New NBA Power Rankings + Nuggets & Rockets breakdowns, Lakers question marks, Heat sneaky good

Jason revisits Friday's matchup between the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets to break down what makes Nikola Jokic's squad so dangerous and why Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun are rising in the team's contender rankings. Then he reacts to the Miami Heat beating the Philadelphia 76ers and discusses question marks around the Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves offense for the Los Angeles Lakers. Finally he gives his latest update to the power rankings, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder leading the way.

All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet. 

#Volume

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, oldome Toop said, I here at
the volume heavy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
had an incredible weekend. Got a jam packed show for

(00:21):
you guys. Today, I want to do a little bit
of a deeper dive into the Denver Houston showdown from
Friday night. We obviously had a little bit of an
instant reaction to that at the tail end of the playbackstream,
but I actually went back and rewatched a bunch of
that game and I have some thoughts on some of
the bigger picture stuff for both teams. So we are going
to lead the show with that today. After that. Yesterday
I watched Miami versus Philly, another really impressive showing for

(00:44):
the Miami Heat. Is it kind of controlled that game
from start to finish. I want to dig into their
defense a little bit, some of the rise of kelll Ware,
who's been playing amazing over the last couple of weeks,
and so we'll be talking Heat sixers there. In that
second segment. We got our second game with Lebron James
the Lakers, and there's a concerning trend with their offense
that I want to touch on in that segment and

(01:06):
then at the tail end of the show. Look we
always do on Monday, we have our weekly power rankings.
You guys owe the job before we get started. To
subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't
miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
at underscore jsonlts, you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't
forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast
under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpfulf we leave a
rating in a review on that front. Jackson's doing incredible

(01:27):
work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there for
more content throughout the season, and then keep dropping mailbag
questions and those YouTube comments we can get to our
mail bags. We won't have a mail bag this week
because this Friday we're doing our latest update on our
contender rankings, which we're going to do about once a
month throughout the remainder of the season. But we will

(01:47):
have a mail bag the following Friday, so plenty of
time to get questions in for that and then last
week before we get started. It'd be really helpful for
you guys if you guys and for us, if you
guys could like this video, you guys could please go
down those of you watching on YouTube and quick hit
that like button. We would really appreciate it. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So some follow up thoughts on

(02:07):
Denver Houston. First of all, again we did this one
on playback. We do two playback streams every single week
where we watch a game live, like actually during the
game rather than after the game. The two games that
we're doing this week are Clippers Lakers on Tuesday night
and then MAVs Lakers on Friday night, the two n
Season Tournament nationally televised games. Again, with those two, like

(02:30):
it's like with the Denver Houston one, for example, when
I'm done, I'm sticking around for like fifteen minutes to
do kind of an instant reaction. So those are kind
of like bonus examples of our normal show that you'll
find throughout the week. So like, even if you can't
watch along with us, come hang out after the game
and we'll be breaking it down for about fifteen minutes
after the tail end. So again, that next one will

(02:51):
be on Tuesday for Clippers Lakers, which will be a
more interesting matchup now that Kawhi Leonard is back, although
they got smacked down in Cleveland yesterday. But yeah, we
covered this game on Friday. The Nuggets ended up turning
around and losing to Sacramento at home on Saturday, more
or less of a schedule loss. I had heard that
they landed back in Denver at like two thirty am,

(03:12):
and that they weren't back in their beds till like
three thirty am. So that's just a brutal back to
back and like you go, oh, but they don't have
to do anything until the next night. It's less about
that and more about just completely throwing off your sleep routine.
Any of you guys who have ever dealt with that
type of work before know that, Like sometimes you get
back in bed at three thirty and you can't fall
asleep for a little while, or you go to bed,
but then you wake up at seven and then like

(03:33):
you try to take a nap, but maybe you're bad
at mapping, and it just kind of throws off your equilibrium.
And again, like especially off of a nationally televised showdown
between two top tier contenders, like the game against Houston,
that's really tough. And then they're down a couple of
starters too. We got some bad news about the Aaron
Gordon injury. He took a very awkward step in the
lane right at the very beginning of the Houston game

(03:53):
where it's like kind of his foot like kind of
slipped out from underneath him, and he suffered a pretty
significant hamstring strength to be out for four to six weeks. So,
in other words, Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon, we're not
gonna see them again until sometime next year. So this
is gonna be a real test for Denver's depth. But
for you Nuggets fans, I would not get too worked
up about the Kings loss if I were you guys.

(04:14):
But I went back and watched the game on Friday,
because we just don't get too many games like that
each year where our legit top tier contenders face off
against each other, not inlike some weird environment like Opening
Night where nobody even knows what Houston's gonna play like.
This was our first kind of like real look at
like established top tier contenders playing against each other, And
so after rewatching most of it, I have some additional

(04:34):
takeaways for you guys. Again. First of all, I was
really impressed with Denver's defense. They executed their game playing
extremely well. It was very clear that they wanted to
just keep the ball in front and force Houston to
make jump shots. And Houston's actually been a sneaky good
jump shooting team this year. They were about a week
ago they were actually the best jump shooting team in
the NBA by points per shot, and now they're fifth.

(04:57):
But they don't actually like to take jumpers. They like
to get into the lane. They're actually just nineteenth in
jump shot volume. They only take about forty six of
them per game. But they like to take a lot
of shots on cuts and then a lot of stuff
in like the mid range and in the short range
from their one on one guys from Sheng, gun from
Kde and I'd even throw a Men Thompson in there.

