Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Shot clock down to five. Wants to take step back
three seven. Joel, Welcome into NBA Pulsar production of I
Heart Radio in the NBA. I'm Sarracustack, NBA analysts for
the y S Networking. Today is Monday, January thirty and
from our terrific core group of NBA journalists, we are
(00:23):
joined by NBA dot Com senior writer John Schuman Shoe.
Your week sixteen power rankings came out today. You have
got the Philadelphia seventy six is moving up to the
number one spot, Boston at number two, the Denver Nuggets
at number three, Milwaukee at number four, Memphis at number five.
(00:43):
But I want to dig into Philadelphia. They have won
seventh straight. They've when twenty of the last twenty four.
The two wins their most recent two wins are two
of the other six teams that have at least thirty wins,
including a big win against Denver where we saw a
matchup twein Joel in Nicola, Yokich. We'll get into that
in just a little bit. But for as much as
(01:05):
Philly is starting to figure things out, put the pieces together,
what have you noticed about that now? Getting healthy? Uh,
the way Hardening and Beat are playing together, Maxie coming
off the bench. What's changed with how they've been playing lately?
It's been all offense recently. Um, you know the I'll
give you this little nugget. The last the sixers last
three games have been their worst defensive stretch of three
(01:28):
games all season long. And obviously they've won all three,
So that tells you how good their offense has been
over those three games. Now, one of those was in
Sacramento without Joel Embiid or James Harden. One of them
was against Brooklyn Um when a Beat was only six
for eighteen from the field, but they were ridiculous from
the free throw line. I believe it was thirty five
(01:49):
for thirty six. And then obviously, uh, Saturday was the
big game between m Beat and Yokich and and Be
showed out, obviously, going for forty seven points. The one
thing I noticed about that is, you know, I was
sitting there taking notes and the Sixers got and beat
a couple of you know, standard post touches early on,
(02:10):
and the Nuggets double teamed him, right, he had to
get rid of the ball, and so you know, they think, oh,
they're double teaming him. He might have a quiet game offensively,
but he ended up scoring forty seven points. And it
just sort of shows you how they can get him
the ball in space so much better than the Sixers
(02:30):
have in the past. I think, you know, he's always
been it's always been sort of a a tough thing
for them to get him in position, to get him
the ball in position to score right, Like Yoki can
bring the ball up himself right and just back back
his guy down into the post, and b doesn't do that.
And it's always you know, upon the guards and his
(02:52):
teammates to get him the ball without him having to
like venture twent from the basket to catch it. And
I think, what's so so good about the Sixers offensive season,
it's just his ability to catch the ball fifteen feet
from the basket um in position to score UM without
you know, it being such a struggle. And I think
(03:18):
you gotta credit James Harden. I think you got a
credit Doc Rivers. First of all, you gotta credit James
Harden as well. Um. We saw after the Harden trade
last year that in beats, the percentage of em beat
shots that came in the paint rose after the Hardened trade,
and with and it was higher with Arden on the
floor than it was with him off the floor. And
(03:38):
I think their ability to play pick and roll and
then beat to just sort of pop into space, just
take whatever space the defense gives them, whether it's fifteen
feet from the basket, eighteen feet from the basket, ten
feet from the basket, just roll into into the available
space and then go from there. Is just such an
advantage for him, especially in the middle of the floor.
And we talked about this on an earlier podcast. He's
(04:00):
got the ball in the middle of the floor at
the nail um. It just makes it more difficult to
double because every every teammate is one pass away. Well, yeah,
and it's been I was calling one of those games
that you mentioned against Brooklyn has been fascinating, not just
to watch him um and watch him go off against Denver.
I mean those forty seven points, he had the personal
(04:20):
seven oh fourth quarter run, eighteen rebounds. But how will
all the pieces fit together, even how D'Anthony Melton coming
over what he does the shooting in the spacing they
have the second unit, the depth thing. Now are showing
the fit that Tobias Harris brings to the table for
a player trying to figure out how exactly you could
best utilize him. Um But but you mentioned James Harden,
(04:41):
and I don't know if we give him enough credit
for just how things are organized and how they run things,
averaging over twenty one points more than eleven assists a game.
