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Speaker 1: Hoops to Night here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: If all of you guys had a great weekend, we
Speaker 1: have a jam packed show for you today. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be doing instant reactions to three games from over the weekend.
Speaker 1: The Golden State Warriors got just absolutely demolished by the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics. Tried an interesting strategy off of the opening
Speaker 1: tip that we'll talk about. Then. I'm gonna be breaking
Speaker 1: down the Oklahoma City Thunder going into Phoenix last night
Speaker 1: and really just dealing a physical pain in the ass
Speaker 1: win to Phoenix, exposing some specific issues that they've been
Speaker 1: dealing with most of the year. After that, the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers got revenge on the Minnesota Timberwolves by doing
Speaker 1: to them what they did to them the first time.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna be breaking down those three games. Then
Speaker 1: after that, like we always do on Mondays, we'll have
Speaker 1: our latest edition of the Power Rankings. You guys are
Speaker 1: the joefore we get started, subscribe to our brand new
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me. If you
Speaker 1: guys take a second to scroll down and hit that
Speaker 1: subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts under Hoops tonight. Follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at underscore jsonlt That's where I put film threads as
Speaker 1: well as show announcements, and then, last but not least,
Speaker 1: keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments. I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna have two shorter mail bags on Wednesday
Speaker 1: and Thursday this week to give you an idea of
Speaker 1: the schedule really quick. Obviously, today those three game breakdowns
Speaker 1: and Power Rankings. Tuesday, we're going with Yovan Booja deep
Speaker 1: dive on the Lakers. They play the Thunder tonight and
Speaker 1: they also just have their game against the Nuggets. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna just kind of talk basketball with Yovann, get
Speaker 1: some injury updates since he's obviously much closer to the
Speaker 1: team than I am. Wednesday and Thursday, we're actually going
Speaker 1: live at night on YouTube after the nationally televised games,
Speaker 1: but during the day we'll be doing single instant reaction
Speaker 1: games and some mailbag stuff. So that's our schedule for
Speaker 1: the next few days. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So starting with Warriors Celtics. So the kind of the
Speaker 1: story out of the opening tip of this game was
Speaker 1: the Warriors putting Draymond Green on Jalen Brown. Now there's
Speaker 1: a lot of criticism there because of the result, but
Speaker 1: I do understand the general thought process behind it. So
Speaker 1: just put yourself in the coach's shoes as they're trying
Speaker 1: to scout through this type of matchup. Right, they're looking
Speaker 1: at it like this team has a ton of offensive
Speaker 1: skill and we're gonna have a lot of issues all
Speaker 1: over the floor. We've got to come up with something
Speaker 1: to try to slow them. Down, and I think the
Speaker 1: general idea was, well, if we have Draymond Green roaming
Speaker 1: in the paint, that gives us a much better chance
Speaker 1: to guard the other four guys because those guys don't
Speaker 1: have to be as worried about getting blown by because
Speaker 1: Draymond's on the back line. It gives them the ability
Speaker 1: to be more aggressive at the point of attack. And
Speaker 1: specifically with Jalen Brown, He's had a tendency over the
Speaker 1: course of his career, specifically in big games and in
Speaker 1: big moments where sometimes like he just like he misses
Speaker 1: a couple shots and then he gets a little bit
Speaker 1: in his head, he loses his confidence, and then he
Speaker 1: can kind of withdraw from the game to a certain extent.
Speaker 1: And so the idea there is is like, well, let's
Speaker 1: try to get in Jalen Brown's head by leaving him
Speaker 1: wide open, and it'll give us a much better chance
Speaker 1: to guard elsewhere on the floor. Here's the problem, Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown's playing some of the best basketball of his career
Speaker 1: right now. And when you take that type of strategy, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, that type of strategy happens all over
Speaker 1: the NBA with about every just about every NBA team,
Speaker 1: you find a really good help defender that you put
Speaker 1: on a guy offensively that you're not particularly worried about
Speaker 1: any roams around. That's not unheard of. The difference is
Speaker 1: Boston doesn't really have a good option to do that against.
Speaker 1: That's really the only difference. Like their lineup is somewhat
Speaker 1: fool proof in the sense that there's no really an
Speaker 1: option for you to just straight up ignore. Everybody has
Speaker 1: to at the very least get a hard close out right.
Speaker 1: And so here's the problem. When you take that type
Speaker 1: of risk with the player of Jalen Brown's caliber, you
Speaker 1: have the potential to get burned. And boy did day
Speaker 1: get burned. Jalen Brown got red hot as he blew
Speaker 1: the game open there in the middle of the first quarter.
Speaker 1: But I want to obviously Jalen Brown deserves a ton
Speaker 1: of credit for blowing the game open with a shooting
Speaker 1: like that, But I really want to draw attention to
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor because that's where I
Speaker 1: thought the Celtics won this particular game. And once again,
Speaker 1: it started with Jaylen Brown on the ball on Steph
Speaker 1: Curry physical ball pressure. I talked about this in our
Speaker 1: Celtics video like two or three days ago. But Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown has just been on an absolute tear on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. He is targeting the other
Speaker 1: team's best player and just putting all of his effort
Speaker 1: and energy into trying to slow that guy down, and
Speaker 1: he's had a ton of success on that end of
Speaker 1: the floor. But I want to drop past Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: to the rest of the team because this is an
Speaker 1: important part of guarding a team like Golden State because
Speaker 1: of their screening actions, really physical switching hands on when
Speaker 1: the switch comes, you get right back into the into
Speaker 1: the offensive player's body right away to make sure that
Speaker 1: he constantly is feeling that contact and that fatigue making
Speaker 1: everything difficult. Another guy I wanted to shout out on
Speaker 1: this front was Peyton Pritchard, who I thought from the
Speaker 1: mini he came into the game there in the middle
Speaker 1: of the first quarter. He had a really nice two
Speaker 1: way game. He had nineteen points in this game. But
Speaker 1: he was another guy that was bringing great ball pressure
Speaker 1: and just getting up underneath Golden State's guards all game long.
Speaker 1: From there, off of stops and turnovers, getting out in transition.
Speaker 1: This was a big time transition game for Boston. They
Speaker 1: scored forty two points in transition in this game. And
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things that I've talked a
Speaker 1: ton about on this show as of late, I've been
Speaker 1: harping on Boston as a team that needs to bully
Speaker 1: their way into the paint more the record. It's been working.
