January 27, 2025 • 40 mins
Jason Timpf reacts to Jalen Green and the Houston Rockets' thrilling 135-131 win over Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jason discusses Amen Thompson's dominant performance, how high Houston's ceiling is, and what's gone wrong for the Cavaliers over their past eight games. Later, Jason shares his top ten teams in the NBA including LeBron James and the surging Los Angeles Lakers, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets' problem in the Western Conference, and Kawhi Leonard's Los Angeles Clippers, who are once again a threat with one large question looming.
Timeline:
4:15 - Introduction
5:30- Rockets-Cavaliers Reaction
10:00 - Amen Thompson dominates
17:00- Rockets standouts
19:15 - Rockets ceiling
21:00 - Cavaliers slipping
32:00 - Power rankings
#Volume
Follow Jason Timpf on social:
https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. This ain't the little itdy vitty teeny tiny Bowl.
This is Super Bowl fifty nine. Get in on the
action at Draft Kings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner
of Super Bowl fifty nine. Scoring touchdowns is key to
hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and you have a shot
to score big by betting on them at Draft King
sports Book, the number one place to bet touchdowns. Ready
(00:21):
to place your bet. Try betting on something simple like
a player to score six. Go to the Draftking Sportsbook
gap and make your pick right now. The Chiefs open
as a very slight favorite at minus one and a half.
I'm personally rooting for the Chiefs, mainly because I appreciate
them as one of the greatest teams of all time,
and as a Cowboys fan, I just literally cannot stand
any success for the Philadelphia Eagles. New DraftKings customers can
(00:44):
bet five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus
bets instantly. Download the Draft King Sportsbook ap use code hoops.
That's hops, that's code hoops for new customers to get
two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly. When you bet
just five bucks only on Draft King Sports book. The
Crown is yours. Gamble problem called one eight hundred Gambler
in New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why,
(01:04):
or text hope and why to four six seven three
six nine Connecticut. Help Us available for problem gambling Call
eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven
or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf
of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus.
Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction, Boyd and Ontario. New
customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight
(01:24):
hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources,
see d KNG dot co slash audio. All right, welcome
(01:45):
to you tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
If all of you guys had an incredible weekend, we
have a jam packed to show for you guys today.
Off the top, I'm going to do a deep dive
into that Houston Rockets first Cleveland Cavaliers game on Saturday,
showdown of two of the best records in the league.
And then after that, like we always do on Mondays,
we are going to do our Power rankings breaking down
(02:06):
the top ten teams in the league. You guys have
the drop before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops
Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys don't
misshow announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you
get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super
helpful if you leave a rating and a review on
that front. We also have very new social media feeds
on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout
the year. Make sure you guys follow us there, and
(02:26):
then keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments
so that we can get to them in our Friday
mail bags throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball, and then also before we get
into Houston Cleveland, I did break down a bunch of
other games on Saturday Night. I hit Minnesota, Denver, I
hit Boston, Dallas. I briefly hit on a couple of
(02:46):
other games too. So I know it says Lakers Warriors reaction,
but we hit most of the Saturday Night slate in
that video. So if you're looking for deeper dive breakdowns
on some of the other games from Saturday. You just
have to go back and watch that Lakers Live and
then we have chapters. You can always just skip ahead
past the Lakers Warrior stuff. All right, let's get into
Houston Cleveland. I did a long film thread on this
(03:09):
one on Twitter. It was like thirty forty clips. So
if you're looking for visual representations of some of the
things that I'm breaking down today, just go over to
our Twitter feed, my Twitter feed at underscore json lt
where I just have all the clips from the game
in a thread, so you guys can see some of
those visual representations. The story of this game in the
early portion had to do with the perimeter defense battle.
(03:31):
I talk about this battle a lot in the NBA.
It reminds me of line play in the NFL. I've rooted.
I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan because my entire extended family
is from the Dallas Fort Worth area and we go
out there for Thanksgiving every year. It's been kind of
like a family tradition and rooting for the Cowboys my
entire life. You know, I have these like different phases, right,
(03:51):
and I remember, like in the mid twenty tens. We
had this huge, massive frontline with a bunch of you know,
Hall of famers on it, you know, guys like Zach
Martin and Tyron Smith, right, and they would just shove
everybody around and whenever we went didn't matter if it
was on the road at home, we could just run
over everybody because we had, you know, DeMarco Murray or
Ezekiel Elliott and just a stacked offensive line that we
(04:13):
could run all over everybody. And whenever Dak needed to throw,
he just had all the time in the world because
we could protect from him, right, And it just makes
everything easier when you can block at the with your
offensive line. In the NFL and in the NBA, there's
a similar kind of push and poll because it can
go the opposite way, right, Like, if your line doesn't
block well and you can establish the run, suddenly you
(04:35):
have to lean on the passing game even more. And
when you can't protect your quarterback, he's running for his
life and nobody has any time to get open. And
it's just kind of like this simple push and poll
that happens every single snap right in the middle of
the screen, right in front of you. It's almost the
easiest thing to kind of like watch in a game
to see where you can almost just see a push
when the offensive line's winning, or a push the opposite
(04:56):
way when the defensive line's winning. And in the NBA,
there's a very similar battle that happen there at the
point of attack, whether it's a ball screen or an
ISO or a post up. If it's an ISO and
the guy can just cleanly dust him off the dribble
and get downhill, that's going to be a problem. If
it's a ball screen and he can cleanly get over
the top of the screen and get racing downhill, that's
a problem. If it's a post up and he's just
(05:17):
going through that guy and getting wherever he wants, that's
a problem. But if on an ISO you flatten out
those drives and force more side to side movement, If
on those ball screens you stay attached over the top
and prevent him from really getting ahead of steam going downhill,
or in the post ups, if you can wall up
a little bit and prevent him from really getting deep
position in the paint, those things make it easier for
(05:38):
your defense. On a simple level, If someone's screaming downhill
with the basketball. Everyone's gonna help instinctually, and that's going
to open up spray spray out opportunities. Or if people
don't help in time, that guy's going to score. Right.
And when you do flatten those drives out, when you
do flatten those post ups out, when you do flatten
those ball screens out, all of a sudden people have
more ability to stay home off the ball, which prevents
(05:59):
you and getting into rotation. It is a simple push
and pull in basketball games that determines a lot of
what happens on any given possession. And Houston has a
couple of wins here against Cleveland and some of this
with Cleveland too. I want to emphasize this before we
get into it. This is a really tough matchup for Cleveland.
Houston is just so much bigger and more athletic on
the perimeter, and then, to make matters worse, even though
(06:21):
Jared Allen and Evan Mobley are both excellent defensive players,
Shenghuin gives them issues. Just his ability to use physical
leverage against them to get to his spots and his
ability to kind of shoot over the top of them
has caused problems. And so it's a tough matchup, and
for the record, I don't think Cleveland's going to face
a team with the same level of athletic in position
in the Eastern Conference that Houston brings to the table,
(06:44):
but it is worth talking about because it is an
important part of their matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder,
which if they were to make it to the finals,
is the type of team that they might have to face, right, So,
like I want it before we get any further into
this game, I want to say, like Cleveland, Houston's a
really tough matchup for Cleveland that they probably won't have
to see in the postseason. But Houston really dominated that
(07:07):
point of attack battle over the first three and a
half quarters of this game. Their athletes were just straight
beating Cleveland perimeter guys off the dribble. In ISO, both
MOBILEI and Allen, you know, we talk about ball contain
as like on the ball as the guy guarding the
ball being the main guy who's responsible, But in ball screens,
(07:27):
containing the ball is also on the big man, right.
It doesn't matter if you are showing up at the
level as the big man or sitting back in a drop.
You have to keep the ball in front of you.
The worst thing that or the thing you want to
give up if you have to give something up, is
a little mid range jump shot, right. Ideally you want
them taking a contested floater, contested mid range jump shot
(07:49):
with somebody kind of contesting from behind and you containing
the ball. If you're up at the level and you
let the guy drive around you, or if you're sitting
in a drop and the guy drives around you, that's
like the worst mistake you can make as a pick
and roll big man defender, even though it's technically not
your matchup. It's a two on two possession. Any ball
screen is two on two. There were multiple possessions where
(08:12):
Evan Mobley and Jared Allen were getting beat by ball
handlers coming off of ball screens. If you show at
the level and they hit the pocket pass, there's a
four on three, right. But if your big man gets
beat off the dribble, now it's a five on three
because the big and the guard guarding the ball handler
are both behind the ball. Now it is very, very
compromising to your defense. Evan and Mobley and Jared Allen
(08:34):
had rough defensive games all around, like Shane Gun was
torching them both over and over again in the post.
And that's just another way you can lose the point
of attack battle, like we talked about earlier. So they
were really dominating on that end, and then on the
other end, with the exception of Darius Garland, who continues
to demonstrate remarkable ability to get to his spots regardless
of the types of defenders that were in front of him,
(08:55):
and he was a bright spot in that Houston game
on Saturday night. Every Cleveland player was having their drives
flattened out, their ball screens smothered. The Rockets were really
in ball screens king in on Donovan Mitchell like like
overplaying him and ignoring guys on kickout situations, which was
really smart because Donovan Mitchell is going through a phase
right now where he's kind of like forcing the issue
(09:17):
and taking a lot of bad shots and missing some
of those kickout reads. And you know, I cooked probably
a half dozen examples of Donovan Mitchell missing kickout reads
and taking like really tough mid range jump shots in
the middle of the paint. But the main difference there
is like instead of Donovan Mitchell getting flying downhill off
of those ball screens, he's slowly getting downhill against an
(09:38):
elite defender and operating in that short to mid range
smothered and that's an advantageous situation for the Houston Rockets.
And so as a result, the Rockets were just getting
better shots, particularly around the rim. They only took twenty
eight threes, and they shot well on them. They made
thirteen of them, but they made thirty two two's in
this game, and they got to the line almost fifty times.
(09:59):
Cleveland was constantly hacking their athletes under the rim when
their defense was compromised, just consistently getting into disadvantageous situations
because they were losing that point of attack battle. So
Houston ended up having one of their best half court
offense games of the season. And again it was a
lot of good Houston and a lot of bad Cleveland.