(05:18):
They take a lot of shots that are like closer
to the basket, right. The Nuggets did a great job
all game of swarming those ISOs, so they weren't able
to get into those comfortable shots in the midrange that
they like to take aggressive coverages, so like at the
level against Katie to get the ball out of his
hands in ball screens, and then aggressive help on all
of Shangun and Kd's one on ones, but also getting

(05:39):
back to the rim. And there's a downside to that, right,
Like they gave up a lot of good looks at
corner threes. The majority of offensive rebounds that Houston got
actually came from their perimeter players, guys like Jabari Smith
and a Men Thompson crashing the offensive glass. That's gonna
happen when you're helping off of the corners to keep
the ball in front. But they forced Houston into a
lot of jump shots. They forced them into their third

(06:02):
highest jump shooting total of the season. Synergy logged them
at fifty seven jump shot attempts in that game. They
also scored just seven points on cuts in that game.
That's well below their season average, where they typically get
about thirteen points per game on cuts. And Jokic, to me,
was the guy that screamed off a film when I
was watching this. He was consistently all game long getting

(06:24):
up to the level, getting back into the lane, getting
up to the level, getting back into the lane, which
is not an easy job, and especially when it's not
just about protecting the room, but it's also about securing
defensive rebounds. And it's just a casual reminder for this
Denver team, like Denver's playing some really good defense this year,
and it's because it's that combination of savvy vets that

(06:46):
know what they're doing, the Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokicic crowd
where they're just typically in the right spot, and then
also having the athleticism, having the guys like Peyton Watson
that can come in and make a huge block at
the end of the game to cling up a mistake
or something like that. We talked about Jokicic being excellent
getting back up to the level and back into the lane,
and up to the level and into the lane. He

(07:07):
had a big key strip on Kevin Durant late in
the game where Katie got to the mid range and
he got his hand up in the pocket and stripped
him clean. Jamal Murray had a bunch of defensive plays
down the stretch. He blocked a Kevin Durant jump shot
along the right baseline where he just kind of went
along his side and reached around from behind and ended
up blocking his jump shot. He had that big steal
on the Shangun short roll pass, so we like flashed

(07:29):
up like he was gonna guard Shangun in the short role,
which tricked Shangun into passing, but then at the last
second he stepped back, got into the passing lane and
got a hand up and deflected that pass to a men.
Thompson he had a big contest on a late floater
where he forced to miss. But again you have like
the high IQ dudes and then you have the athletes.
You gotta have someone that can make a big play.
There was that key roll late where Shane Gun tried

(07:51):
to spin into the lane to go to the right
handed scoop shot at the basket. Peyton Watson came flying
in for that block off the glass. And these are
some interesting stats. Denver is now played five games against
teams that are in the top ten in offensive rating
according to Cleaning the Glass, and they're holding their opponents
to just one hundred and ten point eight points per

(08:13):
one hundred possessions in those games. Those five games against
top ten offenses, they're five to zero in those games,
and that one ten point eight defensive rating in those
matchups ranks second in the entire NBA according to Cleaning
the Glass, and the team above them. OKC has only
played one top ten offense in the entire season so far.

(08:33):
So just a really strong indicator for this particular Denver
team that they're meeting what they need to meet in
order to compete for a championship this year. They needed
to be really good on defense to have any shot
to beat OKC and they're meeting those markers here early
in the season. Really good engagement from their vets, the
additional depth helping them play hard throughout games. A lot

(08:56):
of really impressive stuff from Denver in that game they're
meeting all the We're gonna talk about this like when
we get to our contender rankings, just spoiler alert, I'm
gonna be moving Oklahoma City up above Denver. But it
doesn't have anything to do with anything Denver's doing. Denver
has looked every bit as impressive as I've expected them
to look this season, all the things that I thought

(09:17):
would happen, Like I thought their vets would just be
super locked in because they would know they have a
great shot. Joki is playing the best basketball of his career.
This is the best Jamal Murray has looked this early
in the season. Obviously, Aaron Gordon's dealing with an injury,
but He's looked great this year. The Vets are all
locked in the depth pieces have all accentuated the team
in all the different ways. The only real downside is

(09:38):
like Cam Johnson got off to a little bit of
a rough start, but I think he's been way better
over the last week and a half. Ended up hitting
arguably the biggest shot of the night against Houston, that
little three off the left wing off of the double
team of Jokic. Starting to get more aggressive and put
up some real scoring volume as well, and get a
key play late in the game too, where he made
like a really nice defensive rotation on a cut from

(10:00):
a Men Thompson where he ended up leaving Jabari Smith open.
But this isn't this is exactly the game plan. He
did not allow the Amen Thompson cut in front of
the lane. He got in there and did a three
quarter front on Shane Gun's role so that the pass
to Amend Thompson was not open, which forced the skip
to Jabari Smith. They throw a close out, Jabari Smith

(10:21):
misses it. That's that little bit of like additional defensive
upside that Cam Johnson have that has that I think
is a really nice addition to this team. I know
that Denver fins have been struggling a little bit as
they've watched Michael Porter Junior go and just put up
big numbers for a bad team out in Brooklyn, But
I mean, we all knew that was going to happen

(10:42):
ultimately with Cam, he brings a speed and a little
bit more defensive versatility element that I think is an
underrated addition to this team. And as long as the
offense keeps coming along like it has been, they're going
to be fine. The reason why I'm moving Okay See
up above them has nothing to do with Denver. It
has everything to do with Oklahoma City. Okloma City just
had to experience a certain amount of internal improvement and

(11:04):
they've just clearly demonstrated that to start this season. We
will get more into that when we get into our
contender rankings. To be clear, Denver fans, I still view
you guys as the by far the best upset threat.
It's just I used to feel like it was like
fifty three forty seven that Denver would win a series
against OKCE, and now it's more like forty seven to
fifty three. Leaning back slightly towards ok see overall, though, Houston,

(11:28):
I want to kind of move to Houston for a
minute here. I also left the rewatch feeling really bullish
about the Rockets as a legit top tier contender. I
thought their defense was pretty solid down the stretch. Denver
just has two of the greatest like late game shot
makers in the league. Like there were a couple of mistakes.
There was a bad gamble from Reied Shepherd which led
to him getting switched onto Jokic, which led to a

(11:49):
drive and kick sequence for Jamal Murray. Pump faked on
KD and got into the lane and hit like a
little mid range jump shot. That's a silly mistake from
Reed Shepherd that got their defense in rotation and gave
up a clean look. There was also a breakdown in
pick and roll, a little stack action that they ran
where Shanegon ended up staying glued to Jokic on the roll,
which left nobody to protect the rims, so Jamal Murray

(12:11):
got an easy little It was actually pretty tough because
of the rotation at the end, but a little left
handed layup off the glass. But other than those two breakdowns,
everything else was pretty tough. Like Steven Adams forced Jokich
into a pretty tough face up jumper out of the
post Jamal Murray. The couple jump shots he hit were
broke rhythm jump shots where he was kind of awkwardly
timed and like had the awkward footwork. That one on

(12:33):
the left lane line where he's like stepping through and
leaning forward. That's a really tough shot, and sometimes you
just have to tip the cap, like these are really
good players. Like I know I'm higher on Jamal Murray
than most, so that can get annoying sometimes, but I
still think he's massively underrated as just a do everything,
big game player. He had twenty six points and ten
assists in that game on Friday Night and hit some