Speaker 1: They've in their last four games are averaging sixty points
Speaker 1: in the paint per game, and that ranks third in
Speaker 1: the NBA over that span. That's been a really nice trend,
Speaker 1: possibly the most encouraging trend of the season that I've
Speaker 1: seen so far from Boston. But make no mistake, like
Speaker 1: I never ever intended or wanted people to think that
Speaker 1: I don't want Boston shooting jump shots. They're a very
Speaker 1: good jump shooting team. It's more about balance and having
Speaker 1: a counter when the jump shots aren't falling. But they
Speaker 1: are a team that can straight up beat you making
Speaker 1: jump shots in games when there's really good rhythm and flow,
Speaker 1: the balls popping around and everybody feels good and involved
Speaker 1: in the offense. Right, they took fifty eight jump shots
Speaker 1: and this game against Golden State, it was a heavy
Speaker 1: jump shooting game, but they got eighty four points on
Speaker 1: those fifty eight jump shots. That's one point four to
Speaker 1: five points per shot. And in these last two massive
Speaker 1: blowout wins, they've been able to do both. They've been
Speaker 1: able to dominate the paint, not so much against Golden State,
Speaker 1: but they've been able to dominate the paint as of late,
Speaker 1: while also knocking down a bunch of jump shots efficiently.
Speaker 1: And those two things kind of tie into each other
Speaker 1: as well. When you're doing one, it makes the other
Speaker 1: easier and vice versa. And like I put in my notes,
Speaker 1: it's great to be able to do both. That really
Speaker 1: is the key there. That's what makes Boston such an
Speaker 1: intriguing playoff threat is the simple fact that, like, they
Speaker 1: can win from the perimeter, but they are starting to
Speaker 1: demonstrate that they can win on the interior, and like
Speaker 1: it's just gonna be about whether or not they can
Speaker 1: maintain that. And that isn't just some three to four
Speaker 1: game trend here in the middle of the season, but
Speaker 1: just an unbelievably impressive and dominant win for the Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics over the Golden State Wars. I'm sure it felt
Speaker 1: good for them too, to get some revenge after they
Speaker 1: lost in Golden State earlier. This year on the Warriors front,
Speaker 1: I said this after the Denver win, and I mean
Speaker 1: this sincerely. Boston and Denver are problems for another day.
Speaker 1: You're not ready to beat Boston, You're not ready beat Denver.
Speaker 1: That's there's no question on that front. However, like there's
Speaker 1: no guarantee that you're even going to run into Boston
Speaker 1: unless you get to the finals obviously, right and you're
Speaker 1: like getting to Denver. There are steps you got to
Speaker 1: get through before you get to that point, Like this
Speaker 1: is you got to start with the goal that's right
Speaker 1: in front of you right now. And this is where
Speaker 1: I agree with some of the attitude coming out of
Speaker 1: the locker room, like Steph Curry is saying, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, they kicked our butts, but obviously, like we
Speaker 1: like Steph had a really bad shooting night that obviously
Speaker 1: plays a role into that sort of thing like long misses,
Speaker 1: transition opportunities, right. But also Draymond's like the losses, the losses,
Speaker 1: the loss We've got to move on, And he is
Speaker 1: right in the sense that like, right now, I think
Speaker 1: I think the Warriors are still at the ten seed.
Speaker 1: You're a ten seed, like you just gotta worry about. First,
Speaker 1: you gotta worry about getting up to number eight, because
Speaker 1: if you get up to number eight, that's your capability
Speaker 1: to have two opportunities in the play in tournament. That way,
Speaker 1: if you lose the seven eight game, you have another
Speaker 1: chance if you can win against the winner of the
Speaker 1: nine to ten matchup right. So goal number one is
Speaker 1: you got to climb out of that ten spot. And
Speaker 1: when you look at the schedule and you look at
Speaker 1: where they are, where they're at health wise right now,
Speaker 1: and when you look at what Moses Moody has been
Speaker 1: able to do stepping into the Andrew Wiggins role, like,
Speaker 1: you're in position to do that, and you just need
Speaker 1: to keep getting better and better and better. Now it's
Speaker 1: March fourth, Let's say, for instance, that Minnesota and Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City maintain their stranglehold on the one two seed, which
Speaker 1: we'll see. Denver is six and zero right now out
Speaker 1: of the break, But they were five and one out
Speaker 1: of the break last year and then they immediately dropped
Speaker 1: five of their next six games. So who knows if
Speaker 1: this is Denver like going to lock in down the stretcher,
Speaker 1: if maybe they keep slipping, But if it's Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: and Minnesota in that one to two range. I think
Speaker 1: both of those teams are beatable. I think everybody is beatable,
Speaker 1: with exception of the top tier teams, right and I
Speaker 1: don't include Minnesota and Oklahoma City in that tier. So,
Speaker 1: like chances are if you do end up facing a
Speaker 1: team like Denver, there's a good chance that it may
Speaker 1: not be until May. So you got two months to
Speaker 1: sort all of this out. You've got two months to
Speaker 1: build your defensive habits up to another level. You've got
Speaker 1: two months to kind of establish a way to generate
Speaker 1: offense outside of what Steph Curry can bring to the table.
Speaker 1: Those are bigger picture goals right now. You got to
Speaker 1: take a game by game, win by win, and you've
Speaker 1: got to climb out of that nine to ten spot.
Speaker 1: Those are that would be my way of trying to
Speaker 1: kind of like keeping your ey keep your eye on
Speaker 1: the prize in light of a really upsetting, you know,
Speaker 1: destructive loss on the road in Boston. All right, moving
Speaker 1: on to thunder Suns. I watched this game last night,
Speaker 1: super super fun game to watch. Oklahoma City is just
Speaker 1: a royal pain in the ass to play against. They
Speaker 1: play so incredibly hard. I felt bad. I shouldn't say
Speaker 1: felt bad. I know that KD and Bradley Beal, We're
Speaker 1: just like, oh man, these dudes are literally picking up
Speaker 1: full court. They're double teaming the second we cross half
Speaker 1: court like they weren't. It was. It was one of
Speaker 1: the most aggressive, like start to finish defensive schemes that
Speaker 1: you'll see in the regular season. And it's because Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City has the combination of a coach that can keep
Speaker 1: them organized enough to run these sorts of things properly
Speaker 1: in two the young athletes that have both the physical
Speaker 1: tools and the motor and energy level to maintain that
Speaker 1: over the course of a long basketball game most of
Speaker 1: the time, like Phoenix doesn't even run into these types
Speaker 1: of super aggressive coverages until the fourth quarter, when teams
Speaker 1: are just trying to get the ball out of Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant's hands or get the ball out of Devin Booker's hands.
Speaker 1: This was a start to finish. We are pressuring the ball,
Speaker 1: We are bringing double teams as soon as you cross
Speaker 1: half court. We are playing passing lanes even just like
Speaker 1: you know. Here's the thing I've been critical is the
Speaker 1: wrong word. I've talked a lot about how I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily believe in Oklahoma City is like a championship contender
Speaker 1: because they're small and because they're young. But I still
Speaker 1: feel that way. You did see again last night, like
Speaker 1: USUF Nurkics, like what do you have? Thirty one rebounds
Speaker 1: just like just absolutely demolish them on the glass. And
Speaker 1: there are teams around the league that bring a combination
Speaker 1: of what Phoenix brings to the table in terms of
Speaker 1: perimmeter talent and interior presence. Teams like Denver even the Clippers,
Speaker 1: like you're gonna get Kawhi and if you Ka Zubats
Speaker 1: on the interior, while also having all the perimeter type
Speaker 1: of talent that a team like Phoenix brings to the table.
