Hoops Tonight - NBA Reaction: SGA & Thunder "special," Bucks ARE BACK, Luka erupts, Grizzlies-Lakers
December 16, 2024 • 38 mins
Jason Timpf reacts to the NBA's weekend action including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder as well as Giannis Antetokounmpo's Milwaukee Bucks advancing to the NBA Cup championship game. Jason discusses how OKC is playing "special basketball" and why the Bucks are back among his top championship contenders. Later, Jason shares his NBA power rankings including Luka Doncic's Dallas Mavericks, Jayson Tatum's Boston Celtics, and Ja Morant's Memphis Grizzlies - despite their loss to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.
Timeline:
4:00 - Introduction
5:00 - SGA is playing "special basketball"
11:15 - Thunder must prioritize Hartenstein
15:45 - Rockets need shot creator
24:45 - Bucks are championship contenders
27:30 - NBA stars putting on a show
30:00 - NBA Power Rankings
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)
#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. It's the most wonderful time of the year
for getting in on all of the hoops, football and
hockey action at Draft Kings Sportsbook. In the season of giving,
we're being gifted college football and basketball, Pro football and
basketball and pro hockey too. Almost twenty four to seven.
So many games every day, so many opportunities to place
your first bet. Try betting on something simple like picking
(00:22):
a team to win. Go to the Draft Kings sportsbook
Gap and place your bet. Current Super Bowl winners on
DraftKings right now the Detroit Lions at plus two to
sixty and the Kansas City Chiefs at plus four to
twenty five. And here's a gift for all new customers.
Bet five dollars to get one hundred and fifty dollars
in bonus bets if your bet wins. Download the Draft
King Sportsbook Gap and use code hoops that's h oops.
(00:44):
That's code hoops for new customers to get one hundred
and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins.
When you bet just five bucks, Happy Holidays from DraftKings.
The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred
gambler in New York call eight seven seven eight hope
and why, or text hope and why to four to six,
seven three six and Connecticut Help Us available for problem
gambling call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven
(01:04):
seven seven or.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by
jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive award.
Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance.
For additional turns and responsible gaming resources to dkang dot co.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Slash b Ball.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
All right, we'll come Hoops tonight. You're at the ball.
You've got you Monday, everybody, I'll ball. If you guys
had a great weekend, you had a jampack show for
you today. Off the top, we're gonna do my top
five takeaways from the inn season tournament semifinal games, and
then after that, like we do every Monday, we'll do
power rankings going through our top ten teams in the league.
You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
(01:57):
to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
JSNLT so you guys don't miss sho announcements. Don't forget
about our podcast feed wherever eat your podcast or Hoops Tonight,
don't forget. It's also helpful if you leave a rating
and a review on that front. We also have brand
new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for
the Hoops Tonight channel. Make sure you guys follow us
there where. We will be releasing more content throughout this
(02:18):
season and the last but not least, keep dropping mail
bag questions in the YouTube comments so we can hit
them in our Friday mail bags throughout the rest of
the way. Here, all right, let's talk some basketball. So
five big takeaways from the n Season Tournament semi final games.
Number One, shay Giljes Alexander is playing some truly special basketball.
(02:39):
He shook off a really rough shooting start in the
first half. Kind Of an interesting matchup between Houston and
Oklahoma City because to elite perimeter defense groups with.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
A lot of speed.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
But there's just a huge difference in the total amount
of offensive skill between those two rosters, which continue to
bear out, especially when you got into the second half
of that game. But Shay, obviously, it's like you're facing
a steady diet of guys like Dylan Brooks and a
Men Thompson and really strong, physical, long defenders that can
take away a lot of the advantages that Shay has
(03:11):
against other guards in the league. Right, But like, he
just stayed with it after having a rough shooting start,
really started to get going in that third quarter, hit
some ridiculous isolation moves against a Men Thompson, who's one
of the best perimeter defenders in the league. I trimmed
an example of one where he dribbled really hard at
a men's left shoulders or right handed drive and a
(03:31):
men cut.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It off as he should.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
He's a quick athlete laterally, as quick an athlete laterally
as you'll find in the league. He's not the guy
you're gonna beat with the first move, right, Like, there's
I always think about these isolation matchups as like, there's
the advantage that the offensive player has, right. So, like,
for instance, if you are a player that is considerably
faster and maybe a bit stronger than the guy you're
(03:54):
going against, you don't want to mess around with the ball.
You just want to rip through like immediately on the
catch and allow your first step and your strength to
power through the defensive player and go right. But when
you're in a matchup like this where it's kind of
the opposite where the guy who's guarding you is maybe
a little taller, maybe a little quicker, and a guy
that you can't go through, then suddenly it becomes about misdirection,
(04:17):
change of change of pace, counter moves, like getting that
defender out of position one way or another. Right, So
Shae hits a hard dribble move to the right, a
man cuts him off, takes the contact in the chest,
and shape pulls back the dribble through his legs to
his left hand. But I had this coaching Juco that
used to talk about this, and it's something that I've
(04:38):
always tried to imprint on the kids that I train
when I'm training my high school kids, and that is
when you're in your dribble moves, it's more important to
focus on hitting dribble moves in drills attached to an
actual forward movement, something that's an attack, or in the
case of shooting, attaching it to a jump shot. So
like when I do ball handling drills with the kids
(05:00):
always like we're ball handling into an aggressive forward move
or we're ball handling into a jump shot off the dribble.
If you can't connect the move to what comes next,
then the move is useless. There are a lot of
guys in the league that if they get cut off,
can pull back between their legs back to their left hand.
Go to this clip that I posted on my Twitter
(05:20):
feed again at underscore json LT. You'll see as Shay
takes that contact and pulls it back between his legs,
he's immediately back forward and because he's able to do that,
he's able to get an angle on a Men Thompson.
Then a Men Thompson again because he's a men Thompson
recovers with his lateral quickness to get back in front
of Shay. But as a man is taking that aggressive
(05:42):
step to get back in front of him, that's when
Shay lifts up off the dribble, catching him Men Thompson
between steps and he's able to get enough separation to
knock down the shots. Just super super elite dribble combination
work footwork to get an opening against one of the
best perimeter defenders in the league. And I've talked about
this with Shay before, but he's one of the best
(06:04):
at connecting multiple dribble combinations in contact. It's one of
the biggest things that players struggle with is they can
when things are free, when it's like, oh, if I
can hit a move to get a guy set up
for a screen, and I can get him separated from
me on a screen, then yeah, I can hit an
in and out dribble into a step back, or I
can cross over to snake the pick and roll or
(06:24):
something when I'm in space. But it's very different when
you're in a congested environment, when you have a lot
of bodies around you. We're gonna get a little bit
further into this when we talk about Hartenstein, but this
is the type of scoring that has more playoff resiliency
when you can do it in contact, when you can
do it in congestion. That is the type of shot
making that inevitably rises to the surface when you get
(06:48):
to the postseason. Defense is locked down all your pet actions,
the easy opportunities are few and far between, and it
becomes a lot about squeezing extra bits of offense out
of late clock situations. In situations where your offense doesn't
work and you need somebody to rescue. And again, like
just he'll dribble at you. It doesn't matter if you
cut him off, He's always gonna chain it to the
(07:08):
next counter move. Doesn't matter if you cut him off again,
he'll chain it to the next counter move. Oh, you
cut him off a few times, he'll get rid of
the ball, pop right back out, get it and rip back.
If you overplay, he'll backcut. That's the thing that Isaiah
Hartenstein has helped unlock, right, Just a lot of really
really high level offensive stuff out of Shake Gild justs
Alexander really really impressive second half against the Houston Rockets.
His last fifteen games, Shay's averaging thirty three points, five rebounds,
(07:34):
and six assists on fifty two percent from the field,
thirty eight percent from three, and eighty five percent from
the line. The pull up three point shot, that's something
he was working on a lot in the early part
of the season, has really been a boost to his offense.
He's averaging seven three point attempts per game in that
fifteen game stretch. Six of those seven three point attempts
are off the dribble, and he's sitting him at thirty
(07:55):
five percent over thirty five percent, which is going to
get him over a point shot, which makes it a
useful shot for him in half court situations. Again, and
we talked about this a lot. Him and Jalen Williams
spent a lot of time this summer working on that
pull up jump shot from the three point line rather
than from the mid range area. And by the way,
in that game, Oklahoma City trailing by one in the
(08:15):
second half, Bang bang, a pull up three by Shae
Yioss Alexander off the dribble, Another pull up three by
Jalen Williams, kind of in a ball screen as a defender,
one underneath the pick, a couple pull up threes. All
of a sudden, Oklahoma City's up five and they never
look back. That's the type of thing that will be
a ceiling razor for this Thunder team off the dribble,
(08:36):
three point shooting, adding layers to the offense that weren't
there last year. Number two, The Thunder in the big picture,
need to start thinking of Isaiah Hartenstein as one of
their core five players and not just a bench weapon
or a player with which to facilitate a big look.
The Isaiah Hartenstein fit in Oklahoma City has been an
(08:57):
absolute dream on both ends of the flour. In defense,
he provides a credible option for power centers. Shane Gun
has been cooking a lot of centers around the league,
including some of the better defensive players at the center
position in the league. He's playing really good basketball. He's
been Houston's best player this year. He's a huge like
to be able to have a player that can hang
(09:17):
with the Shane Goon the way that Hartenstein did in
that game really given Shang Gun a lot of fits
in that particular game, his ability to be a credible
weapon in that type of matchup. But then also a
guy that you can throw at Jokich, a guy you
can throw at Sabonis, a guy you can throw at
use of Nurkic, a guy you can throw out Anthony Davis,
(09:37):
a guy you can throw out Jaron Jackson, who's trying
to hakeem everybody in the league at this point in time.