(12:54):
of the biggest shots of the game and made some
of the biggest defensive plays of the game. Like, I
remain super super high on Jamal Murray, so he got
to tip the cap to them. But overall, I thought
Houston defended Denver's vaunted late game offense pretty well. They
forced him into some of the tougher shots in that profile,
and then on the other end of the floor, they
got good shots, Like they pretty consistently generated some quality

(13:18):
looks against Denver's defense again. Shane Gun had a couple
of mistakes. He had that one turnover against Jamal Murray
where it's like at that point, Jamal's kind of stunting
and recovering back to the cutter, so he almost just
has to take that little floater in the lane, which
is a good look for him. And then he on
the one where he spun into the lane kind of
telegraphed it. It was just clear that after what happened on
the Jamal Murray turnover, he really wanted to make sure

(13:40):
that he looked to score the next time, and then
he just telegraphed it with this super long spin move
which gave Peyton Watson plenty of time to really load
up and go get it. But outside of that, like
the reids were there and he made them several times.
He had a couple of really nice short roll skips
to Jabari Smith Junior for wide open corner threes. He
just missed him. Jabari has been a good shooter this year.

(14:02):
They make one of those, it's a very different game, right, Like,
he had a really nice play where the rockets ran
like kind of this like iverson style screen, like a
little screen that got Shane Gun towards the left elbow
extended and Jokics chased over the top of the screen,
which gave Shanggun to baked In ripped through to the left.
He just ripped through to the left on the baseline

(14:23):
cleanly beat Yokich off the dribble. There's a step up,
easy drop off to a men Thompson right in the
lane for an easy one right in front of the rim.
Like they got really good looks off of offensive rebounds,
Like kd and Reed Sheppard both had wide open threes
in the final sequences of the game off of offensive rebounds.
And so there's a version of that game where they

(14:44):
hit some of those shots and they complete one or
two more of those sequences and we have a different
results than a different result than what we had on Friday, right,
And again I think their stars could have played better,
and like, ultimately, in a game like that, what I'm
looking for is just if you can cause it team
problems And yes, Denver one, Yes, I think Denver is
the better team. Yes I have Denver higher on the

(15:05):
top Tier contender list, but Houston did cause some issues
for them, and that is ultimately what makes them an
interesting playoff opponent, and I know we'd all be down
for seven games of Rockets Nuggets. Today's show is brought
to you by our new presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet.
Hoops season is heating up just in time for the holidays.

(15:26):
NBA and college games are on every night, and everyone
is a fresh chance to gobble up a big win
on hard Rock Bet your home for hoops all season long.
Sign up today and you could feast with one hundred
and fifty dollars in bonus bets. Just place a five
dollars bet and if it hits, you get not only
your winnings, but also one hundred and fifty dollars in
extra bonus bets. That's an offer you can't pass up,

(15:47):
even on a full stomach. Want to see what everyone
else is betting on tonight? Top picks or parlays across
any sport, The hard rock Bet app literally shows you.
It's another reason to download the app just for the
info cover and you can see trending picks and parlays
at any time. We talk a lot of basketball in
the show, but Thanksgiving and football go together like Mac

(16:07):
and cheese. Hard Rock Bet is giving you three fifty
percent profit boosts one for each Thanksgiving Day football game,
boost your same game parlay or SGP max so your
bets pay extra winnings. Hard Rock Bet offers new promos
every single day, so whenever you're listening, just open up
the app and check out what you've got. Any day
of the week, download the hard Rock Bet app and
make your first deposit, payble and bonus bets not a

(16:30):
cash offer offered by the Seminal Tribe of Florida and
Florida offered by Seminal hard Rock Digital, LLC in all
other states. Must be twenty one plus and physically present
in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
or Virginia to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about
gambling in Florida called one eight three to three play
wise in Indiana, if you or someone you know has

(16:52):
a gambling problem and wants help, call one eight hundred
and nine with it gambling problem called one eight hundred
gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia. All right,
moving on to Heat sixers. I caught this game in
its entirety yesterday. I was having kind of a lazy
Sunday and just was hanging out on the couch and
instead of watching football, I was watching basketball. Typically. It's

(17:15):
funny because typically I do most of my rewatches in
the morning on Synergy, but I ended up catching this
one live. It was a very fascinating game, and you
could literally tell from the opening tip that Miami was
in complete control of the shot quality dynamic. They were
just getting better shots throughout the game, and so it
kind of felt throughout that they were most likely going
to win comfortably. Like even when Philly would make their
runs and get back into it, Miami would immediately respond

(17:37):
and get the lead back up to five to seven,
and you can kind of see that dynamic building in
the first quarter. Philly had a couple like nice runs
of jump shooting crazy one in the second quarter. I
think they had a sixteen to ozer run at one
point in the second quarter. But outside of those runs,
Miami basically controlled the game from start to finish, and
I thought it taught us a lot about both teams, because,
on the one hand, with Philly, one of the things

(17:59):
that stood out a big way is, you know, their
drible penetration attack is very based on speed right now
and not a lot on power. So when they run
into other teams that have quickness that can kind of
keep them in front and keep them out of the paint,
their offense can struggle a little bit. I think that's
where like having a guy like MBIID as a counter
is something that's important to look at for future potential

(18:19):
for Philly. Like you know, when they run into fast
guards that can make life more difficult for their fast guards.
They got to have somebody that can kind of get
that second defender and get the defense in rotation, and
ultimately a guy like Mbi could provide that power dynamic.
And then on the other end of the floor for Philly,
like just especially in that second half, they're just so
small and Miami has these power players, particularly Jim Hakkas,

(18:43):
where it was like at any given moment, you would
look on the floor and you'd be like, there's three
dudes out there who have no shot to guard him Hakkis,
and like that to me is a severe defensive limitation
of that Philly team. Just like in terms of their personnel,
that's going to be really difficult for them to overcome.
But let's get back to Miami. I want to say
Miami's offense to the side for a minute, because we've

(19:05):
talked about it quite a bit as of late, and
it was every bit as impressive yesterday. Norman Powell is
amazing in the first half about Jaimehawkz really controlled the
second half. We'll get to that in a little bit.
I want to focus on Miami's defense for a minute.
For all that we talk with Miami's pace and attack
on offense right like kick aheads early drives, getting good
dribble penetration playing off of it, their defense is very,