Speaker 1: Those are the teams that I worry about for a
Speaker 1: team like Oklahoma City. But even though they are perhaps
Speaker 1: maybe a touch too small and inexperienced to win the title,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that they aren't a physical and scrappy team.
Speaker 1: They are a super physical and scrappy team. It's one
Speaker 1: of the big reasons why in the long run, I'm
Speaker 1: such a big believer in what this team can accomplish,
Speaker 1: because if they do bring in a legitimate forward to
Speaker 1: the table that raises their physical profile when they do
Speaker 1: go into this playoff run and get you know, let's
Speaker 1: say they win a first round series and then end
Speaker 1: up losing a really tough second round series or losing
Speaker 1: in the conference finals. Those are battle scars that build
Speaker 1: this team up to where in the future they can
Speaker 1: be a bigger and more experienced version of this crazy talented,
Speaker 1: crazy physical, crazy competitive Oklahoma City Thunder team. And that's
Speaker 1: what's going to take them to the promised land of
Speaker 1: hoisting Delari O'Brien Trophy. But there were a bunch of
Speaker 1: specific things that I wanted to dive into and to
Speaker 1: demonstrate just how physical and scrappy they are. First of all,
Speaker 1: physical switching. So this is you know, just imagine like
Speaker 1: Phoenix runs a lot of like off ball screening actions
Speaker 1: to try to get Kevin Durant into advantage situations around
Speaker 1: like the elbow and post area, right, Like, That's what
Speaker 1: makes Kevin Durant different from so many of these other
Speaker 1: stars around the league in the sense that, like so
Speaker 1: many of the modern day stars are just operating out
Speaker 1: of dribble handoffs and ball screens, and Kevin Durant can
Speaker 1: do that too. That's obviously a big part of his game.
Speaker 1: But Kevin Durant will also like come off of some
Speaker 1: sort of like wide pin down or like or like
Speaker 1: flare screen or something to try to get him into
Speaker 1: a position where he can catch with a triple threat,
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen to eighteen feet from the basket and
Speaker 1: then turn to face and try to go to work
Speaker 1: from there. Right. One of the things that Thunder were
Speaker 1: doing in this game is like lou Dort's on him
Speaker 1: and he's just hugging on him, like literally like holding
Speaker 1: him while he's like standing on the block waiting for
Speaker 1: that screen. And so then down comes the screen. And
Speaker 1: there's a difference between passive switching and physical switching. Passive
Speaker 1: switching is like what the Clippers did to Lebron James
Speaker 1: and his crazy comeback run the other night. Here comes
Speaker 1: the screen. You know, Daniel Tice switches, but he just
Speaker 1: like starts guarding Lebron from you know, three four feet away,
Speaker 1: and Kawhi will just go away with the other guy, right,
Speaker 1: and so no one's there making Lebron feel uncomfortable. He's
Speaker 1: just mixing up off the dribble and getting to his
Speaker 1: spot and making something happen. Physical switching is like I'm
Speaker 1: holding on to KD, I'm lou Dort. Here comes a
Speaker 1: screen Jylen Williams just like lou Dort literally passes him
Speaker 1: over to Jaln Williams like well, physical handoff, and Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams is grabbing him as he's coming off the other
Speaker 1: side of the screen and denying the catch. And so
Speaker 1: as a result, they were creating these really tight passing
Speaker 1: windows because they're three quarter front and denying KD in
Speaker 1: all of his spots. He already had to work super
Speaker 1: hard to fight lou Dort up to the screen to
Speaker 1: where now he's fighting to try to create a passing angle.
Speaker 1: And then from there, off the ball, they're constantly digging
Speaker 1: down and jumping into passing lanes. Like whenever a team
Speaker 1: has a bunch of turnovers, we're so quick to focus
Speaker 1: on the team turning the ball over and being like
Speaker 1: they're being sloppy, And don't get me wrong, they were.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that in a minute, but like,
Speaker 1: give some credit to the defense, Like Oklahoma City forced
Speaker 1: Phoenix to lose their minds and create a bunch of
Speaker 1: really sloppy turnovers, right, the other thing on the ball.
Speaker 1: There is a possession I cliped you can find it
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed of shake Yelvis Alexander guarding KD.
Speaker 1: And on this possession you can literally see like there's
Speaker 1: two different ways to reach in and and like you know,
Speaker 1: there's like a lunging reach in right where I like
Speaker 1: really get out of position to try to get down
Speaker 1: to get to the basketball, but I can also reach
Speaker 1: in while staying balanced. And Shay is uniquely equipped with
Speaker 1: these like crazy long arms to where he can defensive
Speaker 1: slide with a guy and not have to really lunge
Speaker 1: or get out of position, but he can still swipe
Speaker 1: down at the basketball. And there's this possession, it's a
Speaker 1: Kdie turnover. Shay's on the ball in KD Haiti gets
Speaker 1: driving down to his left hand. Shay literally swipes down
Speaker 1: at the basketball like six or seven times, just from
Speaker 1: twenty five feet from the basket down to five feet
Speaker 1: from the basket, just swiping and swiping and reaching and swiping.
Speaker 1: And then as soon as he gets downhill, there's a
Speaker 1: guy digging down from the corner and a guy coming
Speaker 1: up from the post, and they're all digging down at
Speaker 1: the basketball. And so it ends up leading to a
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant turnover. But the point is is, like it's hard.
Speaker 1: It's hard to take care of the basketball when a
Speaker 1: bunch of athletes with really long wingspans who have been
Speaker 1: by the way picking you up full court all damn night,
Speaker 1: double teaming you all night long, fighting you off of
Speaker 1: every single spot, and you get a driving lane like
Speaker 1: this and they're reaching in like crazy and it's just
Speaker 1: really difficult to navigate that. I just wanted to give
Speaker 1: them some credit for that because I didn't think I
Speaker 1: didn't think these were just sloppy turnovers. Oklahoma City sped
Speaker 1: Phoenix up and caused them to make a lot of
Speaker 1: these mistakes, and then from there jumping passing lanes like
Speaker 1: they just have so much straight line speed that like
Speaker 1: when a lane looks like it's open, you know, you'll
Speaker 1: see a hard double team come and there'll be on
Speaker 1: the weak side, like a shooter in the corner and
Speaker 1: a shooter on the wing, and it'll be like Kissan
Speaker 1: Wallace or something playing in between the two players. And
Speaker 1: what he'll do is he'll kind of play back and
Speaker 1: like kind of bait KD. And the thinking the wing
Speaker 1: is open and he's standing there. And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If he throws the skip pass to the corner, even
Speaker 1: if he is lunging up, he can still recover to
Speaker 1: that because there's so much time. But if he throws
Speaker 1: the skip pass to the wing, he just shoots into
Speaker 1: that gap and takes the basketball away. It's just it
Speaker 1: is a layered attack of ball pressure, physical on the ball,
Speaker 1: physical on screening actions, physical and passing lanes off the ball,
Speaker 1: and they were just they cause all sorts of problems
Speaker 1: for Phoenix, which we'll get into a little bit deeper
Speaker 1: here in just a minute. Uh shakes. Alexander's ball control
Speaker 1: was the next thing I wanted to hit on there.