The good Houston starts with the men. Thompson, who was
(10:20):
absolutely unbelievable in this game. He had twenty three points,
fourteen rebounds in tennisis to go with two blocks, helped
in a dozen different ways his off fall spacing, like
cutting out of the corner on ball screens. He caught
a lot cutting along the baseline from Fred van Vliet
on a play where Jared Allen was guarding him and
stepped over in low man help cutting along the baseline.
This was big in crunch time. They were posting shangon
(10:42):
on that left block and men Thompson was just kind
of hawking along that baseline, trying to find an opening
to either catch a pass as a cutter or to
score as an offensive rebounder. And Kenny Atkinson made what
I thought was a strategic mistake at the end of
this game. Instead of closing with Jared Allen, he closed
with George Niang. I think the idea there was for shooting,
and Niang did hit a big three on the left wing.
(11:04):
I want to be clear, it wasn't like all that,
but they were getting absolutely fried along that back line
by a men Thompson, in large part because Kniang was
guarding him and just doing a really poor job of it.
And then even when they did get stops, Thompson would
just go get the offensive rebound over Kniang. So, like
I thought, going with Allen was probably a better option there,
but it is what it is. Avan Thompson was doing
(11:25):
a lot of damage as a cutter along the baseline.
He also got a couple of buckets and self creation situations.
He had a straight iso in the right corner in
the second half on Evan Mobley where he drove at
him and then spun off of him and shot a
little floater in the lane. It reminded me of John Morant,
and like, this is one of the things that's made
Amen Thompson a really effective offensive player on the ball,
even though he doesn't have much of anything in terms
(11:47):
of a jump shot, And it's a combination of factors
his high strength and speed, which is the physical aggression
piece or the physical talent piece. You need to get
tear spots, handles the ball well so he can get
to the middle of the floor then kind of like
John Moran. This is what reminds me of John Morant.
Once he gets into the middle of the floor, he
can just pop off of the ground and elevate over
(12:10):
whoever's there and just shoot like these little short mini
floater jump shot hook type of shots. Right, and he's
shooting forty five percent this year on shots that are
in the paint but outside of the restricted area. So
even though again he doesn't have this amazing touch out
at the three point line, he does have nice touch
in and around the basket where and because of that
(12:32):
pop off the ground ability he has, he can just
kind of jump over people and make little shots. He
scored a couple of buckets like that. His transition pushes
were effective again in this game. He was even the
key to beating Cleveland's zone. If you guys remember when
Houston beat Cleveland back in Houston, the Cavs ran it's
on his own to get back into that game, and
it worked in that particular game. But on Saturday they
(12:53):
tried it and it didn't work. You could tell ema
Udoka was on top of that. They were prepped. They
wanted to play through a men Thompson in the middle
of the floor, and they scored easily against it. A
bunch of times. They ran over forty possessions of zone.
If I'm remembering my math right, They ran over forty
possessions of zone down in Houston and it worked. That
held them well below a point per possession. They ran
only seven possessions of zone in Cleveland before they bailed
(13:17):
on it, in large part because they were getting something
crazy like one point four points per possession, just killing it.
And it started with the men Thompson. They got the
ball to a Men Thompson in the middle of the floor.
Simple decisions from there, catch turn, big man, steps up,
drop off to Steven Adams. Steven Adams gets a bucket.
They throw the ball to Steven Adams on the block.
He gets a double from the wing, easy kickoff pass
(13:38):
to Fred van Vliet. He makes a three back to
a Men Thompson in the middle of the floor. The
entire defense shifts over to the right side when he
catches it, spins back over his shoulder and throws it
to Fred van Vliet on the perimeter. Forces a rotation
from the left wing, easy extra passaitary Easton. He's driving
and he's dunking it, and it was all like again,
Steven Adams two, but a Men Thompson in the middle
of the floor. In his processing speed, and honestly, this
(14:00):
is something that has been really amazing to me about
Amen Thompson in his early career development, his processing speed
is off the charts for a young player. He just
can very quickly pick up what's happening around him and
where the opportunities are. There was a play that wasn't
even in the zone. It was a It was a
kind of a dunker spot catch that he had on
(14:21):
the left side in the dunker spot and he catches
a lob all goes way up in the air, catches
it and sees Jaron Allen dropped down right underneath the
basket and he just one times it in mid air
right to alprinshangun right in front of the room, who
shoots like a little floater and he makes it. He
just has excellent instincts at quickly picking up where teams
are trying to ignore him and helping off of him
(14:43):
so that he can make that next pass to break
that defense down. He was a big part of them
breaking down the zone and then the offensive class. He
had four offensive rebounds in this game. He's just a
ball hawk, like every time it looks like there's a
fifty to fifty ball, it always ends up going to
a men's Thompson. There was a huge play late in
this game. It's one twenty four to one to twenty four.
(15:04):
Shane gun is posting up on Evan Mobley, and when
he's posting up on Evan Mobley, Amn Thompson is kind
of hawking along the baseline like we talked about, and
even though Mobley had really struggled with Shangun for most
of the night. Does a good job on this possession,
walls him up, gets a stop, and as a result,
Mobley has to like get rid of the basketball, so
or excuse me, Shanggoon has to get rid of the basketball.
(15:26):
And so he just throws a pass right to George's
Knieing and Kniing's right there. He's got his hands ready
for the ball. Amn Thompson is behind him. A Men
Thompson got the basketball. He just went through Kniang and
kept the ball live. Houston kept possession. By the time
Cleveland got the ball back, they were down one twenty
seven to one twenty four. It literally turned. It literally
(15:46):
turned what could have been a stop going the other
way with Cleveland a chance to take the lead into
a three point lead for Houston in crunch time, which
was insurmountable at that point with Cleveland struggling to generate offense.
It was a It was a huge play in that game.
And then on defense and Men Thompson is just an
absolute menace. Did an excellent job on Donovan Mitchell all night.
He at thirty three points, but it was on eleven
(16:09):
for twenty seven from the field, and Mitchell generally looked
out of control for most of the game. Men Thompson
is one of the most incredible examples of a legit
two way perimeter role player in the sense that he's
genuinely awesome on both ends of the floor. But what
makes him unique is he can't shoot the ball to
save his life. And it's just super unique to have
a player that's like a legit offensive weapon as a
(16:32):
perimeter player, but that can't shoot. It's just unique. And
it's because of his remarkable ability to provide off ball
scoring as a vertical spacing threat underneath the ram and
the dunker spot, and as a cutter and as a rebounder,
his on ball pop as a short range score like
we talked about earlier, the John Mourant stuff, and his
lightning quick processing speed as a passer, and when you
(16:54):
combine that with him just being an outstanding defensive player
like he had to play against Evan Mobley and straight
a straight post up defense where he just popped up
off the ground and just blocked him on a straight
vertical jump. He's just an incredibly impressive athlete and already
such a dominant player despite being pretty raw. Still can't
even imagine how good he's gonna be in the long run,
So shout out to him, me and Thompson. Shane gun
(17:15):
was also fantastic in this game. He's just torching Evan
Mobley and Jared Allen all night long. In every which way.
He wins the physicality battle with those guys, which I
think is interesting, Like he basically just throws them around,
seems to catch them off guard, which is crazy because
you think if you watch Shane Goun enough times, you
know he's coming with that chicken wing. You know he's
trying to deep seal under the basket when you're not
paying attention. Like it's all on tape. There as a
(17:37):
thing I'm almost certain is on the scouting report, but
Allen and Mobley both just really struggle with them with him,
and again, like it's actually kind of weird because Houston
is a top ten offense, which is something I don't
think a lot of people realize. They're ninth in offensive
rating on the season, but they're actually twenty fourth and
half court offensive rating. Most of their success on offense
comes in transition. That's typically been a weakness for them
(18:00):
as a team on the season, they have a ninety
three offensive rating in the half court, but they notched
a one to seventeen offensive rating in the half court
in this win against Cleveland, so one of the most
impressive half court offense games of the year. A couple
other shoutouts. Dylan Brooks had some really impressive shot making
in the first half at like a step bag jump shot,
hit a turn around fade away over Garland on the
(18:20):
left block over his right shoulder, hit a catch I
think two catch and shoot threes if I remember correctly,
at least one, so that was an important part of
the early part of the game. Jalen Green, you know,
he plays on an island sometimes. I think that's his
biggest weakness as an offensive player right now. He kind
of just feels like he's playing one on one a lot.
But he hit some important shots in this game, and
he tends to hit some important shots for this team.
(18:41):
He had five threes in this game, two really tough
threes during that late third quarter run when they stretched
the lead up to nineteen. I thought those were big shots.
Steven Adams just doing a ton of damage on the glass,
and then again as a folkrium in the zone He's
a big part of their breaking the zone. Their bench
group with him and the athletes, and there was different
variations of it. There's one with like jay Shon Tate
and Cam Whitmore. There was one with like a Men
(19:02):
Thompson and Tarry Easton if I remember correctly, But like
that group is just tough because like a lot of times,
like the Cavs would over box out Steven Adams, which
would then leave those athletes opportunities to crash and get
to the basketball. And then Fred's three point shooting. There
were several offensive sequences for Houston where the ball ended
up in Fred's hands to finish the play and they
(19:23):
needed him to knock down to catch and shoot three
and he ended up making six of them in this game.
So Houston Rockets playing some really really impressive basketball. They
are the best team in the league this year against
the best teams in the league. They have fourteen wins
against teams that are in the top ten in point differential,
which no other team in the league has, and they've
won seventy eight percent of their games against teams in
the top ten in point differential. They are fifth in
(19:45):
offensive rating against teams in the top ten in point differential,
in third in defense in those games. So like Houston,
you know, say what you want, and you know, obviously
I'm still not super high on them as like a
championship contender because of my concerns with their ball handling
in the postse but it's hard to deny that they're
having an incredibly impressive regular season. On the Cleveland front,
(20:07):
we got to start with defense. They have a one
twenty four defensive rating in the five losses during this
three and five stretch. There's slippage everywhere. Mobiley and Allen
were brutally bad in that Rockets game, getting beat by
guards at the point of attack in ball screens, which
like literally cannot happen. We talked about that earlier. If
you have one job as the big in a ball screen,
don't let the guard drive past you, like, make him
(20:28):
hit something over the top, right, But they were getting
beat in the post by Shangon, They were losing battles
for rebounds. The two of those guys just have to
be better. And then their perimeter defense. They stepped it
up in crunch times, specifically Donovan Mitchell started flying around
and really competing. But they were losing contained on the
ball all night long. Their rotations weren't good, guys not
making extra efforts, sloppiness, Like there were several possessions where
(20:49):
they were rotating to the wrong spots. There's a bad
one where like they rushed two guys to the left corner,
ended up leaving Fred van Vliet wide open on the
left wing. It's like, just communicate and rotate the way
you did to start the year. And then their team rebounding.