Zubas like whoever you run into in a Western Conference
playoff series, there's a good chance if you're gonna win
multiple playoff rounds that you'll have to go through multiple
power centers, and power centers can.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Give chet issues at times.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Now Chet has also won those battles sometimes, but he's
at physical disadvantages there, and har Hartenstein just makes their
center rotation that much more formidable in a conference where
you kind of need to have a formidable center rotation.
I thought he did a really nice job on Shangun.
He's also solid across the board as a defender. He
can run credible drop coverages at the level coverages he
(10:18):
can switch pretty well. Has really anchored them on the glass.
Again when he's off the floor this year, when Hartenstein's
off the floor, the Thunder are giving up an offensive
rebound on thirty three percent of their opponent's missus. With
Isaiah Hartenstein on the floor, that number decreases by five
point six percent. So, again to clarify it, when Hartenstein
(10:40):
is off the floor, the Thunder their defensive rebounding percentage
is sixty seven percent, meaning opponents get thirty three percent back.
When Hartenstein is on the floor, their defensive rebound percentage
rises all the way up to seventy two point six percent,
So they're giving up an offensive rebound on just twenty
seven point four percent of their opponent's missus. That's a
gigantic difference. That's the difference between like untenably bad and
(11:04):
pretty good. And that's what Isaiah Hartenstein has done for
this team in their physicality on the front line and
then on the offense, just greasing the wheels, just connecting
actions with his side to side, flowing handoffs, opening up
actions with his screening, finishing plays with his scoring. He's
generating four offensive rebounds per thirty six minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
He's just too good.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Like, I don't think you can leave him on the
bench all that often or change too much of your
approach when Chet comes back, because he's one of your
five best players. When Chet comes back, I would lean
as much as possible into Chet Hartenstein lineups together because
when Chet comes back again, like when Chet comes back,
there's gonna be you're gonna have to do a certain
amount of staggering to keep it big on the floor
(11:46):
all the time. There's gonna be a certain amount of
like lineups that are gonna have one big on the floor.
But my thing is, like when you're in a big spot,
when you're in a big playoff series, again, there's some
matchup flexibility, but there's such a gap between Isaiah Hartenstein
and the sixth best player on the team, or I
should say, Isai Hartenstein's more like the fourth best player
on the team. But like if you go Shay Jay
(12:06):
Dub Chet or Shaye Chet Jay Dub, however you want
to order it, then there's Dorton Hartenstein. If you take
Hartenstein off the floor and replace him with a guy
like an Isaiah Joe or a case On Wallace or
Alex Cruzo, those are good players and there will be
matchups where that makes sense. But I think Isaiah Hartenstein
is just that good, and I think they need a
lean into as much opportunity and repetition as possible for
(12:27):
Chet and Isaiah to play together, because inevitably, I think
that will give them the best opportunity to leave all
five of their best players on the floor when the
chips are down. Side note, lou Dort was incredible in
that Rockets game. He had five threes, including some really
tightly contested ones. You know the classic lou Dort like
doesn't even look like he's that open, but he just
shoots that skyball that just goes like thirty feet in
(12:50):
the air and just falls right through the rim. He
also had three steals, a couple of crazy ones too.
He had one where he was denying Fred van Vliet
almost out at half court and then disengaged from Fred
to steal a tree pass to a different player that
was flashing around the right wing. Just an unbelievable player
who's incredibly useful and fills a very important role for
that Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City team number three. Houston is
(13:14):
a really talented team, but their development as a team
will be stunted until they can get a legitimate, high
level perimeter shot creator and no Albern Shangun is not enough.
Houston did periodically cause problems for Oklahoma City in transition
in that game, but they got absolutely bludgeoned in the
half court. Oklahoma City outscored Houston in the half court
(13:36):
by forty points per one hundred possessions. Houston managed just
a sixty three offensive rating per cleaning the glass in
the half court in that game against Oklahoma City. That's
completely untenable. Once again, just complete duds from Jalen Green
and Fred Van Vliet that combined to go two for
(13:56):
nineteen from three. A lot of really bad off the
dribble ones too. They were kind of telegraphing him It
kind of felt like anytime you gave them the ball,
they'd call for the ball screen and they would both
just like dribble as hard as they could to get
to the other side of the screen and just rise
up and shoot, sometimes without even making a read. There's
a play where Fred van vliet came off of a
screen and got blocked on a pull up three, and
I just don't even know what he saw. The big
(14:16):
was up at the level, it wasn't open. I just
I just didn't know what he was doing. It was
a really, really weird game from those guys. Houston's half
court offense on the season now is managing just ninety
point five points per one hundred possessions. That ranks twenty fifth.
These are three teams that have more efficient half court
offenses than the Houston Rockets, the Toronto Raptors, the Utah Jazz,
(14:39):
and the Detroit Pistons. Again, that is completely untenable. So
this story just eventually ends with them packaging one or
two of their young players in draft compensation, with Fred
van Vlietz expiring forty three million dollars deal to bring
in a star. They just to find the right guy.
I was kind of poking around this morning, because like,
I think they're the kind of team that needs to
wait for the right guy. But so much of it
(15:00):
depends on how much they want to manage their cap situation,
because like you have Shanegon and Jalen Green's contracts, their
extensions kicking next year, so you've got all that money,
but you don't have to pay guys like a Men
Thompson or Jabari Smith Junior. I think Jabari Smith you
have to pay like the year after next, and then
a Men Thompson and even a year further into the future.
So because they're not going to have to do any
(15:22):
sort of significant extension or new deal for somebody in
the next couple of years, I wonder if they're the
team that makes sense for zach Lavine. Like I wonder
if they're the team that should just call up Chicago
and be like, we'll give you Fred van Vliet for
zach Lavine straight up the boy. It benefits both teams
as Chicago gets off of zach Lavine's money because it's
(15:43):
two additional years at that number, right, but Houston in
the short term gets a much better offensive player in
Zach Lavine to hopefully unlock something in the half court
with how good this Houston defense is, and at the
end of the day, it passes the buck for the
superstar trade down the line. I just wonder if they're
to end up letting Fred go because they just don't
want to deal with the money element of it. And
(16:04):
we'll see there's obviously cap ramifications as it pertains to
the second apron, and it could affect some of their
decision making down the roster. But like you know, it's
one of those things where it's like, are they gonna
jump on a Jimmy Butler, Well, it's like, I don't
know if that's the right move. Are they gonna jump
on a Brandon Ingram I don't think he's the right
type of guy for them to go for.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
So, like you're.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Trying to wait for the right type of star to
become available so that you can throw the kitchen sink
at him, bring him in and try to run for
a championship.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Well, one of the ways to pass the buck in
that regard is a term Fred van Vliet and expiring
mediocre star player not even a star into Zach Lavine
a little bit longer term deal obviously, but you're in
a stretch right now where you're not trying to do
much anyway. You could turn around and trade him in
the future if you need to. Prevents you from losing
Fred van Vliet for nothing this summer, unless they want to.
They may want to lose Fred van Vliet for nothing
(16:55):
this summer.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
But like, that's just one of the guys that I
was thinking. Here's the thing. I don't think any but
he's gonna make trade for zach Lavine. But as I
try to conceptualize a version of a situation where a
team might be like, hey, let's go get zach Lavine,
the one that I'm looking at right now is like
Fred van Vliet and Zach Lvine make basically the same
money right now for this season. So if you could
(17:17):
turn Fred van Vliet into a much, much, much better
offensive player overnight, that could be the kind of thing
that gives this Houston team a more formidable two way
attack as opposed to just the defense that can't score
when they could strangle in a half court. Number three,
(17:46):
It's time to go back to viewing the Bucks as
a legitimate second tier championship contender. After the rough start
they had this season. I know it felt like it
was impossible. They've really turned it around and played some
really good basketball, another really impressive win over a good
Atlanta Hi team in the NBA Cup semi final. They're
twelve and three in their last fifteen games. That's tied
(18:07):
for the best record in the league over that span.
Eleventh in offense, tenth in defense, eighth the net rating.
Still struggling a bit with their athleticism deficiencies in a
couple of areas, namely the glass and then in transition,
but they're really competing night in and night out to
build better habits and attention to detail. They found an
orientation on defense that is working by leaning more into
Andre Jackson and AJ Green than they were into Pat
(18:30):
Connaton and delonn Right. That's been working. And then on offense,
the return of Chris Middleton has brought this influx of
ball handling, which they've really needed. He's had twenty three
assists and just six turnovers in his four games since returning.
They'll have games where teams are showing at the level
against Chris and Dame and they'll just rep Giannis as
a roller all night long, and he'll crush teams as
a roller. Then they'll face teams like Atlanta who do
(18:52):
a lot more switching, and then they'll start going to
Giannis attacking mismatches in the post, or Dame attacking forwards
from the perimeter. There's a sequence at the end of
the Hawks game where it's like, Jalen Johnson's on Giannis,
Dyson Daniels is on Dame. They run a ball screen,
there's a switch. Jiannis takes Dyson Daniels down to the block,
promptly draws a double team, makes a beautiful pass Brook Lopez.
(19:12):
He gets a layup. Okay, you run the same ball screen.