Speaker 1: You know, this was a classic example of you know,
Speaker 1: and this is something that Shay has been doing forever,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to act like this is new,
Speaker 1: but this I just wanted to dive specifically into Shay
Speaker 1: Guilt Shay's ball ball handling because you know, we think
Speaker 1: of Shae as like a slow, methodical player, and don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, he is. He's a very like change
Speaker 1: of pace and methodical type of on ball player. But
Speaker 1: this is a guy that is really whipping the basketball
Speaker 1: around in a really controlled way with advanced dribble combinations
Speaker 1: in traffic, Like he'll get into his high hesitation and
Speaker 1: he'll hit that hesitation move where it almost looks like
Speaker 1: he freezes in space for a second. But then he'll
Speaker 1: hit that four dribble and he'll get into your body.
Speaker 1: Now there's contact, right he's got his shoulder into you,
Speaker 1: and the the defenders like right up on him. From there,
Speaker 1: he'll hit like a back dribble, and then from there,
Speaker 1: instead of just like making a simple move, he'll hit
Speaker 1: like in and out cross between the legs back to
Speaker 1: the right, or he'll like double between the legs and
Speaker 1: back to the left. Are these super advanced dribble combinations
Speaker 1: in traffic while there's contact going on, and so that
Speaker 1: to me is a big element of what allows him
Speaker 1: to maintain control of the basketball while he's making these
Speaker 1: complex counter moves. It's a ball handling thing. We think
Speaker 1: so much about change of pace, we think so much
Speaker 1: about his strength, We think so much about his mid
Speaker 1: range jump shooting and some of his footwork stuff that
Speaker 1: he has. But a big part of it that goes
Speaker 1: under the radar in a lot of these cases is
Speaker 1: his ball handling. You know, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: players that can dribble when things are free and clear,
Speaker 1: but then as soon as they get into contact, they
Speaker 1: lose control of the basketball, and she just has incredible
Speaker 1: control of the basketball in a physical environment. Then lastly,
Speaker 1: down the roster shot making. Everybody on this team can
Speaker 1: make plays off the bounce verse half play cheded Holmgren's
Speaker 1: bringing the ball off the floor. It's a transition cross match.
Speaker 1: He's got Roys O'Neil on him. They just space the
Speaker 1: floor and shit, just like hits a dribble combination, gets Downhill,
Speaker 1: bodies roy O'Neil and then pivots over his left shoulder
Speaker 1: and goes up and finished and screams and one in
Speaker 1: his face, and you're just like like, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: this is the third guy that you have to deal with,
Speaker 1: and he's just confidently attacking one of your best perimeter defenders.
Speaker 1: That's punched my mic because I got too excited about it.
Speaker 1: But uh uh, or you'll see, like we know what
Speaker 1: Shay Gills, Alexander and Jama Williams can do. But then
Speaker 1: like I see Lou Dort in the right corner in
Speaker 1: the second half, Uh end up hitting Grayson Allen with
Speaker 1: a dribble combination. It's like between the legs crossover and
Speaker 1: then he just whips like a crazy left to right
Speaker 1: crossover and literally like Grayson Allen almost falls over going
Speaker 1: to his right hand side, and then Dort goes along
Speaker 1: the baseline. Now Grays had made a really nice defensive
Speaker 1: recovery on this plane, got back into the plane, blocked
Speaker 1: Blue Dort from behind as he missed it dunk. But
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there thinking like, this is your defensive minded wing,
Speaker 1: this is your three and D guy. And he hit
Speaker 1: has the ability to make plays off the bounce. He
Speaker 1: hit off the dribble jump shots in this game, like
Speaker 1: that's just another layer of the shot making Josh Giddy.
Speaker 1: He can attack smaller defenders. He can work and pick
Speaker 1: and roll even bench guys. There was a play that
Speaker 1: the Sons defended perfectly and it led to a skip
Speaker 1: pass across the court to Cason Wallace in that right corner.
Speaker 1: And it was a really good close out I think
Speaker 1: from Aaron Gordon. If I remember correctly, it might have
Speaker 1: been Grace Allen. But he catches in the right corner,
Speaker 1: great close out and he ends up hitting an in
Speaker 1: and out side step jump shot in the right corner
Speaker 1: from three like a high level step back three attacking
Speaker 1: a closeout in the right wing from your bench player
Speaker 1: who happens to be the guy that you view as
Speaker 1: your three and D guy off the bench, Like it's
Speaker 1: just it's layer after layer of insane amounts of offensive
Speaker 1: skill and all of them can guard, all of them
Speaker 1: can guard. It was a really impressive win. But like
Speaker 1: this is where it gets really scary. For the long run.
Speaker 1: I said, give these guys some battle scars in a
Speaker 1: couple of long playoff runs. Give these guys a legitimate
Speaker 1: forward that can bang inside, that can help them deal
Speaker 1: with some of their physical limitations. They're going to be
Speaker 1: a gigantic pain in the ass for a very long
Speaker 1: time in this league. On the Sun's front, big thing
Speaker 1: that stands out to me, and this has been a
Speaker 1: theme throughout the season, when it comes down to the
Speaker 1: aggressive double teams of their stars. When they have all
Speaker 1: three of their stars out there, it's usually them with
Speaker 1: Grayson Allen and use of Nurkish Right from there, there's
Speaker 1: so much offensive skill on the floor that they can
Speaker 1: operate pretty well in the four on threes out of it, right,
Speaker 1: they're like brief four on threes because none of their
Speaker 1: stars are great passers, like they all like, if you
Speaker 1: catch KD on the right night, he can handle a
Speaker 1: double team really really well. Like I thought against the
Speaker 1: Sacramento King is like a week and a half ago,
Speaker 1: get a really good game handling double teams, right, But
Speaker 1: then you watch him in other games and he really
Speaker 1: struggles with it. That's the thing. Like, you know, when
Speaker 1: you're talking about the best players in the league that
Speaker 1: are playmakers, guys like Luka, Jokich, Lebron, right, the guys
Speaker 1: in that tier, Like you want to make them a
Speaker 1: score right, Like your best bet is to like leave
Speaker 1: them on an island and hope they wear themselves out
Speaker 1: trying to score one on one. And by the way,
Speaker 1: they're still really good and they're going to do that
Speaker 1: really well. But that's probably your best strategy for those guys.
Speaker 1: When it comes to the best scorers in the league.