They're allowing an offensive rebound on thirty four point five
percent of their opponent's misses in those five losses. That's
(21:10):
really really bad. And then on offense, they have a
one fifteen offensive rating in the five losses, which is
not terrible, but it's not great either, and it's down
significantly from where they were earlier in the year. I
think most of it comes down to Donovan Mitchell. He's
really starting to regress back to what he looked like
in years past, where he just tries to solve all
of his problems by forcing up shots. He's missing way
too many kickout reads in ball screens that are preventing
(21:32):
Cleveland from getting into their driving kick attack. Remember in
my thread on Twitter, there's probably at least a half
dozen examples of him shooting a really tough mid range
shot in traffic when there's just an obvious kickout read too.
Like there's a couple where Evan Mobley's in the corner.
Evan Mobley shooting over fifty percent on corner threes, you
have to throw that kickout pass. Ti Jerome is shooting
over fifty percent on unguarded catch and shoot threes. You
(21:53):
need to kick that out to Ti Jerome when he's
standing there wide open, Like, these are basic decisions that
he has to be better at, and like he's been
brutally inefficient in the mid range in these five losses.
In the five losses, seven for twenty three in the
paint non restricted area, that zero point six to one
points per shot, four for eleven on twos outside of
the paint zero points seven three points per shot. Many
(22:16):
of them are smothered, many of them there are easy
kickout reads available, so Donovan, like, again, the calves are
at their best when the ball is popping around, and
Donovan Mitchell is picking his spots when to be aggressive.
Another easy way to put it. Before this eight game stretch,
Donovan Mitchell was attempting eighteen shots per game and the
Calves were thirty one and four. In this eight game stretch,
(22:37):
Donovan Mitchell's taking twenty two point three shots per game
and the calves are three and five. They need to
get his volume back down. It's not helping their offense
at all whatsoever, and Mitchell is starting to look like
he's getting out of rhythm as a result. As a team,
they've cooled off shooting the basketball a little bit, only
slightly in catch and shoot situations. They started the year
shooting forty one percent from three on catch and shoots.
(22:59):
They're down to thirty nine percent in their last eight games.
The pull up jump shooting is where it's really falling
off a cliff. They shot thirty nine percent on pull
up threes in the first chunk of the season before
this eight game stretch. That's an absurd number. In the
last eight games, are down to thirty two point seven
percent on pull up threes, which, again, I don't think
they'll be that bad. I think they'll probably I think
(23:19):
they're a good pull up shooting team. I think they'll
be in the thirty six thirty seven percent. But some
of that hot shooting that they relied on in the
early part of the season is not there anymore. They're
also not running as much in transition. This was something
that concerned me a little bit. If you remember the
early part of the season, forcing turnovers and getting out
in transition was just a huge part of Cleveland's success.
They had sixteen fast break points per game in the
(23:40):
stretch before this eight game stretch, thirteenth in the NBA.
In that spin, the last eight games just ten point
six fast break points per game. That's twenty eighth in
the NBA. So they went from like a legit upper
half transition team to a one of the worst transition
teams in the league in this recent stretch forcing turnovers.
To start the year, they had over twenty points per
game off of turnovers, which ranked second in the NBA.
(24:02):
In the last eight games, only sixteen points off turnovers,
which ranks twentieth in the NBA. In the early part
of the season, they were seventh in the number of
turnovers they forced per game, down to sixteenth in the
last eight games. So how to get back on track?
Simply put, they just got to get back to doing
the things that made them great in the first place,
Get back to defending as a unit, both on the
(24:22):
perimeter and on the back line. That will help you
get back to forcing turnovers, which should engage your transition attack,
pushing transition as much as possible to get easy shots.
And then when you're in the half court, trust the pass,
get the ball and player movement back. Get Donovan Mitchell
back to playing more as a tip of a spear
type of ceiling raising offensive player instead of kind of
(24:42):
forcing the issue as much as he has been, and
you will get back on track at that point. Lowells
are a natural part of the eighty two game regular season,
and the calves of very definitely avoid them to this point.
Avoided them to this point, but they've hit their first one.
This is where it's about resilience and demonstrate that that's
not who you are and how you started the year
is who you really are. On our power rankings list
(25:19):
and remember all of our odds are provided by our
partner Draft Kings. Number ten the Los Angeles the Los
Angeles Clippers. Another game from that jam packed Rivals week
slate on Saturday night was a showdown between the Clippers
and they and the Bucks. The run and dunk man
versus the bag man, and the bagman on wins this round.
(25:41):
He did unspeakable things to Gary Tran Junior and many
other Bucks defenders in this game. In this game, he
went for forty points and nine assists with just one turnover.
Had everything going. The step back three was going, the
drives were going, he was getting to the foul line
a ton. Just absolutely torched them, but they very much
won the game. With the usual Clippers identity of being
an insanely athletic perimeter team that swarms on defense, that
(26:04):
forces you to rush things and make mistakes, and that
will torch you on the other end by beating you
to offensive rebounds, the Clippers ran away with this one
in the fourth quarter. It was a close game. Milwaukee
actually had a lead in the early fourth, but they
force five turnovers, all swarming. Like Dame tries behind the
back durable, but right when he goes to behind the
back durable, a mere coffee jumps him and forces a turnover.
Gary Trent Junior in transition has like an easy layup
(26:26):
and goes with it behind the back dribble that could
have shed off Kevin Porter Junior for a layup, but
he just rushes it and fumbles the ball away and
turns it over. Jhannas slips out of a screen, has
an over the top passing angle, pass comes over the top,
but they're swarming from the weak side, and he just
fumbles the ball away and it leads to a turnover.
Like that's all bred by that activity. We talked about
this with Minnesota and Denver, when when you have that
(26:47):
type of athleticism on the perimeter, just forces teams to rush,
and when they rush, they make mistakes. The Clippers scored
seven points on runouts from those turnovers as well. They
have three offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter as well,
which all ended in buckets. Terrence Man got a excuse
me a mere coffee, got an easy put back over
Chris Middleton where he just bodied him and grabbed the ball.
(27:08):
Derek Jones Junior kind of slipped out of his screen
and remembered that when you slip, the guard needs to
get inside position to box out. Dame didn't even bother,
so dere Jones got inside position on Dame just got
an easy rebound for a put back. Just a physical
mismatch on the perimeter between these two teams, and then
Kawhi had his best game since coming back eighteen points.
He had these three contact finishes through brook Lopez that
(27:29):
I thought were all good signs of his growing confidence
in his body. A spin move where he spun into
his body and got a lay up. Another one where
he like dropped that shoulder and dislodged him and made
like a little short post move. That's a big sign
of him getting his strength back. Then a crazy play
where he did like this behind the back table into
a baseline drive and then went up and under and
finished with his left hand, also in contact with brook Lopez.
(27:50):
I thought those were all kind of like exciting demonstrations
that Kawhi is starting to get his legs back underneath him.
The Clippers have won six out of eight. They have
the best defense in the league in that span, the
only defense in the league to hold opponents to under
one hundred points per one hundred possessions in that eight
game span. Hard not to get at least a little
excited about the Clippers with how well they're playing on
defense and the potential of this offense anchored by Kawhi,
(28:12):
James Harden, and Norman Powell. However, as it always is
with the Clippers, it's just about whether or not they
can stay healthy, and you would be insane to not
be a little skeptical about that. Clippers right now are
plus twenty five hundred to win the NBA title on DraftKings,
plus thirteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number nine
the Milwaukee Bucks. Yes, I know the Clippers just beat
them head to head, but the Bucks had won five
straight before that, in eight of nine. I think they're
(28:35):
just a little bit better right now, so I gave
them the nod for this week. Just a lot of
good and bad in that Clippers loss. Like Giannis looked
great again. I think he had like thirty six and thirteen.
Continues to play like an MVP. Gary Trent Junior is
really starting to get going, specifically with his three point shot.
In his last thirteen games, Gary Trde Junior is shooting
fifty seven percent from three on five point two attempts
(28:57):
per game. So really exciting stuff there. But the same
issues that have consistently plagued this team rose to the
surface in that fourth quarter when they lost control against
the Clippers, mainly just their perimeter guys not competing like
specifically guys like Gary Trent, Chris Middleton, Damian Lillard, just
getting badly torched at the point of attack, badly beat
on the glass just time and time again. But overall,
(29:18):
the Bucks have been playing really well. As we said,
they had won eight of nine before that. Giannis in
that nine game span has averaged twenty nine points, thirteen
rebounds and six assists as he tries to stay attached
to Shay and Nikole Jokic and the MVP race. The
Bucks right now plus twenty five hundred to win the title,
plus one thousand to win the Eastern Conference. Number eight
the Los Angeles Lakers. They've won five out of six
(29:40):
and what has probably been their most impressive stretch of
the season, peaking with that wired to wire dominating performance
against the Boston Celtics last week that really demonstrated the
upside of this team on both ends of the floor.
In this six game span, the Lakers are sixth in
defensive rating. I talked a little bit in the Saturday
Night Show about the influx of defensive talent. You trade
(30:01):
out a guy like D'Angelo Russell, you bring in a
guy like Dorian Finney Smith, and you get a guy
like Jared Vanderbilt back from injury. You just bring in
two really good defensive players, and it slots everybody else
in more achievable defensive roles, and all of a sudden,
you just have more lineups with more good defensive players
that are in more achievable roles, which is just gonna
lead to better defense. Well, guess what, in the last
(30:22):
six games, the Lakers are sixth in defensive riting some
really impressive defensive stretches during that stretch during that time,
including that win against the Celtics. That's a benefit of
bringing in defensive talent the way that they have through
just getting healthy in that trade for Dorrian Finny Smith.