It's a switch now. Jalen Johnson is on Dame, Dyson
Daniels on Giannis. Dame takes Jalen Johnson off the drubble,
gets right into the lane. Because Jalen Johnson, even as
good of an athlete as he is, Dame is just
really small and quick. He gets past him, sinks a floater,
and it ice is the game, right, Like, they have
different ways that they can attack based on the different
(19:33):
matchups that they're going against. And again, they were in
a bad funk to start this year. They didn't look
serious about their goals or committed to the work. But
their process has been really good over the last month
and they have completely turned around their fortunes. They are
rightfully underdogs against Oklahoma City right now. Draft Kings has
them as a four and a half point underdog, But
if they can go into Vegas tomorrow night and get
a win, that would be a huge statement about their
(19:55):
potential within this season. Giannis will have speed and size
mismatches against everybody sickly on the thunder roster. If you
can dominate that game, they get enough stops, they keep
Oklahoma City attitude, transition, they don't turn the basketball over
too much. Again, that's a game that could get ugly
for Milwaukee. We've seen that type of game get ugly
for Milwaukee. The younger, faster, more athletic team gets a
(20:15):
bunch of steals and runs it down their throat and transition.
If they can avoid that and kind of trap things
and have Giannis dominate, they got a shot and if
they can win that game, it'd be a big statement
about their potential. We're going to talk more about the
Hawks game here in a second as part of this
next question. Lastly, number five, the top five players are
putting on a show as they jockey for position at
(20:35):
the top of this league. Yiannis was just absolutely unreal
down the stretch of the Atlanta game. Obviously had the
huge block against Clint Capella and help at the rim.
That's a just deja vu vu from the twenty twenty
one NBA Finals, Giannis blocking a alley up dunk in
a really important, you know, high stakes situation like that.
But he also did some of the most surgical half
(20:56):
court work I've ever seen Jiannis do in the NBA.
He had a beautiful cross court pass to Andre Jackson
in crunch time for three in the in the in
the right corner, just beautiful pass, beautiful read in a
ball screen. He had like a left hand a left
shoulder fade away that he hit on the left block
in clutch time where he like, like for a right
handed shooter to turn and fade over your left shoulder
(21:17):
is the hardest shot because you have to swing your
entire body around to get squared up. Really high level
bit of shot making from Jannis is like over a
double team. He just like elevated like Kobe Bryant over
his left shoulder to knock down a mid range jump shot.
Then he had this beautiful post up feed where he
got that switch I was talking about this earlier where
gets Dyson Daniels in a switch off of the Dame action,
(21:38):
backs him down, draws Clint Capella, and help feeds brook
Lopez nicely right in front of the rim for that
little layup. Just really nice surgical work from Jannis. And
here's the thing, Like Yo Kich is still the best
player in the world and I haven't seen anything that's
changed my opinion on that. But all of these top
tier stars are playing some unbelievable basketball. We talked about
shake Yil just Alexander off the top of the show.
(22:00):
Giannis is averaging thirty four eleven and seven in his
last thirteen games. Luca's been kicking, but since he came
back from his injury. He just dropped a forty five
eleven and thirteen to beat the Warriors in Golden State
last night. Tatum's numbers have taken a little dip in
the last few weeks. His last nine games, he's at
twenty nine ten and five, or excuse me, twenty five,
ten and five on just forty four percent from the field.
(22:20):
In twenty nine percent from three, but he was playing
some of the best basketball of his career before that,
and he had a little bit of a knee injury.
So the point is is, like the top of this
league is just in an absolutely crazy place right now.
It actually reminds me of about six or seven years
ago when like Lebron was still at the top of
his league, like at the top of his game, in
the top of the league. Stephan kd Are both like
hot on his tail, like getting their shit together of
(22:43):
winning those titles in Golden State, James Harden's coming up
right like that was right around the time Jiannis and
Yanna started to get his kind of like momentum as
a number one player in the league. Like a lot
of talent at the top of the league right now,
it just feels like there's a lot of guys competing
for that time, which is again a credit to Joki
because I still think he has a hold on it
(23:04):
at this point. All right, let's get into our power rankings.
It's going to be quick hitters on a lot of these.
Most of the teams in the NBA have only played
once or twice since our last rankings, so We're not
going to get too deep into those, but all of
our odds are provided by our partner at DraftKings. Again,
after every single team, I will give you guys their
conference odds and their title odds.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Number ten.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
The Miami Heat only one game last week, a win
at home over the Toronto Raptors. Tyler Harrow continues his
excellent start to the season, and bam Adebayo's offense is
starting to take off. He's averaging seven assists per game
over his last eight games, and he's averaging twenty one
points per game after his last three games. And all
of the reporting has been indicating that the Heat are
(23:46):
looking to move on from Jimmy Butler at some point
before the deadline. Who knows where he'll end up, but
I think it's a good idea. This is a team
that is starting to play some good basketball. They've won
four in a row against some good teams and Tyler
Harrow and bam Adebayo really taking off. That partnership is working.
So it's as good a time as any to try
to turn Jimmy Butler into assets that will help the
(24:07):
Heat kind of propel themselves into the next era. Right now,
the Miami Heater, plus fourteen hundred to win the Eastern
Conference and plus thirty five hundred to win the title.
Number nine the Denver Nuggets just one game last week,
a blowout of the Clippers on Friday Night. A weird
game with a lot of turnovers and a lot of
the game being played in transition, but they were able
(24:27):
to win comfortably without needing a superhero game from Jokic.
She went for just sixteen, seven and two in that game.
Six guys in double figures for the Nuggets, including both
Julian Strawther and Peyton Watson off the bench, so a
nice little bounce back. They had lost five out of eight,
and they had back to back blowout wins after that
to get back on track. The Nuggets right now are
(24:48):
plus six fifty to win the Western Conference plus fourteen
hundred to win the NBA Championship. Number eight the New
York Knicks disappointing loss in the n Season Tournament quarterfly
quarterfinal game. Completely they lost control of Atlanta in the
third quarter. They got going in transition, they got going
on the offensive glass, The momentum just like completely shifted.
Then Trey just started picking them apart in the half
(25:10):
court in ball screens, and then the Knicks entered a
funk on offense, missed a bunch of open shots, and
they never regained control. They really struggled to keep them
off the offensive glass. In that fourth quarter stretch when
they were trying to make a run, they gave up
nine offensive rebounds. It was a really interesting example of
basketball momentum. Synergy has this graph where they just basically
(25:30):
show like a bar graph that kind of works across
from the start to the finish of the game, and
as the lead shifts, the bar, like if you know,
if New York's up five, to the bar will be
a little five point bar up top, but if if
they go down five, it'll be, you know, a five
point bar on the bottom. To the colors of those teams,
And it was such an interesting visual example of the
(25:52):
shift in momentum because like, the Knicks just completely had
control of the game for two and a half quarters,
like it was all blue, and then suddenly it was
just like a hard shift to red and then it
was all read the rest of the way. It was
like really bizarre to see just that visual representation of
the gigantic shift in momentum the Knicks were playing really
good basketball, but just a couple of plays like that's
(26:14):
the thing.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Plays can snowball.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
A couple guys, make a couple of steals, get out
and transition couple layups. That sets your defense. You start
to get a little lively. Then you get stuck in
the half court. But Tray rescues you. A few times
the Knicks start missing some shots. It can it can
spin out of control pretty quickly for you. And that
was a classic example of that. But the next day
get a nice bounce back win in Orlando in a
(26:37):
game where Jalen Suggs, who had been killing everybody, finally
came back to earth. On offense, the Knicks are eleven
and four in their last fifteen games. They're still the
number one offense in the league. Over that span, they're
up to fifteenth in defense. The defensive rebounding issues that
came up in the Atlanta game are a bit of
a trend. They were seventh in defensive rebounding in their
first eleven games. They're twentieth in defensive rebounding in their
(26:59):
last fifth team games. So just something to keep an
eye on there. They're not competing on the glass as
well as they did the knickstar plus four point fifty
to win the Eastern Conference plus one thousand to win
the NBA Championship. Number seven the Memphis Grizzlies just two
games last week. They beat the Brooklyn Nets and talked
a bunch of shit while doing it. That was the
Jordi Fernandez Ja Moran show.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
That we saw.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
But then they got beat wire to wire by the Lakers.
Didn't take a single lead in that game. John Moran
had a really hard time with the Max Christy Anthony
Davis duo. He had twelve made field goals and assists,
twenty two missed field goals in turnovers. Really really tough
game for Jaw. The jump shot was the issue. He
was just two for nine on jump shots against the Lakers.
He's shooting just twenty nine percent this year off the
(27:43):
dribble on jump shots, which is making it a lot
easier for teams to not have to come up to
the level or have to worry about him. The Lakers
did a lot of work at the level with him
last night, but you don't have to worry about Jaw
knocking down shots at balls in ball screens from the
perimeter and that is allowed, showing teams more defensive flexibility
with their scheme again shooting just twenty nine percent this
(28:05):
year on off the dribble jump shots. The Lakers have
their roster limitations, but they did a good job of
keeping either Max or Cam Reddish or gave Vincent on
him all night with either Anthony Davis or Christian Caloco
waiting on him at the rim. And the Grizzly still
have some spacing issues there are just twenty fifth overall
on the season and spot up efficiency. Last night they
had thirty two spot up opportunities against the Lakers and
(28:27):
they converted them to just nineteen points. So that's the
one big red flag with Memphis right now is they
can still bog down a little bit on offense from
time to time when teams packed the paint because of
their inability to convert spot up possessions. That game against
the Lakers last night was a good example of that.
