and obviously DeAndre Aton hasn't been good
Speaker 1: enough to carry that. So I would expect potentially them
Speaker 1: to consider being super aggressive with Chris Paul and DeAndre
Speaker 1: Ayton and you know, Jay Crowder and just try to
Speaker 1: get back as much as they can to just kind
Speaker 1: of shuffle the deck and reset the culture in that
Speaker 1: locker room. Um. The Miami Heat are now nine and
Speaker 1: four in their last thirteen games. They are now just
Speaker 1: one game back of six in the East to get
Speaker 1: out of the plan and bamade Bio is awesome again.
Speaker 1: Tonight eleven eight of those twenty one points were in
Speaker 1: post ups or ISOs um Like we talked about in
Speaker 1: our last show, he's on a ten game stretch where
Speaker 1: he's averaging about five additional points per game and post
Speaker 1: ups and ISOs so hit that mark again tonight with eight.
Speaker 1: It's really cool, honestly as a basketball fan to see
Speaker 1: Bam starting to get his confidence as a score, because
Speaker 1: it's really a thing that builds momentum. He's always had
Speaker 1: the talent, now that you're seeing the confidence come with it.
Speaker 1: He's starting to hunt his shot more and now he's
Speaker 1: taking and making higher difficulty shots, which just continues to
Speaker 1: feed that confidence. And again, having Bam as that sort
Speaker 1: of legit, high volume score is the thing that could
Speaker 1: be the ultimate ceiling razor for the Miami Heat. Wow. Okay,
Speaker 1: that was intense. That was fun. But that's all I
Speaker 1: have for tonight. Here's the plan. We're taking the rest
Speaker 1: of the weekend off and next week is gonna be
Speaker 1: really interesting. We're only gonna We're gonna take a break
Speaker 1: from instant reactions or game breakdowns, and we're gonna do
Speaker 1: one game breakdown next week. That's gonna be on Thursday night.
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly what the matchup is off the
Speaker 1: top of my head, but there's a big time, nationally
Speaker 1: televised game on Thursday that will break down. But the
Speaker 1: rest of the week, we're gonna do our mid season grades.
Speaker 1: So my plan for that is I'm gonna try to
Speaker 1: do We'll see how it works out because I'm actually
Speaker 1: leaving for my first ski trip on Friday of next week.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna do um. I think we're gonna do
Speaker 1: four or five videos, and we're gonna hit on four
Speaker 1: or five teams per video, but we're basically gonna do
Speaker 1: deep dives into each of those teams as basically just
Speaker 1: like a you know, establishing the state of the Pistons
Speaker 1: or the state of the Warriors, the state of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna just kind of recap the first half
Speaker 1: of their season for each of those teams. So it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a little bit more of a zoom out
Speaker 1: week next week before we get back into our group
Speaker 1: the following week. It's always I sincerely appreciate your guys support,
Speaker 1: and I will see you on Monday. The volume m