And then in this stretch, Lebron James and Austin Reeves
have really been stepping up their rim pressure. Lebron specifically
(30:44):
in that Boston and Golden State game. Austin has been
doing this for a while, but like you got to
have downhill rim pressure to create easier opportunities for some
of these flawed offensive players that they have, and those
guys have just done that work. And then Anthony Davis,
who had been in a bit of a funk in
the previous month or two, had just was absolutely amazing
against Boston and Golden State and looking better physically than
(31:06):
he has since the beginning of since the beginning of
the season, so really encouraging stuff on that front. The
Lakers are in a really good spot to make an
all in type of trade. Lebron and ad are both
engaged in playing really well. The roster is mostly healthy
at this point, and they have the assets to get
some legitimate talent upgrades. I think of them as like again,
(31:26):
I think that Dallas roster is better, but you need
to think like Dallas did last year. This is a
team that's in the middle of the West. But if
they bring in a couple of high level role players,
just like Dallas did last year with PJ. Washington and
Daniel Gafford, that could be the thing that gets them
in position to go on a run. That is the
path the Los Angeles Lakers right now. Plus thirty five
hundred to win the title, big long shot there. Plus
(31:47):
sixteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number seven, the
New York Knicks the very jekylin hide of late. They're
six and six in their last twelve games, and in
their wins they score the shit out of the basketball,
and they defend pretty well in their six losses, can't
make threes to save their life, and they post a
one to twenty three defensive rating. On the defensive end,
it's been consistent all season. Every time I watch the Knicks,
(32:08):
teams relentlessly go at Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns,
and again, there are coverages that Thibodeau has for them
to protect those guys, and they just don't execute it
very well. Sometimes you'll see Jalen Brunson go to throw
a hedge and just not contain the ball or not
sprint back in rotation. Same sort of thing with Karl
Anthony Towns. There's a level of commitment with those guys
that's inconsistent on the defensive end, and when they mail
(32:30):
it in, it just gets really really hard from them.
They end up in rotation and teams spray around on
them and pick them apart, and then on offense, it
literally comes down to three point shooting. This is a
crazy staff for you guys. In wins for the Knicks
this year, Jalen Brunson forty five percent from three, Carl
Towns forty four percent from three, Mikail Bridges forty percent
from three, ogn Andobi thirty seven percent from three, Josh
(32:52):
Hart thirty nine percent from three in losses, Jalen Brunson
twenty nine percent from three, Karl Anthony Towns forty one percent.
Still hot, but still down three percent from the wins.
McHale Bridges twenty nine percent, oj Nanobi thirty two percent,
Josh Hart thirty one percent. It's like, literally, every time
I watch the Knicks, it's just about which team I'm getting.
(33:13):
When they guard and they knock down shots, they can
beat anybody. But when they don't guard, when they go
cold from the perimeter, things seem to fall apart for them.
Right now, the Knicks are plus eight fifty to win
the title, plus four hundred to win the Eastern Conference.
The Denver Nuggets at number six, got smashed by the
Timberwolves on Saturday. The Wolves just have Denver's number. They've
now won four in a row against Denver, dating back
(33:35):
to last year's Western Conference semi final series. They just
have a big issue on both ends of the floor.
When Denver has the ball on offense, Minnesota is just
so physical that they have several players that seem to
struggle in that setting. I've seen Jamal Murray was good
in the Saturday game, but he struggled really bad at
times in that second round series last year. Michael Porter
Junior seems to really struggle in that setting. In Jokic
(33:56):
can get a little sloppy with the basketball. You had
seven turnovers, and then when you go to the other
end of the floor, they just can't stop Anthony Edwards
and Julius Randall from getting wherever they want. It doesn't
matter how much they load up and can just run
around their slower guys, especially guys like Nikola Jokic, and
they just don't. Denver just doesn't have the rim protection
to really cause problems from Minnesota in the half court,
(34:17):
so they get lit up on that end as well.
It's just a bad matchup. Not really much they can
do about it at this point. They just got to
hope they avoid them when they get to the postseason.
But Denver had one eight out of nine before that.
The offense was just absolutely crushing everyone, really nice give
and take from their perimeter players like there's a it's
kind of like a who's got it tonight kind of
attitude between guys like Jamal Murray Russell Westbrook and Julian
(34:38):
Strawther and a little bit of Mike coeh Porter Junior too,
and they do a really nice job of just kind
of like feeling which guy has it going that night
and playing through them more. And then nikol Jokiic is
just playing at that goat offensive level that makes everything easier.
And then up until the Minnesota game, nikol Jokic had
been defending at a really high level, getting a lot
more deflections and steals in ball screens than he had
been getting earlier in the season. The Nuggets right now
(34:59):
plus fourteen to win the title, plus six point fifty
to win the Western Conference. Number five the Memphis Grizzlies.
They're in a very easy part of their schedule right now.
They've had six straight wins, but five of those six
wins were against teams that are in the bottom five
of either conference, So just capitalizing on an easy stretch
of their schedule. But a really impressive win against Minnesota
in there a game where they came back from behind
(35:21):
in the fourth quarter. Jaron Jackson just kicked the shit
out of Julius Randall in that fourth quarter. He's playing
insanely well as of late, in his last thirteen games,
he's averaging twenty six points per game on fifty one
percent from the field and thirty five percent from three
really really high level hoops Fromjaron Jaron Jackson. Memphis Grizzlies
right right now, plus twenty five hundred to win the title,
(35:42):
plus one thousand to win the Western Conference. Number four
the Boston Celtics. They've been in a weird funk for
a while. They're just thirteen and ten in their last
twenty three games, really good offensive rating and defensive rating
in that stretch because they've just had some incredibly dominant
wins in there that kind of mess up the data.
Settling has been the main issue for them losses, just
specifically Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum just attacking mismatches by
(36:05):
shooting over the top instead of being physically aggressive downhill
to compromise the defense so they can get their kickout
so they can get their driving kick game going, which
again is when Boston is at their best when they're
driving and kicking the ball around. But I did think
their win against Dallas is one of their most impressive
wins as of late. Jalen Brown demonstrated a ton more
physical aggression and was just living in the paint right
(36:25):
in front of the rim. Was getting some of those
driving kicks to Chris hops porzingis that we know that
he has when he's playing his best basketball. They got
back to moving the ball around. Out of their forty
four makes, they had thirty three assists. That's a strong
indicator of the Celtics getting into their driving kick game.
And then they just really clamped down on Dallas's offense,
like we all know that they're capable of on defense,
and they looked like the Celtics again. They have looked
(36:47):
a little tired even in that early stretch against Dallas.
They play every other day until the All Star Break,
but at that point they do finally get arrest and
I think the All Star break is going to be
really good for the Celtics before they kind of kick
it into gear for the home stretch. They're now plus
two thirty five to win the title, plus one zho
five to win the Eastern Conference. Number three the Houston Rockets.
We talked a bunch about them at the top of
(37:08):
today's show, so I'm not going to get too much deeper,
but they just continue to rack up incredibly impressive wins
with their latest two wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers. I
talked about this in the earlier part of the show,
but they've been the best team in the league this
year against the best teams in the league. Against teams
that have top ten point differentials, Houston's won fourteen times,
which is which stands alone, is the most in the league,
(37:28):
seventy eight percent win percentage, which is also the highest
percentage in the league, fifth in offensive rating and third
in defensive rating against teams in the top ten in
point differential. Again, I have concerns about their offense in
the playoffs, but it's hard to deny that they're not
having just an incredible regular season and a men Thompson
is going to be an absolute star. He's still so raw,
but he's already just bludgeoning teams on both ends of
(37:50):
the floor with his athleticism. It's crazy to think of
what he could be in the long run. The Rockets
right now plus five thousand to win the NBA title,
plus sixteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number two
the Cleveland Cavaliers. We also hit them at the top
of the show, so I'm not going to get too
deep into them here, but they've lost five out of eight,
lost their identity in a bunch of ways. They've got
to get it back. They got to get back to
defending as a unit, both on the perimeter and on
(38:12):
the interior, so that they can start forcing turnovers again,
so that they can start getting back out in transition,
and then when they get stuck in the half court,
they need to trust the pass. Mainly talking about Donovan
Mitchell there has had some some of his worst floor
game as of late in the last few weeks. Once
they get that ball in player movement back, I think
they'll get back on track, especially if they get their
(38:33):
defense going again. The Cavs right now plus nine to
fifty to win the title, plus three seventy to win
the Eastern Conference and number one the Oklahoma City Thunder
has been a really weird stretch of their schedule. Their
last five games, They've played three bad teams that they beat,
and then they play the Dallas Mavericks twice, who they
lost to, and Dallas is a bad matchup for them
in general, but especially when they don't have their bigs
Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren right in the latest loss
(38:55):
to Dallas, the one, the second one, they really struggled
with this like bizarre zone look that Jason Kidd used
where he just took the top two guys in the
zone and just doubled Shay, Like as soon as he
crossed half court, they were going after him to get
the ball out of his hands, and it just kind
of discombobulated the thunder and they fell apart. But it
feels very matchup related, and this is something that I
think we need to keep in mind as we look
at Oklahoma City struggling with Dallas, as we look at
(39:17):
teams like the Lakers struggling with teams like the Clippers,
as we look at teams like the Nuggets struggling with
the Timberwolves. Like, when you look at that sort of thing,
it's just a reminder of what I talked about last year.
Going into the postseason. A lot of this Western Conference
is going to come down to matchups. Catching teams that
you match up well against versus and avoiding teams that
you match up poorly against could literally be the difference
(39:39):
between losing in the first round and going to the
NBA Finals. So like, let's keep that in mind as
we are looking at our playoff field for the West.
As we get closer, matchups are going to play a
huge role in how this whole thing ends up. The
Thunder right now plus two to seventy to win the title,
plus one to twenty five to win the Western Conference.
And as always, our ads our odds, excuse me, are
(39:59):
from our partner, Draft Kings. All right, guys, it's all
I have for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I hope
you have a good rest of your evening. We'll be
back tomorrow with some more game reactions. I'll see you
guys then the volume. What's up guys, As always, I
appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It
would actually be really helpful for us if you guys
(40:21):
would take a second and leave a rating and a review.
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
The volume. This ain't the little itdy vitty teeny tiny Bowl.
This is Super Bowl fifty nine. Get in on the
action at Draft Kings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner
of Super Bowl fifty nine. Scoring touchdowns is key to
hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and you have a shot
to score big by betting on them at Draft King
sports Book, the number one place to bet touchdowns. Ready
(00:21):
to place your bet. Try betting on something simple like
a player to score six. Go to the Draftking Sportsbook
gap and make your pick right now. The Chiefs open
as a very slight favorite at minus one and a half.
I'm personally rooting for the Chiefs, mainly because I appreciate
them as one of the greatest teams of all time,
and as a Cowboys fan, I just literally cannot stand
any success for the Philadelphia Eagles. New DraftKings customers can
(00:44):
bet five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus
bets instantly. Download the Draft King Sportsbook ap use code hoops.
That's hops, that's code hoops for new customers to get
two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly. When you bet
just five bucks only on Draft King Sports book. The
Crown is yours. Gamble problem called one eight hundred Gambler
in New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why,
(01:04):
or text hope and why to four six seven three
six nine Connecticut. Help Us available for problem gambling Call
eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven
or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf
of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus.
Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction, Boyd and Ontario. New
customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight
(01:24):
hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources,
see d KNG dot co slash audio. All right, welcome
(01:45):
to you tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
If all of you guys had an incredible weekend, we
have a jam packed to show for you guys today.
Off the top, I'm going to do a deep dive
into that Houston Rockets first Cleveland Cavaliers game on Saturday,
showdown of two of the best records in the league.
And then after that, like we always do on Mondays,
we are going to do our Power rankings breaking down
(02:06):
the top ten teams in the league. You guys have
the drop before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops
Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys don't
misshow announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you
get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super
helpful if you leave a rating and a review on
that front. We also have very new social media feeds
on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout
the year. Make sure you guys follow us there, and
(02:26):
then keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments
so that we can get to them in our Friday
mail bags throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball, and then also before we get
into Houston Cleveland, I did break down a bunch of
other games on Saturday Night. I hit Minnesota, Denver, I
hit Boston, Dallas. I briefly hit on a couple of
(02:46):
other games too. So I know it says Lakers Warriors reaction,
but we hit most of the Saturday Night slate in
that video. So if you're looking for deeper dive breakdowns
on some of the other games from Saturday. You just
have to go back and watch that Lakers Live and
then we have chapters. You can always just skip ahead
past the Lakers Warrior stuff. All right, let's get into
Houston Cleveland. I did a long film thread on this
(03:09):
one on Twitter. It was like thirty forty clips. So
if you're looking for visual representations of some of the
things that I'm breaking down today, just go over to
our Twitter feed, my Twitter feed at underscore json lt
where I just have all the clips from the game
in a thread, so you guys can see some of
those visual representations. The story of this game in the
early portion had to do with the perimeter defense battle.
(03:31):
I talk about this battle a lot in the NBA.
It reminds me of line play in the NFL. I've rooted.
I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan because my entire extended family
is from the Dallas Fort Worth area and we go
out there for Thanksgiving every year. It's been kind of
like a family tradition and rooting for the Cowboys my
entire life. You know, I have these like different phases, right,
(03:51):
and I remember, like in the mid twenty tens. We
had this huge, massive frontline with a bunch of you know,
Hall of famers on it, you know, guys like Zach
Martin and Tyron Smith, right, and they would just shove
everybody around and whenever we went didn't matter if it
was on the road at home, we could just run
over everybody because we had, you know, DeMarco Murray or
Ezekiel Elliott and just a stacked offensive line that we
(04:13):
could run all over everybody. And whenever Dak needed to throw,
he just had all the time in the world because
we could protect from him, right, And it just makes
everything easier when you can block at the with your
offensive line. In the NFL and in the NBA, there's
a similar kind of push and poll because it can
go the opposite way, right, Like, if your line doesn't
block well and you can establish the run, suddenly you
(04:35):
have to lean on the passing game even more. And
when you can't protect your quarterback, he's running for his
life and nobody has any time to get open. And
it's just kind of like this simple push and poll
that happens every single snap right in the middle of
the screen, right in front of you. It's almost the
easiest thing to kind of like watch in a game
to see where you can almost just see a push
when the offensive line's winning, or a push the opposite
(04:56):
way when the defensive line's winning. And in the NBA,
there's a very similar battle that happen there at the
point of attack, whether it's a ball screen or an
ISO or a post up. If it's an ISO and
the guy can just cleanly dust him off the dribble
and get downhill, that's going to be a problem. If
it's a ball screen and he can cleanly get over
the top of the screen and get racing downhill, that's
a problem. If it's a post up and he's just
(05:17):
going through that guy and getting wherever he wants, that's
a problem. But if on an ISO you flatten out
those drives and force more side to side movement, If
on those ball screens you stay attached over the top
and prevent him from really getting ahead of steam going downhill,
or in the post ups, if you can wall up
a little bit and prevent him from really getting deep
position in the paint, those things make it easier for
(05:38):
your defense. On a simple level, If someone's screaming downhill
with the basketball. Everyone's gonna help instinctually, and that's going
to open up spray spray out opportunities. Or if people
don't help in time, that guy's going to score. Right.
And when you do flatten those drives out, when you
do flatten those post ups out, when you do flatten
those ball screens out, all of a sudden people have
more ability to stay home off the ball, which prevents
(05:59):
you and getting into rotation. It is a simple push
and pull in basketball games that determines a lot of
what happens on any given possession. And Houston has a
couple of wins here against Cleveland and some of this
with Cleveland too. I want to emphasize this before we
get into it. This is a really tough matchup for Cleveland.
Houston is just so much bigger and more athletic on
the perimeter, and then, to make matters worse, even though
(06:21):
Jared Allen and Evan Mobley are both excellent defensive players,
Shenghuin gives them issues. Just his ability to use physical
leverage against them to get to his spots and his
ability to kind of shoot over the top of them
has caused problems. And so it's a tough matchup, and
for the record, I don't think Cleveland's going to face
a team with the same level of athletic in position
in the Eastern Conference that Houston brings to the table,
(06:44):
but it is worth talking about because it is an
important part of their matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder,
which if they were to make it to the finals,
is the type of team that they might have to face, right, So,
like I want it before we get any further into
this game, I want to say, like Cleveland, Houston's a
really tough matchup for Cleveland that they probably won't have
to see in the postseason. But Houston really dominated that
(07:07):
point of attack battle over the first three and a
half quarters of this game. Their athletes were just straight
beating Cleveland perimeter guys off the dribble. In ISO, both
MOBILEI and Allen, you know, we talk about ball contain
as like on the ball as the guy guarding the
ball being the main guy who's responsible, But in ball screens,
(07:27):
containing the ball is also on the big man, right.
It doesn't matter if you are showing up at the
level as the big man or sitting back in a drop.
You have to keep the ball in front of you.
The worst thing that or the thing you want to
give up if you have to give something up, is
a little mid range jump shot, right. Ideally you want
them taking a contested floater, contested mid range jump shot
(07:49):
with somebody kind of contesting from behind and you containing
the ball. If you're up at the level and you
let the guy drive around you, or if you're sitting
in a drop and the guy drives around you, that's
like the worst mistake you can make as a pick
and roll big man defender, even though it's technically not
your matchup. It's a two on two possession. Any ball
screen is two on two. There were multiple possessions where
(08:12):
Evan Mobley and Jared Allen were getting beat by ball
handlers coming off of ball screens. If you show at
the level and they hit the pocket pass, there's a
four on three, right. But if your big man gets
beat off the dribble, now it's a five on three
because the big and the guard guarding the ball handler
are both behind the ball. Now it is very, very
compromising to your defense. Evan and Mobley and Jared Allen
(08:34):
had rough defensive games all around, like Shane Gun was
torching them both over and over again in the post.
And that's just another way you can lose the point
of attack battle, like we talked about earlier. So they
were really dominating on that end, and then on the
other end, with the exception of Darius Garland, who continues
to demonstrate remarkable ability to get to his spots regardless
of the types of defenders that were in front of him,
(08:55):
and he was a bright spot in that Houston game
on Saturday night. Every Cleveland player was having their drives
flattened out, their ball screens smothered. The Rockets were really
in ball screens king in on Donovan Mitchell like like
overplaying him and ignoring guys on kickout situations, which was
really smart because Donovan Mitchell is going through a phase
right now where he's kind of like forcing the issue
(09:17):
and taking a lot of bad shots and missing some
of those kickout reads. And you know, I cooked probably
a half dozen examples of Donovan Mitchell missing kickout reads
and taking like really tough mid range jump shots in
the middle of the paint. But the main difference there
is like instead of Donovan Mitchell getting flying downhill off
of those ball screens, he's slowly getting downhill against an
(09:38):
elite defender and operating in that short to mid range
smothered and that's an advantageous situation for the Houston Rockets.
And so as a result, the Rockets were just getting
better shots, particularly around the rim. They only took twenty
eight threes, and they shot well on them. They made
thirteen of them, but they made thirty two two's in
this game, and they got to the line almost fifty times.
(09:59):
Cleveland was constantly hacking their athletes under the rim when
their defense was compromised, just consistently getting into disadvantageous situations
because they were losing that point of attack battle. So
Houston ended up having one of their best half court
offense games of the season. And again it was a
lot of good Houston and a lot of bad Cleveland.
The good Houston starts with the men. Thompson, who was
(10:20):
absolutely unbelievable in this game. He had twenty three points,
fourteen rebounds in tennisis to go with two blocks, helped
in a dozen different ways his off fall spacing, like
cutting out of the corner on ball screens. He caught
a lot cutting along the baseline from Fred van Vliet
on a play where Jared Allen was guarding him and
stepped over in low man help cutting along the baseline.