The Grizzlies right now plus fourteen hundred to win the
Western Conference, plus three thousand to win an NBA title,
(28:48):
And for Lakers fans who are listening and wondering where
I'm at with the Lakers after last night, good win.
They'll have any more good wins this year. They may
even have some streaks of good wins. But for this team,
it's not about what they can be when they're at
their best. It's about their commitment to the work on
a daily basis over the months it would take to
build the habits necessary for this roster to be a
(29:11):
great team, and I just don't think that this group
is up to the task mentally. For example, their next
six games they're at Sacramento, at Sacramento again, home for
Detroit at Golden State, and then home for Sacramento and
home for Cleveland. If they commit to the work, they
might be okay. Last night was another one of those
two or three games I've seen from the Lakers this
(29:31):
year where they look super connected and committed on defense.
They've also been running some more traditional at the level
coverages in ball screens instead of switching, which is a
good idea. I don't think this roster is really the
right type of roster for switching, but more often than
not this year, they have not been willing to do
that work on the defensive end of the floor, and
I don't think they'll do it in the next few weeks.
(29:53):
These are some tough matchups on the road against some
teams that are a lot more athletic on the perimeter,
which is a specific weakness for the A serious and
committed Lakers team would probably go four and two in
this stretch. They probably split the Sacramento games on the road,
and they'd probably win all of the home games. I
think it's more likely that they go two and four
in the six game stretch. My guess is that they
(30:14):
drop both games in Sacramento. My guess is they lose
in Golden State. My guess is they lose at home
to Cleveland. Maybe they get Sacramento at home, and then
they probably will get Detroit at home. But like that's
just how I feel because in order to go win
all of these games on the road against tough, fast,
perimeter teams like that, they need to be sharp and
committed on defense. And it's just something I haven't seen
(30:34):
this year, but we'll see. My belief in this team
is completely lost, you know, Like you watched last night
and it's like Ad is kicking the shit out of
Jaron Jackson and Lebron is engaged in flying around making
plays on both ends, and Austin Reeves is back and
he's out playing Desmond Baane like straight up. It all
looks good, but I'm not falling for it again. Number
(30:57):
six The Houston Rockets. We hit them in the opening segment,
so I won't hit them again. But the Rockets right
now are plus twenty two hundred to win the Western Conference,
plus sixty five hundred to win the NBA title. The
Milwaukee Bucks, we also hit them in the opening segment,
so I won't hit them again. The Bucks are plus
eight hundred to win the Eastern Conference, plus eighteen hundred
to win the NBA Finals.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Number four the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Really disappointing loss in the n Season Tournament quarterfinals to
Oklahoma City, But I was actually impressed by Dallas in
that performance. I know it sounds crazy to say, but
I really poured over the film in that one. I
did a full film session on that game. You can
find that in our feed. It's labeled Western Conference Finals Preview.
I think it was like thirty seven clips from that
game where I went into extensive detail. But I thought
(31:40):
Dallas handled Oklahoma City's blitzes and their doubles really well.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
They just completely botched the game. In their own backcourt.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
They gave up countless offensive rebounds, a lot of turnovers
before they even got the ball across half court, like
turnovers on outlet passes, turnovers on kickhead passes, turnovers just
bringing the ball down after rebounds and not paying attention
to what was happening after them. I saw someone say
on Twitter, like that's just what Oklahoma City does, and yeah,
that's true. But Oklahoma City averages ten offensive rebounds and
(32:07):
twenty three points off of turnovers per game. They gave
up seventeen offensive rebounds and thirty six points off of
turnovers per game. So you clean that up. I'm not
saying you're gonna hold him to zero and zero, but
you clean that up a little bit. You have a
bigger lead in the first half, you're more well positioned
to withstand a scoring onslot like what you saw from
Shay to start that third quarter, and.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Maybe you win that game.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And then Dallas bounced back with a super impressive road
win in Golden State against the Warriors. They put up
one hundred and forty three points. They jumped them right
off the bat. They had eighty one in the first half,
really strangled Golden State's offense. In the starting group, they
outscored the Golden State's starting lineup by eighteen points.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
As a kind of.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
A butt kicking starters vers starters, Luca goes for a
preposterous forty five points, eleven rebounds and thirteen assists, Six
guys scoring double figures. Nice little revenge game for Klay Thompson.
He goes for a season high twenty nine, a lot
of damage just on skip passes, in ball screens and
in transition when the Warriors were losing him. The Warriors
on multiple occasions made pushes and got the game close,
(33:08):
only for Dallas to immediately pull away. I still think
that's the second best team in the Western Conference, if
you agree with me. The Mavericks right now are plus
five point fifty to win the conference and plus eleven
hundred to win the NBA title. Number three the Boston Celtics.
Just two games last week, blowouts of the Wizards and
the Pistons, all really balanced. They had six guys in
(33:28):
double figures against Detroit, seven guys in double figures against Washington.
Peyton Pritchard had a really nice game against the Troy.
He went for twenty seven, just cruising through kind of
an easy stretch of their schedule. The only weird thing
is is that Jason Tatum's jumpers cooled way off again,
and his last nine games he's twenty five points, ten rebounds,
five assists, forty four percent from the field twenty nine
percent from three. On the season. Now he's down to
(33:51):
zero point nine to five points per pull up jump
shot one point zero two points per jump shot. Overall,
those are both just barely up from where he was
last year, but important context, he was dealing with a
knee injury missed some games. When your knees aren't right,
it affects your ability to Like a jump shot is
not just a flip of the wrist. A jump shot
(34:14):
is a transfer of energy from the floor starting with
your feet all the way through the snap of your wrist.
And if your knees bothering you and you're not getting
the same level of lyft on your jump shot, it
throws the entire equation at a whack. And I personally
feel like, whenever I don't have my legs underneath me,
it's harder to shoot. Everybody who's ever played basketball knows
exactly what I'm talking about, So like I more of
(34:35):
the opinion that this is mostly having to do with
the knee, and then over the next couple of weeks
here Tatum will probably just go back to being blazing
hot and get his numbers back up where they were.
But just kind of a weird trend again in the
power rankings, I've had the Celtics lower, but to me,
I still think they're a clear cut number one. I
was watching Okay see Houston yesterday and then I've watched
(34:55):
a bit of it yesterday and a bit of it
this morning. The the Thunder still takes so many stupid shots.
They still do. There's still just a lot of young players.
They have a lot of guys on the floor like
j dub Is still a little like this, Lou dort
is a little like this. They have some guys that
will just go off script and just take a bad
shot from time to time, especially when the situation doesn't
(35:17):
call for it. I still think I trust Boston's execution
better in a playoff series. That is why, despite the
fact that I think the Thunder had been playing some
really really good basketball, potentially even better basketball than Boston
within the context of the regular season, I still think
that Boston is the safest bet to win the title
by a pretty decent margin if you agree with me.
(35:38):
The Celtics right now are plus one oh five to
win the conference and plus two forty to win the
NBA title. Number two the Cleveland Cavaliers just one game
last week, a win over the Wizards at home. Donovan Mitchell,
Darius Garland, and Jared Allen all go for twenty plus points.
There has been some slippage for the Cavs on offense
as of late. So the Calves are just five and
three in their last eight games, eleventh in offense over
(36:00):
that span. Remember they're in the number one offense in
the league over the large sample. They're getting beat pretty
good on the glass over that span. They're twenty fourth
in rebounding. Remember that was an issue that popped up
periodically in the past, especially in the playoffs. Just something
to keep an eye on. They have the Bucks this
week and then a really fun road trip at the
end of the month that I've had my eye on
for a while as an opportunity to learn more about
the Calves, Like I really want to learn more about
(36:23):
the Calves, not as to whether or not they're good.
I know the Calves are good. I want to learn
about how close they are to Boston, and in order
to see that, we need to see them play a
consistent stretch of tough opponents. And they've had the third
easiest schedule in the league to start the season. At
the end of this month, they go to Denver, to
Golden State, to the Lakers, into the Mavericks in a
(36:46):
four game set. That's going to be a great opportunity
for us to see the Calves in a bunch of
disadvantageous situations in terms of travel and rest and crowd
obviously with being on the road, That'll be a great
opportunity for us to give a better evaluation to this roster.
The Caves right now are plus seven hundred to win
the Eastern Conference and plus seventeen hundred to win the
(37:08):
NBA Finals.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Number one the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
We covered them at the top of the show, so
I won't go into any further detail here, but the
gist of it is why I put them number one
is simple. I think they're playing the best basketball in
the NBA right now within the context of the regular season,
in this stretch where they've won nine out of ten.
They have beat Houston comfortably, Dallas comfortably, as well as
Golden State, Sacramento, and the Lakers all on the road.