Um But in terms of you you had, I'm first
in your power rankings. But in terms of sustainability with
how this team looks and how this team can play
in the post season, what is your perspective on this
(05:03):
group with with what they look like at this I mean,
first of all, it will be in the postseason when
a the opponent and game plan for them every night,
you know, and multiple games in a row. Can they
still continue to get and beat the ball in position
to score? I think that's number one. Number two? Can
they play Harden and Maxi together defensively? Right? And then
(05:26):
number three, what happens in those precious eight to ten
minutes when and Beat is off the floor. You know,
there's there's been a history of them getting absolutely destroyed
when he's off the floor in the playoffs. Um we
saw that in the Toronto series a few years ago.
Um So, I think those are the three things, and
and you know it'll be a different game than the
(05:46):
regular season. It won't be as easy um in regard
to all three of those things. Harden and Maxie will
get picked upon. Um. Other teams will will will sort
of find ways to to attack them when it be's
off the floor, and they'll make it harder for them
to get those catches. UM. But you know, we'll see.
(06:07):
I think I think for now they look terrific, and
I think they have ways to to to Um to
score uh playing through him that I think they haven't
had in the past. Stop spots its Billy's got for
the first time since the opening seconds of the game,
(06:28):
and they have been rolling tied with Milwaukee for second
in the East, two and a half back of Boston,
but they're just one loss behind the Celtics. Let's go
to the West. Los Angeles Clippers jump up three spots
in your rankings to number eleven. They have had the
third easiest strength of schedule through week fifteen. However, we've
(06:52):
all kind of just been waiting, when when is this
team going to actually have all their guys on the floor.
How much are we gonna see Paul George and Kauai
play together. What will they look like when that finally
happens for Tyler and PG Kauai together for five straight
games and they look tremendous and the numbers are through
the roof. Now, they got crushed by the Cavaliers UM,
which was a second of a back to back on
(07:13):
Sunday where those guys did not play UM. But prior
to that, they looked really, really good. Fourth in the
Western Conference bunched up between those third three through thirteen
spots um that it's very tight. What will the Clippers
be if they can finally get Paul George, get Kawhi
(07:33):
Leonard on the floor together and play with the lineup
that I think all of us have been waiting to
see with some level of consistency. Now is the time.
You know, they had them together for five straight games,
and they were awesome in those five Shade games five
first time that they had them that George and Leonard
were both available for five straight games all season, and
it was a ridiculous offensive stretch. Which that's crazy, like, shoot,
(07:57):
that's crazy to think about it. This is taken this
long where that's the the durant irving hardened nets uh no, don't, don't. Don't,
don't make me think I think about that again. So
five and they were ridiculous offensively. Now, two of those
five games were against the Spurs, who have the worst
defense in the league by a healthy margin, so I'll
(08:18):
add that little piece of context there. But Kawhi Leonard
was ridiculous, averaging thirty points over those um five games
on incredible shooting, lettered with Westbrook gets the screen and
knocks it in rattles a bit rags jumper home. Paul
George was a little bit less efficient, but only because
it would be impossible to be nearly or as a
(08:40):
sufficient as quite has been over those five games. And then,
of course Sunday they played the Calves, the number one
defense in the league. Hey, it'd be great to see
this super efficient offense against the number one defense in
the league. And of course these guys can't play in
in both games of the back back. George was playing
in both games earlier in the season. But the heat
no longer it does, I guess, um. But the great
(09:02):
news is now, sir, here we go. Their next Their
next back to back is not until March second and third,
and so between now and then they have eleven eleven games.
That's a runway eleven games where they could conceivably have
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George together in eleven straight games. Um,
(09:28):
the first of those is in Chicago, and then after
that they play like fourteen straight games I think it
is against teams that are currently over five. You talked
about their strength of schedule. It's been week Well now
it's about to turn up, um and so, and the
Clippers have been bad against that group so far. UM.
(09:49):
I'll give you the the stats. So far, the Clippers
are six and seventeen against the other teams that are
currently over five and that and only three and five
with both of those guys in the lineup against those teams.