This was big in crunch time. They were posting shangon
(10:42):
on that left block and men Thompson was just kind
of hawking along that baseline, trying to find an opening
to either catch a pass as a cutter or to
score as an offensive rebounder. And Kenny Atkinson made what
I thought was a strategic mistake at the end of
this game. Instead of closing with Jared Allen, he closed
with George Niang. I think the idea there was for shooting,
and Niang did hit a big three on the left wing.
(11:04):
I want to be clear, it wasn't like all that,
but they were getting absolutely fried along that back line
by a men Thompson, in large part because Kniang was
guarding him and just doing a really poor job of it.
And then even when they did get stops, Thompson would
just go get the offensive rebound over Kniang. So, like
I thought, going with Allen was probably a better option there,
but it is what it is. Avan Thompson was doing
(11:25):
a lot of damage as a cutter along the baseline.
He also got a couple of buckets and self creation situations.
He had a straight iso in the right corner in
the second half on Evan Mobley where he drove at
him and then spun off of him and shot a
little floater in the lane. It reminded me of John Morant,
and like, this is one of the things that's made
Amen Thompson a really effective offensive player on the ball,
even though he doesn't have much of anything in terms
(11:47):
of a jump shot, And it's a combination of factors
his high strength and speed, which is the physical aggression
piece or the physical talent piece. You need to get
tear spots, handles the ball well so he can get
to the middle of the floor then kind of like
John Moran. This is what reminds me of John Morant.
Once he gets into the middle of the floor, he
can just pop off of the ground and elevate over
(12:10):
whoever's there and just shoot like these little short mini
floater jump shot hook type of shots. Right, and he's
shooting forty five percent this year on shots that are
in the paint but outside of the restricted area. So
even though again he doesn't have this amazing touch out
at the three point line, he does have nice touch
in and around the basket where and because of that
(12:32):
pop off the ground ability he has, he can just
kind of jump over people and make little shots. He
scored a couple of buckets like that. His transition pushes
were effective again in this game. He was even the
key to beating Cleveland's zone. If you guys remember when
Houston beat Cleveland back in Houston, the Cavs ran it's
on his own to get back into that game, and
it worked in that particular game. But on Saturday they
(12:53):
tried it and it didn't work. You could tell ema
Udoka was on top of that. They were prepped. They
wanted to play through a men Thompson in the middle
of the floor, and they scored easily against it. A
bunch of times. They ran over forty possessions of zone.
If I'm remembering my math right, They ran over forty
possessions of zone down in Houston and it worked. That
held them well below a point per possession. They ran
only seven possessions of zone in Cleveland before they bailed
(13:17):
on it, in large part because they were getting something
crazy like one point four points per possession, just killing it.
And it started with the men Thompson. They got the
ball to a Men Thompson in the middle of the floor.
Simple decisions from there, catch turn, big man, steps up,
drop off to Steven Adams. Steven Adams gets a bucket.
They throw the ball to Steven Adams on the block.
He gets a double from the wing, easy kickoff pass
(13:38):
to Fred van Vliet. He makes a three back to
a Men Thompson in the middle of the floor. The
entire defense shifts over to the right side when he
catches it, spins back over his shoulder and throws it
to Fred van Vliet on the perimeter. Forces a rotation
from the left wing, easy extra passaitary Easton. He's driving
and he's dunking it, and it was all like again,
Steven Adams two, but a Men Thompson in the middle
of the floor. In his processing speed, and honestly, this
(14:00):
is something that has been really amazing to me about
Amen Thompson in his early career development, his processing speed
is off the charts for a young player. He just
can very quickly pick up what's happening around him and
where the opportunities are. There was a play that wasn't
even in the zone. It was a It was a
kind of a dunker spot catch that he had on
(14:21):
the left side in the dunker spot and he catches
a lob all goes way up in the air, catches
it and sees Jaron Allen dropped down right underneath the
basket and he just one times it in mid air
right to alprinshangun right in front of the room, who
shoots like a little floater and he makes it. He
just has excellent instincts at quickly picking up where teams
are trying to ignore him and helping off of him
(14:43):
so that he can make that next pass to break
that defense down. He was a big part of them
breaking down the zone and then the offensive class. He
had four offensive rebounds in this game. He's just a
ball hawk, like every time it looks like there's a
fifty to fifty ball, it always ends up going to
a men's Thompson. There was a huge play late in
this game. It's one twenty four to one to twenty four.
(15:04):
Shane gun is posting up on Evan Mobley, and when
he's posting up on Evan Mobley, Amn Thompson is kind
of hawking along the baseline like we talked about, and
even though Mobley had really struggled with Shangun for most
of the night. Does a good job on this possession,
walls him up, gets a stop, and as a result,
Mobley has to like get rid of the basketball, so
or excuse me, Shanggoon has to get rid of the basketball.
(15:26):
And so he just throws a pass right to George's
Knieing and Kniing's right there. He's got his hands ready
for the ball. Amn Thompson is behind him. A Men
Thompson got the basketball. He just went through Kniang and
kept the ball live. Houston kept possession. By the time
Cleveland got the ball back, they were down one twenty
seven to one twenty four. It literally turned. It literally
(15:46):
turned what could have been a stop going the other
way with Cleveland a chance to take the lead into
a three point lead for Houston in crunch time, which
was insurmountable at that point with Cleveland struggling to generate offense.
It was a It was a huge play in that game.
And then on defense and Men Thompson is just an
absolute menace. Did an excellent job on Donovan Mitchell all night.
He at thirty three points, but it was on eleven
(16:09):
for twenty seven from the field, and Mitchell generally looked
out of control for most of the game. Men Thompson
is one of the most incredible examples of a legit
two way perimeter role player in the sense that he's
genuinely awesome on both ends of the floor. But what
makes him unique is he can't shoot the ball to
save his life. And it's just super unique to have
a player that's like a legit offensive weapon as a
(16:32):
perimeter player, but that can't shoot. It's just unique. And
it's because of his remarkable ability to provide off ball
scoring as a vertical spacing threat underneath the ram and
the dunker spot, and as a cutter and as a rebounder,
his on ball pop as a short range score like
we talked about earlier, the John Mourant stuff, and his
lightning quick processing speed as a passer, and when you
(16:54):
combine that with him just being an outstanding defensive player
like he had to play against Evan Mobley and straight
a straight post up defense where he just popped up
off the ground and just blocked him on a straight
vertical jump. He's just an incredibly impressive athlete and already
such a dominant player despite being pretty raw. Still can't
even imagine how good he's gonna be in the long run,
So shout out to him, me and Thompson. Shane gun
(17:15):
was also fantastic in this game. He's just torching Evan
Mobley and Jared Allen all night long. In every which way.
He wins the physicality battle with those guys, which I
think is interesting, Like he basically just throws them around,
seems to catch them off guard, which is crazy because
you think if you watch Shane Goun enough times, you
know he's coming with that chicken wing. You know he's
trying to deep seal under the basket when you're not
paying attention. Like it's all on tape. There as a
(17:37):
thing I'm almost certain is on the scouting report, but
Allen and Mobley both just really struggle with them with him,
and again, like it's actually kind of weird because Houston
is a top ten offense, which is something I don't
think a lot of people realize. They're ninth in offensive
rating on the season, but they're actually twenty fourth and
half court offensive rating. Most of their success on offense
comes in transition. That's typically been a weakness for them
(18:00):
as a team on the season, they have a ninety
three offensive rating in the half court, but they notched
a one to seventeen offensive rating in the half court
in this win against Cleveland, so one of the most
impressive half court offense games of the year. A couple
other shoutouts. Dylan Brooks had some really impressive shot making
in the first half at like a step bag jump shot,
hit a turn around fade away over Garland on the
(18:20):
left block over his right shoulder, hit a catch I
think two catch and shoot threes if I remember correctly,
at least one, so that was an important part of
the early part of the game. Jalen Green, you know,
he plays on an island sometimes. I think that's his
biggest weakness as an offensive player right now. He kind
of just feels like he's playing one on one a lot.
But he hit some important shots in this game, and
he tends to hit some important shots for this team.
(18:41):
He had five threes in this game, two really tough
threes during that late third quarter run when they stretched
the lead up to nineteen. I thought those were big shots.
Steven Adams just doing a ton of damage on the glass,
and then again as a folkrium in the zone He's
a big part of their breaking the zone. Their bench
group with him and the athletes, and there was different
variations of it. There's one with like jay Shon Tate
and Cam Whitmore. There was one with like a Men
(19:02):
Thompson and Tarry Easton if I remember correctly, But like
that group is just tough because like a lot of times,
like the Cavs would over box out Steven Adams, which
would then leave those athletes opportunities to crash and get
to the basketball. And then Fred's three point shooting. There
were several offensive sequences for Houston where the ball ended
up in Fred's hands to finish the play and they
(19:23):
needed him to knock down to catch and shoot three
and he ended up making six of them in this game.
So Houston Rockets playing some really really impressive basketball. They
are the best team in the league this year against
the best teams in the league. They have fourteen wins
against teams that are in the top ten in point differential,
which no other team in the league has, and they've
won seventy eight percent of their games against teams in
the top ten in point differential. They are fifth in
(19:45):
offensive rating against teams in the top ten in point differential,
in third in defense in those games. So like Houston,
you know, say what you want, and you know, obviously
I'm still not super high on them as like a
championship contender because of my concerns with their ball handling
in the postse but it's hard to deny that they're
having an incredibly impressive regular season. On the Cleveland front,
(20:07):
we got to start with defense. They have a one
twenty four defensive rating in the five losses during this
three and five stretch. There's slippage everywhere. Mobiley and Allen
were brutally bad in that Rockets game, getting beat by
guards at the point of attack in ball screens, which
like literally cannot happen. We talked about that earlier. If
you have one job as the big in a ball screen,
don't let the guard drive past you, like, make him
(20:28):
hit something over the top, right, But they were getting
beat in the post by Shangon, They were losing battles
for rebounds. The two of those guys just have to
be better. And then their perimeter defense. They stepped it
up in crunch times, specifically Donovan Mitchell started flying around
and really competing. But they were losing contained on the
ball all night long. Their rotations weren't good, guys not
making extra efforts, sloppiness, Like there were several possessions where
(20:49):
they were rotating to the wrong spots. There's a bad
one where like they rushed two guys to the left corner,
ended up leaving Fred van Vliet wide open on the
left wing. It's like, just communicate and rotate the way
you did to start the year. And then their team rebounding.
They're allowing an offensive rebound on thirty four point five
percent of their opponent's misses in those five losses. That's
(21:10):
really really bad. And then on offense, they have a
one fifteen offensive rating in the five losses, which is
not terrible, but it's not great either, and it's down
significantly from where they were earlier in the year. I
think most of it comes down to Donovan Mitchell. He's
really starting to regress back to what he looked like
in years past, where he just tries to solve all
of his problems by forcing up shots. He's missing way
too many kickout reads in ball screens that are preventing
(21:32):
Cleveland from getting into their driving kick attack. Remember in
my thread on Twitter, there's probably at least a half
dozen examples of him shooting a really tough mid range
shot in traffic when there's just an obvious kickout read too.
Like there's a couple where Evan Mobley's in the corner.
Evan Mobley shooting over fifty percent on corner threes, you
have to throw that kickout pass. Ti Jerome is shooting
over fifty percent on unguarded catch and shoot threes. You
(21:53):
need to kick that out to Ti Jerome when he's
standing there wide open, Like, these are basic decisions that
he has to be better at, and like he's been
brutally inefficient in the mid range in these five losses.
In the five losses, seven for twenty three in the
paint non restricted area, that zero point six to one
points per shot, four for eleven on twos outside of
the paint zero points seven three points per shot. Many
(22:16):
of them are smothered, many of them there are easy
kickout reads available, so Donovan, like, again, the calves are
at their best when the ball is popping around, and
Donovan Mitchell is picking his spots when to be aggressive.
Another easy way to put it. Before this eight game stretch,
Donovan Mitchell was attempting eighteen shots per game and the
Calves were thirty one and four. In this eight game stretch,
(22:37):
Donovan Mitchell's taking twenty two point three shots per game
and the calves are three and five. They need to
get his volume back down. It's not helping their offense
at all whatsoever, and Mitchell is starting to look like
he's getting out of rhythm as a result. As a team,
they've cooled off shooting the basketball a little bit, only
slightly in catch and shoot situations. They started the year
shooting forty one percent from three on catch and shoots.
(22:59):
They're down to thirty nine percent in their last eight games.
The pull up jump shooting is where it's really falling
off a cliff. They shot thirty nine percent on pull
up threes in the first chunk of the season before
this eight game stretch. That's an absurd number. In the
last eight games, are down to thirty two point seven
percent on pull up threes, which, again, I don't think
they'll be that bad. I think they'll probably I think
(23:19):
they're a good pull up shooting team. I think they'll
be in the thirty six thirty seven percent. But some
of that hot shooting that they relied on in the
early part of the season is not there anymore. They're
also not running as much in transition. This was something
that concerned me a little bit. If you remember the
early part of the season, forcing turnovers and getting out
in transition was just a huge part of Cleveland's success.
They had sixteen fast break points per game in the
(23:40):
stretch before this eight game stretch, thirteenth in the NBA.
In that spin, the last eight games just ten point
six fast break points per game. That's twenty eighth in
the NBA. So they went from like a legit upper
half transition team to a one of the worst transition
teams in the league in this recent stretch forcing turnovers.
To start the year, they had over twenty points per
game off of turnovers, which ranked second in the NBA.
(24:02):
In the last eight games, only sixteen points off turnovers,
which ranks twentieth in the NBA. In the early part
of the season, they were seventh in the number of
turnovers they forced per game, down to sixteenth in the
last eight games. So how to get back on track?
Simply put, they just got to get back to doing
the things that made them great in the first place,
Get back to defending as a unit, both on the
(24:22):
perimeter and on the back line. That will help you
get back to forcing turnovers, which should engage your transition attack,
pushing transition as much as possible to get easy shots.
And then when you're in the half court, trust the pass,
get the ball and player movement back. Get Donovan Mitchell
back to playing more as a tip of a spear
type of ceiling raising offensive player instead of kind of
(24:42):
forcing the issue as much as he has been, and
you will get back on track at that point. Lowells
are a natural part of the eighty two game regular season,
and the calves of very definitely avoid them to this point.
Avoided them to this point, but they've hit their first one.
This is where it's about resilience and demonstrate that that's
not who you are and how you started the year
is who you really are. On our power rankings list
(25:19):
and remember all of our odds are provided by our
partner Draft Kings. Number ten the Los Angeles the Los
Angeles Clippers. Another game from that jam packed Rivals week
slate on Saturday night was a showdown between the Clippers
and they and the Bucks. The run and dunk man
versus the bag man, and the bagman on wins this round.
(25:41):
He did unspeakable things to Gary Tran Junior and many
other Bucks defenders in this game. In this game, he
went for forty points and nine assists with just one turnover.
Had everything going. The step back three was going, the
drives were going, he was getting to the foul line
a ton. Just absolutely torched them, but they very much
won the game. With the usual Clippers identity of being
an insanely athletic perimeter team that swarms on defense, that
(26:04):
forces you to rush things and make mistakes, and that
will torch you on the other end by beating you
to offensive rebounds, the Clippers ran away with this one
in the fourth quarter. It was a close game. Milwaukee
actually had a lead in the early fourth, but they
force five turnovers, all swarming. Like Dame tries behind the
back durable, but right when he goes to behind the
back durable, a mere coffee jumps him and forces a turnover.
Gary Trent Junior in transition has like an easy layup
(26:26):
and goes with it behind the back dribble that could
have shed off Kevin Porter Junior for a layup, but
he just rushes it and fumbles the ball away and
turns it over. Jhannas slips out of a screen, has
an over the top passing angle, pass comes over the top,
but they're swarming from the weak side, and he just
fumbles the ball away and it leads to a turnover.
Like that's all bred by that activity. We talked about
this with Minnesota and Denver, when when you have that
(26:47):
type of athleticism on the perimeter, just forces teams to rush,
and when they rush, they make mistakes. The Clippers scored
seven points on runouts from those turnovers as well. They
have three offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter as well,
which all ended in buckets. Terrence Man got a excuse
me a mere coffee, got an easy put back over
Chris Middleton where he just bodied him and grabbed the ball.
(27:08):
Derek Jones Junior kind of slipped out of his screen
and remembered that when you slip, the guard needs to
get inside position to box out. Dame didn't even bother,
so dere Jones got inside position on Dame just got
an easy rebound for a put back. Just a physical
mismatch on the perimeter between these two teams, and then
Kawhi had his best game since coming back eighteen points.
He had these three contact finishes through brook Lopez that
(27:29):
I thought were all good signs of his growing confidence
in his body. A spin move where he spun into
his body and got a lay up. Another one where
he like dropped that shoulder and dislodged him and made
like a little short post move. That's a big sign
of him getting his strength back. Then a crazy play
where he did like this behind the back table into
a baseline drive and then went up and under and
finished with his left hand, also in contact with brook Lopez.
(27:50):
I thought those were all kind of like exciting demonstrations
that Kawhi is starting to get his legs back underneath him.
The Clippers have won six out of eight. They have
the best defense in the league in that span, the
only defense in the league to hold opponents to under
one hundred points per one hundred possessions in that eight
game span. Hard not to get at least a little
excited about the Clippers with how well they're playing on
defense and the potential of this offense anchored by Kawhi,
(28:12):
James Harden, and Norman Powell. However, as it always is
with the Clippers, it's just about whether or not they
can stay healthy, and you would be insane to not
be a little skeptical about that. Clippers right now are
plus twenty five hundred to win the NBA title on DraftKings,
plus thirteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number nine
the Milwaukee Bucks. Yes, I know the Clippers just beat
them head to head, but the Bucks had won five
straight before that, in eight of nine. I think they're
(28:35):
just a little bit better right now, so I gave
them the nod for this week. Just a lot of
good and bad in that Clippers loss. Like Giannis looked
great again. I think he had like thirty six and thirteen.
Continues to play like an MVP. Gary Trent Junior is
really starting to get going, specifically with his three point shot.
In his last thirteen games, Gary Trde Junior is shooting
fifty seven percent from three on five point two attempts
(28:57):
per game. So really exciting stuff there. But the same
issues that have consistently plagued this team rose to the
surface in that fourth quarter when they lost control against
the Clippers, mainly just their perimeter guys not competing like
specifically guys like Gary Trent, Chris Middleton, Damian Lillard, just
getting badly torched at the point of attack, badly beat
on the glass just time and time again. But overall,
(29:18):
the Bucks have been playing really well. As we said,
they had won eight of nine before that. Giannis in
that nine game span has averaged twenty nine points, thirteen
rebounds and six assists as he tries to stay attached
to Shay and Nikole Jokic and the MVP race. The
Bucks right now plus twenty five hundred to win the title,
plus one thousand to win the Eastern Conference. Number eight
the Los Angeles Lakers. They've won five out of six
(29:40):
and what has probably been their most impressive stretch of
the season, peaking with that wired to wire dominating performance
against the Boston Celtics last week that really demonstrated the
upside of this team on both ends of the floor.
In this six game span, the Lakers are sixth in
defensive rating. I talked a little bit in the Saturday
Night Show about the influx of defensive talent. You trade
(30:01):
out a guy like D'Angelo Russell, you bring in a
guy like Dorian Finney Smith, and you get a guy
like Jared Vanderbilt back from injury. You just bring in
two really good defensive players, and it slots everybody else
in more achievable defensive roles, and all of a sudden,
you just have more lineups with more good defensive players
that are in more achievable roles, which is just gonna
lead to better defense. Well, guess what, in the last
(30:22):
six games, the Lakers are sixth in defensive riting some
really impressive defensive stretches during that stretch during that time,
including that win against the Celtics. That's a benefit of
bringing in defensive talent the way that they have through
just getting healthy in that trade for Dorrian Finny Smith.