(37:31):
Just a really, really impressive stretch of hoops. Right now,
the thunder are plus one eighty to win the conference,
plus three sixty to win the NBA title. Boston and
Oklahoma City really starting to separate themselves from the rest
of the league. Again, all of these odds are provided
by our partner DraftKings. As always, I sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be
back tomorrow, really fun slate tonight, So we'll be back
(37:53):
tomorrow with some game reactions as well as some film
and then we'll be out of here and then we'll
be out of there for that. So I think this
this week, the schedule is a little weird because I
don't think there's any games on Wednesday, So we're gonna
get together with the Nerd Sash guys and we'll cover
basically basically, the plan for this week is we're gonna
go Tomorrow covering the Monday slate, Wednesday covering the INN
(38:15):
Season Tournament championship game, and then I'm gonna record with
the Nerds and we'll run that at the tail end
of the week because of the again, only one game
total between Tuesday and Wednesday night, so it's gonna get
a little funky with the schedule, but we'll have plenty
of content coming out again. So all I have for today,
as always, sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and
supporting the show.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Money the volume
The volume. It's the most wonderful time of the year
for getting in on all of the hoops, football and
hockey action at Draft Kings Sportsbook. In the season of giving,
we're being gifted college football and basketball, Pro football and
basketball and pro hockey too. Almost twenty four to seven.
So many games every day, so many opportunities to place
your first bet. Try betting on something simple like picking
(00:22):
a team to win. Go to the Draft Kings sportsbook
Gap and place your bet. Current Super Bowl winners on
DraftKings right now the Detroit Lions at plus two to
sixty and the Kansas City Chiefs at plus four to
twenty five. And here's a gift for all new customers.
Bet five dollars to get one hundred and fifty dollars
in bonus bets if your bet wins. Download the Draft
King Sportsbook Gap and use code hoops that's h oops.
(00:44):
That's code hoops for new customers to get one hundred
and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins.
When you bet just five bucks, Happy Holidays from DraftKings.
The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred
gambler in New York call eight seven seven eight hope
and why, or text hope and why to four to six,
seven three six and Connecticut Help Us available for problem
gambling call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven
(01:04):
seven seven or.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by
jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive award.
Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance.
For additional turns and responsible gaming resources to dkang dot co.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Slash b Ball.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
All right, we'll come Hoops tonight. You're at the ball.
You've got you Monday, everybody, I'll ball. If you guys
had a great weekend, you had a jampack show for
you today. Off the top, we're gonna do my top
five takeaways from the inn season tournament semifinal games, and
then after that, like we do every Monday, we'll do
power rankings going through our top ten teams in the league.
You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
(01:57):
to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
JSNLT so you guys don't miss sho announcements. Don't forget
about our podcast feed wherever eat your podcast or Hoops Tonight,
don't forget. It's also helpful if you leave a rating
and a review on that front. We also have brand
new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for
the Hoops Tonight channel. Make sure you guys follow us
there where. We will be releasing more content throughout this
(02:18):
season and the last but not least, keep dropping mail
bag questions in the YouTube comments so we can hit
them in our Friday mail bags throughout the rest of
the way. Here, all right, let's talk some basketball. So
five big takeaways from the n Season Tournament semi final games.
Number One, shay Giljes Alexander is playing some truly special basketball.
(02:39):
He shook off a really rough shooting start in the
first half. Kind Of an interesting matchup between Houston and
Oklahoma City because to elite perimeter defense groups with.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
A lot of speed.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
But there's just a huge difference in the total amount
of offensive skill between those two rosters, which continue to
bear out, especially when you got into the second half
of that game. But Shay, obviously, it's like you're facing
a steady diet of guys like Dylan Brooks and a
Men Thompson and really strong, physical, long defenders that can
take away a lot of the advantages that Shay has
(03:11):
against other guards in the league. Right, But like, he
just stayed with it after having a rough shooting start,
really started to get going in that third quarter, hit
some ridiculous isolation moves against a Men Thompson, who's one
of the best perimeter defenders in the league. I trimmed
an example of one where he dribbled really hard at
a men's left shoulders or right handed drive and a
(03:31):
men cut.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It off as he should.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
He's a quick athlete laterally, as quick an athlete laterally
as you'll find in the league. He's not the guy
you're gonna beat with the first move, right, Like, there's
I always think about these isolation matchups as like, there's
the advantage that the offensive player has, right. So, like,
for instance, if you are a player that is considerably
faster and maybe a bit stronger than the guy you're
(03:54):
going against, you don't want to mess around with the ball.
You just want to rip through like immediately on the
catch and allow your first step and your strength to
power through the defensive player and go right. But when
you're in a matchup like this where it's kind of
the opposite where the guy who's guarding you is maybe
a little taller, maybe a little quicker, and a guy
that you can't go through, then suddenly it becomes about misdirection,
(04:17):
change of change of pace, counter moves, like getting that
defender out of position one way or another. Right, So
Shae hits a hard dribble move to the right, a
man cuts him off, takes the contact in the chest,
and shape pulls back the dribble through his legs to
his left hand. But I had this coaching Juco that
used to talk about this, and it's something that I've
(04:38):
always tried to imprint on the kids that I train
when I'm training my high school kids, and that is
when you're in your dribble moves, it's more important to
focus on hitting dribble moves in drills attached to an
actual forward movement, something that's an attack, or in the
case of shooting, attaching it to a jump shot. So
like when I do ball handling drills with the kids
(05:00):
always like we're ball handling into an aggressive forward move
or we're ball handling into a jump shot off the dribble.
If you can't connect the move to what comes next,
then the move is useless. There are a lot of
guys in the league that if they get cut off,
can pull back between their legs back to their left hand.
Go to this clip that I posted on my Twitter
(05:20):
feed again at underscore json LT. You'll see as Shay
takes that contact and pulls it back between his legs,
he's immediately back forward and because he's able to do that,
he's able to get an angle on a Men Thompson.
Then a Men Thompson again because he's a men Thompson
recovers with his lateral quickness to get back in front
of Shay. But as a man is taking that aggressive
(05:42):
step to get back in front of him, that's when
Shay lifts up off the dribble, catching him Men Thompson
between steps and he's able to get enough separation to
knock down the shots. Just super super elite dribble combination
work footwork to get an opening against one of the
best perimeter defenders in the league. And I've talked about
this with Shay before, but he's one of the best
(06:04):
at connecting multiple dribble combinations in contact. It's one of
the biggest things that players struggle with is they can
when things are free, when it's like, oh, if I
can hit a move to get a guy set up
for a screen, and I can get him separated from
me on a screen, then yeah, I can hit an
in and out dribble into a step back, or I
can cross over to snake the pick and roll or
(06:24):
something when I'm in space. But it's very different when
you're in a congested environment, when you have a lot
of bodies around you. We're gonna get a little bit
further into this when we talk about Hartenstein, but this
is the type of scoring that has more playoff resiliency
when you can do it in contact, when you can
do it in congestion. That is the type of shot
making that inevitably rises to the surface when you get
(06:48):
to the postseason. Defense is locked down all your pet actions,
the easy opportunities are few and far between, and it
becomes a lot about squeezing extra bits of offense out
of late clock situations. In situations where your offense doesn't
work and you need somebody to rescue. And again, like
just he'll dribble at you. It doesn't matter if you
cut him off, He's always gonna chain it to the
(07:08):
next counter move. Doesn't matter if you cut him off again,
he'll chain it to the next counter move. Oh, you
cut him off a few times, he'll get rid of
the ball, pop right back out, get it and rip back.
If you overplay, he'll backcut. That's the thing that Isaiah
Hartenstein has helped unlock, right, Just a lot of really
really high level offensive stuff out of Shake Gild justs
Alexander really really impressive second half against the Houston Rockets.
His last fifteen games, Shay's averaging thirty three points, five rebounds,
(07:34):
and six assists on fifty two percent from the field,
thirty eight percent from three, and eighty five percent from
the line. The pull up three point shot, that's something
he was working on a lot in the early part
of the season, has really been a boost to his offense.
He's averaging seven three point attempts per game in that
fifteen game stretch. Six of those seven three point attempts
are off the dribble, and he's sitting him at thirty
(07:55):
five percent over thirty five percent, which is going to
get him over a point shot, which makes it a
useful shot for him in half court situations. Again, and
we talked about this a lot. Him and Jalen Williams
spent a lot of time this summer working on that
pull up jump shot from the three point line rather
than from the mid range area. And by the way,
in that game, Oklahoma City trailing by one in the
(08:15):
second half, Bang bang, a pull up three by Shae
Yioss Alexander off the dribble, Another pull up three by
Jalen Williams, kind of in a ball screen as a defender,
one underneath the pick, a couple pull up threes. All
of a sudden, Oklahoma City's up five and they never
look back. That's the type of thing that will be
a ceiling razor for this Thunder team off the dribble,
(08:36):
three point shooting, adding layers to the offense that weren't
there last year. Number two, The Thunder in the big picture,
need to start thinking of Isaiah Hartenstein as one of
their core five players and not just a bench weapon
or a player with which to facilitate a big look.
The Isaiah Hartenstein fit in Oklahoma City has been an
(08:57):
absolute dream on both ends of the flour. In defense,
he provides a credible option for power centers. Shane Gun
has been cooking a lot of centers around the league,
including some of the better defensive players at the center
position in the league. He's playing really good basketball. He's
been Houston's best player this year. He's a huge like
to be able to have a player that can hang
(09:17):
with the Shane Goon the way that Hartenstein did in
that game really given Shang Gun a lot of fits
in that particular game, his ability to be a credible
weapon in that type of matchup. But then also a
guy that you can throw at Jokich, a guy you
can throw at Sabonis, a guy you can throw at
use of Nurkic, a guy you can throw out Anthony Davis,
(09:37):
a guy you can throw out Jaron Jackson, who's trying
to hakeem everybody in the league at this point in time.