(19:27):
very good at stopping those same types of attacks on
the other end, like this is a fast Philly roster,
like even without VJ. Edgecombe who sat out yesterday, Like
Philly has so much quickness on the perimeter, and they
get out and transition a lot, and Miami just shut
all of that shit off. They run the floor and
transition so well. Even their bigs, like it was really

(19:50):
fun to watch kell Aware and bam Adebayo just run
up and down yesterday just keeping up with the pace
of that game. I think they probably keep up with
the pace of games and transition better than any set
of bigs in league right now. They they held Philly
to just twenty two transition points that tied a season
low for Philly, who's been getting out in transition quite
a bit. And then in a half court Steady died

(20:11):
of just chasing them off the three point line. Really
good point of attack a defense. I thought both Davion
Mitchell and Drew Smith in particular did a phenomenal job
on ball all game. And again, like Philly's still gonna
get a lot of threes up just because they have
some guys like Tyrese Maxi and Quinton Grimes who will
take some super tough threes off of contests. Like Maxie
will shoot like a step back thirty foot or three

(20:33):
or four times a game, So like that's gonna get
three point volume up regardless of what defense you're playing.
Quinton Grimes will just kind of elevate off the catch
even when he's guarded. So they ended up getting twenty
one threes up just between the two of those guys,
but they only made seven of them. They were well defended.
And then I thought Kellaware and Bam were both awesome
at the rim all game when they when they would

(20:55):
chase Philly off the line, so they would just end
up running into rim protection. Philly a lot of layups
in this game, like Quinton Grimes would kind of slither
into the lane and the heat players would be there
without fouling walling up it. It would be this really
difficult layup that would roll off of the rim, and
MAXI really difficult layup would roll off the rim. Andre

(21:15):
Drummond had like a bunch of offensive rebounds that he
tried to put back and he just couldn't finish them
because Bam and kellel were there all game bothering shots
around the rim. Philly ended up shooting just fifty three
percent at the rim in this game, which was their
second lowest rim efficiency number of the entire season. According
to Synergy, Miami is fourth in defensive rating to start

(21:39):
this season, number one, and half court defense according to
Cleaning the Glass, they're allowing just eighty seven point six
points per one hundred half court possessions. I was just
really impressed with them yesterday on the defensive end of
the floor, and they were equally impressive on offense yesterday.
Norman Powell really controlled things in the first half. He's
just the perfect guy to give a green light to

(22:00):
in this system, because he's your textbook like simple shooting
read maker right, like he gets a clean look, he's
taking it every single time, and he gets so many
like trailing the play and transition, like they'll run the
ball up the floor and like pitch it back to
Bam and then here comes Norman just like sweeping across
like at an angle, and he'll just rise up off
the catch and take like a twenty seven footer and

(22:21):
knock it down, you know. Or in those driving chaos situations,
just every time he gets the slightest bit of separation,
he's rising up. And he was hitting so many of
them early in the game that he started to draw
fouls as Philly was closing out too aggressively. I think
he ended up drawing three three shot fouls in yesterday's game.
And then from there it's just very simple like of

(22:44):
reads right, Like if he gets chased off his left shoulder,
he's ripping right. If he rips right and there's a
rim protector there, he'll just stop and pop from fifteen.
If no one's there, he'll slash. If he ends up
getting late help, he'll kick it out. It's all just
like very basic read making off of the power of
his shooting, Like he just dominated the early stretch of
that game. And then in the second half, like we

(23:05):
talked about earlier, with Philly's defense, it just became abundantly
clear that Philly just couldn't guard him and they had
too many guys on the floor that were easy targets
for him, and he just played really simple one on
one basketball out of cleared side post ups and ISOs,
And like, Hi, Ma's got a very a very unique
gift for like understanding the physical leverage battle that happens

(23:27):
in the post. Like he's really good at like feeling
which one of his shoulders you're leaning on, and then
from there kind of like using little little pivots and
little bumps to kind of get additional separation off of you.
He had this nasty spin move off of the right
wing where he like set it up with a hard
dribble to the left and just pounded into a full
spin and just completely dusted his man off the dribble

(23:49):
for an easy layup. And so he's become like the
very simple post up mismatch problem for opponents because it's
like if you leave him one on one, he's really
good at either getting to some sort of short hook
or a little easy right shoulder fade or god forbid,
he just completely toasts you off the dribble and gets
all the way into the lane for a layup. And
then as soon as you bring that second defender over,

(24:09):
he's really good at the easy kick out reads the
lobb to kelll Ware when the big man steps up.
He just makes simple decisions based on how the defense
reacts to him there in the middle of the floor.
And I also want to shout out Bam and kelll
I thought they're short range spacing was key in this game.
Like Bam was killing Philly with these like little like
seven to eight foot jump shots where they get right

(24:30):
up to the front of the rim and everyone on
Philly would react and they would just drop it off
to Bam. They're like seven feet from the basket, easy
jump shot, knock it down. Kelll Ware hit a couple
of threes. He was also providing that vertical spacing window.
But I may can go through these runs where he
straight up dominates the offense for like a five to
six minute stretch and gets great shots every single time.

(24:51):
It was just a wired to wire dominant performance from
the heat on the road against a good team. They've
now won four in a row. They're up to eleven
and six. They have sole possession of the four seed
out East, just one game back of the two seed.
A couple other final shoutouts from Miami. Kellaware has been
getting a lot of direct coaching behind the scenes about

(25:13):
directing his talent towards the margins rather than scoring. A
lot of like, hey, dude, like focus on the things
that you're great at right now that help the team win,
and the scoring will just kind of come naturally with that,
right So, like sprint up and down the floor and transition,
clean up the defensive glass, make those help side rotations
at the rim, attack the offensive glass. He was a

(25:33):
monster on the offensive glass yesterday. He had eight offensive
rebounds and as a result, like he's been taking that
to heart and it's been awesome. Another twenty points and
sixteen rebounds yesterday. In the last seven games, kellel is
averaging fifteen to fifteen on fifty seven percent from the
field and forty six percent from three. Just outrageous stuff
from the young fella. And again early in the season,

(25:55):
it was like a lot of attempts to try to
get some of that to work the kel Alware units
when BAM's off the floor, some of the two big stuff,
And it wasn't pretty to start the year, but they're
starting to gain some real momentum in both their two
big looks and their kellowaar on the floor without Bam
looks over the course of the last couple of weeks.
And then lastly, Davion Mitchell. You know, it's interesting because

(26:15):
he was such a, you know, a one dimensional type
of player before coming to Miami, very much just a
primary point of attack guy who was pretty mediocre at
everything else. But refining one of his weaknesses, particularly his
spot up three point shooting, and then Spolser just weaponizing
a couple of his kind of like underdiscovered strengths has
turned him into a really high level starter in this league.