Speaker 1: You want to test their playmaking ability. You want to
Speaker 1: make them have to consistently make the best reads, right,
Speaker 1: And that's the thing, Like this is the best way
Speaker 1: to guard the kds and the Devin Bookers and the
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal type of guys in the world. You want
Speaker 1: to give them their biggest weakness, which is, if you
Speaker 1: let them go one on one, they are professional one
Speaker 1: on one players. They are going to beat you. If
Speaker 1: you let them go two on two in ball screens,
Speaker 1: they are professional two on two scorers. In ball screens,
Speaker 1: they will beat you. But if you put them in
Speaker 1: situations which targets their specific weaknesses, you can get inconsistent
Speaker 1: play out of them, which is what teams have figured
Speaker 1: out to do with Phoenix now when one of their
Speaker 1: stars is out, it dips below that mandatory amount of
Speaker 1: that minimum amount of offensive talent. Like there was a
Speaker 1: long saban Lee shift in the second half of this game,
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma City is just not guarding him. And so
Speaker 1: if I can double team the ball and there's a
Speaker 1: guy on the floor, I don't have to guard. I'm
Speaker 1: only giving up a three on three on the weak side.
Speaker 1: That's not an advantage, and so like it really like
Speaker 1: I was on a radio station in Phoenix this morning
Speaker 1: for a radio hit and they were asking me specifically
Speaker 1: what I like, whether or not it was like a
Speaker 1: coaching issue or what was going on last night, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, sometimes this is like, this is just what
Speaker 1: happens when you when you when you start to run
Speaker 1: out of players, right, and then at the same time,
Speaker 1: you need guys on the other floor, the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor that can guard an Oklahoma City team
Speaker 1: that brings a ton of ball handling and scoring to
Speaker 1: the table, right, and and it just it was just
Speaker 1: one of those things where where I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know, the turnovers they have to be sharper right,
Speaker 1: Kevin r At, Bradley Beialt, Yusef Nurkic. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of like bad entry passes, not protecting the basketball,
Speaker 1: sloppy skip passes. There was a lot of that that
Speaker 1: they just have to be better, right. But it's also
Speaker 1: not an easy job unless you have four guys on
Speaker 1: the floor that can capitalize on four on three situations
Speaker 1: quickly and efficiently and as soon as one of their
Speaker 1: stars drops out of the lineup and ends up being
Speaker 1: an issue. Now, we did find out from Shamserania this
Speaker 1: morning that it looks like Kevin or Kisney Devin Booker
Speaker 1: is not going to be out more than maybe a week,
Speaker 1: week and a half. Thing one of the one last
Speaker 1: note on the Suns when they went on their big
Speaker 1: run in the second half of the game to get
Speaker 1: back into it. They got back into it with their defense.
Speaker 1: They were double teaming Shay Gilles as Alexander, testing his
Speaker 1: playmaking ability, and they were getting out in transition off
Speaker 1: of it, and then they started making some threes. It
Speaker 1: reinvigorated their defense. They continued to pressure Shay with double
Speaker 1: teams and rotate out of it, and they got back
Speaker 1: into the game with it. And so that you know,
Speaker 1: and this is what I said on the radio this morning,
Speaker 1: they have to be like Oka. See, they can't just
Speaker 1: be offensive skill guys because if they're just offensive skill guys,
Speaker 1: they're gonna lose to offensive skill guys who also are scrappy.
Speaker 1: They need to be offensive skill guys who are scrappy.
Speaker 1: They need to be scrappy. They need to fight. They
Speaker 1: need to be a team that defends in his physical
Speaker 1: it flies around in rotation. They have to do what
Speaker 1: the Thunder do at a higher level, right, because that's
Speaker 1: the case. The case for a team like Phoenix is like,
Speaker 1: you know, the Thunder just play harder than everybody in
Speaker 1: the regular season. We get into the playoffs, we start
Speaker 1: playing hard. We're a scrappy team that fights on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: and we have Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal,
Speaker 1: which is a better set of shock creators than Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams and shake kills as Alexander and Ched Holmgren or
Speaker 1: however you want to sort that out with the Thunder. Now,
Speaker 1: that remains to be seen if that will play out
Speaker 1: like that in the postseason. But that's the case for Phoenix.
Speaker 1: That's the path for Phoenix. They have to be the
Speaker 1: scrappy team. They have to be the team that fought
Speaker 1: back into the game against the Thunder the way that
Speaker 1: they did. But that's what I said on the radio
Speaker 1: this morning. That's the case for Phoenix, or the pathway
Speaker 1: to Phoenix making some sort of noise in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: You have to be the scrappy team that is also
Speaker 1: offensively skilled. If you're just the offensive skill group, the
Speaker 1: Thunder are gonna be every bit as good at you
Speaker 1: as you at that while also being a much better
Speaker 1: defensive team. That's what you have to be you. Because
Speaker 1: the case is, who would you take in a playoff series?
Speaker 1: All other things equal, would you take KD Bradley Beal,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker or Shake Gibs, Alexander and Jalen Williams, right,
Speaker 1: And there's a case to be made that they're a
Speaker 1: little bit more versatile, They're a little bit more experienced, right,
Speaker 1: the Suns guys, So you might pick them, But if
Speaker 1: the gap is just so wide in every other area
Speaker 1: of the game in terms of their physicality and defense
Speaker 1: and their overall level of competition and fight, then the
Speaker 1: thunder are gonna win. So that's a pathway for Phoenix.
Speaker 1: They have to embrace that same type of scrappy physic
Speaker 1: attitude that they literally rode to get back into that game.
Speaker 1: And so I mean, I mean there is a light
Speaker 1: at the end of the tunnel there. It's just gonna
Speaker 1: have to require the work on that end of the floor,
Speaker 1: all right, Moving on to Wolves Clippers. So the Wolves
Speaker 1: jump up early in the game. They went up like
Speaker 1: twenty three to seven, and then Norman Powell just got
Speaker 1: red hot and like almost single handedly brought them back
Speaker 1: into the game. And he's been like one of the
Speaker 1: best heat check guys in the league this year, especially
Speaker 1: from the three point line, and he hit some preposterous
Speaker 1: threes in this game, like a like a pivot over
Speaker 1: his left shoulder in a late clock situation where he
Speaker 1: picked up his dribble and he just rose and fired
Speaker 1: that one of the heat check shots where he came
Speaker 1: off of his screen had very little space and rose
Speaker 1: and fired like he just can get insanely hot and
Speaker 1: in a short period of time put a bunch of
Speaker 1: points on the board. So they end up getting it
Speaker 1: back close again and then from there it was just
Speaker 1: an absolute knockdown, drag out fistfight the rest of the game.
Speaker 1: I don't think either team took more than like a
Speaker 1: five point lead. The rest of the way. It was
Speaker 1: back and forth. It was physical. The refs have been
Speaker 1: doing a great job really around the league lately of
Speaker 1: just letting teams play and letting the games get more
Speaker 1: physical and down the stretch, the Clippers just played better
Speaker 1: rock fight offense. Paul George, to his credit, missed a
Speaker 1: lot of shots in this game, but he made some
Speaker 1: big ones rescue shots. He hit a big three in
Speaker 1: the left corner. I think it was over Rudy Golbert.