Zubas like whoever you run into in a Western Conference
playoff series, there's a good chance if you're gonna win
multiple playoff rounds that you'll have to go through multiple
power centers, and power centers can.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Give chet issues at times.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Now Chet has also won those battles sometimes, but he's
at physical disadvantages there, and har Hartenstein just makes their
center rotation that much more formidable in a conference where
you kind of need to have a formidable center rotation.
I thought he did a really nice job on Shangun.
He's also solid across the board as a defender. He
can run credible drop coverages at the level coverages he
(10:18):
can switch pretty well. Has really anchored them on the glass.
Again when he's off the floor this year, when Hartenstein's
off the floor, the Thunder are giving up an offensive
rebound on thirty three percent of their opponent's missus. With
Isaiah Hartenstein on the floor, that number decreases by five
point six percent. So, again to clarify it, when Hartenstein
(10:40):
is off the floor, the Thunder their defensive rebounding percentage
is sixty seven percent, meaning opponents get thirty three percent back.
When Hartenstein is on the floor, their defensive rebound percentage
rises all the way up to seventy two point six percent,
So they're giving up an offensive rebound on just twenty
seven point four percent of their opponent's missus. That's a
gigantic difference. That's the difference between like untenably bad and
(11:04):
pretty good. And that's what Isaiah Hartenstein has done for
this team in their physicality on the front line and
then on the offense, just greasing the wheels, just connecting
actions with his side to side, flowing handoffs, opening up
actions with his screening, finishing plays with his scoring. He's
generating four offensive rebounds per thirty six minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
He's just too good.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Like, I don't think you can leave him on the
bench all that often or change too much of your
approach when Chet comes back, because he's one of your
five best players. When Chet comes back, I would lean
as much as possible into Chet Hartenstein lineups together because
when Chet comes back again, like when Chet comes back,
there's gonna be you're gonna have to do a certain
amount of staggering to keep it big on the floor
(11:46):
all the time. There's gonna be a certain amount of
like lineups that are gonna have one big on the floor.
But my thing is, like when you're in a big spot,
when you're in a big playoff series, again, there's some
matchup flexibility, but there's such a gap between Isaiah Hartenstein
and the sixth best player on the team, or I
should say, Isai Hartenstein's more like the fourth best player
on the team. But like if you go Shay Jay
(12:06):
Dub Chet or Shaye Chet Jay Dub, however you want
to order it, then there's Dorton Hartenstein. If you take
Hartenstein off the floor and replace him with a guy
like an Isaiah Joe or a case On Wallace or
Alex Cruzo, those are good players and there will be
matchups where that makes sense. But I think Isaiah Hartenstein
is just that good, and I think they need a
lean into as much opportunity and repetition as possible for
(12:27):
Chet and Isaiah to play together, because inevitably, I think
that will give them the best opportunity to leave all
five of their best players on the floor when the
chips are down. Side note, lou Dort was incredible in
that Rockets game. He had five threes, including some really
tightly contested ones. You know the classic lou Dort like
doesn't even look like he's that open, but he just
shoots that skyball that just goes like thirty feet in
(12:50):
the air and just falls right through the rim. He
also had three steals, a couple of crazy ones too.
He had one where he was denying Fred van Vliet
almost out at half court and then disengaged from Fred
to steal a tree pass to a different player that
was flashing around the right wing. Just an unbelievable player
who's incredibly useful and fills a very important role for
that Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City team number three. Houston is
(13:14):
a really talented team, but their development as a team
will be stunted until they can get a legitimate, high
level perimeter shot creator and no Albern Shangun is not enough.
Houston did periodically cause problems for Oklahoma City in transition
in that game, but they got absolutely bludgeoned in the
half court. Oklahoma City outscored Houston in the half court
(13:36):
by forty points per one hundred possessions. Houston managed just
a sixty three offensive rating per cleaning the glass in
the half court in that game against Oklahoma City. That's
completely untenable. Once again, just complete duds from Jalen Green
and Fred Van Vliet that combined to go two for
(13:56):
nineteen from three. A lot of really bad off the
dribble ones too. They were kind of telegraphing him It
kind of felt like anytime you gave them the ball,
they'd call for the ball screen and they would both
just like dribble as hard as they could to get
to the other side of the screen and just rise
up and shoot, sometimes without even making a read. There's
a play where Fred van vliet came off of a
screen and got blocked on a pull up three, and
I just don't even know what he saw. The big
(14:16):
was up at the level, it wasn't open. I just
I just didn't know what he was doing. It was
a really, really weird game from those guys. Houston's half
court offense on the season now is managing just ninety
point five points per one hundred possessions. That ranks twenty fifth.
These are three teams that have more efficient half court
offenses than the Houston Rockets, the Toronto Raptors, the Utah Jazz,
(14:39):
and the Detroit Pistons. Again, that is completely untenable. So
this story just eventually ends with them packaging one or
two of their young players in draft compensation, with Fred
van Vlietz expiring forty three million dollars deal to bring
in a star. They just to find the right guy.
I was kind of poking around this morning, because like,
I think they're the kind of team that needs to
wait for the right guy. But so much of it
(15:00):
depends on how much they want to manage their cap situation,
because like you have Shanegon and Jalen Green's contracts, their
extensions kicking next year, so you've got all that money,
but you don't have to pay guys like a Men
Thompson or Jabari Smith Junior. I think Jabari Smith you
have to pay like the year after next, and then
a Men Thompson and even a year further into the future.
So because they're not going to have to do any
(15:22):
sort of significant extension or new deal for somebody in
the next couple of years, I wonder if they're the
team that makes sense for zach Lavine. Like I wonder
if they're the team that should just call up Chicago
and be like, we'll give you Fred van Vliet for
zach Lavine straight up the boy. It benefits both teams
as Chicago gets off of zach Lavine's money because it's
(15:43):
two additional years at that number, right, but Houston in
the short term gets a much better offensive player in
Zach Lavine to hopefully unlock something in the half court
with how good this Houston defense is, and at the
end of the day, it passes the buck for the
superstar trade down the line. I just wonder if they're
to end up letting Fred go because they just don't
want to deal with the money element of it. And
(16:04):
we'll see there's obviously cap ramifications as it pertains to
the second apron, and it could affect some of their
decision making down the roster. But like you know, it's
one of those things where it's like, are they gonna
jump on a Jimmy Butler, Well, it's like, I don't
know if that's the right move. Are they gonna jump
on a Brandon Ingram I don't think he's the right
type of guy for them to go for.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
So, like you're.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Trying to wait for the right type of star to
become available so that you can throw the kitchen sink
at him, bring him in and try to run for
a championship.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Well, one of the ways to pass the buck in
that regard is a term Fred van Vliet and expiring
mediocre star player not even a star into Zach Lavine
a little bit longer term deal obviously, but you're in
a stretch right now where you're not trying to do
much anyway. You could turn around and trade him in
the future if you need to. Prevents you from losing
Fred van Vliet for nothing this summer, unless they want to.
They may want to lose Fred van Vliet for nothing
(16:55):
this summer.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
But like, that's just one of the guys that I
was thinking. Here's the thing. I don't think any but
he's gonna make trade for zach Lavine. But as I
try to conceptualize a version of a situation where a
team might be like, hey, let's go get zach Lavine,
the one that I'm looking at right now is like
Fred van Vliet and Zach Lvine make basically the same
money right now for this season. So if you could
(17:17):
turn Fred van Vliet into a much, much, much better
offensive player overnight, that could be the kind of thing
that gives this Houston team a more formidable two way
attack as opposed to just the defense that can't score
when they could strangle in a half court. Number three,
(17:46):
It's time to go back to viewing the Bucks as
a legitimate second tier championship contender. After the rough start
they had this season. I know it felt like it
was impossible. They've really turned it around and played some
really good basketball, another really impressive win over a good
Atlanta Hi team in the NBA Cup semi final. They're
twelve and three in their last fifteen games. That's tied
(18:07):
for the best record in the league over that span.
Eleventh in offense, tenth in defense, eighth the net rating.
Still struggling a bit with their athleticism deficiencies in a
couple of areas, namely the glass and then in transition,
but they're really competing night in and night out to
build better habits and attention to detail. They found an
orientation on defense that is working by leaning more into
Andre Jackson and AJ Green than they were into Pat
(18:30):
Connaton and delonn Right. That's been working. And then on offense,
the return of Chris Middleton has brought this influx of
ball handling, which they've really needed. He's had twenty three
assists and just six turnovers in his four games since returning.
They'll have games where teams are showing at the level
against Chris and Dame and they'll just rep Giannis as
a roller all night long, and he'll crush teams as
a roller. Then they'll face teams like Atlanta who do
(18:52):
a lot more switching, and then they'll start going to
Giannis attacking mismatches in the post, or Dame attacking forwards
from the perimeter. There's a sequence at the end of
the Hawks game where it's like, Jalen Johnson's on Giannis,
Dyson Daniels is on Dame. They run a ball screen,
there's a switch. Jiannis takes Dyson Daniels down to the block,
promptly draws a double team, makes a beautiful pass Brook Lopez.
(19:12):
He gets a layup. Okay, you run the same ball screen.