(26:38):
He's always been fast, he's always been a good point
of attack defender, but in Miami he's become a reliable
catch and shoot guy. For instance, if you leave him open.
This year, unguarded threes forty five percent. Last year with
Miami fifty four percent, So he's been consistently knocking down
the catch and shoot threes in a heat jersey, and
then Spolster's found his offensive talent, which is like he
can beat dudes off the dribble and make simple kick outreads.

(27:02):
He's averaging nine point one assists for thirty six minutes
this year. His previous career high was six point four,
and it's just a very simple dynamic. He's sneaky, one
of the best rim finishers in the league, and he
can get to the foul line by getting into your body,
so that causes teams to kind of react to his drives,
and then he just makes those simple reads. That's very
much the meat and potatoes of Miami's offense. Generate dribble

(27:26):
penetration through defense to transition and high level driving kick
attack from Himeha Kez and from Davion Mitchell while having
the kind of counterbalance of the overtop shooting from Norman Powell.
And it's just working. It's just working at a really,
really high level. And now Tyler Harrow is coming back,
so gonna be really interesting to see how he kind
of fits with the dynamic with Norman Powell, if their

(27:48):
rhythm competes with each other, if it turns into just
forty eight minutes of that high level, aggressive jump shooting
that actually ends up helping them very different system than
last Tyler Harrell plays. I'll be really curious if I
wonder if they'll more or less use him the same
way they've been playing, or if they kind of use
him as a counterbalance to their attack by running more
pick and roll with him in BAM. That'll be something

(28:09):
that'll be interesting to see with his return. Some thoughts
on the Lakers now that we got another game last
night with Lebron back in the mix, and that Jazz
game was a chore to watch. The intensity was completely
lacking for the first two and a half quarters. The
Lakers played some real defense in late third from the
late third on, and there's some really encouraging stuff there.

(28:31):
We're going to talk about this. It's weird, like I'm
kind of more impressed by their defense to this point
in the season than their offense, which makes no sense
compared to how I saw them coming into the season.
They found a lineup that was really getting stops late
in the game, and this is kind of one of
the unique things about the way that the Lakers rosters
put together. They don't have a bona fide like starting

(28:51):
caliber three to be found on the roster anywhere. But
what they do have is they've got a bunch of
different kinds of de dudes to slot into those jobs. So,
for instance, like Deandreton leaves a game yesterday with a
knee contusion, he's out for the rest of the He
was out for the entire second half, and so you know,
Jackson was playing pretty well throughout the game. He ended

(29:13):
up picking up some fouls in the second half, and
and j J ends up going with Maxi and Maxi
who's looked really athletic as of late, which is encouraging
because the dudes really struggled just to get on the
floor and stay healthy. But looked like he was healthy
and moving really well over the course of the last
couple of games. And what he's provided is like a
hybrid type of big that has some real switchability, and

(29:35):
ironically he's been he's just like he's not like terrific
at anything on defense, Like he's not like a lockdown
switch defender. He's not like an unbelievable rim protector, but
he's like sneaky good at all of those things, Like
he will come flying over and block a big Keyante
George lay up late in the game, or like the

(29:55):
final possession where Kiante George missed the three in the corner.
That wasn't a foul. That was an awesome test by
Maxi on a really tough play as Canta came off
through the corner. Got a great contest on that shot
without fouling. Like, that's a play that a lot of
bigs will foul. They'll either be too far back and
they'll give a good look, or they'll be too far
up and they'll commit a foul, right, Like I thought,

(30:16):
like Maxi brings some of that, he brings the switchability,
he brings like competitiveness on the glass. Like Maxi just
kind of does a little bit of everything. And so
you can see the different types of options that JJ
Reddick has. You have DeAndre Ayton, who's this very traditional
big that runs deep drop is an excellent defensive rebounder
and an excellent like role man, right, but he has
some short comings. He's not as good on switches and

(30:36):
he makes a lot of mistakes. Right, He's a little
bit of a mistake prone player. Same thing goes with Jackson,
Like he's improved a lot defensively this year, but he's
a little bit mistake prone. He can commit some fouls
on offense. Not much of a threat on the short roll,
but a great vertical spacer and very good at making
the short role reads right in the middle of the floor, right,
Like they all bring different traits to the table. And

(30:57):
then similarly, at the end of the game, you know,
Marcus was really struggling to knock down catch and shoot threes,
getting some wide open looks on pick and pops with Luca,
so like that was kind of an issue throughout the game.
You know, you know, Ruy Hatchamura brings a certain dynamic
to the table on offense, Jake Loravia brings a certain
dynamic to the table. Well, yesterday Jay z Redick's like

(31:18):
I need speed, I want speed out there, So he
ended up going with Gabe. Gabeh's a huge catch and
shoot three on the left wing and is like battling Lori,
marknin on switches providing really physical defense up underneath him
and like flying around in rotation. And all of a sudden,
I'm watching this lineup and it's like Lebron, Luca, Austin,
Gabe and Maxie and it's like each guy is a
different Gabe and Maxie are like two very different types

(31:40):
of options than some of the options JJ's gone with
in the past, but they bring unique traits, like Maxi
is a more versatile big that is pretty good at
a lot of things, and Gabe is really fast and
competes defensively at a level that most of the perimeter
players can't get to. And so like all of a sudden,
it just kind of worked and they got a bunch
of stops. And like I mentioned earlier about how the

(32:02):
defense to me has been actually a little bit more
impressive than their offense. That first of all, is statistically right.
They're fourteenth and defensive rating to start the year at
fifteenth in offensive rating, but that even the offense stuff
gets a little more complicated because the Lakers are top
five and a half court offense. Set the offense to
the side for a minute, though, I've just been really
impressed by the defense as being a timely defense. They

(32:23):
have these awful stretches. They stretches like the first two
and a half quarters where you're like, what are you
guys doing? And when they're so slow, and they're also
not mentally engaged and they're also not physically engaged. They
can look so bad on defense, but consistently every game,
especially against the bad teams. That's happening later, but we're
seeing it in some full games like the Bucks game
right where they go on the road and they just

(32:43):
look fantastic on defense all night. But like they'll just
be like, we're going to tighten the screws. And when
they tighten the screws. They have some high IQ defenders,
like Lebron a couple extra rotations, a couple that he
had a bad backcut he lost. I think it was
he gave up a couple of bad ones ace late
in the game where he wasn't rebounding and he lost
a backhutter. Lebron not a good defensive game last night overall.