And then in this stretch, Lebron James and Austin Reeves
have really been stepping up their rim pressure. Lebron specifically
(30:44):
in that Boston and Golden State game. Austin has been
doing this for a while, but like you got to
have downhill rim pressure to create easier opportunities for some
of these flawed offensive players that they have, and those
guys have just done that work. And then Anthony Davis,
who had been in a bit of a funk in
the previous month or two, had just was absolutely amazing
against Boston and Golden State and looking better physically than
(31:06):
he has since the beginning of since the beginning of
the season, so really encouraging stuff on that front. The
Lakers are in a really good spot to make an
all in type of trade. Lebron and ad are both
engaged in playing really well. The roster is mostly healthy
at this point, and they have the assets to get
some legitimate talent upgrades. I think of them as like again,
(31:26):
I think that Dallas roster is better, but you need
to think like Dallas did last year. This is a
team that's in the middle of the West. But if
they bring in a couple of high level role players,
just like Dallas did last year with PJ. Washington and
Daniel Gafford, that could be the thing that gets them
in position to go on a run. That is the
path the Los Angeles Lakers right now. Plus thirty five
hundred to win the title, big long shot there. Plus
(31:47):
sixteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number seven, the
New York Knicks the very jekylin hide of late. They're
six and six in their last twelve games, and in
their wins they score the shit out of the basketball,
and they defend pretty well in their six losses, can't
make threes to save their life, and they post a
one to twenty three defensive rating. On the defensive end,
it's been consistent all season. Every time I watch the Knicks,
(32:08):
teams relentlessly go at Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns,
and again, there are coverages that Thibodeau has for them
to protect those guys, and they just don't execute it
very well. Sometimes you'll see Jalen Brunson go to throw
a hedge and just not contain the ball or not
sprint back in rotation. Same sort of thing with Karl
Anthony Towns. There's a level of commitment with those guys
that's inconsistent on the defensive end, and when they mail
(32:30):
it in, it just gets really really hard from them.
They end up in rotation and teams spray around on
them and pick them apart, and then on offense, it
literally comes down to three point shooting. This is a
crazy staff for you guys. In wins for the Knicks
this year, Jalen Brunson forty five percent from three, Carl
Towns forty four percent from three, Mikail Bridges forty percent
from three, ogn Andobi thirty seven percent from three, Josh
(32:52):
Hart thirty nine percent from three in losses, Jalen Brunson
twenty nine percent from three, Karl Anthony Towns forty one percent.
Still hot, but still down three percent from the wins.
McHale Bridges twenty nine percent, oj Nanobi thirty two percent,
Josh Hart thirty one percent. It's like, literally, every time
I watch the Knicks, it's just about which team I'm getting.
(33:13):
When they guard and they knock down shots, they can
beat anybody. But when they don't guard, when they go
cold from the perimeter, things seem to fall apart for them.
Right now, the Knicks are plus eight fifty to win
the title, plus four hundred to win the Eastern Conference.
The Denver Nuggets at number six, got smashed by the
Timberwolves on Saturday. The Wolves just have Denver's number. They've
now won four in a row against Denver, dating back
(33:35):
to last year's Western Conference semi final series. They just
have a big issue on both ends of the floor.
When Denver has the ball on offense, Minnesota is just
so physical that they have several players that seem to
struggle in that setting. I've seen Jamal Murray was good
in the Saturday game, but he struggled really bad at
times in that second round series last year. Michael Porter
Junior seems to really struggle in that setting. In Jokic
(33:56):
can get a little sloppy with the basketball. You had
seven turnovers, and then when you go to the other
end of the floor, they just can't stop Anthony Edwards
and Julius Randall from getting wherever they want. It doesn't
matter how much they load up and can just run
around their slower guys, especially guys like Nikola Jokic, and
they just don't. Denver just doesn't have the rim protection
to really cause problems from Minnesota in the half court,
(34:17):
so they get lit up on that end as well.
It's just a bad matchup. Not really much they can
do about it at this point. They just got to
hope they avoid them when they get to the postseason.
But Denver had one eight out of nine before that.
The offense was just absolutely crushing everyone, really nice give
and take from their perimeter players like there's a it's
kind of like a who's got it tonight kind of
attitude between guys like Jamal Murray Russell Westbrook and Julian
(34:38):
Strawther and a little bit of Mike coeh Porter Junior too,
and they do a really nice job of just kind
of like feeling which guy has it going that night
and playing through them more. And then nikol Jokiic is
just playing at that goat offensive level that makes everything easier.
And then up until the Minnesota game, nikol Jokic had
been defending at a really high level, getting a lot
more deflections and steals in ball screens than he had
been getting earlier in the season. The Nuggets right now
(34:59):
plus fourteen to win the title, plus six point fifty
to win the Western Conference. Number five the Memphis Grizzlies.
They're in a very easy part of their schedule right now.
They've had six straight wins, but five of those six
wins were against teams that are in the bottom five
of either conference, So just capitalizing on an easy stretch
of their schedule. But a really impressive win against Minnesota
in there a game where they came back from behind
(35:21):
in the fourth quarter. Jaron Jackson just kicked the shit
out of Julius Randall in that fourth quarter. He's playing
insanely well as of late, in his last thirteen games,
he's averaging twenty six points per game on fifty one
percent from the field and thirty five percent from three
really really high level hoops Fromjaron Jaron Jackson. Memphis Grizzlies
right right now, plus twenty five hundred to win the title,
(35:42):
plus one thousand to win the Western Conference. Number four
the Boston Celtics. They've been in a weird funk for
a while. They're just thirteen and ten in their last
twenty three games, really good offensive rating and defensive rating
in that stretch because they've just had some incredibly dominant
wins in there that kind of mess up the data.
Settling has been the main issue for them losses, just
specifically Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum just attacking mismatches by
(36:05):
shooting over the top instead of being physically aggressive downhill
to compromise the defense so they can get their kickout
so they can get their driving kick game going, which
again is when Boston is at their best when they're
driving and kicking the ball around. But I did think
their win against Dallas is one of their most impressive
wins as of late. Jalen Brown demonstrated a ton more
physical aggression and was just living in the paint right
(36:25):
in front of the rim. Was getting some of those
driving kicks to Chris hops porzingis that we know that
he has when he's playing his best basketball. They got
back to moving the ball around. Out of their forty
four makes, they had thirty three assists. That's a strong
indicator of the Celtics getting into their driving kick game.
And then they just really clamped down on Dallas's offense,
like we all know that they're capable of on defense,
and they looked like the Celtics again. They have looked
(36:47):
a little tired even in that early stretch against Dallas.
They play every other day until the All Star Break,
but at that point they do finally get arrest and
I think the All Star break is going to be
really good for the Celtics before they kind of kick
it into gear for the home stretch. They're now plus
two thirty five to win the title, plus one zho
five to win the Eastern Conference. Number three the Houston Rockets.
We talked a bunch about them at the top of
(37:08):
today's show, so I'm not going to get too much deeper,
but they just continue to rack up incredibly impressive wins
with their latest two wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers. I
talked about this in the earlier part of the show,
but they've been the best team in the league this
year against the best teams in the league. Against teams
that have top ten point differentials, Houston's won fourteen times,
which is which stands alone, is the most in the league,
(37:28):
seventy eight percent win percentage, which is also the highest
percentage in the league, fifth in offensive rating and third
in defensive rating against teams in the top ten in
point differential. Again, I have concerns about their offense in
the playoffs, but it's hard to deny that they're not
having just an incredible regular season and a men Thompson
is going to be an absolute star. He's still so raw,
but he's already just bludgeoning teams on both ends of
(37:50):
the floor with his athleticism. It's crazy to think of
what he could be in the long run. The Rockets
right now plus five thousand to win the NBA title,
plus sixteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number two
the Cleveland Cavaliers. We also hit them at the top
of the show, so I'm not going to get too
deep into them here, but they've lost five out of eight,
lost their identity in a bunch of ways. They've got
to get it back. They got to get back to
defending as a unit, both on the perimeter and on
(38:12):
the interior, so that they can start forcing turnovers again,
so that they can start getting back out in transition,
and then when they get stuck in the half court,
they need to trust the pass. Mainly talking about Donovan
Mitchell there has had some some of his worst floor
game as of late in the last few weeks. Once
they get that ball in player movement back, I think
they'll get back on track, especially if they get their
(38:33):
defense going again. The Cavs right now plus nine to
fifty to win the title, plus three seventy to win
the Eastern Conference and number one the Oklahoma City Thunder
has been a really weird stretch of their schedule. Their
last five games, They've played three bad teams that they beat,
and then they play the Dallas Mavericks twice, who they
lost to, and Dallas is a bad matchup for them
in general, but especially when they don't have their bigs
Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren right in the latest loss
(38:55):
to Dallas, the one, the second one, they really struggled
with this like bizarre zone look that Jason Kidd used
where he just took the top two guys in the
zone and just doubled Shay, Like as soon as he
crossed half court, they were going after him to get
the ball out of his hands, and it just kind
of discombobulated the thunder and they fell apart. But it
feels very matchup related, and this is something that I
think we need to keep in mind as we look
at Oklahoma City struggling with Dallas, as we look at
(39:17):
teams like the Lakers struggling with teams like the Clippers,
as we look at teams like the Nuggets struggling with
the Timberwolves. Like, when you look at that sort of thing,
it's just a reminder of what I talked about last year.
Going into the postseason. A lot of this Western Conference
is going to come down to matchups. Catching teams that
you match up well against versus and avoiding teams that
you match up poorly against could literally be the difference
(39:39):
between losing in the first round and going to the
NBA Finals. So like, let's keep that in mind as
we are looking at our playoff field for the West.
As we get closer, matchups are going to play a
huge role in how this whole thing ends up. The
Thunder right now plus two to seventy to win the title,
plus one to twenty five to win the Western Conference.
And as always, our ads our odds, excuse me, are
(39:59):
from our partner, Draft Kings. All right, guys, it's all
I have for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I hope
you have a good rest of your evening. We'll be
back tomorrow with some more game reactions. I'll see you
guys then the volume. What's up guys, As always, I
appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It
would actually be really helpful for us if you guys
(40:21):
would take a second and leave a rating and a review.
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
Host
Jason Timpf
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.