Speaker 1: He had a big pull up jump shot around the
Speaker 1: right elbow down the fourth quarter stretch. Both of those
Speaker 1: one of them tied the game, the other one gave
Speaker 1: him a two point lead if I remember correctly, Like
Speaker 1: they were just monumentally important important shots. Those rescue possessions
Speaker 1: are usually difference makers when you get into rock fights
Speaker 1: like this, and then James Harden he missed everything but
Speaker 1: just made a bunch of timely and key passes. There
Speaker 1: was a big possession late in the game where James
Speaker 1: Harden was operating the offense at the kind of like
Speaker 1: top of the key extended off of the right elbow,
Speaker 1: and Paul George and Kawhi end up running this like
Speaker 1: kind of three man screening action with Daniel Tice where
Speaker 1: Paul George comes off of like a little screen and
Speaker 1: then turns around and sets a backscreen for Kawhi and
Speaker 1: James Harden just threw an absolutely perfect pass, and I
Speaker 1: think originally the play was designed to probably get Kawuhi
Speaker 1: a post touch with an advantage on Jada McDaniels, as
Speaker 1: jad McDaniels would be in trailing position, but there was
Speaker 1: just a little gap there when when Jaden got caught
Speaker 1: for a second and kat wasn't there in help and
Speaker 1: James just hit him in stride right underneath the basket
Speaker 1: for a layup and getting like layups, like easy layups
Speaker 1: in a knockdown, drag out fistfight. That's like finding money
Speaker 1: on the ground. It was, it was. It was a
Speaker 1: massive help down the stretch in this game. And then
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard just he brings the physical in position to
Speaker 1: that specific environment which he can ride to easy shots
Speaker 1: around the rim. Now, one of the things that that
Speaker 1: encouraged me the most about this particular game. If you
Speaker 1: guys remember when Minnesota came in and beat the Clippers
Speaker 1: and demolished them in Los Angeles, what did I say
Speaker 1: after the game. I was like, look, Minnesota can do this,
Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels, Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert. They can strangle the
Speaker 1: life out of your offense. But what is their weakness.
Speaker 1: Their weakness is they can fall apart offensively in the
Speaker 1: half court. The Clippers have excellent defensive personnel. And so
Speaker 1: what I said after that game was you got to
Speaker 1: drag them down into the mud with you. And if
Speaker 1: you drag them down into the mud with you, you'll
Speaker 1: be better at it than they are because you have
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard and you have Paul George and you have
Speaker 1: Terrence Mann, and you have all these guys that can guard.
Speaker 1: You just need to drag them down into the mud
Speaker 1: with you. And that's what they were able to do
Speaker 1: into this game. And essentially, you know, the Wolves can
Speaker 1: have similar issues to a lot of teams around the
Speaker 1: league when they face switching defenses. When you face switching defenses,
Speaker 1: the baked in coverages that give you driving lanes kind
Speaker 1: of cease to exist. And in this game, in particular,
Speaker 1: they were never worried about Gobert catching on the role.
Speaker 1: And so even when they were running drop coverage against Gobert,
Speaker 1: they weren't getting a ton of really really great The
Speaker 1: Wolves weren't getting very very great looks. They weren't getting
Speaker 1: good looks out of it. But in that half court setting,
Speaker 1: when you start switching, it challenges your decision making process
Speaker 1: of your ball handlers. Right, So Anthony Edwards comes off
Speaker 1: of a ball screen, he ends up getting Norman Powell
Speaker 1: on a switch. He's got Mike Conley in the corner.
Speaker 1: There's fifteen seconds on the shot clock. It's clutch time.
Speaker 1: And Anthony Edwards has a tendency kind of like Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum to settle for really difficult pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: instead of inflicting his physicality on the game, trying to
Speaker 1: get downhill and trying to make something happen. And there's
Speaker 1: a big possession late in this game he gets Norman
Speaker 1: Powell on a switch and he just takes a really
Speaker 1: difficult step back three with fourteen seconds on the shot clock.
Speaker 1: That's how you can bait Minnesota into their worst tendencies. Switch,
Speaker 1: dig down, they'll settle for jump they'll settle for tough
Speaker 1: jump shots. They won't make good driving kick plays, they
Speaker 1: can fall apart off. And so the Clippers did a
Speaker 1: good job in this game of dragging Minnesota down into
Speaker 1: the mud and playing them into their worst tendencies. Now
Speaker 1: on the Wolves front, as I just said, late game
Speaker 1: execution has been an issue for them all damn season.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, they are now down to
Speaker 1: twenty first in clutch offense, a one to five offensive
Speaker 1: rating in clutch time that is like atrociously bad. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that was really bothering me about
Speaker 1: their approach down the stretch of this game. They still
Speaker 1: found some baskets, like there was a late, a late
Speaker 1: clock possession where they shut down the first action, and
Speaker 1: then Conley ran a late pick and roll with Gobert
Speaker 1: and he just threw a ridiculously good skip pass to
Speaker 1: a cat in the right corner who ripped through baseline
Speaker 1: and got a dunk. There was the play where Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert got an offensive rebound and Jade McDaniels cut out
Speaker 1: of the corner and he dropped it off to him
Speaker 1: and he got a dunk. Like they were able to
Speaker 1: manufacture some points just based on their incredible gifts that
Speaker 1: they have, but I absolutely hated their offense process down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this game. And one of the main
Speaker 1: reasons why was there was an action that was working.
Speaker 1: They got two easy baskets for Carl Town's. In actual sets,
Speaker 1: there's a horn set where you had Conley at the
Speaker 1: top of the key and you had Carl Town's on
Speaker 1: the you had Carl Town's on the I believe, the
Speaker 1: left elbow and Rudy Gobert on the right elbow. And
Speaker 1: what they did is they would just have Carl Town's
Speaker 1: come up and set a ball screen for Mike Conley,
Speaker 1: and then as soon as he set the ball screen
Speaker 1: for Mike Conley coming off to that left side, he
Speaker 1: would come off a flare screen from Gobert. Now, because
Speaker 1: of the flare screen for Gobert. Remember, like we were
Speaker 1: talking about earlier, the Clippers were switching everything, but not
Speaker 1: with Daniel Tye. They were running a drop with Daniel Tye,
Speaker 1: and so as Kat would come off with that flare screen,
Speaker 1: Tys is dropping back and Kat is able to catch
Speaker 1: and quickly rip through to the right. It's a baked
Speaker 1: in driving lane because of the coverage they're chasing. Daniel
Speaker 1: Tye is dropping Carltown's can catch off that flare screen
Speaker 1: and rip through right and go. They got two easy
Speaker 1: layups in crunch time off of this play, and after
Speaker 1: they did it the second time, I'm like, oh, shoot,
Speaker 1: that's gonna work. There's three and a half minutes left here.