(33:06):
We'll talk about it in a minute. But like Sky's
for a huge defensive rebound late in the game, and
like Luca's getting big stops one on one, and here's
Gabe fighting against Laurie market In for a big stop,
and Max he's making plays everywhere, and all of a sudden,
it's like, shit, they look like a good defense for
you know this ten to twelve minute stretch where they
assert control over the game, and on the other end

(33:27):
of the floor, Lucas starts getting super aggressive and starts
getting good shots, and all of a sudden, you're in
control of the game. And this has shown up in
the metrics the The Lakers have been the number one
clutch defense in the NBA to start the season, and
they are six and zero in games that have come
down to clutch situations. And part of that is, like,

(33:49):
that's kind of a good checkpoint. So in a lot
of ways, like my checkpoints for the Lakers coming into
the season, where they need to be an elite offense,
which they haven't been, and we'll talk about in a minute,
they need to be a above average defense. They have
met that check mark. They've been an above average defense,
a situational defense. They are much closer to what we

(34:12):
considered the Denver Nuggets to be at their peak and
kind of still so to this day than what they
are than what we thought they would be, which is
like a bottom third of the NBA type of defense.
They've been a team that for five to ten minute
stretches really locks in, has high IQ defenders mixed with
a couple of higher level defenders, and they just get stops.

(34:36):
They've been a good defense against the good offenses in
the league this year per Cleaning the Glass as well.
That's the one thing that's like kind of randomly encouraging
is their defense has been able to get timely stops.
Here's the downside, though, in order for that formula to
work like what the Denver Nuggets were in twenty twenty three,

(34:57):
where you're an above average defense that can be very
good situationally and get stops at the end of games
when you need to, that team was transcendently great on offense,
and the Lakers have been just a little bit underwhelming
on that end of the floor. And there's two key
areas that I think are holding them back. One is

(35:18):
the shooting, and this is really the fundamental thing that's
stopping them from being like unguardable on offense. In the
half court and they've been good again. They're fifth and
half court offensive rating according to Cleaning the Glass, and
it's a lot of that, just like Luca and Austin
are unguardable in pick and roll and Lebron is just
destroying teams in the post. Lebron's run thirteen post ups

(35:40):
so far for twenty two points including passes. That's one
point six y nine points per possession. He's either just
scoring or making an easy kickout for a three year
a lob dunk, Like he's just killing teams in the post.
So they're one and ones are really good and it's
causing a lot of success for them in the half court,
but they're not quite as good in the half court
offense as they need to be. They need to be

(36:00):
like top one to two and then their fifteenth in
offensive rating because they never score in transition. And that's
the second piece of it. Now, I don't expect the
Lakers to be some sort of elite transition offense because
they don't really have the players for that. They don't
have the speed to beat teams up the floor. But
what's standing out to me in terms of the offensive
shortcomings that we've seen is every single lineup has a

(36:23):
couple of guys on the floor that are like, yeah,
they can make a three, but they're not knockdown shooters.
Like when you look at the starting lineup for instance,
like Ruey and Lebron are the only guys where it's
like if they get a clean catch and shoot, they're
gonna hit over forty percent of them that they're the
only two guys like Luca. And this it comes to
the stars like Austin and Luca are not good catch

(36:45):
and shoot players. Lucas probably never gonna be because he's
very much like an on ball like initial shot creator,
and I don't really have too much expectation there because
it's just so rare for him to get catch and
shoot looks. But Austin in particular, I had hopes for
him at this point in his career to become a
reliable catch and shoot guy. I just thought as a competitor,
and like, given the situation he's in that he'd put

(37:07):
in the work behind the scenes to get to that point.
But he's looking closer to Luca as a guy that's
like a very much a rhythm based jump shooter who
needs to feel the ball and like take them off
the dribble more than take them off the catch kind
of guy. And so with Luca and Austin both being
poor catch and shoot players, it's causing a lot of
these driving kick sequences to end with oh my god,

(37:29):
Austin's open again clank, Oh my god, Luca's open clank,
and it's just a problem because they're not paying off
a lot of these sequences. They have advantage creators, advantage extenders,
dudes that are generating really clean looks, and they'll get
a lot of dunks and they'll get a lot of
buckets out of their one on ones. But so many
of these driving kick sequences are ending in the hands
of guys that aren't making shots. And then you go

(37:52):
to the bench and it's like, yeah, Jake should be
a good shooter, but he hasn't been making shots. Like
Maxi Kleiba didn't even want to take open three easy yesterday.
That's gonna be an issue, right Like Marcus Smart every
single time he takes that open catch and shoot three
at the top of the key, I feel like it's
short and so like there's just a huge kind of
like shooting shortcoming there. As a matter of fact, as

(38:12):
you kind of dig into the numbers, they are bottom
five in three point percentage this year, and they're dead
last in three point makes per game. Those are some
concerning metrics that I think are holding them back on
the offensive end of the floor. Ultimately, though, I don't
think it's gonna come down like this is not a
thing a trade can fix. The only thing that's going

(38:35):
to help the Lakers get to that point where they
start to pay off more of these sequences and become
a better, more reliable offense. Austin and Luca have to
become good catch and shoot players. So behind the scenes
and all their shoot arounds and every single little bit
of extra work they can get, those two guys got
to work off the catch because they are going to
end up getting looks by the way these sequences are

(38:56):
working out, and they're just not paying them off at
this point. So, like, strangely, some really positive indicators for
the Lakers. I mean, they're twelve and four, They've got
the third best record in the NBA. They're fourteenth in defense.
That's a really impressive number for that group of talent.
Number one clutch defense in the NBA, six to zero
clutch situations. But weirdly enough, I'm not as high on

(39:16):
them as I was kind of looking at this team
on paper because their offense just isn't coming together in
large part because of how poor their catch and shoot
play is. And it's just something to keep an eye
on over the course of the rest of the season.
All Right, let's get into our power rankings, and again

(39:37):
all of our lines are provided to you guys by
hard Rock Bett. Number ten. The Atlanta Hawks currently plus
four thousand to win the title on hard rock Bet.
They got back on track with a couple of wins
over New Orleans and Charlotte after a two game slide.
They've now won seven out of nine. They sit up
at fifth place in the Eastern Conference. Jalen Johnson had
twenty eight to eight and eleven against Charlotte last night.