So they have not been good against good teams. They
have done a good job of taking care of business
against bad teams. UM. So this is their turn. They've
(10:12):
they've climbed over five hundred there in fourth place, like
that's you know, they've sort of risen to the top
of the morass in the Western Conference. But you know
they're about to hit a tough schedule and they're about
to have their guys. So this is the longest stretch
they'll ever have with between back to backs, and you
know they All Star break gets broken up by the
(10:32):
All Star break. But it is eleven straight games where
they could possibly have both of those guys in the lineup. George,
what's up, shot, George? The West has been hard to
figure out. Denver has been a top for a while,
Memphis obviously has been right up there. The Kings have
been sitting a third um a surprise team with how
(10:53):
they've played throughout the course of the season. If the
Clippers are healthy, would you put them in the favorites
in the West? I don't know. I want to see
I want to like the struggles against bad teams is
not good, and so yeah, I'd like to see them.
I'm looking forward to this stretch where they're playing good teams, UM,
with both of those guys healthy, and then I will
(11:15):
I guess we could. We could, we can make a
determination about how good they are at that point. Smart,
I think that's what we've all been waiting for. All Right,
we're gonna take a quick break. Right afterwards, we are
going to talk about another team in the West and
Golden State Warriors, what are their title hopes? And shoot
(11:38):
the Golden State Warriors, UH jump up to number ten.
They were at twelve last week in your Week sixteen
Power rankings and twenty four. They are currently sitting six
in the West UH and as we continue to mention,
it's pretty jumped up between the third through that thirteen spot.
(12:00):
You had some interesting numbers about what championship teams have
looked like with the records have looked like over the
years historically. Break things down and put into context where
Golden State is at this point of the season, UM
and how that bears out for UH for what they
look to accomplish. So, first of all, I borrowed this
idea from my friend Ben Taylor and his Thinking Basketball podcast,
(12:23):
although he did it with UM where teams finished in
the standings and how many champions you know came from
three seed or four seed or lower. I'm just looking
at UH number of wins and winning percentage. So over
the last forty years since the four season the Houston Rockets,
the UH never underestimate the heart of a champion Rockets,
(12:47):
no one has ever done. But this team's done. Come
from the sixth seed down in series UH one three one,
nine road games and we had nonbelievers all along the way.
I have one thing to say, those nonbelievers don't ever
(13:08):
underestimate the heart of a champion. We are the only
team to win a championship after winning less than six
of their regular season games. So basically the only team
to go worse than fifty two and thirty in the
regular season, UM and the only other team and the
(13:29):
only team to even reach the end excuse me, every
other Every team to reach the finals had at least
forty nine wins in the regular season, with the exception
of the lockout shortened season where the Knicks got to
the finals as the eighth seed. UM, So fifty two
and thirty to win a championship other than those Rockets
and forty nine and what did I say? Uh yeah,
(13:55):
forty nine to to to get to the finals, the
Warriors are twenty four and twenty five. To get to
fifty two wins, they'd have to go twenty seven and
six the rest of the way. To get to nine wins,
They'd have to go twenty four and nine the rest
of the way just to get to the Rockets. Ay
(14:18):
that the Warriors have the heart of a champion. Maybe
they can do the same thing forty seven wins, they'd
have to go twenty two and eleven. That seems feasible, right,
But the Warriors haven't won more than seven out of
ten in any ten games stretch this season. So their
best ten game stretch is seven and three and they
haven't had a seven and three stretch since around Thanksgiving,
(14:40):
basically from late November to early December. Um, so it's
not like this team has shown signs of, yes, we
can win twenty two of our final thirty three games,
and so you know, maybe maybe the regular season doesn't
matter as much, you know this year, right, Like, maybe
the value of the regular season is is diminishing, and
(15:04):
maybe they maybe this team is can just sort of
flip the switch and and and go on its hair
and then maybe the maybe the writings on the wall
and it's just isn't a championship team this season. Yeah,
I think it's gonna be interesting to watch. I think
we're all I'm curious about that given the championship pedigree,
but also just what they've been trying to figure out
(15:25):
in terms of health. Also, Steve Kerr lineup combinations, who
works well on the floor together depth behind those like
Steph and of course Clay and Treymont, so we will
keep eyes on that and eyes on your power rankings
for this week and all your other great work on
NBA dot com. John Schumann, thank you for joining us
here today and we look forward to seeing you on
(15:45):
next Monday, and make sure you come back on Wednesday
when Mark Medina will fill us in on the latest
with the Western Conference and be a Pulse with Saracustock
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