Speaker 1: They need to run that again. They did not run
Speaker 1: it again a single time the rest of the game.
Speaker 1: They ran different set actions, both to get Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: into ball screens. One of them was a double ball
Speaker 1: screen out of horns where Anthony Edwards came off and
Speaker 1: got a wide open pull up three that he missed,
Speaker 1: and then another one was a play that they were
Speaker 1: able to just drop back on and then he had
Speaker 1: to swing the ball and that was what ended up
Speaker 1: in the Mike Conley gobear ball screen on the left
Speaker 1: wing that led to the dunk for Cat out of
Speaker 1: the right corner. But that same set that ball screen
Speaker 1: into the flare screen for Cat that got him the
Speaker 1: wide open layups on Daniel Tice barreling downhill and he
Speaker 1: just couldn't stop Cat coming at him. They never went
Speaker 1: back to it. They never went back to it, and
Speaker 1: it was the one thing, the only thing that they
Speaker 1: were actually able to run in execute easily for an
Speaker 1: easy shot at the end of the game. And this
Speaker 1: goes back to what I said all season long. Will
Speaker 1: they be diligent enough, just like I say with Boston,
Speaker 1: will they be diligent enough to get the right shots
Speaker 1: at the end of a game, Because again, it's like
Speaker 1: the Anthony Ewards pull up three. Anthony Edwards shoots thirty
Speaker 1: five percent on pull up threes. The ball screen, one
Speaker 1: double screen comes off, he's wide open, he shoots thirty
Speaker 1: five percent on it. That's you know what one point
Speaker 1: they want to say, that's like one point five one
Speaker 1: point zero five points per shot. So that's a one
Speaker 1: oh five offensive, right Now that's not bad, right for
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot. Anything over a point is good, right.
Speaker 1: So like on the surface, it looks good. The problem
Speaker 1: is is the statistics. The overall value of a shot
Speaker 1: means nothing to the individual possession. The individual possession comes
Speaker 1: entirely down to field goal percentage. And in that individual possession,
Speaker 1: in crunch time, he's a thirty five percent shooter. So
Speaker 1: you're running a set action that's going to fail two
Speaker 1: out of three times. See the point, Like in crunch time,
Speaker 1: it's not about getting a shot, it's about getting the
Speaker 1: very best shot. I talked about this a lot in
Speaker 1: the Denver LA game. It's like Ruby Hatchamura pull up
Speaker 1: fifteen foot or off of a week side action ball
Speaker 1: gets reversed. Ruey runs a ball screen. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't hate that shot. Over the course of forty eight minutes.
Speaker 1: If he takes that in the middle of the second quarter,
Speaker 1: you're like, that's a good shot for us. Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: pull up three coming off of a ball screen. That's
Speaker 1: a good shot for us in the middle of the
Speaker 1: second quarter. But in crunch time, it's not the best
Speaker 1: shot for the Lakers in that possession. I've talked about
Speaker 1: it was a floor spacing thing. It should have been
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves on the wing. It should have been Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves ball screen, which is a higher percentage play. If
Speaker 1: they were more diligent about getting the best shot, the
Speaker 1: ball would never have ended up in Ruy's hand on
Speaker 1: that possession. Denver, on the other hand, gets the very
Speaker 1: best shot that they can possibly get on that possession
Speaker 1: every single time in crunch time. That is how they win.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. It's like with that Minnesota offense
Speaker 1: down the stretch, It's like they ran some actions. They
Speaker 1: ran that double screen for Ant. They ran this other
Speaker 1: one out of Horns where it kind of led to
Speaker 1: like a double wide pin down for Ant to come
Speaker 1: off into a ball screen. But in those situations they're
Speaker 1: dropping back and they're trying to bait Ant into pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots. That's not the best shot that they
Speaker 1: can get in that situation. Cat was the one with
Speaker 1: the advantage. If they ran double screening actions with Cat
Speaker 1: and go Bear, they could get Kat going downhill against
Speaker 1: a drop coverage big, which was Daniel Tice getting into
Speaker 1: the paint. Will they be diligent enough in the postseason
Speaker 1: to get the very best shot. I don't know that
Speaker 1: that is my major concern with this particular offense, and
Speaker 1: again it's been they have lost countless games as of
Speaker 1: late with poor time offense and again a one to
Speaker 1: oh five offensive rating for the entire season. And like,
Speaker 1: it's not a big picture issue like Ants young, this
Speaker 1: is really typical for teams led by a young superstar.
Speaker 1: But in the long run, that's what he has to address.
Speaker 1: In the long run. They like, if it's gonna be
Speaker 1: led by a primary ballhandler, like a ball handler like Ant,
Speaker 1: it's the half court execution piece that stands between where
Speaker 1: he is now and the true greatness of the top
Speaker 1: tier superstars around the league. All right, moving on to
Speaker 1: our power rankings. So we had two teams drop out
Speaker 1: from last week, the Pacers and the MAVs, who both
Speaker 1: had pretty disastrous weeks. We have two new teams in
Speaker 1: the list this week, starting with number ten, the Orlando Magic,
Speaker 1: IF won six of their last seven games, playing some
Speaker 1: elite defense in that stretch, they're five to oh in
Speaker 1: that seven game span. When Palo Boncaro plays is averaging
Speaker 1: twenty four points, seven rebounds, and five assists on fifty
Speaker 1: two percent from the field and forty two percent from three.
Speaker 1: I'll be a little bit of an easy year stretch
Speaker 1: of their schedule, but a nice little run from the Magic.
Speaker 1: Number nine, the Miami Heat. They are ten in three
Speaker 1: in their last thirteen games. That is the second best
Speaker 1: record in the league in that span, just behind Boston.
Speaker 1: They have the second best defense in the league over
Speaker 1: that span. And then Jimmy Butler is starting to look
Speaker 1: like playoff Jimmy again. Since he came back from his
Speaker 1: injury on January fifteenth. He's averaging twenty three points, six rebounds,
Speaker 1: and five assists on check this fifty seven percent from
Speaker 1: the field and fifty six percent from three. So Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler peaking at the right time of the Heat starting
Speaker 1: to gain some steam. Number eight the Cleveland Cavaliers are
Speaker 1: starting to slip a little bit. There's just four and
Speaker 1: five in their last nine games. They needed a wild
Speaker 1: all time great hot streak for Max Stru's hitting five
Speaker 1: consecutive threes down the stretch, a stretch against Dallas to
Speaker 1: win one of those games. Otherwise they'd be three and six.
Speaker 1: It's their defense that's been slipping, ironically over that span.