(40:00):
He's averaging twenty five, eleven and nine over his last
seven games, fueled by as we've talked about his jump
shot being that force multiplier. He's always been so great
at pressuring the rim and making plays out of it.
But what he's added is this counterbalance in the form
of the jump shot, and he's hit multiple threes, multiple
threes in every single one of those seven games that

(40:21):
he's averaged twenty five, eleven and nine. That is the uptick, right,
Like twenty five becomes seventeen or eighteen really fast if
you're not hitting multiple threes, right. That's just an impressive
stretch of consistent shooting from Jalen Johnson. He's just making
the leap into a star right before our eyes. Also,
was really nice to see crisps Porzingis back in the
Pelicans game. He dropped thirty with three blocks. Tough schedule

(40:43):
coming up in the next couple of weeks though, all
in the next two weeks Cleveland, Philly, Detroit, Denver, and
the Clippers, who now have Kawhi Leonard. So tough schedule
coming up for Atlanta number nine. The Phoenix Suns currently
plus fifty thousand to win the title on hard rock Bet.
They really shut down the Spurs offense in the second
half last night with physical ball pressure. They had a

(41:05):
one h two defensive rating in the second half. They
have now climbed all the way up to seventh and
defensive rating on the season. I remember I was talking
about this last week, but Benjamin Garcio covers the Suns.
I went on his pod before the season. He asked
me pointedly, He's like, do you think the Suns can
get the top five and defensive rating? And I said, yeah,
they have the talent for it. They've got good perimeter defenders,
a couple of different types of options in the in

(41:27):
the front court. Defensively, in terms of rim protection that
can either play traditional rim protection versus switching, and they're
guys that are off like off of those top tier defenders.
Guys like Devin Booker and Grayson Allen and Roy O'Neil
are all like pretty good perimeter defenders. So like, they
just have a lot of simply on paper, a lot
of good defensive talent, and it's coming together for them

(41:48):
as they've been super bought in, Like literally from the
first preseason game I watched them, I'm like, these dudes
really want to be a good defense and it's really
coming together. They also had a fun win against the
Timberwolves on Friday night. They controlled most of the game
until they lost control during an Anthony Edwards broad in
the third quarter, but they just kept playing defense and
just kept pressuring the ball. They were down eight with
just over a minute left, and they forced Minnesota into

(42:08):
several mistakes down the stretch and made them pay with
shots out of those sequences, and they ended up coming
back to win on a Colin Gillespie floater along the
right lane line, a huge shot. After Devin Booker had
fouled out of the game, someone needed to make something
happen and Colin Gillespie did I would imagine Suns fans
are much more enjoying this team compared to a couple
of the previous seasons. Number eight, the Miami Heat currently

(42:31):
plus seventy five hundred to win the title on hard
Rock Bet. Not gonna dwell here for long because we
just did a full segment on them earlier in the show,
but they're riding a four game winning streak up to
fourth in the Eastern Conference. Finally starting to get some
consistent high end returns from kell Aware, which had been
a little bit of an issue to start the year.
The typical Miami elite defense that we've become accustomed to

(42:52):
in an impressive offense led by Norman Palace, hyper aggressive
shooting and Jimejakez's shot creation out of the post again.
If you want more Miami Heat talk, we had a
big segment on them earlier in the show. Number seven
the Toronto Raptors currently plus ten thousand to win the
title on hard Rock Bet, now winners of seven in
a row. All five starters scored over fifteen points in

(43:12):
an impressive road win in Philly, then a couple of
easy wins over Washington and Brooklyn. Seventy percent of their
baskets have been assisted during the seven game win streak
as they continue to demonstrate really impressive drive and kick basketball.
This roster just has a ton of aggregate ball handling
and playmaking. It's been one of the more fun teams
that I've watched this year. If you haven't had a
chance to check them out yet, I highly recommend it.

(43:33):
They play defense, they run in transition. Their stars make
a lot of like really impressive plays happen. Scottie Barnes
with bullyball, Brandon Ingram's play making out of the post.
The two of them have been good on defense during
this stretch as well. They're just they move it well.
They play really good drive and kick basketball. It's just
fun to watch. You guys should check out the Raptors
if you haven't had a chance yet. Number six the
Cleveland Cavaliers plus nine hundred to win the title according

(43:57):
to hard Rock Bet. They smacked the Clippers in Kawhi
Leonard's return yesterday, lost control of Vivika Zubats in that
game with Jared Allen out, Evan Mobley basically had defend
for himself down there, and he got smashed, but he
lost that battle. But they won the war as the
Cavs completely held James Harden and Kawhi Leonard and Check
did a great job of chasing the Clippers off the
three point line. They picked the Clippers apart on the

(44:18):
other end and pick and roll a lot at the
expense of Zubats and Donovan Mitchell was on fire yesterday,
thirty seven points on twenty two shots. He's on a
special heater right now. Thirty two points, six rebounds and
six assists per game on fifty thirty nine eighty seven
splits over his last eleven games, the thirty two, six
and six on almost fifty forty ninety. That's pretty impressive

(44:39):
stuff from Donovan Mitchell and that I've really enjoyed watching
Nikwon Tomlin grow into a consistent role this season. Just
your textbook high motor athlete, a guy that does a
lot of damage on defense that can be deployed both
on and off the ball because he's got such great
length and athleticism and he's super active. Then he kills
you running the floor in transition and then does a
bunch of damage on the offensive glass. Just a type
of really fun to watch kind of athletic wrecking ball

(45:01):
provided a type of dynamic that this cast team hasn't
had over the years. They're bigger forwards have typically been
a very different type of player, right and like DeAndre
Hunter for instance, is you know, six' eight and pretty
big and, strong but leaves a lot to be desired
on the defensive end of the floor at. Times it
can be mistake prone and doesn't give a ton of
effort motor on that end of the floor at. Times

(45:22):
and like having just a, big lanky athlete who just
plays super hard and can just make a lot of
plays has been an interesting dynamic add to the. Team
two straight games Where Darius garland has, played now all
eyes shift to his ability to actually stay on the floor.
Again that's going to be the key For cleveland reaching
their ceiling number. Five The Los Angeles lakers at plus

(45:42):
fifteen hundred to win the title On Hard Rock. Bet
won't spend too much time here because we just did
a segment on, Them but the long and short of it,
Is i'm not as high on them as Some lakers fans.
ARE i think some of the issues with their jump
shooting are. Real in the starting lineup Only lebron And
ruie are WHAT i would consider to be reliable catch
and shoot, guys like, legit like they're going to make
when they're open rather than maybe. Right AND i keep

(46:03):
waiting For austin to become a reliable catches shoot guy
and he's just not And luca isn't, Either and off
the bench they have guys that are struggling to hit.
Shots and so The lakers right now are dead last
and three point makes and bottom five and, percentage WHICH
i think is holding them back on. Offense but they
do have the third best record in the league right
now because they're great at controlling. Pace they're still somehow

(46:24):
top five half court offense because of how good they're
one on ones Are, Luca austin And lebron are just
doing a great job and pick and rolling IN iso.
Attacks lebron has been dominant in the, post and they've
been sneaky good on, defense fourteenth in defensive ratings so
far to start the, season the number one clutch defense
in THE, nba and all just putting together these timely
stretches of, defense the clutch stuff like a big, like,

(46:46):
oh late third, quarter we're gonna play really hard defense
for four minutes and turn a one point deficit into
a seven point. LEAD a lot of like those kinds
of stretches that are helping them take control of, games
finding some found money in the form of Mexicallbo Is
final looking healthy and playing some good, defense got all
the key stops yesterday Against utah as their offense looked absolutely. Brutal.

(47:06):
Again we'll talk about Why i'm not as high on
them as a contender when we get to our contender
rankings later in the. Week but twelve and, four third
best record in the league plus fifteen hundred to win
the title on hard Rock bett number. Four The Houston
rockets plus one thousand to win the title according to
hard Rock. Bet we hit them earlier in the, show
So i'm not going to stay here too. Long BUT
i thought they demonstrated a lot of their upside in

(47:27):
The denver, game despite their stars not playing super. Well
they did a lot of damage on the offensive, glass
considering they were going against one of the best defensive
rebounding teams in the, league albeit Without Aaron. Gordon BUT
i also just thought they generated a really good offense
down the. STRETCH a couple of corner threes For Jabari,
smith one of those goes in very different type of.
Game Shanng gun made a couple of mistakes in the short.

(47:48):
Role it was a rough night for, him BUT i
think there were reads that he'll eventually learn how to.
Make and then again on. Defense outside of a couple of,
MISTAKES i thought they did a pretty good job and
Forced denver into some of the lower percentage shots in
their profile that they just made Because denver. RIGHT i
still feel pretty good about them being a legit top tier.
Contender number three The Detroit pistons plus four thousand to

(48:08):
win the title according to Hard Rock. Bet a somewhat
light schedule this. Week they beat The bucks Without, giannis
and they had a win versus The, pacers but they
did have a really impressive road win against The Atlanta,
hawks where once Again cad And Jalen duran just bludgeoned
a good defense in pick and. Roll the addition Of
Dannis jenkins is really giving some nice returns to this.
Team he's now played one hundred and seventeen possessions Alongside

(48:30):
cad and they are plus seventeen net in those possessions
with a one twenty seven offensive, rating just that additional
shooting and ball handling to Support cad and then When
danis is on the floor Without, cade The pistons are
plus twelve per one hundred possessions in three hundred and
twenty eight, POSSESSIONS a really nice. Rotation add, there twelve
wins in a row For. Detroit tough schedule coming up

(48:50):
though this Week, Boston, orlando And, miami so a couple
of challenges for That Detroit. Pistons Team number, two The
Denver nuggets plus five hundred to win the title according
To Hard Rock. Bet once, again we hit them earlier
in the, show So i'm not going to dwell here
for too, long but they passed a major top tier
contender checkpoint On friday night In. Houston not gonna get
too worked up about their loss To sacramento is just

(49:11):
a brutal back to back after that type of, game
with the travel that they. Had i'm perhaps a tiny
bit less high on them THAN i was to start the,
year just because of how Good Oklahoma city has, Looked
but it has nothing to do With. Denver all of
the upsides from their added depth and from their vets
being true believers in what they can accomplish this year
have come to. Fruition lastly number, one The Oklahoma City

(49:31):
thunder plus one eighty to win the. Title according to
Hard Rock, bet that number just keeps creeping up as
they look good and as the as the rest of
the league starts to show their. Flaws they continued their
tour of dominance with another. Blowout they've played five straight
games against teams that are below five. Hundred they played
the easiest schedule in the League's we'll talk about that
in a. MINUTE i don't BLAME okc for. It it's

(49:51):
just making it hard for us to see like a
little bit more high leverage basketball from. Them but played
another blow five hundred team In portland yesterday blew them out,
again the fifth straight time they've blown out a blow
five hundred. Team But i'm all in ON okc, now
and you guys will see in our contender, Rankings i'm
moving them Past denver into my number one. SPOT i
just think they're hitting all the checkpoints that they needed
in terms of internal improvement to separate themselves from the.

(50:14):
League LIKE chet looks way better than last. Year Aj
mitchell put up twenty on a perfect eight for eight
last night as that like legit secondary creator who will
become a tertiary creator with the return of j Dub
and Then shay looks like he's made a, nice little
modest leap from last. Year he's scoring at a rate
of thirty five points per thirty six, minutes cut short
by the fact that his team keeps blowing everybody, out

(50:37):
and he's at a career high sixty seven percent for
shooting due to the addition of a reliable three point.
Shot now, again they've played far and away the easiest
schedule in THE. Nba to, start opponents have won just
forty two percent of their, games which is two point
six percent lower than the twenty ninth ranked toughest, schedule
which happens to Be. Phoenix they've played just four teams
that are above five, hundred but they've looked excellent in

(50:59):
those four. Games AND i don't think any of us
are under any sort of delusion that they're going to
fall apart when they start playing tougher. Competition they just
look to me like an all time great basketball team
playing some all time great. Basketball all, right, Guys that's
ALL i have for today is always to sincerely appreciate
you guys for supporting us and supporting the. Show we
will be back tomorrow with another set of game. REACTIONS

(51:20):
i will see you guys then