It's a switch now. Jalen Johnson is on Dame, Dyson
Daniels on Giannis. Dame takes Jalen Johnson off the drubble,
gets right into the lane. Because Jalen Johnson, even as
good of an athlete as he is, Dame is just
really small and quick. He gets past him, sinks a floater,
and it ice is the game, right, Like, they have
different ways that they can attack based on the different
(19:33):
matchups that they're going against. And again, they were in
a bad funk to start this year. They didn't look
serious about their goals or committed to the work. But
their process has been really good over the last month
and they have completely turned around their fortunes. They are
rightfully underdogs against Oklahoma City right now. Draft Kings has
them as a four and a half point underdog, But
if they can go into Vegas tomorrow night and get
a win, that would be a huge statement about their
(19:55):
potential within this season. Giannis will have speed and size
mismatches against everybody sickly on the thunder roster. If you
can dominate that game, they get enough stops, they keep
Oklahoma City attitude, transition, they don't turn the basketball over
too much. Again, that's a game that could get ugly
for Milwaukee. We've seen that type of game get ugly
for Milwaukee. The younger, faster, more athletic team gets a
(20:15):
bunch of steals and runs it down their throat and transition.
If they can avoid that and kind of trap things
and have Giannis dominate, they got a shot and if
they can win that game, it'd be a big statement
about their potential. We're going to talk more about the
Hawks game here in a second as part of this
next question. Lastly, number five, the top five players are
putting on a show as they jockey for position at
(20:35):
the top of this league. Yiannis was just absolutely unreal
down the stretch of the Atlanta game. Obviously had the
huge block against Clint Capella and help at the rim.
That's a just deja vu vu from the twenty twenty
one NBA Finals, Giannis blocking a alley up dunk in
a really important, you know, high stakes situation like that.
But he also did some of the most surgical half
(20:56):
court work I've ever seen Jiannis do in the NBA.
He had a beautiful cross court pass to Andre Jackson
in crunch time for three in the in the in
the right corner, just beautiful pass, beautiful read in a
ball screen. He had like a left hand a left
shoulder fade away that he hit on the left block
in clutch time where he like, like for a right
handed shooter to turn and fade over your left shoulder
(21:17):
is the hardest shot because you have to swing your
entire body around to get squared up. Really high level
bit of shot making from Jannis is like over a
double team. He just like elevated like Kobe Bryant over
his left shoulder to knock down a mid range jump shot.
Then he had this beautiful post up feed where he
got that switch I was talking about this earlier where
gets Dyson Daniels in a switch off of the Dame action,
(21:38):
backs him down, draws Clint Capella, and help feeds brook
Lopez nicely right in front of the rim for that
little layup. Just really nice surgical work from Jannis. And
here's the thing, Like Yo Kich is still the best
player in the world and I haven't seen anything that's
changed my opinion on that. But all of these top
tier stars are playing some unbelievable basketball. We talked about
shake Yil just Alexander off the top of the show.
(22:00):
Giannis is averaging thirty four eleven and seven in his
last thirteen games. Luca's been kicking, but since he came
back from his injury. He just dropped a forty five
eleven and thirteen to beat the Warriors in Golden State
last night. Tatum's numbers have taken a little dip in
the last few weeks. His last nine games, he's at
twenty nine ten and five, or excuse me, twenty five,
ten and five on just forty four percent from the field.
(22:20):
In twenty nine percent from three, but he was playing
some of the best basketball of his career before that,
and he had a little bit of a knee injury.
So the point is is, like the top of this
league is just in an absolutely crazy place right now.
It actually reminds me of about six or seven years
ago when like Lebron was still at the top of
his league, like at the top of his game, in
the top of the league. Stephan kd Are both like
hot on his tail, like getting their shit together of
(22:43):
winning those titles in Golden State, James Harden's coming up
right like that was right around the time Jiannis and
Yanna started to get his kind of like momentum as
a number one player in the league. Like a lot
of talent at the top of the league right now,
it just feels like there's a lot of guys competing
for that time, which is again a credit to Joki
because I still think he has a hold on it
(23:04):
at this point. All right, let's get into our power rankings.
It's going to be quick hitters on a lot of these.
Most of the teams in the NBA have only played
once or twice since our last rankings, so We're not
going to get too deep into those, but all of
our odds are provided by our partner at DraftKings. Again,
after every single team, I will give you guys their
conference odds and their title odds.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Number ten.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
The Miami Heat only one game last week, a win
at home over the Toronto Raptors. Tyler Harrow continues his
excellent start to the season, and bam Adebayo's offense is
starting to take off. He's averaging seven assists per game
over his last eight games, and he's averaging twenty one
points per game after his last three games. And all
of the reporting has been indicating that the Heat are
(23:46):
looking to move on from Jimmy Butler at some point
before the deadline. Who knows where he'll end up, but
I think it's a good idea. This is a team
that is starting to play some good basketball. They've won
four in a row against some good teams and Tyler
Harrow and bam Adebayo really taking off. That partnership is working.
So it's as good a time as any to try
to turn Jimmy Butler into assets that will help the
(24:07):
Heat kind of propel themselves into the next era. Right now,
the Miami Heater, plus fourteen hundred to win the Eastern
Conference and plus thirty five hundred to win the title.
Number nine the Denver Nuggets just one game last week,
a blowout of the Clippers on Friday Night. A weird
game with a lot of turnovers and a lot of
the game being played in transition, but they were able
(24:27):
to win comfortably without needing a superhero game from Jokic.
She went for just sixteen, seven and two in that game.
Six guys in double figures for the Nuggets, including both
Julian Strawther and Peyton Watson off the bench, so a
nice little bounce back. They had lost five out of eight,
and they had back to back blowout wins after that
to get back on track. The Nuggets right now are
(24:48):
plus six fifty to win the Western Conference plus fourteen
hundred to win the NBA Championship. Number eight the New
York Knicks disappointing loss in the n Season Tournament quarterfly
quarterfinal game. Completely they lost control of Atlanta in the
third quarter. They got going in transition, they got going
on the offensive glass, The momentum just like completely shifted.
Then Trey just started picking them apart in the half
(25:10):
court in ball screens, and then the Knicks entered a
funk on offense, missed a bunch of open shots, and
they never regained control. They really struggled to keep them
off the offensive glass. In that fourth quarter stretch when
they were trying to make a run, they gave up
nine offensive rebounds. It was a really interesting example of
basketball momentum. Synergy has this graph where they just basically
(25:30):
show like a bar graph that kind of works across
from the start to the finish of the game, and
as the lead shifts, the bar, like if you know,
if New York's up five, to the bar will be
a little five point bar up top, but if if
they go down five, it'll be, you know, a five
point bar on the bottom. To the colors of those teams,
And it was such an interesting visual example of the
(25:52):
shift in momentum because like, the Knicks just completely had
control of the game for two and a half quarters,
like it was all blue, and then suddenly it was
just like a hard shift to red and then it
was all read the rest of the way. It was
like really bizarre to see just that visual representation of
the gigantic shift in momentum the Knicks were playing really
good basketball, but just a couple of plays like that's
(26:14):
the thing.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Plays can snowball.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
A couple guys, make a couple of steals, get out
and transition couple layups. That sets your defense. You start
to get a little lively. Then you get stuck in
the half court. But Tray rescues you. A few times
the Knicks start missing some shots. It can it can
spin out of control pretty quickly for you. And that
was a classic example of that. But the next day
get a nice bounce back win in Orlando in a
(26:37):
game where Jalen Suggs, who had been killing everybody, finally
came back to earth. On offense, the Knicks are eleven
and four in their last fifteen games. They're still the
number one offense in the league. Over that span, they're
up to fifteenth in defense. The defensive rebounding issues that
came up in the Atlanta game are a bit of
a trend. They were seventh in defensive rebounding in their
first eleven games. They're twentieth in defensive rebounding in their
(26:59):
last fifth team games. So just something to keep an
eye on there. They're not competing on the glass as
well as they did the knickstar plus four point fifty
to win the Eastern Conference plus one thousand to win
the NBA Championship. Number seven the Memphis Grizzlies just two
games last week. They beat the Brooklyn Nets and talked
a bunch of shit while doing it. That was the
Jordi Fernandez Ja Moran show.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
That we saw.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
But then they got beat wire to wire by the Lakers.
Didn't take a single lead in that game. John Moran
had a really hard time with the Max Christy Anthony
Davis duo. He had twelve made field goals and assists,
twenty two missed field goals in turnovers. Really really tough
game for Jaw. The jump shot was the issue. He
was just two for nine on jump shots against the Lakers.
He's shooting just twenty nine percent this year off the
(27:43):
dribble on jump shots, which is making it a lot
easier for teams to not have to come up to
the level or have to worry about him. The Lakers
did a lot of work at the level with him
last night, but you don't have to worry about Jaw
knocking down shots at balls in ball screens from the
perimeter and that is allowed, showing teams more defensive flexibility
with their scheme again shooting just twenty nine percent this
(28:05):
year on off the dribble jump shots. The Lakers have
their roster limitations, but they did a good job of
keeping either Max or Cam Reddish or gave Vincent on
him all night with either Anthony Davis or Christian Caloco
waiting on him at the rim. And the Grizzly still
have some spacing issues there are just twenty fifth overall
on the season and spot up efficiency. Last night they
had thirty two spot up opportunities against the Lakers and
(28:27):
they converted them to just nineteen points. So that's the
one big red flag with Memphis right now is they
can still bog down a little bit on offense from
time to time when teams packed the paint because of
their inability to convert spot up possessions. That game against
the Lakers last night was a good example of that.
The Grizzlies right now plus fourteen hundred to win the
Western Conference, plus three thousand to win an NBA title,
(28:48):
And for Lakers fans who are listening and wondering where
I'm at with the Lakers after last night, good win.
They'll have any more good wins this year. They may
even have some streaks of good wins. But for this team,
it's not about what they can be when they're at
their best. It's about their commitment to the work on
a daily basis over the months it would take to
build the habits necessary for this roster to be a
(29:11):
great team, and I just don't think that this group
is up to the task mentally. For example, their next
six games they're at Sacramento, at Sacramento again, home for
Detroit at Golden State, and then home for Sacramento and
home for Cleveland. If they commit to the work, they
might be okay. Last night was another one of those
two or three games I've seen from the Lakers this
(29:31):
year where they look super connected and committed on defense.
They've also been running some more traditional at the level
coverages in ball screens instead of switching, which is a
good idea. I don't think this roster is really the
right type of roster for switching, but more often than
not this year, they have not been willing to do
that work on the defensive end of the floor, and
I don't think they'll do it in the next few weeks.
(29:53):
These are some tough matchups on the road against some
teams that are a lot more athletic on the perimeter,
which is a specific weakness for the A serious and
committed Lakers team would probably go four and two in
this stretch. They probably split the Sacramento games on the road,
and they'd probably win all of the home games. I
think it's more likely that they go two and four
in the six game stretch. My guess is that they
(30:14):
drop both games in Sacramento. My guess is they lose
in Golden State. My guess is they lose at home
to Cleveland. Maybe they get Sacramento at home, and then
they probably will get Detroit at home. But like that's
just how I feel because in order to go win
all of these games on the road against tough, fast,
perimeter teams like that, they need to be sharp and
committed on defense. And it's just something I haven't seen
(30:34):
this year, but we'll see. My belief in this team
is completely lost, you know, Like you watched last night
and it's like Ad is kicking the shit out of
Jaron Jackson and Lebron is engaged in flying around making
plays on both ends, and Austin Reeves is back and
he's out playing Desmond Baane like straight up. It all
looks good, but I'm not falling for it again. Number
(30:57):
six The Houston Rockets. We hit them in the opening segment,
so I won't hit them again. But the Rockets right
now are plus twenty two hundred to win the Western Conference,
plus sixty five hundred to win the NBA title. The
Milwaukee Bucks, we also hit them in the opening segment,
so I won't hit them again. The Bucks are plus
eight hundred to win the Eastern Conference, plus eighteen hundred
to win the NBA Finals.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Number four the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Really disappointing loss in the n Season Tournament quarterfinals to
Oklahoma City, But I was actually impressed by Dallas in
that performance. I know it sounds crazy to say, but
I really poured over the film in that one. I
did a full film session on that game. You can
find that in our feed. It's labeled Western Conference Finals Preview.
I think it was like thirty seven clips from that
game where I went into extensive detail. But I thought
(31:40):
Dallas handled Oklahoma City's blitzes and their doubles really well.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
They just completely botched the game. In their own backcourt.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
They gave up countless offensive rebounds, a lot of turnovers
before they even got the ball across half court, like
turnovers on outlet passes, turnovers on kickhead passes, turnovers just
bringing the ball down after rebounds and not paying attention
to what was happening after them. I saw someone say
on Twitter, like that's just what Oklahoma City does, and yeah,
that's true. But Oklahoma City averages ten offensive rebounds and
(32:07):
twenty three points off of turnovers per game. They gave
up seventeen offensive rebounds and thirty six points off of
turnovers per game. So you clean that up. I'm not
saying you're gonna hold him to zero and zero, but
you clean that up a little bit. You have a
bigger lead in the first half, you're more well positioned
to withstand a scoring onslot like what you saw from
Shay to start that third quarter, and.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Maybe you win that game.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And then Dallas bounced back with a super impressive road
win in Golden State against the Warriors. They put up
one hundred and forty three points. They jumped them right
off the bat. They had eighty one in the first half,
really strangled Golden State's offense. In the starting group, they
outscored the Golden State's starting lineup by eighteen points.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
As a kind of.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
A butt kicking starters vers starters, Luca goes for a
preposterous forty five points, eleven rebounds and thirteen assists, Six
guys scoring double figures. Nice little revenge game for Klay Thompson.
He goes for a season high twenty nine, a lot
of damage just on skip passes, in ball screens and
in transition when the Warriors were losing him. The Warriors
on multiple occasions made pushes and got the game close,
(33:08):
only for Dallas to immediately pull away. I still think
that's the second best team in the Western Conference, if
you agree with me. The Mavericks right now are plus
five point fifty to win the conference and plus eleven
hundred to win the NBA title. Number three the Boston Celtics.
Just two games last week, blowouts of the Wizards and
the Pistons, all really balanced. They had six guys in
(33:28):
double figures against Detroit, seven guys in double figures against Washington.
Peyton Pritchard had a really nice game against the Troy.
He went for twenty seven, just cruising through kind of
an easy stretch of their schedule. The only weird thing
is is that Jason Tatum's jumpers cooled way off again,
and his last nine games he's twenty five points, ten rebounds,
five assists, forty four percent from the field twenty nine
percent from three. On the season. Now he's down to
(33:51):
zero point nine to five points per pull up jump
shot one point zero two points per jump shot. Overall,
those are both just barely up from where he was
last year, but important context, he was dealing with a
knee injury missed some games. When your knees aren't right,
it affects your ability to Like a jump shot is
not just a flip of the wrist. A jump shot
(34:14):
is a transfer of energy from the floor starting with
your feet all the way through the snap of your wrist.
And if your knees bothering you and you're not getting
the same level of lyft on your jump shot, it
throws the entire equation at a whack. And I personally
feel like, whenever I don't have my legs underneath me,
it's harder to shoot. Everybody who's ever played basketball knows
exactly what I'm talking about, So like I more of
(34:35):
the opinion that this is mostly having to do with
the knee, and then over the next couple of weeks
here Tatum will probably just go back to being blazing
hot and get his numbers back up where they were.
But just kind of a weird trend again in the
power rankings, I've had the Celtics lower, but to me,
I still think they're a clear cut number one. I
was watching Okay see Houston yesterday and then I've watched
(34:55):
a bit of it yesterday and a bit of it
this morning. The the Thunder still takes so many stupid shots.
They still do. There's still just a lot of young players.
They have a lot of guys on the floor like
j dub Is still a little like this, Lou dort
is a little like this. They have some guys that
will just go off script and just take a bad
shot from time to time, especially when the situation doesn't
(35:17):
call for it. I still think I trust Boston's execution
better in a playoff series. That is why, despite the
fact that I think the Thunder had been playing some
really really good basketball, potentially even better basketball than Boston
within the context of the regular season, I still think
that Boston is the safest bet to win the title
by a pretty decent margin if you agree with me.
(35:38):
The Celtics right now are plus one oh five to
win the conference and plus two forty to win the
NBA title. Number two the Cleveland Cavaliers just one game
last week, a win over the Wizards at home. Donovan Mitchell,
Darius Garland, and Jared Allen all go for twenty plus points.
There has been some slippage for the Cavs on offense
as of late. So the Calves are just five and
three in their last eight games, eleventh in offense over
(36:00):
that span. Remember they're in the number one offense in
the league over the large sample. They're getting beat pretty
good on the glass over that span. They're twenty fourth
in rebounding. Remember that was an issue that popped up
periodically in the past, especially in the playoffs. Just something
to keep an eye on. They have the Bucks this
week and then a really fun road trip at the
end of the month that I've had my eye on
for a while as an opportunity to learn more about
the Calves, Like I really want to learn more about
(36:23):
the Calves, not as to whether or not they're good.
I know the Calves are good. I want to learn
about how close they are to Boston, and in order
to see that, we need to see them play a
consistent stretch of tough opponents. And they've had the third
easiest schedule in the league to start the season. At
the end of this month, they go to Denver, to
Golden State, to the Lakers, into the Mavericks in a
(36:46):
four game set. That's going to be a great opportunity
for us to see the Calves in a bunch of
disadvantageous situations in terms of travel and rest and crowd
obviously with being on the road, That'll be a great
opportunity for us to give a better evaluation to this roster.
The Caves right now are plus seven hundred to win
the Eastern Conference and plus seventeen hundred to win the
(37:08):
NBA Finals.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Number one the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
We covered them at the top of the show, so
I won't go into any further detail here, but the
gist of it is why I put them number one
is simple. I think they're playing the best basketball in
the NBA right now within the context of the regular season,
in this stretch where they've won nine out of ten.
They have beat Houston comfortably, Dallas comfortably, as well as
Golden State, Sacramento, and the Lakers all on the road.
(37:31):
Just a really, really impressive stretch of hoops. Right now,
the thunder are plus one eighty to win the conference,
plus three sixty to win the NBA title. Boston and
Oklahoma City really starting to separate themselves from the rest
of the league. Again, all of these odds are provided
by our partner DraftKings. As always, I sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be
back tomorrow, really fun slate tonight, So we'll be back
(37:53):
tomorrow with some game reactions as well as some film
and then we'll be out of here and then we'll
be out of there for that. So I think this
this week, the schedule is a little weird because I
don't think there's any games on Wednesday, So we're gonna
get together with the Nerd Sash guys and we'll cover
basically basically, the plan for this week is we're gonna
go Tomorrow covering the Monday slate, Wednesday covering the INN
(38:15):
Season Tournament championship game, and then I'm gonna record with
the Nerds and we'll run that at the tail end
of the week because of the again, only one game
total between Tuesday and Wednesday night, so it's gonna get
a little funky with the schedule, but we'll have plenty
of content coming out again. So all I have for today,
as always, sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and
supporting the show.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Money the volume
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.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.