Speaker 1: They're eighteenth in the NBA in defensive rating in their
Speaker 1: last nine games. Number seven the New York Knicks. After
Speaker 1: Jaylen Brunson went down in pain coming off of that
Speaker 1: wide pin down action against the Calves, it was like
Speaker 1: a low point for the season for Knicks fans. Right
Speaker 1: like you, obviously, Jalen Brunson goes down in the game,
Speaker 1: You're already down your entire front court. It's a big game,
Speaker 1: an important game against the Calves that you feel like
Speaker 1: is winnable. It looks terrible, right, but then you end
Speaker 1: up beating the Calves anyway. Just bully them on the glass,
Speaker 1: just like they did in the postseason. And Dante DiVincenzo
Speaker 1: had a big scoring n I also bought boy and Bgdanovic,
Speaker 1: a guy who can scale up his offense when needed,
Speaker 1: stepped in and I think he poured in forty or
Speaker 1: twenty points if I remember correctly. And then after the
Speaker 1: game you get great news. Jalen Brunson just a knee contusion,
Speaker 1: so it sounds like he just bumped knees, didn't twist
Speaker 1: his knee. That's great news. That means Brunson should be
Speaker 1: coming back. And again Ojan and Obi I believe just
Speaker 1: ramped up his basketball related activities, so help is on
Speaker 1: the way. We should get a better feel for the
Speaker 1: Knicks here in the next couple of weeks. Number six
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Timberwolves. Two more clutch losses to the Kings
Speaker 1: and the Clippers this week. As we mentioned earlier in
Speaker 1: our Wolves breakdown, a five offensive rating in the clutch
Speaker 1: this season, where tranks twenty first in the NBA. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be the biggest question for them when we get
Speaker 1: to the postseason. Will they ever be able to diligently
Speaker 1: seek out the best possible shot in the slow down
Speaker 1: half court environment at the end of games. Number five
Speaker 1: the La Clippers two in one week. They did lose
Speaker 1: to the Lakers and that crazy Lebron James come back.
Speaker 1: But again, like I said after that game, sometimes Lebron
Speaker 1: just does Lebron stuff and you lose. But they did
Speaker 1: take a big step forward against Minnesota on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the foard. Their defense has been what slipped
Speaker 1: a lot during this kind of mediocre stretch here in
Speaker 1: the last two three weeks. That's that game against Minnesota.
Speaker 1: They got they got down into the mud and they
Speaker 1: slowed Minnesota down and they won with their defense, which
Speaker 1: I thought was super encouraging. Number four, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaker 1: It took a bad loss to the Spurs where they
Speaker 1: really struggled with Victor women Yama, but they did bounce
Speaker 1: back with a really impressive win against the Suns last night.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm I'm having a hard time with this
Speaker 1: team because like the stuff with their size in physical reality,
Speaker 1: in their lack of experience or their size, I should say,
Speaker 1: not their physicality. They're very physical team. The stuff with
Speaker 1: their size and their experience is just overarching basketball philosophies
Speaker 1: that I have and I truly believe in, and it
Speaker 1: still gives me a ton of reticence. But when I
Speaker 1: look at their combination of shot creation down the roster,
Speaker 1: the incredible physical brand of basketball that they play, the competition,
Speaker 1: and the nastiness of this group, I think they're wired right.
Speaker 1: Like I love their basketball character. I think they're super
Speaker 1: well coached. I I'm having a really hard time with
Speaker 1: the Thunder because I've got this like voice in the
Speaker 1: back of my head which is like, take them more seriously,
Speaker 1: take them more seriously, take them more seriously, so we'll
Speaker 1: see I've reserved the right to change my mind about
Speaker 1: the thunder, but when we get to the beginning of
Speaker 1: the postseason. But right now, I just still lean back
Speaker 1: on my overarching basketball beliefs involving their lack of size
Speaker 1: and experience. Number Three, the Milwaukee Bucks a three and
Speaker 1: oher week, albeit against an easy stretch of their schedule.
Speaker 1: Fifteen games of Doc rivers one oh nine point six
Speaker 1: deep defensive rating, which ranks fifth in the NBA over
Speaker 1: that span. Offense is still struggling a little bit, although
Speaker 1: it's been way better as of late, but there at
Speaker 1: a one to fifteen offensive rating since Doc took over.
Speaker 1: They can get that offensive rating back up to one
Speaker 1: twenty while maintaining this level of defense. We have to
Speaker 1: move Milwaukee into back into that top tier of contenders
Speaker 1: because everything we had talked about with them was based
Speaker 1: around their defense having severe limitations, and they've just been
Speaker 1: defending really well now for a stretch of the season,
Speaker 1: which really amounts to like what like about a fifth
Speaker 1: of the season. That's not a non existent sample size,
Speaker 1: but a lot of tests on the horizon. Milwaukee's next
Speaker 1: five games against the Clippers at home, but then a
Speaker 1: road trip against the Warriors the Lakers, the Clippers, and
Speaker 1: the Kings. That's a tough stretch. A lot of really
Speaker 1: high powered offenses in that span. We're going to find
Speaker 1: out and guard play too. Clippers obviously with James Harden,
Speaker 1: the Warriors with Steph Curry, the Lakers with D'Angelo Russell
Speaker 1: in Austin Reeves, and then even going into Malik Monk
Speaker 1: and Deer and Fox like. Although Deer and Fox missed
Speaker 1: their last game, Leage Monk actually carried them to a
Speaker 1: win against the Wolves. But that stretch is gonna put
Speaker 1: a big strain on their perimeter defense. We're gonna learn
Speaker 1: a lot about the Bucks defense during that stretch. Number
Speaker 1: two the Denver Nuggets six and zero now out of
Speaker 1: the All Star Break. This time last year, this was
Speaker 1: where they let their foot off the gas. They were
Speaker 1: five and one out of the break, and then they
Speaker 1: promptly lost five of their next six games. So I'm
Speaker 1: really curious to see if they can keep their foot
Speaker 1: on the gas at this point and maintain big matchup
Speaker 1: with Boston this week. That will be going live for
Speaker 1: I think it's on Thursday nights. We'll be live on
Speaker 1: YouTube after the final buzzer of that game. But Denver,
Speaker 1: they look like the best version of themselves that they've
Speaker 1: ever been as of late. And I'm really really intrigued because,
Speaker 1: like you know, we talked about the checking boxes for
Speaker 1: championship contention, and like one of the big ones is
Speaker 1: like ramping up as you get into the postseason. It
Speaker 1: was a one that it was one that Denver missed
Speaker 1: last year and then they still dominated. It just makes
Speaker 1: me all the more confident and what Denver is capable of.
Speaker 1: I still think they're the best team in the league.
Speaker 1: Number one in our power rankings for regular season results.
Speaker 1: The Boston Celtics another undefeated week. They're on an eleven
Speaker 1: game winning streak now and one of the big things,
Speaker 1: as I've been harping on all season, needed them to
Speaker 1: be more aggressive in the paint. They are averaging sixty
Speaker 1: points in the per game in their last four games,
Speaker 1: which is the third most in the NBA over that span.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that's it for our power rankings. That's
Speaker 1: it for our show today. As always, I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with Yovann. I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume